Radiation/Issue 10

This is Issue 10 of Radiation.

Issue 10
Gene drove for a few hours before he passed the first town. Hawthorne. Gene had a few friends here. Tresh and Jill Wheeler. They lived five minutes from the main street, so Gene decided to go check on them. That was despite the zombies. He turned a corner, ending up at the street where Tresh and Jill lived. However, the first thing he saw was something that instantly made him turn around; a dozen of zombies. Probably more. He thought he spotted Tresh in the crowd, but he wasn’t sure, and he wasn’t going to stay to find out. He continued to drive, leaving Hawthorne. Shocked over the death of his friends, Gene just drove, not even thinking about slowing down. He had known Tresh and Jill since high school. Tresh was his best friend and they were always seen together in high school. They had a crush on the same girl; Jill. Gene allowed Tresh to go for it, and they eventually got together. They married two years later, same time Gene found Jessica. After another hour, Gene was in Carson City. Corpses were everywhere. Most of them looked weird and very pale. Probably caused by radiation sickness. Gene was resitent to the radiation, so he didn’t care. Now it was just about finding these people that called for help. That was easier than Gene had expected. Gene parked in the parking lot of a hotel. There weren’t any zombies close, so he figued it’d be safe enough to leave the car. Just as he did so, he heard the sound of a gun getting cocked. Then the words: “Are you bit?” Gene turned around, calm and a friendly look on his face; something that was rare to be seen. “By the dead things? No, I’m not.” Gene answered, now seeing four people; the man pointing a gun at him was the only armed one of them. Besides him there were two men and a woman. “Allright.” The man said, taking a quick glimpse at his friends. “How can you be alive in this amount of radiation?” Gene smiled. “Funny. I was just about to ask you the same thing.” The man lowered his gun. He figued Gene wasn’t dangerous and only there to help. That was true enough; Gene was there to help. “As long as we’re close to Jed here, we’ll live.” One of the other men said. His face looked like it had been burned or something. It was horrifying to look at. “What happened to you?” Gene asked, his attention drawn by the man with a busted face. “I got burried under debris. My body healed itself.” The man said. Gene sighed. He knew about the abilities, these people probably didn’t. So he began to explain.

The four people were all from Carson City. The man who had pointed his gun at Gene was named Jed and appeared to be a former IT-guy at a company that sold chairs. The man with the busted face was named Rodhal, and the other man was named Alex. Alex stated that his fingernails had begun to grow like crazy the last couple of hours, the same with his hair. Gene figured it was a useless ability that wouldn’t help Alex or anyone else in any way. The woman was named Alice, and she hadn’t experienced anything different. She seemed to be the only one of the four without an ability. Gene agreed to take back these four people. He figured that Jed’s ability would be very usefull, and then he just liked the man. So they all got into Gene’s car and proceeded to return to Tonopah. However something caught their attention. “Do you hear that?” Alex asked, concentrating to hear something. The others didn’t hear anything for a couple of seconds. Then they did. The sound of a helicopter. As it got closer, they could see it as well. They all got out of the car, waving to the helicopter, that appeared to belong to the military. “Hey!” Alex yelled, but Alice lay a hand on his shoulder. They wouldn’t be able to hear him anyway. “We have to follow it.” Jed said, as the helicopter flew away. “Agreed.” Gene said, getting into the car again.