The Helltrekkers

**The Helltrekkers**was a series co-written by John Wagner and Alan Grant with art by Jose Ortiz and Horacio Lalia. It followed a small commune of Helltrekkers led by Trek Master Lucas Rudd attempting to reach to Cursed Earth colonies. It ran from Prog 317 to 415 having 29 episodes in total.

## Story

Some in hopes of reaching a better life, others on the run from the law, a commune of 28 Rad-Wagons with 111 citizens set out across the Cursed Earth to reach the new colonies. Led by former Leisure Instructor Lucus Rudd and his guide Banjo Quint the group almost instantly get into trouble when the Nebb's (who were on the run for stealing knee pads) began shooting at dinosaurs in Sauron Valley, resulting in lanny Kelsy being the first casualty after being hit with a dinosaurs tail.

Later that night, young Wayne Scagrille wandered off to far from the camp and was killed by a Tyrannosaurus Rex. After burying the remains of the boys body, Rudd began having doubts about his ability to lead the commune. After departing the grave of Scagrille was pre-emptively exhumed by a group of Tyrannosaurs who then began trailing the Rad-Wagons.

Things only begin to get worse on the second day as Wagon 9 and its inhabitants were slowly killed by acid rain, the same night the Hemmingway's were all eaten by the Tyrannosaurs, bar Baby Ernesto who had managed to sleep through the whole thing. On day three Spot Kelsey died of Black Scab, which quickly spread across the whole commune. By day eight up to 50 Trekkers had died including Quint, who had passed his map to Rudd before dying.

On the ninth day, the group comes across a crowd of friendly mutants who begin to swap supplies and goods with the Trekkers. Titus Nebb however decided to take the property of one of them before shooting them, causing the mutants to become hostile and attack the commune, resulting in several more Trekker deaths. In hopes of appeasing them, Rudd took Titus to where the mutants were waiting to attack and offered him to them, explaining what he had done. The mutants kill Titus and allow for the commune to pass. Wanting revenge, Titus brothers Otis  and Judas attempt to kill Rudd, nearly succeeding in doing so but were both executed by Rudd and his wife Amber after a failed ambush. Their mother Mom Nebb decided to stay behind as the commune departed.

After a volcanic eruption wipes out a large number of Trekkers, and several others had been killed by the violent landscape, the group finally began nearing the territories, spilt between two routes however the group split up with Rudd taking the longer one following Quint's dying orders, whilst 14 Wagons took the shorter route. Once the group reconnected later on however, the passengers of all 14 wagons had died inexplicably with a look of true terror across their faces.

Finally they reach the new territories, and out of the 111 that had departed, 16 had survived. The survivors quickly establish themselves in the community as Rudd thinks about his son who had died on the last leg of the journey, only to be told by Amber that she was pregnant. allowing for a somewhat happy ending. Apart for Crustacia Tuttle who had swam off in the nearby river, never to be seen again.

## Characters

* Lucas Rudd
* Banjo Quint
* Titus Nebb
* Otis Nebb
* Judas Nebb
* Mom Nebb
* Pop Nebb
* Mr. Tuttle
* Futara Tuttle
* Crustacia Tuttle
* Rollo Peterson

See also: Rudd-1 Helltrekker Comune

## Trivia

* The strip was originally intended to feature in an aborted Judge Dredd spin off magazine. This idea was later reapplied to the Judge Dredd Megazine.