Free Revelation by Kyle West Page B

make it to Bunker One’s runway alive, but we were completely surrounded. We were about to die, when out of nowhere, a spaceship came down from the sky, extending a ladder for us to board.”
    “Alright, that’s a little bit unbelievable...” Michael said.
    “Well, it’ll make sense in a second. I’m leaving out a lot of details, but the spaceship turned out to be piloted by a man named Dr. Cornelius Ashton – the very author of the Black Files we had found. He had contacted us in the lab beforehand about getting to the runway. Anyway, we got into the spaceship, escaping the snapping jaws of death. Soon, we found ourselves living in a space city called Skyhome.”
    “Skyhome?”
    “The U.S. Government constructed it during the Dark Decade,” I said. “It was top secret, and intended as a backup for the President in case things on Earth went to hell. Which they did, but President Garland couldn’t escape Bunker One in time. However, Dr. Cornelius Ashton did, back in 2048. He has lived there with a community of Bunker survivors since then, continuing his research on the xenovirus – such as he can.”
    “So, you’ve been in fallen Bunkers, the Great Blight, outer space...and then, Mexico?”
    “That happened after. We were attempting to negotiate peace between Raider Bluff and Nova Roma. We had to meet Emperor Augustus to do that. But that didn’t work out. Mixed in with all that were slavers, gladiatorial matches, and finally, the dragons.”
    “Holy shit,” Michael said. “You are seriously a badass among badasses. You’re not that same sixteen-year-old kid I took on his first stroll in the Wasteland.”
    “I’ve changed a lot,” I said. “But all of what I told you leads up to why we’re here in the first place. Augustus is moving out with his army to conquer the Wasteland. The bulk of it won’t get here for a while, but there’s a good chance that the faster part will – the part that has vehicles and horses. Ashton has his own spaceship, called the Gilgamesh . He has his own errands to run right now, otherwise you’d have met him. But Ashton keeps us up to date on Augustus’s movements.”
    “So, that’s why you’re recruiting?” Michael asked. “To stop Augustus?”
    I nodded. “We won’t stand a chance against him unless we are united. Adding to the complexity is the fact that Carin Black is on his side.”
    “The Black Reapers are allied with the Empire?” Michael asked.
    “As far as we know. Augustus led us to believe as much, so that is the current thought process. We hope to have all the Vegas gangs behind us, at which point we’ll pick up anyone else willing to help along the way.”
    “Along the way? Along the way to where ?”
    “To Los Angeles.”
    Michael whistled. “That’s a little ambitious.”
    “It has to be done,” I said. “We need to take out Black before the Empire arrives. Together, they will be unstoppable. And if we free the L.A. slaves, we’ll have a much larger army for it.”
    Michael didn’t say anything for a while. I had given him a lot of information, and it would take time for him to make complete sense of it. Indeed, I had left a lot of information out , but I felt that I had given him enough to go on – at least, for now.
    “I will do whatever I can to help you,” Michael said. “But it won’t be easy. If everything you say is true, then we need to get Makara to that meeting.”
    “We should go, then,” Anna said.
    We got up from the fountain, and walked away from the MGM Grand. Now lit, albeit dully, the ruin of the city was all more apparent. Las Vegas Boulevard was empty – we were the only three walking along it, though it was midmorning. It was something to be thankful for. For now, the gangsters were in their fortresses, which meant we could walk unimpeded down the dusty Strip. The hotels and casinos fell behind us, empty, forlorn, abandoned, layered with grime and dirt.
    A massive, faded advertisement spread above the Strip