Chapter 56: Motorin'

Chapter 56: Motorin'

As I walked out of the tent and headed back toward the room where Id kept my things I passed by a number of the Khans wives, servants, and surprisingly his daughter. Atlan was much as I remembered her. Same dark hair and sharp features, broad and strong. Though she now sported a metal leg that looked as if it had been built specifically to push down the pedal on a motorcycle. I also noticed, though it was in the early stages, that she was pregnant. She said nothing as we passed by one another, merely nodding at me.

I returned the gesture and kept walking. I found myself disturbed by the sight of her. Not because of the situation shed put me in in the Black Woods, but by her pregnancy. I couldnt tell why the thought filled me with dread, but it did.

I returned to the room Id been given and gathered my things, checking everything once to ensure that nothing had been taken. After that I walked out of the main tent and made my way to one of the smaller garages near the outskirts. There was a man, covered in piercings made of bolts and screws, who nodded at me as I approached.

Here for Betty?

Yep. Dont think I agreed on that name for her though.

The man shook his head. You dont pick the name. The bike does. He moved over and opened up the garage door, revealing my motorcycle. It was a simple vehicle, built for utility rather than comfort or speed. I moved over to it and placed my pack on the rear, and my rifle in the rack on the side that was built for it. I ran my hands along its black paint.

The mechanic tossed me the keys which I caught, and popped into the ignition. I wasnt too worried about fuel. I was promised that the tank would always be full when I came to retrieve it, and besides that I had a decent amount of gas squirreled away in my deadzone that Id begun collecting after receiving Betty. Owning gas without the Khans permission was a crime, but I doubted anyone would be checking my deadzone for it any time soon.

I parked the bike on a small patch of old pavement just a short distance from my home. Most of it had been eaten by the ever growing swamp, but there was enough left for a small car to park on. I took a moment to admire the way the black paint of the bike reflected the green lightning that quietly arced across the surface of my lake.

I pulled myself back over to my boat, grabbed a tarp, rolled back, and threw it over the bike to cover it. I didnt think anything would happen to it, but there was no reason to risk disrespecting the Khan. He seemed oddly amiable to me. Aside from the hidden shotgun. There was no reason to risk changing that by allowing Betty to be damaged.

There was no sign of Gus, so I assumed he was off in the further reaches of the zone prowling. Still, Id need to make a point to do some hunting for him in order to make sure he continued our agreement.

I got back onto the boat, got myself a meal of mutated snake, and pulled up a large glass bottle of tea that Id tied to a rope and lowered into the lake to cool and irradiate. Id brewed it before I left Potts. Delilah had been kind enough to help me after learning Id killed butcher Pete for murdering Lydia. Whatever hard feelings shed had for me regarding my questioning and Lydia's other paramours seemed not to matter compared to that. I thanked whatever rotted radiated gods there were left that my own personal life had so few complications. Sure I almost got killed pretty regularly, but that was a small price to pay.

Once I was done eating, I updated my maps and notes, then pulled a small container I had hidden in the walls of the boat. I pulled out the two large, wristwatch like devices, one that looked like a gun with a clear piece of glass instead of a barrel, and finally a shoebox sized black box.

I put the gun shaped tech to the side. It didnt seem like the kind of thing I should experiment with inside, and grabbed one of the wristwatch devices. I tried to clasp it onto my arm with the screen on the top of the wrist and found that it didnt quite fit correctly. I flipped it around to have the screen on the inside of my wrist instead, and the device suddenly made a grinding noise, and I felt the cloth lining inside expand and seal around my list. I watched it calmly, grabbing a combat knife I had loose on the table in case I needed to cut it off rapidly.

The screen flickered on, and showed a simple display of an ascending row of solid lines. I pressed a button next to the screen and it flickered for a moment. After that the bars began ticking down very slowly. I moved my wrist, shook it, but nothing happened. I hit the button again, and the bars stopped descending, and began almost imperceptibly to tick back upward. I went to remove it from my wrist and found that it wouldnt budge. I considered cutting it off, but I didnt want to just destroy a potentially useful piece of old tech. I could break my hand and slip it through, but I could also just continue wearing it. It was surprisingly comfortable, and the minor difference in weight could be managed without trouble.

I shrugged, put everything else away, and decided to go to sleep. I hadnt slept in three and a half days, so even my enhanced stamina was wearing more than a little thin.