Read Wasteland Wonderland - Part 1 for Free Online

this,” I say. “The gut
shot. At least, not right away. It’ll be slow. It’ll be painful.
Extremely painful. I’ve seen it, out in the Wasteland. Trust me,
you don’t want to go through it.”
    He is crying and screaming and eventually he
says, “What… what do you want from me?”
    “I want a name. I want to know what’s going
on.”
    “They don’t tell us anything. We’re soldiers.
We’re property. We’re weapons of Wonderland.”
    The other guy said the same thing.
    I’m just a soldier.
    Sounds like they’ve been brainwashed to
follow orders and to not ask questions.
    To give your life.
    To sacrifice yourself.
    “What were your orders?” I ask.
    “To find you. Find out who you’d talked to.
Kill you…”
    “Why?”
    “Because you kidnapped a girl. You helped her
escape. You… tricked…” he trails off because maybe he realizes that
everything he’s been told is a lie. “She was someone very
important. Someone very close to the Collector. You killed
her!”
    “Looks like you’ve been played for a
fool.”
    He starts laughing. And he looks crazy with
his blood covered mouth and his blood stained teeth. He’s
delusional from blood loss. From pain. “You think I’m the fool?
You’re the fool. You’re so dead, you don’t even realize it. You
want answers? You better speak to the Mayor of the Buried City.
They sent an Overseer with us. An Overseer . You’re so
dead.”
    “The Mayor?”
    I’m starting to realize everyone is in on
this.
    The Mayor.
    The Sheriff.
    Wonderland.
    Everyone wants me dead. Just like they wanted
Ruby dead.
    Someone is trying to clean up their mess.
    Someone is trying real hard.
    Sending Enforcers.
    Supplying the Mercs.
    Sending an Overseer.
    The good people of Wonderland are scared
about something.
    Lost secrets.
    Skeletons in the closet.
    I shoot the Enforcer in the head, putting him
out of his misery.
    I keep his gun.
    I’ve got a feeling I’m going to need it.
     

Chapter
7
    I apologized to Lisa on the way out. Told her to keep the steel,
the weapons. I gave her the names of a few people who would be very
interested in all those dead bodies.
    I realize that because there’s a whole lot of
Enforcers walking through the alleys of the Buried City, the Mayor
has to have given them the green light to administer their own form
of justice. Consequence free.
    The last Enforcer confirmed this theory of
mine. Said I should pay him a visit.
    So I decide to pay the Mayor a visit.
    The Mayor’s office is heavily guarded. The
entire building is. But I don’t feel like killing people who don’t
deserve to be killed. So I give them the slip.
    And then I’m standing in the Mayor’s office
and he’s sitting behind his massive hardwood desk and he’s giving
me a look that says I’m out of my goddamn mind for coming here.
    He says, “You’re out of your goddamn mind for
coming here, you know that? You’ve got a lot of nerve. How many
people have you killed?”
    I shrug my shoulders. “To be honest. I’ve
lost count. A train full of Mercs. A few more at that sleazy motel
when you tried to ambush me, when you tried to frame me for
something I didn’t do. I’m up to four Enforcers. I know that. Been
counting those bastards. The Lord is going to be pissed.”
    “What are you doing here?”
    “Just give me some damn answers. The killing
will stop. I’ll leave the Buried City. I’ll Exile myself. You won’t
never see me again. I’m not afraid of the Wasteland.”
    “There’ll be no Exile. Not this time. And you
don’t get to decide when it’s over. It’ll be over when you’re dead
and rotting in the Wasteland. Or maybe they’ll put your body on
display in the city square. A bullet in your skull, a knife in your
back, your gut full of poison. Don’t you get that?”
    “Speaking of poison…”
    “Look, Hector, I don’t know anything. I
swear. This all came out of the blue. We hadn’t heard a peep out of
Wonderland in five years. Five long years. I was