I wasn’t one hundred percent sure this was the right thing, but I’d played enough video games to know an ammo box when I saw it. So, I reached down and grabbed the end of the string.
“Iktunar!” one of the mutants suddenly snarled.
There was a sudden whooshing sound, and then an arrow stabbed into the passenger seat of the dune buggy, right next to my left leg.
I gasped in a panic and dropped the end of the ammo belt. It hit the floor of the vehicle with a metallic clang, and I instantly went down to grab it. As I did so, I heard a gunshot ring out and then a lightning-fast swish above me where I’d just been standing.
My hands were trembling as I snatched up the end of the ammo belt once more. If I didn’t get it right this time, I was dead. We’d both be dead.
I fumbled around at the opening in the side of the machine gun as another bullet zipped past my head. Out of my peripheral vision I could see the mob was now approaching our vehicle, and that only made me panic even more.
Oh, god. This was a nightmare.
And it was only going to get worse here in a second.
Hunter? Karla asked.
I didn’t answer. I needed to focus all my attention on getting this thing locked and loaded.
“Iktunar!” the crowd now chanted in unison. “Skok em Iktunar!”
Finally, my sweaty fingers found the spot where the bullets went in.
“Got it!” I exclaimed.
Good, Karla noted. Now, push down the lever and pull back the charging handle on the right.
I quickly stood up, pushed down the lever on the side of the gun, yanked back the only thing that could be the charging handle, and grabbed the grips of the machine gun.
The crowd of mutants were now only a few dozen feet away, and they were readying their weapons once more.
I took aim and pressed down on the trigger. The kick of the gun was intense, so I had to hold on for dear life to keep myself upright and on target.
The first mutant’s legs exploded like a pigeon being hit by a fastball, and he screamed as he fell onto the ground.
I pulled the gun slightly upward and then watched as the bullets cut the second mutant in half at the waist.
Two more of the ugly bastards went down before the rest of the crowd scattered. Even then, the entire right side of the group was doomed.
The bullets cut through the mutants as they tried to run. Some of their heads popped like gore-filled balloons, while others were turned into bloody swiss cheese from behind.
When I finally let up, the entire right side of the crowd had been decimated.
However, the mutants on the left were still alive and well and ready for retaliation.
“Johnny?” Natalie groaned from the front of the vehicle.
“Hunter,” I corrected, “and I’m glad to see you’re awake. We need to get out of here, now.”
“W-Where’s Johnny?” Natalie asked again, this time more coherent.
Oh, no… Johnny must have been our gunner.
I aimed at the closest mutant on my left just as he raised his rifle and then tore him to bits before he could get off his shot.
“Johnny’s gone,” I said matter-of-factly. “And we’re going to join him if we don’t get out of here soon.”
Natalie went silent.
I couldn’t tell if she was trying to figure a way out of the situation, or if she was simply mourning her dead partner. In all reality, it was probably a little bit of both.
“The front right tire is flat,” she finally spoke up, and her voice cracked a little. “And it looks like a lot of the body is dented. But it will still drive, as long as you can shoot.”
“I’ll do my best,” I admitted as I turned the machine gun toward a nearby mutant.
The ugly bastard had his bow and arrow already pulled back, and he released it haphazardly as his body was torn to shreds by the hailstorm of bullets.
I ducked out of the way just in time before the arrow swished past my head, and then I turned the gun onto the small crowd of mutants just off to the left.
I could just barely hear the engine of the dune buggy turning over as I cut the mutants down, and then I heard Natalie let out a long slew of swear words.
Finally, she turned the engine over once more, and it roared to life.
“Hold on!” she exclaimed. “This ride’s gonna be much more bumpy than last time!”
Before I had a chance to brace myself, the dune buggy lurched forward. The barrel of my gun jerked downward, which resulted in a large line of battered asphalt all the way to the back of the vehicle. When I finally got the machine gun back under control, we were high-tailing it out of there.
A few more mutants took shots at us, but their bullets missed by a mile.
I let off the trigger and took a deep sigh as we continued onward. As we drove, I suddenly began to recognize where we were. This was The Loop. Why were we going deeper into the city?
Hunter? Karla’s voice spoke up in my head. Why are you going east? I thought I told you to get out of the city?
“I don’t really have a choice in the matter,” I admitted. “This is where Natalie is taking us, and I trust she knows this place better than any of us.”
I hope you’re right, Miss Nash noted.
“She said there weren’t any mutants on this side of the river,” I explained.
Was that before or after you encountered mutants on the other side of the bridge? she snorted.
“I know that’s what I said!” Natalie growled from the front seat. “Up until today, there hadn’t been any. Also, why do you keep referring to me like you’re talking to somebody else? I have a name, you know.”
“I know, I know,” I sighed. “I was just talking to myself, and I’m a little on edge, you know?”
“You’re on edge?” the blonde woman scoffed as we thumped down Monroe Street. “We just lost the only member of the Scavengers who was in my age group! Now, if I want to find a mate, I’m completely fucked.”
“I-I’m sorry,” I apologized. “It was just a freak accident—”
“An accident that wouldn’t have happened if we hadn’t gone back for your sorry ass!” Natalie spat with a trembling voice. “My strong Carr bloodline is going to die off… all for some random stranger.”
I wanted to argue with the woman, to tell her it wasn’t my fault, and how the mutants would have been back there waiting for them, even if I wasn’t there.
But I could see Natalie was already in pain, and I didn’t want to burden her any further.
Instead, I just turned back to the gun and scanned our surroundings for any enemies. Thankfully, it seemed like we had escaped the horde, and the rest of the trip was fairly uneventful.
Finally, Natalie spoke up.
“I’m sorry,” she sighed. “That was a little harsh. It wasn’t your fault Johnny’s dead. If anything, it was mine for not checking for Rubberfaces before I made the jump.”
“You couldn’t have known,” I explained. “You said they’d never gotten to the other side of the river before.”
“Still,” Natalie mumbled, “I should have been more careful. I don’t know where you come from, but you don’t survive in the Fallen Lands very long by being careless, and I was careless.”
I saw we were now headed straight toward the shore of Lake Michigan, more specifically right toward a large white boat.
The thing had to be at least fifty feet wide, probably an adaptation of an old vessel that used to run on these waters. On the side, in big blue lettering, were the words “Lake Express,” and its front was split out into two points like an oversized hydroplane boat. Most peculiar of all was the back, which was parked up to a large pier whose end led straight up onto the deck. There, on the ship itself, sat a giant opening with another dune buggy parked inside.