Revelation

“Look,” she said.

A large crowd had gathered before us. At the front were Makara, Char, Ashton, Julian, and Michael, all staring up at me.

Makara was the first to speak.

“Alright. You have a lot of explaining to do.”

I nodded. “I know.”

“I’ll let Samuel know they’re back,” Michael said. “Hopefully, they won’t be out too far.”

While Michael raised his radio to his mouth, Ashton took a step forward. His expression was more curious than afraid. Was he already beginning to piece together what the rest had yet to figure out?

“We can talk of all this,” Char said, “but first, let us step inside the ship.” He gazed in the direction of two of the gang lords, who had been drawn to the commotion. There was Rey, and Cain beside him. Their eyes stared, hollow and cold. I suppressed a shudder.

It had been a while since I had seen any of these men — Rey, Cain, Jade, Grudge — even Boss Dragon. They were here with us, too, but I had not had the burden of dealing with them, fortunately. That had been Makara’s and Char’s prerogative, and I had no idea what their plans were regarding the gangs. I guessed I would find out as much about that as anything as soon as I went inside Gilgamesh.

* * *

We sat around the conference table. It was quiet, and no one spoke for a while. It was me, Anna beside me, and on my other side, Michael. Across the table were Makara, Char, and Ashton. On either end of the table were Boss Dragon and Rey. They were both here to represent the Vegas gangs. The others had balked at not being included, but with a word from both the Dragon and the King, they had backed down quietly.

First, everyone wanted to know what I had learned. So I told my story. It was a lot of catching up, so I tried to keep it brief — I would let Makara or anyone else in the inner crew know more in greater detail later on. For now, I just stuck to the main points. I didn’t want to take up too much time with a play-by-play, and besides, there were people in the room who might not be friends. This is what I did say: I told them that I was infected, but that there were two different versions of viruses — Elekai and Radaskim. I told them that I had the first one, and that each virus corresponded to a different alien faction. The Elekai were trying to stop the Radaskim from taking over Earth. Next, I told them about the war between the Elekai and Radaskim that had been waging for millions of years. I told them how we were just one world out of a thousand that had been attacked, and that it was my job to stop the Radaskim Xenomind, Askala — that as both a human and an Elekai, I was the only one who could infect Askala — that this was the only way to stop the Blights and the invasion.

After I was finished, everyone sat in silence. Julian’s brown eyes held a dazed look from the information overload. Everyone had a question or two of his or her own, and I did my best to answer. It was a lot of information, and I wasn’t even sure I understood it all.

“That’s quite the bit of news there,” Ashton said. “And yet, the pieces fit. As soon as I saw that dragon — that Askala, I should say — I thought you were controlling him. But the fact that you are connected to that Askala through the Elekai xenovirus makes more sense.”

Everyone looked at the doctor, surprised that he had made that pronouncement.

“There is still so much to be discovered about the xenovirus,” Ashton said. “But I think the greatest piece of evidence supporting the existence of the Elekai and the Radaskim is that second Voice. The one we silenced when we killed the Xenolith.”

“I had no idea that…” Makara began.

“None of us did,” Ashton said. “We were right to consider it a threat. Still, it would not make sense for there to be two Voices — two Xenominds — controlling the same side. The entire time, the second Voice was in direct opposition to the first.” Ashton paused. “As Makara said, we had no idea.”

“The Wanderer called it ‘the Dark Voice,’” I said. “Maybe we can say the same thing to differentiate between the two.”

“How do we know these Elekai aren’t the bad ones?” Rey asked.

“They would have killed me a long time ago,” I said. “Why would they bother to show me all this information if they were just going to kill me?”

Rey shrugged, apparently satisfied at that answer.

“Then, the Blighters came,” Boss Dragon said, resigned. “You guys had no idea what you were messing with.”

“No, we didn’t,” Ashton said. “But now, we have our answer. Perhaps too late.”

“It’s not too late yet,” I said. “We have our newest ally now — the Elekai. Together, we can be strong enough to push back against the Radaskim. We can stop the invasion if you guys can get me to Ragnarok Crater. I have to find Askala, the Radaskim Xenomind, the Dark Voice. It’s the only way to stop them.”

“No,” Anna said. “You are not going to kamikaze yourself on Askala. We’re going to find another way.” She looked around at everyone at the table. “Right?”

No one answered Anna. It wasn’t a good sign.

“We have more important priorities for the moment,” Rey said. “We need food. Water. Shelter. We’ve been camped here for two days. My eastern patrols are finding more and more crawlers breaking away from the xenoswarm.” He looked at Makara, hard. “This cannot go on. Soon, they will grow bored of that feast that used to be our home. They are going to come after us.”

Rey gestured at everyone at the table. No one denied the truth of his words.

“What do we do, then?” Boss Dragon asked. For a moment, the former enmity of the two gang lords was forgotten. They were on the same side now.

“Pyrite is another day out,” Makara said. “Now that everyone is here, we can set off in the morning. We can pick up whatever people want to come with us there, and they can join the Exodus.”

The Exodus. That was new. So that was what they were calling this now. Maybe they had been this entire time, ever since we’d left the ruins of Vegas behind.

“We have other problems,” Michael said. “The Reds are still out there. When we left by the western gates, that entire side of town was vacated.”

“Where do you think they went?” Char asked.

“My guess?” Michael asked. “They probably went south to throw in their lot with Augustus.”

I glanced at Rey, to see his reaction. It was not a move I would put past him or his gang, either, if it came to that. His face, however, remained blank.

“That is something the Reds would do,” Boss Dragon said. “We picked up some of their slaves on our way here. They said as much. The Reds took their bikes and rode off, even while we were fighting for our lives inside the walls.”

“There’s still so much to do,” Makara said. “And no time to do it in.” She sighed. “But Rey is right. We have to take care of our own, first. We can reconvene when we make sure our people aren’t starving and freezing.”

“That will be difficult,” Char said. “It is cold. And getting colder.”

“Anything that affects us will affect Augustus’s army as well,” I said. “Unlike us, they are not used to this cold. The attrition might send his army back before we have the chance to.”

“I wouldn’t count on such luck, kid,” Ashton said. “Augustus is a planner, and would have accounted for this. I checked on his position while in the air, and they are still marching up the Mexican coast. If it’s too cold by the time they get here, which should be in February or so, they’ll probably hole up in Colossus, their farthest-north colony. That’s at the mouth of the Colorado, so it’s just a stone’s throw from us. However long they end up taking, there’s still not much time to work with.”

“The best plan would be to find a place to shelter,” I said. “Somewhere large enough to fit two thousand people until the weather warms.”

“There is no such place,” Makara said.