by Eric Vall
“You know that’s not fair,” I sighed. “Sure, money may be a major motivator in this situation… but it’s not the only motivator. I want to save you and your friends, Natalie. You guys have been really, really good to me. You saved my life, and now I want to return the favor by giving your people a fresh start.”
Natalie went silent, and I could see the gears whirring around in her head as she thought about it. Her left eye squinted as she rapped on her chin and frowned. Then she finally shook her head and sighed.
“Look, Hunter,” she explained, “this plan of yours is certifiably insane. So insane that it might just work.”
“You’re in?” I grinned and clapped my hands together.
“I am.” She nodded without a hint of emotion. “But we need to talk to Marcus first. If we really want to do something this reckless, he at least needs to be in the loop. Plus, the rest of the Scavengers will listen to him. If he says we should leave this place, the others will fall into line.”
“And if he doesn’t like the plan?” I asked as I followed Natalie out of the tent.
“We’ll deal with that when we come to it,” she admitted as she looked back at me over her shoulder.
The two of us walked back across the beach, past the still-celebrating Scavengers around the fire. Several of them were passed out in the sand, while others were up on their feet dancing, singing, and hollering gleefully.
“Say,” I pondered aloud, “why wasn’t Marcus at Johnny’s Remembrance?”
“Because,” Natalie scoffed, “if you haven’t noticed, Marcus is kinda an asshole. He claims that’s what makes him a good leader, but I’ve never really bought into that line of thinking.”
Great… This was probably going to be harder than I originally thought.
Hellloooo? Karla’s voice grumbled in my head. What’s the situation, Hunter? You’ve really got to get better about keeping us informed.
“I’m sorry I’m not talking to the voice in my head more than I need to,” I shot back sarcastically. “Natalie already thinks I’m crazy. I don’t need to confirm it for her.”
I’m guessing that means she’s on board? the woman’s voice asked excitedly.
“Kinda,” I explained. “Long story short, she’s willing to help me kill the Rubberfaces. But I’m still working on getting her to come back with me.”
Rubberfaces? Karla sounded completely confused.
Oh, right… I don’t think I’d ever explained to her what a ‘Rubberface’ was.
“The mutants,” I clarified. “They call them ‘Rubberfaces’ here because their faces are all deformed and melted, almost like they’re made of rubber.”
You have a plan to wipe out the entire mutant population of Chicago? Karla gasped. I’m not going to lie, Hunter… I’m impressed.
“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” I tried to quell her expectations. “There’s still a long ways to go before we get there, and a million different things could go wrong between now and then. But I appreciate your compliment.”
It wasn’t a compliment. Karla’s voice suddenly went cold again. I was just saying you exceeded my expectations, that’s all. My father was confident you’d be able to figure it out, but I wasn’t so optimistic. So, I’m simply saying you’ve done well.
“Awww, shucks,” I teased the voice in my head. “Maybe this Pest Control Technician has more to him than meets the eye after all, huh?”
What is the plan, if I may ask?
As I walked behind Natalie, I briefly explained our idea to Karla. Once I was finished, there was radio silence on the other line.
I see what you mean, she admitted. My father calculates there are approximately ten thousand, four hundred and twenty-one variables that could factor into whether or not your idea is successful or a spectacular failure.
“I guess we’re just going to have to trust in your two-headed arrow theory, then,” I mused.
“Are you talking to the voice in your head again?” Natalie chuckled.
“She has a name, you know.” I rolled my eyes in jest.
“We’re going to need some sort of signal for when you’re talking to them,” she admitted. “If not, this is gonna get really confusing, really quickly.”
“Ohhhh,” I teased, “I could do like they do in the movies, and put my hand up against my ear whenever I’m talking to the people back at HQ.”
The blonde woman stopped in her tracks, turned around to face me, and quirked an eyebrow.
“What’s a movie?” she asked. “My parents talked about them constantly when they were still alive. Is it some sort of social group? They always said they would go together, and sometimes with other people.”
Suddenly, I felt a twinge of pain down in my very soul.
This poor girl.
She’d literally grown up in a world filled with nothing but death and destruction. Natalie didn’t have the knowledge of anything before Doomsday… None of the cardinal pleasures of life or the little things that made it worth living.
All she knew about was scavenging and surviving.
“They’re great, like stories you can actually watch play out before you,” I explained, “I’ll have to show you one when I take you back to my dimension.”
“We’ll see.” Natalie frowned. “But I wouldn’t get your hopes up if I were you.”
We eventually made it over to the stick hut where Marcus dwelled. There was scented smoke billowing from the hole at the top of the structure, a fog that was giving off the smoke of sweet sandalwood and vanilla. From inside, I could hear the sound of a creaking wood and soft grunts.
“Uhhhh, should we maybe come back later?” I asked with a chuckle. “I think he might be in the middle of something right now. I don’t know if you have ‘if the van’s a-rockin,’ don’t go a-knockin’ in this dimension, but I’m pretty sure it applies to this case right here.”
“Nonsense,” Natalie scoffed as she slipped her hand between the flaps of the door. “If we want to make our move, we can’t sit around and wait. Marcus needs to know about this right away.”
“Yeah, but--” I started, but the blonde woman was already making her move.
She threw open the door and poked her head inside, and then I heard a woman’s scream.
“What are you doing here?” Marcus’ voice hissed. “We’ve talked about this before, Natalie! You can’t just go barging into peoples’ tents like this!”
“I didn’t see anything, I swear,” Natalie snorted. “Hunter? You coming? They’re both covered up.”
Oh, lord…
I slowly slipped into the Scavenger leader’s tent and instantly saw why Marcus was so disgruntled.
The man with the slicked-back hair was clad in only a sheet around his waist, and his entire body was covered with a slick layer of sweat. Right next to him, on the cot, was a small brunette woman who clung to the blanket over her naked body like it was her only lifeline.
“Hi,” I said as I waved awkwardly. “We just had an idea we wanted to run by you… It’s pretty urgent.”
“Get out!” Marcus growled and pointed to the door. “Whatever it is, it can wait until I’m dressed, for crying out loud!”
I put up my hands and slowly stepped back toward the exit.
Natalie, however, just placed her hands on her hips and tilted her head casually.
“I don’t think you understand, Marcus,” she mused, “this is information that could potentially change our lives forever.”
“At least let me put on some pants?” the Scavenger sighed. “Please? It will literally take two seconds, if you’d just give us the room.”
“Fine,” Natalie grumbled. “I’ll be counting.”
The blonde woman and I exited the tent and then stood out in the darkness as we awaited the leader.
“I told you we should have waited,” I whispered as I looked up at the night sky.
“He was just testing out a potential mate.” The woman in the denim jacket shrugged. “It’s not like it was a
big deal.”
“What do you mean ‘testing out?’” I questioned. “Is Marcus not taken?”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” she scoffed with a grin. “That’s one of the added perks of being the head of the Scavengers. You can test out as many mates as you want, even ones outside your own age group.”
“Wait… ” I began as my heart started racing. “Does that mean you and him… ?”
Natalie twisted her gaze over in my direction and looked like she was about to puke.
“Me and Marcus?” She stuck out her tongue and shook her head. “Eww. No! Some of the female Scavengers may not have the dignity to follow our sacred traditions, but I do. I would never give away my body so easily, especially not to somebody who was almost double my age.”
“You’re saying that in the future tense,” I chuckled. “Does that mean you’re--”
“I am,” the blonde woman grumbled. “But I don’t see how this conversation is pertinent to anything at all. What? Does your dimension look down on women whose purity is still intact?”
I could tell this topic had touched a nerve, so I didn’t want to push it any further. I quickly tried to change the subject.
“The rules of my dimension don’t matter.” I shrugged. “We’re in your dimension right now. Anyways… do you think Marcus is going to go for this plan?”
“Why wouldn’t he?” Natalie mused. “It’s the perfect opportunity to wipe out our enemies once and for all and save our people in the process. If it works, Marcus would be seen as the savior of the entire human race.”
“Ugh.” I rolled my eyes. “That dude’s already egotistical enough. I can only imagine him with a savior complex. I bet his head wouldn’t even fit on his shoulders.”
Then something happened I never thought possible. Natalie, the badass punk-rock warrior woman, laughed. It wasn’t a sarcastic or ironic laugh, either.
I may have just melted the ice queen.
As suddenly as it had started, though, Natalie snapped her mouth shut, cleared her throat, and then looked around nervously.
“What’s taking him so long?” she sighed. “He said he just needed to throw a pair of pants on.”
“Well, if it’s those leather skinny pants he was wearing earlier, he’s probably lubing up his legs first,” I joked as I tried to repeat my earlier success. “I don’t know how he even moves in those things without them blowing out.”
This time, Natalie was much more ready for it, and she didn’t so much as crack a smile.
“Funny,” she stated blankly.
The two of us stood there for a few more minutes as we waited for the Scavenger leader. We were now far enough away from the main encampment that the sounds of the celebration were little more than a faded drone. Instead, all we could hear were the calming sounds of the waves as they crashed against the sandy beach and the occasional rustling inside of the tent.
Finally, Marcus and the brunette woman emerged, both fully clothed. Marcus turned the woman so he could look her in the eyes and placed his hands on her shoulder.
“You would be a fine mate,” he announced in a ceremonious manner. “However, I must speak with my council before I make any decisions on the matter. Return to your dwelling and await further instructions.”
This must have been the Scavenger equivalent of “I’ll call you.”
The brunette woman nodded with a wide grin before she turned away and skipped off down the beach.
“Two seconds?” Natalie raised an eyebrow, and Marcus just scowled.
“There’s no need to be grumpy,” he sighed. “See? It was more than a few minutes, and the world is still here. It obviously wasn’t a life or death situation.”
“Oh, but it is,” the blonde Scavenger argued. “We have a plan that may just rid the entire Fallen Lands of its mutant menace.”
I could tell by Marcus’ expression he was skeptical, but intrigued.
“Really?” He frowned as he folded his arms over his chest. “Proceed.”
Natalie and I jumped right into the details of the plan. How we wanted to activate the nuclear plant, sabotage it, and then watch as all the Rubberfaces flocked to their demise.
“It wouldn’t have to stop there, either,” Natalie finished. “Rumor has it there are dozens of more nuclear plants across the world that were voluntarily turned off after Doomsday. If we were successful, we could spread the word, and all the people of the world would be free of those melted-fleshed bastards.”
“Natalie… ” Marcus hung his head. “It’s a noble idea. It really is. But it wouldn’t work.”
“What do you mean?” I demanded. “It’s a pretty straightforward endeavor. I’ve seen life without the Rubberfaces, and it beats this by a mile.”
I wanted to tell him I already knew it would work thanks to Dr. Nash’s algorithm, but that would require me to dive into the fact I was a Wayfarer. And, as much as Natalie trusted this guy, I wasn’t sure I could just yet.
However, my words only seemed to make Marcus angry.
“My people save you off the streets, offer to let you stay in our community… ” he growled, “and you have the gall to put down our way of life?”
“That’s not what I meant,” I tried to explain. “You Scavengers seem like a great group of people, and an even better community. But think of how things would be if you didn’t have to worry about the Rubberfaces? You could explore without having to worry about getting ambushed. Hell, if they were really gone, you could even repopulate the Fallen Lands and bring it back to its former days of glory.”
“I don’t know what kind of world you lived in up there in the Tundra.” Marcus shook his head. “But your people obviously live in a state of delusion. There’s no ‘killing off the Rubberfaces.’ Don’t you think we’ve been trying to do that for decades now?”
“Hunter’s plan will work,” Natalie argued.
“How?” the Scavenger leader demanded. “Say you somehow get through the Forest of Fallout unscathed… Say you do get to the plant. Who’s going to turn it on? There are no nuclear scientists in our group.”
Again, I wanted to reassure him Karla and Dr. Nash could walk us through the process, but I couldn’t.
“I know how to reactivate it,” I lied. “Believe it or not, we had a scientist in our communities back in the Tundra.”
“How convenient.” Marcus rolled his eyes to show he didn’t believe me. “Even then, that would be pointless. You sabotage the reactor and then hightail it out of there, but then what? There’s not going to be enough time for all of the Rubberfaces to come to the plant before it explodes.”
“We wouldn’t just start a reaction and then run away,” I explained. “We’d obviously program it to operate automatically for a few days. Maybe even a few weeks. Then, once the Rubberfaces are in the general vicinity, the autopilot will shut off. And when that happens… ”
I made a “boom” motion with my hands, but he wasn’t having any of it.
“That easy, hmm?” Marcus asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Nobody said it was going to be easy,” Natalie interjected. “That’s why we need your support, and the support of the rest of our brothers and sisters.”
For a brief moment, it looked like Marcus might have been mulling it over. Then his mouth flipped into a frown, and he shook his head slowly, as if he was trying to explain to a child they couldn’t have another piece of candy.
“Absolutely not,” he announced. “There are way too many variables, and there’s no way in Hell I’m going to send my men into the Forest of Fallout on the pipedream of a newbie who may or may not know what he’s doing. Then there’s the fallout from the meltdown, both literally and metaphorically… If that thing explodes, it’s going to irradiate the entire area for years, potentially decades. We’d have to abandon our camp and maybe even our whole way of life!”
“But it would be for the greater good, Marcus,” Natalie pleaded. “Yes, it would be an uncomfortable change, but it would be the first st
ep in getting the world back to the way it was.”
“The world can never go back to the way it was!” Marcus barked suddenly. “The old world is gone, and this is the only way I know how to survive in the new one. If we were to do this, we’d be risking everything.”
“We’re a family, Marcus,” the blonde woman reminded him. “The Scavenger nation is a way of life, not a single location. As long as we stick together, we will survive any adversity that comes our way.”
“The answer is still ‘no,’” the man with slicked back hair repeated. “It’s dangerous, reckless, and foolish. I will not risk my men in a suicide mission, especially when we’ve lost so many good ones in the last few months.”
Natalie crossed her arms and stared her leader down.
“This is about the city, isn’t it?” she observed. “You don’t want to abandon your hometown.”
“That’s not it,” Marcus snorted.
“Yes, it is,” Natalie chuckled with frustration. “You weren’t here when the bombs went off, so now you feel like it’s your sacred duty to make sure nothing else happens to it. What a good little soldier.”
“That’s enough!” the leader hissed and narrowed his eyes. “I will not have you talk to me like that, Natalie. You may be one of our best fighters, but I’m still your leader. I said no, and that is my final word. Now, I’d suggest you both go back and celebrate with your friends while you still can. I want us to be out on the water first thing in the morning.”
Natalie went to say something, but Marcus completely blew her off. He turned around and grumbled to himself as he disappeared back into his tent, and then the two of us were left alone.
“Fucker,” the blonde woman mumbled underneath her breath.
Everything good over there? Karla chuckled. According to your vitals, you’re about a minute away from having a brain aneurysm.
“The Scavenger leader isn’t going for our plan,” I explained to Miss Nash. “In fact, he thinks we’re both idiots for even suggesting it.”