Rage (7 page)

Words surfacing like debris after a shipwreck.

I’ve
been
in a shipwreck
, he thought.

He touched the ground. Uneven, lot of rocks scattered here. The brilliant sun making it hard to take in the full landscape.

Was the sun always this bright?

Or was that new, in this year? Whatever year it was.

He brought his other foot off the step, now fully off the Ark. Fully born into this world.

Seeing nothing around him.

Which is when he felt something wrap itself tight around his neck.

An arm.

•  •  •

The choke hold closed his windpipe. Another hand ripped off his helmet, exposing his head and throat.

Then before him, the face of a monster blotted out the sun. All he could see were eyes.

A monster, except that he now saw that it actually was someone wrapped in ragged cloth, like a mummy, all the way up to their eyes. Colored splotches like tattoos on the skin. Dark, narrow eyes looking right at his.

Raine tried to free himself from the man behind him, wondering how many were attacking.

But his muscles were too slow, too weak to respond, and the man in front of him—he now knew that the thing in front of him wasn’t a monster, but a human—held a knife that caught the shimmering brilliant sun like a deadly jewel.

The man shifted the knife in his hands, enjoying the moment. His eyes on Raine’s, the life slowly draining out of them. He brought the knife to Raine’s neck.

Didn’t last long, Raine thought.

Not much more than the others, all dead, inside.

The blade tip touched skin. Right above the choke hold, under the chin, tip pointing up. Was this a ritual or simply something being enjoyed? The suffocation started kicking in.

Not long now.

“Die, Ark man.”

Words. From a human. The first he had heard in such a long time.

One last attempt by Raine to wriggle free, a bit of a kick with one leg. But whoever held him was big, the hold powerful.

Then—a crack.

And instead of the knife slicing up, the man in front of him bloomed a red hole in his forehead.

Another crack, and Raine felt the choke hold magically release as if he were sprung from a trap.

The attacker in front fell forward, coming to kneel in front of Raine. The one in back just stumbled away before falling backward.

Shots, Raine registered.

Someone shot them. Then the sound of an engine, and from the distance—from behind a rocky outcrop, a jagged triangular piece of stone stories high—he saw a car.

Well, not exactly a car.

The thing was open, exposed, and looked more like a cannibalized version of a dozen vehicles than any car Raine could recognize. A pair of metal roll bars were the only protection on the top. It was the strangest thing with wheels he had ever seen.

And yet, driving it, coming straight at him, was someone who looked almost normal.

At least he wasn’t wrapped in tattered pieces of cloth from top to bottom. No face painting.

He drove with one hand. His other held a rifle, barrel pointing straight up.

The vehicle sent a spume of dust flying behind it.

Raine waited.

The vehicle screamed to a dusty stop in front of him.

“Better get in, stranger. Unless you want to play with more of them.”

Raine looked at the man. Scars. Skin a dark bronze, as if toasted by the brutal sun. He didn’t let go of the gun.

“In? Why? Where will we—”

“You got questions. I got answers. Some, at least. But with those two dead, a lot more bandits will be heading here. We got to move. Now.”

Raine looked down at the bodies, registering that the man in the crazed vehicle was his savior.

“Get in my damn buggy.”

Buggy. That what he calls this thing? This mutated version of what was once a car?

“Right.”

Raine stepped into the vehicle, which pulled away the moment his right foot left the ground.

“Hold on. And take this.”

The man handed him a rifle. “I’m guessing you know how to use it.”

“Yeah.” Raine had to shout over the sound of the uncovered, unmuffled engine, animalistic in its deep roar.

“Keep your eyes peeled. Left, right. You see them, take a shot.”

The buggy raced over the ground, bouncing crazily with each indentation or pile of rocks it hit, sending Raine shooting up and down.

He felt his stomach tighten, nauseous. An aftereffect of his cryo sleep?

He licked his lips. Thirsty. And maybe, despite the stomach-churning ride, hungry? He didn’t know.

“ ’Kay, stranger. We got to go through there. That ravine. Quickest way back to my settlement. And I’m thinking … quick is good.”

“Right,” Raine said again, dully. As if it was an obvious fact.

Right.

“Eyes open. Got it? I’m Dan Hagar.” He looked over at Raine and grinned. “Nice to meet you.”

“Yeah.”

Raine held the gun tight. And now, like some primal memory returning, he let his hand slide down to the trigger. He looked down at the gun. He didn’t know the brand, looked almost homemade. Like a standard army issue M16 rifle someone pieced together. But it was a weapon he guessed he could shoot. One that—

(It came back to him …)

—he had killed with.

He was good.

A good shot. He remembered that now.

The buggy screamed into the chasm made by two stony fingers of what looked to be the beginning of a pair of mountain ranges.

Raine’s hand tightened around the trigger hold.

“Where are we?” he said.

“What?”

Then louder.

“Where are we? Where
are
we—”

“Time for that when we’re out of here. Shit—goddamn—”

Raine looked ahead. A ragged metal chain—laced with twisted pieces of sharp metal, a spiky net—suddenly rose up, shutting off passage through the chasm.

Raine glanced up. He saw movement on either side of the ravine.

As they roared into the trap.

“Get that gun up. And … hold on.”

The vehicle went even faster toward the metal barrier ahead.

T
he 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.

“Where are we going?”

“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.