Revelation (13 page)

With that, Boss Dragon held up a fist and pounded his chest. The other Dragons, Michael included, did the same thing. It was a like a pledge.

“I appreciate that, Boss Dragon.”

“You are my equal,” Boss Dragon said. “You can call me Elijah from now on.”

“Alright, then...Elijah. As long as any of my men can do the same. We Angels are all equals of one another.”

Elijah nodded. “Just like Raine, then.”

The way Elijah said that made me think that he had known Raine as well. It was strange that there had been an entire gang, the Lost Angels, whose legacy lived on long after their fall. It made me wish that I could have met Raine. And it made what Carin Black did, when he killed Raine, all the more egregious.

I then realized that this wasn’t just about saving the Vegas Gangs or stopping Augustus. It was also righting the murder of Raine, a righteous man, and resurrecting the legacy of his gang, the Lost Angels. In just a few months, Makara was going to get her chance for vengeance and justice when we attacked Los Angeles. Raine’s death had changed her life, had made her become the person she was now. It was hard to say, but if Raine hadn’t died, maybe we wouldn’t be going through all this right now. Maybe the Wasteland would already be united. Maybe, even, the Great Blight would be dead.

Well, I doubted that last one for sure. Things were coming to a head, more now than ever. We were all going to get the chance to finish what we had started.

Killing Black would be closure for both Samuel and Anna, as well, whose lives had been destroyed from the Los Angeles takeover – Samuel, for the same reasons as Makara, and Anna, because her settlement had been invaded by the Black Reapers when she was a kid. That had caused her and her mother to wander the Wasteland for survival, had caused her to start training on the katana.

So many things had happened because of the death of one man. And so many more things were left to happen, to be decided.

As Boss Dragon and his men piled into their Recon and drove away for the Strip, Makara faced us.

“Come on. We got what we came for.”

We turned from the runway, making our way to the Sunset Gate.

Chapter 12

It was evening, and Anna and I stood on the overpass, about a hundred yards from
Odin
. We leaned over the railing, watching the glowing red sky shine off the western buildings of outer Vegas. The buildings gave way beyond to desert and jagged hills and dunes, all the color of blood.

“This place is done,” Anna said.

She was right. It was only a matter of time. Out there, behind our backs to the east, an entire army of Blighters lurked. It was far too quiet. They were planning something big. I felt it. It was all going to come crashing down, soon.

I was worried that we were not going to be able to get everyone out of here fast enough.

“Makara was actually able to convince them,” I said. “I was half-expecting to die back there.”

Anna smiled. “Only half?”

“Alright. Maybe it was a little more.”

We gazed together at the sunset. The blood-red colors intermingled with the desert ground, and the sun sunk beneath the final line of the horizon. Not the sun itself, for it was blocked by thick, bulbous clouds. When the sun’s glow finally disappeared, the land was covered in darkness.

“Do you think we can stop it?” I asked.

Anna didn’t answer for a moment.

“I don’t know. I’d like to believe so. We got further than I thought we would today. I really did think there was a good chance we wouldn’t live to have this conversation right now.” She smiled. “I think we can, though.”

She grew quiet, and I didn’t know why. I looked at her, searching those eyes that stared off at the fading horizon. There was sadness there I didn’t understand. I wanted to ask her what it was, but the words never formed. It was a deep sorrow that made me ache to see it. I wished I could make it go away, to see her smile again.

I turned her to face me, and saw that she was crying. I kissed her. Sometimes, words were not enough to show someone how you felt. Some things, like love, could only be expressed fully when you threw your all into it – your mind, your spirit, your movement.

Her lips moved against mine. It felt she was kissing me so as not to lose me. I didn’t understand what that meant, at least, not at that moment.

She parted from me, and looked me full in the face. I laid my head on top of hers, felt her hair against my cheek. I never wanted to let go. I wanted her to know that I never would.

“I’m here to stay,” I said. “I promise.”

She shook with sobs. Before I could even ask what was wrong, she spoke.

“I know you do,” she said. “But sometimes, the wanting isn’t enough. Sometimes, fate has other plans.”

“Anna, what are you talking about?” I asked, softly. “It’s true. Wherever you go, I’ll go with you. Even if you were to go off running to the east, I would follow you there.”

She laughed into my chest. “Would you?”

I held her by the shoulders, looking her in the eyes. “Of course I would. You’re my Sweet Pea.”

She smiled. “Sweet Pea?”

“What, you’ve never heard that before?”

She shook her head.

I laughed. “Sometimes, I forget how sheltered you surface dwellers are. You’ve got to get down with the lingo.”

“I’ve never heard it,” she said. “I like it, though.”

“No more sadness,” I said. “We have to enjoy this. It’s rare to find someone like this, in a world like this. It’s almost enough...”

I trailed off, and she looked up at me. Her eyes questioned, wanting me to go on. But even I wasn’t sure enough to go on.

“Almost enough for what?”

For me to believe in something larger than myself.

“I’m not even sure,” I said. “I hope that the more time I spend with you, the more I can find out.”

“That makes two of us, then.”

I took a deep breath, holding my arms out to the breeze. Anna looked at me, not saying anything. I had no idea what the gesture meant.

It takes courage to open up to a world that isn’t worth opening up to. That courage is part of our humanity, part of our noble defiance – and all we can do is pray that it’s worth it.

And I wasn’t going to let the promise of pain stop me from trying.

***

We now sat in the darkness, against the freeway railing. We could have been anywhere in the world, and I would still be perfectly content, because I was with her. We talked about a lot of things, saying everything unfiltered, whatever came to mind, judging nothing, loving everything. We talked that way for an hour, the best conversation I’d ever had with anyone.

Somehow, though, the conversation turned to the weather.

“Why is it so warm?” I asked. “For December.”

Anna said nothing. Maybe it was just the warmth of her body against mine. She settled her head onto my chest.

“The Wasteland has two seasons,” Anna said. “Cold, and colder. The colder just hasn’t hit yet.”

“It’s almost 2061 now.”

“The months and days don’t matter much on the surface,” Anna said. “We’ve gone past that. The last tolling of any consequence was the impact of Ragnarok. Since then, no other pendulum could ever shake us.”

“That’s...very poetic. And dark.”

She shrugged. “It happens sometimes.”

“Poetry?”

She snickered.

“What’s so funny?”

“Nothing. I just thought of saying something really cheesy. Like, ‘poetry is life.’” She paused. “Something like that.”

“That’s not cheesy.”

She leaned up against the railing of the bridge, so now we were shoulder to shoulder. If there was anything Anna could do, it was surprise me. She was smart, decisive, strong – and when she was quiet, she was probably thinking of things I could never understand. She became lost in moments, moments she couldn’t be shaken from. But then, her eyes would find me, connecting to the world once again. I wanted to hold her in those moments, let her know she wasn’t alone in them.

“I wonder if the Great Blight has something to do with how warm it is,” I went on. “You think? I noticed the same thing when we were in it. The fungus is alive, isn’t it? Maybe it radiates heat, somehow.”

“It’s possible,” Anna said. “I’d never really considered that. It would make sense, though.”

Thousands of square miles of Great Blight, all of it producing heat, would add up. Warm, in the Wasteland, was just a relative term. Right now, it was only slightly above freezing. All the tales I’d heard of the cruel Wasteland winter didn’t seem to be true, at this moment.

“The winter will fall like a hammer,” Anna said. “You’ll see. Every year, it comes at a different time. It’s just late in coming this year. There’ll be this great cloud of dust, and it will storm for about a week. Then, it will leave behind air so cold that it’ll freeze your blood.”

“Literally?”

Anna gave a small laugh. “No, not literally. But you’ll feel it. Sometimes, it’s so cold that you cry. You want to stay inside those days, with plenty of firewood and stew. That’s when raiders take to drink, living in the bars and inns of Bluff. At least, that’s how it used to be.”

With Raider Bluff gone, things had definitely changed.

“And we’ll be crossing the Wasteland while all that happens?”

Anna nodded. “Not much choice in the matter. This place is dead, either way. We will be, too, if we don’t go soon.”

She leaned against me, and I wrapped my arms around her. Feeling her warmth made winter seem like a faraway thing.

“If we’re going to L.A, we’ll be passing your home, won’t we?” I asked.

Anna nodded. “Last Town is right on the way, guarding the pass into the city. Last time I saw it was when the Reapers took over for good, and they laid it to dust. I hear they’ve rebuilt it, though. It’s a fort now, and all the trade has to go through there to make inside L.A.” She sighed. “It’ll be hell trying to take it down.”

From the south came the roar of approaching engines. I looked in that direction to see a dark cloud of dust advancing toward us.

“Marcus,” I said.

We both stood, walking toward the approaching bikes. As they drew close, I saw that something was off. More of them had left this morning than four. I could swear it.

“Only four are coming back from that patrol,” Anna said. “At least six or seven left, right?”

I waited a moment, just to be sure there were fewer Exiles returning. Without doubt, there were only four coming back.

“I’ll get the others,” I said.

I ran to
Odin
. We were in for some bad news.

***

As everyone on
Odin
ran down the boarding ramp, Marcus and what was left of his patrol walked up to the base of the ramp. Marcus hadn’t been away so long because he had been trying to avoid Char. He had been fighting for his life.

“Crawlers?” Anna asked.

Marcus shook his head. “The Reds. They ambushed us in west Vegas, and we didn’t have time to react. They took out Flex and Wedge. We gunned it back here, and they chased us a good way.”

Makara’s face darkened. “Wait. You were attacked by the Reds?”

“Yeah.”

Marcus’s clothes had somehow become tattered during his escape. His men stood beside him, silent.

“They just shot at us,” one of them said. “No warning or anything. They want a war.”

“They just attacked, for no reason?”

Marcus shook his head. “They might have thought we were attacking. We were just scouting, though. We never wanted this to happen.”

“The Reds have always been more violent than the others,” Michael said. “Why do you think Elijah didn’t invite them to the summit? There’s an agreement where the entire west side is theirs. But the east, that’s for the rest of the gangs. That’s where the water trucks are.”

“They thought you were attacking,” Anna said. “That must be it.”

“We can’t stand for this,” Marcus said. “They killed two of my best men! We’re down to just twenty three now, and...”

“Marcus,” Makara said.

Marcus quieted, and looked at Makara. She stood for a moment in silence, commanding his attention.

“You’re right. I cannot allow this to go unpunished. If the other gangs get wind of this, they’ll think us weak if we just let this happen. We’re going after them. Tonight.”

Everyone turned to look at her, unbelieving at first.

“Are we really going to attack them?” I asked. “Shouldn’t we be focusing on other things?”

“No,” Makara said. “Like I said, word of this will reach the gang lords by tomorrow. I want them to know we don’t take this kind of thing lightly. We attack them, let them know not to mess with us like this. We’ll take
Odin,
load it up with our best men, and go. Raider style.”

Char smiled, and Marcus made a fist. For a moment, the two brothers’ eyes locked. It was the first time they had looked at each other with anything other than hostility since they had gotten here.

“If you think this is the best move for the group,” Samuel said, “I won’t stop you. You’re the leader of the New Angels. As long as this doesn’t interfere with the main mission, I can get behind it.”

I looked at Samuel, unbelieving. Was I the only one who thought this was a bad idea?

“We can’t be serious about this,” I said. Everyone turned to look at me. “We can’t waste more men and bullets on this. Leave the Reds to the Blighters. We’re getting out of here in a few days, anyway. We need to be preparing to leave this place behind.”

Makara looked at me, weighing my words. Anna was quiet, and I could tell that she wasn’t sure what to think. She was a Raider, at least by association, so she at least knew of their culture for retribution. When a rival gang pushed you, you pushed back twice as hard.

Makara heaved a sigh, then turned to Michael.

“Michael, what can you tell us about the Reds? Numbers? Weaknesses?” She paused. “Where they hell are they, even?”

“Well, they’re a large gang, led by a man named Lucius. They have a lot of territory, and are very possessive of it. They are mainly on the west side of town, in the suburbs. They have their own farms and slaves, separate from the rest of the Vegas Gangs. They are probably as strong as the Kings.”