by Eric Vall
The entire vehicle shook from the recoil of the weapon as he fired round after deadly round into the crowd behind us.
When I finally had the courage to glance back over my shoulder, I saw the road was littered with the bodies of dead mutants. However, there were still hundreds of them left, and they were charging straight at us with a crazed look in their eyes.
“Make sure not to waste any bullets!” Natalie called back to the man. “The last thing we need is for these bastards to get a hold of live fifty-cals.”
Hunter, are you still with us? Karla asked.
“Yeah, still here,” I announced. “These mutant freaks are chasing the car.”
“I know that!” Natalie growled as she skidded around a corner. “Thank you, Captain Obvious. I’m doing my best to get us the fuck out of here.”
“No, I just--” I started, but then I cut myself off.
The less questions these people had about the voice in my head, the better.
Plus, there it was again… That damned buzzing sound. I curbed the urge to rub at my ears, but I couldn’t help but wonder if my chip implant was somehow on the fritz.
We drove another mile or so without incident. Then, up ahead, I saw a large drawbridge that had been left in the “up” position.
“Hang on, guys!” Natalie grimaced as she straightened the wheel and slammed down on the gas pedal. “These Rubberfaces haven’t figured out how to cross the river yet, so once we get over that thing, we’ll be home free.”
Over my shoulder, I saw the large mob of mutants were now far behind us. They still fired their guns haphazardly, but I figured we were too far away now for their shots to be accurate.
We rocketed toward the makeshift ramp, hit a small bump as we hit the incline, and then made our way up the bridge at the speed of sound. Natalie pushed down onto the pedal as hard as humanly possible as she tightened her grip on the wheel.
Then we hit the edge of the ramp and went airborne.
My stomach fell into my ass as the ground disappeared underneath us and our fates were left to the cruel mistress of gravity. My heart hammered through my chest as I looked out and saw nothing in front of us aside from the crimson red sky. When the front of the vehicle finally turned back down toward the ground, I felt my fluttering heart jump into my throat.
In front of us, down at the foot of the drawbridge, was another large group of mutants.
“Fuckfuckfuckfuck!” Natalie cried as we plummeted.
It felt like we were moving in slow motion as the tires approached the rusty metal of the other side of the bridge.
A few of the mutants down below raised their rifles, took aim, and fired, and shots rang out across the landscape as dozens of bullets headed straight toward us.
The second we touched the ground, Natalie whipped the steering wheel to the left to avoid the incoming hailstorm. Our dune buggy went up onto two wheels for a second, and I held on for dear life as the inertia threatened to throw me from the vehicle.
There was a loud bang, and we suddenly began to lurch and swerve in all directions.
Natalie tried to regain control, but it was no use.
Our dune buggy flipped over and rolled toward the crowd of mutants like a metal ball. There was a sickening crunch when we hit the horde head-on, and I felt all sorts of warm liquid spray onto my face as their bodies were squished underneath the roll cage. Thankfully, the buggy flipped up onto its wheels and then came to a stop on all fours.
I quickly took in my surroundings before the remaining mutants had a chance to reorient themselves.
My clothes were soaked with blood, and I could feel bits of the warm, viscous red liquid on my face. Natalie was still in front of the driver’s seat, but she was groggy and disoriented.
At least our seatbelts worked.
“I don’t know if she should be driving,” I told the man as I turned around. “Do you think you could--”
Then I realized our gunner was gone. Unlike Natalie and I, he didn’t have the luxury of a seatbelt to keep him in place.
I could see his mangled corpse laying just a few dozen feet behind us, laying in a heap on the ground and trailed by a skid mark of blood and brain matter.
Poor guy.
However, I didn’t have long to mourn. The mutants were still in shock from watching several of their brethren being pulverized by the vehicle, but that would soon subside.
And once it did, they were going to be fuming mad.
I needed to think fast. I could maybe drive this dune buggy, but I had no idea where I was going. Also, I didn’t want to just leave Natalie behind. She did save my life, after all.
Then I looked up at the machine gun.
That was my only shot.
“Karla?” I asked the disembodied voice in my head. “How much experience do you have with big-ass machine guns?”
Lots, Miss Nash noted. Please don’t tell me you’re going to try and fire one. Those things take hours of practice to master.
“Well, I don’t have hours,” I stated as I unfastened my seatbelt. “I’ve only got a few seconds before these ugly hotdishes tear us apart.”
Well, in that case… I suppose you just aim at your target and then squeeze the trigger, the voice in my head mused.
“Now’s not the time for sarcasm!” I hissed as I stood up.
I’m not being sarcastic! Karla shot back.
I threw my leg over the passenger seat, hoisted myself up onto the small gunner’s platform, and grabbed both handles on the machine gun. Then I aimed at the crowd of mutants.
But there was no trigger I could see.
“Uh… Where is the trigger for this thing?” I demanded.
You see that large v-shaped thing in between the two handles? she asked.
Sure enough, there it was.
“Yeah,” I confirmed as I looked down at the mechanism.
Grab onto the handles, take aim, and then use both your thumbs to press that down, Karla commanded. And then hold on, because those things pack a hell of a wallop.
There were mangled mutant bodies all over the ground. Several of them had their skulls shattered, and gray matter was oozing out around them. Others simply had been crippled by the rollover, and they struggled to stand back up on their crushed legs or aim with their broken arms.
About twenty or so were still in perfect health, and they were beginning to realize their enemies hadn’t all been killed.
I had to act now.
So, I took aim at the center of the horde and pressed down on the trigger mechanism.
Click.
Nothing.
“Uh, Karla?” I chuckled awkwardly. “Nothing’s happening!”
It’s probably not loaded, she explained. Are there any ammo belts laying around?
I looked down to my left and saw there was a large box with a giant string of bullets dangling down from its side.
I wasn’t one hundred percent sure this was the right thing, but I’d played enough video games to know an ammo box when I saw it. So, I reached down and grabbed the end of the string.
“Iktunar!” one of the mutants suddenly snarled.
There was a sudden whooshing sound, and then an arrow stabbed into the passenger seat of the dune buggy, right next to my left leg.
I gasped in a panic and dropped the end of the ammo belt. It hit the floor of the vehicle with a metallic clang, and I instantly went down to grab it. As I did so, I heard a gunshot ring out and then a lightning-fast swish above me where I’d just been standing.
My hands were trembling as I snatched up the end of the ammo belt once more. If I didn’t get it right this time, I was dead. We’d both be dead.
I fumbled around at the opening in the side of the machine gun as another bullet zipped past my head. Out of my peripheral vision I could see the mob was now approaching our vehicle, and that only made me panic even more.
Oh, god. This was a nightmare.
And it was only going to get worse here in a second.
> Hunter? Karla asked.
I didn’t answer. I needed to focus all my attention on getting this thing locked and loaded.
“Iktunar!” the crowd now chanted in unison. “Skok em Iktunar!”
Finally, my sweaty fingers found the spot where the bullets went in.
“Got it!” I exclaimed.
Good, Karla noted. Now, push down the lever and pull back the charging handle on the right.
I quickly stood up, pushed down the lever on the side of the gun, yanked back the only thing that could be the charging handle, and grabbed the grips of the machine gun.
The crowd of mutants were now only a few dozen feet away, and they were readying their weapons once more.
I took aim and pressed down on the trigger. The kick of the gun was intense, so I had to hold on for dear life to keep myself upright and on target.
The first mutant’s legs exploded like a pigeon being hit by a fastball, and he screamed as he fell onto the ground.
I pulled the gun slightly upward and then watched as the bullets cut the second mutant in half at the waist.
Two more of the ugly bastards went down before the rest of the crowd scattered. Even then, the entire right side of the group was doomed.
The bullets cut through the mutants as they tried to run. Some of their heads popped like gore-filled balloons, while others were turned into bloody swiss cheese from behind.
When I finally let up, the entire right side of the crowd had been decimated.
However, the mutants on the left were still alive and well and ready for retaliation.
“Johnny?” Natalie groaned from the front of the vehicle.
“Hunter,” I corrected, “and I’m glad to see you’re awake. We need to get out of here, now.”
“W-Where’s Johnny?” Natalie asked again, this time more coherent.
Oh, no… Johnny must have been our gunner.
I aimed at the closest mutant on my left just as he raised his rifle and then tore him to bits before he could get off his shot.
“Johnny’s gone,” I said matter-of-factly. “And we’re going to join him if we don’t get out of here soon.”
Natalie went silent.
I couldn’t tell if she was trying to figure a way out of the situation, or if she was simply mourning her dead partner. In all reality, it was probably a little bit of both.
“The front right tire is flat,” she finally spoke up, and her voice cracked a little. “And it looks like a lot of the body is dented. But it will still drive, as long as you can shoot.”
“I’ll do my best,” I admitted as I turned the machine gun toward a nearby mutant.
The ugly bastard had his bow and arrow already pulled back, and he released it haphazardly as his body was torn to shreds by the hailstorm of bullets.
I ducked out of the way just in time before the arrow swished past my head, and then I turned the gun onto the small crowd of mutants just off to the left.
I could just barely hear the engine of the dune buggy turning over as I cut the mutants down, and then I heard Natalie let out a long slew of swear words.
Finally, she turned the engine over once more, and it roared to life.
“Hold on!” she exclaimed. “This ride’s gonna be much more bumpy than last time!”
Before I had a chance to brace myself, the dune buggy lurched forward. The barrel of my gun jerked downward, which resulted in a large line of battered asphalt all the way to the back of the vehicle. When I finally got the machine gun back under control, we were high-tailing it out of there.
A few more mutants took shots at us, but their bullets missed by a mile.
I let off the trigger and took a deep sigh as we continued onward. As we drove, I suddenly began to recognize where we were. This was The Loop. Why were we going deeper into the city?
Hunter? Karla’s voice spoke up in my head. Why are you going east? I thought I told you to get out of the city?
“I don’t really have a choice in the matter,” I admitted. “This is where Natalie is taking us, and I trust she knows this place better than any of us.”
I hope you’re right, Miss Nash noted.
“She said there weren’t any mutants on this side of the river,” I explained.
Was that before or after you encountered mutants on the other side of the bridge? she snorted.
“I know that’s what I said!” Natalie growled from the front seat. “Up until today, there hadn’t been any. Also, why do you keep referring to me like you’re talking to somebody else? I have a name, you know.”
“I know, I know,” I sighed. “I was just talking to myself, and I’m a little on edge, you know?”
“You’re on edge?” the blonde woman scoffed as we thumped down Monroe Street. “We just lost the only member of the Scavengers who was in my age group! Now, if I want to find a mate, I’m completely fucked.”
“I-I’m sorry,” I apologized. “It was just a freak accident--”
“An accident that wouldn’t have happened if we hadn’t gone back for your sorry ass!” Natalie spat with a trembling voice. “My strong Carr bloodline is going to die off… all for some random stranger.”
I wanted to argue with the woman, to tell her it wasn’t my fault, and how the mutants would have been back there waiting for them, even if I wasn’t there.
But I could see Natalie was already in pain, and I didn’t want to burden her any further.
Instead, I just turned back to the gun and scanned our surroundings for any enemies. Thankfully, it seemed like we had escaped the horde, and the rest of the trip was fairly uneventful.
Finally, Natalie spoke up.
“I’m sorry,” she sighed. “That was a little harsh. It wasn’t your fault Johnny’s dead. If anything, it was mine for not checking for Rubberfaces before I made the jump.”
“You couldn’t have known,” I explained. “You said they’d never gotten to the other side of the river before.”
“Still,” Natalie mumbled, “I should have been more careful. I don’t know where you come from, but you don’t survive in the Fallen Lands very long by being careless, and I was careless.”
I saw we were now headed straight toward the shore of Lake Michigan, more specifically right toward a large white boat.
The thing had to be at least fifty feet wide, probably an adaptation of an old vessel that used to run on these waters. On the side, in big blue lettering, were the words “Lake Express,” and its front was split out into two points like an oversized hydroplane boat. Most peculiar of all was the back, which was parked up to a large pier whose end led straight up onto the deck. There, on the ship itself, sat a giant opening with another dune buggy parked inside.
Natalie pulled us up onto the pier, where there were two men with shotguns waiting for us. They were wearing matching uniforms made up of dark torn jeans, black combat boots, and washed-out, sleeveless denim jackets over dirty white shirts. Both of the guys were wearing dark persol-style sunglasses whose lenses reflected a maroon shine. In fact, the only differentiating feature between these two men were their build and their haircuts.
One of the guards had a short purple mohawk with shaved sides, while the other one had a grungy, Kurt Cobain-inspired look. The one with the mohawk was noticeably stockier than the other, and both men appeared to be in the late thirties.
Was I really in another timeline, or had I just been transported into a Thirty Seconds to Mars music video?
We rolled to a stop just before we got onto the boat, and the guards approached with stern looks on their faces.
“Who’s this guy, Natalie?” the man with the mohawk demanded. “And where’s Johnny?”
“Johnny’s dead,” the woman beside me said calmly. “And this is… Well, I never actually got his name--”
“Hunter,” I introduced myself. “My name is Hunter.”
“Right,” Natalie continued. “Hunter here was attacked by a bunch of Rubberfaces back on the west side. We tried to get him out,
and Johnny didn’t make it.”
“Damn,” the burlier man sighed through a thick Australian accent and then raised his fist up into the air. “RIP, brother. Scavenger forever.”
Natalie and the second guard mimicked his motions somberly.
“Scavenger forever,” they both sighed.
“So, this bloke here,” the Cobain-esque guard said as he nodded toward me, “he’s clean?”
“I mean, I’ve got blood all over me, but--” I began, but Natalie cut me off.
“He’s not infected,” she confirmed.
“How do you know?” the mohawked guard questioned. “We haven’t seen another untainted human in the Fallen Lands in years. Now this dude just shows up, smack-dab in the middle of Rubberface territory? That seems a little fishy to me… ”
“Where are you from, mate?” the first man asked.
“Uh, Minnesota?” I shrugged, but then realized I needed to elaborate. “That part of the… Smoulder, I think you call it? The part of the Smoulder that’s up by Lake Superior. Right under Canada.”
“You’ve picked up a strange one, Natalie,” the guard with the long hair mused. “Who still calls the Tundra ‘Minnesota?’”
“This guy, apparently,” Natalie laughed. “Now, can we come aboard? I don’t want any more Rubberfaces following us.”
Suddenly, both guards stood up straight and went for their guns.
“Were you followed?” the mohawked man asked as he scanned the horizon.
“No, but I’ve got some bad news for you… ” the blonde woman sighed. “There were Rubberfaces on this side of the river. They’re the ones who killed Johnny.”
“Then you’d best climb aboard.” The second man nodded. “Charlie and Regina are back, so we should be good to go. We need to let Marcus know about this problem as soon as possible.”
Both of the men stepped back onto the boat and motioned us forward, and then Natalie drove the dune buggy up into the open mouth of the large boat. She rolled it into the spot next to the other dune buggy and killed the ignition before she undid her seatbelt and got out of the vehicle.
I followed her lead, and then I heard the deep sound of the boat’s horn ring out into the air.
The vessel’s motors sprang to life and rumbled for a second before the entire boat started forward. Within a few seconds, the pier we had driven up on pulled away from the back of the craft, and we were out on open water.
