by Kyle West
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Also by Kyle West
The Seeker's Way
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
About the Author
Also by Kyle West
Glossary
Bastion
The Xenoworld Saga, Book 2
Kyle West
Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2015 Kyle West
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.
First e-book edition, June 2015
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Also by Kyle West
Post-Apocalyptic/Dystopian
The Wasteland Chronicles
Apocalypse
Origins
Evolution
Revelation
Darkness
Extinction
Xenofall
Post-Apocalyptic/Fantasy
The Xenworld Saga
Prophecy
Bastion
Accept everything as it is;
Do not depend on a partial feeling;
Do not be ruled by desire;
Do not regret your past;
Do not seek pleasure for its own sake;
Do not blindly follow tradition;
Do not practice with weapons beyond what is useful;
Do not hoard riches for old age;
Never fear death;
Revere the Six Gods without counting on their help;
Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world;
Never stray from the Seeker’s Way.
The Seeker’s Way
CHAPTER ONE
ANNA COULD STILL HEAR THE sounds of celebration outside, even though it was past midnight. She took no comfort in the sound; not when it resurfaced memories she would rather forget.
But how to forget the day your husband died?
She held baby Alex fast, and as if sensing his mother’s unease, he let out a single wail.
“Shh…” Anna said, holding him closer.
Alex quieted, but it only lasted a moment. A knock at the door caused the baby to cry all over again.
Anna rolled her eyes at the interruption. “Who is it?”
The door opened a few inches, revealing half of Ruth’s form. “Bad time?”
“No,” Anna said, shaking her head. “Not really. Come in.”
Ruth stepped inside and shut the door, and the sound of music and festivities was muffled out. The main room of Anna’s cabin was dimly lit by a single lantern. That lantern revealed little outside of the table it sat on. Normally, it would have been off, but Anna was up with the baby. And if the baby wasn’t there to keep her up, her thoughts surely would have done the job, especially on a night like this. It had been one year since the end of the Ragnarok War — one year since Alex’s death — and Anna would rather stay inside with her thoughts than be out celebrating with the masses.
Anna gestured to one of two wooden chairs at the tiny table, and Ruth pulled up a seat. Alex fussed a bit at the interruption, but soon went quiet.
“You doing all right?” Ruth asked.
Anna didn’t answer for a moment, not even knowing where to begin. “You ever wonder what the hell we’re doing?”
“Isn’t that the definition of being alive?”
“Feels that way, sometimes,” Anna said. “We’ve been building this town for a year. Sometimes, it doesn’t feel like that long at all. And sometimes…it feels like it’s been an eternity. Either way, it’s been one year without fighting, so I guess that’s something.”
As Ruth listened, Anna looked down at Alex, whose eyes were now opened. They were the same brown as his father’s. Anna continued.
“I’m eighteen, now,” Anna said. “That’s too young for all of this.” She sighed. “I wonder how we did it. I wonder how we’re still doing it.”
Ruth merely sat and listened.
“It’s been a year and I’m going crazy. There’s no one to fight. Nothing to do. Nothing to do but live, and think, and wonder what if…”
“We’ve got Colonia,” Ruth said. “This is our chance to unite the Wasteland as a single people.”
Anna grunted. “You believe that tripe Augustus is feeding us? This is his city, however you slice it.”
Ruth didn’t respond for a moment. “I don’t know what I believe, Anna. I know what I want to believe, though. I want to believe this town has meaning. I want to believe it’s giving people hope. And I know for a fact that it was our hands — the Angels’ hands — that built it. In that way, it is ours.”
Anna didn’t know how, but she knew Colonia was headed for nothing but trouble…a trouble it might not survive. Maybe they had built the city, but Augustus had footed the bill. After all, it was his barges that came upriver from Colossus with wave after wave of supplies and eager colonists, hungry to make their fortune in the so-called “scrap rush.” Samuel was doing all he could to organize the labor and caravans, and meanwhile, buildings sprouted on either side of the river with little direction or planning. The Angels — what was left of them, anyway — could barely hold the peace. In the space of less than a year, Colonia had gone from a city of tents to a bustling boom town of some one thousand souls. And ever since word had gotten out about the haul from nearby Bunker 48, the tide of colonists had only increased. It wasn’t just legal immigrants, either — Samuel was offering safe harbor to any slave that managed to escape Nova Roma’s provinces and make it inside city walls — much to the consternation of the northern governors and Onyx Black, who governed California in the west.
“What are you thinking?” Ruth asked. “You get so quiet sometimes.”
“I can’t help it,” Anna said. “I’m just worried about the future. I’m worried whether this city is really ours. You know how Augustus is.”
“Samuel and I worry, too,” Ruth said. “I don’t know how he does it, but he leads people so easily. You’ll see the roughest, toughest, meanest man go quiet when he talks. I’ve never seen a man work as Samuel does. For all he does, though…even I feel, sometimes, it’s not enough. Something’s got to break, and I think he feels that, too. Whether today, or years from now…something’s got to break.”
Anna nodded. She felt it, too, just as Anna had felt it the very minute Augustus appointed Samuel governor of El Yermo
, the Empire’s newest province. That was the Emperor’s name for the Wasteland, a literal translation from Spanish. The territory was quickly assimilated following the conclusion of the Ragnarok War, and Augustus had decreed a capital city be built, not far south from the original site of Raider Bluff on the Colorado River. Just like the name of his province, the name of the city — La Colonia — wasn’t very creative. There were dozens of towns named the same thing all throughout Nova Roma’s far-flung territories. All the same, Augustus had a vision for a massive city. The Gateway to the North, he called it, a central hub from which people could scrap all the Bunkers just waiting to be picked over in the desert. And Augustus appointed Samuel to run it.
That hadn’t made Onyx Black’s son too happy. He had assumed control of the Reapers following his father’s death, and he was every bit as nasty as him. Maybe even nastier. He resented Samuel’s appointment as governor of El Yermo, as he had inherited California — a poorer province. El Yermo had more Bunkers in its territory, and therefore more wealth. Bunkers were where the batts were these days, and there were enough Bunkers near Colonia that it would keep the city busy for a decade, or even longer. And if there was one thing Onyx liked, it was batts. If Colonia didn’t collapse under its own weight, Black would surely help it along.
“I’ve been trying to get Sam to relax ever since we got married, but he doesn’t slow down for anything.”
“That’s Samuel,” Anna said. “When you have to deal with men like Augustus, Onyx, and all those provincial jackals, I suppose you can’t afford to slow down.” She sighed. “And I’m not much help, for understandable reasons…”
“You know that’s not true,” Ruth said. “This city would fall apart without you. Just because you aren’t overseeing the construction or giving orders…”
“It’s not that,” Anna said. “I don’t just wonder what the hell I’m doing. I wonder what the hell I’m doing here.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t really know what I mean,” Anna said. “It’s not just…him.” Ruth didn’t have to ask who Anna was referring to. “I keep thinking of the Great Blight. I keep having these weird dreams. They’re peaceful, but I also know they’re not coming from me. They’re very vivid, very…alien.” She looked at Ruth. “Do you have those dreams?”
Ruth hesitated. “Sometimes. Not often, but…sometimes.”
“I keep feeling like I have to go back,” Anna said. “I can’t explain why. When we became Elekai…” She shook her head. “I’ve often wondered how human we are. We look like we’re human, but at the same time, have you noticed how people treat us? They’re friendly enough, but even with Char and Marcus, there’s this…barrier. As if we can only know them so much.”
Ruth listened patiently, but didn’t voice her agreement.
“I don’t know,” Anna said. “The whole war happened so quickly that I can hardly believe we managed anything. When I think about it, it’s all a blur. I can hardly believe it happened at all. How we survived everything. I wake up in these cold sweats sometimes, my heart racing, not knowing where I am…”
Anna stopped herself before her emotions could get the better of her. She felt Ruth’s hand on her arm, and the touch calmed her. She looked down at baby Alex, cradled in her other arm.
“I think my problem is…I can’t deal with my memories. Not anymore. I literally cannot allow myself to think or else I’ll go crazy. With the baby here, I’ve had nothing to do but think.”
“Makara was the same way,” Ruth said. “I think all of us are like that, to some extent.” Ruth withdrew her hand. “If you need to take your mind off things, Samuel could sure use you in administration. He’s talking about starting a senate. Has all these grand plans of building a place to meet. He even talks about building walls. Can you imagine that?”
Anna nodded. “Of course I can. We’ll need those before long. I guarantee it.”
Alex cooed, trying to get his mother’s attention. Anna smiled, rubbing his cheek softly with her thumb.
“Maybe you’re right,” Anna said, after another moment.
“I know I’m right,” Ruth said. “I know how life works, or at least that aspect of it. We can’t live in a vacuum. I know you’ve had it hard, ever since Alex passed. I…remember what that’s like.”
Anna remembered, what seemed so long ago, how she and Alex had come upon Ruth in Bunker 108. For two months, she had lived alone, surviving in Hydroponics with nothing but ghosts.
“I don’t like remembering that, and I’m so busy that I rarely think of it these days,” Ruth said. “Everything became better once I met you guys. I had something to take my mind off the past. Our natural inclination is to live in the past if there’s nothing calling us in the present, when there’s no hope in the future…”
Anna looked down at Alex. Ruth’s words sounded familiar to her. She had Alex…Alex was her present. But she knew she needed more than that.
“I think I’m missing the hope,” Anna said, quietly. “I can’t know the future will be good. And it’s worse when I can imagine all the bad things that could happen…”
“They haven’t happened yet, dreams or not,” Ruth said. “If we work hard, maybe this city could be the best thing to ever happen since the Rock fell.”
“Maybe,” Anna said, though she didn’t feel Ruth’s optimism. Baby Alex’s eyes opened, and Anna smiled. “Your Aunt Ruth is here.”
Alex responded with some babyish babble.
“He’s talkative, isn’t he?” Ruth said.
“He’s been babbling like this for a few days, now. It’ll be a while before he says proper words. He’s learning, though.”
She looked at her baby, knowing that she wasn’t worried about the future merely for herself. It was Alex she cared the most about. What would the world be like when he reached her age, all too soon? Would it be a better world, or a worse one? Only time would tell, and maybe that was where Anna could find her inspiration.
“Is he still keeping you up?” Ruth asked, breaking Anna from her thoughts.
“You kidding me? Every night. In fact…”
Anna trailed off, not sure whether she wanted to continue. She wasn’t even sure if she wanted to think about it. Alex had been in his crib, crying, and Anna had gone to tend to him. But when his eyes opened, they had revealed something that made Anna’s heart nearly stop. Those eyes had glowed white in the darkness, only returning to normal when Anna started comforting him.
“I think…” Anna paused. “I think whatever we have…our Elekai genes, or whatever you’d call it…I think they do pass on.”
It was something everyone had been wondering. Would the descendants of Elekai humans also be Elekai?
“How do you know that?” Ruth asked.
“It was his eyes,” Anna said. “They were completely white. It happened for the first time a few nights ago, and it’s happened two times since. It’s usually when he’s upset in some way. Whenever I hold him, or feed him, it goes away.”
Ruth put a hand over her stomach. “I wonder if it’ll be the same for me.”
“Probably so. I don’t want Alex growing up thinking he’s…different. I guess that’s inevitable, though. At least he’ll have friends who are like him. Michael and Lauren have theirs on the way.”
“Michael keeps saying something about how it’s his duty to repopulate the Earth.”
Anna smiled at that, but what Michael said wasn’t exactly true. There were plenty of people down south. If things kept going with all the immigration from Nova Roma, the Wasteland might not be the Wasteland for much longer.
Were their children the beginning of three Elekai dynasties? Anna couldn’t say. It was possible, though, even if its realization seemed so far away.
“He’s kicking,” Ruth said, with a smile and a hand on her abdomen.
“It’ll be good to have someone going through it with me,” Anna said. “It gets lonely, sometimes. By the time yours is born, Alex will be getting close t
o his first birthday. Our children will grow up playing together. Isn’t that a happy thought?”
“Of course. It’s the only reason we’re doing this. We do it for our kids.”
Alex was now fast asleep, lulled by the women’s voices. She stood carefully and laid him carefully amongst the blankets of his crib.
“Are you sure you don’t want to step outside for a minute?” Ruth asked. “I can watch over Alex for you.”
Anna shook her head. “I…think I’d rather stay here. I know it’s good to get out, but…I’m just not feeling up to it tonight.”
Ruth nodded. “All right. We’re all here for you. If you need anything…”
“I know,” Anna said. “Sometimes…”
Anna felt tears come to her eyes, and her hand covered her mouth. She felt a deep stab of grief, the type she thought she’d buried long ago. She was more used to a dull ache by now, but this was visceral and real.
Within an instant, Ruth was standing and hugging her, and Anna let herself sob and show weakness. Before she could control herself, words spilled out of her mouth.
“I miss him so much, Ruth. How could he just…die, and just leave me like this? How could I just let him do what he did?”
“It’s all right,” Ruth said, still holding her. “It’ll be all right.”
Anna felt a stab of guilt, knowing it wasn’t fair to blame him, or even herself, for what had happened — for what had to happen. If it hadn’t had happened, there wouldn’t have been anything to celebrate tonight. But still, Anna couldn’t help wondering, what if? One year later, the pain hadn’t gone away. It had only become a different kind of pain.
Anna pulled back, brushing the tears from her face. She sat back down, and Ruth joined her at the table. They sat like that for a while, Ruth’s hand on Anna’s arm. After a moment, the worst of the grief had passed, leaving the familiar ache that Anna always carried with her — an ache she hardly even noticed unless she tried to search for it.
