Natalie finally uncrossed her arms and leaned back on the cot. It was obvious she was still trying to process this whole situation, and that she didn’t completely believe me.
Still… she hadn’t blown my brains out yet, so I’d say she was at least considering it.
“That’s a lot to think about,” she finally admitted. “You must understand, Hunter… this is the only life I’ve ever known. I’ve been a Scavenger since I was six years old. I’m not sure if I could just up and leave all my friends like that.”
“I’m not asking you to make the decision right now,” I explained, “just help me save your world. Help me finish my mission, and then we can talk about the rest later.”
“Your boss really gave you a shit mission to start off with,” Natalie suddenly burst out laughing. “I mean, come on… he sent a regular man into a world full of mutated humans and asked you to kill them all? Did he want you to die?”
“Yeah, yeah,” I sighed. “I know he kinda threw me right to the wolves. His thought process was that, if I could somehow pull this off, I could survive anything.”
“Not a bad thought,” the blonde woman admitted, “but I’ll make sure I do everything in my power to get you back home in one piece.”
My heart finally stopped thumping in my chest. That was exactly what I wanted to hear.
“So, you believe me?” I asked with a twinge of excitement. “And you’ll help?”
“I’m still not sure I fully believe you,” Natalie teased as she shook her head, “but I will help you out. Even if you’re somehow lying to me, it would be in the best interest for my people if the Rubberfaces were gone. But how would we even pull that off?”
I didn’t want to sound like a dick, but I’d really been hoping she would have some ideas.
“That’s what we’ve got to figure out.” I nodded. “Together. Do your people have any sort of secret emergency weapons? Like a salvaged nuke or even some firebombs or anything like that?”
“Hunter.” Natalie looked at me like I was a fool. “If the Scavengers had those sorts of weapons, don’t you think we would have used them by now?”
“Fair point,” I sighed. “So, what do you have, then?”
Natalie rubbed at her chin and stared up at the ceiling, deep in thought.
“We have two dune buggies, our boat, and lots of guns,” she offered. “And the helicopter, but that is only for emergency situations.”
“How many guns?” I pressed her. “Would there be enough for us to storm the city and try to take it back?”
“Impossible.” The blonde shook her head. “Perhaps that could have been done way back at the beginning of all this, when the Rubberfaces were still mindless creatures. But now that they know how to use weapons and strategize? They’d pick us off like flies. That’s not even taking into consideration the fact they outnumber us by the thousands. Trying to face them head-on is suicide.”
“Then we don’t take them head on… ” I pondered as the sudden realization hit me. “We lure them into a trap, just like a roach or a mouse. Then, once they’re there, we take them out in one fell swoop.”
“Not a bad idea,” Natalie noted, “but how in the fuck could we possibly lure every Rubberface into a single area? And even if we could pull that off, how do we kill so many at one time?”
“By ringing the dinner bell.” I grinned. “They’re attracted to radiation and flames, right?”
“Right… ” the woman agreed.
“So, tell me, is the old nuclear power plant still operational?” I asked. “The one we passed while we were heading back from the Fallen Lands?”
Natalie tilted her head as she tried to remember what I was talking about. Then her eyes lit up with recognition.
“That thing?” she mused. “It’s definitely not still operational. But I’m pretty sure it was one of the many nuclear plants that were voluntarily shut down.”
Voluntarily shut down?
“Is that a thing you can do here?” I gasped. “Because back in my dimension, once a nuclear plant is up and running, it’s difficult and time consuming to turn it back off.”
“That sounds annoying.” Natalie whistled. “Here in this dimension, at least, back before Doomsday, scientists were always shutting off those things and turning them back on like flicking a light switch.”
“Is that possible, Karla?” I asked the voice in my head. “Do the laws of this dimension work differently than ours?”
We’re talking about interdimensional theory here, Hunter, she chuckled. For all we know, there could be a dimension out there with sentient elephants who shoot lasers out of their trunks and keep humans as their slaves. My father and I said Dimension Nine-Fifty-One was similar to ours, not that it was a direct one-to-one copy.
“That seems like an oddly specific example,” I snorted, “but I’ll take it as a ‘yes.’”
“The plant you saw on the way here,” Natalie continued, “it was one of many shut off after Doomsday. Once people figured out the Rubberfaces were attracted to radiation, they made sure they didn’t give them any free meals. My father said they shut them all down in the hopes of keeping the Rubberfaces away.”
Suddenly, a wave of inspiration shot over me, and I hopped to my feet.
“So, what you’re saying is there’s a giant source of nuclear energy, not far from here, that’s just waiting to be reactivated?” I asked.
“I suppose.” Natalie shrugged. “But what good would activating it do? A power source that large would bring every Rubberface from the Fallen Lands here to—”
“Exactly.” I grinned. “And once we’re all there, we can cause a man-made nuclear meltdown. Those guys may feed on radiation, but they sure as hell aren’t immune to intense heat or falling rubble or shock waves. I know that for a fact.”
“That’s… That’s insane,” the blonde woman chuckled in disbelief. “That much radioactive fallout would contaminate and endanger everything within a fifty-mile radius, including our encampment.”
“But it would kill the Rubberfaces,” I reminded her. “And Dr. Nash says if they’re gone, humanity survives. Besides, you said it yourselves… the Scavengers are ready to pack up and leave at a moment’s notice. We can give them way more notice than that, and you all can be out of here before any of the craziness goes down.”
Natalie stared off into the distance as she zoned out.
“I don’t know about that, Hunter,” she muttered after a long moment. “We’ve been here for almost fifteen years. I doubt anyone’s going to want to leave if we can avoid it.”
“Come on, Natalie,” I pleaded as I got down onto one knee and took her hands in my own. “You need to understand this is for the greater good.”
She gasped at my touch, and then her face turned beet red as I looked into her eyes. Natalie’s hands were as soft as a silk feather, and I wanted to do nothing more than to just hold onto them for eternity.
“T-The greater good?” the blonde suddenly grumbled as she pulled her hand away. “You’re only in this because you’re getting paid. You are asking me and my brethren to completely uproot our way of life just so you can make a quick buck and then be on your way?”
“You know that’s not fair,” I sighed. “Sure, money may be a major motivator in this situation… but it’s not the only motivator. I want to save you and your friends, Natalie. You guys have been really, really good to me. You saved my life, and now I want to return the favor by giving your people a fresh start.”
Natalie went silent, and I could see the gears whirring around in her head as she thought about it. Her left eye squinted as she rapped on her chin and frowned. Then she finally shook her head and sighed.