“The beginning, I guess.” I shrugged. “Of Doomsday, of course.”
“If ya insist… ” William nodded. “Well, as ya probably already know, that old city back there used to be Chicago, the pinnacle of this whole region of the country. That’s probably why it was targeted for an attack.”
“An attack by who?” I questioned. “Terrorists? Foreign enemies?”
“Fuck if I know,” the man chuckled. “All I know is this place was hit hard, along with a bunch of other key cities across the USA. I’m tryin’ ta remember the names of all of ‘em… I know the capital was hit, for sure.”
“The District, as it’s known now,” Natalie confirmed.
“Right, the District.” William nodded. “They were hit, as was some big fancy city out on the west coast and another one on the east. I can’t remember their names.”
“Los Angeles and New York?” I suggested.
“Those are the ones!” William proclaimed as he clapped his hands together. “Not bad for a Tundra dweller. There were a few more around the country, and then we retaliated with everything we had. Now, all the world’s in the same boat as us here. Not literally, of course.”
Wow… So the world really had gone to shit in this timeline.
“The fallout from the blasts collapsed all society as we knew it,” Harrison added. “Crops didn’t grow like they used to… Major urban centers were wiped off the face of the map… that’s when we all got divided up into the new ‘territories.’ That’s one thing I remember clear as day.”
“The Glowing Mountains to the far west,” William elaborated. “The Fallen Lands and Smoulder in the center, the Floodland to the south, the Tundra to the north, the District in the east, and Texas all the way at the bottom.”
I tried to contain my amusement. Of course Texas was still its own thing.
“What about the mutants?” I continued. “What did you call them again?”
“Rubberfaces,” Natalie said somberly.
“Right, the Rubberfaces,” I noted. “What’s the deal with them? We don’t really have any out in the Tundra.”
“That’s ‘cause they all converged on this place ‘ere,” William continued. “Right after Doomsday, the radiation at each of the blast sites was sky high. And those little buggers love some radiation.”
“Like I told you before,” Natalie interrupted, “every Rubberface for five-hundred miles is here in the Fallen Lands, just as I’m sure all the Rubberfaces out in the District or in the Glowing Mountains are huddled up in the blast sites there.”
Suddenly, the distant beeping in my head began once more.
“That’s… a lot to take in,” I admitted as I leaned up against the dune buggy and rubbed at my temples. “If this is, like, ground zero for the nuclear blast, how are you all not dying of radiation poisoning? And why haven’t you become Rubberfaces yourself?”
“I wish I knew, mate.” William shrugged. “The virus is strange that way. There was a certain percentage of the population that just… wasn’t affected by it, even after we were exposed.”
“That’s how I knew you were clean,” Natalie interjected. “If the virus had an effect on you, we wouldn’t have found a human when we came to investigate.”
“You sure?” I gasped. “Should I wear a mask or something? Because I really don’t want—”
“Trust me, Hunter.” The blonde woman shook her head. “If you had the virus, you’d be on your knees right now, tearing off chunks of flesh with your bare hands and vomiting up blood. You’re clean.”
“As far as the radiation,” Harrison spoke up, “it’s not a problem anymore. I mean, I’m no scientist, but everybody knows the radiation goes away after a few decades or so. Once that happened, this place became a Scavenger paradise!”
That sounded unlikely… Then again, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were both fully-functioning cities today.
I’d have to ask Karla about that later.
“So, that’s what you guys do, huh?” I questioned. “You go around to the destroyed cities and loot what you can?”
“Ya make us sound like criminals when ya put it like that,” William chuckled. “We ain’t takin’ nothing anybody’s gonna want, anyways. If ya haven’t noticed, this place has kinda been abandoned for a long time now. Rubberfaces don’t really make good neighbors, ya know?”
“What about the rest of society?” I couldn’t help but ask. “Like, we all live in igloos and you guys are obviously pirates… but what about everybody else?”
“There’s not much to it,” Natalie grumbled. “The ‘President’ still sends out radio broadcasts every now and again, but nobody sees him as an authority figure anymore. It’s every man and woman for themselves out here.”
“And this Marcus… He’s your leader?”
“You’ll meet him soon enough, mate.” William slapped me playfully on the shoulder. “Who knows? Maybe if he likes you he’ll make ya an honorary Scavenger.”
The sun was just setting on the horizon of Lake Michigan. The dark waves beckoned off in the distance, blanketed by crimson light as they sloshed to and fro. The outline of the Windy City skyline could still be seen off to the west. Or, at least, what was left of it.
It may have been the apocalypse, but damn it was beautiful.
Natalie sauntered over to the side of the boat, sat down with her legs dangling over the ledge, and stared off at the sunset.
“See?” she mused. “This sort of a view makes the whole ‘fighting deranged mutants’ thing worth it. I bet you don’t get that in the Tundra.”
“No, no, we don’t,” I admitted as I walked over and sat down beside her. The buzzing in my head was getting worse, but I tried to ignore it as I faced the female Scavenger.
Now that I was up close and not in a constant state of danger, I could see Natalie’s features much more clearly.
The woman’s hair was wild and long as it hung just below her shoulders, and it was combed over to one side in a sort of mohawk-esque style that left the entire right side of her face exposed.
Her eyes were a deep azure, a perfect compliment to her luscious red lips that sat atop her cute white smile. The Scavenger had cheekbones just about any model in my dimension would have killed for, all leading down to a pointed chin.
Even through her combat clothing, I could tell Natalie’s body was very fit and lean, with a pair of small, perky breasts and a perfect hourglass form.
I guess that shouldn’t have come as a surprise. She had to be pretty fit if her entire life consisted of exploring fallen cities and fighting off killer mutants.
There was silence for a few short moments, but then William spoke up.
“Welp, I dunno about you guys, but I’m starvin,” he chuckled. “Ya wanna get some grub, Harrison?”
“I thought you’d never ask!” the other guard said heartily. “I wonder what it’ll be tonight, roasted rat, or cockroach stew?”
My insides churned at the thought.
The two men walked away toward the main deck of the boat, and Natalie and I were left alone to soak in the sunset.
Now, the beeping in my head grew a bit louder. Though it still wasn’t much more than a slight buzz.
“You aren’t going to join them?” I asked curiously.
“I’m not really feeling cockroach stew tonight,” she sighed and hung her head.
“Is this… Is this about Johnny?” I prompted. “Because I’m really sorry about what happened to him.”
“Yes and no,” Natalie admitted. “Yes, I’m sad Johnny is dead. He was one of my Scavenger brothers, and I loved him like a brother.”
“That’s not what it sounded like back there,” I reminded her. “You said something about mating with him… ”
Natalie glanced over at me with a stern look on her face, almost as if she were expecting me to be joking.