Cure for a Nation

Chapter Thirty-Six

Claire couldn't tear her eyes away from the window but at the same time she couldn't bear to look outside of the Walker. It was a terrible feeling being caught in that limbo.
"It's..ruined," Hazel muttered beside her, "its all gone. There's nothing left."
"Not all of it," Claire said quietly as she glanced between two buildings at the distant tower. She felt the echoes of the dead Warriors all around them, their energy almost pulling at her own. Hazel began to shiver as she too felt the echoes. The Walkers cabin was eerily silent as the living Warriors soaked in the energies of their dead brethren.
"It's like a river of the dead," muttered a warrior ahead of Claire.
"A city of ghosts," said a Warrior in the seat behind her.
"Joan," Claire said, "can you explain this?" Joan was silent and Claire frowned. She rose and shuffled past Hazel before making her way to Joan's row. She found Joan staring blankly at the back of the seat in front of her, her lips moving as though she were speaking. Claire gently touched her shoulder.
"Joan," she said again. Joan flinched sharply and looked around with wild eyes.
"Are you okay?" Claire asked.
"Yeah," Joan said breathlessly, "no..I don't know, Claire."
"Can you tell me what's going on?"
"I don't know how this is possible. It almost feels like..I think they're trying to take my energy. Like if they were alive."
"Did you let them?" Joan paused a moment before looking up at Claire with hollow eyes.
"No. I took theirs," she said simply.

Daniel felt his face burning with fever and longed to open his helmet but feared getting someone else sick. He cast a glance at Lawrence and saw he was still scanning the buildings diligently. Suddenly, he heard an ear splitting PING behind him and he pivoted around into a crouch. He saw Bear's head jerk back before she stumbled and slammed into the railing. A moment later, he heard the sharp crack of a rifle.
"Get down!" He shouted, sprinting toward her. The two Warriors on the mounted carbine ducked low and leaned against their cover. Daniel slid to Bear just as a bullet threw sparks over the edge of railing. He pulled her away from the railing and sat her against the engines cabin.
"Come on, talk to me, buddy!" Daniel yelled as he shook her by the shoulders. He noticed a nasty dent on her helmet right above her temple. He touched the release lever on her helmet but thought better of it. Can't risk it, he thought. He lightened the tint of her visor and focused intently upon it. He searched for the fog of her breath against the glass and breathed a sigh of relief when he noticed the mist against her visor.
"What's going on back there?!" Lawrence shouted from his position. He had crouched behind the railing and kept his carbine ready.
"Sharpshooter hit Bear in the head, I'm going to try to wake her up," Daniel yelled back. He went to her gauntlet and flicked the panel up to look at her gauges. He noticed one was at zero. He frowned. Bear you cocky lady, he thought as he turned a dial. Suddenly, a shock rippled through Bear and she lurched forward with a gasp. No sooner had she done that had another bullet went whizzing by their heads. Daniel shoved her down again.
"Did you see where it came from!?" Daniel shouted.
"No!" Replied a warrior followed by the other with the same response. Bear gripped Daniel's wrist and held up five fingers. Five clicks, he thought suddenly and reached up to his helmet. He clicked a dial five times, zooming a lens built into his visor. He popped his head over the rail for a split second, long enough to spot the sharpshooter before ducking down again. It was a bandit laying down on top of a buggy. It was parked atop the rubble of the wall and there were other vehicles just coming over the entrance to the city.
"Okay, I'll draw their fire, you light them up," Daniel ordered. Bear nodded and Daniel shifted to the other side of the engine. He knelt and leaned over his cover to shoot at the distant bandit. He saw the flash from the rifle and the bullet slammed into his cover an inch away from his arm. The sound came afterwards and he returned their fire. A second later, a bullet found its way to Daniel's chest plate and spun him to the right. He coughed and ducked down to pull the bullet from his armor while Bear jumped into action. Her machine gun was effective even at the great range, pulverizing the vehicle and its occupants. The Warriors jumped back up onto their mounted carbines and took careful shots at the distant vehicles, conserving their ammunition. Daniel ran back to hatch and threw it open.
"They found us! Get a move on!" He yelled to Alex before slamming the hatch shut again. The bandits were on them within moments. Even with the combined firepower of the Peacekeepers and the Warriors, the bandits still were able to get close to the Walker. Alex pushed the Kraken to its limits, stomping on trees and blowing through the corners of buildings. The bandits hooped and screamed while they pushed the Walker deeper into the city. Their numbers were overwhelming, replacing each fallen vehicle with two more. A bullet knocked a Warrior off of his feet and Daniel dragged him back to the hatch while Lawrence took his place. He didn't have time to evaluate the Warriors health, Daniel only hoped he was still breathing. He lowered him down the hatch until the other Warriors pulled him down into the cabin.
"Daniel," shouted Lawrence over the gunfire, "get over here!" Daniel ran as fast as he could across the unsteady deck and took the wounded Warriors position. He ducked as the bandits pelted his cover with bullets and tried shooting back over his shoulder. He noticed Bear beside him, reloading her smoking machine gun. It's barrel was red hot and Daniel could see her hands quivering still from the vibrations. Daniel heard the bandits pause and seized the opportunity. He leapt to his feet and emptied his magazine into a pair of buggies, sending them spinning and crashing into each other. He looked past them and swore. He spotted a phalanx of more heavily armored trucks quickly coming towards them.  Just as Daniel took aim at the trucks, a bullet hit the gauntlet protecting his injured hand, sending him reeling. His vision began to swim and he could feel the disease within sapping his strength. Please, not now, he pleaded silently. He opened his mouth to order the others to focus on the trucks but only a dry croak escaped his parched lips. His carbine slipped from his grasp and his knees buckled. Bear dropped her machine gun and caught him before he hit the deck. Daniel turned his head and looked through a bullet hole in the steel plate he was behind and saw the trucks clearly one last time. He watched a bandit lean out of the window with a metallic cylinder in hand. The bandit grinned as he twisted the top of the cylinder and made ready to throw it. Daniel pointed a feeble finger at the bandit but Bear took his hand in hers and pulled his helmet to face her. Daniel's vision blurred and darkened just before the incendiary charge exploded against the back end of the Walker and launched his limp body over the railing and into the rubble of a fallen building.