Revelation (3 page)

“Turret engaged,” Anna said. “Fire?”

“Fire.”

The turret opened up, rattling
Odin
as its rain of lead fell upon the crawlers slithering up the hill. Chunks of pink alien flesh and fountains of gooey purple blood shot into the air, splattering onto the hillside. Several of the creatures tumbled down the hill, lifeless. The men faced outward, continuing to fire into the teeming mass. As
Odin
circled around to the hill’s other side, opening fire again, the creatures moved as one, fleeing their position. They scuttled toward the border of the Great Blight.

“They’re retreating,” Samuel said. “Make sure they’re good and gone.”

Makara nodded, following the line of fleeing crawlers at a low hover, keeping
Odin’s
nose pointed at them. Anna continued using the computer to aim and shoot, leaving a trail of dead and dying that lay twitching on the desert floor. Finally, at enormous speed, the last few remaining crawlers slithered into the xenofungal border of the Great Blight, burrowing themselves into the fungus. How quickly that fungus sucked in their bodies made my skin crawl. They were lost to view.

“Alright,” Samuel said. “Put
Odin
down on the hill.”

Makara veered
Odin
around, so that now the hill faced us. The Exiles still stood in the center of their ring of bikes, staring up into the sky. I could only imagine what their reaction to
Odin
would be. On the fourth day of searching, we had finally found them – and right in the nick of time. A few minutes later, and they would have been the ones lying dead in the dust, not the crawlers.

Makara set
Odin
down lightly about a hundred feet away from the Exiles, who had not changed position. Makara powered the fusion drive out of flight mode, and unstrapped herself from her seat.

“Alright,” she said. “Let’s do this.”

We followed the New Angels’ leader from the cockpit and into the bitterly cold air.

***

I followed Makara, doing my best to suppress my shivering. My standing outside in the morning was my way getting used to the cold, bleak lands of the north once again.

The Exiles were grim as they turned to face us. Many had blood, both red and purple, on their clothing and bodies. They had thick beards, sunglasses, and thick, leather jackets. At their head stood the man we were looking for: Marcus. It had been awhile, but I recognized his short, solid frame, light red hair, and matching red beard. The hair fell to his shoulders, and his beard came down to the base of his neck.

“Makara,” he said. “Samuel.” He broke into a small, grim smile. “I thought you all dead.”

Makara came to a stop a few feet in front of Marcus. Samuel, Anna, and I stood in a line just a few feet behind her.

“We thought the same of you,” Makara said. She hesitated a moment before continuing. “We need your help.”

Marcus chuckled. “Straight to the point, then”

Marcus had a slow, slightly arrogant way of speaking that made him seem like he was in control – that no matter what Makara told him, he was going to be his own man.

“Truly, thank you,” Marcus said. “Without you, we’d be dead.” He gazed at
Odin
, over Makara’s shoulder. I’d thought he would have been a little more surprised to see it. “Looks like you’ve found a new toy.”

“A little something we picked up,” Makara said.

“So, what do you require of me?”

Samuel stepped forward and stood beside his sister. “We found the Black Files, but it wasn’t easy. It’s an alien virus causing all of this, and it’s only going to get worse.” He made a fist. “We mean to stop it.”

Marcus looked down at his shoulder, flicking off a gooey chunk of crawler flesh that he had missed. “Clearly. You don’t need any Black Files to tell this stuff is from another planet. The crawlers used to stay in their Blights, for the most part. Now, they swarm the Wasteland in packs, hunting and killing whomever they find. Sometimes, we come across corpses.” Marcus shook his head. “No one can survive outside walls these days. The settlements are overrun with refugees – that is, what cities that allow them in. That is where we’re headed, now.”

“Headed where?” I asked.

Marcus pointed backward, over his left shoulder. “Vegas. I hope to offer the Exiles’ service to one of the gang lords. We are experienced fighters, so we should get in. And if not...” Marcus paused. “Well, we’ll figure something out. We might return to the Empire, where it will be safer.”

“Nowhere is safe,” Makara said. “Not even the Empire.”

The two dozen or so men looked at each other. This was clearly unexpected news.

“You know this, how?” Marcus asked.

“We just returned from there,” Samuel said. “The dragons attacked Nova Roma, unleashing dozens of crawlers within the city walls. Despite this, Augustus is on his way here. He wants to conquer the Wasteland, and a few crawlers and dragons running amok in his Empire won’t stop him.”

Marcus nodded. “That’s no surprise to me, actually. Augustus wants to find and salvage the Bunkers, mostly for weaponry. The networks also contain a lot of information that he is interested in. He understands that these two things will help him hold his Empire in the long run.”

“We expect the first of his forces to be here in two months,” Samuel said.

Marcus’s eyes widened. “Two months?”

“He is working with Carin Black,” Makara said. “I don’t know what their plan is, come winter, but we are preparing for the worst. We need to unite anyone we can to stand against him.”

Marcus looked from Makara to Samuel, saying nothing. “There is nothing we can do.”

Makara took a step forward. “We still have time to mount a resistance. If we take down Carin before Augustus gets here...”

Marcus looked at Makara, trying to see if she was serious. Then he began to laugh. Makara’s face reddened.

“That’s cute, kid,” Marcus said. “And where do you plan on getting an army big enough to stand against the Empire?”

“Well, I hoped you would be my first recruits,” Makara said. “With you and Char both, we might be able to convince the Vegas gangs to help out.”

Marcus frowned at the mention of his brother. “Have you spoken with him?”

“No,” Makara said. “We were hoping that you had. We’ve been searching for you for the past four days. And now, with so much on the line, I’m not leaving until you are with me.” She paused a moment. “The Lost Angels have reformed. I am their leader.”

Marcus looked Makara up and down, recalculating her strength. The men behind Marcus grumbled at each other, and after a moment turned their attention back to Makara.

“How many men do you have?”

“After this conversation, I’m hoping a little over two dozen.”

Marcus gave a bark of a laugh, then shook his head. “You got gumption, kid. That isn’t a bad thing, though.” He eyed Makara, hard. “What makes you think
I
will follow
you?”

Makara shrugged, a slight smile playing on her lips. “This isn’t about me leading. It’s about stopping Augustus. Besides, if you say no, you’ll be hunted by crawlers. You need us just to get as far as Vegas. You can’t run forever. Not from crawlers, not from dragons, not from the Blights. And, on the other hand, we need you. We need the New Angels to be strong enough to take on the Reapers in L.A. If the Angels can make it to Vegas already thirty strong, the gang lords there will be forced to take us seriously. With Char and the Raiders, we will number in the hundreds.”

Marcus nodded, thinking. “What about you, Samuel?”

“Makara heads up the Angels. I head up the mission against the xenovirus. We can’t do anything against the Great Blight until we stop Augustus and Black. We need to take those two down before they ruin every chance we’ve got.”

Marcus said nothing, merely looking at all of us, weighing Makara’s and Samuel’s words. The Exiles behind Marcus listened, waiting for the decision of their leader.

“This is a group decision,” Marcus said. “I lead, but only by the consent of my men. We will need to confer.”

“Please do,” Makara said. “Just don’t take long. Because when it comes to them...” Makara pointed ahead, toward the Great Blight, “there’s no time to waste.”

Marcus nodded. “Come back in an hour and we will have an answer for you, Makara of the Angels.”

As Marcus and the Exiles walked back to their ring of bikes, Makara turned toward us.

“Let’s go.”

Chapter 3

“They will follow us.”

Makara sat in the pilot’s seat, staring out the window at the circle of conferring Exiles.

“You seem so sure,” Anna said.

“It can’t go any other way. If they don’t come with us, they die.”

“All the same,” I said, “we want them with us because they’re
with
us. We don’t want them having their own agenda.”

“When Marcus accepts, I will let him know about everything that has happened,” Samuel said. “If that still doesn’t sway him, he needs to get his head checked.”

“You see what I’m saying, though,” I said. “They could just use us to get as far as Vegas.”

“Maybe,” Makara said. “But we really don’t have much choice, do we?” She sighed. “Besides, I have a few more tricks up my sleeve.”

I wanted to believe Makara. I really did. But I knew she was improvising. It was a lucky thing she happened to be good at that.

“When we finally find Char,” Anna said, “those two are going to be a mess to deal with.”

“It’s time they reconciled,” Makara said.

“How do you know if Char is even alive?” I asked.

“He is. I
know
he is. If Marcus doesn’t know where his brother is, then that tells me Char is probably in Vegas. He would not go to L.A. – the Reapers and the Raiders have always been on bad terms.” She turned back toward the windshield, staring at her potential recruits. “Process of elimination.”

Samuel said nothing. Makara was in control, now – of where we went, who we talked to, and what we did. It was a different, yet not unnatural change. I remembered what Samuel had told me back in Skyhome – if he died, he expected me to lead the crew. How was I supposed to do that if Makara was in charge now?

The potential of
me
being in charge seemed so unnatural. I felt far more comfortable in a support role, and I wondered if Makara, or even Samuel, were the same way. Maybe leaders were made more out of necessity than necessarily being born that way.

At last the Exiles turned, heading as one toward the ship.

“They’re coming,” Anna said.

It was time to hear their decision.

***

“We will ride with you,” Marcus said.

Makara nodded. “Good.”

“On one condition.”

Makara arched an eyebrow.

“We are our own men. At any time we may leave, and never return, if we so choose. At no time am I, or any of the Exiles, to be under your direct authority.” Marcus stared hard at Makara through his sunglasses.

“I understand your reservation,” Makara said. “But I will
always
be willing to listen to your opinions. In the end, however,
I’m
the one in charge, and I make the final decision. If you join the New Angels, it’s as a New Angel.” She waved a hand backward, toward us. “It’s the same for them.”

Marcus did not say anything for a long while.

“Your brother as well?” Marcus asked.

Samuel nodded. “Yes.”

“Then we will join you.”

Makara held out her hand. Marcus took it.

“We leave now,” Makara said. “We’ll stay behind at a hover, and if anything enters our sights, we’ll flash our lights.”

“I suppose our bikes will be too heavy for the ship?”

Makara nodded. “Maybe if it was just you guys, but the bikes cannot go on board. I guess we could ferry people back and forth, but I don’t want the group split up for any reason – not with the threat from crawlers.”

“In that case, Vegas is a two days’ journey from here. The land is rough, but it should be passable.”

Makara nodded. “If you have any wounded, we have a clinic aboard
Odin.”

“My thanks,” Marcus said, “but as you can see, our wounded died long ago.”

Behind the Exiles, the bodies of three men were laid out, side by side.

“Do you need time to bury them?”

Marcus shook his head. “No. We burn our dead – it is our way.”

“Do what you need to do.” Makara turned aside. “When you leave, we will follow.”

“I’ll go over everything we’ve learned about the xenovirus when we camp tonight,” Samuel said.

Marcus nodded, then turned back to the Exiles. As he began giving orders on what should be done with the dead, we returned to
Odin
.

***

As the bodies caught flame, sending thick plumes of acrid smoke into the air, the Exiles circled the fire and rode west. It was only when we picked up their trail that I realized how amazingly fast
Odin
went. Going at the Exiles’ pace made the surrounding terrain pass at a crawl. Where we could have made Vegas in an hour, it would take the Exiles two days to make the same journey.

However, it did afford us the opportunity to study the landscape, making sure nothing else jumped out at our newfound allies.

“I have to admit it, Makara,” I said. “You were right.”

Makara smiled. “Have a little faith, Alex. I’m the Chosen One.”

“I’m starting to believe it.”

“This is only the beginning,” Samuel said. “I don’t think you’ll find the Vegas Gangs as accommodating.”

“No,” Makara said. “Probably not.”

The Great Blight spread northward with ethereal beauty. The sunlight had even somewhat broken through the layer of meteor fallout, casting the unearthly colors in a light golden glow.

“I wonder what they’re planning,” I asked, staring at the Great Blight.

Everyone knew what I was talking about. After the xenovirus had revealed the dragons, all of us just had to wonder what was next.

“That giant one, guarding Raider Bluff – I wonder who
he
is,” Makara said.