Free Wasteland Wonderland - Part 1 by James Harden Page B

can’t
actually see it, but I sure as hell can feel it.
    I see the tunnel that leads back down into
the Buried City.
    Up.
    Down.
    These are our two choices.
    We can escape into the ruins of the above
ground city. We can escape into the Wasteland. We can run. Live to
fight another day. Or we can head back into the darkness of the
subway tunnels, back into the depths of the Buried City, we can
fight today.
    We can fight right fucking now.
    I take a deep breath. My heart beat slows
down, the adrenalin rush of the fight subsides. My head clears. I
feel like I should think these two options through. I hear my
brother’s voice. The voice of reason. Know yourself, your
strengths, your limitations.
    Know your enemy.
    Know your terrain.
    Consider your origins and your options
carefully.
    I look around, taking my surroundings in.
Studying my terrain, my battlefield. I love these abandoned subway
stations. The ones closest to the surface. I love them because they
are completely abandoned, completely empty. Rats don’t even come up
here.
    The only downside is, it’s too damn hot.
    Angel is sweating and breathing hard. She’s
not used to her body having to work like this, for every breath.
And even though she doesn’t want to show it, show weakness, I can
tell she’s hurting. And to be honest, so am I. I’m hurting bad. My
brother was right, it’s hotter now. A lot hotter.
    But I don’t care. I could stay up here all
day. There’s no one else around to tell you what to do, or what you
should be doing. No hustle and bustle of the Buried City.
    The quiet.
    The silence.
    And the raging heat.
    It’s almost peaceful.
    Almost.
    I lay the two thermo suits out on the ground,
sizing them up, wondering if one of them will actually fit me.
    “What are those for?” Angel asks.
    I motion with my head to the ceiling.
“They’re for the Wasteland. This suit will protect you from the
sun, so we can move around during the day.”
    “No, I know what they are. I mean, you’re not
planning on running are you?”
    “What else is there left to do?”
    “I told you, we need to kill the Overseer. We
don’t survive, we don’t get to live if we don’t kill the
Overseer.”
    “Honey, I’m not sure he can be killed.”
    She points to the rucksack. “I’ve got enough
heat here to bring down the walls of Wonderland. If you won’t help
me, I’ll do this thing on my own.”
    And I believe her. One hundred percent.
    “And don’t call me Honey,” she adds.
    Angel’s got the right attitude. She’s got the
stomach. But if she goes in by herself, guns blazing, she won’t
accomplish anything other than leaving a young and very beautiful
corpse.
    Come to think of it, a few well-placed
bullets will take care of her beauty.
    I look up at the sunlight filtering through
the dusty windows of the subway station. “I figured that maybe I’ve
killed enough people on Ruby’s behalf that I’m about even. Up
there, in the Wasteland, we can disappear. We can start over. I’ll
find you a place in the Narrow Canyon. Or the Deep Canyon. They
won’t find you.”
    “They will. They’ll find us both. They have
their ways. And you might’ve killed a hundred Enforcers, but you
haven’t killed the thing, the people responsible for Ruby’s
death.”
    Damn. She’s right. I know she’s right. And
she won’t let me off the hook.
    “The Overseer,” I whisper.
    Angel lays it all down. “The Overseer. The
Lord. The Collector. They work together. And together, they are
invincible. Together, they are all knowing and all powerful. They
own this place. The Buried City. They own Wonderland and the
Canyons. They are the Kings of Earth. And unless we do something,
something drastic, the tyranny won’t stop. We’ve got a chance now.
A real chance. They rarely leave Wonderland, but the Overseer is
here. He’s right here. He’s so goddamn close. We can take him out.
We can start the rebellion.”
    Rebellion .
    “What the hell are we rebelling against?”