Wasteland Wonderland - Part 1

by James Harden

  Chapter 10

  Darkness.

  I’ve been running and walking and wandering through the dark. For what feels like an eternity. The dark is endless. And even though I’m underground, even though I’m in a labyrinth of subway tunnels, even though I’m somewhere in the Buried City, it may as well be outer goddamn space. And no matter how fast I run, no matter how fast I walk, I will never reach the light.

  I will never reach the light because there is no light.

  This must be what an interstellar trip into outer space, to the edge of the solar system is like.

  Dark.

  Endless.

  My mind is going around in circles. And this is my fear, that I am lost. That I am walking in circles. I’m too afraid to switch the torch on. I don’t want the shadows to come to life. I don’t want them to stalk me anymore.

  I keep moving.

  And I keep thinking about how my brother could be dead.

  No.

  There’s no way.

  If the blast from the frag grenade didn’t kill me, it didn’t kill him.

  But what if I’m already dead?

  I try not to think about how I might already be dead. I try not to think about how I could be taking a long walk into the afterlife.

  Instead, I think about what the hell is going on. And I think about where I’ve gone wrong. Maybe, just maybe, I’ve been too soft. Too complacent. Too forgiving. I didn’t believe the rumors about the Lord of Wonderland, about the Collector. I didn’t believe the Mayor, the Enforcers, I didn’t believe my own brother when he said they’d sent an Overseer to the Buried City.

  I didn’t even believe Overseers existed. Not until I got into a fight with one.

  A fight to the death.

  It’s funny how you never feel so alive when you’re fighting to the death, when you’re trying not to die. It’s funny and sad. I shouldn’t need that kind of excitement and stress to make me feel alive.

  But I do.

  Death. It’s really the only thing that can make me appreciate life.

  And Ruby. She made me appreciate life. She made me appreciate it like no one else ever has. But she’s dead now. She’s dead because I couldn’t save her. Couldn’t protect her. And now I’m thinking about the promise I made her. I swore to her that I’d make things right. That I’d find the bastards responsible and I’d make them pay.

  But what have I accomplished?

  I’ve taken out a few Mercs. I’ve taken out a few Enforcers. Soldiers who were just following orders. And the Mercs were just trying to get paid, trying to make a living.

  This is not good enough. This… all of this violence and killing is accomplishing jack shit.

  What I need to do is, I need to go after the source.

  The people in charge.

  The people Ruby was running from.

  Wonderland.

  I need to go after Wonderland…

  Yeah.

  Its sounds crazy. It sounds like an impossibility, but this is what I need to do.

  I need to find out what secrets Ruby knew. I need to find out what secrets got her killed.

  Something is rotten in Wonderland.

  And I need to find out what.

  Wonderland is the last operational space station in this part of the world. For decades, for over a century, the Shuttles have been coming back here to ferry the last of us to the Arks.

  As a result, every single surviving human has flocked to Wonderland. And when it became full, overcrowded, filled to capacity, people took up residence here, in the Buried City. And when the Buried City became overcrowded and riddled with crime and filth, they took up residence in the Canyons. They turned them into permanent refugee camps. And we all waited patiently for our turn, for our ticket into Wonderland, for our ticket to one of the great continental Arks. And because space was limited, because the majority of people had to wait, Wonderland, and the people in charge of Wonderland became powerful. They became Kings and Queens. Princes and Princesses.

  The citizens of Wonderland became the lucky few, the wealthy elite, the first class citizens of Earth.

  Wonderland is power. The power to save. The power to condemn. No one, not a single person left alive on Earth would dare go against Wonderland. Doing so would accomplish nothing, except guarantee that you lived out your remaining days in the Wasteland.

  The flip side of this is that once a person gained access, once they were chosen, they would never leave.

  They would never return to the Buried City, or to the Canyons.

  So why would someone leave, why would anyone give up their one shot of surviving the Red Giant?

  They wouldn’t. No one ever has.

  And yet Ruby did.

  She ran.

  She escaped.

  I’ve been thinking about this non-stop. I keep thinking it over and over.

  The voice in my head keeps repeating it. And so I repeat it out loud. “Why did she leave? Why did she escape? What was she running from?”

  Something is rotten in Wonderland…

  I shake my head. I can’t figure it out. Maybe I never will. And I’m fine with that because it makes my life easier. It means all I have to do is find out who is responsible for Ruby’s death.

  And make them pay. Kill them good and proper.

  And I’m pretty sure I know who’s responsible.

  The Overseer.

  The Lord.

  The Collector.

  They’re all gonna pay.

  I suddenly realize that I’ve been walking up hill, up a gentle incline. The air is getting warmer. The wall of the tunnel is getting hot. Just like my brother said it would be like. Just like I knew it would be like. I must be close to a surface subway station. I think I’m safe for the moment. Need to keep moving though. Need to keep stumbling forwards.

  Upwards.

  Towards the surface.

  Towards the Wasteland.

  I’ve got the keys to the Sunspeeder. That’s a start. I can make it to the Canyons. Re-group. Recover. Plan my attack.

  Bastards won’t know what hit them.

  The tunnel opens up. I see a platform. I see a stairway that leads up to the rest of the subway station, to the outside world.

  But I stop.

  I hesitate.

  On the cusp of this threshold.

  I hesitate because it feels like I’m running away, it feels like I’m giving up. “I’m not running. I’m not giving up. I just need to prepare myself.”

  I climb up onto the platform, climb up and out of the tunnel. I climb the stairs and it’s only now that I realize and appreciate just how deep and buried the Buried City actually is.

  Because all I’m doing is climbing up.

  I climb another set of stairs. The air starts to burn my nostrils and my throat and my lungs as I breathe, as I inhale. I pause on the last landing of the stairwell. The stairs open up into a vast chamber. The entrance to the station. Huge windows. I can’t help but think it looks like a church, a place of worship. Light pours in from the Red Giant, the shadows are long and I thank a higher power that these shadows are no longer coming to life.

  It must be getting late.

  This is a good thing, because as soon as that sun sets, I’ll need to make my move outside. Then again, maybe I should go right now. Have I put enough distance between myself and the Overseer?

  Suddenly I feel eyeballs on me. I feel people watching me, stalking me.

  Am I still hallucinating?

  The long shadows remain still.

  A gun barrel is pressed into my back.

  “No sudden movements,” she says.

  A girl.

  She has a soft voice.

  Soft yet deadly.