Free Ceaseless by S. A. Lusher

small bay in the wall, revealing an empty room. Well, Allan looked down, empty save for Redford's remains.
    “Jesus,” Johnson whispered from behind him.
    The front windows were broken out. Allan rushed up to them and stared into the wastelands beyond. Very distantly, he thought he could make out a dark shape, becoming smaller. Allan thought for a moment, something not adding up. Without a word, he turned and left the bridge. The others followed as he hurried down the corridor and opened up the door at the back. In the cargo bay, he spied the vehicles he'd seen earlier.
    “Why didn't he take one of these?” he murmured.
    “Maybe they don't work? No power?” Lucy suggested.
    Allan moved up to the nearest one, the only one that had remained in its moorings and thus the only one that had survived undamaged, and climbed into the driver's seat. It was a simple, topless model jeep, the same version as the one they'd left back at the starport. He turned over the engine and heard it kick to life.
    “Seems fine to me, go lower the back ramp,” Allan said, turning the engine off and hopping back out. Lucy moved to comply.
    “What are we doing now? Please tell me we're evacing,” Johnson said.
    “Don't you get tired of whining?” Allan replied as he began detaching the straps and bars that held the vehicle in place.
    “Not even close. Not if my life is on the line and there's no good reason,” Johnson replied.
    Allan sighed explosively. “That thing has already killed dozens of people. We need to find some way to stop it. It's our duty.”
    “To who!?” Johnson cried.
    “To anyone in it's path!”
    “You're fucking nuts. Crazy. And I mean that. I think you've actually lost it. We have no plan, no real way to put a stop to this thing. And you want us to just keep flying blindly into it. It's pure random luck we've survived this long.”
    Allan ignored him, slipping back into the driver's seat after finishing releasing the jeep. He turned it back on, listening to the sound of the cargo ramp lowering. He fired up the navigational database and studied it briefly.
    When he saw what was up ahead, a genuine smile creased his face.
    “I've got a plan,” he said. “Come on, mount up, we're going ahead.”

    Chapter 07
    – Desperate Measures –
     
     
    “You're going to do what ?!” Johnson screamed.
    Allan watched the dot on the horizon slowly grow closer. Beyond it, he could see the outline of the structure they were heading for, also growing. All around them, the wastelands sped by at dangerous speeds. Allan pushed the pedal a little harder.
    “The plan could work,” Lucy admitted reluctantly.
    “It will work,” Allan replied firmly. “No way he could survive that.”
    “Okay, let me rectify that statement: we could survive the plan.”
    “We will. It'll be fine.”
    “Can you just let me out here,” Johnson asked.
    “I'm not slowing down. You could jump, if you wanted,” Allan replied.
    “God, you're an asshole,” Johnson muttered.
    They kept driving. After a moment, Lucy spoke up.
    “I think something's wrong with the...what did you call him? The killer?” Allan nodded. “Yeah, I think something's wrong.”
    “Well no fucking shit!” Johnson shrieked.
    “No, I mean beyond that. He had to have seen the vehicles on his way in, and he had plenty of time to come take this one. It obviously works, it survived. So why didn't he? There was absolutely no good reason not to and several to take it.”
    Allan thought about all his encounters with the killer so far. “We know literally nothing about this guy besides the fact that he's now apparently moving in one direction, he likes to kill and, for some reason, he has access to this remarkable technology.”
    “He does have the ability to operate vehicles,” Lucy pointed out.
    “Yeah, there is that. Maybe he's cracked? Maybe he's kind of stupid? I mean, it's possible. Maybe he's insane, beyond the whole murdering everyone thing?”
    “Yeah, he's insane,