Junkyard of Dreams

The shriveled husk of a rat lay baking in the relentless sun—the third one Daria had seen this morning. She shook her head bitterly and turned away. This drought was slowly strangling the life from her people, leaving the desert settlements shrouded in despair. Who knew how much more their meager water ration could sustain them?

As Daria gazed over the fractured walls of the dead city rising from the haze, she felt a spark of hope pierce her gloom. The mysterious note had pointed them to an uncharted oasis somewhere beyond these ruins. An oasis no one had laid claim to yet, flush with untouched water. They only needed to locate it. 

She turned to watch Kade saunter up beside her, his scarred face twisting into a leering grin as he seemed to read her thoughts. 

“Daydreaming about your fantasy oasis again? We both know it’s probably long gone just like every other damn water source in this wasteland,” he scoffed. 

Daria’s lips thinned but she didn’t take his bait this time. She knew she would never earn respect from brutes like Kade who mocked her curiosity and empathy as weaknesses. But she could still prove her worth to her faction on this vital quest. Their very survival depended on it if the note’s promises held true.

“Fan out and search for access points between buildings that aren’t clogged with debris,” Daria called out, addressing the eight other Viper scouts. “And keep your weapons and senses sharp. We don’t know what might have taken shelter within the city since it fell.”

Daria glimpsed the Eagle faction’s vehicles rumbling toward a crumbling freeway overpass in the distance. So the other scouting groups were also using this dead megalopolis as a waypoint. It unsettled her even though she knew the factions had called a temporary truce after all receiving versions of the mysterious note. None had been willing to risk losing the advantage over potential new water sources.

As Daria wandered down an alley draped in shadows, the fine hairs on the back of her neck prickled. Old instincts honed from surviving Viper ambushes screamed that she was being watched. She whirled, knife glinting in her grip as she scanned the empty, debris-choked street behind her. Only faint skittering sounds echoed from around a corner. She felt for the vial of antidote on her belt, hoping those weren’t the sounds that had haunted her nightmares since she was a child.

A shout followed by screams erupted from deeper within the concrete maze, sending Daria sprinting toward it. She spotted Jada, one of the Eagle tech scouts, staggering from a yawning pit between the buildings. Daria rushed over to help Jada sit against a rust-eaten vehicle husk. 

“We were searching the underground parking levels when this...this thing came at us, all teeth and wild eyes caked in blood,” Jada gasped, struggling to catch her breath. “It dragged off Vin and Omar before we could even fire a shot.”

Daria’s chest constricted at the thought of more lives lost as she examined Jada’s bleeding leg gash. She knew firsthand the horrors this wasted world could spawn deep in darkness. As she treated and bound the wound, Micah and two other Eagles emerged carrying plasma rifles. Daria gestured to Jada as she stood. 

Micah met her eyes. “I know where we might find answers about what we’re facing,” he said grimly.

Daria winced as her rover jolted through another trench in the junkyard’s scrap landscape. She peered past mountains of metal carcasses and discarded plasticrete blocks searching for the other faction vehicles Kade had spotted from the lookout point. Her nerves had been on edge since they had fled the dead city the day before, barely escaping the subterranean horrors Micah called “Ferals.”

She spotted the first camouflaged Eagle rover nestled under a crumbling overpass crammed with rusted construction equipment. The rumors must be true - the other groups were having as many mechanical issues as her crew from pushing their aging vehicles so hard through unforgiving terrain. 

As Daria’s crew emerged to search for replacement parts, she noticed fresh slash marks scoring the Eagles’ cracked windows - claws that matched the wounds on Jada’s leg. Her breath caught. Had they dragged something out from the city with them?

Micah stood watch atop the rover as the crews milled about, tools in hand. Daria picked her way over to him, hoping he had learned more about the Ferals.

“No other sightings since yesterday,” he said, reading her face. “I asked the Elders for legends about this area but they just keep mentioning ‘desert demons.’” He shook his head. “Let’s just secure what we need and get back on course.”

“You two! Get down here,” Kade shouted. Daria turned to see him yank open a hatch covering one of the Eagles’ engines, his scarred face mottled with rage. As she drew nearer, her gut twisted - clear signs of sabotage. Slit fuel lines. Sand clogging the filters. 

Kade whirled on Jada and two other Eagles nearest him. “Which one of you cowardly buzzards thought messing with our vehicles was funny?” he snarled, fist clenched.

Daria rushed between them, facing down Kade though his mass dwarfed hers. “Back off! None of us have had time for this and you know it,” she said. Jada shot her a grateful look.  

A scream echoed from deeper in the junkyard. Daria spun to see a ragged stranger barreling towards them, terror wild in his eyes. Kade tackled the man as he tried slipping past.

“Please! Let me go before it’s too late,” he shrieked hoarsely. “The water...the oasis...it’s all poisoned!”

Daria felt her heart drop into her stomach. She grabbed Kade’s shoulder. “Wait! If he knows about the oasis, we need to question him.” 

The man fixed his bloodshot eyes on her. “Cain. My name is Cain. And you all need to turn back now if you want to live!” he rasped.

A bone-rattling roar drowned out any reply. Daria looked up to see a dust storm surging towards them across the junkyard. In seconds she lost sight of Cain. As the wind died down, she saw no sign of which direction he had fled. Or what he had been running from.

Daria leaned against the rover's hood, eyes scanning the rocky cliffs looming above them as the convoy vehicles idled in the ravine pass. According to Cain's frenzied warning back at the junkyard, an oasis lay hidden somewhere in this region. Assuming the stranger hadn't been completely deranged. 

She worried her bottom lip, thinking back to the unhinged terror in Cain's bloodshot eyes. A poisoned oasis didn't make any sense but something had clearly shattered his psyche. Her fingers reflexively brushed the antidote vial on her belt. At least they had some protection against toxins if his rants proved true.

Kade's sneering voice broke her reverie. "I told you we couldn't trust that lunatic's ramblings. These coordinates are a dead end!" He hurled a stone against the cliffside in frustration. The other Vipers shifted uneasily as it clattered down.

Jada leaned against her rover, gazing pensively at her scanner tablet. "I'm picking up a weak energy reading from that ridge ahead. Could be coming from an obscured cave or valley."

As the group pushed forward on foot, a narrow opening in the sheer rock revealed itself. Daria felt her pulse quicken. Hidden water sources often dwelled in these lost world mountain hollows. 

Brushing past Kade, she scrambled up the steep path worn smooth by ancient floods. Her boots splashed down into several inches of water flooding a rocky basin nestled between soaring cliffs. Her eyes widened at a crystal blue pool filling a basin at the opposite end, fed by a delicate waterfall. It was real!

The others poured into the oasis behind her, shock and elation rippling through them. Daria blinked back sudden tears. Endless clean, untainted water for their people if they could find a way to transport it. They had succeeded against impossible odds.

Jada scanned the pool, frowning at her tablet. “I’m detecting extremely unusual mineral compounds here – the water must have picked them up filtering through these rocks over centuries.”  

Before Daria could reply, chaotic splashing erupted as several Vipers flung themselves fully clothed into the shimmering pool, gulping down mouthfuls of water. Daria opened her mouth to warn them but only a strangled cry emerged. Too late, she saw their pupils dilating oddly, almost glowing in the dim light. 

Kade stumbled back from the pool’s edge, clutching his head and screaming. Drawing her knife, Daria slowly retreated as she realized with dawning horror that Cain had been right.

Micah appeared at her side, plasma rifle aimed warily at the flailing scouts in the pool. “We need to get out of here now! I’ve seen this kind of poisoning before - there won’t be anything left of their minds soon.”

A deafening screech echoed through the oasis as Kade turned towards them. The left side of his face was paralyzed but murderous intent filled his right eye. He raised a trembling arm and Daria saw he now held a compact laser arc, leveled right at her chest. Jada tackled Daria down behind a boulder just as Kade fired. The blast seared the rock above their heads.

"We need to split them up!" Jada yelled over the chaos. She pointed to a narrow path hugging the cliff face. "I rewired all vehicles to my biometrics. Get the unaffected back safely - I'll lead defense." Jada pressed a plasma pistol into Daria's shaking hands. "Go! Now!"

Daria peered around the boulder to see the maddened Kade wrestling Micah towards the pool, the other poisoned Vipers converging on them. She blinked hard, steeling her nerve before firing a barrage of cover fire allowing Micah to break free. 

They raced back down the ravine path, hearing Jada's rifle echoing off blood-streaked cliffs. They dove into the nearest rover just as a poisoned Viper hurled himself against Daria's window, claws raking the glass. Micah slammed the vehicle into gear, roaring back down the canyon as crazed screams gave chase.

Gripping her plasma pistol white-knuckled, Daria stared dead-eyed out the rear window, watching the oasis vanish into blood haze and dust. All hopes of saving her people had turned to ashes in her mouth. And she had delivered them all straight into damnation.

Daria stared at the crackling fire, numb to the frigid night air. She kept replaying the bloodbath at the oasis over and over no matter how hard she tried blocking out the screams. And the image of Kade’s rage-contorted face moments before he had fired at her.

She tossed a stray rock into the flames. They had stopped when all vehicles abruptly lost power, some failing completely. It was just past dusk when they had spotted smoke from this remote campsite - Cain’s people apparently. The only mercy was most of the poisoned scouts appeared to have fled into the wastelands rather than track them. But it was only a matter of time.

Micah crouched next to her with two scraps of meat speared on a metal rod. “We didn’t choose for this to happen. But now we have to survive long enough to expose the truth.”

Daria turned on him fiercely. “Expose the truth? It’s my duty to protect my people no matter what and they’re the ones who...” Her voice broke as she choked back a sob. Because in her heart, she knew Micah was right. She had seen the madness firsthand. And whatever poison was in that water, someone had clearly known about it in advance.

Micah placed a steadying hand on her shoulder. “Daria, I know - ”

His words cut off as Cain limped into the firelight, his face etched with grief. “You brought death to this place. Now you must face judgment.”

Daria scrambled to her feet, shock pinning her in place. Kade strode past Cain with five armed Vipers, their faces stony. In his grip, hair matted with blood, knelt Jada. 

Kade tossed Jada to the dirt and pressed his laser arc to her skull with an icy grin. “Such a pity about those accidents in the chaos back there. But your usefulness ends here.” His gaze bored into Daria’s. “Time to weed out the rot festering in our clan.”  

Daria stared at Jada’s prone form, her mind reeling. Somehow Kade had regained control despite the poison. And he had clearly orchestrated this entire nightmare. Rage flooded her veins.

“What did you do?” she screamed, lunging for him. Two Vipers caught her arms but she fought against their grip with primal fury. “What did you DO?”

Kade leaned in close, his hot breath on her face. “I protected our future glory. That water may have weakened me at first but soon I saw the truth - the only way to save our people is to take control from the old guard.” His smile turned predatory. "And your sympathies make you too dangerous to live."

Kade raised his arc, energy coil whining. Then his face registered shock as the barrel exploded in a burst of sparks. He wheeled to see Micah lowering the smoking plasma rifle. In the distraction, Cain pulled a screeching device from his robes. The two Vipers collapsed, clawing at their ears.

Kade turned the charred weapon on Micah with a snarl. Then his body jerked as a plasma blast tore through his chest. Daria kept Jada’s pistol aimed at Kade as he sank to his knees, all light fading from his eyes. 

She lowered the gun, hands trembling. Jada struggled over to Cain who stared solemnly at Kade’s body. “We have much healing to do,” he said softly.

The next morning, Cain revealed tunnels below leading to clean water - and a new path forward for those ready to forge it. Daria helped Jada to her feet, the beginnings of hope stirring in her heart for the first time.

As Daria turned to follow Cain toward the tunnels, Micah gently caught her arm."There's something you need to know," he said, holding her gaze with sudden intensity. "I recognized Cain back at the junkyard because I was once a Viper who served under him. But I left to protect the sister I had to abandon."Daria stared, a trembling hand rising to touch the weathered cord around Micah's neck - a carved stone pendant emerged from beneath his shirt. A match to the one she wore.Her vision blurred with tears as she embraced her brother for the first time in over a decade. The siblings had finally been reunited amidst hope emerging from the ashes of tragedy.