“Look, Hunter,” she explained, “this plan of yours is certifiably insane. So insane that it might just work.”
“You’re in?” I grinned and clapped my hands together.
“I am.” She nodded without a hint of emotion. “But we need to talk to Marcus first. If we really want to do something this reckless, he at least needs to be in the loop. Plus, the rest of the Scavengers will listen to him. If he says we should leave this place, the others will fall into line.”
“And if he doesn’t like the plan?” I asked as I followed Natalie out of the tent.
“We’ll deal with that when we come to it,” she admitted as she looked back at me over her shoulder.
The two of us walked back across the beach, past the still-celebrating Scavengers around the fire. Several of them were passed out in the sand, while others were up on their feet dancing, singing, and hollering gleefully.
“Say,” I pondered aloud, “why wasn’t Marcus at Johnny’s Remembrance?”
“Because,” Natalie scoffed, “if you haven’t noticed, Marcus is kinda an asshole. He claims that’s what makes him a good leader, but I’ve never really bought into that line of thinking.”
Great… This was probably going to be harder than I originally thought.
Hellloooo? Karla’s voice grumbled in my head. What’s the situation, Hunter? You’ve really got to get better about keeping us informed.
“I’m sorry I’m not talking to the voice in my head more than I need to,” I shot back sarcastically. “Natalie already thinks I’m crazy. I don’t need to confirm it for her.”
I’m guessing that means she’s on board? the woman’s voice asked excitedly.
“Kinda,” I explained. “Long story short, she’s willing to help me kill the Rubberfaces. But I’m still working on getting her to come back with me.”
Rubberfaces? Karla sounded completely confused.
Oh, right… I don’t think I’d ever explained to her what a ‘Rubberface’ was.
“The mutants,” I clarified. “They call them ‘Rubberfaces’ here because their faces are all deformed and melted, almost like they’re made of rubber.”
You have a plan to wipe out the entire mutant population of Chicago? Karla gasped. I’m not going to lie, Hunter… I’m impressed.
“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” I tried to quell her expectations. “There’s still a long ways to go before we get there, and a million different things could go wrong between now and then. But I appreciate your compliment.”
It wasn’t a compliment. Karla’s voice suddenly went cold again. I was just saying you exceeded my expectations, that’s all. My father was confident you’d be able to figure it out, but I wasn’t so optimistic. So, I’m simply saying you’ve done well.
“Awww, shucks,” I teased the voice in my head. “Maybe this Pest Control Technician has more to him than meets the eye after all, huh?”
What is the plan, if I may ask?
As I walked behind Natalie, I briefly explained our idea to Karla. Once I was finished, there was radio silence on the other line.
I see what you mean, she admitted. My father calculates there are approximately ten thousand, four hundred and twenty-one variables that could factor into whether or not your idea is successful or a spectacular failure.
“I guess we’re just going to have to trust in your two-headed arrow theory, then,” I mused.
“Are you talking to the voice in your head again?” Natalie chuckled.
“She has a name, you know.” I rolled my eyes in jest.
“We’re going to need some sort of signal for when you’re talking to them,” she admitted. “If not, this is gonna get really confusing, really quickly.”
“Ohhhh,” I teased, “I could do like they do in the movies, and put my hand up against my ear whenever I’m talking to the people back at HQ.”
The blonde woman stopped in her tracks, turned around to face me, and quirked an eyebrow.
“What’s a movie?” she asked. “My parents talked about them constantly when they were still alive. Is it some sort of social group? They always said they would go together, and sometimes with other people.”
Suddenly, I felt a twinge of pain down in my very soul.
This poor girl.
She’d literally grown up in a world filled with nothing but death and destruction. Natalie didn’t have the knowledge of anything before Doomsday… None of the cardinal pleasures of life or the little things that made it worth living.
All she knew about was scavenging and surviving.
“They’re great, like stories you can actually watch play out before you,” I explained, “I’ll have to show you one when I take you back to my dimension.”
“We’ll see.” Natalie frowned. “But I wouldn’t get your hopes up if I were you.”
We eventually made it over to the stick hut where Marcus dwelled. There was scented smoke billowing from the hole at the top of the structure, a fog that was giving off the smoke of sweet sandalwood and vanilla. From inside, I could hear the sound of a creaking wood and soft grunts.
“Uhhhh, should we maybe come back later?” I asked with a chuckle. “I think he might be in the middle of something right now. I don’t know if you have ‘if the van’s a-rockin,’ don’t go a-knockin’ in this dimension, but I’m pretty sure it applies to this case right here.”
“Nonsense,” Natalie scoffed as she slipped her hand between the flaps of the door. “If we want to make our move, we can’t sit around and wait. Marcus needs to know about this right away.”
“Yeah, but—” I started, but the blonde woman was already making her move.
She threw open the door and poked her head inside, and then I heard a woman’s scream.
“What are you doing here?” Marcus’ voice hissed. “We’ve talked about this before, Natalie! You can’t just go barging into peoples’ tents like this!”
“I didn’t see anything, I swear,” Natalie snorted. “Hunter? You coming? They’re both covered up.”
Oh, lord…
I slowly slipped into the Scavenger leader’s tent and instantly saw why Marcus was so disgruntled.
The man with the slicked-back hair was clad in only a sheet around his waist, and his entire body was covered with a slick layer of sweat. Right next to him, on the cot, was a small brunette woman who clung to the blanket over her naked body like it was her only lifeline.
“Hi,” I said as I waved awkwardly. “We just had an idea we wanted to run by you… It’s pretty urgent.”
“Get out!” Marcus growled and pointed to the door. “Whatever it is, it can wait until I’m dressed, for crying out loud!”
I put up my hands and slowly stepped back toward the exit.
Natalie, however, just placed her hands on her hips and tilted her head casually.
“I don’t think you understand, Marcus,” she mused, “this is information that could potentially change our lives forever.”
“At least let me put on some pants?” the Scavenger sighed. “Please? It will literally take two seconds, if you’d just give us the room.”
“Fine,” Natalie grumbled. “I’ll be counting.”
The blonde woman and I exited the tent and then stood out in the darkness as we awaited the leader.
“I told you we should have waited,” I whispered as I looked up at the night sky.
“He was just testing out a potential mate.” The woman in the denim jacket shrugged. “It’s not like it was a big deal.”
“What do you mean ‘testing out?’” I questioned. “Is Marcus not taken?”