"The tungsten propellers compete with the spots on the front of the Cocoon and light up the sordid gut." - GettyImages

Every day at 5 p.m., find a new episode of Mortal Derby X on 20 Minutes  , Rocambole's soap opera, the app for reading differently. This series of SF projects us into a post-collapse world, the king sport of which is Quad Derby, a confrontation halfway between Roller derby and Rollerball. Its author, Michael Roch, is not an unknown. He has already published science fiction novels and hosts the YouTube book brigade.

Summary of previous episodes:  During a Quad Derby match accident, Molly Pop, star of this sport, is violently kicked off the track by another competitor. She wakes up in the hospital with prosthetics in place of the legs and hatred deep in the heart. What is not tolerated in the Cocoon, the only protector of the human species since the Great Collapse of 2030 ... Molly is condemned to exile. Barely out of the Cocoon, she falls on Tob who makes him discover Althen, the largest city in the Free World and enlists him in his team to participate in the Mortal Derby X.

EPISODE XI - Derby X

The Ravine Skulls draw their hens and take the speed Fatties. The shock is electric. The Fatties are the overweight of Derby X. They recruit obese mamas, large rabid ones. Those whose mandals remove the heads of their snowman, their brats, or the boilers that come to walk on their flowerbeds.

And because Derby X is a game of checkers, the one who jumps the highest is the one who eats the others. The game is won: 1 / if we knock out all of the opponent's pieces, 2 / if we block all of the opponent's pieces, 3 / if the opponent gives up.
Molly hits the bacon. She trains two gorillas after her. Quatre Ravine hits them head on and makes them waltz in the background. It must be. When a Ravine slips, three come to its rescue. Fatties are the type to be relentless on their targets. They are fewer in number. The assault of the pack of Ravin Sud very quickly pays off, and the bruised shrews are forced to resume their flight forward.
It's time for Brood B. Queen to make an appearance. She lets out a jammer cry, alerting others to her arrival. In the general stampede, the Ravine Skulls keep the Fatties away to facilitate their passage. She calls out to Molly Pop.
- The Hells Pit are on my heels.
- Three packs in one Tube, it will hurt.
- Disperse or eject them. You arrive at the Wicked area. Molly, grab my hand.
Molly, a stride in front of Broody, grabs her wrist. With an impulse, the jammer pulls forward, gains speed and passes over the Gutter. 
The pack crosses the starting line of the Wicked Demons. In the overhanging alcoves, Molly Pop immediately spots Trevor Rigbal. He stares at her with his impassive monorganic eye, while the crowd around him exults in all directions. His black implant contrasts with the pallor of his face, blinks twice, and Molly Pop loses sight of him while passing in the next Tube.

The tungsten propellers compete with the spots on the front of the Cocoon and light up the sordid gut. There are more obstacles. Behind Molly, the Ravine Skulls are still farting. The Fatties were knocked down one by one, their pack running a few meters behind. The women with whom the Ravines work, these are the Hells Pit of North Ravine, lifted up to the block, all dressed in black, skins in fishnet with braces tied under their helmets or around their necks. Their faces smeared with soot and crisscrossed with oil flows that fall from their eyelids. Their jammer, in the pack, wipes the repeated hits of Mama Doom and Black Sarah despite the presence of three of her blockers. Molly Pop slows down to lend a hand.

Hit of the hips, a Hells Pit collects and eats the dust. Molly Pop stopped, sprinting on the front brakes. Two pushes and she catches the jammer. Elbow kick in the kidneys, right hook, claw engaged. The jammer dodges by moving away at the right time. She is playing with a blocker, number 88, which hits Molly Pop on the shoulder. The pivot of the Ravine Skulls spins, avoids a puddle of oil, jumps over a heap of rubble and lands again on its wheels. New hit of number 88. Molly is ejected on the Gutter.

The light is blinding. Molly Pop stretches out. It must pick up speed, roll like a rocket, faster than bullets. She spots the hole in the Gutter, several tens of meters in front of her, and the hole towards the Tube, a little before. It is still accelerating. No sign of Brood B. Queen. The ground crackles a few inches from her ass. The shooters spotted her. The passage to the outside of the Track is getting closer. Her lungs are on fire. She closes her eyes for a second, mentally calculates her trajectory. A hand is placed on her shoulder and holds it in its course. Molly Pop turns her head. A mouth with excessive fangs fails to tear his arm.

She screams, silently blind. The monster projects it towards the wall of the Gutter. Molly Pop avoids falling at the last second. Whip the air with his arms. Find the path of the Tube. Deviate into the Rail of another team. Collapses in contact with a container.
When Molly Pop looks up, the zombie is standing in front of her. Ubie Stevna, his gaze empty and inflamed at the same time, his mouth distorted by a horrible and gaping grin, his body angled like a multiple fracture. She left four scratch marks on Molly Pop's shoulder. Molly Pop ashore. Molly Pop with a rabid belly. Molly Pop who wants to rip her head off, right now. And Molly Pop who, behind the massive silhouette of Ubie Stevna, caught sight of the staircase which descends in the dark, camouflaged inside the container.
Brood B. Queen's rallying cry echoed through the Tube. Ubie's gaze flares up. She turns and disappears. Two seconds later, the Ravine jammer helps her pivot to start again.
- Are you okay, Molly Pop?
- Like a cripple.
- We'll take care of that later. You fried yourself with the new Wicked jammer.
- I know. Ubie Stevna. She didn't recognize me.
- I've been chasing her for a while. It is completely shot for the win. He doesn't have a lot of points left.
- Where are you?
- Thirty eight. We must not be more than five points apart. She mustn't pass the pack.
- So let's go for it.

Broody takes the lead, Molly Pop sticks her in the ass. A few meters further, they follow the shapeless mass of Ravine Skulls, Hells Pit and Fatties. It hits, it goes to the mat, it gets up and, at the same time, it is organized so that the jammer of the Wicked Demons does not pass. Ubie Stevna tries the tangent, by the Gutter. The blockers are holding up well, despite the claws. The zombie plucks ears, crunches bits of flesh in the forearms, breaks the knees with a metallic brake.

Molly Pop growls. She wants to catch her, cut her legs, make her skin, that Stevna pays her debt. She draws her cleaver, gets closer to Broody, puts her hands on the hips of her teammate and squeezes support to propel herself towards Stevna, pushing the jammer of the Ravines into a wall of Hells Pit.

Molly Pop sends her fist into Stevna's back with anger. The zombie does not flinch; she grabs a Fatty's ponytail which presents her ass and scalps her mane. The blocker curls in pain. Stevna jumps over him, jumps over his back, escapes Molly Pop, escapes Ravine Skulls, sows the whole pack, and scoots into the Tube.

A few seconds later, the siren announcing the end of the race sounds. The runners are forced to return to their exit tunnel. They haven't finished a single round of the Cocoon. The Wicked Demons win the round.

To be continued…

Discover the next episode on our site on May 8 at 5 p.m. or on the Rocambole app for iOS or Android.

  • Books
  • Literature
  • Science fiction