Chapter 82: Stonefort Refuge City

The off-road vehicle tore across the desert. According to the coordinates on the map, their next destination was Stonefort Refuge City.

The city was a key stronghold in the Radiant Path’s southward expansion. The Radiant Path had operated there for years, with a large contingent of the Holy Army of Deliverance stationed inside.

Finn had come to grant it eternal peace.

After several days and nights on the road, Stonefort’s fortifications finally came into view far ahead. The walls were tall, sturdy, and seemingly impregnable.

Tunnels and trenches had been dug in every direction around the city, while barbed-wire entanglements covered the surrounding approaches. Radiant Path soldiers patrolled in formation.

Several scattered refugee settlements lay around the city. Ragged people moved among the ruins, searching for anything they could use.

Despite the long journey, Finn showed no sign of fatigue. Olivia, however, was exhausted. Her eyelids kept drooping as she forced herself to stay awake behind the wheel.

More importantly, the off-road vehicle itself needed time to cool down.

The desert was a brutal place. Radioactive winds swept across the wasteland, while the blazing sunlight was strong enough to turn any metal box into a microwave oven. The vehicle’s cooling system was struggling to keep up.

The refugees had clustered together in whatever places were still habitable. Finn and Olivia drove into one of the settlements and parked in the shade.

Finn took out the cooler he had bought in Ironatom. He pulled out two chilled bottles of Nuka-Cola and handed both of them to Olivia.

Olivia tipped her head back and gulped one bottle down, then passed the other to Finn. She lowered the seat, lay facedown on it, and soon fell into a deep sleep.

“Already that tired?” Finn took out a blanket and gently draped it over Olivia’s slender waist. After absorbing the energy from two Relic Marrow Bullets with the Source-Devouring Technique, he closed his eyes and dozed lightly as well.

…

A sudden burst of shouting jolted Finn awake.

“I don’t want to go… Please, I don’t want to go…”

“Dad… don’t send me to Stonefort! I’ll be good from now on!”

“Let go of me! I want my mom!”

The children’s young voices overlapped with the harsh shouts and angry curses of adults, creating a chaotic din.

Finn frowned slightly, opened the door, and stepped out.

Two armed Radiant Path soldiers were dragging three children along. All three were boys, around eight or nine years old. Their clothes were tattered, and their faces were pale and gaunt.

The soldiers held their thin arms in an iron grip. Like lambs caught in a lion’s jaws, they could barely move.

The boys cried out to their parents for help. Their parents stood at the other end of the settlement, numb and motionless, their eyes vacant.

At their feet were several bottles of Tier-Two Purified Water, some dry chunks of meat, and a few dozen dollar coins.

Those pitifully few supplies were enough to make them hand over their own sons.

“Shut up!” one of the Radiant Path soldiers barked. “We’re taking you to Stonefort. You’ll get good food, plenty to drink, and lessons in the doctrine from the high priest. Isn’t that better than rotting here?”

“I’m not going! The high priest is a monster who eats people! He abuses boys! I’m not going to Refuge City!”

The boy struggled desperately, tears gathering at the corners of his eyes.

“Mom, help me! I don’t want to go to Stonefort…”

Another boy sobbed and pleaded with his mother.

The woman was thin and dressed in rags. Her eyes were dull and lifeless as she shook her head.

“John, you won’t live long if you stay with us. At least in Refuge City, you’ll have enough to eat.”

“Quit crying! Even your own mother doesn’t want you. Now come quietly! You little brat—the high priest ordered us to leave you untied. Otherwise, I would’ve chained you already!”

The Radiant Path soldier angrily clamped both of the boy’s wrists in one hand and dragged him backward.

Finn stepped forward. “So this high priest has some pretty sick tastes.”

The two Radiant Path soldiers looked up and stared at Finn warily. Their free hands instinctively moved toward their weapons.

“It’s a voluntary deal,” one of them said. “Their families agreed to send the children to Refuge City to learn the doctrine. What’s it got to do with you?”

The other soldier raised his rifle and aimed it at Finn.

“This is Radiant Path business. Who the hell are you to interfere?”

“How should I put this?” Finn picked at his ear with his right pinky. “I wasn’t planning to get involved, but now that you’ve said that, I think I will.”

“You’re dead!” Both Radiant Path soldiers raised their rifles and opened fire. Bullets ripped toward Finn.

Finn stood his ground, weathering the barrage. A Desert Eagle appeared in his hand.

Bang! Bang!

Two shots. Two blown-out skulls.

Blood and brains sprayed into the air, red against the endless blue sky.

“Mu… mutant!”

The parents, numb only moments before, stumbled backward in terror and stared at Finn as though he were a demon.

The three rescued boys, however, were ecstatic. They hurried over to thank him, then pointed toward the other end of the ramshackle settlement.

“Mister, Simmons, Tommy, and Cooper were taken too! Can you save them?”

The gunshots had woken Olivia as well. She jumped out of the off-road vehicle with a light machine gun in her hands and stood beside Finn.

“Let’s go see.”

Finn and Olivia followed the direction the boys were pointing. A pickup truck was parked on the main road, its open bed packed with five children.

The frail boys sat in a neat row, their arms wrapped around their knees. Strangely, they were completely silent. Their eyes were dull and lifeless.

Olivia stepped forward and smashed the lock on the truck bed, then gestured for them to get out.

“Come on, kids. You’re free.”

The five boys jumped down from the truck in perfect unison. They gathered around Finn and Olivia’s feet, none of them even reaching waist height.

Then, without warning, everything changed.

Three of the boys suddenly grabbed Finn’s legs. Like little wolf cubs gone mad, they bared their small, blunt teeth and bit down viciously on his thighs.

Olivia was attacked as well. Two small boys sank their teeth into her thighs and bit with all their strength, as if they meant to tear the flesh right off.

“Ow!” Olivia gritted her teeth and punched the boy on her right, knocking him away. Fighting through the pain of the bite, she activated her X-ray vision.

In an instant, every detail around her became clear.

“There’s a mutant in the pickup’s cab! He’s using his ability!”

Olivia raised her light machine gun with both hands and held down the trigger.

The weapon roared, pouring a sustained burst into the pickup.

Bullets tore through the truck. Its thin metal body was riddled with holes, while the fuel tank and engine erupted in flames.

A person inside the cab let out a scream before the gunfire tore him apart.

The moment the pickup’s driver died, the five children snapped out of the trance.

They were not seriously injured. The three who had bitten Finn were the worst off—all of their teeth had shattered.

The other two boys stood there at a loss, blood still dripping from between their teeth. Fortunately, they had not managed to tear through Olivia’s jeans, though the force of their bites had still broken the skin underneath. Otherwise, they might actually have torn two chunks of flesh from her legs.

“Master, this was my mistake. Please don’t hurt them!”

Olivia pressed a hand over the bleeding wound on her leg and pleaded with Finn.

Finn gave no indication of what he thought and handed her a bottle of healing potion. “Drink half. Save the rest for later.”

“Thank you, Master.” Olivia accepted it gratefully. Realizing that it might be some kind of miraculous medicine, she immediately drank half. To her delight, the wound on her leg quickly healed.

After bidding farewell to the tearfully grateful children, Finn and Olivia drove toward Stonefort.

Olivia glanced at the refugee settlement in the rearview mirror. Its battered, ramshackle shelters grew smaller and smaller in the distance.

Sadness flickered in her eyes.

“Master, are we going to save those refugees? I feel sorry for them. There may be children imprisoned inside Stonefort too.”

Finn shook his head. “I told you already. Our target is the World Nucleus. We’re not here to remake the world.”

“Besides…” Finn glanced at his phone. “Holy Radiance will descend in one month and seventeen days. We need to move faster and carry out the nuclear plan.”