Evolution

She tensed at my voice, but did not stop looking out.

I sat down next to her. For a moment, we watched Earth pass by in silence.

“Are you alright?” I asked.

She didn’t answer for a moment. She seemed drained.

“It’s freaky, isn’t it?”

Her voice was dull, monotonous, as if all life had been stripped from it. Now more than ever, I was worried about her state. None of us had known Lisa the way Makara had. Instead of improving over the past two months, she had withdrawn more into herself than ever. I didn’t know what it would take to bring her out.

Looking down at the planet below, I could see what Makara was talking about. It was a rare, cloudless day, and the dust was mostly absent from Earth’s atmosphere. On the surface, the sun might have even been strong enough to mostly break through the dust. It took me a moment to recognize that we were flying over the central United States.

Then, I saw it. There are no words to describe the horror of seeing that massive scar defacing what was once Wyoming and Nebraska. It dug deep into the Earth, and alien pink, orange, and purple bled from it like blood, spreading in all directions across the plains, creeping up the mountains, coating valleys, painting the surface a sickly pink and purple. At the edge of the western deserts, the Great Blight ceased its landward crawl. In the east, it extended all the way to the dark line of night that was now rushing to cover the land. Somewhere, in that crater, was the Voice, the thing we were trying to stop.

“We’ll be there before too long,” Makara said. “Count on it.”

“Hard to believe.”

I looked at her face — still beautiful, though sad. She didn’t meet my eyes. Her long, black hair fell over her shoulder in waves. She gathered the hair and clenched it, like it was a neck she was trying to choke.

“Whether I’m alright, I don’t know,” Makara said, answering a previous question I had forgotten I’d asked. “I’m just trying not to think about it. I’m just hoping there’s a happy ending and a reason for all this madness. I’m trying to figure out what I’m fighting for. Ashton talked about that, at the meeting. I don’t know what that is, yet.”

“You can fight for Lisa.”

“I need more than the dead to fight for. I need someone here, now. Only, I don’t think I will get that. Not until it’s too late, anyway.”

Outside, the Earth was nearing the edge of our vision. When it fully disappeared, Makara spoke.

“I think I will only be alright when we succeed,” she said. “When I find my place in this world. The Angels gave me that, but it was taken away. The raiders gave me that, to an extent.”

“Your place is here,” I said.

“Yes. But how long will that last?”

Her harshness took me aback. “As long as we are together. As long as we fight. We go on, because that’s who we are.”

Makara gave a short laugh. “Inspiring.”

“You said it yourself, down on Earth.”

“Yeah, I know. I wish I still believed it.” She sighed. “Alright, enough with that. You came to see me for some reason, and I don’t think it was to inspire me.”

“Ashton wants you to go over the landing procedure again after dinner.”

Makara nodded. “Yeah, I knew that was coming.” She gave me a sidelong glance. “Come on. Let’s see what the old man wants.”

We left the star-filled windows behind.

* * *

The plan was this: we were to land in a mountain valley, surrounded by dense forest, about one hundred miles northwest of Nova Roma. We needed to land far enough away so that our spaceship would remain hidden and unnoticed, but close enough that the journey to Nova Roma wouldn’t take too long. From the landing site, we would travel south until we reached a settlement along the main imperial road, which we had found from satellite imagery. This road, when taken southeast, would eventually arrive at Nova Roma, the Empire’s capital.

And that was just the easy part.

Once we reached Nova Roma, we needed to find the Imperial Palace and gain an audience with Emperor Augustus — which we could accomplish by name-dropping Cornelius Ashton. Once we had secured the audience, Samuel would explain the situation with the Blights and the xenovirus — then give our solution — once which necessitated the Empire’s help, and also caused the Empire to cease their war with Raider Bluff. And, we had to hope Augustus agreed, and didn’t decide to kill us instead.

It sounded impossible. It seemed that we could make it Nova Roma alright. After all, what was one hundred miles when we had traveled a thousand miles to Bunker One in a mere three days? But trying to convince the most powerful man in the world to do something he probably didn’t want to do seemed practically suicidal. However, if Ashton was right about a scientist or some high-ranking officer from Bunker One being in Augustus’s court, then we might be able to reach the Emperor through him.

There were way more ifs and buts than I was comfortable with, but I also knew we had pulled off much harder things — like surviving in the Great Blight and its constant onslaught of monsters. If Augustus could be convinced that those monsters would be his Empire’s fate unless he acted now, it might be possible to convince him.

Or at least, that’s what we all hoped.

Ashton set a timetable for us to be done with everything in four weeks. That should be enough time to make it to the capital, secure the truce and troops from Augustus, and make it back to Odin in time to update Ashton, figure out what he learned about the Voice during our absence, and then head to Raider Bluff and let Char know the news. And after that, it was off to see the other leaders of the Wasteland, and find a way to coordinate everything to make the attack on the Great Blight work.

Yeah. This was going to be real easy.

Chapter 6

“Systems,” Makara said.

“Check,” Anna said.

“Engines.”

“Check. Powering on engines.”

Odin thrummed and vibrated. Makara and Anna sat side by side, pilot and co-pilot, Samuel and I strapped in behind them. Instruments and the dash glowed as the entire ship powered on. Makara clenched the control stick tightly. I couldn’t tell of the vibration of her fist was from the ship, from nerves, or both.

“Go?” Makara asked.

Ashton’s voice exited from the dash. “Go.”

Makara flipped a switch on the control stick, causing Odin’s deep, computerized male voice to speak.

Launch countdown: initiated.

A timer appeared in glowing green numerals on the LCD mounted on the dash between pilot and copilot seats. It read one minute, and began to tick down silently. We waited as the numbers decreased, as we felt the power of Odin surging throughout the ship’s entire chassis. I waited with bated breath, ready for the adventure to begin. When it got to ten, I couldn’t help but smile. We were finally getting started.

“Here we go,” I said.

Then, with a thunderous roar, the fusion engine in Odin’s stern powered up, causing a thrum-thrum-thrum to permeate the entire ship. That power crept into my muscles, tickling my nerves. The countdown timer reached zero. Slowly, Odin lifted from the launch bay. Makara watched the LCD as the ship autopiloted backward from the hangar. I could see the hangar