by Eric Vall
It couldn’t possibly be that simple. There was nearly twenty feet between us and the ground. I was no doctor, but I figured that distance would definitely hurt like hell and break a bone or two, if nothing else.
“How is that going to work?” I demanded as we watched the Rubberfaces approach the shoreline.
“We get closer.” The blonde woman shrugged, and then she lowered herself down onto a descending branch, followed by another.
I slid off the branch I was currently on and down onto the one below fairly silently.
It was the second jump that caused a problem.
Natalie silently pointed to another branch about ten feet from her current position, on the opposite side of where I was situated.
So, I turned around, squatted down, and leapt onto the wooden appendage.
Then my heart sank into my stomach when I heard a loud snap.
The wood under my feet started to give way, so I instantly pushed against it with all my might and jumped toward the next nearest branch. The wind was knocked out of me as my chest slammed into the wooden cylinder, but I was somehow able to wrap my hands around the branch and then hoist myself up onto it.
Too bad the damage had already been done.
The branch I’d just been on snapped off the trunk of the Radon Root, plummeted to the ground below, and slammed into the forest floor with a loud crash.
“Iktunar?” one of the Rubberfaces hissed.
The scouts froze in place as they began to scan their surroundings.
Natalie and I both went prone and pressed ourselves as close to the branches as we possibly could. My heart was pounding out of my chest, and I was foolishly worried its repeated rhythm was going to reverberate through the tree and give us away.
However, they still must not have seen us. The two Rubberfaces began to move forward cautiously once more, but this time they did so much more slowly.
Once they were about twenty feet away, Natalie got up on all fours and moved into a crouched position. She opened up her large pocket knife, flipped it around so it was in a reverse, close-quarters-combat position, and then tightened her grip around its base.
I got my own weapon ready. Then I held my breath as they drew closer to the tree, and Natalie gave me a pointed look.
I’d only seen this in movies, but I held up my fingers to indicate a countdown.
Three… Two… One.
I took one last deep breath, and then I jumped off the branch as I raised the E-Tool above my head.
The Rubberface below me must have heard the commotion, because he looked up as I plummeted down to the ground below. He went to raise his gun, but I was falling way too quickly.
I grunted as I simultaneously slammed into his body and thrust the tip of the shovel into his skull.
The Rubberface didn’t even have a chance to yelp before his head was split wide open by the razor-sharp edge of the E-Tool. His body went limp underneath me as we hit the ground, and his eyes rolled away in different directions as blood gushed from his fresh wound.
I quickly yanked the E-Tool out of his skull and gagged when bits of brain matter began to pulse out onto the foliage around him. Then I turned back to Natalie, who was now wiping off her blade nonchalantly.
“We totally ninja attacked them,” I whispered.
“Ninja?” Natalie echoed with a frown.
“Sneak attacked,” I corrected.
“Ah,” she mused. “Well, see? That wasn’t so hard, was it?”
“Stealth kills number one and two, success,” I whispered to both Natalie and Karla.
Don’t get ahead of yourself, Karla warned, you’ve still got some more to go.
Natalie bent over and rummaged through the pockets of the fallen Rubberfaces. However, she seemed to come up empty.
“That’s odd… ” she pondered aloud. “Usually Rubberface scouts have a lot of supplies on them. Bullets… medipacs… sometimes even food. But these ones have nothing but the clothes on their backs and their weapons.”
“You said they were scouts, right?” I questioned as I wiped my shovel against the ground. “Maybe they were short distance scouts who didn’t need supplies?”
“That’s impossible,” Natalie scoffed. “That would only be the case if-- Oh. Oh… no.”
“What’s wrong?” I demanded as I looked around cautiously. “Do you see more of them?”
“That’s not it,” the blonde woman murmured as her eyes widened. “It’s just… The only way these could have been short distance scouts was if there was a Rubberface encampment somewhere around here. Which would mean--”
“That they’re really close to the Scavengers’ camp,” I gasped. “Damn.”
“Who knows how long they’ve been on our doorstep, Hunter?” Natalie looked like she was about to have a mental breakdown. “We need to get back to the camp and warn everybody.”
Oh, no… The calm and collected half of the team was panicking.
This couldn’t end well, and I needed to stop it before it became a crisis.
Customer service voice, don’t fail me now.
“Look, Natalie,” I explained as I put my hand on her shoulder, “we can’t go back now. We’re so close… Besides, do you really think the Scavengers would listen to what we’re saying? They’d throw us into prison or exile us or torture us or whatever the hell Marcus does to traitors before we’d even get a chance to explain. And if that happens, we’re all dead. The best thing we can possibly do right now is to forge ahead and finish our mission.”
“I-I just can’t believe we’ve been this blind,” Natalie sighed.
“That’s what happens when you get too comfortable,” I admitted, “you let your guard down, and then the next thing you know Kyle Dover passes you up for a promotion.”
“Who?” the blonde woman asked as she tilted her head in confusion.
“Not applicable in this situation,” I chuckled, “I see that now. Anyway, we need to keep moving. There’s still more Rubberfaces between us and the nuclear plant.”
Natalie’s lip was quivering, but she held it all together. She gave me a nod of agreement, and then I helped her back onto her feet.
“If these are anything like the scouts we encounter in the Fallen Lands,” the blonde woman explained, “then the rest of the unit will grow suspicious when they don’t hear back from these two. When that happens, they’ll come and check out the scene wherever they were originally stationed.”
“Which would be… ?” I trailed off.
“Probably just up the beach, where I first saw them,” she admitted. “Let’s go back there and set up a trap for these melted-faced bastards.”
Without any further discussion, the two of us made our way out of the forest and back up the beach, and we remained stealthy the whole time. Natalie snatched up one of the makeshift beds as we walked, and I looked at her curiously.
“What do we need that for?” I questioned in a whisper.
“Just let me worry about that,” she reassured me.
Before long, we got to the spot where the Rubberfaces had originally been seen. Instantly, Natalie placed the base of the bed down against the ground, kicked the middle with her foot, and snapped the whole thing in two. Then she crouched down and began to dig at the earth with her hands, like a rabbit.
“Uh… you need some help with that?” I offered as I unfolded the E-Tool.
“That’s the idea,” she drawled sarcastically.
So, I stabbed the tool into the ground and began to assist the Scavenger in her digging endeavors.
After just a few minutes, Natalie stood up and wiped the sweat off her brow.
However, the hole before us couldn’t have been more than three feet deep.
“Done already?” I asked. “Maybe I’m just missing something here, but I don’t think that hole’s gonna be big enough for them to fall into and get trapped.”
“Then it’s a good thing ‘trapped’ isn’t what we’re going for.” Natalie shrugged.
The Scavenger
took the two halves of the former bed, flipped them over, and then pushed them into the dirt so their jagged ends were standing straight up. Then she began to push all the leaves and foliage around us into the hole.
“Ahhhh,” I noted. “Neat trick. But how in the world are we going to get them to step onto this exact spot?”
Natalie looked up at me with a weak smile.
“Bait,” she chuckled.
“Don’t these guys all have guns?” I reminded her. “They’ll just shoot us the second we’re within their sight.”
“We’re not the bait,” the Scavenger explained. “I’m going to offer up something the Rubberfaces simply cannot resist… ”
Natalie then slid her AK-47 off her shoulders and placed it a few paces in front of the hole.
“An assault rifle?” I raised my eyebrows. “Don’t they already have like, a million of those?”
“They do.” The woman nodded. “But you should see a Rubberface when they find a new gun. My parents always used to compare it to a child on that winter holiday everyone used to celebrate. The one where you gave each other gifts.”
“Christmas,” I reaffirmed.
“Right,” Natalie mused. “That one. I’ve never seen a Rubberface turn down the opportunity for a new weapon, and I’d wager that’s not going to change now.”
“Okay, so say this works,” I noted, “that’s still only going to kill off one of them. Didn’t you say there could be at least two more?”
“We’ll take care of the others,” Natalie explained. “May I see that twine of yours?”
“Uh, sure,” I agreed, even though I wasn’t sure what she was talking about.
I nodded as I pulled the backpack over my shoulder, placed it on the ground, and unzipped it in a flash. Then I pulled out the spool of twine and handed it over to Natalie.
The Scavenger unwound a bit in her hands, stretched it out horizontally, and then studied it like she was going to be quizzed on it later.
“This will do,” she admitted. “Not ideal, but I guess beggars can’t be choosers.”
Natalie then took the spool of twine and tied a long trip cord between the trunks of two Radon Roots, right in front of the hidden pit. Once those had been tied off, she tested the twine for tautness and covered it up with leaves and foliage.
“That’s gonna hurt.” I whistled as I thought about the Rubberfaces getting skewered.
“That’s the idea.” Natalie smiled. “How do you want to kill yours?”
I guess I hadn’t thought of that, yet.
“Probably with my E-Tool.” I shrugged. “That seemed to work the last time.”
Natalie’s expression grew amused, but she finally just nodded.
“I guess if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it,” the blonde Scavenger chuckled.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I demanded. “Do I need to do some sort of over the top execution?”
“No, no… ” Natalie retorted, though I could tell she was somewhat disappointed. “I’m sure whatever you do will be fine.”
“Well, now I felt obligated to do something cool!” I argued.
“You are cute. Just get into position.” The woman laughed and pointed to a nearby Radon Root. “Make sure they don’t see you as they approach, obviously. Then, once they’re past our position, we sneak out and kill them from behind.”
“I’m still thinking about how you said I was cute,” I snickered at her.
“You are,” she stated. “And a great lover, but I need you to kill some Rubberfaces now.”
“Of course.”
It all sounded simple enough. Then again, I knew I was nowhere near Natalie’s league when it came to stealth.
With my luck, I’d trip and fall over my own feet before I could sneak up on the Rubberfaces. Then again, I did have years of experience sneaking up on mice and roaches…
I guess that was a form of stealth.
As I headed over to the tree, I figured I’d consult with the expert.
“Hey, Karla?” I asked the disembodied voice in my head. “This may sound like a stupid question, but what’s a badass stealth kill I can do? One where I sneak up on them from behind?”
I suppose that all depends on how you want your opponent to die, the voice on the other side pondered aloud. Do you want to skewer them through the brain? Rip their heart out of their chest? Decapitate them? There are a million answers, Hunter. I need more details.
“I don’t know,” I mused. “Natalie’s just expecting me to do something cool when I kill these next Rubberfaces, and I don’t want to let her down.”
You’ve already slept with her, Hunter, Karla chuckled, I don’t think you need to go out of your way to impress her any more.
“Wow.” I clicked my tongue. “Your exes must have been really terrible if that’s the norm for you.”
Very funny, Miss Nash grumbled. Do you want my help, or not?
“I do.” I rolled my eyes. “I’ve already smashed one’s head in and killed another by stabbing my spade through his skull. Maybe change it up a little bit? Something that doesn’t involve the head, maybe?”
Heart rip it is, Karla laughed. Would your E-Tool be sharp enough to stab through its chest?
“Probably,” I pondered. “But that’s gonna take a precision strike to take him out with one blow. Also, I’m not sure if I’m quite that strong.”
Then I’d go with something simple, the voice continued. You can never go wrong with a throat slit. That’s stealthy, and it always looks badass. If you did it with your E-Tool? Well… I bet Natalie would want to have you again, right there on the corpses.
“You’re mocking me, aren’t you?” I sighed with an amused grin. “Jealous?”
I would never dream of it, Hunter.
“Well, the joke’s on you,” I shot back, “I’m gonna go with that, and then I’m gonna get laid on a pile of corpses. It’ll be like I’m on the cover of a metal album.”
Now that I had settled on a technique, I simply crouched down behind the trunk of the Radon Root and remained silent. There was nothing but the sound of chirping bugs and the blowing wind for a long while.
But then, we finally heard the sound of approaching footfalls.
Natalie peeked her head out from behind the tree, pulled it back immediately, and then gestured that there were three Rubberfaces on their way.
I stood straight up, pressed myself against the trunk of the tree, and readied my E-Tool. I held the makeshift weapon by its hilt rather than its handle, and I made sure the serrated edge was pointed inward.
“Brakda,” one of the Rubberface scouts gurgled to his partners. “Brakda kalfrak ik turam.”
I had no idea what they were saying, but the fact that he sounded so calm made me think they hadn’t seen us yet. I saw Natalie begin to make her way around the back side of the tree, so I did the same. My feet shifted as if the ground was made up of glass shards, and I moved with the silence of a mouse. As soon as I was safely on the other side of the tree trunk, I dared to look around the corner.
Sure enough, there were three Rubberfaces, each with the same uniform and weapons set as the two we’d just killed.
Suddenly, all three of them stopped in their tracks.
“Blastka?” the one on the far right gasped.
“Blastka,” the middle Rubberface confirmed.
Then I watched as the scout on the right slid his own rifle onto his back and headed straight toward Natalie’s rifle.
The blonde woman gave a “move out” signal, and then the two of us stepped away from our cover.
My arms were shaking, and my legs felt like rubber as we snuck up on the two scouts.
There were literally a million things that could go wrong here, and each and every one would lead straight to our deaths.
What if I stepped on a twig? What if I accidentally coughed? What if the guard going for the gun saw the trip wire?
If any of the above scenarios ended up happening, Natalie and I would be turned
into bloody swiss cheese before we could even get to cover.
This was about as risky of a maneuver as you could get, but we couldn’t risk them sounding the alarm.
We were now only two steps away from the bastards, and they still seemed to be oblivious.
Then the scout up front found our trip wire.
Thankfully, he found it with his foot.
He let out a grunt of surprise as he fell forward, and then there was a quick rustle of leaves followed by a loud, wet shlock.
It was now or never.
So, I jumped forward, threw my E-Tool in front of the Rubberface’s neck, and then slashed the serrated edge across in a flash.
The mutant tensed up like he wanted to scream, but all that came out was a sickly gurgling sound as he fumbled at his wound and began to choke on his own blood. He fell down to his knees as what looked like a gallon of the crimson liquid sprayed out onto the ground. Then the Rubberface let out a final gurgle as he fell face-first into the foliage and began to twitch.
I looked over at Natalie and saw the Scavenger had been just as successful.
The blonde beauty had a doubled-up piece of the nylon cord in her hand, and she was using it as a makeshift garrote.
The Rubberface was kicking and gasping for air, but Natalie wasn’t letting him go. His face was now completely purple, and his eyes bulged out of their sockets as he tried in vain to escape her grip.
Soon, his eyes rolled back in his disgusting head, and his body went limp.
“Whew,” Natalie sighed as she tossed him off to the side. “That was too close. I probably should have just gone for the throat slit like you did. That was a way better choice.”
Thank you, Karla.
“I mean, you could have done a heart rip, too,” I teasingly suggested as Natalie walked over to where she’d laid her AK-47.
“Too messy,” she noted, “and loud. Ugh, this one’s still twitching.”
In one swift motion, Natalie reached down, threw out her arms, and twisted them to the right. A loud, wet crack immediately followed, and then she stood up as she brushed off her hands.
“Is that all of them?” I questioned. “Or is there likely to be more somewhere out here in the forest.”
“If they’re anything like the rest of the Rubberfaces I’ve encountered,” Natalie explained, “then they wouldn’t have any need to send out more than one scout unit at a time. Especially if they didn’t think there were any threats in the area.”