Revelation

“I’m surprised I’m still alive,” I said. “But we discovered the Black Files in Bunker One, in Cheyenne Mountain.”

“You just flat out went across the Great Blight?”

“Yeah,” I said. “We had no idea what we were in for.”

Michael shook his head again, eyes wide. “You’ve got brass balls, buddy.”

“Well, it was Samuel’s idea,” I said. “I wanted to just hole up in Oasis, to be honest.”

“So you crossed the Great Blight and found the Black Files. What happened after that?”

“Well, between all that I met Anna. She was Char’s personal bodyguard in Raider Bluff, and she agreed to guide us to the Great Blight. She ended up keeping her path crossed with ours. Now she’s here, helping us.”

“Anna,” Michael said, “all I have to say is, I’m sorry you met this guy.”

Anna smiled. “Yeah, well, I’ve decided to just roll with it at this point.”

“She’s an expert katana user,” I said. “Just wait until you hear about our vacation to Mexico.”

“Interesting choice of word there,” Anna said.

“I’ll fill in the details later,” I said, “but yeah, we made it to Bunker One, found the Black Files, and learned about the xenovirus. If no one stops it, the xenovirus will take over the world. So now, it’s kind of our crazy mission to stop it. What’s worse, there is this alien consciousness, located in Ragnarok Crater, called the Voice. We don’t know exactly where it comes from, but it seems to be directing all xenolife.”

“Well,” Michael said, pointing westward, “I don’t need any Black Files to tell me the world is being taken over. I see it every day.”

“Marcus said the exact same thing.”

“So, where does the spaceship come in?”

“About now, actually. After we discovered the Black Files, the Voice recognized that we were there, and sent an entire swarm after us. We managed to make it to Bunker One’s runway alive, but we were completely surrounded. We were about to die, when out of nowhere, a spaceship came down from the sky, extending a ladder for us to board.”

“Alright, that’s a little bit unbelievable…” Michael said.

“Well, it’ll make sense in a second. I’m leaving out a lot of details, but the spaceship turned out to be piloted by a man named Dr. Cornelius Ashton — the very author of the Black Files we had found. He had contacted us in the lab beforehand about getting to the runway. Anyway, we got into the spaceship, escaping the snapping jaws of death. Soon, we found ourselves living in a space city called Skyhome.”

“Skyhome?”

“The U.S. Government constructed it during the Dark Decade,” I said. “It was top secret, and intended as a backup for the President in case things on Earth went to hell. Which they did, but President Garland couldn’t escape Bunker One in time. However, Dr. Cornelius Ashton did, back in 2048. He has lived there with a community of Bunker survivors since then, continuing his research on the xenovirus — such as he can.”

“So, you’ve been in fallen Bunkers, the Great Blight, outer space…and then, Mexico?”

“That happened after. We were attempting to negotiate peace between Raider Bluff and Nova Roma. We had to meet Emperor Augustus to do that. But that didn’t work out. Mixed in with all that were slavers, gladiatorial matches, and finally, the dragons.”

“Holy shit,” Michael said. “You are seriously a badass among badasses. You’re not that same sixteen-year- old kid I took on his first stroll in the Wasteland.”

“I’ve changed a lot,” I said. “But all of what I told you leads up to why we’re here in the first place. Augustus is moving out with his army to conquer the Wasteland. The bulk of it won’t get here for a while, but there’s a good chance that the faster part will — the part that has vehicles and horses. Ashton has his own spaceship, called the Gilgamesh. He has his own errands to run right now, otherwise you’d have met him. But Ashton keeps us up to date on Augustus’s movements.”

“So, that’s why you’re recruiting?” Michael asked. “To stop Augustus?”

I nodded. “We won’t stand a chance against him unless we are united. Adding to the complexity is the fact that Carin Black is on his side.”

“The Black Reapers are allied with the Empire?” Michael asked.

“As far as we know. Augustus led us to believe as much, so that is the current thought process. We hope to have all the Vegas gangs behind us, at which point we’ll pick up anyone else willing to help along the way.”

“Along the way? Along the way to where?”

“To Los Angeles.”

Michael whistled. “That’s a little ambitious.”

“It has to be done,” I said. “We need to take out Black before the Empire arrives. Together, they will be unstoppable. And if we free the L.A. slaves, we’ll have a much larger army for it.”

Michael didn’t say anything for a while. I had given him a lot of information, and it would take time for him to make complete sense of it. Indeed, I had left a lot of information out, but I felt that I had given him enough to go on — at least, for now.

“I will do whatever I can to help you,” Michael said. “But it won’t be easy. If everything you say is true, then we need to get Makara to that meeting.”

“We should go, then,” Anna said.

We got up from the fountain, and walked away from the MGM Grand. Now lit, albeit dully, the ruin of the city was all more apparent. Las Vegas Boulevard was empty — we were the only three walking along it, though it was midmorning. It was something to be thankful for. For now, the gangsters were in their fortresses, which meant we could walk unimpeded down the dusty Strip. The hotels and casinos fell behind us, empty, forlorn, abandoned, layered with grime and dirt.

A massive, faded advertisement spread above the Strip itself, covering an enclosed bridge over the street between two of the newer casinos. It showed a man and woman wearing IUI glasses. IUI, shorthand for Immersive User Interface, had become increasingly prevalent beginning in the late 2010’s. Such technology of the past was amazing to think about — glasses that displayed information, in real time, about whatever object the user happened to be looking at. Such power seemed unreal. If I found a pair of those glasses today, even if they hadn’t been stripped of the batts, they would be useless. There were no more wireless networks to feed that information, no more information clouds to store all human knowledge. The only clouds now were the ones above, angry and red and perpetually blanketing the cold, bare Earth. If Ragnarok hadn’t come, who knows that kind of world I might have been born into?

“You seem contemplative,” Anna said.

“Just thinking about how much we’ve lost.”

She nodded, pointing to the sign above. “I’d be caught dead before wearing a pair of those.”

“Come on. You have to admit they are kind of cool.”

“Whoever heard of a Google, anyway?” Anna asked. “These Old Worlders were very strange.” She looked at me and smiled. “I’d rather look someone in the eye and judge that person for myself, rather than have some machine decide for me.”

Anna did have a point. We walked further down the Strip, still empty of potential threats. I turned to Michael.

“So, when are you going to join with the New Angels?”

I had meant it somewhat jokingly, but Michael took the question seriously.

“I don’t know. I would like to, but my allegiance is with the Dragons. They gave me a home and protection, and it’s because of them that I’m alive. That doesn’t mean I can’t help you guys out, though.”

I didn’t see how Michael could be okay with working for a man who was known for violence, even if that man was more reasonable than I had expected him to be. I wanted Michael to realize that his place was with us. Then again, this was part of who Michael was. He was a soldier, and a good one. He was used to following orders, and was perfectly content with that. Such dedication, such simplicity in his way of looking at the world, was enviable. That dedication and loyalty to the cause was why Chan had appointed him an officer.

If Makara proved herself a better leader than Boss Dragon, then maybe Michael would join us.

“There is one thing I can let you know, though.”

“What’s that?”