Freelancers: Falcon & Phoenix (3 page)

F
alcon and Daken
burst into the open air outside of the room. The men fall two stories down into a large red shade sail. The cloth sways from the weight of their impact.

Daken is the first to strike, slamming his elbow into Falcon’s chest. It’s not a very good hit. The sail doesn’t provide nearly enough leverage for a solid blow. Falcon slams his elbow into Daken’s chest as hard as he can. The cloth cradling them coupled with the ammunition magazines, provide more than enough defense to make the strike nearly worthless. At best it just prevents Daken from striking again.

For a very short while.

Falcon tries to roll over to his side. He brings his fist down on Daken’s head. Again, the swinging cloth helps to cushion the impact. Both men know how to take a punch but in their current situation, they don’t really have to. Higher up on the sail, near the attached flag poles, the cloth wobbles and waves while the two men struggle for some kind of upper hand.

P
hoenix runs
to the window and stares down at the two men fighting in what might as well be an oversized hammock. Daken tries to stand but fails to find his balance. Falcon throws his fist forward and lands the hit right on Daken’s eye. It’s a solid hit that would normally be shrugged off but the lack of balance on the moving cloth makes Daken fall backwards.

As that larger man falls back onto the red cloth a popping sound emanates from one of the flag poles. Phoenix looks up just in time to see the cloth begin ripping. She looks back down and sees Falcon and Daken look at each other then up at the pole. There’s nothing left to do but ride it out as the cloth tears away from the flag pole and the two men tumble down the falling sail.

R
olling down the cloth
, Falcon tries unsuccessfully to grab it. Daken tries to get a grip on Falcon but they’re tumbling too fast as the cloth carries them down in a gradual free fall.
Their decent finally ends with Daken landing on his front and Falcon landing on his back. Despite the slower fall, the impact with the metal roof is still enough to momentarily incapacitate both of them.

The roof’s slant ensures the fall is not yet over. Falcon is the first to roll off the top of the one story section of the building. Daken’s gun slows his roll toward the edge. His hands stop it all together.

Falcon sits up, coughing. He takes a huge gasp inward, refilling his lungs as he looks up and sees Daken’s head hanging over the edge of the building. His pursuer takes his own gasp for air before he locks eyes with Falcon.

P
hoenix steps
onto the window frame, crunching small pieces of glass under her boot.

“Bring him back here,” the Emperor orders as though he were speaking to a servant or underling.

“Sorry. He’s my contract.” She leaps for the shade sale and tightly grabs onto the hanging cloth. She looks down and sees Falcon struggling to his feet while Daken tries to do the same. Phoenix loosens her grip on the cloth just enough to slide down it, making sure to keep focus on where she’s falling.

D
aken finally wobbles
to his feet. The new lack of balance makes him lean too far over the edge and he falls off the roof. His feet are the first to hit the pavement but he fails to stay upright and once again finds himself on his back. The gun doesn’t add any kind of cushion.

By the time Phoenix hits the metal roof, feet first, unlike the others, Falcon is already back upright. He wavers a little but it’s not enough to put him back on the ground. It is enough to prevent him from fighting back as Phoenix slaps a handcuff around his wrist. She clicks the other cuff to herself. In the move to secure him, she doesn’t notice when he swipes her gun from its holster. He turns to aim the weapon at Daken who still struggles to stand.

“We need to go.” Phoenix pulls at Falcon’s cuffed arm.

Falcon pulls the hammer on the gun back.

“Falcon!” Big Wang runs at them from their rear.

Falcon spins around and takes a shot at the large man. It misses as Big Wang ducks behind a nearby light post. Falcon uses the distraction to run, yanking Phoenix along.

The two shove through a crowd of drunken revelers. Falcon turns back to see Big Wang making his way through them as well. At his size it’s not quite as difficult for him as it is for them. Falcon points the gun upward and fires off a shot. Those who still have their wits about them, run and duck for safety. Others, too inebriated to run out of the way, simply fall to the ground. The entire cacophony of frightened citizens makes a decent obstacle, blocking Big Wang from catching up.

Falcon pulls one way, farther down the street of drunken pedestrians, Phoenix pulls in the direction of the market street.

“We’ve got to get out of here,” he says.

“We need a car,” she replies.

“We need to get with the crowd and wait him out. Last time we tried things your way, this is where it got us.”

“We’re here because you wouldn’t cooperate.”

They both pull back and forth. Falcon gains only a little ground. “I’ve got the gun.” He turns it on her.

“You had plenty of time to shoot me, before. You didn’t then, you won’t now.”

Falcon stares at her for a moment. She’s right. Though he’s still not sure why. He stops pulling and flips the gun around, the handle extended toward her. She looks at it then at him, untrusting.

“Falcon!” Big Wang shoves people out of his way. Phoenix turns to see him and takes the gun. She fires it into the air, recreating the same obstacle as before and pulls Falcon toward the market street.

F
alcon and Phoenix
push their way through the crowd of buyers and sellers as they did when they first arrived. They are on the hunt for a car just as before. They near a narrow, one way, intersecting street. As they cross, something reflective catches her eye and Phoenix pulls Falcon down the narrow street.

A small garage is open in the middle of the street. There’s barely enough room for the tarp covered item sitting in it, much less it and the two of them. Phoenix looks down at the reflective surface. Before she even removes the tarp, she already knows what it is. The two of them grab the cover and pull it off, revealing a very small vehicle.

“This is not a car.” Falcon drops the tarp to the street. “This is an oversized shopping cart.

“This is our get away.” Phoenix drags him to the driver’s side of the small car.

“No one’s getting away in this thing.” He squeezes by her and the wall of the garage to the front of the vehicle.

“We don’t have time for this.”

“You’ll thank me if we have to keep running the rest of the way.” He pops the hood and lifts it up. The engine inside is tiny. “Is this a two cylinder? Is this even possible?” Falcon stares at the sparse inner workings. It looks as though someone took a larger motor and cut it in half just to be able to fit it in the car. “We’re better off hiring a pedal cab. We don’t have enough power in this thing to get through that crowd.”

“Falcon!” Daken’s voice roars over the throng of market street occupants.

Phoenix shuts the hood. “It’s what we’ve got. Let’s go.” She pulls him back to the driver’s side and shoves him into the car.

Phoenix reaches under the steering wheel and pulls out the wiring panel. She pulls Falcon’s arm down with her to feel around for the wires. She rips two of them from their contacts and strikes them together. The little engine sputters to a start and she twists the wires and puts the little car in reverse.

The little car backs out of the garage. She doesn’t even need to turn the wheel. Even in the narrow street, the small sized vehicle has plenty of room. Falcon looks out of the passenger side window and sees Daken standing in the crowd. The man is much taller than those walking around him. He looks side to side before turning to face the narrow street, meeting Falcon’s cold stare. Phoenix turns the wheel and the car away from the busy market. Daken blows through the crowd in the opposite direction.

The small car turns down the intersecting street. There are far fewer people on this one. Those who are out, stand close to the walls unlike those in the market street who block the road traffic. Falcon watches as they pass by the old buildings. Some are still crumbling from the war. Others have various structural additions to keep them from crumbling. The taller buildings behind them look to be lifeless as sunlight shines directly through entire walls blasted out in the past.

“Who is Daken?” Phoenix asks.

“Just another Freelancer,” Falcon tells her.

“You tackled the guy through a five-story window.”

“Yeah, well. It happens.” Falcon doesn’t look at her.

She holds her cuffed arm up, forcing his to follow. “That doesn’t just happen. I probably just lost my amnesty here. I want to know why.”

Falcon glares at her. “I had a sister. Let’s leave it at that.”

Phoenix looks at him, curious to know the rest but thinks better of asking. Whatever happened, like the Emperor said ‘It’s in the past’. Right now the most important thing they can do is get as far away from the Capital City as they can. With so few vehicles and people in the road, Phoenix floors the accelerator.

T
wo guards stand
watch at the rear city gate. “Maybe they haven’t heard yet,” Phoenix says as she slows the car. “Keep your head down.” She stops the next to one of the guards and smiles. Recognizing her immediately, the guard returns the expression and waves her through.

Falcon raises his head and turns around to look out the back window. “Political amnesty, huh?”

“Not anymore, I’m sure.”

“At least it came in handy one more time.” Falcon watches as the guard goes into the guard shack and picks up a phone. Almost immediately, the guard starts waving his arms, wildly. The other guard raises his gun and aims it at the little car. “You were right.”

“I’ve been right about a lot. What are you talking about?”

“Your amnesty. I think you did lose it.”

Phoenix checks the mirror and sees both guards aiming their guns. “Can’t this thing go any faster?”

Falcon continues watching the guards. The speed of the car isn’t creating enough distance fast enough. He turns to Phoenix. “Give me your gun.”

“You’re not getting my gun again.”

Falcon looks back at the guards. Just before they fire, a truck with massive wheels bursts through a building near the city gate. Splinters and chunks of debris fly off in all directions. The guards run for cover. Their hands cover their heads as pieces of the building rain from the sky. The truck’s tires hit the ground and it bounces, slightly. Once on solid ground, the monster tires turn in the direction of the road. Straight for Falcon and Phoenix.

Falcon’s eyes go wide. He recognizes the truck. “Daken.” He turns to Phoenix. “Can’t this thing go faster?”

P
hoenix looks
in her mirror and sees the giant vehicle skid on the road behind them. “What is that?”

“It’s a monster truck—floor it!” Falcon looks ahead for anything that might be useful. Short of a tank or vehicle of similar size, there is nothing.

“It is floored!” Phoenix looks back in her rearview mirror. The only thing she can see is the fast spinning tread of one of the tires on the giant pursuit vehicle. “The tires are bigger than this car,” she mutters.

Daken maneuvers the truck to come up along Falcon’s side of the little car. Falcon notices the dimming sunlight out of the corner of his eye. He turns to see one of the monster wheels only feet from the window. The truck swerves closer to them. Phoenix whips left to avoid an impact.

“This thing won’t make it off road,” Falcon says.

“It won’t make it under those tires, either,” Phoenix tells him. She tries to pull ahead but the small engine is putting out as much power as it can. If Daken wanted to, he could easily roll right over them.

The truck swerves at them again, and again Phoenix cuts the little car to the left. Its nearly worthless tires roll just to the edge of the road.

“He’s playing with us.” Falcon grits his teeth. “Give me your gun.”

“I told you—”

“You want him off our backs?”

Phoenix watches the massive black tires. It’s all she can see in the passenger side window. She shifts in her seat to better reach the gun in her holster. Moving her arm down brings Falcon’s arm with it and she draws her gun to hand it to him.

Falcon rolls down the tiny window and sticks his arm and head out. He points the gun up toward the driver’s side window of the massive truck. He can barely see Daken for their difference in height. Daken looks down and sneers at Falcon. He moves the truck closer to the small car, forcing Falcon back inside for fear of being crushed. As the monster tires move away, Falcon tries again. He aims the gun and takes a shot. The bullet hits the truck but not the driver. He fires again. Same effect. Changing tactics, he aims at the nearest tire and pulls the trigger. The bullet just bounces off.

“He’s got steel walls,” he tells Phoenix.

Daken slows to let the little car ahead of him. Falcon follows the truck as it maneuvers behind them. “We’re better off getting out and running.”

“Through that?” Phoenix points ahead at the road. It’s littered with old world debris. Fallen billboards, furniture, electrical poles and burned out vehicles sit on the sides and middle of the road.

“Why doesn’t the Emperor clean this up?” Falcon asks.

“Who cares!” Phoenix navigates what seems like a maze of junk. She cuts the car right and left, having to make sharp turns to get through. Every second away from a straight shot brings Daken’s monster truck that much closer to them.

Phoenix looks over her shoulder and sees the giant truck being slowed down by the debris. It’s a small comfort that the truck is rolling over everything in its path. But at least it gives them some window of breathing room. “If this thing doesn’t go faster, that’s gonna be us, the second we get out of this debris field.”

Falcon looks in his side mirror to see the truck come down on the shell of a car. The rusted out body is crushed under the weight of the monster tires. He turns around to the back seat, desperately looking for something that will give them an upper hand. A small cloth loop sticking out of the top of the back rest grabs his attention. Falcon reaches for it with his right hand, pulling his cuffed arm toward him. The move pulls Phoenix’s arm toward him as well, forcing her to turn to the right, nearly colliding with the destroyed remains of an eighteen wheeler. She quickly recovers, narrowly avoiding the crash. Falcon grabs the loop and pulls it. The back rest folds forward, revealing a long cylinder.

“Falcon.” Phoenix points forward with her right arm, forcing him toward the dashboard. He turns to see the debris clearing. She turns to face him. “We’re out of time.”

Falcon quickly grabs the cylinder. He takes a second to look it over.

“Is that a bazooka?” Phoenix asks.

“Yeah.” He puts the weapon on his shoulder, forcing Phoenix’s arm up as well. “Steady it.”

With three hands on the weapon, Falcon aims it at the quickly gaining truck.

Daken looks down, through the little car’s back windshield. He slams on his brakes, distancing himself from his prey.

Falcon hits the trigger button. The front windshield is blown out at the rear blast of the weapon. The back windshield is blown out at the shell of the weapon. The projectile flies straight for Daken’s vehicle and, although it’s too low to the ground to hit the truck directly, it’s not worth taking the risk. Daken jumps out of the truck as far as he can. He hits the ground and rolls as the bazooka shell just taps a part of the right rear tire. It explodes, taking the truck with it. Daken continues rolling as far as he can while the monster truck rises off the road.

Falcon and Phoenix watch the large vehicle flip over, landing upside down in a fiery heap. They don’t even bother to try and see Daken as Phoenix returns her attention to the road and keeps the little car floored. Falcon drops the bazooka onto the back seat. That was the only shot, anyway.

“We’re gonna need a better car,” she says.

“Yeah. I’m not going through that again.” Falcon turns back around in his seat.

“I know of an outpost not far from here.”

“I know it, too. Probably better if we just skip it.”

“We’re not making it out west in this thing. Besides, you see all that?” She motions toward the horizon out of her window. Dark storm clouds fill they sky as far as they can see. “I’m not driving this through that.”

Falcon hands her back the gun. “You might change your mind about that after the outpost.”

“People don't like you, there, either?”

“Just the one.”