by Eric Vall
“Generators, Natalie,” I chuckled. “They’ll do wonders for you. But no, this isn’t the internet. I’m guessing these places run on their own network so they can’t be hacked by foreign governments or anything like that.”
Natalie stared at me blankly. “I didn’t understand a single word of what you just said.”
I figured as much.
“It’s not the internet,” I repeated, “but I’ll gladly show you that when--”
Suddenly, there was the sound of creaking hinges, and the door on the other side of the room began to open.
“Krakal?” a Rubberface voice asked calmly as a mutant swung open the door.
“Fuck!” Natalie hissed as she raised her AK-47. “I should have known there were more!”
The Scavenger squeezed off a round of bullets, and the metal swarm ripped through the Rubberface like a hot knife through butter. I could see there were several more of the mutants in the hallway on the other side of the door, though, and they recoiled in fear at the sight of their dead friend.
“Karla, walk me through this!” I ordered. “We’re under attack, so the quicker, the better!”
“I’ll hold them off,” Natalie growled as she kicked over a nearby desk. “Just get this reactor back online, and I’ll worry about these bastards.”
Tell me what you see, Hunter, Karla said calmly.
“Uhhh… ” I squinted at the screen as more gunshots rang out from my right. “There’s a bunch of folders… A ‘My Computer’ shortcut… And Minesweeper.”
Father says one of the folders should be entitled “Reactor Logs,” Karla replied. That’s the one that has the information you’ll need to put into the command prompt.
I dragged the cursor over to the folder in question, double clicked, and then began to forage through the files inside.
“Hunter?” Natalie called out. “How are we doing? There’s way more of these guys than I thought, and I’m almost out of ammo.”
“Working on it,” I promised the Scavenger, and then I pulled the shotgun over my shoulder. “Here, take these. You definitely need them more than me right now.”
I slid the shotgun over to her position, and I unholstered my pistol and did the same thing with it. Then I turned back to the computer and continued to look for anything that could help us.
My father says there’s a file somewhere in that folder that contains the most recent logs, the voice in my head started once more. If the plant really was turned off voluntarily, then it will have the sequence they used to shut it down. If you can find that--
“We can reverse it and turn it back on,” I finished. “But what about the sabotage? How on Earth do we do that?”
Suddenly, there was an empty clicking noise from Natalie’s barricade, and then I saw her rifle get tossed to the side. The next thing I knew, thunderous blasts from my shotgun echoed through the room.
Let’s get there first, Karla said, then we can worry about that.
Finally, after another minute or two of scrolling through the logs with my heart in my throat, I found it. The log was dated November tenth, twenty-nineteen, and it was the latest one I could find in the system.
That had to be it.
I double-clicked the log, and my screen lit up with a bunch of data I couldn’t make any hide nor hair of.
“I-I have no idea what I’m looking at, Karla,” I sighed. “It’s just a bunch of gibberish to me.”
Is there a sequence of data on the page that starts with “shutdown” or “close” or even “cease?”
I scanned up and down the logs until my eyes finally came to a line that began with the words “cease operations.”
“There it is!” I gasped.
Read it off to me, Karla ordered, so I obliged.
Even with the familiar phrase, the rest of the line was nothing but random letters and characters in a jumble. It meant nothing to me, but I hoped Karla and Dr. Nash would be able to figure it out.
Suddenly, a stray bullet smashed into one of the gauges on the wall and sent bits of drywall, glass, and metal into the air. I ducked down to avoid the debris, but thankfully they didn’t land anywhere near my position.
I popped back up and looked over just as Natalie blew the leg off another mutant. Then, before his friends could make a move, she blasted a hole straight through their chests.
Go, Natalie.
Alright… this should be a simple fix, the voice of Miss Nash remarked. Just follow my directions to a tee, and it should all be fine. Open up the command prompt. I believe with that vintage of computers, you just have to hit “windows” and “X” at the same time.
I hit the buttons, and a small black and white box popped up on my screen. It was completely blank, save for the blinking line of my cursor.
“Got it,” I announced. “Now what?”
Type in “restart functions,” immediately followed by a backslash and a “r.”
I did what she asked, and then the computer made a loud beeping noise.
“It’s restarted,” I noted.
Good, Karla continued. Now, type in this line of commands.
The voice in my head rattled off twenty more lines of commands. I had no idea what any of them meant or what any of them did, but I really didn’t care at this point.
I trusted Karla, and I wanted to get out of this dangerous dimension as quickly as possible.
Eventually, I finished the last line of prompts and hit enter.
All around the room, lights began to flash as monitors booted back up, and the air was filled with a mechanical whirring sound. Next, a loud siren began to blare, accompanied by a spinning red light at the center of the ceiling.
“I think--I think we did it!” I called out excitedly. “The plant is back on!”
Unfortunately, my celebration was cut short by a bullet that smashed into the monitor to my left. I ducked down under the desk, but the danger had already passed.
Don’t celebrate yet, Karla warned, we still need to sabotage this thing. Get back on the command prompt.
I sat back in the dusty black chair just as I heard another mechanical click.
“Fuck!” Natalie growled. “The shotgun’s out, too!”
The blonde Scavenger pulled her pistol out from its holster with one hand and drew her knife with the other. Then she began to fire off rounds as she charged at the incoming mutants.
My stomach turned over as I watched the woman get to work. She was a certified badass, but I didn’t know how much longer she could hold these ugly bastards off.
We had to get out of here, and quickly.
“What do I do, Karla?” I demanded.
In the command prompt, I want you to type in “withdraw function,” followed by “cooling rods” and a backslash with an “s,” she explained. Then, once that’s done, type in “Test manual controls.”
“Okay… uhhh, got it. Oh, hey, a menu popped up.”
Oh, that’s even better! Set these options: Control Rods Position--Out. Emer--
“It’s already there,” I confirmed.
Good. Just adjust these ones: Emergency Coolant Pumps-- Off. Coolant Valves-- Shut. Reactor Temperature-- 10* C. Pressure Vessel Pressure-- Zero. Radiation Meters-- Override. Emergency Pressure Valves-- Open.
“Okay. Those are all set.”
Now type in “Pressure Vessel Inspection Hatches: Unlock. Then you are going to type in whatever period of time you want to use as a delay.
I followed Karla’s orders, hit enter, and then typed in the delay. One week would probably be enough time for all of the Rubberfaces to get here, as well as enough time for the Scavengers to evacuate.
If they even wanted to evacuate, that is.
Finally, I took a deep breath and pressed the button.
The command prompt disappeared, and I was left with nothing but the corny desktop with all its files and folders.
“That’s it?” I questioned. “It’s all set up.”
Good, Karla noted. This will force the
system to slowly fry before meltdown. Now destroy that monitor and get the fuck out of there. The reactor won’t start immediately, but I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near it when it starts giving off radiation again.
“Natalie!” I called out to the Scavenger as I grabbed my E-Tool. “We’re all good here!”
I raised the spade up above my head and then brought it down right on top of the monitor. The screen turned shades of blue and purple as it was cracked straight down the middle, and bits of plastic flew up into the air.
When I turned back to Natalie, I saw she was currently in the process of hiding behind another desk, and she was still engaged with the Rubberfaces trying to come through the doorway. A large pile of dead bodies was scattered throughout the far side of the room, but the mutants still tried to push forward.
“This is our only way out!” Natalie cried as she fired off a few more rounds. “We can’t leave until they’re all gone!”
“That’s not true,” I announced. “We can come out the way we came in. Your rope is still dangling down, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, but--” Natalie started to protest, but I cut her off.
“Do you have a better option?” I noted as I pointed at the door. “The bodies on the ground will give us enough of a head start, but we have to go now, before the reactor starts up again.”
I snatched up my pistol from the ground beside Natalie, fired a few haphazard shots at the doorway, and then motioned for the Scavenger to follow me.
Both of us ran toward the door that led to the reactor, and we only stopped to duck for cover or to return fire. Soon, we were on the other side of the room, and we slammed the door shut behind us.
“This is a terrible idea,” Natalie sighed as we began up the steps of the first level. “Just for the record.”
“Noted,” I chuckled.
The two of us got all the way up to the tenth story before we heard the door slam open below.
“Iktunar!” the mutants screamed, and then they began to fire up into the air.
Thankfully, they had no idea where we currently were, and their bullets smashed into the far wall of the structure harmlessly.
We continued our ascent until we finally reached the top. There, dangling about ten feet above us, was the rope Natalie had used to rappel down into the silo.
“I’ll give you a boost.” I nodded as I holstered my pistol and put my hands together. “Just like you did before.”
Natalie took a step back, shook her body in preparation, and then bounded straight toward me. The second her boot touched my palms, I thrust her up into the air with as much force as I could muster.
The blonde woman caught the rope in her hands and let out a victorious laugh.
Then there was the sound of cracking concrete, and the rope gave out about ten feet. The Scavenger screamed as she fell down, but thankfully the anchor didn’t give out completely.
I threw out my hand, grabbed Natalie, and pulled her back onto the platform to safety.
“Now what?” I gasped. “We’ll be lucky if that thing holds one of us without breaking, let alone both of us.”
“I-I don’t know.” Natalie sighed and hung her head. “I… I think this might be it, Hunter. I don’t have any other ideas.”
“Don’t talk like that,” I said as I grabbed her face in my hands and looked her right in the eyes. “We’re gonna get out of here, okay?”
“No, we’re not.” The blonde woman’s eyes filled with tears. “At least we saved my dimension though, right?”
“Right,” I said with a somber nod.
As much as I hated to admit it, Natalie was right. Maybe one of us had the chance to escape, but that was only if the anchor decided to hold. And even then, we still had the Rubberfaces to worry about.
I could hear their footsteps growing closer, and it was only a matter of time before they were upon us.
Then I heard a sound that made my hair stand on end.
The chuff of helicopter blades.
A moment later, a dark shadow appeared over the hole in the silo, and then two ropes fell down through the opening.
At their end were the Scavengers William and Harrison, both armed with AK-47s. The two men took aim at the platforms down below, squeezed their triggers, and rained hell on the Rubberfaces. They both held their attack for a solid ten seconds, and then they holstered their weapons and high-fived each other.
“William?” Natalie gasped. “Harrison?”
“I heard a little bloke and sheila were in trouble!” he shouted as he threw his weapon over his shoulder. “So, we figured we’d come to bail the two of ‘yas out.”
“Marcus is going to be sooooo pissed,” Natalie murmured, but her face was plastered with a wide grin.
“I wouldn’t worry about him,” Harrison called down as he pointed up at the hovering chopper. “It was his idea to come get ya.”
“Now, are we gonna all just gonna stand here with our weddin’ tackles in our hands,” William interjected, “or are we gonna shoot through this godforsaken place?”
God bless this man.
William and Harrison both held out their hands, and Natalie and I took them. The two men wrapped their arms around us in a bear-hug like hold and produced a flashlight from their belts. They flashed them up at the pilot twice, and then the ropes began to rise.
Soon, all four of us were pulled up to the cabin of the helicopter, where another Scavenger helped us crawl up inside.
It was Marcus.
“Well, well, well… ” He feigned annoyance as he placed his hands on his hips. “Look who couldn’t pull it off on their own after all.”
“Can it, Marcus,” Natalie joked. “We did literally everything but escape.”
“It’s still a crucial point,” the Scavenger leader chuckled.
“Thank you.” I nodded and outstretched my hand to Marcus. “We disobeyed your direct orders, stole your supplies and your dune buggy… And you still came back for us.”
“Of course I did, Hunter!” Marcus proclaimed. “You’re a Scavenger, my boy. Now, let’s get the fuck out of here, eh?”
Marcus turned to the pilot, let out a loud whistle, and then the chopper began to head back toward the camp.
Meanwhile, I slumped back down into one of the chairs.
It was over.
Somehow, some way… Natalie and I had pulled it off, and we’d both come out the other side in one piece.
If this didn’t call for a Scavenger celebration, I didn’t know what did.
“Karla,” I whispered to the voice in my head. “Tell your father… mission accomplished.”
Chapter 16
Now that we were safely away from the power plant, in the cabin of the helicopter headed back to our base, the entire Scavenger crew was in full celebration mode.
“Could you guys have cut it any closer?” Natalie laughed. “We were literally minutes away from death.”
“It’s not too late to take ya back.” William shrugged.
“Of course I cut it close, I wanted to make sure you were grateful.” Marcus mused sarcastically, and Natalie responded with a playful slap to his arm.
“But seriously,” I spoke up. “What made you decide to change your mind?”
Marcus’ face grew overly serious as he leaned back in his chair.
“I never changed my mind,” he admitted. “I thought it was a hopeless plan back then, and I thought it was a hopeless plan all the way up until we picked you up. Thankfully, I was one-hundred percent wrong, and I fully admit that. However, the reason I came back for you was simple… We don’t leave our own to die, no matter how much they’ve wronged us.”
“But… what about the people you’ve exiled over the years?” the blonde woman questioned. “They were ‘your people,’ too, right?”
“Wait,” William chuckled, “do you really think Marcus here just sent ‘em off into the forest alone to die?”
Marcus shot the Aussie a glare, but William didn’t give a damn.
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“That’s what we were all told.” Natalie’s eyes narrowed. “Is that not accurate?”
“I think we should maybe--” Marcus began, but William cut him off.
“Not inna slightest, sweetie!” William guffawed. “Marcus here just ‘banished’ em to another Scavenger group. The one up on the north coast, near the place with the abandoned stadium.”
“Wait,” Natalie gasped, “you’re telling me this whole time, you’ve just been sending people off to another group, and they’re perfectly fine?”
“It wasn’t a total lie,” Marcus grumbled, “I did banish them from the Scavengers… But I wasn’t gonna be the one to sign their death warrants. All of our banished brothers are up in the Coldlands with the Scroungers.”
“The Scroungers?” I chuckled. “How original.”
“Well, we sure as fuck weren’t lettin’ ‘em take our name!” William cackled.
“In all seriousness, though,” I noted, “you should probably get with them and let them know everything that’s gone down. They’ll probably need to evacuate this area before the meltdown happens, too.”
“I’m already planning on it, Hunter.” Marcus nodded. “In fact, now that we have to be completely uprooted… I think we’re going to make some drastic changes to our lifestyle.”
“Whoa, there,” Harrison spoke up, “how ‘drastic’ are we talking here? I kind of like our current lifestyle.”
“And you’ll enjoy the new one, as well,” Marcus reassured his follower as he placed his hand on the man’s shoulder. “We will still scavenge fallen cities and make camp and do all those things. But we’re going on the move. We need to tell every single surviving human about what happened here. If we can somehow replicate your actions at other nuclear plants across the world? The Rubberface species will be wiped off the face of the map.”
That must have been what Karla and Dr. Nash had been talking about. This was how the timeline was saved.
If the Scavengers helped the rest of humanity in eliminating the Rubberfaces, there would be no more threat to their existence.