Apocalypse (The Wasteland Chronicles, #1) (20 page)

“Yes. It happened about ten hours ago.”

“Humph.”

Char retrieved a knife from his belt and cut
Samuel’s white tee shirt open at the shoulder. He pulled the fabric
back tenderly to reveal the wound. Fresh red blood trickled out.
The surrounding skin was black, purple, and green.

“He’s out, now,” Char said. “But he’ll be
dead if I try to pull it out of him like this. He needs
morphine.”

“You have that, don’t you?” Makara asked.

Char grunted. “A bit. I do not want to use it
on an outsider.”

“My brother is not an outsider,” Makara said.
“He is family, as much a Raider as anybody here.”

“Don’t worry,” Char said. “I wouldn’t let you
bring him all this way to tell you no.”

“Good. You had me worried.” Makara’s eyes
went up to Anna and narrowed, as if willing the katana-wielding
girl away. Anna merely stood, meeting Makara’s stare without
blinking.

“This is Anna, my bodyguard. You noticed her
katana, I presume. She lives by the Bushido Code.”

“Are you a samurai?” I asked.

Anna gave a single nod, but no word for
answer.

“I thought samurai were supposed to be
Japanese,” Makara said. “And men.”

Judging from the look in Anna’s eyes, she
stood ready to draw her blade again.

“Honor and principle go beyond the confines
of gender and race.”

“She is deadly with a blade,” Char said.
“Where she learned to use it like that, I don’t know. She’s most of
the reason why I’ve stayed Alpha so long. Especially these days.
But all this is idle talk. Your brother needs my help.” Char
motioned to the Raiders nearby. “We’re taking Samuel to the
clinic.”

The men gathered around. Together, they
lifted Samuel up.

“Follow me,” Char said to Makara. He noticed
me for the first time. “Who’s this?”

“Alex,” I said.

“He’s from Bunker 108,” Makara said. “Once we
take care of Samuel, we’ll fill you in. It’s a long, long
story.”

We followed Char and his bodyguards through
the dark corridors and into the clinic.

10,000, The:
This refers to the 10,000
citizens who were selected in 2029 to enter Bunker One. This group
included the best America had to offer, people who were masters in
the fields of science, engineering, medicine, and security.
President Garland and all the U.S. Congress, as well as essential
staff and their families, were also chosen.

Alpha:
“Alpha” is the title given to
the recognized head of the Raiders. In the beginning, it was merely
a titular role that had only as much power as the Alpha was able to
enforce. But as Raider Bluff grew in size and complexity, the Alpha
began to take on a more meaningful role. Typically, Alphas do not
remain so for long – they are assassinated by rivals, who rise to
take their place. In some years, there can be as many as four
Alphas – though powerful Alphas, like Char, can reign for many
years.

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.

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. Though Dr. Steven
Keener believes in the Black Files’ existence, whether they are
truly stored in Bunker One’s archives is a matter of debate.

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 there 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.

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.

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.

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.

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
away 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.

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, global cooling sent temperatures on Earth plummeting.
While glaciers are only now experiencing rapid regrowth, they will
advance for centuries, and perhaps millennia 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.

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 is named. The oasis did not exist
Pre-Ragnarok, but was formed by tapping an underground aquifer.

Raider Bluff:
Raider Bluff is the only
known settlement of the Raiders. It is built northeast of what used
to be Needles, California, across the Colorado River, 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.

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

Recon:
A Recon is an all-terrain rover
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 from the northern border of Mexico in the south to the Ice
Lands in the north (at 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; thus
all life has clung to limited water supplies. Major population
centers include Raider Bluff, along the Colorado River; the
settlement of 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. Los Angeles flanks the Wasteland’s western
extreme, while Las Vegas flanks its eastern extreme.