Origins

The crawler’s body rested against me, constricting my breathing.

With her leg, Anna forced the heavy body up enough for me to slink out from under it. Together, we pushed the thing off the Recon. It tumbled onto the dusty ground below.

Lisa struggled up from where she had fallen.

“You alright?” I asked.

She winced in pain. “That shit hurt.” She got up, rubbing her side. “It wasn’t the kick so much, but my back slammed right into the gun. It’ll leave a nasty bruise.”

“Take it easy,” I said. “At least we still have our lives, thanks to Anna.”

Anna cleaned her weapon with a rag, wiping her blade clean. Scrunching her nose at the dirty cloth, she threw it over the side. “It was nothing.”

“I think I’m going to stay up here a while,” I said. “There should probably be someone up here at all times to keep watch.”

“Be careful, Alex,” Lisa said. “Come down if more of those things are out there.”

“Don’t worry. The land’s flat, so I can see anything coming from a mile away.”

“Still,” Lisa said. “I better go check on Makara and Samuel. They’ll want to know that everyone’s okay.”

Lisa climbed down the ladder and back into the Recon.

Anna looked at me. “You alright?”

“Yeah. I thought I was dead.”

“I should have come up first thing,” Anna said. “I’m sorry.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“I had no idea they could get up there. I thought I’d be useless with my sword.”

I laughed. “I’m glad you were wrong. I wish you’d stay, though.”

She turned away, her head down. Her black hair blew in the wind.

“I…I don’t know. I’m still thinking.”

“What did the Wanderer tell you?”

She didn’t answer. Of course she wouldn’t. She wasn’t supposed to tell me. She looked at the hatch on the ground, as if considering leaving me up here.

“You don’t have to stay,” I said. “I just don’t know who will save my life in the nick of time if you go.”

Anna turned back around, with a smile. “I’m glad I got to know you, Alex. Whatever happens.” She looked at my shirt. There was a purple stain on it from earlier. “Stay here. I’ll go get you another shirt.” She touched my arm. “And a jacket.”

She turned to go, my eyes never leaving her. Alright, after that, I definitely had to do what I could to get her to stay. But still, did I really want that? Going to Bunker One could be sure death. It probably was sure death. Anna would be better off leaving when she could. And yet, I couldn’t help but feel a spark when she was around. It was shame, then, that she had to leave. It felt sad to think that I might never see her again.

I looked at the mountains. It wouldn’t be long, now. That line of orange, purple, and pink glimmered, seeming to absorb the suns’s paltry light and burn with unnatural luminescence. I had no idea how we were going to cross all that, all the way to Cheyenne, Colorado. Hundreds of miles of Blight seemed impossible to fathom.

The first stretch of our journey had ended. The second, worse one, was about to begin.

* * *

It was getting dark by the time we saw the first twisted trees. Seeing them again was a horrifying sight as it was only a sign of much worse things to come. They were stunted, leafless, and had become vessels of the xenovirus, dripping the slime. I didn’t know what else to call it but “the slime”; that pink, organic liquid that carried the xenovirus and allowed it to spread.

About a mile to the east was the border of the Great Blight. It was chilling to look at: a giant wall of purple and pink, stretching from north to south, horizon to horizon, maybe as much as one hundred feet high.

Makara pulled to a stop, still a fair distance from the border. Darkness was quickly cloaking the land. Trying to find a way in tonight would be madness.

We were the only blot on the windswept desert flatland, other than the occasional dune.

“We camp here tonight,” Samuel said.

We were a little exposed, but anything resembling cover was twenty miles back. We would just have to risk the threat of attack. I shuddered to think of more crawlers out there in the night. Could they see us? Hear us? Smell us? Or were they waiting for us to cross into Hell?

Despite my trepidation, nothing happened that night. We all slept soundly, except Samuel and Lisa, who were on watch.

It would be my last night in the Wasteland for a while.

Chapter 13

We left at sunrise after a quick breakfast and headed the final mile to the Great Blight.

It must have been my imagination but it seemed a bit…closer than yesterday. Maybe it was just the light, because I could not see how it could have possibly grown that much. Seeing that pink wall stretch from north to south in a near perfect line was damn unnerving. It was as if something had built it. What that something was, I didn’t know. It was all encoded into the genetics of the xenovirus, I supposed.

We approached within a hundred feet of the wall, and we had to crane our necks to see the top of it. The twisting pink, purple, and orange growth was thick, gnarled, interlocking. It was impenetrable. The wall cast a long, pinkish shadow from the low morning sun. There was no telling how thick the wall was, or even how to pass through. Makara turned north, driving the Recon alongside it for a good hour.

“There,” Samuel said, pointing.

Makara turned. “I don’t see anything.”

“You can barely see it because the colors mess with your eyes.”

Makara’s eyes narrowed. She nodded grimly. “Yes. I see it.”

Anna drew closer to me, our shoulders touching. I turned to her.

“You alright?”

She nodded. “I think so.”

“I guess you’ll be leaving soon, huh?”

She didn’t answer for a moment. Her face appeared troubled.

“You can talk to me,” I said. “What’s going on?”

“I can’t leave,” she nearly whispered.

Makara’s eyes flicked to the rearview. “What do you mean? That was the agreement.”

Anna sighed. “Yeah. I know. But the Wanderer said I would have a choice, and I’m making that choice now. My role here isn’t done. Without me, you guys won’t make it. If you guys will have me, I’d like to join you, the rest of the way to Bunker One.”

No one said anything. Samuel turned around.

“You realize what this means, right?”

Anna nodded slowly. “Yeah. I know. We might not be coming back. It’s important that I go on. That is my choice. If I don’t…I will regret it.”

“Well, I don’t think anyone else would be against it. You’re a good fighter and we could sure use someone like you,” Samuel said.

“What will Char say?” Makara asked.

“Char will be made to understand, if we ever see him again,” Anna said. “This is bigger than Char. This is my chance to do something for once.”

“Let her come,” Lisa said. “Like Samuel said, she will hold her own and be useful. Besides, I don’t want to go against what the Wanderer said.”