by Jason Luthor
Erin, if you’re listening, I want you to continue the work you started when you joined us. If that means working with the Dark Angel to defeat Yousef, then that is what has to be done. Don’t let the violent side you’ve always possessed blind you from the chance you have in front of you. Embrace the peace loving side of yourself, the side that once looked enviably across the river, at the towers and lights of Central Freedom, and only wanted to have the same for yourself. A long life of peace, or as close as we can make in this world. I wasn’t strong enough to lead you there. However, if you’re listening to this, then it means that you have someone even stronger now to fight by your side.
To the Dark Angel, all I want is justice. Justice for everyone that Yousef has ever done evil to. There is an old saying my mother used to tell me, when trying to explain how we should behave in such a cruel world. “God commands justice and fair dealings.” I do not know if I believe in God, not in a world like the one we live in. But if he does exist, then I hope he will not let my murderer go unpunished.
I commend the future of the people of the Deadlands into your arms. Into the arms of the Dark Angel.
Jackie’s Recording 35
The scythe cuts close to my throat. It’s not really there, but I’d feel it all the same if it struck. My body angles backwards and out of the way, just as a claw strikes upward for the back of my head. I angle just enough, falling sideways, a steel blade above me and knifelike fingers beneath me. As I fall to the side, I plant my hand to the ground and roll to the side, back onto my feet as I stare down the two of them. Judge, his cape flowing behind him as he flies at me. Sally, her clawed fingers dragging through the air behind her as she charges my way. He leaps through the air, coming in high, while she sails toward my legs. In that one second, for just the smallest fraction of what you could call time, I almost feel it again. Almost feel that flow state. It’s just enough that I know where they’re going to be in the next instant, and my body contorts as I jump into the air, my body spiraling as I fly between the two of them. The next second, I’m back on my feet and turning, my leg going into his back before my fist turns to crash into her jaw.
He grins as he looks back at me from beneath his cowl, wearing his much more human face. Sally, too, transforms into the young girl she was before the Creep. Judge’s scythe vanishes into black pieces that drift into the air and extinguish. “You might say you’ve become a good deal faster.”
“Or that you’ve become a good deal better at predicting what’s going to happen next,” she finishes.
“The two often go hand in hand.”
“Though not in all cases, of course.”
I nod to her. “The Stranger told me that a lot of what’s been happening recently . . . the flow state, my feral state, even the way I can open so many Pocket Space windows all at once . . . that it’s all related. I don’t know how, but I’ve got to keep trying to figure out what’s going on.”
She nods. “There’s only so much time left.”
He agrees with her. “Life is always constrained that way.”
“I’m not telling you to rush.”
“But do you really think you can beat Yousef, even at this speed?”
It forces a sigh out of me. “No. Not without more training. But, maybe I don’t have to. Maybe I’ve been thinking about this all wrong. I keep thinking I’m supposed to beat Yousef one on one, but maybe that’s just my pride talking. Maybe this really is about bringing the Deadland clans together with Central Freedom. Ishara said in her recording that she made a mistake. She wanted so bad to get revenge against Yousef that she underestimated her opponent. Maybe I’m underestimating just how strong Yousef is, and I’m supposed to win the fight with my friends, not one on one.”
Judge folds his arms. “Humility is certainly a quality we can all admire.”
Sally looks his way. “But she’s spent a year trying to be humble.”
“Deferring all her decisions to someone else.”
“And look what it got her.”
I shake my head. “No. That wasn’t humility. That was me being scared of making the tough calls. Well, I’m making one right now. I’m deciding that I’m not good enough to beat Yousef one on one, but I can still beat him if I can bring together the clans and the Central Freedom militia. That’s me putting my pride away so that I don’t make the same mistakes Ishara did and end up dead.”
Judge bows his head one more time. “If we could fight together, all three of us might be able to beat him.”
Sally smiles as she bows her head. “The only problem with that is we’re both dead.”
“Which doesn’t mean we won’t be watching.”
“It’s sure to be a riveting affair, after all.”
And with that, the two of them fade out of view, leaving me staring down the landing tunnel where I’d crashed days ago. At the end, in the entrance lobby, John’s just walked out of the back hallway. He’s all dressed up in his dress slacks and button up shirt, plus the one face he wears that’s actually kind of attractive. All the rest are too old, too mechanical, or too worn. “Hey, John.”
“Hey, kid. You still planning on taking off?”
“There’s no more time to wait. Not after what we found out about Mandy. I’ve got to do something before anything happens to her.”
“And you’re absolutely sure that you can get those raiders to switch sides for you?”
“No. I don’t. I think I can get them to fight for their own side. It just turns out their side is my side now.”
“That’s a little wishful thinking, wouldn’t you say?”
“Not really. Everyone has their own self-interests, things that they’ll do to protect themselves or the people they love. The one thing I’ve realized the last couple of weeks is that . . .” I shake my head. “I made the mistake of judging all of them. The raiders. After what some of them did to me, I started thinking of all of them as monsters. They’ve got families, though. Husbands, wives, children. They’re not monsters. I’m probably as much of a monster to them. A woman who flies through the air with fire trailing out of her back and kidnapping people to put them in prison here? Someone fighting for Yousef Suliman, whose made their lives hell just for existing?”
“It wasn’t your fault, kid. You couldn’t have known.”
“I didn’t try and go out of my way to make things worse, but I made things worse anyway. I made a lot of mistakes getting to this point, and now I’ve got to set things straight. That means going back to Zone Delaware and trying to get all of this sorted out.”
John takes a deep breath as he looks at me. It’s not something he needs to do. He’s just as human as you can get without actually being human. “What if they try and shoot you down? Try and come after you? What then?”
“Then I go it alone. Maybe . . . maybe this all comes crashing down and it’s the end of my story. I don’t know. But I’m not going to let Mandy . . .” I start feeling a sting at my eyes. “Mike loved that girl. I’m not going to let him down. I’m not going to let my friends down. I’ll do whatever it takes to beat Yousef. That starts with me owning up to killing Ishara. Maybe I didn’t do it on purpose, but I led Yousef right to her doorstep. I was a tool he used to kill her. I don’t like it, but it’s the truth.”
“Jackie.”
“It’s okay, John. I’m past moping for myself. After the year I’ve had, seeing what feeling sorry for myself has done and how it’s only made everything worse . . . It’s time for me some hard choices.”
“Kid, I believe in you. You do thing this hunk of Old World junk couldn’t imagine. If you think this is the right call, I’m in it with you the whole way. If my batteries worked anywhere outside Highpoint, I’d go with you myself.”
“Once this is over with, we’ll start work on getting you out of here.”
“Don’t worry about me, Jackie. You’ve got a war to fight.”
“I do.” I turn around and look back down the tunnel, at the sunlight streaming at us from
the entrance in the distance. “Armor’s ready to go, right?”
“It’s like new. I’ll be surprised if it has one more full repair job left in it, though, so be careful. The best it can probably do is few patch jobs.”
“Weapons?”
“Pretty much empty. No explosives left and no bullets. No energy cartridges. You pretty much went through all of it during your shootout at the Panzer.”
“It’s just me and my sword, then.”
He looks at me for just a second before he puts a hand to my chest. “No, kid. It’s just you, and I think that’s enough. I don’t have a heart, but I recognize one when I see it in someone else. If there’s anyone I’ve believed in over my five hundred years of living, it’s you. I know terrible people from history, the kind of slime that would make you wince reading about. You’re the opposite. For all your flaws, you’ve got a heart for the people out there. Let them see that. They’ll follow you if you do.”
“Thanks, John.”
“Go get them, kid.”
I nod at him one last time as I turn around, my chest rising and falling as I brace myself, hoping it won’t be the last time I see John or Highpoint Waystation. Then, I’m running, my feet carrying me faster and faster as the Creep in my blood starts pushing my muscles beyond their limits. I can see the blue glow flowing down past my eyes as my armor forms around me, my muscles stretching and limbs growing as I fill out all seven feet of armor. Then, just as I’ve reached the edge of the tunnel, the thrusters at my pack ignite, propelling me out of the tunnel and into the air. It’s a rare kind of day, the kind where the sun’s clearly shining down, without any hint of the red clouds that normally fill the sky. For a second, I’m shooting toward the sun before I arc back around, fire burning through the air as I speed into the south. Past the Short Hills, and further south, past Bridgewater. All the way to the southern edges of the Deadlands.
To Zone Delaware.
Personal Recording of Devleena Kumar 08
Going by foot through miles of Creep isn’t something people like doing. Sure, we might be some of the most heavily armored soldiers in the area, but the closer we get to where the Panzer was located, the worse the Creep gets. Nobody likes seeing buildings overflowing with muscle tissue and tendrils. It just makes me feel even worse that I asked everyone to follow me out here into the Deadlands.
I don’t really have much time to think about it. A ringing pops up in my helmet, a warning signal that all of the troopers get. Torres looks at me and starts tapping her helmet. “I’m getting a lot of movement.”
“Me too,” I tell her as I signal into the nearest building. It doesn’t take everyone more than a few seconds to start pouring inside of it, rushing in to take cover. Huge armored troops force their way through the small doorway, taking a chunk of the building with them as they shovel their way inside. I barely get a look around. Whatever the place used to be, it looks like it was a store or something once. It’s sick with the Creep, but we don’t spot any Creepers. With the area clear, we all push through, some of the troopers forcing their way even deeper into some storage rooms in the back. We do everything we can to tuck ourselves away, just in time to hear a rumbling outside. I wave a finger in the air. “Switch to low power,” I tell them, hoping that with our suits running at minimum, we’ll be able to avoid being detected by whatever’s coming.
As far as I know, it works. Soon, we’re watching as tanks and transports go gliding by, carried along above the ground by repulsor pads. Suits of Apotheosis class armor, typical of troops from Fort Silence, flank the vehicles on both sides. It’s enough to make me suck in and hold my breath, praying that none of them pick up any signals we’re giving off.
Torres taps me on the shoulder. “Are they hunting for us?”
“No,” I tell her. “Look at how many there are.” Sure enough, the rumbling just keeps going and going as more and more troops move by. “Even if they were hunting for us, they wouldn’t send that many. That’s overkill. I think they’re going the same direction we were going. I think they’re heading to the Panzer.”
“Damn. What do we do?”
“Nothing. Even as strong as we are, we can’t fight that many,” I tell her as the rumbling continues, more and more vehicles passing by. “I guarantee you there’s more of them coming through along the surrounding blocks. If we try and fight them, we’re just going to get slaughtered.”
“Then how do we stop them from taking the Panzer.”
“We don’t. We keep our distance. Maybe we follow them and report what we see whenever the Angel checks in. But as much as I want to do something, I’m not going to have us commit suicide.”
“So, strictly intelligence gathering for right now.”
“That’s all we can do unless we want to throw our lives away.”
Tommy’s Recording 37
I’m sitting there on the bench in my cell, saying nothing as Doc Watson washes away blood that’s stuck to my face. Watson has to know I’m angry because he doesn’t say anything. A man who never stops talking just quietly takes care of my injuries.
After a few minutes of sitting in discomfort, I finally spit out, “You’re a monster. You know that?”
There’s only a slight pause in what he’s doing before he continues, rubbing away the blood and putting medication on my wounds. “Yes. I am aware. I’ve been aware of it longer than you’ve been alive. How else would you describe a man whose sole interest is in the pursuit of science at the cost of all else?”
“And that doesn’t bother you? It doesn’t get you the slightest bit upset that you don’t even have a way of identifying with other human beings?”
“I didn’t have contact with any other human beings for centuries. When you’ve lived so long, when you have no friends you grew up with, who lived during the same era as you . . . I suppose it’s no surprise I have little attachment to the human experience. Science, though, is the exploration of the unknown. It is the unending journey into the undiscovered country. Such endeavors are what pulled me out here into the Deadlands in the first place. You shouldn’t act so surprised that my first attachment is to my exploration of the unknown.”
I grab him by the wrist and stop what he’s doing. “Yousef’s going to do something bad to an innocent little girl just to lure Jackie out of hiding. I can’t believe you just don’t care about that.”
He scowls at me as he breaks away and stands up, his hands tucking the rags and medicine he’s carrying into a bag swung over his shoulder. “Everything that must happen, will happen. I’m sorry if I can’t be any more helpful or put your mind at ease.”
“When this is all over, when Jackie brings down Yousef, I’m going to personally make sure you face a firing squad.”
His eyes flick away for a second before looking back at me. “Do what you feel you must.”
Jackie’s Recording 36
I’m not sure how long I’ve been burning fuel over the Deadlands when I get a signal in my ear. “John? What’s happening?”
“You’re not going to like what I’ve got to tell you, kid.”
I feel myself getting nervous the second the words are out of his mouth. “Alright. What’s the problem?”
“I’ve got massive signals from Fort Silence. They’ve sent out a small army and it’s heading directly for that Panzer. If they’re planning on retaking it . . .”
“Damn it.” My body leans away, angling west and to where we left the Panzer. “Creep in the area?”
“Still there, but it’s receding. Nothing’s active, so it’d be my guess that Mike really did take it all out.”
“Thank you, Mike,” I whisper as my rocket forward, the skies screaming by me. Every minute that passes by makes me sweat, and all I can think about is what a terrible situation we’ll be in if Yousef adds the Panzer to his arsenal. At the same time, I’m seriously considering whether I can take a large force by myself, especially with all of my weapons drained.
The truth though’s that I don’t
have a choice. First, I was fighting Ishara to stop her from taking control of that machine, and now I’m having to stop Yousef from doing the same thing . . . It’s like the Sulimans really do want me dead. It’s the last thing I think about as I spot the Panzer coming up in the distance, looming between the buildings and standing as still as we left it. It’s still far away though, and a long time before I’m even close to it, but helmet starts lighting up with signals. When I look down, I see block after block lining up with tanks and rocket vehicles, with transports trailing them and soldiers in power armor on all sides. There’s hundreds of them.
“This is going to be bad,” I say as I grit my teeth, my body suddenly twisting out of the way as the first gunfire starts firing into the air. They’ve already spotted me, and the best I can do keep flying forward, descending at a sharp angle and avoiding any hits as I swoop down above them. Before they can react, I’m at the head of the column, my feet slamming onto the pavement and my body twisting toward the vehicles rolling down the street.
I don’t have time to breath before I’m having to twist and roll through the air, streaks of gunfire barely missing me as I go rocketing forward. One of the tanks leading the way tries to fire at me, but it’s too slow. The barrel doesn’t elevate in time, and I go slamming across its roof, my sword cutting down its barrel and sending into an explosion that throws me back into the skies. The second I’m airborne, I see a column of Yousef’s troops that has to be strung out over a couple of blocks, all of them with their guns focused on me.
I’m smacked around by gunfire for a second before I rocket back to the earth, realizing I can’t survive in the air. The second I’m back on the ground, my sword’s cutting through the nearest walkers, their motorized legs slicing apart beneath my blade before I go rocketing forward, skimming along the ground with my sword held out, the edge of it sliding through the armored sides of several vehicles on my left. A few of them explode behind me before I take another sharp angle, this time trying to escape through a nearby alley. I don’t make it. Instead, I get caught between a couple of lines of gunfire that send me tumbling along the ground, my body going head over heels before I land back on my feet. Then I’m running, trying to make it to the other side of the block, when I see more troopers launch into the alley from up ahead. Their guns are already out and firing my way, and I immediately go flying upward, only to be find the air filled with rockets.