Chương 60: 2.19 Seven Nation Army - The White Stripes (3:52)

Z3ke (Original Poster) An uneasy silence settled over the research district. It was the kind of silence you'd get when the world just saw something it didn't understand and didn't know how to react to. The Reclaimer was dead. Dust drifted through the air from the aftermath of the battle, and every once in a while I heard the distant rumbling of half-destroyed buildings finally giving up and collapsing. The sound echoed through the district before quickly fading away and leaving behind it an oppressive quiet.

I was standing on the observation tower, my hands clenching the railing and my eyes glued to the corpse of the Reclaimer. It was everywhere. Pieces of it had fallen free when it tried its last ditch effort to charge at us, and when it fell it fell across multiple city blocks. Its roots tangled through the streets and its massive limbs draped across buildings. A giant piece of its body rose high in the air like a broken skyscraper. And as I stared down at it, all I could think was we killed that thing.

The realization of what just happened smashed into me in waves. First came a wave of shock that crashed into me as I tried to come to terms with what we just did. Then there was a wave of doubt as I wondered if the thing was really dead or if it would suddenly wake up and smash us to pieces. Then, finally, came a wave of satisfaction that crawled over me.

"Holy shit. I can't believe we pulled that off." A memory popped into my mind of the first time I fought a monster in this world. I'm not talking about when I ran away from the Eaters or when I ambushed those bandits on the train. The memory was of when I fought a Jackal Runner out in the Deadlands. The fear of that fight popped back into my head and I could still recall how fast and vicious and relentless the thing was.

It took everything I had just to stay alive, and even then it felt like I'd only come out of that because of luck. Corva and the others had watched me fight like it was some sort of entertainment. I remember after it was all done they looked at me like I was some ten year old kid who was bragging about slaying monsters. They smiled at me and patted me on the head and told me I'd done a good job. And they did all that because the Jackal Runner hadn't even registered as a threat to them.

They pushed it at me and let me struggle against it because, to them, the beast was the weakest and simplest monster I could test myself against without dying. Now, here I was on an observation tower in front of something that could have wiped out an entire city in the course of an afternoon. Hell, it did wipe out an entire city. The buildings crumbling to dust all around me were evidence of that. But it was dead now and it was all because of me. All around the Reclaimer's body, the plant life it created was dying.

Vines that had been filled with life minutes ago were now turning black and brittle. Flowers were wilting. The ground seemed to sag all around the beast. And there was a faint smell coming from it that drifted through the air, like wet earth combined with rot and decay. I don't know how long I stood there, engrossed in the site of the battlefield. It was long enough that the adrenaline that had been coursing through me finally started to fade and I could lessen my grip on the railing.

I was eventually able to shake myself out of my thoughts and turned to my team standing next to me. They were as dumbfounded as me as they stared down at the building sized creature we just killed.

"We don't have time to admire it," I called out to them.

"We gotta head down there and start looting before any of the other scavenger teams decide to show up." That got their attention and we quickly found our way off the observation tower and to the ground below. The district was a complete wreck. Rubble covered the streets and buildings had collapsed onto the road. The ground was cracked and uneven where the Reclaimer fell. Normally, Jared would have taken point and guided us through the district, but we didn't need him for this.

It was easy to spot our destination because the Reclaimer could be seen from everywhere in the district. The corpse was so massive that, no matter where you were, some part of it was always visible. There were massive limbs and stretches of roots all over the place. We ran straight towards the corpse, mindlessly racing towards our loot. I took a quick stock of everyone as we ran. I wanted to make sure we were all okay and not sporting any hidden injuries. Jared was buzzing nearby. I'd never seen him that excited.

Whenever I thought of him, I thought "grumpy old-man." He reminded me of an old uncle who was forced to look after his much younger nephews and he resented the fact. Whenever I threw out a suggestion or gave an order, he always gave me a look that radiated disappointment, like he knew what I said was a stupid decision but he wasn't about to get involved because I needed the freedom to make my own mistakes. How else was I going to learn? But now he was a kid who'd just given free reign in a candy factory.

A wide grin was plastered across his face and he kept staring up at the corpse of the Reclaimer like he couldn't believe the thing was actually real. Milicent was next to me and it was clear she was stuck in her own little world. I heard her muttering under her breath but could only make out a few fragments.

She said something about energy flow or glyph interactions or something along those lines, and it was clear she was replaying the entire fight and trying to understand exactly how the glyphs we made managed to bring down something so large. Daryl was the only one of us completely steady. He wasn't look at the corpse with undisguised greed or muttering quietly to himself. No. His eyes were focused on the district and the ground and the rooftops.

He was keeping an eye on the alleyways and buildings for any sign of the other scavenger teams. I was glad for that, because my mind was entirely focused on how much I'd be making from the Reclaimer. I was thinking about the credits and who Patch could sell it to and what I'd be able to buy once I made it back to The MIZ. I needed new clothes and new gear and weapons and I was sure that all you would have options and thoughts on my newfound wealth.

We raced through the research district, weaving our way around rubble and wreckage. When we finally got to the corpse, we all slowed. The thing was so much bigger when it was right in front of us and I couldn't help but feel slightly intimidated. Standing in front of it was like standing at the base of a massive mountain, and not for the first time I wondered how the hell the plan Crush came up with had worked.

After a couple seconds of awe, I finally pulled my knife out of my dimensional storage and stepped up close to the Reclaimer's body. The skin of the creature was… wrong. It wasn't actually skin. It was more like a fibrous, layered mucus that was stretched tight over the body. Crystalline growths threaded through the mucus in a strange pattern that I couldn't quite make out. I was overcome by how alien the skin was, but then I shook those thoughts out of my head, braced myself, and drove my knife into the body.

There was some resistance to it. It felt like I was trying to cut through fat and wood mixed together. The blade bit in and I was forced to put a bunch of weight behind my cut before the skin finally gave way. I sliced my way through the outer layer and carved a chunk off the Reclaimer, twisted it free, and then tossed it all into my dimensional storage space. Behind me I could feel the others hesitate as they took in the corpse. Then Jared let out a short bark of laughter and got to work.

"Well, no use standing around." Daryl clambered up next to me and started hacking away at chunks of the beast. Jared started hauling away pieces that I carved free. Milicent stayed back slightly and I couldn't tell what she was doing until she called out a few moments later.

"No. That section there!" she said as she pointed towards a cluster of dark tissue hidden beneath a layer of crystal.

"Those glands should be worth a fortune if you can get them out intact." I shifted my focus and adjusted course and carved my way to the spot she indicated.

"What about this?" I heard Jared ask as he sliced into a vein-like structure that pulsed faintly with energy.

"Take it. Take anything that still has mana saturation in it… take it all." Milicent could clearly read something about the corpse and I wasn't going to argue with her. I frankly had no clue what I was doing as I carved into the beast. I'd never skinned an animal before. I couldn't tell which parts of the beast would net us the most money and which were completely useless.

If I had to guess, Milicent was thinking about how the sacrifice glyph had converted chunks of the body into something alchemical, and she was trying to guide us to the choicest pieces. She pointed out spots on the Reclaimer and we all got to work. There were chunks of crystal-laced flesh and strands of glowing muscle and thick growths that snapped free with a crack when we finally cut them out of the body. Everything that the three of us carved loose went straight into my dimensional storage.

After around twenty minutes of us working together, I spotted movement in the corner of my eye. I pulled my attention away from the Reclaimer and looked to the movement and saw a couple figures in the distance. The figures spread out and were keeping a healthy distance from the corpse. It didn't take me long to understand who they were: it was the other scavenger crews who'd been trailing us from the Anchor Guild all the way here to the research district.

The figures picked their way close to us wearily, almost like they expected the Reclaimer to suddenly stand back up and start attacking. I just went back to cutting and tossing chunks of the creature into my storage as fast as possible, but my attention was once again drawn to the figures when I heard Milicent curse quietly. I looked up and the handful of scavengers on the outskirts of the Reclaimer had turned into dozens of them, with even more filtering in from the edges of the district.

They circled around the corpse and watched us work until, finally, one of the figures took a breath and braced himself and stepped forward. The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. He moved up to one of the massive slabs of sloughed-off skin that had fallen free when the Reclaimer collapsed to the ground. When he got next to it I saw him hesitate for a half second before he pulled out a blade and cut into the skin. And then everything changed.

All the hesitation coming from the scavengers just vanished, and it was replaced by a hunger that you could feel in the air. As one, the scavengers suddenly realized that they weren't just looking at the corpse of a kaiju creature that had tried to eat them. They were now looking at a mountain of money, just sitting there for the taking. Scavengers raced to the corpse from every direction. Some went straight for the main body and carved into it.

Others descended on the scattered chunks of flesh and broken limbs that dotted the district. Within moments the Reclaimer was swarming with scavengers. They hacked and tore at the corpse with a wild energy. They grabbed at whatever they could get their hands on and packed it all away. The heat of anger flashed across my face as I saw what they were doing. This was my kill. I'd been the one who had put this team together. I'd crossed through the Crushed Skirt and fought splitmaws and hostile scavenger crews.

I'd picked my way through the Flooded Neighborhoods and was forced to deal with all the dangers that lurked in the dark waters. I'd pushed through the Fossilized Factory Belt and had almost been killed by a Hemocyte Swarm. I'd risked my life heading into the research district, setting everything up, and putting the whole plan into motion. These assholes had almost screwed everything up. And now… they were stealing from me. None of them would have been alive if it wasn't for us.

Half of them would've been buried under the rubble of the district and the other half would have been rotting away in the Reclaimer's guts without us. And now, they were carving into the body of the Reclaimer like they had any right to the spoils. My grip tightened on my knife and I flirted with the idea of screaming out at them and threatening them to back off. But I already knew how that would go. We were a single crew of four people.

There were dozens of scavenger teams out there, greedy at the sight of the loot. We'd be torn to shreds if I tried to keep them away. So I breathed out slowly and forced the anger down. Fine, I thought to myself. Let them have their scraps. There was still more here than most of them could carry anyway.

"Take everything you can. Prioritize anything that Milicent calls out," I ordered. All around us the scavengers were in a frenzy. Blades flashed out and crystal cracked and flesh tore. Thankfully, nobody was fighting each other. They were all too focused on getting their piece of the loot before it was all gone. But I knew that this unsteady peace wasn't going to last. The rhythm of cutting into the corpse settled over me. Knife in, twist, tear, store. Over and over and over and over.

I lost myself to the work for a couple minutes until my muscles started swearing at me and sweat dripped into my eyes and my lungs worked in my chest like bellows. I stood up and stretched my back and bit back a curse at the pain I was feeling. I wasn't an old man… but I sure felt like it. This was already so much more physical work than I was used to. I looked to my left and Jared and Daryl were still working. They'd found a groove and had started working together to carve entire sections out of the beast.

They were clearly better skinners than me, and the sign of their work was in piles behind them. There were massive chunks of the creature just sitting there.

"Keep cutting," I told them as I stepped away from the corpse and wiped my blade free.

"I'll store everything you two cut away." Neither stopped their work. They both just nodded as I shifted closer and grabbed whatever they carved free and started dumping it all into my dimensional storage. There were big chunks and small chunks and glowing growths and so many different organs that all disappeared into my storage. They cut and I cleared and Milicent directed us like a battlefield commander. She called out high-value sections and pointed out organs that had become saturated with mana.

Between all of us working, we were able to build up a serious haul. A few minutes after we fell into our new rhythm, I spotted some new scavengers approaching the Reclaimer. I glanced up and noticed that they were Holdfast soldiers. It was easy telling them apart from the other scavengers. They moved in formation and were much more disciplined than the mass of bandits that had descended on the corpse. It only took another few minutes before the first Pale Regiment soldiers started marching in.

Their gear stood out, even from a distance. They had better weapons and stronger armor and those creepy porcelain masks. Tension rippled through the area as more and more scavenger teams looked up and noticed both groups approaching. The other scavengers stiffened and their conversations died mid-sentence. It was obvious to everyone that these two groups were capable of overturning the subtle balance that had settled on the corpse.

If either group wanted to wipe everyone out, there wasn't much that the other scavenger teams could do about it. I put my head down and kept working, but my mind was busy thinking about what was happening. All the best parts of the Reclaimer were slowly disappearing. And with the Pale Regiment and the Holdfast soldiers here, the Reclaimer was about to be looted so much faster. Everything of value was being stripped away.

All the smarter crews and those few people who knew what to look for were all pulling from the same limited pool of loot. The corpse of the Reclaimer was massive… but it wasn't infinite. And soon enough, other people would start to realize it. When they did, shit was going to go bad. I could already spot a few scavengers on the corpse thinking the same thing. It was in how their attention started to shift and how their eyes started to linger on the other scavenger teams.

They knew that violence was going to break out sooner or later. Soon enough, the first argument happened. Two scavengers started screaming at each other and they drew weapons. More voices joined in as tensions grew and the shouting became louder. It was all building up to something ugly. We'd been working for nearly an hour and my storage was filling up with high-quality materials.

I didn't know what we could sell it for - and I knew even less who would buy it - but I figured that it was worth more than enough to make this whole adventure worth it. I also knew that if we kept carving and pushing for more… we risked being around when everything turned to shit. I pursed my lips and looked down at the corpse and everything that was left. A greedy voice in the back of my head started screaming at me to stay and keep going and to squeeze every last bit of value out of the body.

We can make so much more money. But I also knew that things would get dangerous if we stayed.

"Okay. Pack it up and let's get out of here." Jared paused mid-cut and Milicent turned to me like I'd just slapped her.

"What? No. We've barely made a dent. There's still-""There's still enough to get us all killed," I cut in.

"We've got more than enough, and I'm not sticking around for the part when everyone starts killing each other over the scraps." Milicent looked like she wanted to argue but my words seemed to have shaken her away and she took a quick look around at the other scavenger crews. The violence that was starting to build shut her up. Daryl gave a short nod and stepped back, already turning his attention back to scanning the area.

Jared hesitated for a moment as his eyes bounced between me and the corpse, wondering if he could get in a few more good whacks. Then he let out a sigh.

"Yea. Yea, you're right." Milicent lingered for a moment longer, staring at the untouched sections of the Reclaimer. It looked like it physically pained her to leave the body behind, but eventually she gave in and backed away too. We stepped away from the corpse and immediately all the eyes of the scavenger crews were on us. We'd been working fast and carving away a massive chunk of the body, but now we were leaving.

The fact that we'd gathered a ton of material and the fact that we were the first ones to find the Reclaimer sent a shiver through the scavengers. I could see each of them making calculations as they glanced our way. Do they chase us? Or do they stay with the Reclaimer and keep carving away? Was I headed towards another payday? Or was I just trying to get away before violence broke out. A few of the scavengers shifted and looked like they were about to make a move on us. I knew what they were thinking.

We had a ton of the creature stored away, and it would be easy for them to kill us and steal our loot. Just then, another argument broke out. A few of the scavengers nearly came to blow over a glowing gland, and just like that, everyone's attention snapped back to the corpse.

"Let's go," I said quietly. Jared took point and guided us away from the Reclaimer and through the broken streets of the district. We didn't run from the corpse. That would have drawn too much attention. But at the same time, we didn't waste any time as we left. Step by step, we put distance between ourselves and the other scavenger crews. Behind us, the tension kept building and building. Voices rose and tempers flared and arguments started. It grated on me to walk away and leave the Reclaimer to those scavengers.

But I pushed that thought away and kept walking. We were about two blocks away when the tension finally snapped. A sharp crack echoed out, followed by shouting. I looked back despite myself and caught the start of the violence. The Pale Regiment had made their move. One of the Anchor Guild scavenger teams must have pushed too far or gotten too close to a section that they'd decided was theirs. The Pale Regiment soldiers dropped the man. The scavenger fell and everyone froze.

Then the man's crew shouted and raced forward and tried to attack the Pale Regiment soldiers. A flash of burning plasma lit up the street and, in a second, three more scavengers went down. That was all it took. Everything unraveled. The Holdfast soldiers moved in right after, like they'd been waiting for an excuse. Their formation tightened and they opened fire on anyone who came too close to their claimed sections of the corpse. Gunfire erupted. Shouts turned into screams turned into pained moans.

Crews that had been working side by side seconds ago turned on each other in an instant. I saw a few of the scavengers try to stand their ground and fend off the concentrated assault from both the Pale Regiment and the Holdfast. They didn't last long. The rest of the scavengers just tried to grab what they could and run. I turned back and ran. We raced through the district, putting as much distance between us and the fighting as possible. The noise chased us as we ran.

I heard gunshots and shouting and the sound of the plasma weapons of the Pale Regiment. It slowly started to fade as we ran away. Jared led us through the ruins. It was impressive because, despite the fact that we'd mapped out the district earlier, the chaos of the battle with the Reclaimer had clearly changed everything around. Landmarks were gone and streets were covered with rubble and buildings we'd passed through earlier were missing now. But somehow, Jared knew exactly where to go.

We ran full speed and eventually reached the edge of the research district and slipped back into the Fossilized Factory Belt. We climbed through the same massive breach in the wall that we'd used on the way in, and I couldn't help the thought that crept in as we finally got into the factory. Were we being followed? Were the other scavenger teams right behind us? I wouldn't have been surprised. We'd clearly been followed to the research district.

And it would be easy enough to follow us and try to ambush us to take all our loot. It would have been much safer than trying to fight over the scraps back at the Reclaimer. I glanced back but couldn't spot anyone trailing us. But that didn't mean we were clear.

"Keep moving," I said, more to myself than anyone else. We didn't slow down. We sped through the Factory, sticking to the paths that Jared called out. We avoided anything that looked even remotely active as we raced through the place until we finally got to the ascent point that would lead us up to the Flooded Neighborhoods. That place wasn't any better. We crossed into the neighborhoods and I felt the air change. It was thicker and damper and filled with humidity. We all stopped and panted out in pain.

There was a stitch in my side from how far we'd been running and I could hear Milicent gasping nearby.

"The Holdfast?" she gasped out, asking if that was where we were headed.

"No. The mayor is a dick and he cheated in his game. Plus, he obviously sent those soldiers after us, wondering what we were heading deeper into the Under-MIZ for. We head to the Holdfast and we'll be arrested and locked away." We kept moving and skirted the edges of the Holdfast. It was a lot more dangerous than when we moved through the place the first time. Thankfully we weren't ambushed by any of the nightmare monsters that you all told me about.

After that it was the Crushed Skirt and we finally slowed down when we found an abandoned house tucked between two partially collapsed buildings. It wasn't much. Half the roof was gone and the interior was a mess… but it was defensible and it was quiet. We settled in without a word. We were all running on fumes at that point. We all just crumbled in the living room of the house. I passed out a few rations and we ate in near silence.

Finally, when we had eaten our food and checked on our injuries and caught our breath, the relief hit. It was relief that was mixed with exhaustion and, underneath it all, excitement. We'd actually done it. We'd killed the Reclaimer and we'd walked away with a haul large enough to change things. I leaned back against a disgusting orange couch that occupied the middle of the living room and just breathed.

"Let's stay here for a while," I said.

"We'll move in a couple hours after getting some sleep. We need to get back to the Roaring Drake and have Patch take a look at everything we picked up." Everyone just gave me weak nods as they settled back and closed their eyes. I was hoping that my mentioning of Patch would remind them that we weren't free and clear yet. I was holding a TON of stuff in my dimensional storage space, and there was some concern that the three of them might try and kill me and steal all the loot before slipping back into The MIZ.

But with my talk about Patch, I was reminding them that if anything happened to me, he'd know. Jared and Daryl definitely understood that. And Milicent had her own reasons to keep me alive. The book she wanted was waiting at the Roaring Drake, and if she wanted it she needed to make sure I made it back to Patch alive. We didn't sleep for very long, only about a couple hours. It was just long enough to take the edge off and keep our heads straight. Then we got up and were moving again.

We didn't move towards the Anchor Guild, instead beelining our way back to the ascent point out of the Crushed Skirt and back to The MIZ. By the time we got back up to The MIZ I felt the tension finally bleed out of me. And when we got closer to the Roaring Drake and I saw that massive taxidermied dragon standing as a beacon in the middle of the city… that did it. No one was chasing us and no one had followed. We were back somewhere safe and my body started to fall to pieces.

It took everything I had to crawl my way back to the bar, and when we finally got inside I just crashed into a booth. Patch came out from behind the bar and I met his eyes and smiled. We'd just taken down something that could level a city. We'd carved it up, earned our loot, and made it back out alive. Patch grinned at me and pulled a bottle from behind the bar along with four glasses and then set them down on the table.

"I'm guessing congrats are in order."