The room was completely filled with a thick, black smoke, so I fell down onto my knees and covered my mouth with my hand. This was the same building that was missing most of its west side, so I was able to find my way out pretty easily before the smoke inhalation overwhelmed me.
Once I was back outside, I jumped to my feet and took off down the street until I was at a safe distance. Then I turned around and admired my handiwork from afar.
“Hunter, seven… Mutants, zero,” I chuckled.
I will admit, Karla mused, I am impressed. Good job, Hunter. Now, don’t get complacent. Those were not the only mutants in the city, you know.
“Right.” I nodded, even though she couldn’t see me. “At least this gives me some time before—”
Suddenly, I heard the sound of a vehicle approaching. I ducked behind a larger pile or rubble and then watched as a silver dune buggy with a massive machine gun on its back approached from the south. It was traveling at a breakneck speed, intent on getting to wherever the hell it was going as quickly as possible.
Then I noticed who was driving.
It was a human.
Against my better judgement, I stepped out of my hiding place, walked out onto the road, and waved at the vehicle.
Its brakes screeched against the road as it slowed down and then rolled to a stop about fifty feet away from me.
Behind the wheel was a beautiful woman with long, corn-blonde hair. She was wearing green combat pants with dozens of pockets, as well as a denim jacket over a dirty white tank top. The jacket was covered from head to toe with all sorts of colorful patches, and its sleeves had been completely ripped off.
Manning the machine gun was a burly-looking dude with a black beard that would make ZZ Top jealous. He was wearing a more militaristic uniform, a black helmet, and fatigues meant for urban combat.
“I told you it was another human,” the blonde woman noted to her friend. “The Rubberfaces don’t just scream out ‘Iktuna!’ for no reason.”
“Who are you?” I asked as my jaw dropped, and the blonde woman turned back to me and scowled.
“The people who are about to save your ass,” she scoffed and then nodded to the flames. “Is that your handiwork?”
“Sure is!” I announced with a large grin.
“Don’t act so excited,” the woman warned. “Every single mutant in the city is going to see that, and do you know what they’ll do? They’re all gonna come here. And when they do that, we’re all fucked.”
“I—Uh—” I tried to think of words to say, but nothing was coming out.
At the same time, there was a faint beeping noise that arose in my ears. It wasn’t very loud, more like the sound of a buzzing mosquito. However, I didn’t have much time to figure out where it was coming from.
“Just get in.” The blonde nodded to the empty seat beside her. “Quickly, before the entire Rubberface population of this place is on us.”
Hunter? Karla’s voice asked. What’s happening?
“I’m not sure,” I admitted as I ran over to the dune buggy, hoisted myself into the seat, and buckled my seatbelt. “All I know is things are about to get a lot more interesting.”
Chapter 5
What do you mean, “interesting?” Karla’s voice demanded in my earpiece.
“You might want to hold on to something,” the woman behind the steering wheel warned.
Then she slammed her foot down onto the gas pedal, and there was a loud squeal of tires against asphalt as the wheels spun out and shot us off down the road.
I grabbed onto the sidebar of the dune buggy just as we lurched forward, but I still felt my insides jump back against my spine from the sudden motion. Then the wind suddenly picked up and sent me into a fit of shivering.
I’d only been to the Windy City a few times in my life, but apparently post-apocalyptic Chicago was just as biting cold as it was in my timeline.
Hunter? We really need to work on your communication skills, Karla grumbled. I thought you said Pest Control Technicians had to be good at that sorta thing?
“I am,” I hissed as quietly as I could, “but I’m kinda in the middle of a dune buggy going over one-hundred right now, surrounded by two people I don’t even know.”
So, you have made contact with other humans? Karla sounded relieved. Thank the stars. I was worried you wouldn’t make it out of the city on your own.
“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” I grumbled.
“Excuse me?” the blonde woman spoke up.
“Oh, nothing,” I chuckled. “Just thanks for saving my ass, that’s all.”
“I wouldn’t thank me yet,” she stated without even looking over. “We’re far from being out of the woods.”
“What are you talking about?” I questioned. “I thought I just killed all the mutants in this area?”
Both the woman and the man in the dune buggy shot me a look of disbelief. It was a look I’d seen many times before, usually from middle-aged women who thought they knew how to do my job better than me.
It was the look of “is this guy serious?”
“Do—Do you have any idea where you are?” the woman in the denim jacket asked as we whipped around a corner.
“Chicago, right?” I retorted.
“This land hasn’t been called that since I was a little girl,” the woman explained as she raised an eyebrow. “That was what my parents always referred to it as, but those of us in the Nuclear Generation know it as ‘The Fallen Lands.’”
“Or ‘Mutantopolis,’” the man on the gun interjected over the sound of the rushing wind. “I’ll give you three guesses why we call it that.”
I didn’t even need one. Dr. Nash and Karla had mentioned this was the hotbed of mutant activity, and the name only solidified my hunch that I was smack-dab in the heart of their territory.
“You killed a small patrol,” the short-haired blonde woman went on, “but the Fallen Lands act as the home of every Rubberface in the greater Smoulder.”
“Uh, I’m not from here… ” I admitted. “What exactly is the Smoulder?”
The blonde woman rolled her eyes.
“How old are you, exactly?” she grumbled. “You look like you’re the same age as me, but you keep talking like you’re eighty years old. The Smoulder is what the old fogeys would have called ‘The Midwest.’”
Uff-dah. Dr. Nash and Karla had mentioned this was a hotbed of the mutant activity, but every single mutant in the Midwest?
That was a lot. And apparently I had just lit the beacon that would call them to our position.
“Why would they come after a giant fire like that?” I asked. “Doesn’t that kind of thing happen all the time around here, with lightning hitting abandoned buildings and debris and all that?”
“Is this guy for real, Natalie?” the man sighed. “Or did we fall into a bed of Radon’s Bane?”
“Please,” the woman, Natalie, chuckled. “If we’d fallen into Radon’s Bane, we’d both be writhing around in a radiation-induced coma right now. I don’t know what kind of visions we’d be having, but it certainly wouldn’t be this guy.”
I didn’t know whether to be offended or not. Mostly because I had no idea what they were talking about.
“So… ” I began, but Natalie cut me off with a wave of her hand.
“I don’t know where you come from,” she noted, “but it’s becoming more and more obvious you don’t know much about the Fallen Lands. Or the Rubberfaces. Or, well, anything, for that matter. Mutants are like moths. They’re attracted to large, glowing objects, mostly because it reminds them of the radiation that birthed them. And you put on quite the explosion back there. I wouldn’t be surprised if—Shit!”