Origins (The Wasteland Chronicles, #2) (23 page)

Batts:
Batts, or batteries, are the currency of the Wasteland. It is unknown
how
batteries were first seen as currency, but it is likely because they are small, portable, and durable. Rechargeable batteries (called “chargers”) are even more prized, and solar batteries (called “solars,” or “sols,”) are the most useful and prized of all.

Behemoth:
The Behemoth is a great monstrosity in the Wasteland – a giant creature, either humanoid or reptilian, or sometimes a mixture of the two, that can reach heights of ten feet or greater. They are bipedal, powerful, and can keep pace with a moving vehicle. All but the most powerful of guns are useless against the Behemoth’s armored hide.

Black Files, The:
The Black Files are the mysterious collected research on the xenovirus, said to be located in Bunker One. They were authored principally by Dr. Cornelius Ashton, Chief Scientist of Bunker One.

Black Reapers, The:
The Black Reapers are a powerful, violent gang, based in Los Angeles. They are led by Warlord Carin Black. They keep thousands of slaves, using them to serve their post-apocalyptic empire. They usurped the Lost Angels in 2055, and have been ruling Los Angeles ever since.

Blights:
Blights are infestations of xenofungus and the xenolife they support. They are typically small, but the bigger ones can cover large tracts of land. As a general rule of thumb, the larger the Blight, the more complicated and dangerous the ecosystem it maintains. The largest Blight is the Great Blight – which covers a huge portion of the central United States.

Boundless, The:
The Boundless is an incredibly dry part of the Wasteland, ravaged by canyons and dust storms, situated in what used to be Arizona and New Mexico. Very little can survive in the Boundless, and no one is known to have ever crossed it.

Bunker 108:
Bunker 108 is located in the San Bernardino Mountains about one hundred miles east of Los Angeles. It is the birthplace of Alex Keener.

Bunker 114:
A medical research installation built about fifty miles northwest of Bunker 108. Built beneath Cold Mountain, Bunker 114 is small. After the fall of Bunker One, Bunker 114, like Bunker 108 to the southeast, became a main center of xenoviral research. An outbreak of the human strain of the xenovirus caused the Bunker to fall in 2060.

Bunker One:
The main headquarters of the Post-Ragnarok United States government. It fell in 2048 to a swarm of crawlers that overran its defenses. Bunker One had berths for ten thousand people, making it many times over the most populous Bunker. Its inhabitants included President Garland, the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, essential government staff, and security forces, along with the skilled people needed to maintain it. There also were dozens of brilliant scientists and specialists, including engineers, doctors, and technicians. The very wealthy were also allowed berths for helping to finance the Bunker Program. Bunker One is reportedly the location of the Black Files, authored by Dr. Cornelius Ashton.

Bunker Program, The:
The United States and Canadian governments pooled resources to establish 144 Bunkers in Twelve Sectors throughout their territory. The Bunkers were the back-up in case the Guardian Missions failed. When the Guardian Missions
did
fail, the Bunker Program kicked into full gear. The Bunkers were designed to save all critical government personnel and citizenry, along with anyone who could provide the finances to construct them. The Bunkers were designed to last indefinitely, using hydroponics to grow food. The Bunkers ran on fusion power, which had been made efficient by the early 2020s. The plan was that when the dust settled, Bunker residents could reemerge and rebuild. Most Bunkers fell, however, for various reasons – including critical systems failures, mutinies, and attacks by outsiders (see
Wastelanders
). By the year 2060, only four Bunkers were left.

Chaos Years, The:
The Chaos Years are the ten years following the impact of Ragnarok. These dark years signified the great die-off of most forms of life, including humans. Most deaths occurred due to starvation. With mass global cooling, crops could not grow in climates too far from the tropics. What crops
would
grow produced a yield far too paltry to feed the population that existed. This led to a period of violence unknown in all of human history. The Chaos Years signify the complete breakdown of the Old World’s remaining infrastructures – including food production, the economy, power grids, and industry, all of which led to the deaths of billions of people.

Crawlers:
Crawlers are dangerous, highly mobile monsters spawned by Ragnarok. Their origin is unclear, but they share many characteristics of Earth animals – mostly those reptilian in nature. Crawlers are sleek and fast, and can leap through the air at very high speeds. Typically, crawlers attack in groups, and behave as if of one mind. One crawler will, without hesitation, sacrifice itself in order to reach its prey. Crawlers are especially dangerous when gathered in high numbers – at which point there is not much one can do but run. Crawlers can be killed, their weak points being their belly and their three eyes.

Dark Decade, The:
The Dark Decade lasted from 2020-2030, from the time of the first discovery of Ragnarok, to the time of its impact. It is not called the Dark Decade because the world descended into madness immediately upon the discovery of Ragnarok by astronomer Neil Weinstein – that only happened in 2028, with the failure of
Messiah
, the third and last of the Guardian Missions. In the United States and other industrialized nations, life proceeded in an almost normal fashion. There was plenty of hope, and good reason to believe that Ragnarok could be stopped, especially given ten years. But as the Guardian Missions failed, one by one, the order of the world quickly disintegrated.

With the failure of the Guardian Mission
Archangel
in 2024, a series of wars engulfed the world. As what some were calling World War III embroiled the planet, the U.S., Canada, and various European nations worked to stop Ragnarok. When the second Guardian Mission,
Reckoning,
failed, an economic depression swept the world. But none of this compared to the madness that followed upon the failure of the third and final Guardian,
Messiah
, in 2028. As societies broke down, martial law was enforced. President Garland was appointed dictator of the United States with absolute authority. By 2029, several states had broken off from the Union.

In the last quarter of 2030, an odd silence hung over the world, as if it had grown weary of living. The President, all essential governmental staff and military, the Senate and House of Representatives, along with scientists, engineers, and the talented and the wealthy, entered the 144 Bunkers established by the Bunker Program. Outraged, the tens of millions of people who did not get an invitation found the Bunker locations, demanding to be let in. The military took action when necessary.

Then on December 3, 2030, Ragnarok fell, crashing into the border of Wyoming and Nebraska, forming a crater one hundred miles wide. The world left the Dark Decade, and entered the Chaos Years.

Great Blight, The:
The Great Blight is the largest xenofungal infestation in the world, its point of origin being Ragnarok Crater on the Great Plains in eastern Wyoming and western Nebraska. Unlike other Blights, the Great Blight is massive. From 2040-2060, it began to rapidly expand outside Ragnarok Crater at an alarming rate, moving as much as a quarter mile each day (meaning the stretching of the xenofungus could actually be discerned with the naked eye). Any and all life was conquered, killed, or acquired into the Great Blight’s xenoparasitic network.

Guardian Missions:
The Guardian Missions were humanity’s attempts to intercept and alter the course of Ragnarok during the Dark Decade. There were three, and in the order they were launched, they were called
Archangel, Reckoning,
and
Messiah
(all three of which were also the names of the ships launched). Each mission had a reason for failing.
Archangel
is reported to have crashed into Ragnarok, in 2024. In 2026,
Reckoning
somehow got off-course, losing contact with Earth in the process. In 2028
Messiah
successfully landed and attached its payload of rockets to the surface of Ragnarok in order to alter its course from Earth. However, the rockets failed before they had time to do their work. The failure of the Guardian Missions kicked the Bunker Program into overdrive.

Howlers:
Howlers are the newest known threat posed by the xenovirus. They are human xenolife, and they behave very much like zombies. They attack with sheer numbers, using their bodies as weapons. A bite from a Howler is enough to infect the victim with the human strain of the xenovirus. Post-infection, it takes anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours for a corpse to reanimate into the dreaded Howler. Worse, upon death, Howlers somehow explode, raining purple goo on anyone within range. Even if a little bit of goo enters the victim’s bloodstream, he or she is as good as dead, cursed to become a Howler within a matter of minutes or hours. How the explosion occurs, no one knows – it is surmised that the xenovirus itself creates some sort of agent that reacts violently with water or some other fluid present within the Howlers. There is also reason to believe that certain Howlers become Behemoths, as was the case with Kari in Bunker 114.

Ice Lands, The:
Frozen in a perpetual blanket of ice and snow, the northern and southern latitudes of the planet are completely unlivable. In the Wasteland, at least, they are referred to as the Ice Lands. Under a blanket of meteor fallout, extreme global cooling was instigated in 2030. While the glaciers are only now experiencing rapid regrowth, they will advance for centuries to come until the fallout has dissipated enough to produce a warmer climate. In the Wasteland, 45 degrees north marks the beginning of what is considered the Ice Lands.

L.A. Gangland:
L.A. Gangland means a much different thing than it did Pre-Ragnarok. In the ruins of Los Angeles, there are dozens of gangs vying for control, but by 2060, the most powerful is the Black Reapers, who usurped that title from the Lost Angels.

Lost Angels, The:
The Lost Angels were post-apocalyptic L.A.’s first super gang. From the year 2050 until 2055, they reigned supreme in the city, led by a charismatic figure named Dark Raine. The Angels were different from other gangs – they valued individual freedom and abhorred slavery. Under the Angels’ rule, Los Angeles prospered. The Angels were eventually usurped in 2056 by a gang called the Black Reapers, led by a man named Carin Black.

Nova Roman Empire, The:
The Nova Roman Empire (also known as the “Empire”) is a collection of allied city-states that are ruled from its capital, Nova Roma, located somewhere in southern Mexico. The Empire is large and powerful, and they are well-known in the Wasteland for their many trade caravans arrive during summer months. The Empire is ruled by a man named Augustus.

Oasis:
Oasis is a settlement located in the Wasteland, about halfway between Los Angeles and Raider Bluff. It has a population of one thousand, and is built around the banks of the oasis for which it was named. The oasis did not exist Pre-Ragnarok, but was formed by tapping an underground aquifer. Elder Ohlan rules Oasis with a strong hand. He is the brother of Dark Raine, and it is whispered that he might have had a hand in his death.

Ragnarok:
Ragnarok was the name given the meteor that crashed into Earth on December 3, 2030. It was about three miles long, and two miles wide. It was discovered by astronomer Neil Weinstein, in 2019. It is not known
what
caused Ragnarok to come hurtling toward Earth, or how it eluded detection for so long.

Ragnarok Crater:
Ragnarok Crater is the site of impact of the meteor Ragnarok. It is located on the border of Wyoming and Nebraska, and is about one hundred miles wide. It’s the center of the Great Blight.

Raider Bluff:
Raider Bluff is the only known settlement of the Raiders. It is built northeast of what used to be Needles, California, on top of a three-tiered mesa. Though the Raiders are a mobile group, even they need a place to rest during the harsh Wasteland winter. Merchants, women, and servants followed the Raider men, setting up shop on the mesa, giving birth to Raider Bluff sometime in the early 2040s. From the top of the Bluff rules the Alpha, the strongest recognized leader of the Raiders. A new Alpha rises only when he is able to wrest control from the old one.

Recon:
A Recon is an all-terrain rover that is powered by hydrogen. It is designed for speedy recon missions across the Wastes, and was developed by the United States military during the Dark Decade. It is composed of a cab in front and a large cargo bay in the back. Mounted on top of the cargo bay is a turret with 360-degree rotation, accessible by a ladder and a porthole. The turret can be manned and fired while the Recon is on the go.

Wasteland, The:
The Wasteland is a large tract of land comprised of Southern California and the adjacent areas of the Western United States. It extends from the San Bernardino Mountains in the west, to the Rockies in the east (and in later years, the Great Blight), and from the northern border of Nova Roma on the south, to the Ice Lands to the north (which is about the same latitude as Sacramento, California). The Wasteland is characterized by a cold, extremely dry climate. Rainfall each year is little to none, two to four inches being about average. Little can survive the Wasteland, meaning that all life has clung to limited water supplies. Major population centers include Raider Bluff, along the Colorado River; Oasis, supplied by a body of water of the same name; and Last Town, a trading post that sprung up along I-10 between Los Angeles and the Mojave. Whenever the Wasteland is referred to, it is generally not referred to in its entire scope. It is mainly used to reference what was once the Mojave Desert.