Book 3 Chapter 1: Back

Book 3 Chapter 1: Back

The sun beat down on me as I looked down at the smoothly cut walls of the Cut. It had been easier to reach the other side this time. The Forest of Teeth had accepted my bribe of fresh meat. The Metal Wastes had been a blessing of fresh clothes and equipment rather than a curse of whispered Russian voices in the night. The Cut itself, and the hideously mutated man-wyrms Id encountered, no longer saw me as prey, even though theyd swallowed me and spat me out during our last encounter, saving me in a corpse-filled larder for their young to devour. Whatever senses remained to them had caused them to see me instead as one of their own, even going so far as to offer me food.

I knew the journey had changed me. That was the nature of traveling. Whether it had been delivering letters as a Postman, or bringing justice as a Marshall, I never came back the same. Normally, that change was mental. Sure Id had a fresh bullet hole or stab wound once or twice, but this was different. The change this time was more fundamental, deeper.

I sat thinking for a few more moments. It would be easier to kill them now, I assumed, since I could get closer without causing them to stir. Id granted the ferals Id met in the hallucinogenic clouds around the R.A.S. bunker that mercy. This would be different. These creatures seemed to have been born as they were, rather than changed. On a more practical level, I felt that removing an obstacle between the two sides of the Cut would be nothing but trouble. Even if Id removed the threat of Eden for good, I remembered the pile of corpses Id woken up in. It had been full of the invisible coyote mutants, and other creatures that I imagined would do tremendous damage if their populations werent kept in check. Every one of them that made it past the wyrms could wind up a problem for Potts.

I turned around and started walking East again. Theyd be there waiting for me if I changed my mind. I wasnt going to do anything to them until I was certain.

The next few days of travel were melancholy and reflective. I rested little, finding that I didnt need to. I experimented with absorbing and expelling the thick radiation in the air. Moving it through my body freely, letting it sit in different parts of myself, matching it to radiation around me, or even seeing just how much I was able to contain. Those particular tests always ceased when I began to glow and feel my hold on how much I was taking in start to slip. There didnt seem much benefit to me to be lit up like a christmas tree while I walked through what was, as far as I knew, the deadliest part of the country. The First may have benefited from glowing, it set him apart from his followers, but I wasnt certain he could turn it off or on the way I seemed to be able to. It was possible we were entirely different kinds of freaks. I think Id prefer that to be the case.

It didnt take long for me to reach the black sands that covered the Ozymandias Project bunker. I considered, for a moment, overwriting one of my extra data squares to save whatever information I could find, but decided against it. It didnt seem like the kind of thing that could be controlled. Besides, thinking of the note that the scientist whod sabotaged the facility had left, I felt oddly compelled to do right by him.

The patch was almost complete. I had no idea what it would bring, I only really knew that it was unfinished, and from what I could tell from the logs, the only thing they would unlock would be a President. I wasnt fully certain of what the implications of that would be, but I knew that the role would allow someone to have the power to actually change the system. I wouldve ignored it completely, but now that I had it, it would spread from me to anyone I interacted with. No one in Eden had commented on it, which either meant that it wasnt going to start spreading until the patching was complete, or Edens aversion to the system meant that they werent checking their R.A.S. Either way was to my benefit, though I also hadnt noticed anyone doubling over in pain at what the process had begun as I had, though that was possibly because I was the first to receive it directly from the lab.

I hoped that with the information I had, the people in Potts may be able to help me figure things out. There was no way I was heading straight back into Remnant territory before that, no matter how valuable the rewards theyd offered or how much I needed a resupply. The data Id gathered needed to make its way to Julian and the Honored Dead before anyone else could see it. When I arrived Id speak with them first, after that

I needed to check in with Nico. Id deputized her before Id left and heaped an enormous amount of responsibility onto her shoulders, but I was hesitant about it. Id learned in the R.A.S. bunker that she was my sister. The one my Mother had taken with her when shed fled from my father, leaving me behind with him. Leaving me as the only remaining victim of his rage.

I shook that thought away, realizing my pace had slowed to a crawl, and forced myself to focus on my surroundings. Adams was still giving speeches, but they were basically just repeating the same information over and over again with only slight variance in what metaphor or imagery he was drawing from each time. His speaking rhythm had changed as well, and after listening to him a bit longer I realized that it reminded me of the Prophet, the leader of the Republic. Id only ever heard him speak when I was sneaking through his compound, but the similarity was uncanny. I wondered if it was a skill that nanites drilled into their minds that led to the similarity, or something else.

I twisted the knob on the radio just in time to hear the screech of a guitar as a song ended, and Deuxs voice coming back on.

Welcome back to Radiation Revolution Radio, the Triple R. Today's weather is heavily irradiated with a chance of acid rain, and hellfire raining down on us. Thank you all for listening, and proving you have the good taste to prefer hearing music over some asshole encouraging poor wasters to die for shit that doesnt matter. Up next well be listening to The Skirmish, with their top 100 hit, at least according to a pre-war mag I found, Should I remain or should I leave.

The music started back up and I was surprised to find a smile tugging on the corner of my mouth, my sharp teeth peeking through. At least Deux seemed about the same as always.