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. The first round is a failure ...
EPISODE XII - Tensions
At the local, Molly Pop returns to its square. She has not put down her quads at the foot of the cot that Broody follows in her footsteps and sends her helmet to her face.
- What was this bullshit earlier? You send me into the wall when we are on the verge of winning.
She grabs it and places it on the wall. Molly Pop pushes her away. They roll on the ground without either of them managing to take over. Molly Pop only has time to go out with a bogus.
- I save your life, yeah!
- I didn't mean to hit you in front of the girls, but shit! You really screwed up.
- Stevna would have ripped your head off. You were much more likely to get away with the Hells Pit than in the Fatties' pads.
- So what about the Ravines? Where were they?
- We were in the cabbage, on two fronts at the same time. No flaw in the pack would have allowed you to pass. I did what was best for you.
Brood B. ends up sticking it to the ground, clenching his anger between his teeth. She loses her breath and loosens the Molly pass. His fingers slide along the sweat-soaked tee, and Brood B. Queen, pinning his chest against that of his pivot, grips her hair and kisses it full on the mouth.
- Poor asshole, she said before leaving the square. We meet on the rink in an hour for a debrief '.
The truth is that Ubie Stevna, the mouth smoked by steroids, did not recognize Molly Pop. The truth is that Molly Pop, caught up in her desire for revenge, wonders if her quest still makes sense. The truth is that Broody B. has on her lips the load of a thousand glowing propellers.
To perk up, Ravine Skulls eat snow from canned synthetic proteins. A gelatinous substance without taste or odor, but which is better than the thin thickness of a rat. The whole pack is a concentrate of bruises, bandaged wounds and cryogenic compresses. One by one, the girls review the weaknesses of the race, their mistakes in strategy. They admit their tenacity in the fray, the new taseurs of Tob are for a lot, but they have no discipline in combat and do not know how to hold a line.
- We're fighting, cowardly Mama Doom. We will manage to block a Tube and leave the jammers in our wheels. What do we need, courses in Castagne?
"Fighting won't teach you anything more," Broody roared. The streets of Ravin Sud are too narrow for us to train to hold a pack properly.
- And here, on the local rink?
- You can simulate a line, but the maneuvers are reduced. You have to make room and put away your mess.
- What are those huge teeth that the Wicked D.'s have? Molly Pop cut.
She remained silent until then, watching Brood B. Queen act as a pack leader. The jammer remains impassive against her former opponent.
- Implants. The nails too. Rigbal dope them with V-rus, which has the effect of boosting their adrenaline and aggressiveness. The side-effect is that they lose all identity from the first dose. Their minds are calibrated to win the race, to spot the jammers, to dodge the blockers, not to be overtaken. Nothing else. That's why we call them zombies.
- And what is this other level under the Track? Another Tube?
- No, she replies.
- Not what ?
- No there is not.
- Or "no, we shouldn't talk about it"?
- There is no other level. Where is the connection with our lack of strategy, champion?
- I saw her, the entrance to this level. What is involved or what?
Between the two women burn the lightning and the flames of hell. No Ravine intervenes. Broody ends up turning towards the back of the room, where Tob, his nose in front of the visioboard, captures by bit the transmission of a race from the Cocoon.
- Tob! How many levels are there on the Track?
- How much of what?
- Bring back your butt! On the Track, how many floors are there?
- Floors, only one. A Tube and a gutter.
- I saw a staircase, Molly intervenes, in the Rail after that of Wicked D., earlier. It is stashed in a container which obstructs the Tube. Does that mean anything to you?
- Bullshit, Brood. Do you want me to go take a look?
- I don't think Molly Pop is lying to us. Come back soon.
To be continued…
Discover the next episode on our site on May 9 at 5 p.m. or on the Rocambole app for iOS or Android.
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