Doomsday Hunter

by Eric Vall

  “It’s a good thing we were one with the night, then,” I joked. “The poor Rubberfaces didn’t have any idea what hit them until it was too late.”

  “As much as I’d like to continue flirting, we need to keep moving,” Natalie huffed.

  “Flirting?” I raised an eyebrow and wondered if she got off talking about killing Rubberfaces.

  “The power plant should only be a few miles north of here,” she continued without answering me. “The sooner we get to it, the sooner we can head back and warn everybody about the Rubberface camp.”

  “If we don’t encounter it along the way.” I shuddered.

  Natalie frowned at the thought, but she quickly shook it off. Then the blonde woman readied her AK-47 and headed off deeper into the Forest of Fallout.

  The two of us continued north for another two hours. We walked cautiously, but we found ourselves in a lucky position.

  With the Rubberface scouts out of the way, there was nothing between us and the power plant but a bunch of warm, glowing trees.

  Finally, we made it to the edge of the Forest of Fallout.

  “Amazing.” Natalie grinned as we stepped through the tree line. “Do you have any idea how big of a deal this is, Hunter? This is officially the furthest north that any Scavenger has ever been on this side of the lake. Fuck… I wonder if I’m going to run into your people up here?”

  “I really need to teach you geography when we get back to Dimension One,” I chuckled. “Minnesota is on the other side, Natalie.”

  “If we make it back.” The blonde woman stuck out her tongue playfully. “And if I decide I want to come to your dimension. Who knows? Maybe Marcus will let me off with a slap on the wrist if we actually pull this off.”

  I doubted that. But then again, who was I to try and predict the future?

  I’d just as soon leave that all up to Dr. Nash.

  “I’m going to keep my fingers crossed,” I joked. “But you’re right about one thing. We need to make sure we come out the other side in one piece, first.”

  Natalie and I went to take a step forward, but then I suddenly saw something out of the corner of my eye.

  A light.

  I threw my hand across Natalie’s chest and held her back.

  “Wha--What’s wrong?” she gasped, but I quickly shushed her and pointed over toward the light.

  “You see that?” I hissed.

  “I do!” the Scavenger whispered.

  “The light is on,” I explained, “which means--”

  “There’s somebody already in the plant,” she finished for me. “Somebody’s already been trying to reactivate it.”

  “But who?” I questioned. “Are there even any other humans around here who might know about this place?”

  “Not that I’m aware of.” Natalie shrugged. “But there’s obviously somebody inside.”

  Just then, the nearest door of the plant swung open, and a rather large figure sauntered out into the night.

  I grabbed Natalie, yanked her back into the tree line, and then peered out over the scene before us.

  Even from all the way back here, I could tell what the figure was.

  “Ahhhh, crap,” I sighed as I turned to Natalie. “It’s a goddamn Rubberface.”

  “But that means… ” the Scavenger trailed off, but her eyes widened in horror. “They’re more sentient than any we’ve ever seen before, and they are trying to get the plant working.”

  Chapter 14

  “Shit. What do you mean ‘more sentient?’” I asked as we watched from the tree line. “I thought you said they were already hierarchical and formed tribes and all that?”

  “They do,” she explained with a sigh, “but they’ve set up camp right around a de-powered nuclear reactor, and now they’re patrolling it from the inside and out? That means they know what this thing is used for, and they know it could give them a hit of energy if they turn it back on.”

  “They consciously came out to this place so they could have a midnight snack?”

  “I guess that would be an appropriate analogy,” the blonde woman said. “But I couldn’t care less whether or not they get their fix of nuclear energy. It’s the implication that disturbs me… The implication they have further developed their cognitive thinking skills to the point where they can plan massive coordinated actions. We’re doomed as a species if this is the case all around the world.”

  “All the more reason to turn this thing on, sabotage it, and blow every Rubberface in this region to kingdom come,” I reminded her.

  “If they’re still dumb enough to fall for that,” Natalie groaned. “If their brains have really been evolving this rapidly, maybe they’re not as driven by their primal urges as they once were.”

  “It doesn’t matter how much their brains have evolved,” I chuckled at the Scavenger. “We’re the most intelligent species on the planet, and I’d say we still succumbed to our primal urges back there on that beach.”

  Natalie’s face blushed, but a smile spread across her face. “I suppose you’re right. If we somehow make it out of this alive, we’ll have to do that again.”

  “Now, see?” I grinned. “If you come back to Dimension One with me, then we could do that whenever we want to… ”

  “Focus on the mission,” the blonde woman resisted once more as she snapped back to reality. “We were talking about the Rubberfaces’ primal urges, not our own.”

  “Right,” I noted, “well, I think this will still work. One, because even a developed brain cannot reject the body’s primal needs. I see that with pests all the time. Secondly, I think these guys are here for a reason. They obviously want the radiation this place gives off, and that tells me they’re still addicted to the stuff like it’s crack. If we turn it on, they will come.”

  “Won’t that be playing right into their hands, though?” Natalie questioned. “That’s giving them exactly what they want.”

  “Exactly,” I reminded her. “That’s where the sabotage comes into play. It’ll be the buffet of the Rubberfaces’ lives… for about a week or so. Then?”

  I mimicked an explosion with my hands, complete with a raspberry-like “boom” sound.

  “I remember your plan,” the Scavenger sighed, “I’m just starting to get worried it won’t work.”

  “Well, there’s only one way to find out.” I shrugged. “We’ve come this far, so why give up now?”

  Natalie stared off into the distance, and I could see a slight shimmer of fear in her eyes. Then, as quickly as it had appeared, the stoic warrior forced it back down into the deepest pit of her very being.

  “We have to figure out how to get inside,” she suggested. “Obviously, we can’t just walk through the front door.”

  I scanned across the landscape and tried to figure out if there was any good way to get into the place.

  The sunrise was just coming over the lake, and the whole scene was now lit up by a mixture of the natural and man-made lights.

  Before us stood what looked like the smokestack of the plant, which itself was connected to a large, rectangular building made from concrete, and a few concrete-encased hallways sprang forth from the building like an octopus’ tentacles as they stretched out and connected with other, smaller rectangular structures.

  All the way on the other side of the site were long metal buildings I assumed used to house large equipment and supplies. Meanwhile, the crumbled, broken-down remnants of the parking lot stretched out all the way to the east of the complex. Large chunks of asphalt were missing, and I could see from here there were several craters and other debris that could act as potential cover.

  “Wait… ” Natalie pondered as she stared off into the distance. “That structure… It’s not a smoke stack.”

  “What do you mean?” I questioned as I looked at the large cylindrical structure once more. “What else could it be?”

  “I think that’s the reactor,” the Scavenger noted. “Look just beyond the buildings, even further north.”
/>
  I squinted at the other side of the nuclear plant site. To the north, the Forest of Fallout began again, and there was nothing but softly-glowing Radon Root as far as the eye could see.

  Except… Wait…

  I could just barely make out the silhouette of several large structures. They appeared to be tall cylindrical shapes lined up next to each other and held in place by another rectangular framework, and it was almost like looking at the world’s largest test tube holder.

  “Are those… cooling towers?” I gasped.

  “I think they are.” Natalie grinned. “And you know what that means, right?”

  She stared at me with pure glee on her face, but I wasn’t exactly sure how I was supposed to respond.

  “If I’m being honest?” I chuckled. “No.”

  “Hunter, the more smoke stacks in a plant, the more power it produces,” she explained. “Which means this place gives off a shit ton of nuclear energy when it’s running. I don’t know what the voice in your head would say, but I think our chances of success just went through the roof.”

  Finally, some good news. Natalie had been somewhat wishy-washy this entire journey, and to see her fully commit to the plan mentally was a massive relief.

  “So, it’s going to be like a ten-course medieval feast when we ring that dinner bell,” I joked. “But we still need to get inside.”

  “There must be a back door,” Natalie mused. “I’m not familiar with this place, but I’d imagine it’d be constructed similarly to the buildings in the Fallen Lands, no?”

  Then it hit me. I had a resource that could tell us all of this information without so much as moving away from her desk.

  Karla.

  “I’m about to find out,” I said as I motioned for Natalie to hold our position. “Karla? Can you do me a favor?”

  What do you need? the voice asked.

  “See if you can find any information on the web about this plant we’re about to infiltrate,” I asked. “Dimension Nine-Fifty-One is a pretty close copy of our own, so surely this thing exists in Dimension One.”

  I thought you’d never ask, Karla teased. According to this map, you’re at a place called “Palisades Nuclear Plant.” Apparently, it was built in the seventies and is currently set to close in a few years. At least, in our timeline, that is.

  “So, you’re saying this place closed down before Doomsday?” I continued.

  That is unclear, she admitted. We’re still not sure when Doomsday occurred in Dimension Nine-Fifty-One, so it could be an entirely different case there.

  “Damn,” I grumbled. “Also, like… I don’t know that much about nuclear plant meltdowns, but I remember when Fukushima happened the news said it was really good the ocean was able to cool it down, so don’t they tend to build them on lakes or oceans or water in case there is a meltdown?”

  Yes, Karla replied, but from the geological readouts I’m getting from your chip, it seems the water level has dropped drastically since this world has experienced the doomsday event. We should be able to get more time out of the meltdown. Can you ask her how long ago her event happened so I can confirm my calculations?

  “Natalie, what was the last date you remember being mentioned?”

  The blonde Scavenger seemed taken aback by the question. “Uh… the last time I got a date was back when I was about ten years old, when my parents told me it was the year two-thousand-and-twenty-five… ”

  “And Doomsday happened when you were… ?”

  “It’s not polite to ask a woman her age, Hunter,” Natalie grumbled and put her hands on her hips. “But if you must know, Doomsday happened when I was three.”

  Twenty-eighteen. Doomsday happened in twenty-eighteen in this timeline.

  “Karla,” I announced, “Doomsday happened before the plant shut down. Which means this has to be one of the ones they turned off voluntarily after the bombs went off.”

  Then it should still have the capacity to turn back on, Karla noted.

  “Hallelujah.” I breathed a sigh of relief. “Can you find any schematics about the place? Even some pictures or something to give us an idea of other ways inside?”

  Give me a minute, the voice in my head noted. I’ll consult my father.

  “How would she know anything about this place?” Natalie questioned. “Even if our universes are similar, it’s not like schematics and blueprints would just be lying around… ”

  Oh, crap… I had forgotten the internet wasn’t a thing here in the nuclear wasteland. And if Natalie was only three years old when everything went to hell, she wouldn’t have known anything about it.

  “Natalie,” I began, “did you parents ever talk about the internet? Or maybe the ‘world wide web?’”

  “They made plenty of jokes about it.” The blonde Scavenger shrugged. “But I thought that was all it was. Jokes. The idea that you could hop on a machine and then view millions of pages of information or talk to people on other continents always seemed too absurd to be real.”

  “That’s not all,” I added with a snicker, “you could look at cat videos, too.”

  “See?” Natalie demanded. “That doesn’t sound real at all.”

  “It was real, alright,” I assured her, “and it still is, in my dimension. And in a few minutes here, Karla is going to use the internet to find us all the information she possibly can about this power plant.”

  So, Natalie and I sat there in silence as we awaited Karla’s report.

  Meanwhile, the Rubberface who was standing guard on the main entrance looked bored out of his mind. He took a few paces back and forth before he threw his shotgun between his hands a few times, struck a few action poses, and then leaned back against the wall.

  “I’m not gonna lie,” I admitted, “this Rubberface is kinda fun to watch.”

  “Try to think of that when he’s attempting to rip our heads off,” the blonde Scavenger chuckled.

  “There’s something I’ve been curious about… something that’s been bugging me the whole time I’ve been in this dimension… ” I pondered aloud. “How come all the Rubberfaces we’ve seen so far have been guys?”

  “What makes you say that?” Natalie tilted her head curiously.

  “I don’t know.” I shrugged. “They’re all really tall, muscular, and broad-shouldered creatures, and their voices sound really baritone.”

  The corners of Natalie’s mouth twisted into a subtle smile, but she tried to hold in her amusement.

  “Hunter… ” she giggled. “Rubberface men and women look exactly the same. The only way you can tell is by looking at their genitalia and, trust me, nobody wants to do that.”

  “That’s messed up.” I shuddered. “All the more reason to blow their ugly butts to smithereens.”

  My father was able to find the blueprints for the power plant, Karla spoke up suddenly. Their servers had surprisingly good encryption, but his AI was able to break through. It appears there are only two entrances that let you in from the outside. Otherwise, you’d have to break through a window or wall. Or, you could always wait for one of the mutants to open up an emergency exit from the inside.

  “Is that sarcasm I detect?” I gasped as I feigned shock. “I think we’ll take our chances with the main doors. What about the inside?”

  Fairly standard build… the voice in my head explained. There’s the main reactor, surrounded by all the proper equipment to keep it from going nuclear. Then there’s a bunch of hallways with various machinery… a break room… a few offices... If you want to turn the whole thing back on, though, I’d guess you need to be in the operator’s room. That’s the building right beside the reactor. Of course, things could be a bit different since this isn’t our dimension, so keep your eyes open.

  “Then that’s where we’ll have to go,” I decided. “How far away are the two entrances to the operator’s room?”

  Not close at all, Karla sighed. By my calculations, about a half a mile’s worth of building.

  “Which means hal
f a mile’s worth of enemies… ” I muttered. “Are you sure there’s no other way inside?”

  Like I said, Karla shot back, unless you want to go through a window or wait for another door to open by chance, not really.

  “Hunter?” Natalie spoke up. “I just had a crazy idea.”

  “I’ll take anything at this point,” I admitted. “What is it?”

  “Can you ask the voice in your head what exactly is inside of the large tube of concrete?” she continued.

  “Natalie wants to know what’s inside the reactor core,” I relayed to Karla.

  Just your standard reactor pieces, she answered nonchalantly. It’s mainly a containment structure, built to shield the energy put off by the reactor inside and a pressure vessel to separate the reactor from the containment structure.

  I repeated the information for Natalie, and she seemed to get lost deep in thought.

  “So, it’s mostly hollow?” she asked.

  “I’d imagine, but what exactly are you getting at?” I scratched my head and sighed.

  “We have another way in,” she proclaimed and pointed at the structure. “Take a look. There’s a large chunk of the roof that’s missing from the reactor building, and a bunch of rungs on the outside that go all the way up to the top.”

  No way…

  “Please tell me you’re not thinking what I think you are,” I gulped.

  “I most certainly am.” The blonde woman grinned. “I think we should try to get up there and then rappel down into the building.”

  Multiple alarms seemed to go off in my brain at the same time, and I felt like I was about to have a panic attack.

  “That’s way too risky.” I shook my head. “What do we even have with us? Nylon and twine? How the hell is that going to hold our weight?”

  “The nylon is ten-millimeter rope,” Natalie reminded me. “It’s the kind we often use for climbing and securing ourselves to structures at dangerous heights. It’s almost like fate told you to grab it so we’d have it for this very moment.”