by J. L. Harden
“Events? What are you talking about?”
“I have been alive a long, long time. I am older than I have any right to be. My brother and I, we have lived through this before. I know all the warning signs. The silence from Wonderland, silence from the Camps, from the leadership. People, girls, slaves, escaping into the Wasteland. I know what comes next.”
“What comes next?”
“Death.”
Max is scared. And he’s starting to scare me.
“Wonderland,” he whispers. “The Buried City, the Canyons. We are the last ones left. Edgar, you must be ready to kill Wonderland. You must be ready to kill the leadership… the Lord, the Collector, the Overseers and the Enforcers. Because they are ready to kill you. They are ready to kill everyone.”
“Max, what events have you live through?”
He takes a deep breath. He looks as though he is in pain. Finally, he says, “They are called Extermination Events. I have lived through three of them. They occur before a Final Exodus, before the final Shuttle departs. You must understand, they can’t possibly take everyone. So they will annihilate and exterminate the rest. They do this as a pre-emptive strike, to quell any possibility of an uprising, any possibility of resistance or sabotage.”
I don’t believe it. I don’t want to believe it.
Because we were promised. We were told as long as we were patient, as long as we waited peacefully, we would all be granted salvation.
“We need the girls,” Max says. “They have valuable inside information. They know the layout of Wonderland, they know Wonderland’s strengths and weaknesses and limitations. Their knowledge is the key to winning the coming war…”
War.
Rebellion.
Revolution.
Hector stumbled upon a whole lot of trouble.
And it was just the beginning. I’m only just realizing this. I’m only just realizing the true nature of what we’re up against. I thought that if the girls went public, that if they shared their story, the people of the Buried City would revolt and rebel. And as a result, a lot of people would get themselves killed.
But there’s going to be a war anyway. There’s going to be an ‘Event’, an extermination before the Final Exodus…
So the people of the Buried City and the people living out in the Canyons, their lives are on the line anyway. Whether they want to fight or not. The girls are the key. With them by our side, we might just have a chance of taking down Wonderland. We might just have a chance of saving a whole lot of innocent people. We might just have a chance, however small, of stopping the genocide of every last person left alive in the Buried City, in the Wasteland, on Earth.
Before I go, Max has one last piece of advice for me. He says, “When you find the girls. You must move quickly. If you stay in one place for too long, they will be able to find them, they’ll be able to get a lock on their location. Angel says they disabled the tracking devices, but whatever method they used has not worked properly. You need to bring them to me as soon as you can so I can remove the devices surgically. I am the only one in the Buried City, the only person outside of Wonderland who can perform this procedure.”
I tell him I’ll get the girls. I’ll bring them back here.
I give him my word. I swear an oath.
I tell him that together, we’re going to stop Wonderland, we’re going to overthrow Wonderland.
I tell him that together, we’re going to save the Buried City. Together, we’re going to save the last people left on Earth.
Chapter 3
I’m back in the nicer part of the Buried City, near where I’ve been living for the past few years. Although I guess the word ‘living’ is a loose term. Drinking away my fortunes and my future, waiting to be saved by the good graces of Wonderland, trying to win the favor of the Collector and the Lord. Waiting for something that I realize now, was a long shot of ever happening.
No. Not a long shot. It was never going to happen. Get that through your thick skull.
Yeah. Not really living at all.
Angel told me that when they stumbled out of the Long Tunnel, they were starving and malnourished. They were dying of thirst. They were lost and afraid. They were expecting the worst, but what happened instead was, they were saved by a woman. Sally Miller. The head of the Water Treatment Plant. The woman who makes sure the people of the Buried City have clean water to drink. The woman responsible for keeping the people alive and hydrated.
Sally Miller.
No one better to make sure we all survive. No one better to make sure we all don’t die of thirst.
Anyway, Angel and the girls, they didn’t know what to expect, they didn’t know what was waiting for them on the other side of the vault door. It could’ve been a dead end for all they knew.
Could’ve been a trap.
Could’ve led straight to a prison.
Or to a deep and dark tunnel full of mutated things…
But instead they found Sally. And Sally, being the caring and decent and kind hearted person that she is, saved the girls. She took them in. Hid them away. She knows the Buried City better than most. She knows which tunnels to take and which to avoid. She knows which tunnels are used and which ones have been long forgotten and long abandoned.
Angel, even as she was passing out, insisted that she come with me to Sally’s. But she just came about as close to death as a person can come. So did Zoe. So I told them both to stay with Max, to wait for me in his secret concrete bunker, his treasure chest of weapons and things that go ‘boom’. I told them to stay out of trouble and keep a low profile. Told them to let Max patch them up.
They kept insisting. Both of them. They’ve both got skin in the game. They’ve both got scores to settle. They both want to fight.
In the end, Max had to sedate them for their own good. He still had to stitch up several of Zoe’s wounds and they were both suffering from the effects of dehydration and exposure. In their current state, they’d be more of a liability, than an asset.
But I’m starting to regret this decision. Because I could really use some back up right now.
Angel says she’s handy with a rifle.
And I know how tough Zoe is.
Yeah, definitely could’ve used some goddamn back up. Because right now, I’m trapped in Sally’s luxurious apartment. I’m trying to find a place to hide as the knocking on her front door gets louder and louder.
Sally is whispering to me, fearfully and frantically. She’s telling me to get out of sight. “Go. Move. Hide in the bathroom. Or the bedroom. Under the bed. He won’t look.”
“He? Who the hell is out there?”
“You don’t want to know,” she says as she moves towards the front door.
She says I don’t want to know. But the truth of the matter is, I really, really want to know. Because whoever’s on the other side of the door is not going away. They keep knocking. Loud enough so the door shakes and rattles on its hinges. Loud enough so I’m checking the gun Max gave me, making sure it’s loaded, making double sure the bullets are clean and untraceable.
I slide the magazine into place and chamber a round and then I have a terrible thought…
What if the Wonderland Enforcers used the gun I gave Hector to track him down?
I shake my head. I can’t go blaming myself for something I didn’t know about. For something I didn’t even know was possible. And so what if the Enforcers could track Hector? Who cares? The only thing tracking down Hector guaranteed those poor unprepared Enforcers was a quick death.
Quick and bloody and violent.
I tell myself Hector is alive. I know Hector is alive. I know his heartbeat is strong and steady. I know he can look after himself. Need to get back on track, need to focus.
“Sally, you need to tell me who is at the front door.”
Sally snaps at me, telling me to shut the hell up, telling me to get the fuck out of sight. She then turns her attention back to the door. “Frank, go away. I don’t want to see
you anymore. I made this perfectly clear three months ago.”
“Come on, Sally. I made an awful mistake. I miss you.”
“You disappear for months at a time. You never tell me where you’re going. You never tell me what you’re doing. I can’t live like that. I can’t be in a relationship like that. It’s too hard.”
“I’ve changed. I swear. I’m a whole new man.”
“I’ve heard this all before. You’re all talk, Frank.”
“Not this time, Sally. This time, I’m on the level. I’m being honest with you, baby. I’ve got a job offer that’s going to set me up for life. Set us both up.”
“Oh yeah? What’s that? You scored a gig being the tooth fairy?”
“I’ve got a job offer from Wonderland. The pay is two seats on the next Shuttle.”
A pause from Sally. “You’re lying. Or you’ve been lied to. The Shuttles are years away.”
“Not no more they ain’t. They’re getting close, Sally. Reeeeal close. Don’t you want to leave this place? You can’t like working at the treatment plant. Turning shit and piss into drinking water...”
“I prefer the term, turning lemons into lemonade. And how do you think they do it on the Arks and the Shuttles?”
“That’s good, baby. That’s funny. That’s why I love you so much. And hey, you could score a job turning lemons into lemonade in outer fucking space. How cool would that be?”
“You think you can just stroll into Wonderland and skip the queue? It doesn’t work like that.”
“I’ve got assurances from the Lord himself.”
I tell Sally that the guy on the other side of the door is lying. He hasn’t got shit.
There’s no job offer.
There’s no assurances.
There is nothing.
So the question remains, what the fuck is he doing here?
And Sally asks, “What are you really doing here, Frank?”
“Look… I just need to come inside. Please, baby.”
I move back out into the open, unable to hide and wait for this to play out. Because this guy, whoever he is, he’s too damn determined to get in here. And I’m getting the feeling he’s not in the mood for kissing and cuddling.
There’s too much menace in his voice.
Which means… there’s some other reason he’s here.
“Jesus, Ed. You need to hide.” Sally says this quietly, trying to push me back. “This guy is a psycho. I don’t know what he’ll do if he barges in and finds you here. It won’t be pretty. He’s a goddamn Wasteland Raider. They’re fucking crazy.”
“What the hell are you doing hanging around with Raiders?”
“I didn’t know he was a Raider when I met him. I never would’ve invited him back here if I knew.”
A Wasteland Raider.
Shit.
Had my fair share of run in with these guys. Tough sons of bitches.
Crazy sons of bitches.
Through the door, the Raider says, “Who are you talking to, baby?”
Sally freezes. She puts one hand over her mouth and one hand over my mouth.
“Sally?”
She shakes her head. And her hands are shaking and her whole body is shaking. She finally answers. “You’re hearing things, Frank.”
“I don’t think that I am. You know, the word on the street, the word out in the Wasteland, in the Ruined City, hell, even out in the goddamn Canyons, is that there are some new girls in town.”
Sally lowers her head in defeat. Her shoulders slump forward.
And I’m thinking, how the fuck does this guy know?
Who the fuck is he?
And I realize that whoever this guy is… he’s connected.
I grab Sally, force her to look me in the eyes. “This guy is hiding something. He’s not who he says he is. He knows about the girls. How the fuck does he know?”
He’s talking about assurances from Wonderland. From the Lord. Talking about two tickets on the next Shuttle. I’m thinking he must have friends in high places. He’s connected somehow. Maybe even a made man.
Maybe he wasn’t lying about the job offer from Wonderland.
“You’re not hiding these girls away are you, Sally? You’re not keeping secrets from me… are you?”
I move Sally away from the door so the nut job on the other side can’t hear us. “Where are the girls, Sally? I need to know. They’re all in danger. They’re being hunted. By this guy. By a hundred other Mercs and Enforcers and Wasteland Raiders. They’re being hunted by desperate men with nothing to lose and everything to gain.”
“They’re safe,” she whispers as her whole body continues to shake. “You have to trust me.”
I want to trust her. But I don’t. There’s too much riding on this. Way too much
And the fact that this guy knows the girls were here, means he’s getting close.
He’s getting real close.
How does he know?
Who is he?
Who does he work for?
Frank says, “You know, the Mayor wants me to check out the Farm. Says the place has been using more than their fair share of water. More than their fair share of power. Think I might go pay them a visit right now.”
“He knows,” Sally whispers. “He knows exactly where they are.”
“The Farm?”
She nods.
“I’ll see ya later, Sally,” he says. “Hope you change your mind about me. For your sake.”
A few minutes pass before either of us speaks, before either of us breathes.
Sally watches them leave through the peephole in the door. “He’s gone.”
The girls are still being tracked. Need to get them to Max. Need to get them off the grid.
Out of the city.
Need to hide them away in the Narrow Canyon or the Deep Canyon.
Sally tells me she had to keep moving the girls around. She had to keep finding new hiding places.
“I hid them in a place no one else knew about. And I mean no one. I’m talking a long abandoned tunnel that led nowhere. Bricked up. Sealed with concrete. But they eventually came a calling.”
“Who’s they’?”
“Enforcers. Mercs. So I’d move the girls to a different tunnel. Another empty and forgotten part of the Buried City. And sure enough, the Enforcers would show up in the area. Before they got too close, I took the girls back to my place. And like clockwork, the Enforcers turned up again. We barely escaped unseen. I’ve taken them to the Farm. But it’s only a matter of time before Wonderland finds them. I suspect they know I helped. If they haven’t connected the dots yet, they soon will.”
“Come with me,” I say. “I can protect you.”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“This place, as wretched as it is, it needs me. The people need me.”
“If they find out you helped these girls, they’ll kill you.”
“They won’t kill me. I’m the only one who knows how to run that plant. I’m the only one who knows how to turn lemons into lemonade.”
She gives me a weak smile that says maybe she knows she’s on borrowed time. Sally has already done more than anyone could’ve asked for. She’s already played the part of a savior.
The hero.
But eventually, all heroes must die.
I think about telling her what Wonderland is planning to do.
The Extermination Event.
The Final Exodus.
But I don’t.
No point in causing a panic just yet. No point in letting the cat out of the bag.
If I tell Sally, it would put her in more danger than she already is, and it might just give Wonderland a reason to make their move sooner rather than later.
And we need all the time we can get to prepare for this war.
So I don’t warn Sally. I don’t tell Sally that we’re all on borrowed time.
That we’ve all been lied to.
That there’s about to be a Final Exodus.
/>
And before a Final Exodus, there will be one final Extermination Event.
A massacre of the last people on Earth.
I tell her none of this.
Chapter 4
Frank, the Wasteland Raider, said he was going to the Farm. But there’s always the chance he could’ve been bluffing, there’s always a chance he could go somewhere else first and stock up on supplies or tip off some Enforcers. There’s always a chance he could call for back up in the form of a raving mad horde of Wasteland Raiders. Need to get to him before he does any of that. Need to cut him off at the pass. Need to stop this guy before he raises all kinds of hell.
And I need to keep this quiet.
There’s maybe a handful of people in the Buried City who know about the girls on the run.
Me.
Sally.
Zoe.
Max.
Maybe an Enforcer or two.
Maybe a Raider or two.
Need to keep the circle small. Need to keep it small by any means necessary.
I sneak out the back of Sally’s apartment block, using the emergency stairwell. But there’s someone waiting for me. The dirt and grime that stains his hands and his fingernails, the sand in his hair, the dust caked into the lines of his face, says this guy is a Wasteland Raider.
His jacket is big and loose, designed to absorb the sun’s heat, designed to keep him cool and sheltered. I can’t tell for sure, but he doesn’t appear to be wearing a thermo suit. Which means… this guy is one tough bastard.
I say, “Frank?”
“No.”
“That’s a shame. Was really looking forward to meeting Frank.”
“I can arrange a meeting, if you come quietly. He’d love to have a chat with you.”
“And if I don’t come quietly?”
He throws an empty and crumpled up duffle bag at my feet. “If you don’t come quietly, I’m going to kill you. Then I’m going to chop you up into little pieces. And to be honest, we’re probably going to eat you. Actually… we’re definitely going to eat you.”
“Cannibalism? So that’s how the Raiders get their protein?”
“Beggars can’t be choosers. Hell of a lot tastier than rat meat.”
“I’ll have to take your word on that one.”
