Tale of the Dead Town Read Free Page B

aboard.”
    The earth shook as the broad boarding-ramp hit the ground. Once the travelers were
     on, along with the bike and the cyborg horse, the ramp began to rise once again.
    “The nerve of these people and their overblown escalator,” Pluto VIII carped.
    As soon as the ramp had retracted into the town’s base, an iron door shut behind them
     and the two men found themselves in a vast chamber that reeked of oil. A number of
     armed men in the prime of life and a gray-haired old man stood there. The latter was
     more muscular in build than the men who surrounded him. Mayor Ming, no doubt. He may
     have had trouble walking, as he carried a steel cane in his right hand. “Glad you
     could make it,” he said. “I’m Ming.”
    “Introductions can wait,” Pluto VIII bellowed. “Where’s the doctor?”
    The mayor gave a nod, and two men stepped forward and unstrapped the girl—Lori—from
     the biker’s back. “I imagine your companion’s more interested in eating than hearing
     us talk business,” the mayor said, signaling the other men with his eyes.
    “Damn straight—you read my mind. Well, I’m off then, D. See you later.”
    When Pluto VIII had disappeared through a side door following his guides at his own
     leisurely pace, the mayor led D to a passage-way that continued up to the next level.
     The whistling of the wind seemed to know no end. All around them, ash-colored scenery
     rolled by. Forests and mountains. The town was moving across Innocent Prairie, the
     second of the Frontier’s great plains. Whipping the Hunter’s pitch-black cape and
     tossing his long, black hair, the wind blurred the wilds around them like a distant
     watercolor scene.
    “How do you like the view?” Mayor Ming made a wave of one arm as if mowing down the
     far reaches of the plain. “Majestic, isn’t it?” he said. Perhaps he’d taken the lack
     of expression on the young man staring off into the darkness as an expression of wonder.
     “The town maintains a cruising speed of twelve miles per hour. She can climb any mountain
     range or cliff, so long as it’s less than a sixty-degree incline. Of course, we can
     only do that when we give the engines a blanket infusion of antigravity energy. This
     is how we always guarantee our five hundred residents a safe and comfortable journey.”
    “A comfortable journey, you say?” D muttered, but his words might not have reached
     the mayor’s ears. “That’s fine, as long as wherever you’re headed is safe and comfortable,
     too. What do you want with me?”
    The Hunter’s hair flew in the wind that howled across the darkened sky. They were
     standing on an observation platform set at the very front of the town. If this had
     been a ship, it would’ve been the bow—or perhaps the prow. Jutting as it did from
     the top of the town’s base, it seemed like it’d be the perfect spot to experience
     wind and rain and all the varied aspects of the changing seasons.
    “Don’t you care how that girl Lori’s doing?” the mayor asked, ignoring D’s inquiry.
    “Stick to business.”
    “Hmm. A man who can slice a laser beam in two, who’s discarded all human emotion .
     . . You’re just like the stories make you out to be. I don’t care how thick the Noble
     blood runs in you dhampirs, you could stand to act a tad more human.”
    D turned to leave.
    “Come now. Don’t go yet. Aren’t you the hasty one,” the mayor called, not seeming
     particularly overanxious. “There’s only one reason anyone ever calls a Vampire Hunter—and
     that’s for killing Nobility.”
    D turned back.
    “When I let that man on two hundred years ago, I never in my wildest dreams would’ve
     thought something like this could happen,” the mayor muttered. “That was the biggest
     mistake of my life.”
    D brushed his billowing hair back with his left hand.
    “He was standing at the foot of the Great Northern Mountains, all alone. When we had
     him in the spotlight, he looked like