Mutant War

This is what they used to call a city.

10 or so years ago, it would've been alive with noise,

and lights, and mobs of people.

It's quieter now.

There used to be eight million stories in this city,

now it's down to one.

That's me.

I'm doing a little shopping.

Who I am, and what led to all this, I'll explain later.

Right now, something's gonna happen.

What's this?

Seagram's.

Tasty.

Now that's some aged liquor.

A library.

A library.

Yeah.

Whoa.

Oh, I don't believe it.

Who would throw this stuff out?

Two extra August.

I read that issue.

Okay.

Let's see.

What's this?

Come on.

Okay, you asked for it.

That's right pal, right this way.

Say cheese.

All right.

Where were we?

Uh-huh.

Now I really need a drink.

May, my favorite month.

Yeah.

My name is Harry Trent.

To adapt a phrase from one of my favorite books,

you don't know me without you have read my memoirs.

You haven't read them because there are no publishers left.

In my memoirs, I told the truth,

mostly about the earth was invaded

by pig-faced aliens called lzaaks,

and how they were defeated by a band of heroes

and a device called the neutron 90 bomb.

I was one of the heroes.

The neutron 90 destroyed the invaders

by melting them down into goop.

It also released an unknown form of radiation

that even its inventor never suspected,

which has just played hell with the ecosystem.

After we defeated the bad guys,

the idea was to start rebuilding civilization

and getting things back to normal.

But it hasn't worked out that way.

It hasn't worked out that way at all.

All right.

Hey.

Hey!

Hey, come out.

I got a gun here.

What, hey!

What's going on?

Come here!

What?

Come on out, it's okay.

Look, he's dead.

It's safe look, he's dead see?

He's not dead.

Look, come out!

It's okay, come on, come on.

He's not dead.

Yeah, all right.

Here.

I told you so.

Now, he's dead.

Don't ever do that!

For all I know, that thing over there could still be alive.

It is still alive.

That's better.

It's called a carr.

I know it's called a car, do I look stupid?

So what's your name?

Spider, what's yours?

Harry Trent.

My family talked about you.

You some hero?

So.

Where is your family?

Dead mostly, except for my sisters who are with them.

The mooks raided our sediment, killed most of our men,

took a bunch of us back with them.

I got away, and then that thing came after me.

Damn.

Oh, hell.

Should've brought extra.

This was my extra!

I didn't know I'd be so far between courses.

Is that the whole country?

The whole country?

No, it's just the Southern part of the state.

What state?

How old are you anyway?

Old enough.

Everybody's old enough now kid,

it's the Southern part of this state.

We're right about here, and there should be gas

or something around here.

You can come, you can stay, do whatever you wanna do.

I have to find my sisters.

By yourself?

I'll find someone who will help me.

Good luck.

Okay, all right, come on.

We'll go so we can find some gas,

check out the area,

and then, we'll see what happens.

This is space.

The fuzzy green ball is the planet Neptune.

It's the eighth planet from the sun,

about three billion miles from here,

and none of our story takes place on Neptune.

However, unknown to me while I was looking for gas,

company was headed our way.

It's makers designate this as a class two starship.

Just a little thing, but it'll get you

from one star system to another.

Right now, it's heading for earth.

We'll see more of it later.

There's gotta be a tank around here somewhere.

Oh, this should work.

It needs a hose.

Why don't you look around find buckets,

anything you put more gas in.

Okay.

Amoco.

Okay.

Great.

Damn.

Don't ever do this, it could kill ya.

Why don't you go see if you can

find anything else around here.

What, what, what?

Run!

Run, run!

Geez.

Ow. - You all right?

Yeah, I'm okay.

Okay well,

come on, we'll take you back, clean you up.

You'll be all right.

You're a feisty little kid, you know that?

This was not the kind of life I envisioned for myself.

Saddled with a child.

She didn't even look like me.

Well, maybe in the nose.

I thought you were okay.

I'm okay.

You're not okay, you're burning up.

So”?

So we gotta get you someplace where you can rest.

I'm okay.

Shut up.

I found a well.

Water seems okay.

We gotta get rid of that fever.

I know what happened,

bacteria on the animal's skin when it hit you.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay here, drink.