Kyle West - Evolution

Anna finished the last of her food. I touched her shoulder, causing her to pause mid-bite.

“Come on, let’s go up front.”

After she swallowed the rest of her food, we left the table and the dirty dishes behind.

It was midmorning, and we had been searching three hours. The long, pink border of the Great Blight crawled north to south on the ship’s right side. Just seeing that field of blaring pink, orange, and purple was unsettling. The xenofungus coated the desert floor, climbed over rocks, stretched over plains, slithered up mountains. The eastern sun cast a red, fiery light on the alien growth, setting its colors aflame. Swarms of creatures — probably birds — flew in tornado-like clouds, for the time being ignoring our presence.

It was like staring at the surface of an alien planet. And I guessed, for all intents and purposes, it was an alien planet. This was what we were fighting. Seeing all that alien growth was depressing.

We followed the line of the Great Blight until it started veering northwest. As the minutes passed and we continued our search, the Great Blight’s border turned even more toward the west. The Great Blight stretched not only to the east, but also endlessly to the north.

“Was all this here before?” Makara asked.

We stood in silence seeing the fields touch the far horizon. We had never been this far north before, so maybe it had always been like this. Or maybe it had only recently expanded in this direction. It gave me a sense that time was definitely running out.

“I don’t know,” Samuel said. “Keep following the border, toward the west. That’ll put us closer to Vegas in a couple of hours.”

We followed the ground at a low altitude of about a thousand feet — high enough to be safe, yet low enough to easily see anything, or anyone, below. The Great Blight persisted in its westward crawl, sliding past our field of view. A purple lake glimmered far to the north, making me think that it was filled with purple goo rather than water. The xenoviral flora stood thick along its alien shoreline in a tangle of webbed growth.

The comm on the ship’s dash began to beep, lighting red.

“Did anyone check in with Ashton last night?” Makara asked.

We all looked at each other. We were supposed to update Ashton once a day on how things were going.

“I forgot,” Samuel said. “Put it on speaker.”

Makara answered the call. “Yeah?”

“Give me your update from yesterday,” Ashton said.

“Nothing to report, really,” Makara said, angling the ship as the Great Blight’s border started heading due west. “Did some more recon on the coordinates I sent you. We found nothing but dust.”

“Makara, if you can’t find anything soon, then…”

“We will,” Makara said, interrupting. “I feel it in my bones.”

“Feeling has nothing to do with it,” Ashton said. “We are on a limited timetable, and I can’t have you guys wasting time searching for a needle in a haystack.”

“I understand that,” Makara said. “But I know Char. If he went anywhere, it would have been to his brother.”

“Even though he hates him?” Anna asked from the copilot’s seat.

“I need you on my side, Anna,” Makara said.

“I’m allowed my own opinion,” Anna said. “Maybe Ashton is right.”

“Alright,” Makara said, annoyed, “if not the Exiles, then who do we go to?”

No one said anything.

“Well, there’s Vegas,” I said. “There are the northern Bunkers, 76 and 88…”

“Have you tried calling those Bunkers, Ashton?” Samuel asked.

“Repeatedly. I’m getting nothing. On 76, the line is going through, only…no one is answering.”

“That’s not a good sign,” Makara said.

“What about Bunker 88?” I asked.

“Nothing,” Ashton said. “It’s safe to assume they are both offline, though at some point, you guys will still have to check it out yourselves. That is, if we have time. With what we’re facing from Augustus and the xenovirus, we need every ally we can get.”

“So, what about Vegas?” Samuel asked. “Why not just go there first?”

“Did you not learn from the Empire?” Makara asked. “If Char and Marcus back us up, we’ll be bargaining from a position of power. We’ll have hundreds at our back from the get-go. The Vegas Gangs will be more willing to listen to us.”

“Good luck getting those two to work together,” Anna said.

“They will work together,” Makara said.

“I hope you’re right, Makara,” Ashton said. “Because this is your last day. I cannot allow you to waste any more time on this exercise.”

“It’s not an exercise,” she said. “It’s a necessity. I’m not allowing us to walk into Vegas with our pants down. From what I’ve heard, it’s just as bad as L.A.”

“That remains to be seen,” Ashton said.

“How’s your project coming, Ashton?” Samuel asked.

“I’ve finished one of the two wavelength monitors. The one Makara and I dropped earlier is still functioning, so getting these two done will help us triangulate the Voice’s exact point of origin. Although I’m missing a few parts that I will have to find down on the surface.”

“Where are they?” Samuel asked.

There was a pause. “Bunker Six.”

Bunker Six. It was just a hop from Bunker One, toward the north. Like Bunker One, it had fallen in the xenoswarm’s first major attack on humanity. That place was going to be thick with crawlers, if our time at Bunker One was any indication.

“Ashton, it’s too dangerous,” Makara said.

“I can handle myself,” Ashton said. “I’ve gotten in and out of Bunker One half a dozen times over the years. What makes you think it will be different with Bunker Six? If the dock doors are still functional, then getting in is easy. My preliminary scans show that the Bunker’s empty. No waves coming from that area, so the Voice is focused on something else. In fact…”

Ashton paused a moment.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Just give me a second.” Once again, Ashton was quiet. I could hear the clacking of keys from his computer. “The Voice seems to be focused on where you guys are right now. Lots of waves coming in your direction.”

That didn’t sound good.

“Well, we have visual on the Great Blight right now,” Samuel said. “It looks clear.”

“Still, be on the lookout,” Ashton said. “Something fishy is going on. Like Makara said…don’t get caught with your pants down.”

“So, you’re really going into Bunker Six?” I asked.

“I have to, kid. In fact, I’m going as soon as this call is over. With the Voice focused elsewhere, it might be my best time to get in. The parts I need aren’t too far from the hangar.” Ashton cleared his throat. “Sorry. Anyway, another thing we might add to our to-do list is liberating Perseus and Orion.”

“The other two ships?” Anna asked.

“That’s right. That’s further in the future, but if we have four ships at our disposal, and more trained pilots, it will give the New Angels flexibility. It will also give us an edge in any upcoming battles we have to fight.”

Battles. Yes, there would be those, soon. But those battles were months away. Augustus was coming for us, and would have troops in the Wasteland as soon as he possibly could. That could be two months — that is, if the Wasteland winter didn’t stop him first. Ashton had mentioned that fact on one of his radio calls a couple days ago. For now, it looked as though his legions were still coming. When they got here, we had to be ready to pull out all the stops.

“Wait,” Makara said. “I think I’m seeing something.”