“That’s right!” Natalie played along. “Joey’s always looking out for himself. That’s why he’s never been promoted at any point in his career. I’m sure he’s thinking up some convoluted story that will get all three of us into trouble.”
“Then it’s a good thing you guys are here to back up my claims, huh?” The man raised an eyebrow, unphased by the threat.
“You think we’re going to back up your claim?” I laughed. “Dude, Natalie and I are screwed either way. It’s just a matter of if you want us to take you down with us.”
“I mean, you did offer to let us on the boat, after all… ” The blonde woman shrugged.
The Scavenger’s shotgun quickly raised to attention and aimed straight at Natalie’s face.
“You think you’re gonna be able to get away with framing me?” he growled. “The Scavenger Council will see straight through your bullshit.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it.” Natalie grinned. “Now this, on the other hand—”
The blonde woman grabbed the barrel of the shotgun, tossed it to the side, and then kicked the guard square in the stomach. As he doubled over in pain, Natalie threw her hands onto the back of his head and then brought it down hard against her knee.
Blood shot from the man’s nose as he recoiled in agony and stumbled backward. Before he could reorient himself, though, Natalie spun around and delivered a roundhouse kick to the side of his head.
The man’s eyes rolled back in his head as he collapsed to the ground, and his gun slid across the deck harmlessly.
“Here,” Natalie mused as she scooped the weapon off the ground. “You wanted something with a little more firepower, right?”
The Scavenger handed me the gun and then motioned for me to keep moving.
As I walked past the fallen guard, I nudged him gently with my foot. He was still breathing, but he was out cold.
“Uh… Is he going to be alright?” I asked with a gulp.
“He’ll be fine,” Natalie snorted as she walked further onto the deck, “but he’s going to have a splitting headache when he wakes up in a few minutes.”
“A few minutes?” I gasped. “Will that be enough time?”
“It has to be,” she admitted with a sigh. “Now, help me find the keys. Usually, we leave them in the boat or with the guards.”
“What are we taking?” I questioned as I looked around at the vehicles before us. “You know, if we took the chopper, we could probably completely bypass the forest completely.”
“Not a chance,” Natalie argued. “Like I told you before, the chopper is only for emergencies. We may be stealing a vehicle, but I’m not leaving my brethren out to dry.”
“So, I guess that means the entire boat is out of the question too, huh?” I noted, and Natalie’s stern glare gave me a silent answer.
“We’re taking a dune buggy,” she reaffirmed and nodded to the body in front of me. “Preferably the one that’s not damaged. But we can’t do anything if we don’t have the damn keys.”
“Oh, right,” I chuckled as I looked down at the unconscious guard.
I squatted down and slipped my hand into the guard’s pockets. However, all I found were a few cigarettes, a pack of chewing gum, and a small locket with the picture of another Scavenger inside of it.
No keys.
“They’re not on him,” I called out.
“Fuck!” Natalie shot back from inside the tiny garage. “They’re not in the ignition, either. They were probably with Joey.”
Well, crap.
“What happens if Marcus and the gang get here before we have a chance to escape?” I questioned, even though I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer.
“It depends on how pissed off he is,” the Scavenger explained nonchalantly. “If it’s one of his good days, he might lock us in the sauna tent for the night. But if he’s in a bad mood? Well… I don’t even want to think about what’ll happen if he’s in one of his bad moods.”
Great.
The timer continued to tick down. If we didn’t move quickly, we were going to have the entire camp of Scavengers breathing down our necks. And, if Natalie’s warning to the guards was any indication, having a pissed off Marcus coming after us was the last thing we needed.
Then it hit me. Karla.
“Karla!” I hissed and hoped the voice in my head could hear me.
I was wondering when you’d come asking for my help again, the woman’s voice answered coyly.
“Haha,” I grumbled. “Do you know how to hotwire a vehicle?”
Hunter, my father’s been training me for Doomsday scenarios since I was seven years old, she mused. I could hotwire a moped in my sleep if you asked me to.
“A simple ‘yes’ would have been enough,” I muttered. “How about a dune buggy? Can you walk me through how to hotwire one of those?”
I can certainly try, she promised. Dune buggies are actually one of the least complicated things to hotwire, mostly because their wires are left pretty exposed.
I dashed over to the vehicle Natalie was standing beside, and then I quickly fell down to my knees, took the bag off my shoulder, and retrieved the flashlight from within. Then I used the light to look up underneath the dash, and sure enough, all of the wires were there, protected by absolutely nothing.
“I see the wires,” I announced to Karla. “What do I do from here?”
Detach the cluster of wires from the steering column, she explained.
I reached up, grabbed the small piece of white plastic that attached to the ignition switch from behind, and yanked it free of its harness.
“There are only three wires,” I tried to describe what I was seeing. “A red, a black, and a purple.”
Wow, that’s the model they have? Karla chuckled to herself. These people would be so easy to rob.
“Focus, Karla,” I growled.
“What are you doing, Hunter?” Natalie snapped behind my back. “They’re going to be here any minute!”
“Working on it!” I hissed back. “Keep talking, Karla… ”
You’ll want to cut them free of their current arrangement, strip all three of them, and then twist the purple and red ones together, the woman in my head continued.
“Natalie, do you have a knife?” I asked the Scavenger beside me.
Natalie reached down into the pocket of her shorts, fumbled around for a moment, and then pulled out a small pocket knife.
“Will this work?” she asked. “It’s serrated.”
I nodded and then grabbed the blade.
I unfolded the knife and then cut off the three wires, one-by-one, and my hands were shaking like mad as I trimmed the rubber casing off each one, careful not to let the wires slip through my sweaty palms.
Surely, by now Joey had spoken to Marcus. It was only a matter of time before they would send their men to the boat, and then we would be royally screwed.
Once the copper wires underneath were exposed, I twisted the purple and red together.
“Alright, now what?” I asked the disembodied voice in my head.
You’re almost there, Karla stated flatly. Now that you’ve got that… just tap the exposed part of the black wire to the exposed part of the red wire. But only tap it quickly. If you hold them together for too long, it’ll overload the battery.
“Oh, shit!” Natalie gasped and pulled her AK into her hands. “They’re coming, Hunter!”
Here goes nothing…
I tapped the wires together, and sparks flew as the dune buggy’s engine turned over.
But it only turned over once.
“It didn’t work!” I hissed.
Try it again.
“Hunter… ” There was now a twinge of fear in Natalie’s voice.