Darkness (30 page)

“...the Recon,” Anna said. She faced away from Augustus, smiling. “They’re alive!”

After
Gilgamesh
had landed, they must have hurried to the cargo bay to drive the Recon off the ship. It was the
only
thing they could have done. The first order Samuel would have given. I
knew
the Recon was on there when they had taken off from Bunker 84.

But where were they headed?

Ashton came back to join us. Instantly, he saw the empty bay’s significance.

He tried to hide his smile. He looked from one of us, to the other. “You
can’t
let him know. When you walk back onto that ship, you are in mourning. You understand?”

With that, the three of us turned back to
Orion.

I tried to suppress the thrill of knowing that, somewhere out there, they were alive. That even now, they might be watching us.

If so...

No. They wouldn’t attempt a rescue with such poor odds. They’d be against a spaceship and at least fifteen armed guards.

Besides, they were probably on their way back...

...back to where? The Wasteland? Bunker 84? I had no idea.

I saw the fate of the Exodus laid out. Without any spaceship, they were stranded in Bunker 84. They would all starve unless
Orion
or
Perseus
rescued them. Augustus probably knew 84’s location because he had been watching
Gilgamesh.
It would be easy to figure out that there was something important in Northern California from the way we kept visiting it.

Anna and I walked up the boarding ramp and into
Orion.
As the door shut behind, even if we were hopelessly outgunned, hope was alive. We knew we could still succeed in our mission.

All because of an empty cargo bay.

About the Author

Kyle West is a science fiction author living in Oklahoma City. He is currently working on
The Wasteland Chronicles
series, of which there will be seven installments. Find out immediately when his next book is released by signing up for
The Wasteland Chronicles Mailing List
. The sixth book,
Extinction,
will be released Spring 2014. After that is
Xenofall,
the conclusion of the saga.

Contact

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Blog

kylewestwriter[at]gmail[dot]com

Glossary

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 chosen.

Alpha:
“Alpha” is the title given to the recognized head of the Raiders. In the beginning, it was merely a titular role that only had as much power as the Alpha was able to enforce. But as Raider Bluff grew in size and complexity, the Alpha took 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.

Askala:
Askala has two meanings – one is the name of the
Radaskim
Xenomind dwelling in Ragnarok Crater, while the other form refers to the dragons the xenovirus spawns. While Askala and xenodragon (or just dragon) are interchangeable, the Askala themselves (at least the
Elekai
Askala) refer to themselves as Askala.

Batts:
Batts, or batteries, are the currency of the Wasteland and the Empire. They are accepted anywhere that the Empire’s caravans reach. It is unknown
how
batteries were first seen as currency, but it is rumored that Augustus himself instigated the policy. Using them as currency makes sense: batteries are small, portable, and durable, and have the intrinsic quality of being useful. 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 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.

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

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 known Blight is the Great Blight – which covers a large portion of the central United States. Its center is Ragnarok Crater.

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 40:
Bunker 40 is located on the outer fringes of the Great Blight in Arizona. It is hidden beneath a top secret research facility, a vestige of the Old World. Many aircraft were stationed at Bunker 40 before it fell, sometime in the late 2050s.

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:
Bunker 114 is 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 108’s fall followed soon thereafter.

Bunker One:
Bunker One was 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. Also, dozens of brilliant scientists and specialists lived and worked there, including engineers, doctors, and technicians. The very wealthy were also allowed berths for helping to finance the Bunker Program. Bunker One is the location of the Black Files, authored by Dr. Cornelius Ashton.

Bunker Six:
Bunker Six is a large installation located north of Bunker One, within driving distance. It houses the S-Class spaceships constructed during the Dark Decade – including
Gilgamesh,
the capital ship, and three smaller cruisers –
Odin, Perseus,
and
Orion
. While
Gilgamesh
and
Odin
are under Cornelius Ashton’s care,
Perseus
and
Orion
are still locked inside the fallen Bunker.

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 backup 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 refer to 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, economies, power grids, and the industrial complex – all of which led to the deaths of billions of people.

Coleseo Imperio
:
El Coleseo Imperio
, translated as the Imperial Coliseum, is a circular, three-tiered stone arena rising from the center of the city of Nova Roma, the capital of the Nova Roman Empire. It is used to host gladiatorial games in the tradition of ancient Rome, and serves as the chief sport of the Empire. Slaves and convicts are forced to fight in death matches, which serves the dual purpose of entertaining the masses while getting rid of prisoners and slaves who would otherwise be, in the Empire’s eyes, liabilities. Many festivals, and even ritual sacrifices, take place on the arena floor.

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 were plenty of good reasons to believe that Ragnarok could be stopped, especially when 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. and several of its European allies, and Canada, continued to work on stopping 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.

Elekai:
The
Elekai
are the peaceful counterpart to the
Radaskim.
They seek the harmony and growth of all life, even if that means that the universe will eventually one day end. The
Radaskim
take the opposite viewpoint – that the destruction of all life is a fair price in exchange for controlling the destruction and reconstruction of the universe, called the Universal Cycle:

Eternal War, The:
The Eternal War has spanned hundreds of thousands of years across the cosmos. The
Radaskim
seek to infect and conquer every life-bearing world. The
Elekai
are always with them and fight the
Radaskim
at every turn. However, the
Radaskim
are more numerous and have always won on every world. The Wanderer and the
Elekai
hope to reverse this on planet Earth.

Exiles, The:
The Exiles are led by a man named Marcus, brother of Alpha Char. The Exiles were once raiders, but were exiled from Raider Bluff in 2048. Raider Bluff faced a rival city, known as Rivertown, on the Colorado River. A faction led by Char wanted to destroy Rivertown by blowing up Hoover Dam far to the north. Marcus and his faction opposed this. The two brothers fought, and in his rage, Marcus threw Char into a nearby fireplace, giving him the severe burns on his face that Char would live with for the rest of his life. For this attack, the Alpha at the time exiled Marcus – but in solidarity, many Raiders left to join him. For the next twelve years, the exiled Raiders wandered the Boundless, barred from ever returning farther west than Raider Bluff. The Exiles at first sought to found a new city somewhere in the eastern United States, but the Great Blight barred their path. Over the next several years, they hired themselves as mercenaries to the growing Nova Roman Empire. Now, they wander the Wastes, Marcus awaiting the day when his brother calls upon him for help – which he is sure Char will do.