The nail bomb trap went off without a hitch, but, unfortunately that doesn't mean much. The reaver took the brunt of the blast without even flinching- if anything the only thing that saved me was the fact he decided not to use his rifle.

  A mechanical hand of irreplaceable quality holds my barrel in an upward position, rendered harmless by the perfect manoeuvre executed by the reaver. I've always preferred shooting with my real hand, so I guess it's just my luck that my own mechanical arm was free.

  I didn't expect for him to able to brute force a reinforced metal door, but immediate assumptions can be made in that regard. A chemical enhancement, maybe a temporary overdrive of his mechanical limbs- I'm leaning more to the latter. He's just not strong enough for the former.

  I was still fast enough to catch the blade.

  A combat knife connected to the reaver via a power cable impaled through my mechanical hand, leaving molten metal slowly leaking off my wrist. A creeping smoke rose from the area of impact, the heat slowly spreading throughout my hand.

  I drop the charge gun in the moment to be able to catch the blade before it reached my skull. I kick the charge gun over to the left toward the kid, before I properly realised what I was looking at. It was certain now, this was no normal reaver.

  It was a face plate of a particularly shiny metal, possibly some sort of light refraction, or maybe he's just a bit of a dick head. Two blue shining eyes stare at me through an elongated multi-sight, which was directly attached to his mask which transitioned seamlessly into a helmet.

  His equipment was not too dissimilar from my own, just of far higher quality and better organised than I've ever been. Just by looking at it in the short seconds, I knew that I stood no chance if he wasn't forced to distant himself from me.

  I headbutt him and my helmet dented against his face plate.

  The precious fraction of a second that brought the kid was enough for him to swipe up my charge gun and fire the already half charged shot into the reaver. Unfortunately his armour seemed to make it ineffective, but his limbs still buckled at the sudden electrical current.

  I look the chance to attempt to overpower his arm, bringing my revolver closer to his head, but I wasn't fast enough. He swivels my arm to attempt to force to revolver out of my hand, but he overcompensated- I spin my revolver into an awkward position and shoot the knifes' cable.

  There was a minor explosive impact, which caused us both to recoil backward, it's quite fortunate that the bullet lodged into the side of the console and not the kids face. Though that was the plan, obviously- but, he uses the momentum to smack the charge gun out of the kid's hand regardless.

  I bring my revolver up to shoot him, it was too close, he managed to swipe at the revolver forcing it aiming into the mess of wires and cables on the ceiling. I fire nonetheless, causing an uncountable amount of sparkling wiring to fall on top of both of us.

  I step back to get out of the obscurity of the wires.

  I reach into my back holster, pulling out a basic combat knife to hold in my mechanical hand, a little range doesn't hurt. But, there was nothing for a moment, just a symphony of crackling electricity among dancing wires.

  He wouldn't be this slow unless,

  "Incoming!" I shout,

  I dive to the right toward the cart door,

  In a single moment, electrical wiring flew across the place with great force, and the cart had a new vision point straight through it.

  He left his gun at the front door? I return fire, shooting four times at where the door was.

  "Scrapper!" Lila warns, throwing a grenade toward me,

  I catch the grenade and in the same motion activate it. I throw it through the now parted electrical wires, and it would quickly explode.

  The entire station shook from the force, the roof of wiring collapsed down into the floor, leaving a mat of exposed cable. A large cascade of smoke hit us before quickly dissipating.

  There was movement in the cart, probably Lila moving over to the door behind me, maybe she believed I was hurt? Regardless, I get up with haste.

  I take a few step forward over the wiring and take the moment to search for ammo in my pouch. I scanned the surrounding area, just wires barely hanging on or scattered on the floor.

  Where was the kid?

  "You're more than anticipated." A low raspy voice commented, trapped behind a respiratory device,

  My immediate instinct was to fire at the voice, but in the moment the voice hit my ears I was brought to the ground by the force of the reaver over the top of me.

  His speed is inconsistent, but if I'm dead I can't exploit it.

  He seemed poised to slit my throat, but before he managed to do anything he got blasted with a blast from Lila's charge rifle. As a result, he was launched off me into the curtain of wires. A blast like that either killed him or permanently broke something.

  Lila's weapon was clearly overheated, she overcharged it for that one blast? Well, I'd be an idiot to say that it wasn't worth it. If it killed him good, if it didn't, then maybe it was enough to bring him down to our level.

  If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  There was a moment of respite, just enough time to throw two bullets into my revolver. Lila's attention was caught by the sad podling, who was repairing the carts console still. Lila began to search through the wagon, for another weapon I assume.

  I watch the kid pull himself out of some wires, looks like he managed to get stuck under them for a second. At least he wasn't in the line of fire, but- I managed to intercept the knife with my own before it hit my face- he threw it?

  He came rushing in, much slower clearly, seems I was right- as always.

  The reaver covered an uncomfortable amount of distance, but I was still the one with the gun, he pulled out his own side arm in the race. I shot first, he sacrificed his left arm to preserve himself, the bullet smashed through his arm and into his body armour.

  He has another blade ready, it clashed with my knife, but my own knife clearly began to bend under the pressure of his strength and knife. I was going to shoot again right into his head but my revolver had other ideas, it jammed.

  I began to fall backward against the brute strength of the reaver, where the hell is Lila? Instead my well-timed frustration was answered by the kid who shot my old small secondary pistol at his head once and shoulder twice. It wasn't good enough to pierce his armour, but it definitely hurt.

  He drags his knife from mine, and uses his barely functioning left arm to lodge my knife into himself to prevent me from hitting something important. He used his knife to slash at the kid, and the gun launching into the air was enough to tell me he landed it.

  I hear a scream of pure agony. Safe to say the kid might have just lost a finger, or two.

  I use some new found strength to kick him in the stomach, which managed to get him to fall backward, honestly I'm surprised I could do something like that. It hurt like hell. I push down the hammer, forcing my revolver to unjam and I aim it at him.

  I thought he threw something at me again, but he had tossed something past me into the cart, I turn around stupidly as if to warn them of the obvious- he managed to get close, but I shot him square in the side of the head. If I hadn't turned, he'd be dead.

  He flew back with a large portion of his faceplate missing, the part of his face behind it heavily damaged. Looks like I managed to shoot out one of his eyes, but he still looked at me as if he still possessed it. A bang goes off behind me, a flash grenade, mostly harmless to Lila and the podlings.

  I'm out of ammo, but he's out of everything. I don't move, stuck in the decision between anticipating a rage filled attack or to reload my weapon and fire again. This is the opposite of a scrappers field of expertise no doubt, but I've made it this far.

  It was only then, a malformed mechanical arm reached out and curled around the reavers head.

  I was confused at the sight, as the reaver stabbed at it while it dragged him into the wiring, it was far too robust to a be rust-bucket. I thought I was hearing something, it was every bone in my body telling me to get the fuck out.

  I turn to the kid, he was missing his index and middle finger. I don't know what shock I'm in but it's potent. I turn to Lila, only to see her look absolutely mortified at the sight she was witnessing. Her face straightened into a terribly serious expression.

  I limp toward to the cart door, my leg, did I break it against the reavers chest? I attempt to reach my mechanical arm through to ask her for help. The kid needs medical attention immediately, but the words wouldn't leave my throat.

  It wouldn't matter anyway.

  "He needs help. Lila?" I croak,

  There was a silence, one so complete in its intention, it was almost frightening.

  The cart door closed against my mechanical hand. Crushing it and ripping it off its socket, leaving me down a hand, wrist, and knife. I didn't realise what just happened, until the cart suddenly shot off into the distance without warning.

  For a short few seconds I stared into the abyss ahead of me. Confusion, followed the sudden shift in purpose and strategy. Fear, afterward to the circumstances I now find myself in. Then, an unending rage began to fill me from top to bottom.

  I suppose it'd be best to use it productively then. I turn toward the kid and sling him over my shoulder, he was heavy with all the gear but I didn't care. I swipe up the charge gun and begin to run down to maintenance station.

  My leg crackled with each landing in my stride, but it wasn't the time to care, I watched as the reaver struggled against a barely visible mechanical monstrosity. My eyes were spared it, the wiring which was being ripped to shreds in their struggle obscured it.

  I made it to the doorway mildly scathed.

  I look up to a terribly long staircase, well, scrapping has never been easy has it. I look back to watch the chaos in the station unfold, the reaver was getting his step back, now clearly able to rival the speed of the metal horror.

  It was uncanny to look at, each part of it was clearly detachable, compartmentalised to shift into itself. There were hints of human flesh and clothing in between sharp dagger-like armour. Each inch of that thing was a weapon to be utilised to kill.

  It was horrifically massive, it made me question who it was or where it came from, but the back of my mind knew exactly who it was. That figure, who I had shot with the charge gun, it was no doubt one of them. A cyborg. Which is my queue to leave as quickly as possible.

  I begin to heave up each staircase, the kid squirming against my shoulder as he held tightly onto his hand. His eyes were tightly shut, his teeth gritted, and each muscle in his face was contorting to cope with the pain. It happens to all of us.

  I suppose some lessons are just learned in limbs.

  It's hard to keep track of time when you're completely overtaken by pain, rage, and adrenaline. But, I can surmise that I had taken the liberty of sprinting down the tunnel-way I found myself in for a couple of hours. I couldn't feel my legs at this point, but somehow everything hurt.

  I'm trapped in an endless sense of urgency, it's a pure miracle that I haven't ran into anything that could kill me, but rust-buckets seem rarer than usual in the outskirts. I couldn't even hazard a guess why, it's not the time for guessing anything anyhow. Not in this ash.

  I keep moving down a tunnel. I pass multiple intersections before spotting a familiar sequence of numbers. 'H-3027', which is a habitation area, or in other words; housing. I pivot into the entrance way, and the tunnel suddenly expands into an inner plaza.

  I smash through the flimsy metal doorway and make my way up the stairs of the slowly collapsing habitation unit. It's split into hundreds of individual rooms for people to sleep in, with a variety of rooms that; are collapsed on top of, exposed to the elements, falling apart, and barely intact.

  Unfortunately, I had to settle with falling apart, there wasn't anything remotely intact.

  I half-throw the kid on top of a slab of metal and concrete, luckily most of the impact went into his pack. I look lazily at him, he was knocked out now, I don't know when he managed to do that. Maybe from the shock, or just the time it took to get here.

  I sluggishly drop my pack near the door which I forced shut. The once metallic door now a barely standing rusted husk of flimsy crap. My fingers were twitching from open to fist, I drop my revolver to the floor as a result.

  My legs continue to move automatically. I stagger from one position to another in the room, it's terribly claustrophobic in here. But I've been in places like this before, hell, places far worse. The walls weren't trustworthy, like something was reaching through them at me.

  Am I being paranoid, or maybe I'm just tired, or maybe I'm right. I don't know, I don't care.

  I force the multi-vision off my face, I didn't even remember I was wearing it all this time. I rub my eyes for a couple of seconds, but my vision was still surrounded by shadow. Either way, my legs finally stopped in their tracks, running out of energy right about when I did.

  I fall backward onto the floor.