Revelation

“There is one,” Michael said.

At first, I was the only one who knew what he was talking about. And it was a place I never in a million years wanted to return to.

“It’s on the way to Los Angeles,” he said. “It is still far — about two hundred miles — but it is our closest, most realistic option.”

Makara’s face blanched when she realized what Michael was talking about.

“Even Bunker 108 isn’t perfect,” I said. “It was only designed for five hundred people. We have two thousand.”

“Who says that two thousand are even going to make it that far?” Rey asked.

“That’s a fair point,” Ashton said. “But we can speed things up by using the spaceships. The main Exodus can head southwest, going as fast as it can. Meanwhile, Gilgamesh and Odin can start ferrying people over. The first group will contain the best fighters, who will have the job of going in and clearing out the Bunker, making it safe to use. Anyone else who comes along can start doing cleanup. I say it’s a week before we have everyone over there.”

“A week?” Boss Dragon asked. “That’s not so bad.”

“But how will we fit everyone in there?” I asked. “It’s way too small.”

“People don’t have to stay in the dorms,” Ashton said. “There is plenty of floor space, such as the commons and the cafeteria, which can both be used. And it’s only temporary — to wait out the weather until we can start fresh in late spring.”

“Spring?” Makara asked.

It seemed so far away. But with winter coming on and two thousand people to care for, many of them already weak, what other choice did we have? And a lot of what we did depended on Augustus. If he charged into the Wasteland in winter, we would have no choice but to face him.

But sheltering in Bunker 108 was a bad idea, for many reasons.

“There should still be plenty of food and supplies in the Bunker. My main fear is the xenovirus. Even if we clean everything up, all it takes is one person to get sick for all to come crashing down.”

Ashton looked at me. “I didn’t realize how bad it was. Did the attack happen in every part of the Bunker, or just certain parts? We could avoid the infected areas.”

“It was pretty much everywhere. If everyone there is infected or dead, who knows how many Howlers we’ll have to deal with?”

“It’s too dangerous, then,” Makara said. She looked frustrated. “Are there any other Bunkers we can use? Ones that did not fall from the xenovirus?”

“That would be much safer,” Ashton said. “Since 108 is off the table, and 114 for the same reasons, we have to look at other Bunkers. Our options will be very limited, both by location and other reasons. Most Bunkers aren’t as large as 108; that closes off most even from consideration.”

“Any Bunkers you know of that are nearby?” I asked.

“Then there are others that haven’t been heard from in years — even decades. I can’t remember all of them off the top of my head, but 111, 112, and 106 are all nearby. I’d have to go through my files to refresh my mind on the details of each.”

“You have access to that information?” Makara asked.

Ashton nodded. “I was able to save some important documents — digitally of course — during my escape from Bunker One. One of these was a Bunker manifest, which gives names, descriptions, coordinates, and the reasons each Bunker fell — at least for the ones we have information on. The manifest stopped being updated with the fall of Bunker One, but I’ve my own notations whenever I discovered something new.”

“And you’ve been sitting on this for how long?” I asked.

“I haven’t really been sitting on it,” Ashton said. “I’ve told Samuel most of it already. I only thought to mention Bunker 108, because in theory, it would be the perfect place to shelter, if not for the xenovirus.”

“You said 111, 112, and 106,” I said. “I don’t even know where those are.”

“When the U.S. started the Bunker Program in 2020, they created twelve Sectors,” Ashton said. “The Sectors are of varying size, are designated as letters A through L. Each Sector has its own twelve Bunkers: 1-12 are in Sector A, 13-24 are in Sector B, and so on. Bunker 108 is in Sector I. Often, the Sectors are called by their rough location — in the case of Sector I, it would be the Mojave Sector. The last in each sequence, such as 12, 24, and 108, were designated as Command Bunkers — ones that were to manage the rest within their Sector. The only exception to this was Bunker One, which controlled all the Bunkers.”

“This is all interesting,” Makara said, “but what’s the point?”

“I’m just trying to illustrate that there are lots of Bunkers,” Ashton said. “None will be as large as 108, unless we find the last in each sequence — which were all Command Bunkers.”

“So, to fit in everyone, we would have to find Bunker 12, 24, and so on,” I said.

“Precisely. And none of these Bunkers are close to each other. A great many are covered in Blight. Others are prohibitively far away, such as on the East Coast, or too far north.” Ashton sighed. “I will do some more research, but after all is said and done, it might still turn out that Bunker 108 is our best option.”

I hoped that wasn’t true, because Bunker 108 would be a horrible option.

“Well, we have to find something,” Rey said. “And it can’t be far. We don’t have time for that.”

Everyone was silent as they thought.

“We’ll talk it over with Samuel when he gets back,” Makara said. “I’m sure he’ll have his own opinion. For now, the plan remains the same. We keep going west, away from the Great Blight. We’ll stock up once we hit Pyrite. Hopefully, by then, we’ll have more information to go on.”

“I’ll start researching possible options,” Ashton said.

I was glad Ashton was giving himself another project. It meant he would probably forget about me, for the meantime.

As if reading that thought, he looked in my direction. “We’ll have to put that Elekai research on hold for a few days.” He gave a thin smile. “I’m sure you don’t mind.”

“Not at all,” I said.

At that moment, Michael’s radio crackled to life.

“Michael? Michael, you there?”

It was Marcus. His voice was panicked.

“Yeah, come in,” Michael said, his eyes nervous. “What’s going on?”

There was a long, dreadful pause. Instantly, I knew something terrible had happened. Something we could never come back from.

“It’s Samuel,” Marcus said. “I think…I think he’s dead.”

Chapter 23

Immediately, Makara snatched the radio from Michael’s hand.

“What do you mean, you think he’s dead?” she yelled. “Answer me!”

The radio sizzled with static for a moment. From the other end, Marcus cursed, as we all sat in shock.

“We got ambushed by a crawler. We were speeding away on our bikes, back for the ship, but it was too fast. It tackled Sam, and he went crashing down. I stopped and fought the thing off. But now, Sam isn’t moving.”

“When did this happen?” Makara asked.

“Just now — I called you first thing.”

“Did you check for a pulse?”

“Of course I did! I got nothing. If he’s still alive, he doesn’t have long.”

“What’s your location?”

“We’re two miles out from the mesa. I can hear more of them coming…”