Radioactive Revolution: A Dystopian, Post-Apocalyptic Adventure

by Richard Hummel

  It didn’t take long before a chorus of chittering assaulted his ears. Jared set himself in front of the exit and prepared for the onslaught. When he saw the angry rushing horde running at him, he almost changed his mind and unsheathed his pistols. He chose not to give in to the cowardly feelings and braced himself. Still, a horde of bloodthirsty rats the size of dogs rampaging toward him made his heart hammer and his nerves shudder.

  Instead of letting the rats make it out of the room to surround him right away, Jared crouched and pounced into the first wave pouring from the building. In mid-flight he activated Clear Mind. As if in slow motion, he knew exactly where he’d land, which rats were closest, and which he needed to dispatch first. Precision and speed were his ally as he mercilessly mowed down the rats. Fur, blood, and limbs flew in all directions, creating a vortex of death around him. Unheeding of the obvious death, the rats clawed their way forward until Jared needed to jump away to make room for his acrobatic dance of death.

  These rats weren’t as deadly as those in the subway, and they didn’t devour their fallen comrades, but there were easily just as many.

  Activating Hyper-Cognition, Jared paused a moment to assess his position while the seething horde surrounded him. He didn’t need a reprieve, but a moment of inspiration struck him, and he wanted to try adding a new element into his fight. While in the suspended state, Jared opened his mind to the surrounding vibrations, using the spider senses he’d gained to build a picture in his mind. He closed his eyes and used the vibrations of the surrounding creatures to build a complete rendering of everything around him.

  Though he’d already eviscerated dozens, he had hundreds yet to go. The clarity he gained from the spider senses amazed him. With his mind running as fast as he was, and the clarity to see and understand everything, he looked at the scene through his new eyes as if a bystander. He could literally rotate the view, spin it around, and look from above. None of this was possible using his naked eyes since he never changed his point of view.

  Rats surrounded him, vying for position to sink their sharp incisors into his exposed flesh or land their sickly yellow claws on his exposed back. If he relied on only his physical eyes, there’s no way he’d survive once the rats surrounded him. He would have to admit defeat and let Scarlet take over.

  Not going to happen.

  Jared mapped a pattern out in his mind, showing precisely where to slash, stab, or kick out. Drawing in a long, slow breath, Jared prepared himself. This would be a test of his mettle. He planned to keep his eyes closed and fully rely on the three-dimensional images in his head. Clear Mind helped him process the information fed to him from the vibrations. Jared heart pulsed faster, expecting the renewed battle.

  Before deactivating Hyper-Cognition, Jared sent a quick thought to Scarlet, letting her know his plans. She cautioned him but backed up.

  “If you get into trouble, just jump out of the way and I’ll finish them.”

  Jared’s world lurched back into motion as his consciousness returned to normal speed. He missed a small step, but he used the stumble to roll into a new position. He came up in a spin, slicing the jugulars on three rats arrayed behind him. The blood pumping out of the rats’ severed necks, which created more vibrations, painted a gruesome spectacle in his mind.

  The rats didn’t stand even a fraction of a chance. If Jared had been a whirlwind of death before, now he was a god of death and destruction. When the rats joined forces to jump at him, he vaulted into the air, landing several yards away to renew the slashing and hacking. Maximum Muscle activated without conscious thought as his mind applied just the right amount of exertion to use the skill without putting too much strain on his muscles.

  Jared hit a rhythm in the battle, tuning out everything but the fight. The mental clarity and perfect synchronicity of his body thrilled him. The battle ended much too soon for Jared’s taste. He relished the opportunity to continue the fight, and sprinted into the now empty building. Jared frantically searched room after room, hoping there were more rats to satisfy his bloodlust. By the time he reached the second floor, the adrenaline had faded, and his legs grew tired, slowing his pace.

  He pushed forward, determined to ride the rest of the high until he finished clearing the area. By the time he’d searched the last room, he wanted nothing more than to lie down and sleep. The fight, while exhilarating, took a lot of energy, and he needed time to recover.

  Dragging himself down the stairs, Jared collapsed on his back near Scarlet, several dozen yards from the mayhem that had ensued outside the building. Even at this distance, the blood from the rats ran in rivulets and nearly reached his position.

  “Feel free to”—Jared tried catching his breath with a huge lungful of air—“take your share.”

  “No. This is your kill. Recover your strength and then capture the nanites. I will wait and feast on them after.”

  Jared groaned. “At least. Wait. Until I’ve gone. Elsewhere.”

  Scarlet wheezed out a laugh, and Jared rolled his head side to side at her shenanigans.

  “You know, I’m looking forward to this area. Maybe you’ll get to eat normal prey for a change.”

  “I do not know, I may prefer rat meat now.”

  Jared giggled in his delirious state. “You are something else, Scarlet, you know? Something else. Oh, how far out did you go?”

  “I circled in a ten-mile radius.”

  “All right, works for me. Now, let’s see if we can find the best way out of here.” Jared rolled to his stomach and pushed up into a kneeling position. Summoning his willpower, Jared stood and made to climb on top of Scarlet’s back, but she backed away.

  “You are not getting on my back looking like that. Besides, you need to collect the nanites.”

  “Oh, come on, you talked about eating rats as a snack, and you can’t deal with a little rat guts?”

  “Have you looked at yourself?”

  Jared looked down and his mouth opened in horror. He had rat entrails and blood coating his body. Somehow, a rat tail had gotten wedged into his belt like some kind of trophy.

  “Well, I don’t see many places to wash up around here.” Jared waved his arms around as he started the arduous process of absorbing the nanites from all the rats he’d killed.

  “There is a stream a short distance away you can use.”

  After Jared finished absorbing the nanites into his body, he walked in the direction Scarlet had pointed to wash up. The moment he rounded a building, he heard Scarlet crunch into the rats, raising his hackles.

  The stream was a tiny thing and barely enough water to immerse himself fully. Jared hissed in pain when the water washed the filth from his skin. He hadn’t noticed it while fighting and riding the adrenaline high, but he had dozens of lacerations across his body. His clothes had holes in dozens of places, and his skin bore the evidence to match. The cuts were shallow and would heal quickly, but they stung, and the fabric scraping against them hurt.

  Scarlet had finished eating her fill by the time he got back, and thankfully there were no half-eaten remains. He’d half expected Scarlet to take a few nibbles from some corpses and intentionally leave them for him to see.

  There were still a couple hours of darkness left, so Jared suggested they fly through the mountains instead of over. They needed to plot a course through. If they weren’t able to find a good path, then the dragons could take turns flying the group to the location. It might even be easier to just do that, but Kitty wouldn’t ride on a dragon, and Jared didn’t want to leave her and Elle to walk through the mountains alone.

  It took an hour, backtracking several times, before they found a viable option that would also avoid the colonies at the base. It would take them another few days to hike the distance, but they didn’t have a timetable to keep, anyway.

  Everyone was still asleep when they got back to camp, and Jared snagged a few hours rest h
imself. They’d have the entire day to figure out what to do and begin their trek at night. As close as they were to the settlements, Jared had no desire to go tromping across open areas and risk detection. There were enough people in the colonies and on the fully manned walls, someone would see the dragons if they traveled during the day.

  Jared woke a few hours later to find the entire camp awake and milling about. He called them over and explained the situation to them. He received a few questioning glances at his clothes, but he ignored them for now. He knew he’d need to let Vanessa know what had happened, but not everyone had to know.

  “We found several apartment buildings at the bottom of a ravine about eighty miles from here. It’s a three or four-day hike on account of the rough terrain. I know many of you are getting stronger, but we’ve been walking for three weeks, and I understand that fatigue is real. We’ll camp here for another day and then head out tomorrow night.”

  “Why are we traveling at night? That’s prime time for predators, and most of us can’t see in the dark.”

  “Thanks for bringing it up, Daryl. Scarlet and I flew over a couple large colonies at the base of the mountains. When I say large, the smaller one is four or five times the size of your old colony. The larger one is three times that size. They have massive walls between them and the mountain. On top of the walls I counted at least one-hundred men, all armed well.”

  “I see. Thanks.”

  “Don’t let the news discourage you. We need to avoid them for now, but I want to contact them soon. I also want to take Vanessa and Elle with me when we go. I think they’ll be more receptive to that than a lone explorer.”

  “You can’t mean—”

  “I do, Carla.” Jared held up a hand to interrupt her. “If you hadn’t noticed, Vanessa reverted much of her appearance back to the way it was before. We said nothing, as she wanted to make sure it worked. Vanessa?”

  Vanessa stepped up next to Jared and pulled down the collar of her shirt. Pink lines replaced the gills that existed several weeks ago. Her skin had no trace of the faint bluish tint. She smiled a big, toothy grin, and several people gasped in surprise. Her teeth were back to normal, the sharp predatory smile gone. She still needed to work on her feet and hands to eliminate the last of the webbing, but as long as she wore gloves and shoes, no one would be the wiser. Jared was surprised people hadn’t noticed already, but then it was a gradual change so maybe they hadn’t noticed the incremental changes.

  “How long?” Marie looked at Vanessa with wide-eyed wonder.

  “I started just over two weeks ago. I assigned twenty-five percent of my nanites into Body Manipulation. Since I haven’t needed Regeneration, I had all of them working to revert the changes back. It only works while I sleep, and it’s a very slow process. When we saw what the dragons could do, manipulating their body to create seats, I thought maybe it’d be that fast for us too, but it takes much longer.”

  Jared picked up where she left off. “A large part of that is a dragon’s intelligence. They’re able to understand and manipulate the nanites to a far greater degree than any of us. I may be on the same level as all but Scarlet, Kirgor, and Ashazad. They can compartmentalize their thoughts and control the nanites to greater effect. Still, two weeks is not all that long to return to your original bodies. Part of the reason it took so long is that Vanessa needed to visualize the changes before falling asleep. She could only make one change at a time. If Malsour were here, that timeline might speed up a lot. I’m proud of Vanessa for what she managed so far.”

  A murmur of excitement ran through the group, and Jared studied the hopeful faces. Only Johan and Pete looked saddened by the news. Johan had assigned a quarter into Reflexes and the rest into Mind. Pete had pushed all of his into Mind. They each had different objectives, so Jared didn’t think it was a loss, but he could see how much it meant to everyone to have their bodies changed back.

  Jared quieted them down and outlined his plans for the trip through the mountains. As he’d thought, everyone opted to stay together and make the hike as a group. They had no desire to be without three of their primary lines of defense. Jared reminded them of Scarlet and her brothers, but still it wasn’t enough to convince everyone to part ways. He smiled inwardly, proud of all these people for their decision to suffer through a difficult hike for Elle and Kitty.

  “Thank you, everyone. Take the next couple days to rest and relax. Daryl, Kitty? Can you get us some grub?”

  “On it!” Daryl jumped up from his seated position, grabbed his weapons, and walked off with Kitty.

  “While they are out finding us a meal, I suggest everyone check your gear and have a ready means of defense if we need it. None of us knows this area, the creatures that live here, or how often they’re visited by the cities. We must be ready for anything that heads our way. We also don’t know how often these colonies get visitors or send people out to explore, and we can’t afford to be complacent just because the end is in sight.”

  The group dispersed and Jared followed his own suggestion, setting up his bedroll. Once he finished, he found Pete to go over some ideas churning in his head.

  “Hey, Pete, I wanted to run an idea by you about the robots and parts you’ve been working on.”

  “Sure.”

  “Is the signal always on? Are they always communicating with the cities if you let them?”

  “No. They’re p-programmed to p-perform a specific task and only reach out during d-designated times.”

  “Could you, I don’t know, make the signal stay on? Or rather, can you program them to do something like that?”

  “Maybe, b-but why?”

  “I was curious if there’s a way to trick the cities into staying away from us. Like a constant warning or message, signaling the pilots of drop ships that there’s no reason to come to this area. Or, we can do the opposite and can lure one to our location to capture it.”

  “I guess we c-could send out a d-distress signal. I don’t know about keeping a ship away.”

  “It was just a random thought, but figured I’d ask. If we could program them like that, we could set up a wide perimeter wherever we stop to make sure the cities can’t find us.”

  “We will think on it.” Pete’s eyes had already glazed over as he leaned against Kirgor’s side.

  “If you think the distress signal is possible, try to work out the details, but be very careful you don’t activate it. The last thing we need is a drop ship dumping on our heads when we’re unprepared.”

  Pete acknowledged his instructions with a grunt and closed his eyes. Jared guessed the man and dragon were already hard at work figuring out the technical aspects of his ask. Their appetites for technological advancement and knowledge was insatiable.

  Sometimes Jared wondered what it would’ve been like to live in the early twenty-first century. There were so many wonders he’d read in the books growing up. Often, it was hard to separate fact from fiction because so much of the old world seemed impossible. Cloistered as he’d been in the small community back home, they rarely saw or heard from anything beyond their borders. They hadn’t seen a single soul outside the occasional drop ship until he was sixteen.

  That was four years after Igor dispersed the nanites to the world. He didn’t know how it was in other parts of the world. Maybe there were whole states or countries unaffected by the war. It was possible the nuclear radiation wasn’t as concentrated on other continents like Australia, or smaller places like Puerto Rico, and Cuba, but there was no way for him to know. At least, there hadn’t been before Scarlet. Now, he had the means to fly to other continents.

  One day, after they brought the cities to heel, he and Scarlet would set out on an adventure to explore the wonders of the world. That future was far away, but it was hope. Without hope, there was no future. No matter how unlikely an outcome it was, Jared needed to keep his dreams alive and remember why he fought
.

  “Jared?”

  Snapping out of his daydream, Jared turned to find Carla approaching.

  “Hey Carla, what’s up?”

  “When will we get Attis?” she demanded.

  “Scarlet and I were just talking about him. As soon as we get to our new destination, Scarlet will go back and find him. I’ve asked her to exercise caution and stay as far from the city as possible. If she can’t get to Attis without exposing herself, she’ll come back and get me. Then, she’ll drop me as close as she can go, and I’ll continue on foot the rest of the way until we get to his last known location. I don’t think the cities will care if one explorer passes, but if they caught even a whiff of Scarlet, you know they’d commit as many resources to her capture and destruction as possible. She can’t outrun the ships and we don’t know how many there are. I’d rather be cautious and not even expose her to that risk.”

  “I understand.” Carla sniffed and turned away.

  “Carla.” Jared laid a hand on her shoulder. “I promise we will find him and bring him back to you.”

  “Thank you,” Carla said as she fought back the tears. She gave Jared a quick hug and retreated.

  “She’s had a rough time.”

  Jared hadn’t seen Vanessa approach, but he leaned into her and grabbed her hand. She knew he felt a sense of deep obligation to all the people here and that it would eat at him until he made things right again. She pulled him away from his quiet contemplation and they retired to their bedrolls.

  Jared and Vanessa spent the next two days laying out their plans for the new home. They wanted to get things established as fast as possible. When Jared mentioned the stream nearby and the possibility of running water in the apartments, Vanessa squealed in delight. He was quick to set expectations they may never get it working, but that the buildings were at least intact and with a little work and luck it could happen.