Radioactive Revolution: A Dystopian, Post-Apocalyptic Adventure

by Richard Hummel

  He couldn’t say how he knew all this, only that the information fed directly into his mind. It was like a new sense coming online for the first time. It wasn’t like the usual sense of touch in which he could feel an external sensation like wind or another person. This extended his ability to sense around him. Jared closed his eyes, digesting everything. Activating Clear Mind and Hyper-Cognition, he used the momentary pause in time to ferret out everything the vibrations told him. In just a few seconds, he made sense of it all, and understood what Scarlet had meant when she’d asked if he felt anything.

  Deactivating the increased thought speed, he kept his mental focus engaged. There were so many new sensations he dedicated all his processing power to understand them.

  Vanessa jerked into action to help him, but he held up a hand to stop her.

  “I’m fine. Another side-effect of the spiders’ nanites. I can sense vibrations and understand their source from a long distance away.” Without opening his eyes, Jared showed them. “Vanessa, you’re standing two paces to my right and shifting back on your left foot. Elle, you are five paces behind me and petting Kitty on the side. Kitty, I can’t really sense much of anything from you, but just a minute ago your claw scraped against the floor.”

  “I go get them.” Elle’s voice cracked, an edge of excitement creeping into her tone.

  Jared smiled. “We’ll wait for you here. Also, ask Carla if she wants to come. I don’t think she will since Attis is already so far from her, but ask anyway. You two likely won’t get the ability to see and feel like this right away. At least, I don’t think so. It’s possible, but I think the only reason my changes took place so quickly was that the physical changes required to make it happen were already present in my body. For you, there are many changes that need to happen with your eyes. I’m not even sure if you’ll get the same clarity as me because I’ve got a few other enhancements you don’t. Still, I’m curious to see what will happen.”

  “I be right back.”

  Kitty mewled and Jared walked over to lay a reassuring hand on his side. “Don’t worry, Kitty, Elle will be safe. I can sense everyone in the other room moving around and everything in between. I found nothing that should concern us. There are a few creatures ahead on our path, but the vibrations were too faint for me to get an idea of what they are. I don’t even know how my mind processed the vibrations, but somehow I knew.”

  “It is interesting. It may be better than my sight.”

  “We’ll test it out, but let’s wait until we are in a safer environment. I wouldn’t doubt if you have the ability too after you rest. You walked right through the dead spiders and absorbed some of the nanites as well.”

  Jared closed his eyes, examining the newly acquired ability and calling out to Scarlet. “You were right. I got spider senses. I can feel vibrations when I place my hand on the ground. It paints a picture in my head of things around me. It’s not completely clear, but it’s enough to extend my awareness outward.”

  “That is intriguing. I wonder if it works the same for spiders. Though, I do not know if that is possible since you do not have hair on your hands for the vibrations to pass through.”

  “I don’t know. Maybe it’s just that my brain can interpret the sensations I’ve felt all along?”

  “We must explore this new ability when we are out of danger.”

  “We will! I want to explore everything right now, but obviously we need to find safe passage first. Maybe there’s even more I can do now that hasn’t revealed itself yet.”

  Elle arrived with Carla. Both had bits of spiders and ash covering their clothes, but they didn’t seem nearly as bothered by it as him. For a moment, he felt embarrassed at his reaction, but only a moment. Then he realized his irrational fear of spiders was perfectly acceptable.

  “I wish I had a companion.” Vanessa looked dejected and left out.

  “Malsour?”

  “I don’t know yet. We had a nice chat after you left, but we’ve only just gotten to know one another.”

  “I understand,” Jared reassured her and squeezed her shoulder. “Take as long as you need. This is a lifetime decision, and you need to be certain it’s the right move. Obviously, I didn’t have that option, but I don’t regret my decision in the least. Honestly, I think anyone who bonds with a dragon will enjoy the relationship. Though I’ve not met any disgruntled dragons yet, if someone rushed and made an unfavorable bond, it could be a very long lifetime.”

  Jared started down the tunnel, reaching out to Scarlet.

  “Can you please tell Pete to bring some of the spider remains out after he’s finished? It would be good for you and Kirgor to gain these abilities too.”

  “I have already directed him to do so.”

  “Thanks. I think the experience with the spiders and the new ability took over my mind, and I wasn’t thinking clearly.”

  Scarlet didn’t reply but sent a wave of encouragement to him through the bond. It helped Jared’s mood, and he resumed walking up the tunnel with Vanessa by his side.

  The tunnel grew as they continued. It was difficult to say for certain, but Jared thought it sloped ever so slightly downward. It wasn’t significant, and he didn’t think there’d be any issue with temperatures. While they walked, the occasional creature scurried out of the way, but nothing dared approach them. Jared wondered if it was Kitty’s presence that kept them at bay. None of the creatures posed a threat to them, so he left them alone.

  The stream eventually cleared up and the evidence of the spider massacre in the other room disappeared with the current. There was no way Jared would drink it, though.

  “Carla? Elle? It looks like the stream is clear of spider bits now if you want to clean up?”

  Elle looked at him funny and then down at herself before frowning. Carla went to the water’s edge and kneeled down to scrub at her exposed flesh.

  “I see nothing in the water, but just because I can’t see it doesn’t mean there’s nothing there. Be careful, please. If they are cold-blooded, or can hide their body heat, I wouldn’t see them until they broke the surface—”

  Jared realized that wasn’t exactly true anymore. With his new ability he could sense vibrations. He kneeled next to the water and placed a hand on the ground. A minute later, he stood back up and announced the water in the immediate area clear of any creatures.

  “I’ve got to say, these new abilities are awesome! I really hope you all get the same enhancements. It’s really something else to see a picture of the surrounding area without using my eyes.” Carla and Elle both looked excited at the prospect and quickly finished cleaning themselves.

  An hour into their journey, Jared called a halt to figure out how far they’d traveled. It was possible they were already far enough from the city that they could find a way to the surface from here.

  Jared activated Clear Mind so he could keep an eye on his surroundings while he worked out where they were in relation to the surface. Pulling up a mental map of the topography above, Jared layered the tunnel and caverns onto the image. The first chamber the dragons had discovered was almost directly under the cliff where they’d made their homes. The tunnel he’d explored with Kitty and found a few rats ran east back toward the ruined city at the tip of the lake. The city floated almost exactly due north of their position. Going east wouldn’t help since it would lead out of the forest and into the open terrain by the water. West was their only option.

  Next, Jared calculated the distance they’d traveled, along with any deviations they’d made to the north and south. It looked like the underground stream followed the same contours as the one above ground, except the one on the surface had dried out long ago. Jared supposed it hadn’t dried out, it had simply moved underground. They’d traveled about six miles in the hour they’d hiked. It was a testament to how much Vanessa and Carla had regained their strength—a few months earlier, it would ha
ve taken them several hours to walk that far.

  Jared thought they were almost far enough to risk going to the surface. Once surfaced, they’d continue southwest until the city was well and truly out of range. The cities—or, at least, this one—could move overland as evidenced above, but for whatever reason they preferred to stay over the water. If Jared could get everyone far enough inland, they might not have to worry about the cities.

  “I think we need to keep going. We’re almost at a good point to exit to the surface, but it’s still too close for my comfort. It will be easy for all of us to enter these tunnels, but the dragons won’t fit until they get past the other passages. I fear when they make the hole, it will send smoke into the sky and attract unwanted attention. I want everyone else to be as far from the old place as possible before they attempt it. The dragons can run fast enough to get away if they don’t need to worry about us. We’ll explore for another hour and then head back. After we’re certain this passage is safe, we’ll go back and pack things up to make the trip.”

  “We should wait until tomorrow to make the journey.”

  Jared agreed with Vanessa. “Today has been trying enough, and it’ll take several trips up to our rooms for supplies and weapons. That may take me the rest of the night.”

  “We help.”

  Jared opened his mouth to reject the offer but stopped himself. Elle and Kitty were probably better suited to making the trips than he was.

  “Thanks, Elle. I’ll come up with a list of things for you and Kitty to get. It will make the work go faster but I agree with Vanessa. We should wait until tomorrow. Let everyone get a good night’s sleep, if they can with that thing floating in the sky, and we’ll set out as soon as everyone wakes.”

  Another hour of walking revealed more of the same. They should be on the other side of the forest and far enough to avoid detection from the cities. There was no obvious exit above, but they could have Scarlet burn a hole to the surface if needed.

  The two hours back proved unexciting. They remained silent, their senses alert for anything that might’ve crept in behind them. Aside from the few small rodents and insects as before, nothing showed itself. The spiders’ chamber looked much the same, minus the junk scattered everywhere. None of the water folk were in the room, and Jared guessed they’d finished with the task.

  Sure enough, they’d split the items into neat piles by type in the main chamber. They sorted all the clothing, belts, and packs into one pile. A small number of ancient weapons went into another, and any useful utensils sat in the third. The clothing looked like rags, but beggars couldn’t be choosers, and they were definitely beggars in that regard. Thankfully, many of the water folk had salvaged some of their old clothes from homes back at their colony before everything went down with the cities.

  The weapons were mostly useless. The guns all bore rust, and there was no way Jared would trust a single one with a live round. The knives and machetes they kept, but discarded the rest of the useless weapons. Most of the camping gear was good, and packed neatly into bags. Whomever it belonged to had likely been traveling when they’d ended up as blood bags for the spiders.

  “Okay, I think this is a good haul. We weren’t expecting anything, so to find something worth saving is a definite plus. I’ll take Elle and Kitty above and gather stuff from our rooms. My priority will be boosters, weapons, and medical supplies. Please get with Vanessa and Carla and make a list of other supplies you absolutely must have. We won’t have the cart this time so anything that can stay behind, should stay. If we’re able to come back later, we can grab more, but assume we’ll never return.”

  Groans echoed around the chamber, but Jared shrugged them off. Everyone’s lives were much more important than goods they could scavenge again. The main thing he hated losing were the solar panels. They could probably find more, and Pete might understand them enough now to fashion his own, but it was still a loss that would bite. If only he and Kirgor had bonded before the cities had arrived, they might’ve been able to understand them sufficiently to replicate them. Though, Pete might already have that knowledge in his head and Kirgor could help him put the pieces together.

  Everyone closed around Vanessa and made their demands. Jared was halfway up the tunnel before he heard her call out for everyone to shut up. He smirked, knowing Vanessa would get them in order quickly. She had a lot of compassion and cared a lot for her people, but she could lay the hammer down if needed.

  “Elle, I’m going for the boosters first. I’d like you to come with and get as many of the medical supplies as possible. There should be bags in there you can use to hang on Kitty to help carry them. Once we’ve got the medical supplies secured below, we’ll hit the armory. It’ll probably take us a couple trips. After we’ve secured all of those, we’ll head up to the dining hall and get as much of the dried and treated meat as possible. Finally, we’ll take requests from the others, but we shouldn’t make those a priority.”

  Just as he’d suspected, it took many trips to get the essentials lugged down. Between having to dart around avoiding sight from the city, and carrying the heavy equipment, it was slow going. When they’d finished with the essentials and food, Vanessa had a list for them. By list, it was just all the water folk lined up in an orderly fashion with requests for him.

  Vanessa arranged it so everyone stood in order by room from top to bottom.

  Jared appreciated the organization and heard everyone’s requests. A few he dismissed immediately. They didn’t need to bring extra shoes or bottled water. Sure, they’d be nice to have, but shoes were bulky, and everyone needed to carry only their essentials and keep their packs light. Though it hadn’t been thoroughly vetted, they also had a fresh supply of ready drinking water, and carrying any extra was a burden they didn’t need. Even if there were impurities, the nanites in their bodies would purge any bacteria. Instead, each person brought an empty water sack they could fill if the stream ended.

  He limited everyone to two changes of clothes, small bars of soap, and a smattering of smaller toiletries. Everyone had their own packs in their rooms, so it was easy enough to keep everything sorted for each of them. They took another hour to gather all the belongings.

  Once finished, Jared passed out all the weapons and ammo. He also added a lot of the extra ammo and batteries to a large sack which he would sling around Scarlet’s neck. The extra weight would encumber the group too much. Everything sorted and ready to go, Jared lay down just to the side of the tunnel leading up. He wanted to be the first line of defense should anything try to breach the chamber. They’d been careful when moving around on the surface, but the city could’ve seen something and sent someone, or something, to investigate.

  The night passed slowly, and waiting for trouble that never came kept Jared’s sleep restless. He spent most of the night in meditation and exercised his mental abilities. It allowed him to rest but remain alert. If he grew tired during the day, he’d set his nanites to Regeneration to get rid of his fatigue. It wasn’t a solution to help a tired mind, but it was enough for his body. He probably could’ve used the time to explore his new abilities, but he didn’t want to distract himself too much in their current situation and opted to wait until they were safely away.

  The moment the first rays of light lit up the tunnel, Jared issued a wake-up call to get everyone up and moving. He followed suit and quickly had everything strapped to his body.

  “Carla,” Jared called her over. “Can you please instruct Attis to fly west? If you can, try to have him fly to the end of the dried river above. That’s where we’ll meet him. It’ll take us a while to get there, but it’s best if he waits it out over there instead of us having to backtrack and find him later.”

  A frightened look entered her eyes as she no doubt thought about Attis out there on his own with the city in such proximity.

  “O-okay, I—”

  “Carla, it will be okay. Attis ca
n take care of himself. He’s lived on his own for years before this and he’s only grown smarter since you bonded.”

  “I know, I just—” An involuntary shudder wracked her body.

  Overhearing the conversation, Vanessa came over and wrapped Carla in a hug. “It’ll be fine, Carla. Attis is a big boy. He’ll make it. Have faith in him.”

  Carla melted into Vanessa’s arms, needing that momentary physical comfort. Vanessa’s words gave Carla the encouragement she needed.

  “I need to touch Attis to give him instructions. I don’t think our telepathy is good enough to explain what to do.”

  Jared eyed the tunnel warily. “Okay, but stay behind me and when we get close, see if you can call Attis down. Ideally, I’d like him to meet us at the top of this tunnel, so we don’t have to expose ourselves at all. I know he won’t enter it completely, but do your best to get him close.”

  They reached the top and crouched in place as Carla called out to Attis. It didn’t take long before the giant griffon landed a few paces away. Careful to ensure they stayed concealed, Jared craned his head around the lip to see where the city was and realized the cliff mostly shielded them from this position.

  “You’re good, Carla. Show him where to meet us.”

  A few moments later, she nodded her head. Attis took to the air while they rejoined everyone below.

  “Scarlet.” Jared laid a hand on her head, pushing his love and affection along their connection. He looked into her burning, molten eyes. “I need you to wait at least three hours before you come after us.” He paused, collecting his thoughts. “I don’t want you to, but I need you to wait. When you clear the tunnel, it might generate enough smoke to draw attention and you all need to move fast without us in the way.”

  “I understand.”