Core Punk

by Paul Bellow

  We crept down the hallway. The walls on either side of us changed to glass. Round tables surrounded by chairs were set-up like in Shelter 12. Once again, everything appeared to be newer and not as well worn.

  “Nothing on this side,” I said.

  “Clear over here too.”

  We continued down the hall, approaching sliding doors leading to the cafeterias on each side. Before we reached them, a four-legged monstrosity with horns atop its head lumbered into view further down the hall at a t-intersection. The moment the mutant noticed us, it sprinted forward with a roar. A musty blast of air rushed toward us.

  Warning: R-Class Mutant

  I thought the notification away, hoping we could take out the beast without any hassles. Harrison and I both raised our weapons and fired a few rounds. The stupid thing zigged and zagged, and both of us missed it completely. Right as it reached us, it stopped and faded from view.

  What the…

  “Decoy,” Harrison said, glancing behind us. “Keep your eyes open.”

  Even some lower classes of mutants had outrageously crazy powers which is why it had taken so much time to clear the first floor of the overrun shelter. My head whipped around as something crashed to the floor on my left. After seeing Missy fall from a duct in the ceiling, I bolted toward the door. When it slid open, I rushed inside.

  “Missy! Are you okay?”

  I stopped next to her and knelt on one knee.

  “Watch out!” she screamed, pointing up.

  I rolled on my back and fired off a few rounds as another four-legged mutant fell. The shots went right through it before the mirage disappeared.

  “What were you doing in the vents?” I asked, sitting up as Harrison walked over.

  “I saw a kitty cat, and I wanted to save it,” she said.

  “Another illusion,” I muttered. “You need to be careful.”

  “Sorry!” she screamed. “My mind ain’t right anymore, okay? I don’t remember, and it scares me. You don’t know what it’s like...”

  Tears formed in the corners or her eyes before streaming down her dirty cheeks.

  “She’s gonna get us killed if she doesn’t quit screaming,” Harrison noted.

  “It’s okay,” I said, rubbing her back to soothe her.

  “Mutant!” Missy yelled again, emphatically pointing.

  I stood and turned, seeing yet another version of the mutant rush toward us. Was it the real one? Should I waste a few more shots and risk running out and having to wait for the weapon to recharge? Or should I wait? Harrison answered for me, firing a single plasma bolt at the beast. When it went through the illusion, I lowered my rifle and breathed a bit easier.

  “Get her upstairs,” Harrison said, walking back toward the hallway.

  I reached out a hand. “Come on. You need to go upstairs and stay.”

  Missy grabbed my hand and pulled herself up. I walked with her back to the hall. We kept going until we made it to the elevator. On the way, Harrison fired off another single shot then let loose a string of profanities.

  “I’m scared,” Missy whimpered, her arm around my waist.

  “We’ll be fine,” I assured her. “Just stay upstairs and call me if you see anything, okay?”

  “I will,” she said as we stopped in front of the elevator.

  She pushed the button, smiling as if nothing had happened a few minutes earlier. I wondered again what had happened to her mind. Was it the Great Freeze when everything switched? The elevator door slid open, breaking me out of my thoughts.

  “Call me if something happens,” I repeated.

  She nodded solemnly then walked into the elevator.

  “If you see a monster, it’s probably not real,” I said. “Call me right away.”

  “Or I’ll stab it,” she said casually. “One of the two.”

  I opened my mouth as the elevator door slid closed. She needed to take care of herself so Harrison and I could finish the R-class mutant and maybe clear the rest of the level.

  “Over here!” Harrison shouted.

  I ran down the hall toward his voice. He was standing in the cafeteria to the left, rifle raised at yet another four-legged beast with ghastly horns. An illusion again? Harrison shot once. The mutant leaped into the air, its front hooves kicking him in the chest and sending him to the floor.

  “Not on my watch,” I muttered as I rounded the corner and rushed into the room.

  I jumped over Harrison as he scrambled backward, firing as I went. Three of my shots missed the agile creature, but the last one hit it in the rump. I stopped as it turned and howled like a wolf before bounding forward. Four more plasma bolts finished it. It fell lifeless to the floor a few feet in front of me as Harrison walked up.

  “Good job,” he said as I wiped away the combat notification screen.

  “I’m getting better at the plasma rifle,” I said, smiling.

  He glanced down at the mutant, lips pursed together.

  “Do you want to keep going?” I asked.

  He nodded. “Yeah, I want to scout out the rest of the floor at least.”

  “Sounds like a plan.”

  Rifle still pointed forward, I headed back into the hallway, glancing to the left then right.

  “Hold up,” he said, joining me. “We need to talk about Missy.”

  “She probably saw one of the illusions,” I said in her defense.

  “That’s fine, but she’s still a liability.”

  “What are you saying?” I asked.

  “I’m not saying anything except we need to watch her more carefully, so she doesn’t get us all killed. Whatever they did to her mind isn’t making it any easier on us.”

  “Do you want to give her a weapon and have her help us clear floors?” I asked.

  He snorted. “Are you nuts? That’s even more dangerous!”

  “You’re right,” I admitted. “Let’s go back up. I’m tired…”

  As the last word left my mouth, a gelatinous N-class mutant rounded the corner, leaving a trail of red slime behind it.

  “Don’t shoot it,” Harrison said as I raised my rifle. “It’ll grow with the energy.”

  “You’ve fought one of these before?”

  “Everything except the top twelve classes. They’re rare. We need to go. Come on.”

  We retreated to the elevator as the red blob continued plodding down the hall, leaving a streak of red behind it. I punched the up button twice. The door slid shut.

  “Can it follow us to the first floor?” I asked.

  “Yeah,” he said, nodding. “We need a plan.”

  “How did you defeat it last time?”

  The elevator dinged as we reached the first floor. We exited after the door slid open.

  “Ice,” he said. “Lots of ice.”

  “Can we lead it outside?” I asked excitedly.

  “That’s the plan,” he said. “Where’s Missy?”

  I called out her name. She appeared in the hallway, holding a knife in each of her hands.

  “Mutants?” she asked, glancing around.

  “No,” I said as I walked toward her. “Suit up. We’re going outside.”

  “Leaving?” she asked.

  “We need to time this perfectly if we want to survive,” Harrison said. “Do you want to be the bait that runs away and distracts it, or the person who closes the hatch to trap it outside?”

  “Thanks for giving me such a great choice,” I said, thick on the sarcasm.

  As we reached the decontamination chamber, Missy screamed. I stopped, turned, and saw the mutant blob heading in our direction.

  “Hurry it up,” Harrison said. “It’s speeding up.”

  We all put on our enviro-suits before climbing the ladder leading to the exit. I hated the idea of going topside, fearing getting trapped out there or something even worse happening. We didn’t have much of a choice, though, if we wanted to clear the shelter and be able to use it.

  At the top of the ladder, Harrison entered the n
umbers to open it. He climbed out after it swung up and out. Missy and I followed close behind. I gazed around, hoping we didn’t see any other mutants. Harrison peered over the edge and into the shelter.

  “Is it coming?” I asked.

  “Slowly,” he said. “It hates the cold, but it’s likely hungry. Hold on…”

  “What are you doing?” I gasped as he climbed down a few rungs.

  “I’ll be the bait,” he said. “You two hide then come back and close the hatch while I lead it away. It’ll freeze solid in a few minutes.”

  “Hide where?” I asked.

  “You’re smart,” he quipped. “Think of something.”

  I grabbed Missy’s hand and led her toward a frozen, snow-covered hill nearby. Halfway up, I glanced back and saw Harrison scrambling out of the shaft, the blob right behind him. Did the mutant sense us? Had we run far enough away? I stopped, still holding onto her hand.

  “Wait here,” I said.

  “Noooo….” she whined. “Afraid.”

  “You’ll be fine. Just keep your eyes open.”

  I ran back down the hill as the mutant oozed out of the shelter entrance. That’ll be a pain to clean, I thought as I slowed down. As the mutant slowed, Harrison ran forward. The blob’s hunger for flesh fought against its survival instincts as it slithered farther away from the main shelter hatch. I kept moving forward.

  A few more feet away, the mutant gave up and changed direction, heading for the warmth of the shelter. I shot forward, racing to reach the hatch before it did. While it was closer, I was moving faster and reached it first. I punched in the code then walked around to stand in front of the mutant, hoping to slow it down.

  “Don’t be stupid,” Harrison said, his voice coming through my helmet.

  “We can’t let the mutant back in our shelter,” I said, shuffling to the left. “Missy? Are you okay?”

  “I’m coming to you,” she sobbed.

  The blob barely hit me, but I felt a flash of pain. I glanced down at my arm and saw acid had dissolved part of the enviro-suit. Crap! Harrison yelled and pushed his hand into the acidic red mass to get its attention. I stumbled backward as he screamed. With the hatch closed, the mutant had nowhere to go. Harrison ran away then around.

  “Are you okay?” Harrison asked.

  “I will be once we get inside.”

  He nodded as Missy walked up. Together, we watched as it slowly froze to death. I thought about all the other floors we needed to clear to gain full control of the shelter. Everything would be worth it in the end. I was sure of it.

  Chapter 11

  Two weeks later, we finished clearing the first four levels of Shelter 101x. We didn’t stop. One morning, as I stood next to Harrison in a hallway on level five, listening for anything odd, I hoped Missy would be okay. She had begged to come with us, but we’d been running into even nastier mutants the further down we went. What would we discover on the bottom?

  “You hear that?” Harrison whispered.

  I nodded. He’d taken to sleeping next to me every night despite the fact we had four empty barracks and enough room for a hundred people. I found it comforting. After battling mutants all day, we relaxed together in the evenings, getting to know each other.

  “Ready?” he asked.

  I nodded again. We both stepped around the corner and leveled the plasma rifles we’d found on the second floor of the shelter. I’d gone up a level just clearing out the first two floors. By the time we reached the bottom, I would be one of the highest-level players in the game. The mutant at the end of the hall turned and galloped toward us.

  We shot at the mutated dog, taking off its head in an explosion of blood and brains. Another xp notification flashed in front of me. I once again remembered the real world. Something about having stats and damage notifications didn’t seem natural like it did the others. Was that the reason I remembered what had happened, and they didn’t?

  “That’s the last of them,” Harrison said, lowering his gun.

  “I hope so. This day’s gone on too long.”

  Harrison grinned. “You’re cooking tonight, right?”

  “What? You don’t enjoy Missy’s cooking?” I teased.

  He chuckled. I stepped forward and slipped an arm around his waist, leaning in to kiss his soft, wet lips. We stood with our lips locked together a few moments in bliss before an alarm notification popped up for Missy on the first floor. I sighed and stepped back, holding up a finger as I sent a message to her.

  Scout: What’s wrong, Missy?

  Scout: Quit playing games. Answer me.

  When she didn’t respond, I began to worry.

  “Come on,” Harrison said. “Let’s get back upstairs.”

  I followed him to the elevator, continuing to call for Missy. She didn’t answer which had me worried. We’d closed the holes in the ventilation system. Had something got through somehow? At the elevator, I jammed my thumb on the button. When the door slid open, we both went inside. I pressed the button for the first floor.

  “She probably just broke something again,” Harrison said. “What’s her deal, anyway?”

  I sighed. “We can talk about it later. It’s complicated.”

  The door slid open again. We pointed our rifles out into the hallway. Missy had painted murals depicting our banishment and finding the shelter over the bright yellow walls.

  “Let’s check the control room first,” I said, hoping he wasn’t right about her breaking something.

  Side by side, we crept down the hall, keeping our weapons pointed in front of us. I didn’t hear or see anything unusual as we reached the hatch to the control room. Harrison looked through the tiny window.

  “I don’t see anything weird,” he said.

  Where could she be? Had the alarm broke?

  “Over there,” Harrison said, pointing. “In the decontamination room.”

  Missy and a stranger stood at the end of the hallway.

  “Stop!” I shouted, pointing my rifle in their direction.

  “No stranger danger,” Missy insisted. “We know him!”

  I stepped forward, rifle still raised. Who was it?

  “Hippy?” I asked as I got closer.

  “You old rascal,” Harrison said, smiling as he walked over.

  Hippy tentatively raised a hand in greeting.

  “I’m glad Missy let me in,” he said. “My enviro-suit is just about dead.”

  “How did you find us here?” I asked, suddenly afraid. “Does Orlando know?”

  “No, no, not at all,” Hippy said. “I followed you when you guys escaped. The way Orlando is running things drives me nuts. He’ll use up all their resources for his own stupid reasons. I hate that selfish prick.”

  I smiled. “Don’t hold back, Hippy. Tell us how you feel.”

  “You know me,” he said. “Honest to a fault. That’s why I hope you’ll accept me here.”

  He glanced around, adding. “Nice murals.”

  Missy clapped her hands together, obviously excited.

  “You’re more than welcome to join us,” I said. “We’re running things differently here.”

  “That’s good to hear,” he said. “What about others?”

  “I want to go find others to help us,” I said.

  “What about now?” Hippy asked. “A group of nomads followed me following you.”

  “Did you let them in?” Harrison asked in an alarmed tone.

  “No, they’re outside,” Hippy said.

  I looked at Harrison. “What do you think?”

  He sighed. “Probably not the best idea to let them in. We know nothing about them.”

  “I’ve talked with some of them over the last two weeks,” Hippy said. “I’ve been hesitant to let you know I followed you. At first, I thought you’d all died because I saw nothing coming out of the shelter, but when I saw Missy emerge today, I figured it was time.”

  “What?” I whipped around. “Missy?”

  She lowered her head, not
speaking.

  “That’s dangerous,” I scolded. “We talked about you going out. Every time you open the main hatch, there’s a chance something else will get in here.”

  “I was careful!” Missy said, looking up.

  “The others are low on supplies and could use help,” Hippy said.

  I sighed then looked at Harrison again. He shrugged.

  “Let them in,” he said. “We need more workers and people to clear the lower levels.”

  The four of us returned to the decontamination room and opened the hatch to the outside world. After a few whistles from Hippy, the nomads emerged. Each of them had to accept me as their leader before we let them in the shelter. None of them declined. Our numbers were growing. Eventually, I’d have enough people to go after Orlando and make him pay.

  * * * * *

  Later that evening, as I laid in bed next to Harrison in our private room on the first floor, I stared at the stainless-steel ceiling over our bed and thought about the twelve new people in our shelter. Could I improve their virtual lives?

  “What do you think about Hippy?” I asked.

  “He’ll be useful,” Harrison said, staring ahead and swiping at the air.

  “What are you reading now?” I asked.

  “This shelter differs from the others in a lot of ways,” he said. “The training manual for new commanders is interesting. You should read it.”

  “I should do a lot of things,” I sighed.

  He nodded, still working.

  “It’s just now I’m responsible for even more people, you know?”

  He glanced up. “You’re up to it. I sure as hell don’t want to play leader.”

  “Am I, though?” I rubbed his stomach with my hand. “The last two weeks have been tough.”

  “We’re doing great,” he said, smiling. “You’ll make a wonderful leader… and lover.”

  “Oh, yeah?” I asked.

  He nodded. “Yeah…”

  I leaned over and kissed him on the lips. As I moved my hand between his legs, a messenger screen popped up.

  Hippy: We have a situation.

  Scout: Give me a minute.