Luring two dozen blood-thirsty mutated bats into cages was easier than expected, a few slabs of meat was enough. When July was a child he watched miners go back and forth from the dark tunnels up in the hills where they used a special solution to deter bats, and although it smelt like piss July now used the same solution as perfume to stop the bats from killing him. Wade knelt down and observed one of the bats up close; it was about the size of a large human hand and had bulging black eyes and patchy skin, and it shrieked when it caught his scent.
“That is one fugly looking bat.” Wade stood up.
Charlie smiled at it. “I think it looks cute.”
“If you think that thing’s cute then I don’t want to know what you think is ugly.”
Stage two involved stealing a Royalist supply truck and to do that they had to take out the two motorbikes escorting it to the prison. July suggested a disguise, it was easy to find a small band of Royalist soldiers patrolling one of the nearby abandoned towns, Charlie organised the ambush, six kills quick and clean. Once dressed in Royalist uniforms they parked an old Sedan in the path of the supply truck and waited, listening as the hum of the engine slowly intensified. It arrived with a lone driver, and the two escort bikes rolled to a stop behind it. Tom exited the Sedan with Charlie and Wade behind him.
“Alright, follow my lead,” he whispered, then greeted the truck driver. “Thank goodness you’re here. We’ve been stuck for hours.”
The truck driver looked them up and down. “What happened?”
“We decided to stop for a little picnic,” Tom snarled. “What’s it look like?” When Charlie and Wade were in position he nodded, and they both drew and shot each escort while Tom drew on the driver. “Get out.” He opened the door and dragged the driver out of the truck.
The driver threw up his hands and begged. “Please, I’m just doing my job. Just take the truck. I won’t tell anyone.”
Tom hesitated. “July, what should I do with him.”
Before July could answer Charlie put a bullet in the driver’s skull and blood and brains exploded over the hot desert sand.
Alice gasped at the sight of it and yelled. “Charlie, you didn’t have to do that.”
“Yes I did,” she groaned.
Appalled, Alice looked to July for support. He sighed and shook his head. “If we had let him live there is a chance he may have complicated our plan later on. But it’s done now. Take their jackets and drag the bodies off the road. Charlie, Tom, you’re on the bikes, I’ll take the truck.”
“You sure you want to drive?” Tom asked.
July grinned. “After practicing all morning with my fancy new leg. I can’t wait.” Not only was the new prosthetic leg more comfortable, it was also linked up to his nerves allowing him to bend his knee and move his foot once again. July had been in a wonderful mood ever since. Tom had already started loading the bat-bombs (as they were now called) into the truck as a shape appeared on the western horizon. July grabbed his binoculars from the Sedan, looking through them to see Jodie approaching in a salvaged bus. “Right on time.” He hopped into the supply truck and turned on the ignition. “Hurry it up, we have a delivery to make. Alice and Wade, wait here for Jodie then follow us in but don’t enter the prison until you see Charlie up in the main tower.” He tossed the binoculars to Alice and then took off towards the winding road leading up the mountain to the prison fortress.
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