“Shit!” I gasped.
“The anchor!” Natalie gasped. “It’s coming loose! You need to get over here, right now!”
I started to rock back and forth so I could regain my momentum. Soon, I was moving even quicker than before.
I only had one shot at this, so I had to make it count.
I swung forward, then backward, and then I took a deep breath.
As I came forward, I lashed out at the rope above me with my E-Tool. There was an elastic snapping sound as the spade cut clean through the rope, and then I felt gravity completely take over.
My body shot forward like a bat out of hell, and I knew I had miscalculated the release.
All I could do was toss my E-Tool off to the side and then attempt to tuck and roll.
Unfortunately, my “tuck and roll” was more of just a “roll.”
I slammed into the metal with a loud thud as my body went prone and tumbled across its rough surface. My momentum came to a halt when I slammed into the concrete wall, and a wave of sharp pain shot through my entire left side.
There was a bit of blood trickling from my nose, and I felt like I’d just been hit by a freight train.
However, I was still alive.
As I opened my eyes, I saw Natalie fast approaching with a concerned look on her face.
At the same time, I saw a large chunk of concrete fall down into the hole from above, with my rope still attached to it. It smashed into the other side of the metal donut, bounced off, and then landed on the level below us with another loud thud.
Just in the nick of freaking time.
“Hunter, are you alright?” Natalie whimpered as she ran over.
“I’ll be fine,” I groaned and then got up on my hands and knees. “I think I just broke the entire left side of my ribcage, but that’s all.”
Your vitals are fine, Karla spoke up through the chip. Though, judging by the look of things, you’re probably going to be in a lot of pain for a while. And I wouldn’t be surprised if your entire left side was purple and black when you wake up tomorrow.
Natalie went to hug me as I stood up, but I quickly shook my head and held her at arm’s length.
“Karla says I’ll be fine,” I chuckled through a grimace. “And she’s the one who’s got access to my medical record in real time, so I’ll trust her on this one.”
“That looked like it hurt like a bitch,” Natalie said, and her face was still wrought with worry as she held out my E-Tool. “Also, I figured you’d want this back.”
“Oh, it did hurt,” I admitted as I took it back. “It still does. But, at least we’re here, and we got inside without alerting any of the Rubberfaces to our presence. Now, let’s get down to the ground level, go to the operator’s room, and finish this mission once and for all.”
“I love it when you talk all leader-like.” Natalie grinned.
As we began to walk toward the metal stairs, the sound of an opening door echoed through the reactor building. Then we heard the sound that neither of us wanted to hear.
“Loktar!” a gurgled voice called out from somewhere below. “Loktar skantrum!”
Natalie and I both froze in place when we realized what had happened.
The Rubberfaces must have heard our commotion and were coming to investigate.
“Well,” Natalie sighed as she pulled her AK-47 over her shoulder. “We never said this mission was going to be easy.”
Chapter 15
This was it. Natalie and I were here, in the heart of a powered-down nuclear reactor, or the pressure vessel walkway, or wherever the fuck we were inside of this thing, and we had countless deadly and armed mutants headed our way.
Now, the mission had literally become do or die.
And I sure as hell didn’t intend to do the latter.
“I’m going to try to avoid firing my weapon as much as possible,” Natalie warned. “The last thing we want to do is cause irreparable damage to the nuclear reactor. I’m sure that’s not all of the Rubberfaces in the plant, either. But, if we go around firing off our weapons all willy-nilly, we’re sure as fuck going to find out just how many there are.”
“Stealth kills again?” I asked.
“That’s going to be impossible.” Natalie shook her head. “Especially if they have weapons of their own. I would suggest we make sure any shots we take are efficient and lethal.”
Efficient and lethal. Got it.
The footsteps of the Rubberfaces were still very distant, but they were growing closer by the moment. Surely by now, they’d at least seen our ropes dangling from the hole in the ceiling, and it wouldn’t take a genius to put two and two together.
The Rubberfaces knew we were here, and they were coming after us.
My whole body may have felt like it’d just been through the wringer, but I wasn’t going down without a fight. Not a chance.
“How many levels do you think we have to go down, Karla?” I questioned as I peered over the edge of the hole in the reactor’s center.
According to the schematics, fifteen, the voice in my head noted.
“Fifteen.” I nodded to my partner.
“That’s not too many,” Natalie said as she holstered her pistol and took up her AK-47 once more.
“That’s a lot of time for Rubberfaces to show up,” I sighed.
“Then we’d better make it quick.” Natalie nodded, and then she headed over toward the metal steps.
I hustled after her, and then we both treaded lightly as we descended to the next level. We only made it down one set of stairs, though, when we finally heard the whispers of the Rubberfaces.
“Iktuna?” one of them hissed as their footfalls echoed through the reactor.
“Iktunar,” another one corrected.
Natalie raised her hand in a silent order to stop.
I fell down on one knee, raised the sight of my pistol up to my eyes, and waited for the first poor bastard to pop his head up through the staircase.
Meanwhile, Natalie pulled out her knife, unfolded it, and then flipped it up so she was holding it by its blade.
Seconds later, we saw one of the ugly, deformed faces of the Rubberfaces rise up over the edge of the staircase.
The instant he did so, Natalie hauled back and tossed her knife straight at him.
It twirled through the air like a deadly boomerang before stabbing right between the Rubberface’s eyes. The mutant’s mouth went agape with surprise, but then he simply slumped forward and laid motionless.
Three more of the mutants dashed up the stairs, but I was more than ready for them.
I fired off three shots in rapid succession and then watched as each of the ugly suckers stumbled back from the impact. My bullets were loud, sporadic, and hastily-aimed, so none of them were quite the insta-kill shots I was going for.
Still, they got the job done.
Blood sprayed from the neck of one of the Rubberfaces as he tried in vain to halt the geyser of gore that came from his ruptured artery. Within seconds, he went into shock and collapsed to the ground as he bled out.
The other two mutants had been hit in the chest, and they quickly recovered from the assault.
Unfortunately for them, Natalie was right there to finish the job.
I watched in awe as the blonde Scavenger smacked the butt of her AK-47 into the face of one Rubberface and sent him staggering backwards. Then, before the second one could make a move, she smacked out his legs from underneath him with the barrel of her rifle. Once he was down on the ground, she proceeded to smash his head in with the hard butt of her weapon.
At the same time, I fired off two more shots into the stunned Rubberface. Two blasts of red mist sprayed into the air as the buckshot tore through his torso, and then he fell back onto the ground and began to twitch.