by Eric Vall
“You’re not very trusting, are you?” I grumbled.
“I trusted you,” she reminded me. “And now look where we are.”
“About to save the human race and give the Scavengers a better life?” I raised my eyebrows and frowned. “Don’t worry about me, Natalie. Sure, the whole situation was kinda weird, and I totally get why you have your suspicions. But I trust Karla, and I know this is going to work.”
Actually, I didn’t, and my suspicions against my bosses back at HQ were starting to grow.
Just how experimental was this chip in my brain? Had they tried it out on other people before and turned their minds to mush? Was there a pile of bodies buried in the Nashes’ backyard, full of previous “Wayfarers” who had been fried by the IFDR before it was perfected?
These were all questions that needed to be answered, but they could wait until I got back. For now, I just needed to focus on getting through the mission ahead.
Just then, I saw the outline of the power plant’s concave, towering smoke stack. It was still a bit of a ways away, but its massive figure stood above everything else, illuminated in the moonlight.
“There it is.” Natalie whistled. “The spot where things are gonna get real.”
“We can see the power plant,” I announced to Karla. “Natalie thinks we should be there by tomorrow morning, barring anything crazy happening in between.”
Think about what you’re saying, Hunter, Karla warned. Remember where you are… Crazy is the normal in Dimension Nine-Fifty-One.
“Yeah, who am I kidding?” I joked. “There’s probably mutated monkeys in the forest. Foul creatures that will sling their radioactive poo at us.”
Very funny. Karla was not amused.
“I’m not sure how it is in your world,” Natalie scoffed, “but there aren’t any monkeys here in the Fallen Lands or the surrounding Smoulder. They couldn’t survive the climate, apparently.”
“It was a joke,” I sighed. “Just trying to lighten the mood as we head toward certain death.”
Don’t be so overdramatic, Karla chuckled. It’s only a major probability of death, not certain.
“Oh, so now you have a sense of humor?” I grumbled. “Where was that when I was trying to charm my way out of your house?”
In order to charm your way out, you have to have some charm first, the voice in my head noted.
“Look, Karla… ” I got serious. “Do you really think this plan is going to work? Natalie and I are both in some deep trouble with the locals right now, after stealing their weapons and vehicle and all that.”
My father claims that, if you are successful, the probability of saving this timeline is ninety percent, she explained.
“Only ninety?” I gasped.
Almost nothing is one-hundred percent certain, Hunter, she continued, though my father has discovered there is a variable that will increase this percentage. However, he hasn’t figured out exactly what it is quite yet.
“Well, please tell me when you find out what that variable is,” I suggested, “that’s about as close to perfection as you could ask for.”
Of course, the voice in my head promised. Just promise us one thing, Hunter… Don’t do anything foolish.
“What, like steal from a bunch of pirates?” I chuckled.
I’m serious, Hunter, Karla warned. We want you to bring back the other Wayfarer. But it is much more important you come back, since you are the Wayfarer of our dimension. If something were to happen to you, it would be catastrophic to our world, and could even set off our own Doomsday scenario.
“No pressure, then?” I tried to joke, even though I had a massive lump in my throat.
Promise me something, Hunter, the voice demanded. If push comes to shove, and it looks like Natalie is doomed… save yourself and finish the mission. We can’t risk losing you, even if it means one less Wayfarer in the equation.
“I can’t make that promise,” I argued. “I’m not going to make that promise.”
Don’t be a fool, Hunter… Karla started, but I was done with the conversation.
“We are going to finish this mission,” I emphasized. “I’ll keep you posted. Hunter Bragg, over and out.”
Fine, Karla grumbled. Over and out.
“What was that about?” Natalie wondered as she glanced over at me. “What was she asking you to promise?”
I had a choice to make. I could tell her the truth, but that would only upset Natalie and make her more suspicious of the Nashes.
On the other hand, lying was never a good thing. Especially when the person being lied to is the woman who’s saved your ass time and time again.
“I’ll just tell it straight,” I sighed. “She wanted me to promise I wouldn’t go back for you if… well, you know.”
“Oh.” Natalie stared off into space. “I see. I suppose that would be the right decision to make.”
“But you heard me,” I reminded the Scavenger. “I told her I wasn’t going to do that. We’re in this together, and I hope you’d come back for me. I mean, hell, you’ve already gone out on a limb for me too many times to count. I’d never even dream of abandoning you.”
“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Natalie mused, and then we lapsed into silence again as the blonde continued to drive us toward our destination. “I’ve been burned before, you know…”
We drove for about another thirty minutes until we came up to a large line of trees. The beach narrowed down to a small width that looked like it was too small for even a child to walk on, and the rest of the landscape morphed into a thicketed forest.
Natalie put the vehicle into park, reached down, and yanked the two wires apart.
“This is it,” she noted as she swung her leg out of the dune buggy and hopped onto the ground. “The Forest of Fallout.”
As I exited the vehicle, I couldn’t help but marvel at the strange forest before me.
The trees were large maples, with sprawling networks of branches that connected together to form a large canopy. Their bark was white and peeled back from their trunks, while their leaves were a sickly pale green.
Strangest of all, however, was the fact I could feel their warmth all the way from over here. Then there was the fact their trunks faintly illuminated their surroundings with a soft white light.
“Are--Are the trees producing heat?” I gasped. “And… glowing?”
“That’s Radon Roots for you,” Natalie explained. “They’re radiation is perfectly harmless to humans, but it’s warmth attracts all sorts of unwanted creatures to its forests. Keep your gun at the ready, and look alive as we move through it.”
“What about the dune buggy?” I asked. “Are we just going to leave it here?”
“We have no other choice,” she said as she checked out the sight on her AK-47. “Trying to take it through the forest wouldn’t work. It’s too large to fit between the trees, and it’s waaaaay too loud. We’d be drawing the attention of every creature within a mile of here.”
“Okay, so we move on foot.” I nodded. “Let’s get a move on, then… The sooner we can get through this creepy place, the better.”
“You’ll get no argument from me on that one,” Natalie admitted.
The Scavenger held her rifle tightly as she inched toward the Forest of Fallout with me right on her tail.
We passed through the tree line, and I instantly felt a hot wave of air wash over me. Sweat began to pool on my forehead, and my skin was screaming beneath the pure cotton of my shirt.
Cotton breathes, my ass.
“Damn, it’s hot in here,” I whispered as I wiped off my brow.
“Now you see why I wore these shorts and cutoffs,” Natalie chuckled. “They’re not just for show. I’d suggest you make some adjustments to your outfit, or else I’m gonna be carrying your heat-stroked body out of this place.”
I quickly stopped, tore off my sleeves to make my shirt into a tank top of sorts, and let out a sigh of relief. Even such a small modification made all the d
ifference. That just left my pants.
I pulled Natalie’s pocket knife from my pocket, unfolded the blade, and then got to work on my long cargo-style pants. I sliced away the fabric all the way up to my knee as the hot air was released from my lower half.
“Oh, my god,” I huffed with relief. “It felt like I was about to die.”
“All the more reason to not stay the night here,” Natalie chuckled. “Now, come on.”
We wandered through the forest for another ten minutes before we took a break. Natalie halted in place, lowered her gun, and rubbed her brow in frustration.
“I think I may have gotten us lost,” she sighed. “I thought we were headed north, but this whole damned forest looks exactly the same.”
“I would have snagged a compass,” I explained, “but I couldn’t find one.”
“That’s because they don’t work in our dimension.” Natalie shook her head. “When the nuclear bombs went off, it completely messed with the Earth’s magnetic poles. Even if you had one of those things, it would just be spinning endlessly for eternity.”
“Damn,” I sighed. “Are there any landmarks we could use?”
“The power plant.” Natalie shrugged. “But the canopy is too thick to see it.”
Hmmm.
“Karla, could you help us out?” I asked aloud. “Which way do we need to go?”
I think I can help, the voice responded. From your position… turn to your left… a little more… there. Now, head forward. If you run into any obstacles, like a ravine, let me know and I’ll recalculate.
“Thanks, Karla,” I said before I turned to Natalie. “This way.”
“Lead the way,” she replied.
The two of us ventured further into the Forest of Fallout, and we made sure to touch each tree as we went. We pushed forward for almost thirty more minutes before I finally asked to stop.
The damn heat was still getting to me, so I plopped down on a fallen log and tried to catch my breath.
“As if the backpacks and guns weren’t bad enough,” I sighed, “this heat is something else.”
“Here,” Natalie offered. “Let me help.”
The Scavenger walked over to me, pulled out a knife, and sliced the sleeves off my shirt at the shoulder. Then she cut the front of the garment to create a plunging neckline that exposed most of my chest.
Natalie’s eyes went wide when she saw my pectoral muscles for the first time, but she quickly shook it off.
“Thanks.” I smiled at the woman. “I feel better already.”
“Don’t mention it,” she retorted as she dropped her eyes sheepishly. “I promise the heat will die down eventually.”
Natalie stuck out her hand to help me up, and I gratefully took it.
However, as I stood, I heard a strange droning noise off in the distance.
“Uh… Is that part of the Radon Roots, too?” I questioned.
“I don’t think so.” The Scavenger frowned then went utterly still. “Hunter, get your weapons ready.”
“Weapons?” I demanded. “Why do we need--”
“Get your weapons out and get up to me, back to back!” Natalie demanded.
I pulled the pistol out of its holster and then firmly pressed my back against Natalie’s. I should have probably grabbed the shotgun, but it was just my gut instinct to go with the pistol.
The droning sound got louder and louder until it was eventually accompanied by the sound of scuttling legs and rustling leaves.
I recognized the noise instantly, and my stomach hit the floor.
“Oh no,” I grumbled.
“What is it?” Natalie asked. “Are you familiar with these beasts?”
“Way too familiar,” I sighed. “Cockroaches. And, judging by the sound of it… there’s a bunch of them.”
Suddenly, they came into view.
A small swarm of roaches was headed our way, but these weren’t any sort of roaches I’d ever encountered before. These things were almost two feet tall and equally as wide, carried by wings nearly three feet long.
They weren’t alone, either.
Just behind the roaches were five massive insects with black and yellow stripes and with stingers the size of a kitchen knife.
Bees.
Roaches and bees.
Oh, the cruel irony.
Chapter 11
“You have got to be kidding me!” I groaned. “Roaches and bees? This has got to be the laws of time and space playing a joke on me.”
“Are these the sorts of creatures you try to control back in your world?” Natalie questioned as she readied her AK-47. “Because if so, I have a newfound respect for what you do.”
“They’re nothing like this,” I noted as I fumbled to turn off the safety on my weapon. “In my world, they’re only an inch or two long.”
“This is why Marcus was wary about going into the Forest of Fallout,” she explained. “Everything that was here when the bombs went off was mutated, including the bugs.”
“I can see that.” I shuddered. “What the hell do we do? Do we run?”
“We have to fight,” the blonde woman sighed. “They’ll catch us if we try to flee, so we have no other choice. Just… try not to get stung or eaten.”
Great advice.
As I watched the incoming swarm, I tried to think if there was anything we could do to fend them off.
With a little bit more time, we could have set out traps or surrounded ourselves with roach deterrents, but time was the one thing we didn’t have.
“I wonder if there’s still a queen bee?” I pondered aloud. “If we were to kill that one, the rest would go into panic mode and flee.”
“What about the roaches?” Natalie demanded. “You’re the exterminator here.”
Pest Control Technician, but I wasn’t about to correct her right now.
“They’re not social insects,” I sighed. “In fact, they’re known to eat each other when food is scarce or if… Wait!”
I holstered my gun quickly and tossed open my bag. Then I pulled out a small canister of sugar.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Natalie hissed. “They’re almost--Shit!”
The Scavenger raised her AK-47 and squeezed the trigger, and bullets sprayed forth from her weapon and tore through the first wave of insects like a swarm of angry metal bees.
The forest was filled with the sound of squeals as the roaches exploded into heaps of gooey gore and fell out of the sky, and then the first wave of the hideous creatures was on me in seconds, just as I popped open the canister of sugar. I fell down to the ground and tossed the granulated white substance up into the air.
Several of the cockroaches flew straight through the synthetic fog and caught it all over their bodies.
I rolled to the right just as a few of the creatures came down on my position, and as I stood to my feet, I reached down for my Beretta.
However, I wasn’t fast enough. I threw up my arm just as one of the cockroaches slammed into me and took me to the ground.
I felt the shotgun slide off my back and off into the foliage, but I had bigger issues at the moment.
I threw my hands around his disgusting head and then used all of my might to try and hold him back. I shuddered as the large bristles on his legs tickled my own, and bits of gnarly white saliva dripped down onto my chest. The bug’s breath was enough to make me gag.
Then again, I shouldn’t have been surprised. This thing’s diet consisted of nothing but garbage and rotting meat.
If I could just put a few feet between me and this thing, I would at least have a chance to quick-draw on it. It wasn’t the best plan, but it was worth a shot.
So, I kicked my knees into the insect’s thorax, gave it a hard shove, and tossed it upward. Then, while it was still in the air, I reached down, drew my Beretta, and squeezed the trigger haphazardly.
Blood and guts splashed out of the cockroach as its body was riddled with holes. Its limp carcass slammed back down on top of me, and the weight
of the creature knocked the air straight out of my lungs.
Still, it was dead.
I shoved the body off me as I stood to my feet and fired off a few rounds at the next closest insect. Its head exploded into a spray of blood and white goo before it collapsed out of the sky, and then I turned my attention back to the incoming horde.
Before I did that, though, I turned back to check on my trap and saw it had worked like a charm.
The sugar-coated insects were screeching in agony as they were torn apart by their hungry brethren, and now they were nothing more than a tasty morsel to the other bugs.
However, their attention was on their dinner, instead of on us.
It was open season on these bastards.
So, I raised up the Beretta, pointed it at the feasting insects, and fired off a few shots in rapid succession.
My aim wasn’t the greatest, but I saw a couple sprays of blood immediately followed by several insects collapsing down onto the ground.
I guess that was the closest thing to a “stationary target” I was going to get. I shot at the scuttling creatures a few more times, and the rest of them went down as they writhed in agony and squealed.
“Hunter, look out!” Natalie cried out from somewhere behind me.
I spun around and jumped out of the way just as a machete-sized stinger stabbed into the ground where I had been standing.
The massive bee’s barb was now stuck in the ground, and it struggled helplessly to try and free itself.
I raised my gun, pulled the trigger, and exploded its head like a watermelon.
As the bee’s body fell to the ground, its stinger was yanked free of its corpse, with the insect’s entrails still attached.
So, they were like the insects of my dimension…
“Natalie!” I called out to the Scavenger. “Their stingers are attached to their innards. If it comes out, they die!”
The blonde woman was currently tumbling around like an acrobat, though, and she blasted roaches and bees with her AK-47 while nimbly avoiding their grasp.
