RISE UP DEAD MAN

PIT STOP

WASTELAND, XXXX

When I feel the truck slow down to a crawl, Gari and I hop out of the back, and the impact of our boots crushes into the thick layer of snow. As I land, the shotgun on my back swings a little, which prompts me to tighten the shotgun strap. Great, snow. How I 'missed' you so.

Nothing significant happened back in the truck. When Gari mounted me, she was just pinning me down and grappling the hell out of me. But due to her physiology and her half-naked, half-drunken stupor, the choke-hold she had me in actually hurt a lot more than she might have intended. The pain level was akin to that incident with the hive bomb again...

Thankfully, she realised this when the pained noises I uncontrollably let out ceased her act. Although Gari let me go with the most punchable Cheshire smile in existence.

...The Lord laughs at the wicked, for he knows their day is coming... It shall be bestowed by my hands...

Anyway, it was apparently something she would do to Gilliean if he ever became too bothersome. As I'm going to be travelling with these mercenaries for the foreseeable future, learning their habits will be necessary if I am to get fucked over in the near future. Besides the main point, learning Gari's method of quelling Gilliean whenever he annoys people would be very helpful. If physical violence was the first thing I resorted to, that is.

I prefer a bullet instead of getting up close and personal.

As we round the corner of the truck, I freeze in astonishment when I see what's in front of me.

It's so big that I have to look up to see it because the brim of my hat blocks half of the view. Taking said object off-holy shit. How the hell did they even manage to make this!? This... fortress is enormous. The amount of materials needed to make such a marvel... Even with taking a few steps back, my perspective doesn't budge an inch.

"Jesus fuckin'! That's quite the size, alright!" I comment as Gari tries to cover her mouth.

"That's what she said,"

.

..

...

You bastard of a whore...

"Mark my words: I'll put one between ya eyes one day!" I glower at her, my sudden movement disturbing the snow beneath me.

"BAHAhaa what?! Have ya never seen a landship before?" She keels over in laughter.

Are you serious? I thought I made it clear that I'm from another world.

"...How many times do I have to tell ya that I ain't from around here?" I snap at Gari's laughing form, still mighty pissed off about getting bitten earlier. And now this?

"Relax yer' head; I'm just fuckin' with ya." She grins at me with narrowed eyes. Who would've guessed she's capable of being so cold yet so... whatever.

I shake my head before looking back at the 'landship'.

The sheer height of it is... incomprehensible to me. Let alone its length, which stretches both left and right, its ends touching the horizon. Nothing comes close to the looming, immense size of the structure before me.

A solid third of it is built unusually, with a series of large metallic links forming several trapezoidal shapes. A half-dozen wheels are visible along the inner edge of the trapezoids. Is this metal behemoth designed to move? I don't exactly understand it, but it looks like it can. Somehow.

Hundreds of lights glow along the side of the landship, their thin rays piercing through the slow, never-ending snowfall. In the colour of the afternoon sun, the lights are peppered throughout the side like stars