by Kyle West
No one said anything. This was bad news, and they didn’t want to accept it. I could see them now, looking for flaws in Makara’s argument, wanting it not to be true.
“We can show you the Black Files, if you want,” Samuel said. “We can give them to you to read for yourself. They were authored by the Chief Scientist of Bunker One, Cornelius Ashton, and are the most advanced study ever done on the xenovirus. Read them, if you do not believe me.”
“I don’t need to read that to know this world is going to hell,” Cain said. “More hell than usual, anyway. We can talk about that when we get there. Right now, let’s just focus on the Los Angeles expedition.”
Rey scowled, not liking where this was going. He had still not accepted.
“I probably don’t need to point this out,” Makara said. “But I will, anyway. The Great Blight will ruin your food and water supply, even if the Blighters don’t attack first. You’ll be forced to leave the city behind, with or without me. You can either do it with my help, with my resources, or without them. But if you come with me, you have to do it on my terms. No slaves. You can take all the batts you want from Los Angeles. Just leave the innocents alone.”
Rey was used to getting his way. He had long since cast aside his cigar. He reached a hand out, and a crony handed him a new one, lighting it for him. After taking a few puffs, Rey turned back to Makara.
“This can be negotiated,” he said. “If I am going to leave my home behind, I want a better deal than I have right now. You understand this, don’t you? L.A. is rich. I am game for trying to take it down. Hell, it could even be fun. It’d be nice to turn our guns on someone else besides our Vegas brethren.”
The other gang members smiled at that.
“But unless you give us a reason to go, besides survival…we won’t go. Surviving isn’t a reason for survival. You need something else. I want batts. Power. Slaves. They make the world go round.”
Makara eyed Rey hard. The rest of the gangsters were behind him, now. If she said no, then the gangs would not follow her to L.A. It didn’t matter how logical she was being about their survival depending on her. Even though they knew that, they wanted more.
“Fine,” Makara said. “We will parcel out the city once it’s ours. We’ll each get territory inside that corresponds to our respective size and power.”
Rey nodded his assent. “That sounds fair.”
The other gang lords’ eyes glistened with greed. They saw Los Angeles as a fat sheep ripe for the slaughter. It wasn’t the best motivation, but it was the best we could expect of men like these. They would only be loyal as long as they believed they stood anything to gain from conquering Los Angeles. It also created a whole new problem. After Black had been taken out, the gangs would turn on each other, once more, fighting over the best territory. Even now, I was sure they were all planning for that eventuality. It was all a game to them. It was a game they all had to survive, first.
“I want to remind you that it doesn’t end with the conquering of Los Angeles,” Makara said. “You will have to defend what is yours when Augustus comes. By that time, we should be strong enough to resist him. And the Great Blight grows. Its menace will never end until we destroy the Voice. After Augustus has been defeated, or has agreed to help us, we can attack the Great Blight and bring down the Voice. Only then will the xenovirus be rendered moot. Only then will the invasion be stopped.”
“What is it, anyway?” Grudge asked. “This xenovirus. Where did it come from?”
Of all the gang leaders, Grudge was the one I liked the most, despite Michael’s warning. He actually seemed interested in our mission against the xenovirus, and how to stop it.
“The Black Files, which we found in Bunker One, confirm that the xenovirus is of alien origin,” Samuel said, answering for Makara. “It’s their way of killing us all off before they get here to take control of the planet.”
Grudge nodded. Then, he smiled. “We might do their job for them before the end, huh?”
“I hope not, Grudge,” Makara said. “That’s something to think about. Fight all the wars you want when this all said and done. I don’t care. Until then, we work together. Agreed?”
One by one, the gang leaders nodded their agreement — Jade, Cain, Grudge, and Boss Dragon, who had been quiet all afternoon — and finally, Rey. Though Rey nodded like the rest, his eyes said he was going his own way. There was nothing we could do about that for now. It was done. As done as done could be, anyway.
“So,” Char said. “When do we start?”
“It will take time, to prepare for our departure,” Rey said. “We’ll need to gather food, vehicles, slaves, supplies. We won’t find much on the way, so we’ll need to empty the storehouses.”
“Should we combine our supplies, or each go separately?” Cain asked.
“I’m not sharing,” Jade said, with a nasty look. “I don’t trust any of you.”
“We share supplies,” Makara said. “Essential things like food, water, even bullets and guns. For one, it’s easier, and second, I want to get it into your heads that we’re working together now.”
“This can be discussed later,” Rey said. “I have things to take care of right now.”
He turned back for his Recon, along with his cronies. After they started up the hydrogen-powered vehicles, the tires squealed on the tarmac, leaving us in a cloud of dust.
“We will be in touch, Makara,” Cain said, with a nod. Where the blue eyes once mocked, now they held some measure of respect.
Makara nodded, and Cain turned away. He and his associates piled into their SUVs, and after starting their engines, headed back to the Strip.
Jade flashed a toothy, slimy smile before sliding into his limousine and riding away. It left only Grudge and his bikers. Grudge took a step forward, causing both Char and Samuel to reach for their guns.
Grudge held his hands up. He turned his eyes on Makara. “You did better than I would have guessed. Maybe they’re all out for themselves…and I’m not saying that I’m not, either. But you have me convinced about this xenovirus thing. Those buggers have always made my blood run cold. I just want you to know…I’ve got your back, is all.”
Grudge looked aside, embarrassed.
Makara nodded. “I appreciate that, Grudge.”
Grudge’s face was blank for a moment. Talk of loyalty or not, he was still dangerous. If he wanted to be in good with us, he had to prove it first.
“You’ll see, Makara,” he said, mounting his bike.
He held up a fist, causing all the other Suns to climb onto their own bikes. Then, in a swirl of dust, they sped off down the runway in the direction of the airport.
Boss Dragon came forward. “That was well done.”
“Well, they’ve agreed to go, so at least that much is done. I didn’t get everything I wanted, but…”
“Hey.” Boss Dragon stared at Makara hard. “Nobody does, kid.”
Char eyed Boss Dragon. “You have to prove yourself too, buddy.”
Boss Dragon turned his eyes on Char with disgust. “I made this gathering happen and gave Makara my protection. What more proof do you need?”
“I’m a skeptic,” Char said. “It’ll take more than a few favors to impress me…or Makara, for that matter.
“Alright,” Boss Dragon said. “I feel you.” The Boss looked at Michael. “You sure about joining up with these New Angels then, huh?”
“Well, nothing’s official yet, but I would like nothing more.”
“You’re one of us,” Makara said. “Who says you can’t be both a Dragon and an Angel?”
Boss Dragon gave a crooked smile. “You’re right. You’ve been a huge help to me. But the Angels need you. This stuff about the xenovirus…me and my gang will do what we can to help. You have me convinced. Let me know what I can do. The Dragons will go with you, all the way to Ragnarok.”
With that, Boss Dragon held up a fist and pounded his chest. The other Dragons, Michael included, did the same thing. It
was a like a pledge.
“I appreciate that, Boss Dragon.”
“You are my equal,” Boss Dragon said. “You can call me Elijah from now on.”
“Alright, then…Elijah. As long as any of my men can do the same. We Angels are all equals of one another.”
Elijah nodded. “Just like Raine, then.”
The way Elijah said that made me think that he had known Raine as well. It was strange that there had been an entire gang, the Lost Angels, whose legacy lived on long after their fall. It made me wish that I could have met Raine. And it made what Carin Black did, when he killed Raine, all the more egregious.
I then realized that this wasn’t just about saving the Vegas Gangs or stopping Augustus. It was also righting the murder of Raine, a righteous man, and resurrecting the legacy of his gang, the Lost Angels. In just a few months, Makara was going to get her chance for vengeance and justice when we attacked Los Angeles. Raine’s death had changed her life, had made her become the person she was now. It was hard to say, but if Raine hadn’t died, maybe we wouldn’t be going through all this right now. Maybe the Wasteland would already be united. Maybe, even, the Great Blight would be dead.
Well, I doubted that last one for sure. Things were coming to a head, more now than ever. We were all going to get the chance to finish what we had started.
Killing Black would be closure for both Samuel and Anna, as well, whose lives had been destroyed from the Los Angeles takeover — Samuel, for the same reasons as Makara, and Anna, because her settlement had been invaded by the Black Reapers when she was a kid. That had caused her and her mother to wander the Wasteland for survival, had caused her to start training on the katana.
So many things had happened because of the death of one man. And so many more things were left to happen, to be decided.
As Boss Dragon and his men piled into their Recon and drove away for the Strip, Makara faced us.
“Come on. We got what we came for.”
We turned from the runway, making our way to the Sunset Gate.
Chapter 12
It was evening, and Anna and I stood on the overpass, about a hundred yards from Odin. We leaned over the railing, watching the glowing red sky shine off the western buildings of outer Vegas. The buildings gave way beyond to desert and jagged hills and dunes, all the color of blood.
“This place is done,” Anna said.
She was right. It was only a matter of time. Out there, behind our backs to the east, an entire army of Blighters lurked. It was far too quiet. They were planning something big. I felt it. It was all going to come crashing down, soon.
I was worried that we were not going to be able to get everyone out of here fast enough.
“Makara was actually able to convince them,” I said. “I was half-expecting to die back there.”
Anna smiled. “Only half?”
“Alright. Maybe it was a little more.”
We gazed together at the sunset. The blood-red colors intermingled with the desert ground, and the sun sunk beneath the final line of the horizon. Not the sun itself, for it was blocked by thick, bulbous clouds. When the sun’s glow finally disappeared, the land was covered in darkness.
“Do you think we can stop it?” I asked.
Anna didn’t answer for a moment.
“I don’t know. I’d like to believe so. We got further than I thought we would today. I really did think there was a good chance we wouldn’t live to have this conversation right now.” She smiled. “I think we can, though.”
She grew quiet, and I didn’t know why. I looked at her, searching those eyes that stared off at the fading horizon. There was sadness there I didn’t understand. I wanted to ask her what it was, but the words never formed. It was a deep sorrow that made me ache to see it. I wished I could make it go away, to see her smile again.
I turned her to face me, and saw that she was crying. I kissed her. Sometimes, words were not enough to show someone how you felt. Some things, like love, could only be expressed fully when you threw your all into it — your mind, your spirit, your movement.
Her lips moved against mine. It felt she was kissing me so as not to lose me. I didn’t understand what that meant, at least, not at that moment.
She parted from me, and looked me full in the face. I laid my head on top of hers, felt her hair against my cheek. I never wanted to let go. I wanted her to know that I never would.
“I’m here to stay,” I said. “I promise.”
She shook with sobs. Before I could even ask what was wrong, she spoke.
“I know you do,” she said. “But sometimes, the wanting isn’t enough. Sometimes, fate has other plans.”
“Anna, what are you talking about?” I asked, softly. “It’s true. Wherever you go, I’ll go with you. Even if you were to go off running to the east, I would follow you there.”
She laughed into my chest. “Would you?”
I held her by the shoulders, looking her in the eyes. “Of course I would. You’re my Sweet Pea.”
She smiled. “Sweet Pea?”
“What, you’ve never heard that before?”
She shook her head.
I laughed. “Sometimes, I forget how sheltered you surface dwellers are. You’ve got to get down with the lingo.”
“I’ve never heard it,” she said. “I like it, though.”
“No more sadness,” I said. “We have to enjoy this. It’s rare to find someone like this, in a world like this. It’s almost enough…”
I trailed off, and she looked up at me. Her eyes questioned, wanting me to go on. But even I wasn’t sure enough to go on.
“Almost enough for what?”
For me to believe in something larger than myself.
“I’m not even sure,” I said. “I hope that the more time I spend with you, the more I can find out.”
“That makes two of us, then.”
I took a deep breath, holding my arms out to the breeze. Anna looked at me, not saying anything. I had no idea what the gesture meant.
It takes courage to open up to a world that isn’t worth opening up to. That courage is part of our humanity, part of our noble defiance — and all we can do is pray that it’s worth it.
And I wasn’t going to let the promise of pain stop me from trying.
* * *
We now sat in the darkness, against the freeway railing. We could have been anywhere in the world, and I would still be perfectly content, because I was with her. We talked about a lot of things, saying everything unfiltered, whatever came to mind, judging nothing, loving everything. We talked that way for an hour, the best conversation I’d ever had with anyone.
Somehow, though, the conversation turned to the weather.
“Why is it so warm?” I asked. “For December.”
Anna said nothing. Maybe it was just the warmth of her body against mine. She settled her head onto my chest.
“The Wasteland has two seasons,” Anna said. “Cold, and colder. The colder just hasn’t hit yet.”
“It’s almost 2061 now.”
“The months and days don’t matter much on the surface,” Anna said. “We’ve gone past that. The last tolling of any consequence was the impact of Ragnarok. Since then, no other pendulum could ever shake us.”
“That’s…very poetic. And dark.”
She shrugged. “It happens sometimes.”
“Poetry?”
She snickered.
“What’s so funny?”
“Nothing. I just thought of saying something really cheesy. Like, ‘poetry is life.’” She paused. “Something like that.”
“That’s not cheesy.”
She leaned up against the railing of the bridge, so now we were shoulder to shoulder. If there was anything Anna could do, it was surprise me. She was smart, decisive, strong — and when she was quiet, she was probably thinking of things I could never understand. She became lost in moments, moments she couldn’t be shaken from. But then, her eyes would find me, connecting to
the world once again. I wanted to hold her in those moments, let her know she wasn’t alone in them.
“I wonder if the Great Blight has something to do with how warm it is,” I went on. “You think? I noticed the same thing when we were in it. The fungus is alive, isn’t it? Maybe it radiates heat, somehow.”
“It’s possible,” Anna said. “I’d never really considered that. It would make sense, though.”
Thousands of square miles of Great Blight, all of it producing heat, would add up. Warm, in the Wasteland, was just a relative term. Right now, it was only slightly above freezing. All the tales I’d heard of the cruel Wasteland winter didn’t seem to be true, at this moment.
“The winter will fall like a hammer,” Anna said. “You’ll see. Every year, it comes at a different time. It’s just late in coming this year. There’ll be this great cloud of dust, and it will storm for about a week. Then, it will leave behind air so cold that it’ll freeze your blood.”
“Literally?”
Anna gave a small laugh. “No, not literally. But you’ll feel it. Sometimes, it’s so cold that you cry. You want to stay inside those days, with plenty of firewood and stew. That’s when raiders take to drink, living in the bars and inns of Bluff. At least, that’s how it used to be.”
With Raider Bluff gone, things had definitely changed.
“And we’ll be crossing the Wasteland while all that happens?”
Anna nodded. “Not much choice in the matter. This place is dead, either way. We will be, too, if we don’t go soon.”
She leaned against me, and I wrapped my arms around her. Feeling her warmth made winter seem like a faraway thing.
“If we’re going to L.A, we’ll be passing your home, won’t we?” I asked.
Anna nodded. “Last Town is right on the way, guarding the pass into the city. Last time I saw it was when the Reapers took over for good, and they laid it to dust. I hear they’ve rebuilt it, though. It’s a fort now, and all the trade has to go through there to make inside L.A.” She sighed. “It’ll be hell trying to take it down.”
