They drove past the gate and entered Derelict. The surroundings were silent, and the land was painted with every shade of grey. Fallon's reasoning set in, finding her parents wouldn't be so easy. Derelict was at least one third larger than Desolate, where would they start? Derelict was the farmland of Elysium, a little more than half of the fresh produce was grown in the nation.
Every country had its main exports and imports five years ago. She had remembered the lush green grass, the Harvester Ships that hovered over the fields, taking in as much food as it could. The sky was always blue, the clouds were always bright. The trees were always tall and towered over the land like living skyscrapers. The nights in Derelict were enchanting, nature showed her beautiful face any time of day but...oh the nights.
Every star was visible, fireflies danced in the air and the smell of the trees was fragrant and calming. Everyone seemed to be cheerful after the sun set, work was finally finished for the day and now they could enjoy themselves. Laughter filled the homes of every Derelictonian as they ate at the family table. Anyone who said that there was nothing to do in Derelict was a liar, for the nation was filled with plenty of places to eat and be entertained. Countless boxing rings and casinos dotted the capital of Kare. There was always something going on in this self-sustaining city.
Looking at it now, there was nothing but grey dirt and sky, the Harvester Ships lay dead in the fields. The trees that once stood tall either fell to their death or slumped over like a weeping willow, still clinging to the small amount of life it had. Buildings were abandoned and old, falling apart from nature taking over.
Fallon's face fell, finding her parents would be a challenge. The ghost town looked like a grey desert, rusted gates and chalky buildings that looked like they were on the verge of deterioration.
Hawk turned on the radio and Anastasia Mori could be heard on the crackling speakers, "Good Morning, Elysium, it is seven o' clock in the morning and partly sunny. still a little bit chilly though, better bring a jacket. Elate sales have dropped immensely in the past few months, the police state has been cracking down on the contraband drug to keep control over the countries of Elysium. Desolate ranks first in the lowest Elate sales rate along with Tazmire, Cinders and Zion."
"How does she get all of this information?" Fallon said listening to her favorite radio host.
"She still has the interweb." Hawk replied to her. "She has to."
"My advice is to quit the drug while you're ahead. Elate won't last forever and even though the side effects are almost impossible to overcome, there's still the possibility you might pull through." Mori stated.
"Might? I'd say that it is impossible." Hawk spoke up.
"You remember that rogue robot that was exiled from the Tomper fleet? I've been getting tips all day that he has been sighted in Derelict. Keep your eyes peeled folks."
"That's all we need, a rogue bot looking for trouble." Venner sat back, crossing his arms.
"What are you talking about? We are the trouble." Fallon told him. "Let that thing come near me, I'll make it into modifications for the Dune." She spoke.
Both Venner and Hawk shook their heads in reply to her words. Fallon put on her mask and goggles, reluctant to breathe in the dusty air. Hawk drove ever so slowly into the town not wanting to startle anyone that came past.
Venner looked about the open town, there wasn't any soul that inhabited the area. Were they hiding? Did they see them coming? Venner wondered if they were so injected with fear, that they hesitated to leave their homes.
"Let's stop here." Hawk pulled over and parked and turned off his device. "Venner, stay here in case anyone comes to rob us." He told him. Venner nodded from behind his mask and manned the vehicle. Fallon eagerly jumped out of the car and walked beside her brother, "Do you remember anything about where they told you they would be?"
"...No." she said, disappointed in herself. "It's been so long."
"We'll find them." He reassured her.
They entered an abandoned building, its original purpose now sponged away from its sign on the front. They quietly entered and started to look around. "Hello?" Fallon called out. "Is anyone in here? "Hawk split up from his sister to look elsewhere, "does anyone live here?" he asked into the dusty air. He turned a corner and found a flight of steps, "Fallon."
"What is it?" She asked coming up to him.
"Let's see if anyone is up here." He whispered, cocking his head towards the steps.
Fallon looked at the rickety stairs, "Are you sure? They don't look too stable."
"Come on." He took his sisters hand and led her carefully up the steps. The stairs creaked and whined under the pressure of their feet.
"What if these people aren't very welcoming?" She asked.
"Well, I sure hope you have your dagger because I have my hunting knife." He assured her. Fallon nodded to his reply and took another step, only for her leg to fall through the floorboards.
"Ah!" She screamed. "Damn it!" She cursed herself for being so loud.
Hawk just laughed and pulled her up, "Clumsy, clumsy sis." He teased as they finally reached the top of the stairs. They both looked around, "it doesn't look like any-" Fallon's words were cut short, being flung to the floor by an unknown force.
"AHHH!" Fallon opened her eyes to see a woman, pinning her down to the floor of the room. The dark red headed woman screamed in her face like a savage. Fallon head butted her, and she recoiled in surprise, "Who the hell are you?!" Fallon demanded getting up. The woman crouched like a caveman, covered in raggedy clothes and she smelled of dead animals, she tilted her head in an animalistic way before answering her.
"I smell it...where is it?" She uttered insanely. Fallon drew her dagger and didn't take her eyes off her. Hawk stood beside her with an arm guarding his sister, "Please, we mean no harm-" he started.
"Elate! I need it, I smell it. Where is it?!" She smiled at them in an unsettling, creepy way and crawled towards them.
"Stay back!" Fallon ordered. The primitive woman stopped and made a hissing noise at her, backing away. She backed up against the wall and cowered at her in fear, why was she suddenly afraid of her?
"The Red Death!" She shouted. Fallon's eyes widened. What did she mean? "Don't tell him I... I don't want him to know-"
"What are you talking about?" She asked.
"You, don't know?" She smiled and approached her again. "The Red Death is on the prowl..." the woman twitched her fingers wickedly.
"The white what?" They both didn't understand her. "What is the Red Death?"
"His hair as red as blood...green eyes...." she sang. "Skin as pale as the moon...he will never rest, Leo the Red Death!"
"Leo? Hawk, she's talking about-" She looked at her brother.
"I know." Hawk's eyes were glued to the red headed lady crouched in the corner.
"Can't hide from him..." She whispered frantically and then started to scream.
"The Red Death is on the prowl!" She lunged at Fallon and screamed like a maniac. Fallon was once again thrown to the floor, she rolled over and held her dagger to the crazy woman's neck,
"How do you know about Leo?!" Fallon demanded, inches away from the woman's face.
"Oh, you want to know about Leo?" She laughed maniacally. Fallon pressed the knife further against her neck. "Don't make me hurt you!" Fallon forcefully pleaded. "You know Leo, I need to know if he's alive!"
"Cut me! please." She pleaded, her eyes full of dread and desperation, her existence no longer of value, even to her own self.
Fallon stopped, trying to grasp at what she had just seen in the woman's face, she shook her head of the thoughts and pressed the knife harder. "Stop it! Tell me where he is!" Fallon shook the woman.
Hawk stooped down and touched the woman's head in compassion, "Please, we know you're suffering. So are we, please tell us what you know about Leo, and we will be gone from you." He promised.
"The Red Death."
"Enough of these games!" Fallon had had enough of her riddles, she wanted to know where to find Leo. Hawk met her eyes, "I think she's trying to tell us. Have patience." Hawk looked at the troubled woman's blue eyes and gently spoke, "Go ahead."
The red headed woman looked between them, her fear pumping through her like lightning. She pushed Fallon's knife away from her and crouched back down, "Red Death, he roams the hills."
"That tells us a whole lot." Fallon paced the room. "How do we find him?"
"Oh no, little ghost..." She looked up at Fallon with wide eyes. "he will find you, he knows.... he knows all."
Despite Fallon's angry sighing and frustrated huffing, Hawk crouched in front of her and looked at her kindly. "Thank you. I wish I knew your name."
"My dear raven, you never asked." she replied, implying his black hair. Hawk stroked her hair to calm her. "How rude of me, what is your name?"
"L-Lara." She sniffed the air and swiftly pulled something from his pocket. It was the patch of Elate that Ember had given to him back in Desolate. She smelled the patch and slapped it upon her neck. She started to rapidly convulse. She must have been in the late stages of the addiction and Hawk had just given her a way out of the world she dreaded.
"Hawk, we have to go, now." She took her brother's hand and ran down the steps.
"No, we have to help her-" Hawk was pulled away roughly from going back up and they fled the building.
Fallon had seen overdoses on Elate before, they all died the same way, and they suffered long and torturously before their life ended. She didn't want her brother to see that. Fallon took to the driver's seat and Hawk sat next to her. "What is going to happen to her?" He asked.
"I'd rather not tell you, Hawk."
"What happened back there?" Venner asked both of them, wanting to know why they looked like they'd seen a ghost.
"We found someone who gave us information." Fallon replied.
"What happened?" Venner asked seeing the look on her face, she didn't look good. She looked ill and sad. He wanted to ask further but he sat back, in shock of her expression.
Fallon pulled her hood over her head, hiding from Venner's eyesight. Tears fell as the loud humming of the vehicle silenced her cries. She knew what happened to Lara, she just want her brother to see something to disturbing. She could've helped her. They could've relieved her of her pain... "Fallon." Hawk caught her attention, she looked at him with her green eyes shining with tears. He outstretched his arm and held his sister's hand.
"It's okay." She nodded despite the truth of it being horridly bad. She meditated on the words Lara had said about Leo. Venner looked over at Fallon, who still hid under her hood. His heart broke for her, whatever happened back there shook her terribly. They rode for hours, hoping to find a suitable place to camp.
What made her go so insane? Hawk understood that the whole situation that the country was in was quite maddening, but he had never met anyone in Desolate that acted the way she did. It didn't seem right; something didn't piece together. That type of insanity had to have been influenced in some way...
"Fallon, look!" Venner shouted over his thoughts, and she stopped the car. "You scared me to death. What is it?" she asked, clutching her chest.
"Look at the ground." Venner pointed to the dirt and dust that covered the landscape. A line of rigid demarcation could be seen, Hawk got out of the car and looked at the line drawn. One side of the land was darker than the other, their car on the lighter and dead side of Derelict and ahead of them a darker and slightly more alive land.
"What do you think happened?" Fallon asked, getting out of the vehicle, and strapping on her gas mask. Hawk squatted next to the distinct line along the ground. "It looks like there was a chemical influence on this side of the path."
"Silver-Crypt. "Venner spoke up. "They used chemical warfare to control the people here." His face changed into a sickening angry expression. How can anyone do such a thing?
"What is Silver-Crypt?" Fallon asked.
"My wife used to work in the medicinal labs before she became a doctor. Silver-Crypt used to be a chemical that helped fight off infection. They thought that they found the miracle vaccination until people had violent side effects from it."
"What happened to the people?" Hawk asked him, still inspecting the ground.
"They would lose their minds and eventually the chemical compound spread through their bodies so fast that they either suffocated to death or killed themselves from how much it damaged their minds." He looked up at them.
"That would explain Lara and her state of mind." Fallon said. "If you stay in one place that is chemically poisoned you either get sick, go insane or die." Fallon pieced it all together. "How did you know it was Silver-Crypt to begin with?" Fallon asked him.
"It has a distinct metallic smell and turns living things a deathly white...including people."
"Oh my God." Fallon said horrified.
"Well, I think we should get a move on. We shouldn't be here. The chemicals are probably still in the air." Hawk sat back in the car, followed by the rest of them before taking off again into the darker side of Derelict. The dusty road gradually turned into soil and grass of a grayish green color. The clouds turned grey and there was nothing but field for miles and the three of them were getting tired and bored of the searching. The day eventually turned to night and Hawk pulled over for the night, "I think it's time to make camp." Hawk stepped out of the vehicle and started setting up. The Axe-Dune was a high-end machine car for a reason, everything inside collapsed to make space for those who camped or lived out of their cars. Fallon folded down the seats, pressing them onto the floor of the vehicle and pulled on the hidden panels of sheet metal that filled in the cage like structure around it. By the time they had finished transforming the car, it had an egg shape, durable enough to withstand any type of weather.
The three of them set up inside, laying their makeshift beds side by side, Hawk started a fire and Venner put the supplies back into the car so no one could rob them.
"One of us will keep watch tonight, to make sure that nothing goes wrong." Hawk suggested.
"I'll do it." Fallon told her brother. "I'll stay up tonight."
"Fallon, you're still shaken from what happened." Hawk said.
"Which is why I don't want to sleep." she confessed.
Hawk looked at her and understood, "Okay then." He nodded.
"Anyone hungry?" Fallon asked. "I can make us something, I don't know what...I'll figure it out."
"Yes." Both men told her as she pulled out her circular hot plate.
"What do you all have to contribute?" She asked them.
Venner pulled out the sauce that they unfortunately couldn't use the night before and Hawk pulled out a loaf of dry bread. Fallon propped her hot plate over the fire with a few steady rocks and pulled out a hunk of dry deer meat that was wrapped in muslin.
"How did you smuggle that in without the wolves picking up on its scent?" Venner asked. Fallon whipped out her dagger and cut three thick slices for them. "Let's just hope that we don't have to deal with wolves at the moment." She placed the meat onto the plate, the three of the pieces sizzling over the fire. Fallon opened her hand for Venner's sauce, he gave it to her, and she poured a spot on each. As the meat marinated, she cut six pieces of bread and set them on the other side of the plate to toast.
"Good Divine that smells amazing." Hawk said as his stomach growled.
"Calm down. It's almost done." She flipped the meat with her chopsticks and removed the bread, handing them to the men. She drizzled the sauce once more on the meat and placed the meat in between the slices of their bread and hers. She grabbed the hot plate by the handles and placed it aside so they could eat.
"Thank you, Fallon. This is delicious." Venner said with his mouth slightly full. Fallon smiled and wrapped her meat and put it away before eating, "You're welcome."
"She's the best. I wish she had her own restaurant in this dump."
Fallon laughed, her green eyes ablaze in the glow of the fire, "I'm not that great of a cook. You're just used to my cooking."
Venner shook his head, "Not true. I'm not used to it and this is incredible."
"You forget, I worked at Tip Top."
"You were never a cook there." He replied to her a bit teasingly.
"I still learned how to cook from the chef."
Venner gave her a mockingly suspicious gaze, narrowing his eyes, "You win."
Hawk looked at both of them and shook his head, what in the world just happened between the two?
"I think I'm going to go to bed, Thanks again Fallon." Hawk left for the tent and settled to sleep. Venner and Fallon were left in the night.