The R.A.D Kids

Chapter 1: Welcome to the end of the world

You know, it's actually kinda funny, because whenever I had to use radiation for my powers, I'd have been reduced to nothing but a coughing mess, along with a migrane to boot. But today, I got greeted by a vision. Lovely.

It seems like a lifetime ago before the Nuke Revolution. Back then, in 2017, a huge corporation called RadiaSave were working on something BIG, they said. And us, the people, were wondering, 'Oooo, something big?'. When they finally shown what they were working on, we were blown away. RadiaSave had created a solar-powered nuclear reactor. It looked like an overgrown hourglass. But it looked futuristic, and had a swirling nuclear core floating in the middle.

RadiaSave announced that they'd be mass producing these reactors all over the world and that we'd never have to worry about losing power ever again. This was a godsend for us. Unlimited power we didn't have to pay for? Who could say no to that? In 2019, RadiaSave had successfully created 20 reactors in different parts of each continent. And for a while, we lived off the energy without any problems.

But what we didn't realize was how we'd doomed ourselves.

By 2020, nothing was going on. Everyone was just living their lives without a care in the world. Until on February 8, 2020, a reactor in Sydney exploded. RadiaSave didn't anticipate one of their reactors blowing up, so they tried to tell the public that perhaps, the reactor was tampered with. But, they were wrong about that.

A week after the Sydney reactor blew up, a reactor in Russia also went up in smoke. At this point, the world was starting to doubt RadiaSave, so they protested and demanded that the reactors had to be shut down. But we all know how big-shot corporations act: they shrug it off and pretend everything is fine while the go on vacation drinking Pinã Coladas. Totally responsible.

But then, on March 1, shit really hit the fan. One of RadiaSave's employees listened to the demands of the people, and they tried shutting off the reactors, but the CEO of RadiaSave wasn't allowing that, and he caught on to what that employee was doing. He tried to stop him, but they had a brawl inside the control room, and they badly damaged the controls. This caused ALL reactors everywhere to self-destruct, effectively killing off 70% of the human population.

What followed after that was way worse than that...

A good 6 months after the Nuke Revolution, somewhere in England, a survivor noticed a hulking figure wandering the wastelands. He approached the figure with caution, but let's just say he didn't need to tell the world what he saw, because they saw them too.

We called these creatures 'Ravagers'. They looked as if the Hulk went through the apocalypse, but came back a changed man. They had absurd power, speed and they worked in packs. Along with the fact they came with razor sharp, metallic like claws, we didn't even stand a chance. And these things oozed with radiation, so if you got killed by this thing, you'd not only turn into a Ravager, but you'd also spread radiation wherever you walked. We didn't have a countermeasure for this, so that was another 15% of the population down the drain.

Now, not many of us remain. A large chunk of the remaining population fled and buit underground colonies that could keep the radiation out. They called them 'Edens'.

Some of the other survivors became bandits, and they created suits to help then survive in the wasteland. They called them 'Exo's'. Pretty creative. The Exo's looked like a budget version of Iron Man's suit if they'd actually put in effort.

And as you guessed, some of us resigned themselves to fate, and became Ravagers.

And for a while, that's how the world was. Broken.

Now, I come in. My parents were some of the many few who didn't trust the reactors and they set themselves to work, building a bunker with with essentials to last a year. But after the world went to shit, food eventually was running thin, and my parents had to venture into the wastelands to find food. That was the last time I saw them.

After what felt like a damn eternity in that coffin, I decided to break my parents most important rule: "Never leave the bunker, no matter what". For the first time in.. how long, I left the bunker and stepped into the wasteland. Now, at first glance, you could see how those reactors really messed shit up. Buildings were in ruin, the grass was dead, and I'm pretty sure I saw a few corpses on the ground. In my head, I thought, "Huh. So this is what the world is now. Skynet would be proud."

Quick fact: if you stepped out into the wastelands without any protection of any kind from the radiation, you might as well have just signed your own death certificate. You'd be dead in less then a hour. At first, when I stepped out, I felt weaker, sluggish and I felt as if I wanted to just die right then and there. My parents told me about the symptoms of succumbing to radiation, and I'd just went and threw that out in the wind. I was in pain, on the ground, ready to just die. But it looked as if fate had something else planned for me. After the deadly hour had passed, I'd fully expected myself to have turned into a Ravager, but for some reason, I didn't. When I woke up, it was night, but I felt the same. Nothing had changed at all, and boy, was I ecstatic to realize that.

After heading back into the bunker, I took a rest and by the next morning, I checked to see if I was a Ravager just dreaming. Sure enough, I wasn't. But something was off. When I looked at myself in the bunker's bathroom mirror, I wondered if I was really dead. My reflection shown me that while I looked the same, my body was radiating a neon green color. I thought that maybe I was hallucinating and imagined my parents telling me everything was gonna be alright. And the next thing I saw shocked me. Behind me were my parents telling me everything was fine. I ran to give them a hug, but I straight went through them. I looked back, and they looked like they gone, only to reappear.

"So I'm going crazy. Great.", I said to myself. "What the hell was happening", I thought. First that neon green color coming off of me, then my parents telling me everything is fine like I got my tongue burnt eating my dad's curry. But then a thought occurred to me: "This all started happening because I left the bunker. And when I woke up last night. What if...".

I had to test it out. I imagined my mom coming to give me a hug, and she did exactly that. But she went right through me. "Ok... I got powers.", I said, I disbelief. It was unreal, and amazing at the same time. After that whole debacle, I was in the bunker's main room, thinking about what to do. Until I decided to leave the bunker. I was tired of living in a place that I was forced to stay in until I eventually died. So, with a heavy heart, I packed food to last me a good 3 weeks, warm clothing, and a Glock for protection. And that was the last time I saw that bunker.

When I left, I fully expected to go through the same symptoms as the day before, when I stepped out. But, to my surprise, none of that happened. In fact, I felt invigorated, full of energy. "Must be because I have powers. I don't need to worry about radiation, for now.", I wondered.

I didn't know if there were any other survivors out there, who were immune and had power as I did, but that was the least of my worries. My biggest worry is this: How the hell am I gonna fight off 3 Ravagers?

CLIFFHANGER!!!

So, that was chapter 1. If you enjoyed it, please tell me what you think. This is first ever story, so I might make a lot of mistakes. But bear with me. If you want it to be longer, shorter or anything else, let me know.

Hope you enjoyed!
Rep Out!!