I never really considered Dante to be stupid. He was definitely better than me a couple months ago, that's for sure. He convinced me…well, he tricked me into taking a loan out on a bottle of medicine that he said could possibly “make your little girl’s sickness go bye-bye”. Obviously, it didn't go bye bye. In fact, all the guy gave me was a bottle of alcohol that he disguised as medicine!

Sunshine was drunk for hours, and I was this close to storming Woodhaven with a big stick and whacking him to the ground. Good thing I wasn't dumb enough to do that then, but I was still dumb enough to not at least check for an expiration date. All the painkillers and sleeping pills I bought from Savir always had one. That scam he pulled made me owe him around five hundred dollars.

Five hundred didn't sound like a lot but in a post-apocalyptic world, five hundred was like ...fifty thousand ten years ago!

Did I also mention that his status board recorded his IQ to be 129!?

Although the dumbest thing Dante could have ever done was threaten the life of my daughter not once, but twice now. There was also the fact he just let me finish absorbing his forcefield to boost my power, but the daughter thing was more important! And with all this stored radioactive energy within my body, I was ready to let it loose on that man no matter what.

But first, I'll have to see what’s going on in this “Underground”. I didn't have any actual confirmation that it was a civilization or that there were even people living there at all. For all I know, it could've been a horrifying torture chamber that asshole was gonna use on my daughter. Not on my watch!

With my mind settled with that as an answer, I pulled open the Underground entrance door–which was lighter than I expected–and I was confused when the first thing I saw was a long ladder that led down to complete darkness. Not only did Dante jump down here without any hesitation, he did that without a forcefield—all just to keep me from getting back up in time. Well, if he could do that, then obviously I could too. I’m a zombie immune to physical pain after all.

I hopped inside and immediately was taken aback by the sheer amount of time it took for me to reach the bottom. It was as if I had just willingly placed myself into a bottomless pit and there was no chance for me to escape—the only thing illuminating my path was the glowing ooze.

Minutes must have passed before I finally saw light under my feet. The end of this long ass hole. It’s about time!

The light got closer and closer until I finally reached the end of the hole. However, I didn’t expect that single shine of light to actually be multiple lights, flickering across the massive landscape beneath me in reds, yellows, greens, and whites. I couldn't believe what I was witnessing. Those lights came from…buildings. A whole bunch of buildings. It was a city! An actual, actual city. I haven't seen one this bustling and alive in years.

The sounds of car horns blaring were like music to my ears. Hell, there literally was music coming from down there. These sounds were heaven compared to the constant groans of zombie hordes on the broken-down highways or the terrifying snarls of radioactive dogs trying to eat me. How the hell was there a city like this in the apocalypse!?

I wonder how Sunshine felt when she saw all this? I know she prefers a more ‘apocalyptic look’ but even she can't deny how beautiful this all is. But I think she'd have trouble seeing from up he-

Wait…if I'm up here now…then so was Sunshine! Even if Dante used his ability, would the forcefield survive the fall!? This was bad. If only my power was faster, I could’ve been in the air with them.

I’ll just have to have confidence in the strength of that bastard’s power, no matter how weird the idea of me desiring that sounded. Right now, I needed to worry about where I was gonna land, or better yet how I was gonna land. I was inching closer to the ground and making a big crater was not the plan I had in mind.

That’s when I remembered all the stored up energy I had in my body. If I used that to activate that rocket boost power I had, I could just fly my way to a safe spot. But I can’t use too much, or else I won’t have any left for Dante. All I had to do was squeeze my feet really hard and…

To my dismay, my body zoomed towards the ground like a jet piercing through the air, sending shockwaves throughout my body. The energy flared up from my feet like a fire gone out of control, and I needed to stop it before I reached the heart of the city.

Unfortunately, my skull had already been implanted into the thick concrete before I could even come up with a plan. My mom always called me hard headed but I was sure she didn’t mean it like this!

I gripped the ground and pulled my head free, ignoring the sizable crater I’d left behind—the impact leaving buildings damaged from the debris and people running away. For a moment, I was in awe of everything around me, but quickly shook it off, focusing on what actually mattered.

I pretended to take a deep breath and then yelled “Sunshiiiiiiine!”

“It’s a radion!” was screamed out by a crowd of bystanders near me.

Holy shit. There really are people here! But how the hell can they survive in a place like this? This dangerous energy was everywhere.

“You people heard that, right!? That thing just spoke!”

“My son was just walking there. That monster would've killed him if he was just a few seconds too late!”

“Does anyone here have a status board!? We needa call the Radius!”

Who or what the hell could the Radius be? I feel like I heard that word before…like someone calling me by that name.

I wasn't gonna stay and find that out, especially since there was a guy behind me making the bold attempt to run me over with his car. I bolted out of the way and then made a run for it, accidentally knocking over a few bystanders in my way in the process.

An hour might have passed since I began dashing through the city, hoping to catch a scared little girl in a forcefield. Despite the sight of humans all around me, I still couldn't forget the words she told me before. “He has other plans in mind.” What plans could even come from being in this place!?

“Ah, what do we have here?”

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Suddenly, I felt this massive pressure slam into me, driving me down instantly–my knees and hands cracking the concrete of the alleyway I was in. The way the heavy force felt on my back and actually caused me pain, almost made me believe Dante was responsible for this.

Wh-what is this shit!? It's like the gravity here just multiplied. Dante’s force fields weren't this powerful or painful. This had to be something else!

“Wow, I'm surprised you could withstand that attack! Usually, that would kill anything or anyone else that was used on.” Whoever was approaching me had this really chaotic laugh between his sentences. Like one of those hyenas I saw at the zoo when I was a kid. “You look like a Type Two Radion so what's the deal with you? What makes you so strong?”

From what I could see at the position I was in, the guy had these really baggy white sweatpants that looked difficult to run in. More importantly though, he was human. The glimpses of his brown skin showed me that. “Guess I'll just scan you and make sure.”

He walked in front of me and took out, to my surprise, a cell phone! But if he was gonna scan me, wouldn't he need a status board. A status board looked more like a tape measure than a damn phone.

A flash of blue light shot out from his phone, forming a square that hovered in front of me like a hologram. At first, it showed a loading screen–standard for any status board–then shifted to bright red with “Unavailable Information” displayed in bold black text in the middle.

“Huh? That doesn't seem right? These things are supposed to scan anything!” The man paused for a moment. “Hey, Jason! You're a tech savvy guy, right? What's wrong with my scanner?”

“Decapitation!”

Did I hear that correctly!?

“How would turning it off and turning it on again fix it? Are you even as tech savvy as you say you are!?”

“Drowning!”

“I know it's only a Type 2 but it's still withstanding Daemon’s ability right now. Aren't you curious to learn more about it?”

“Burning to death!”

“Geez man, you're always so eager to kill something!” The man cackled and I could've sworn the soft crackle of static as he did. “Can't say I don't like it either though!”

“No, you can't kill me! Not now!”

His laugh ceased the second he heard me speak, leveling down to look at my face. He was a rather young looking man–maybe 20 or a little higher–despite his blinding white hair. The guy gave me this intense gaze with his regal, amber eyes that gave me the vibe of predator deadset on consuming their prey.

After what felt like hours, the man's cold blank stare turned into a manic smile, baring literal fangs at me. “Did you just talk? Radions can't talk…unless you're one of-”

“Yeah, yeah, I can talk. Who cares!?” I said with a pained voice. “Just let me leave and I won't cause you guys any trouble!”

“No, you can't be a radius. But I've never heard a radion speak before. Where are you from!?” he asked, joyfully.

“None of your business. I'm trying to find someone quickly and this is just wasting my time! Just get rid of whatever’s doing this to my back and let me go.”

Instead of a response to me, the man turned back to his friend, Jason. He wore one of those horror movie hockey masks that were pretty popular back in the day. Although, I couldn't tell whether those red streaks on his mask were just a design choice or actual dried blood.

“You're hearing this, right!? This thing is literally talking! Like words and responses.”

“Lethal injection!” shouted Jason, zipping down his green camo jacket. “Impalement!”

“Please, I'm serious! I know it's hard to believe but I have a daughter and she's-”

“Daughter!? You hear that, Jason? Radions can apparently breed now!” he laughed, tying his medium length dreads into a ponytail. “Hey, hey, what's your kid’s name? This is gonna be so funny!”

“Her name is Sunshine! And I need to-”

Before I could finish my sentence, my head was crushed into the ground out of nowhere–the pressure on my back dissipating as soon as it did. Even though it was clearly a physical attack, it hurt like fucking hell. I still felt a hand on my skull, their fingers digging into my body's ooze. This was the hand of a man who was abnormally big. Even bigger than me.

“Type One Diabetes.”

“Yeah, I was on the fence about killing this thing before but now I understand. This is an even bigger problem than a Type 2 Radion. This Radion wants to kill us all.”

“Electrocution!”

“Yeah, I'll make sure to zap him good.”

At that moment, a taser…no, something even stronger than that proceeded to shock my entire body. My entire body erupted in pain, my skeleton locking into a rigid, agonizing tension. It felt like my bones were injected with fire and that I would ignite any second now.

However, I noticed something important even through the agony of the electrocution and Jason gripping my skull. Both of these attacks held radioactive energy. I could feel it seeping into me! All I needed to do was release it in a blast.

Jason’s arm was no joke when it came to strength but the determination of a father to save his child was even stronger. They would both find out how true this was as I summoned all the strength within me to push my skull off the ground–the ooze wobbling like gelaten.

“What the hell. He's still alive!? He should've been dust by now!”

“Heart attack!” yelled Jason, his strength slightly increasing.

“Absorption!? So he really is a-”

An instant later, the blast from my hands hit like a speeding train, sending us flying across the city in different directions. Buildings felt soft as my body tore through their walls like paper, rubble scattering like confetti. With a hard crash, I finally landed, skidding to a halt on cracked pavement. As per usual, none of that hurt me but the effects of those two attacks from earlier really left a number on me.

Groaning, I forced myself to sit up, my vision still spinning. After shaking my head a bit, I realized where I'd landed. I was just yards away from a school and thankfully for me, there weren't any students there.

Now that those two were out of my way, I still had to figure out where my daughter was. The Underground was way too damn big for me to just find her with Dante in some random store or something. Then there was the problem of my appearance. If I'm out in the open like this, then people are just gonna keep calling those guys to come after me!

Unfortunately, I didn't have to worry about anyone calling them as they were already behind me. They entered the vicinity with a thunderous bang, forming a crack on the concrete much larger than mines.

“Lung Cancer!” said Jason, carrying the dread head on his shoulders.

“You really thought a blast like that would put us down for good!?” he added, getting back on his feet. “Don’t act so confident!”

I was about to make another daring escape when a bolt of green electricity pierced the ground in front of me, stopping me in my tracks.

“Where do you think you're going? We can't let you leave after what you just did.”

“You assholes attacked me first! And then you tried to kill me! What I did was just self defense!”

“We don't care about you attacking us,” the man chuckled. “Not only do you have intel on that girl that came down here recently, you're also a radius just like us. You need to come with us, now.”

“What!? You have Sunshine!? Where is she now? She better be safe!”

“Enough questions! You're gonna come with us whether you like it or not. And clearly judging by your need to find that kid, we can use her as a bargaining chip, right?”

“AIDs!”

“Oh yeah, that too! But don't worry. Damage control should handle it well.” He wiped off the dust from his black Nike shirt. “Follow us, Radion man!”

“Fine.”