Darkness

by Kyle West

  Ruth stepped forward with wide eyes, crossing her arms in a futile attempt to keep warm. She wasn’t as used to it as either Anna or I, and her clothing was built for living underground in a Bunker, not above ground in a world covered with meteor dust.

  I took off my parka and, feeling the bite of the wind, placed it around her shoulders. I had far more layers than she did.

  She looked at me gratefully. “Thank you.” She turned back toward the ramp. “What now?”

  I nodded ahead. “We go out. I’ll see if I can reach Makara once we get on the slope. From there, Odin will pick us up.”

  Ruth nodded. I could tell from her eyes that she wasn’t sure at all about this. I didn’t blame her.

  “Where we’re going,” I said, “you’ll have food and a place to help out. You’ll see Lauren.”

  “A lot colder than I remember,” Ruth said.

  “It’s December,” Anna said.

  Ruth walked out ahead. I started walking out to join her as Anna fell into step beside me.

  When we reached the top of the ramp, Ruth merely stood, gazing out at the dimly lit Wasteland. The slope of Hart Mountain fell downward, meeting the red valley. The trailer was out of sight, perhaps hidden by the slope. In the distance, red mountains rose up, their tops obscured by dust. I saw the crane, still buried in red sand. I remembered it from when Michael and I had ventured into the Wasteland all those months ago.

  I looked at Ruth. It was hard to read what was going on behind those eyes.

  “You alright?” Anna asked.

  “The second time for me to be outside,” Ruth said quietly. “And it’s not much easier than the first.”

  I remembered my first time coming out into the open. It wasn’t just the cold or the lack of life that got to me. It was the sheer amount of space. It was unworldly until you got used to it – but after you did, you couldn’t imagine living underground again.

  “You’ll make it,” I said. “Just as I have. You won’t see how, but the how works itself out as long as you don’t give up.”

  Ruth nodded. I stepped forward, trying to gauge our location. The distant crane appeared farther to my right than if I were standing in front of the main door of Bunker 108. That meant the trailer had to be in that direction as well. If we angled down the mountain toward the right, we would surely come upon it.

  Regardless, checking in with Makara was long overdue. I raised her on the radio, and after she had yelled at me for a good two minutes, she said that one of the ships might be spared to get us out of our predicament. With things the way they were, flying Askal back would not be a good idea. It was early evening already, and the temperature was dropping. If Ruth’s nerves were this unsteadied by merely being in the Wasteland, I couldn’t imagine how she’d feel flying above it.

  Granted, she would be flying in the spaceship, but there was a huge difference between flying on Gilgamesh and flying on Askal.

  When I was done speaking with Makara, Anna and I walked out to join Ruth, who had ventured ahead to a ridge. Still, she stared at the red Wasteland stretching before her. She seemed lost.

  When we had caught up, she spoke again.

  “It feels so unreal,” she said. “Inside, all of my life.”

  “I can’t even imagine,” Anna said.

  “It’s tough,” I said. “But you are tough. You’ve survived this long.”

  Ruth nodded. “You’ve found your reason to go on.” She looked at me, her blue eyes haunted. “Now I just have to find mine.”

  Chapter 7

  We waited by the trailer, and thankfully were able to find it. Askal still waited beside it. Explaining the dragon’s presence to Ruth was a bit...interesting, to say the least. I had told her about Askal back in Bunker 108; I had neglected to mention that Anna and I had ridden him to get here. Still, she seemed to take to him. For a dragon, Askal was admittedly cute and he tried to play that for all it was worth.

  I explained the situation to Askal, who said he would stay until one of the ships arrived. He said he needed to return to the Great Blight in order to feed, but that he would return to Pyrite within a day or two.

  Thankfully, Gilgamesh arrived about an hour later. When the ship’s landing lights streamed from the sky, I pointed my own flashlight upward to signal our position. With a roar, Askal soared up into the darkening sky, flapping his wings toward the east. I watched his form shrink with distance as Gilgamesh alighted about a hundred feet distant from the trailer.

  The boarding ramp descended, giving access to the wardroom within. Ruth stared for a moment, shocked, before we all started toward the ship and up the ramp. Once inside, the warm wardroom air tickled my skin with its heat. Ruth shivered a moment and started to hand back my parka.

  “Keep it for now,” I said.

  Makara walked into the wardroom from the bridge, eyeing us all critically. Her eyes turned upon Ruth. I had already told Makara a bit about her on the radio.

  “This is Ruth,” I said.

  Ruth looked up at Makara, meeting her gaze. “Pleased to meet you.”

  Makara gave a single nod. “I’m Makara. Welcome aboard the Gilgamesh. I know there’s a lot to catch up on, but we’ll get you up to speed soon.”

  Ruth’s eyes looked unsure for a moment, but she nodded. “I’ll try.”

  “Lauren should be in the medical bay with Samuel,” Makara said. “Anna, make sure she gets situated. But first, all of you need to shower up. Don’t want whatever was in that Bunker stinking up this place. After that, I want a full status report.”

  We did just that. Gilgamesh had more than just Makara on it. I headed for the medical bay to watch the reunion. When I walked in, Lauren was caring for several of the wounded in the clinic – several hospital beds had been set up in there. My eyes, however, went to Samuel. He lay on his back, eyes closed, the top of his head wrapped with a bandage. I could see the deep purple and blue of a heavy bruise taking up most of his face.

  My heart sunk at the sight. It had been two days now since the battle on the hill and Samuel was still unconscious. I feared he might never come out of it. I dreaded what might happen to us if he were to die. He always knew what to do, always had a plan. Likely, he was improvising as much as the rest of us, but he at least had a knack for it.

  Ruth walked in from behind me. Lauren said nothing as the friend she thought was dead entered the room. She put a hand to her mouth as her own eyes watered with tears. The women walked toward each and gave each other a tight embrace.

  They parted and stepped back. Ruth managed a smile, but it was a little sad.

  “Here, sit down,” Lauren said.

  Ruth allowed herself to be led to the stool, where she was seated.

  “She was living in Hydroponics,” I said. “She saved our lives.”

  Lauren nodded. “Hey, just relax for now, Ruth. You’ve been through a lot.”

  At that moment, Ruth started crying. Lauren held her again.

  “Alex, go see if you can have Char set up a bed for Ruth,” Lauren said.

  I nodded, even as Ruth shook her head. “No. That’s really not necessary.”

  “Not here,” Lauren said. “There’s one left in one of the cabins. It’s yours. I just can’t believe you’re here.”

  Ruth nodded gratefully. I left the two women to catch up as I went to find Char. When I walked into his cabin, I saw him putting on a pair of boots. Apparently, he had just woken up. Marcus’s bed was empty. I had no idea whose idea it was to put the two of them up in the same cabin, but space was a bit limited, so maybe there had been no other option.

  “How’d it go?” he asked.

  “Damn near got ourselves killed. That Bunker was swarming with Howlers.”

  Char nodded. “Well, that was what we all expected. I told Makara and Ashton it was a bad idea.”

  I nodded. “Some good came out of it. We found a survivor.”

  Char’s eyebrows rose. Coupled with the burn wound on his cheek, it was a strange effect. “Rea
lly? Who?”

  “A woman named Ruth. She knows Lauren and Michael. Lauren wanted a new bed set up for her.”

  Char nodded. “Well, we’ve got one left. We can put her with Lauren, Michael, and their kid for now. I can see to it right after I get some food in me. Have you reported to Makara?”

  I shook my head. “We just got back. Did you sleep through the landing or something?”

  Char gave a small smile. “Kid, you’ve got no idea how long I’ve been without sleep.”

  “Yeah, I believe it. Both you and Lauren have been working around the clock.”

  “She forced me to go to bed. I’d argued, but now I see she might have been right. I feel a lot better.”

  “Good. Well, I think we’re meeting in the wardroom in fifteen or so.”

  “Sounds good.”

  As Char left the cabin, I sat on my bunk. Bunker 108 was no longer an option, which meant we had to find Bunker 84, now – and there was no guarantee that it would save the Exodus, either. We had too many people and too little food.

  As I waited for both Anna and Ruth to finish up showering, I went back to the clinic to visit Samuel. I found the clinic empty. As I took up the stool next to his bed, I watched him and suddenly felt very alone. I started thinking about the Elekai and what the Wanderer had told me. I started thinking about my eventual mission. Of everyone on our team, I felt Samuel was the one who sympathized with that burden the most – maybe because he knew what it was like to carry a burden, to be expected to do something. He believed more intently than anyone else that we had to stop the xenovirus, and that vision had guided the group to hell and beyond. It was so hard to see how we could go on without him, if he ever just...died...and never woke up.

  It was all just too much, and I didn’t know how I was going to handle it – that is, if I could handle it. I had to be the one to take out Askala, the Radaskim Xenomind. Not just that, but I had to sacrifice myself. Samuel had been like a mentor to me. He’d always known what to do.

  I tried to stop thinking of Samuel as already dead.

  I wasn’t like Samuel. I was more used to following orders, but now, I sort of had to become the vision of the group.

  A chill went down my spine. There was so much to do and too little time to do it in. For every gain we made, there were at least two setbacks. Bunker 108 was a setback. We’d found Ruth, which was great, but we couldn’t live in that Bunker. There was food, but there was so much sludge in there that it was only a matter of time until one person was infected with the xenovirus – and that was all it took. We could at least harvest the food in the Hydroponics Lab. That could keep us going another week or two.

  After I showered and changed, I found Ruth and Anna waiting at the table in the wardroom. A pot of stew sat on the table. My mouth watered at the savory scent.

  When I sat, we ladled the soup into bowls and ate. It didn’t take long to drain the contents of my bowl; I could have easily eaten twice to three times as much. We were rationing, and it wasn’t right for us to have all the food while the rest of the Exodus huddled for warmth and survived on half rations, so we got the same treatment. It was brutal, but it had to be done. And even with all of that, people were still dropping like flies.

  Makara had ordered access to equal amounts of resources for all people, regardless of station, and this included food. She said the best way to lead was by example. Lucky for Anna and me, we’d had some food in Bunker 108 already.

  Once done, we continued sitting at the table, waiting for Makara to show up. Char came to join us while Lauren stayed behind to care for patients and keep an eye on Samuel. Lauren was a hard worker and would sometimes even forget to eat because she was so occupied with her post – which was saying a lot, considering how we all battled hunger.

  Makara came in from her quarters attached to the wardroom – it looked as if she had been sleeping. I didn’t blame her. Ever since the attack, she had to grab what sleep she could when the opportunity came.

  She stood by the table, not taking a seat. She was quiet for a moment before speaking.

  “Full status report,” Makara said.

  I told her of everything that had happened in the Bunker – I even told her about shooting the Behemoth that I believed to be my father.

  Once I was done, Makara sighed.

  “I shouldn’t have sent you in there.”

  “Well, we got some good out of it,” I said. “We found Ruth and we found a lot of food.”

  On impulse, I took the walnuts out of the pack. I placed the half-filled container in the middle of the table. Instantly, Char reached for a handful, popping them in his mouth.

  “That’s true,” Makara said, reaching for some walnuts herself. “How much food are we talking?”

  “Enough to feed everyone for a week or two, probably.”

  “That’s...very good.”

  In the escape from Vegas, very little could be saved. The gangs had managed to round up some food and water trucks, but there hadn’t been time for much else. Food was our number one priority, but finding food in the Wasteland outside the major settlements was probably impossible. The entire plan came down to taking over Los Angeles, which would have plenty in storage. At least, that was the hope.

  “We’ll still need to recon Bunker 84,” I said. “If that Bunker is abandoned, then it would be the perfect place to hole up. It would be tight, but it’s the only place that can fit the amount of people we have. Once situated, we can just recon to scrounge up more food and bring it back to Bunker 84.”

  “What if we can’t find enough food?” Anna asked. “Not trying to be a pessimist here, but what if all these things have gone bust?”

  “Then we’ll do what we have to do,” Makara said. “Attack L.A. or starve trying.”

  Her words chilled me. I didn’t know how many members the Black Reapers had, but surely it was a lot more than us. Out of the Raiders, Exiles, and Vegas gangs left, we had perhaps two hundred fighters. The Reapers and the gangs in their thrall surely numbered in the hundreds, if not the thousands. Los Angeles was the biggest town in the Wasteland at about ten thousand people.

  “We’ll have to go after Black himself,” Char said, his voice grating. His blue eyes blazed. “If we used the ships and surrounded his position, wherever he is, there is a chance that the gangs under his control will rebel. The thing about these gangs is, if you cut off the head the rest will probably fall.”

  It sounded like a really good plan. I could easily envision it happening. The hard part would be just killing Black.

  “That’ll create a power vacuum though, wouldn’t it?” I asked.

  Char nodded. “It would be war for sure. And Augustus coming would only complicate things. It might be a good idea to approach some of the gangs beforehand – the ones we know aren’t happy – but that also risks having our intentions betrayed to Black before we’re ready.”

  “Then we have our own gangs to worry about,” Anna said. “Rey, Grudge, Cain...they will all want their share of the loot.”

  “We still need their help,” Makara said. “Unfortunately.”

  “So are we scouting the Bunker first?” I asked.

  Char nodded. “We’ll have to. Our people can’t stay exposed in Pyrite for much longer. The swarm is approaching. We’ll need to get them underground – out of harm’s way, and out of the cold.”

  “Who’s going, then?” Anna asked.

  Ruth watched with wide eyes as we all talked. She had no idea what she had gotten herself into.

  “Alex will go,” Makara said. “Along with Anna, Michael, and Julian.”

  I nodded. I didn’t really want to go, but that wouldn’t stop me from doing it. We were the main people who could be spared. Samuel, for obvious reasons, could not go. Char and Marcus had to stay behind and keep the gang lords in line, and Makara had to lead.

  Which meant the four remainders got the job.

  “When do we start?” Anna asked.

  “As soon as you are reste
d and suited up,” Makara said. “Ashton has the coordinates: 41 degrees north, and 123 degrees west, roughly. He will be transporting you there, and will remain on ship during your time in the Bunker. This will be a quick recon – in and out in a couple of hours or less. I don’t want a repeat of what happened at Bunker 108. There should be nothing there, but we need to be sure before we start relocating.”

  I couldn’t explain why, but a sick feeling twisted my gut at the prospect of exploring Bunker 84. It was something I couldn’t shake, no matter how hard I tried.

  “Who’s leading?” I asked.

  No one said anything for a moment. Makara met my gaze levelly.

  “You are.”

  I hadn’t expected that. It felt wrong that I should lead people like Michael, Anna, or even Julian. Anna said nothing, and from her face it appeared as if she thought there was nothing strange about this.

  Finally, I forced myself to nod – though that was difficult. I wished, at that moment more than ever, that Samuel were awake. One, because he would be the one leading, and two, I really needed to talk to him and get some advice. I was way in over my head.

  “You’ll do fine,” Anna said. “Quit looking like you’re going to throw up.”

  Michael and Julian chuckled.

  “I’m not going to throw up,” I said.

  To my surprise, my voice was steadier than I expected it to be. I reflected for a moment on what my life had become; getting comfortable with the idea of being uncomfortable. Since leaving Bunker 108, my life had been nonstop fighting, growing as a person, becoming stronger.

  Perhaps, even now, becoming a leader.

  “I can do it,” I said.

  I could always think of something to hold me back from that goal – I was too young. I was too small. Too timid. Too quiet. Then again, Samuel was not a big talker, and he was the best leader I’d met in my life. I was only limited insofar as I limited myself. Believing I could do this was the first step in actually doing it.