Chapter 707 - Time Goes On

Four months later :

Tamia sighs as she observes the vast ocean around her through the window of the recently built aircraft. Things hadn't really gotten any easier after the Aliens invaded... Though, in many ways, life was safer... With the annihilation of 98% of the human population, basically, all bandits, gangs, and other criminal organizations had also been destroyed. Making the rebuilding efforts relatively easy.

Without the constant wars, territory disputes, and other problems created by other ambitious and greedy people, the only real threat to what was left of humanity was the radioactive creatures, and mother nature itself.

This was especially apparent when what was left of the alien mothership struck the earth.... According to House, the Tsunami's produced by it were two to five times the height of any previously recorded tsunami, even before the great war.

As if to demonstrate how lucky, and unlucky the rest of the world was, America was the place that was actually least affected by it, due to the distance and general terrain of the continent.

Even with that, a huge portion of North America had been flooded, even central territories like the Mojave... If it weren't for Mr House's precautions, Tamia thought it highly unlikely that anyone in the Mojave would be alive at all, especially when you consider the fact that the aliens had been directing their attention almost solely at the territory anyway.

Honestly, it felt like a big 'reset' button, as the massive tsunami's almost entirely destroyed any remaining infrastructure that'd somehow survived the great war. Only small remnants of New Vegas survived the disaster, and if it weren't for Big Mt literally being situated in a giant crater, that place would've been wiped out as well.

That isn't to say Big Mt wasn't entirely unaffected however, the railway tunnels into the place had given the rampant waters an avenue of attack, which allowed it to tear down much of Big Mt's infrastructure... Even damaging Glados' central systems to a degree... Obviously, Afton hadn't anticipated such an attack, and hadn't built defences against random giant tsunami's...

Due to the damage she received, Glados had been slowly repairing herself with the aid of Mr House and the scientist. Though, no one could really comprehend how Glados functioned due to the incredible complexity involved with her design, forcing the AI to do all the work herself.

Glados absence was clearly felt in the rebuilding efforts, as the armies of robots under Bulwark's control needed to be individually given orders... She was stuck between repairing herself, making sure the various half-finished projects didn't go out of control, and keeping the Think Tank scientists in line... With Afton gone, there wasn't anyone to hold their reins, which meant someone had to take his place to prevent them suddenly embarking on a mission to take over the world.

Most of the survivors of the incident had been incredibly grateful for being the few in the world to continue existing, but many fell into a deep depression over the current situation, somehow feeling terribly lonely despite the many people in their respective groups.

Many people had actually turned to... A strange religion that essentially deified Afton for his sacrifice against the aliens. With the stories told by the psykers of Afton's feats on the alien spacecraft, the religion had picked up quite a following. Though, most of Afton's companions didn't believe that he'd actually ended up dying, even despite his long absence since then.

Raul and Dean Domino wanted to prepare a funeral for him, as both weren't really aware of how ridiculously out of the ordinary Afton really was. Indeed, this wasn't the first time his companions experienced his 'certain death'

A massive proponent of Afton's survival was obviously Rose, who'd never once even considered the idea of her father dying. She was actually quite content with waiting for his return and helping out with the rebuilding efforts...

Her psyker abilities that allowed her to generate roots similar to Afton made her a massive help in creating foundations for buildings, and even producing materials if they were running low.

Not that that was really a problem anymore... The previously desert-like Mojave had undergone a massive change after the tsunami... The Colorado River had opened up and now cut a diagonal path towards the southeastern side of the Mojave, providing life-giving water to almost the entire region... The new river wasn't all positive though, as the Hoover Dam had been utterly annihilated due to the influx of water, submerging a large portion of the southeast in, albeit, clean water.

The introduction of the other psykers into the newly forming society caused many problems at first... The primary one being that most didn't speak English, causing small communities to form from them.

This caused a few conflicts, but House eventually managed to fix everything and come to an agreement with the small groups after designing a translation machine with the help of Dr Mobius, Dr 8, Dr Klein, and Arcade Gannon.

Afterwards, the psykers became a new integral part of society, which, despite its rather short existence, had the potential to surpass all others that had previously existed... Tamia hoped that whatever it evolved into would be enough to fight off the aliens should they return again.

Another issue though was the fact that House hadn't been able to get in contact with the organization known as the 'Institute'... Tamia knew they had probably instantly died from the tsunami hitting the continent, their hidden base being located near or directly on the coast, making them incredibly vulnerable to such an attack.

Tamia releases yet another sigh, the action getting the attention fo the others onboard the aircraft. She resists sighing again and sheepishly shakes her head, not wanting to talk to anyone right now.