the Dark Zone

“I’ve tasked you with bringing me a package. The condition is that you do not look at the contents. You will not be told what is inside. If you open it before it makes it to me, an alarm will alert me to what you’ve done and our deal will be forfeit. What I can tell you, is that the contents have no monetary value. Only sentimental.”

The gentleman crackled from time to time during his message. The team he’d assembled for the delivery was small, but he’d heard good things about them.

Nova was a cartographer, she’d mapped out the entirety of Nu USA in less than a month. She was quite gifted at accessing old data mines within still orbiting satellites which allowed her to produce a working replica of what America had become.

Highhat was a driver, he owned the last working XCC-7. It doubled as both a ground vehicle as well as an aquatic one. He often found himself being tailed by raiders, cutthroats that wanted his vehicle and would kill him in an instant if they got ahold of him.

Qestral was Highhat’s gunner. The XCC-7 was never a military vehicle, but that didn’t stop either of them from strapping a machine gun to the top of it so she could mow the raiders down while they drove through the wastes that once was their nation.

The team understood their orders before Highhat lifted his hand and waited for the man on the screen to acknowledge him.

“This… Highhat, you can speak. This isn’t a school lesson,” The man said as he polished his glasses.

“Suh’ how much was we talkin’?” He squinted one eye and pulled his jaw to the side while watching the man on the screen closely.

The man cleared his throat, “M-money? That’s what you mean, right?” He glanced at the women beside him, “He means how much money I’m going to pay you?”

Qestral shoved off the XCC-7 and stamped her foot, placing her hands on her hips as she moved her poncho to the side, “Yeh, that’s what he was askin’ ya.”

He glanced at Highhat again, “Three hundred thousand tungsten, but only if the package makes it to me unopened and in one piece.”

Highhat whistled and smirked as he glanced back at Nova and then to Qestral, his bushy white beard having been tied into a braid that swung freely with his head moving. “Now dat is what I’m talkin’ bout. Finally something worth losin’ muh other leg fer!”

He cackled and knocked on his metal prosthetic left leg, the loud clang was more than enough proof for the man on the screen.

“Mr. Brittle, why are you sending us out to deliver it? Why couldn’t the ones that are bringing it to us, just bring it to you instead?” Nova finally piped up as she glanced from her partners to the screen.

Brittle sighed quietly, “Because no one is delivering it to you, you have to go get it from within the Dark Zone.”

The three gasped in unison, Highhat especially was wearing his concern on his wrinkled face. “No fuckin’ way, Brittle. Not a chance in hell,” Qestral commanded, her eyes fierce as she crossed her arms over her chest.

“Now, please, let’s be reasonable here. What I’m offering is a lot of currency that you could use. So think it over first before you say no,” He straightened his tie as he watched the three of them in anticipation.

“How’d it get there in the first place?” Qestral narrowed her eyes and shook her head to the side, tossing her pink mohawk away from her eyes.

“I… Asked another team to bring it to me. Something went wrong during the delivery and now here we are,” He intertwined his fingers as he exhaled slowly. “I can see that the package is not open, still in one piece, but the team I initially sent is… Not answering their comms.”

Nova pushed her big glasses back onto the bridge of her nose as she stood up, “Well, yeah, it’s the Dark Zone. Raiders aside, anything that goes into the Dark Zone just, I dunno, dies. We’ve never seen anything come back out of there - alive, anyways. Why would they have gone in?”

Brittle shrugged, “I told them to take their time, but I suppose the allure of tungsten was enough to make them try and take a shortcut. It is faster to go through the Dark Zone than to go around. I’ve doubled the tungsten reward if you can bring it to me. Again, this isn’t something of actual value.”

Highhat straightened up, “A’right mista Brit’l. Me ‘n muh team’ll go lookin’ fer yer box. Butcha better double dat reward. Ya hear?”

“Done. Without question. If it is unopened, you will receive six hundred thousand tungsten when you deliver it to me,” Brittle raised an eyebrow.

“Ya gotchur self a deal, Brit’l,” Highhat grinned, his gold front teeth glinting in the blue light of the screen. “A’right ladies, les gettum on out uh heeyah.”

Brittle closed off his connection, the screen went static as he turned in his chair, looking out at the smoldering remains of the city he was still inside of. His building was still standing tall and untouched among the corpse that used to be New York.

“Godspeed, you three,” He lifted a cup of coffee to his lips and sipped as he noticed an explosion nearby before something moved into the Dark Zone in a flash. “You’re going to need it.”

The XCC-7 roared to life as Nova spread out her map in the back of the vehicle, from the outside it looked like it couldn’t fit more than two people, but inside was far more spacious than anyone would first imagine.

“Highhat, we’re going west and then banking through Raider territory before we hit the edge of the Dark Zone, Qestral, you’re gonna need some incredible aim, it looks like the last visit spurred them into making wall-bound hideouts. They look like wasp eggs from the satellite view,” She straightened her glasses, ignoring the large crack in the left lens that she’d obtained from the previous trip.

“Good’n, be there real quick!” He cackled as they opened the door to their garage and shot out like a bullet into the high noon sun.

The cars in their area had already been pancaked by the XCC-7 by this point, so it might as well have been a very bumpy road, rather than cars in their way. While Highhat drove, Qestral smoked the cigar she’d had tucked behind her ear, her free arm looped around the handle of the machinegun they had on the swivel arm.

Qestral noticed that Nova looked worried and snorted, “You ain’t scared, are ya sunbeam?” Nova glanced up at her partner and shrugged.

“I dunno, nothing comes out of that place. Ever. No survivors ever give details about what is inside,” She ran a hand through her blonde hair before tugging it into a ponytail and wrapping it with a blue ribbon.

“Just because nothin’ came out before, doesn’t mean we ain’t gonna come outta there once we got that box,” She said as she chomped her cigar and winked at Nova before standing up and looking through the visor on her gun.

A few hours elapsed before the trio rolled up on the outskirts of the Dark Zone, their vehicle’s alarms going haywire just by being near it. “A’right, y’all ready to go?” Highhat glanced backward at his partners, a toothless smile plastered on his face.

“Ready,” Said Qestral, the sound of the safety on her gun turning off followed.

Nova shrugged as she strapped on her goggles and lifted a revolver, pulling the hammer back. “Ready.”

Highhat snickered and slapped on his goggles, sticking his tongue out the left corner of his mouth as he pushed the vehicle into the forbidden area. “Hooowee! Here we come!”

Their vehicle vanished off of Nova’s map, which then crackled out of existence. “Shit, we’re in and lost as fuck if we try to use a map,” She grimaced as she moved to the edge of her seat and pulled her bandana over her mouth.

“Hush up, ain’t nothing ta worry about lil lady,” Highhat banked over a new batch of vehicles that were coated in rust as their crunch satisfied his ears. The inside of the darkened area was overgrown with moss and weeds as tall as trees, something that wasn’t all that uncommon in this day and age.

Highhat flipped a switch on his dashboard, having a blue scanning light flash over the area in front of the vehicle as he drove, watching the results of the scan appear in front of him. “Godamm this place is moldier than the shitter back at base, spores n’ all dat,” He checked to make sure the filtration system was online and working.

“Stronger than my bandana? Do I need the Atmosuit?” Nova asked as she lifted a tarp off of an environmental suit.

“Mmm better safe’n sorry lil lady, seems clingy, might even gum up yer lungs,” He pulled a lever, and the vehicle burst with heat momentarily, singing the air around them.

Sure enough, the place lit up like a Christmas tree, smoke that was thicker than the spores in the air blinded them temporarily while they kept driving. “I see the other team on my scope, head east,” Qestral strained her eyes to make sure she was truly seeing them and not a random group of dead vehicles.

Highhat obliged and banked into a pillar, easily crashing through it without so much as a scratch on the beast of a vehicle they were inside of. Nova put on her Atmosuit, tugging it on tight and doing up the suspenders before clicking on the helmet and breathing deep as the suit filled with fresh air.

“When I pull up, you jump on out n’ grab da box. Imma circle around n’ come getcha, quick n’ easy - got dat?” Highhat glanced over his shoulder as he approached the other team.

“Got it,” Nova breathed deeply again, this time out of anxiety. “Shit, shit, shit, it’s okay, you’re okay, you got this,” She wrenched her hand on the grip of her gun before giving a thumbs up to Highhat.

The back door opened and she tumbled out backward, landing on her feet and immediately running towards the other delivery team. She paced herself, raising her arms high as she slogged forwards in the heavy suit. Highhat turned the vehicle around after traveling a good distance and headed back towards Nova.

She found the box, looking around briefly for anyone inside the rubble, but found no one. She turned back around and headed towards the outside where Highhat could see her.

“Fuck!” Qestral began firing as something emerged from the smoke and spores, clinging to the side of the XCC-7. It hissed before slashing at the gun and cleaving the barrel in half easily. It then turned its attention to the window of the vehicle and roared at Highhat.

“C’mon ya ugly motha’ fucka! Les dance!” He pressed the vehicle into its max speed, having angled it towards an outcropping of rebar and stone. The beast pierced the glass, stabbing Highhat through the chest before it was crushed in between the vehicle and the jagged remains of a building.

Nova screamed as she lifted a hand before the rig went up in flames, an explosion blotted out her vision for a brief moment right after, “NO! God no! Please!”

She clutched the box close as more of whatever had attacked them began crawling from the rubble. Slowly, she opened it and looked inside to see a heart-shaped locket on top of a white silk handkerchief. ‘Edna Brittle, 1971’ was inscribed on the metal.

Nova began laughing and crying hysterically as the beasts closed in on her.

“I hope it’s worth it, Brittle."