Wasteland Woman

They had told her not to go. Her own mother, with tears streaming down her cheeks and a look on her face she'd never seen before begged her to stay home, stay safe. Through the cracks in her voice she spoke of the futility -- the sheer folly of her mission, of the fates worse than death that awaited her, and again and again pleaded that she come to her senses and stay. But she would have none of that. And off she went. And now there she was.

 

"C'mon, humies! Drag them feet! We ain't at the Citadel come sundown and I'll rip yer arms off an' beat ya to death with 'em!"

 

Not that he'd really do that, valuable as human slaves were in the Citadel, but the thought provided little comfort for the young girl and her companions, bound as they were in rusty shackles that rattled across the broken pavement as they marched inexorably towards their final fate. Nearly half the group had already found it along the way, and if someone had bothered to ask, the girl would've called them the lucky ones. But the Ape-Men slavers didn't ask. They whipped, dragged, spit, insulted and, if necessary, killed. The latter was something that their chief, a hulking white-haired giant even by Ape-Men standards with horrifying scars on his face and a cruel laughter, was especially fond of.

 

"Chief, hey chief," an ape told him in the laziest of whispers. "Is it really safe to be going 'round these parts? I don't like the look of these cliffs."

 

The slaver chief turned to give his underling a cold stare and an evil grin, and without breaking stride slapped him clean in the face with a huge palm. If she'd had any energy to spare, the girl would've smiled. As it was, what little strength left in her body was too busy keeping it moving.

 

"Ya damn dirty ape, ya trynna say something about my shortcut?" the chief turned his head and started shouting. "Ya trynna say it ain't safe, that I'm endangerin' th' merchandise, that it? Ya wanna take over? Any ape here wanna take over, huh? 'cause if you want to, y' best take yer chance an' stab me inna back right now, 'cause that's the ONLY chance ya dumb basta--"

 

And that was when the roaring started. Two at first, short and dry, like a loud cough, but the third grew and grew into a steady deafening rumble that no natural throat could've created. It sounded like a beast of myth, like a raging monstrosity awoken from thousands of years of slumber. The Ape-Men closed ranks and drew their weapons, but the noise of steel leaving leather and the hushed murmurs of the slavers were no match for the brutal roar, which echoed through the canyon.

 

"Kangarats? Hrrmm, no, too far... Tiger-Men? Leopard-Men? Ngh..." the chief mumbled to himself, gritting his teeth and turning his head in a growingly desperate effort to locate the source of the roar which had shaken slaves and slavers alike. Sensing the shadow of fear falling over his troops, he exploded. "C'MON! SHOW YERSELF, YA YELLOW-FURS! Y'WANT US?! COME AN' GET US!"

 

All the slaves had fallen to their knees and reached for the ground with their foreheads, their strained nerves shot to oblivion, but through the screaming voices and whispered prayers the girl noticed something. The roaring had intensified. It was drawing near. With great effort she twisted her neck and looked up, towards the scorching sun which made her eyelids narrow, and through the blurry haze of her view she saw something that gleamed with unnatural light plummeting down to the Earth, like a bolt of lightning in the middle of the day.

 

Noticing the girl's odd reaction through the corner of his eye, the slaver chief looked up as well, just in time to have a roaring chainsaw hit him right through his nose. Blood and gore sprayed and splashed like a river crashing through a dam, painting the canyon walls a deep crimson red and drenching both men and apes in the gore of their tormentor.

 

And as the chief's lifeless body fell crashing down upon the sand, they all noticed a second body on top of it, and saw her hands clutched around the large post that the chainsaw was tied to, and her feet prodding the ape-man's corpse to confirm the kill, and her bloodshot blue eyes turning to the surviving members of the pack with an intensity that challenged that of the most savage beasts.

 

"Right then," the woman growled as she claimed her weapon back and pointed it at the ape-men. "Which of you curs wants to be alpha male now?"

 

But the stranger's brutality had drained all fight from the slavers, more accustomed to dealing with starving weaklings than the bronze-skinned warrior woman that approached her with her whirring weapon and a cruel glint in her eyes, leaving nothing but flight. And fly they did, as fast as their legs and arms could take them, leaving behind swords and shields and a large dust cloud that took almost an entire minute to clear. And when it did, the slaves were astonished to feel their back suddenly unburdened and their chains lying at their feet.

 

"There, you are free now," said their liberator, in a voice kinder and gentler than any had heard in weeks as she pointed forwards with her weapon. "Further down the canyon lies a cave that connects to a system of tunnels. They will lead you out of Ape-Men territory. And do not be afraid: I have already dealt with the beasts that lived in them."

 

One by one the slavers rose, as if pulled upwards by an invisible length of rope that breathed new life into their bodies, and each thanked the warrior in their own words, and set back on the path with new vigor in their bodies and hope in their hearts. All but the girl. She stood her ground, waited patiently, and once the others were out of earshot turned to the warrior with fierce determination in her eyes.

 

"Can't go."

 

"Mm? And why is that?"

 

"Father sick. Must find medicine. Elder say, hoss-pit nearby. Medicine in hoss-pit."

 

The warrior's stare measured the little girl from head to toe and back, and after drawing a long, controlled breath, she picked up one of the slaver's leftover swords and handed it to her.

 

"Take this, and stay close to me. I'll help you find this medicine, uh..."

 

Even without knowing her name, or anything about her at all, she'd recognized the look on her face. And knew any attempt to keep her from her mission would be pointless.

 

"They call me Donna."

 

"Very well, Donna. My name is Diana."

 

It was the same she'd given her mother so many years ago.