GunBarrel Gauntlet: The Last Bronze II

19. Uncle Know-it-All.

Deep below the surface of the scrap iron defenses, Carrion, Weary, Liu, and Tiny were escorted through a labyrinth of clay tunnels toward the central cavern, which the Scabeaters had dubbed 'The Catacombs'. Shamrock and the Nomad were also led through the earthen caves behind them, the passages intermittently lit with old mining lamps set into alcove shelves along the soft walls.

"What is this place?" Liu asked as she ducked under a support beam.

"Used to be a mine, opals, before the Lawless Times. We've been expanding it since our escape from Gaswells..." Came the explanation from Scratch as they progressed.

Fractals of milk-blue colour blinked in the waving flames of a lamp as they moved onward from a seam in the clay wall, descending further into the stagnant cool air of the underground. Misery echoed from the obscure passage ahead; prolonged coughing, fevered words, sobbing despair.

The expanse of the Catacombs opened suddenly from the tunnel enclosure that had funnelled them, pockets of habitation staggered above each other like a hive of lost souls, those too sick to endure the surface world resting in their cold cells. Crude machines supporting life pumped with heart beat regularity from other fixtures, the greatest collection of which seemed to be amassed around one individual whose horizontal body was enclosed in a cylinder tank.

"Uncle!" Tin Lizard announced. "Visitors from the wastelands, they say they came from a city."

A ragged attendant adjusted the angle of a mirror above the tank man's face, so that he could look upon the reflection of Carrion and the others, just as they could see his melted face.

"Why did you allow them to enter the Catacombs?" A gentle voice wheezed.

"For two reasons Uncle; they know about El Dorado and claim to have been in contact with them, and because they are responsible for the death of Blue Tattoo. They want to trade for repairs, maybe they can help us." Tin Lizard replied.

The news of Blue Tattoo's demise stirred the sickly audience around them, a sense of wonder in their whispering words.

"Who among you is the leader?" Uncle Know-it-all, the man in the tank, asked.

"That would be me." Carrion spoke.

"Tell us how you came here, and how you know of El Dorado." Uncle Know-it-all paused to cough. "I'll know if you're lying, we've guarded the secret of that bunker for a long time now, even after Zeus tortured us."

"It's a long story... as Tin Lizard said, we came from a city, about two days journey from here. There's a group of us that managed to hide in the foundations of a building during the long winter, we had enough provisions and water to keep ourselves hidden from the cannibals that roamed above us until recently.

"The man who runs Sanctuary, our home, we call him 'The Colonel'. He said he'd been in radio contact with another group living in a bunker at the northern end of the old Trans-Con 2, what you all seem to refer to as the Gauntlet. He said that their leader was someone named 'Doc Idaho', and if we could find this bunker, this El Dorado, he might be willing to negotiate a deal for some water.

"So, he sent us out on a scouting mission. Believe me when I say we have no other options left, if we don't find the bunker and strike a deal, everyone in Sanctuary is gonna die within five days from starvation, that or the cannibal tribes waiting over their heads."

"Why couldn't you negotiate on the radio, for this water you need?"

"I dunno, the Colonel said that the communication had stopped about a year ago, something broke down, possibly at their end. I'm just the driver."