TEN
QUESTIONS
The vehicle flew over the pits and rocky outcrops, shaking Raine left and right crazily.
“Hold on!” his savior repeated unnecessarily. Then, despite the roar of the motor, Raine could hear a new sound: the ricochet of bullets hitting the body of the vehicle.
And still the buggy barreled on, and the barrier still lay dead ahead, ready to rip into the tires, chassis … and passengers of the car.
Which is when Dan reached down and pulled a lever. The front of his buggy groaned, and a metal flap in front folded forward. A piece of metal with spikes that extended like spears, all protruding from a piece of steel with razor teeth that shot a hundred sparkling reflections of the sun back at Raine.
We’re going straight through the thing?
Hold on indeed.
The buggy ran into the suspended grid of twisted wire and hooks, and its strange cowcatcher sliced it in two. The cut pieces snapped back with a howling shriek, flying to either side. As they passed the now useless barrier, Raine saw the bandits racing away from the whiplash of the chain.
And he watched one who wasn’t so lucky as the rapid snap-back of the metal trap wrapped itself around him like a snake, swatting him down to the ground while planting hooks into his side. It was gruesome, but there wasn’t time to think too much about it, as more gunshots rang out. From the side. Raine looked left. Dan had a handgun out.
“C’mon,” he said to Raine. “Shoot the goddamn gun!”
In the mad race for the ravine, Raine had forgotten about the gun in his hands. He lifted it and started looking up at the cliffs above them, checking on both sides. Figures scurried along the edge, all holding guns.
Despite the bumping and jumping of the buggy, Raine brought the gun up and fired, and one of the bandits fell off the cliff.
Then another shot. A miss. Return fire sent a bullet flying inches in front of Raine, drilling a hole right down into the floor of the vehicle.
Raine swung his rifle around to the side and started to fire faster. He shot one bandit just as he was taking aim.
“Nice work. Keep it up.”
Can’t be an endless supply of these bastards, Raine thought.
But ahead, at least two more. Crouched on the rocky ledge, well covered.
“They’re going for the tires!” Dan said.
In response, he started swerving sharply right and left anticipating their shots—but also making it nearly impossible for Raine to aim.
Then the buggy steadied, going straight.
Raine didn’t need to be told what to do.
The sniper to the left took a shot to the head. Raine wheeled right. A second shooter was firing away, but now with the car going straight for a few precious minutes, Raine took aim.
But Dan swerved again.
“Gave you all the time I could, friend,” he said, not sounding all that apologetic. “Try again.”
After going right and left, the buggy steadied. And this time Raine fired fast, hitting the rock in front of the sniper. He quickly followed that with another shot, and the sniper was hit, his attempt to hide behind the rock over.
That shooter’s gun tumbled from his hands down to the ravine floor.
“Hell. God damn. Not bad, stranger.”
Dan put his own gun back in its holster.
Unexpectedly, he laughed, the sound echoing with the walls so close.
“Welcome to the future!”
The laughter grew louder, uncontrolled, as if it was some amazing sick joke.
But Raine didn’t laugh. Didn’t even smile.
Welcome to the fucking future indeed …
Raine didn’t say anything for a while.
He held the gun, thinking about what just happened. Three … four dead men. In a matter of minutes. Who were they? What the hell did they want?
And … what kind of world was this?
Finally, he spoke, raising his voice to be heard over the engine roar.
“Right. Okay. We’re going to my settlement. The Hagar Settlement. My people. Where we live, trade, work, and try to survive.”
“I have a lot of questions.”
“I bet. And we’ll get to them—I told you. But you Ark survivors … heard that you’re kind of disoriented when you get out. You best take things nice and slow. Let me start with a few questions … like, what’s your name?”
“Nicholas Raine. Lieutenant Nicholas Raine, United States Marine Corps.”
After he said the words, Raine realized that the thing he was proudest of, the brotherhood of his fellow Marines … perhaps that didn’t even exist anymore.
No.
Probably not perhaps.
Probably … definitely.
“Raine, hm? Don’t get much … rain here.”
Dan laughed.
“In fact, water is kinda scarce. Like a lot of things are scarce. In fact, if it has any goddamn value at all … it’s scarce.”
“What happened?”
“Hm?”
“Here. When the asteroid hit. I mean, are your people Ark survivors?”
Another laugh. “If Granddaddy Hagar was an Ark survivor, I’d never been born. Talk about short life span. Survivors are captured, then killed or used. That’s what the Authority does with them.”
“The Authority?”
“Like I said … Raine. Lot for you to digest. Take it in small bits. Just know this … most Ark survivors are gone. Those left, work for them. Others tried to escape, but were hunted down. Ones deemed useless—well, they’re really gone.”
“Sounds like a nice group of people, your ‘Authority.’ ”
“The Authority runs things. Or think they do. Out here, in the Wasteland, kinda hard for them to have much control. Too many muties, bandits, groups like us.”
“Muties?”
Dan looked over at him. “Okay. You asked about the asteroid? Way before my time. Even before my father’s time. His father was here. And he said it was supposed to kill everyone. But something happened. It didn’t do that. Though might as well have, when you look at what was left. That world. Your world. Gone. Cities, even—I’ve heard—whole goddamn landmasses.”
“And time …”
“What’s that?”
“The computer said time now was different.”
“Oh you mean it’s off a few days? That sort of thing? Yeah, not the same. Days nearly an hour longer. The asteroid’s strike played with the planet’s orbit. Really messed with the weather, too. God knows what year it is according to your time. We just date things from when the asteroid hit.”
“And muties—what are they?”
“You tell me. The asteroid created pockets of radiation. Where it didn’t kill everyone, some survived, but … they changed. They became like animals. Living together like rat packs. Breeding like crazy. They feel no pain. Not too hard to kill, but there seems to be a hell of a lot of them. And oh yeah—they can eat just about anything. But they do have … their preferences.”
Dan paused as if there was something else he was about to add.
“Look, when we get to my settlement you best not ask too many questions. Not till people get to know you, at least. Get to trust you, know what I mean? They kinda connect questions … with the Authority.”
Dan spit out the side of his buggy as if the word was distasteful.
“Okay?”
Not ask questions? Raine thought. How else was he supposed to figure out what was going on? After all, if this was his future—what the hell was he supposed to do in it?
But he kept his mouth shut.
“Good, Lieutenant Raine. You’ll do just fine.” Dan sniffed the dusty dry air. “Or you won’t. And there you go, ahead.”
Dan pointed.
From out of the cover of low-lying hills ahead, Raine saw something that looked like a town. Except, as they got closer, the buildings seemed pieced together from anything and everything: container cars, metal walls, fencing, tractor trailer bodies sliced in half …
And he also saw people with guns on the side of the roadway leading into the heart of the settlement.
“The Hagar Settlement,” Dan said quietly.
He looked over at Raine.
“Home sweet home.”
He gunned the vehicle then, racing toward the settlement entrance.