After the Revolution: Chapters Eighteen, Nineteen, and Twenty

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Chapter eighteen, Sasha. Sasha didn't feel safe out on the
street after Anne's abduction. The next day, she'd volunteered for
four extra hours of duty in the emergency ward. She
changed bandages and administered antibiotic salves and delivered food to
wounded soldiers until her eyes started to glaze over and
doctor Brandt ordered her home. She'd barely had the energy

(00:24):
to eat that night, but by the time her driver
dropped her off at the House of Miriam, it was
dark and there'd been no one waiting for her. That
strategy hadn't worked. The day after that, doctor Brandt had
even tried to send her home early. Sasha had talked
him out of it, but not out of sending her
back downtown at the normal time. She was sure her
driver must have noticed how anxious she was. By the

(00:46):
time they reached the main drag, she was drenched in
sweat her hands were shaking. She asked him to drop
her off a half block down from the normal spot
so she could enter the square from the left side
and get a good look at who was hanging out
near the House of Miriam. Alexander had been there, of course,
sitting out in front of a building two doors down
from the house, along with one of his friends. Avoiding

(01:07):
them had brought her to the Cafe Clement, and then
something she could only assume was God's providence had bumped
her into a manual. He was sweet and fun to
talk to, and it was actually refreshing to have a
conversation with some one who didn't constantly quote scripture or
pastor Mike. She was surprised at herself for feeling that way.
A few weeks ago, she'd have given anything to have
an open conversation about her beliefs, but now that she

(01:30):
was deep within the Kingdom, it was nice to talk
about normal things with a normal boy. The next day
had brought her back to the hospital, which was filled
with wounded soldiers from an air strike on a troop transport.
Sasha had spent nine hours without a break helping doctor
Brandt cut clothing off of horribly burned young men. She'd
applied slick, gummy burned dressings and changed ivy drips of

(01:52):
pain killers. The day was long, bloody, and brutal. Four
men died in front of her eyes, and there was
no time to really think about it. She knew that
she should have been more horrified at what she was seeing.
But the exposed organs and burnt, shriveled limbs didn't feel
like parts of people. Even the screams felt more like
rhode hazards or bad weather than damaged pieces of human beings.

(02:14):
They were obstacles to be dealt with. She and doctor
Brandt dealt with them well. A still small voice in
the back of her mind recoiled in horror at the
sheer volume of human misery she saw that day, But
that voice was quieter than it had been on other days,
and it grew quieter as the day went on and
the death toll mounted. Sasha had read about post traumatic
stress disorder back in school. She understood the mechanics of it.

(02:37):
The people tended to cope with terrifying situations by suppressing
their fear. But this didn't feel like that. It felt
like she was just doing her job, and she enjoyed
her job. Before she knew it, ten hours had gone by,
and doctor Brandt demanded she find a ride back to
the House of Miriam and get some rest. That was
the first time in the entire day when Sasha felt

(02:58):
truly scared. It started in her chest, her heart fluttered
faster and faster, until the flutter turned to a pounding
so loud it felt like someone was smashing a hammer
on the inner walls of her cranium. She pressed her
back hard into the seat of the jeep and hoped
her growing panic wasn't obvious to the driver. He dropped
her off on the other side of the square again.
She didn't see Alexander or his comrades near the House

(03:21):
of Miriam this time, but she knew that didn't mean
they weren't watching the place. She had plans to meet
Emmanual again anyway. Sasha half expected him to have moved
on since she'd been so late, but he was there,
standing out in front of the Cafe Clement when she arrived.
I'm sorry, I'm so late, she said. He shrugged in response,
I just got here myself. They dismissed us late. We

(03:41):
had a special lecture before dinner about a His face
grew red and he trailed off about what she poked.
Maybe let's just sit down first, huh. So they found
a seat and ordered their coffee. Manny tried to change
the subject by asking Sasha about her day, but she
was curious about his reaction and would not be dissuaded.

(04:02):
I'll tell you all about my day if you tell
me about that lecture and why just thinking about it
made your face go red. He grew redder and stared
down into his coffee. Pastor came over to lecture us
about our duty and helping to heaven the kingdom grow.
You know our duty, Emmanual gave her a significant look.
She gathered his meaning, and then she blushed too. That's

(04:25):
uh why they bust us out here every day, he continued.
It's so we can get to know the local women
and then get to know them in the biblical sense.
She laughed in spite of herself. I think that was
the first off color joke I've heard in weeks. It
felt good and risque. It was actually the same sort
of thrill she'd gotten back home when she'd sneakily read

(04:46):
issues of Revelator and browsed the media feeds of various
martyrs brigades. You know, Emmanual, she said, You're not quite
like anyone else I've met here. It's nice to meet
someone who wasn't afraid to joke. I didn't think i'd
missed that. He was quiet for a little while Manny
stirred his coffee awkwardly cast his eyes down, he went paler,

(05:07):
you seem different too, I dunno this place. Maybe it's
not exactly what we thought it would be. She should
have gotten angry at that. It was the kind of
common that could have gotten a manual into a lot
of trouble. Why would he say that to me, she wondered?
And why am I okay with all this? Maybe it
was Marigold rubbing off on her. Maybe it was just
gradual disillusionment, the climax of a process that had started

(05:30):
with Alexander's betrayal. But the Heavenly Kingdom no longer felt
magical or even all that wholly. It's complicated here, she
finally said. I mean, before I came here, I knew
it couldn't be perfect no places, but yes, it's not
what I'd hoped to find exactly. Sasha felt a spike
of panic as soon as the words left her mouth.

(05:51):
You barely know this man, Sasha. His whole job might
be ferrying out potential disloyalty. She coughed and tried to
walk her admission back a little. It's still better than
the st f or any of the other Heathen states,
I have to keep telling myself that what's important is
what we're fighting for, not the imperfections we have to
live with. In this moment, hum he gave an on

(06:12):
committal grunt that surprised her. She hadn't expected anything specific exactly,
but that surprised her. He started to say something else,
then his eyes went wide. Who he started to say?
Sasha heard boot falls. She felt the presence of several
tall men behind her. The heavy, familiar scent of Alexander's
cologne filled her nostrils. Madyr Emmanuel Sanchez, Miss Sasha, may

(06:36):
the blessings of the laud be with you and also
with you, Sascha replied by rote. Emmanuel chimed in a
second or two later. He sounded a bit awkward, like
he wasn't exactly sure which words to use. Alexander pulled
up a chair and set it against the right side
of the table. He sat down, placing himself between them.
He rested one arm on the table, but his left

(06:57):
arm hung directly over his side arm. He looked at Immanuel, smiled,
and then looked at Sasha. She felt a wave of
nausea grabbed her by the guts and tug. His lips
curled up, revealing his straight white teeth. Excuse me, Manny said,
but who are you? Alexander looked back to Manny, his
expression unchanged. Mata, Alexander du Bois. I'm a friend of Sasha's,

(07:23):
he glanced back at her with a wink that curdled
her stomach. And I'm also in charge of recruitment for
the Storming Battalion. Never heard of it, Emmanuel said in
a gruff, clipped tone. Sasha realized she was shaking a little.
Alexander's lips curled up into an even more ghoulish variant
of his already unsettling smile. He replied, there's a reason

(07:44):
for that, Mada Sanchez. The Storming Battalion plays a key
role in our success on the battlefield. They've been central
in every one of our victories. We don't publicize their
work for various reasons, but I assure you it's a
distinct honor to be crouded by me. That's actually why
I'm here, Emmanuel. We've chosen you. By now, it felt

(08:07):
like the pit of Sasha's stomach was boiling. Something terrible
was clearly happening, even Emmanual seemed to realize that his
face had gone pale. His pupils were the size of
dinner plates. I ah, thank you for the honor, but
I'm happy with my unit. I feel that's where the
Lord needs me. My friend Aaron Alexander put a hand up,

(08:28):
flat palm facing Emmanual. Your comrade will be taken care of,
and we'll be the judges of where the LRD needs you.
Trust me, We've got a lot more experience interpreting his
will than you do. There's a reason the cross flies
over this entire city. Emmanuel half stood in his chair.
It was a sudden gesture, and a faintly aggressive one.

(08:51):
Sasha noticed his hands were bawled up into fists. His
eyes darted left and right. He seemed to be looking
over the heads of Alexander and his men Alexander ten.
Both the men put hands over their side arms, but
Emmanuel didn't take any further action. After a few turns
of his head, he stopped looking, relaxed his hands, and
sat back down. Okay, he said, I get the feeling

(09:13):
you want me to go with you now, Alexander smiled.
It was a vicious, oily thing, and it confirmed in
Sasha's heart that he had something terrible planned. Yes, that's
exactly what I want. He cocked his head up and
pursed his lips in an exaggerated gesture of consideration. Well, actually,
I want you to go with these men. I need

(09:34):
to stay here and have a wood with Sasha. Emmanuel
looked into her eyes. He was scared clearly, but he
kept his voice steady when he spoke, Sasha, I've got
to go do my duty find errand for me. Will
you tell him I am wish him the best, and
I hope to see him soon. He put definite emphasis

(09:55):
on that last word, and then he gave Sasha a
very deliberate nod before he stood and stepped towards Alexander's men.
Take him to the factory for his intake process, and
I'll be along. Showtly, Alexander said. He put a hand
on Emmanuel's forearm as the young man passed by, and said,
you should give a prayer of thanks, brother, God has

(10:16):
blessed you with a great honor. Emmanuel smile was as
false as Alexander's God bless you, Martyr du Bois. I'll
pray that you and all your men grow closer to
our lord. Was that a threat, she wondered, before deciding,
of course it was. In a more normal situation, Sasha
would have moulled that over. It certainly was not the

(10:36):
sort of comment she'd have expected from a true martyr,
But just then she was far too consumed with terror,
both for Emmanuel and for herself. Alexander's guards led Manny away,
and Alexander took his place at the table. He took
a long sip from Emmanuel's cooling coffee and smiled his
snake smile again. I must say, Sasha, I thought you

(10:57):
had better taste than that. For the first time in
her life, Sasha found herself trying to stare daggers at someone.
Oh if only I could shoot knives out of my eyes,
she thought, as she imagined one striking Alexander in the
forehead with enough force to burst out the back of
his skull. Is that something chromed people can do, she wondered,
and decided she'd ask Marigold if she had forgot another

(11:19):
chance to talk to the woman. Hey, he snapped his
fingers in front of her eyes, and she hated him
a little more. She was sort of surprised to learn
that was possible. Look, I know coming here can be disorienting.
I know this is a lot to get used to.
But him a fucking it's people like him who filled
this continent with them mongrel spawn and tore American civilization

(11:41):
to splinter us. We are all brothers and sisters in Christ,
she said. We are all the fruit fruit of the
same tree. Yeah, I know, I've met Pastor Mike. I
know God made us all, and I also know he
made some of us better than others. There's a reason
civilization reached its peak under white Man, and there's a
reason it crumbled once. We let them take the reins

(12:03):
for a while, it's not worth arguing with him, she
told herself. So Sasha decided to ask a blunt question.
What's going to happen to Emmanual? Alexander smiled, Exactly what
I said was going to happen to him. He's going
to the factory for a trainin' and then he'll participate
in the invasion of Waco as part of the Storming Battalion.

(12:26):
And what is that? In a way, it's the luckiest
unit in the Heavenly Kingdom's whole military. They are the
first ones in guaranteed glory. He took another long, slow
sip from Manny's coffee, his eyes bored into her all
the while, and guaranteed modyed um. Sasha felt a little
pride for not crying. Tears threatened at the corners of

(12:48):
her eyes. Praise be to God, she choked out, followed
by I still have duties tonight at the house. May
I go? Alexander sneered at that, and then he waved
his hand in a gesture that was surely meant to
be casual and dismissive. It looked calculated, though, like it
was important to him that she feel like this didn't
matter to him. For some reason, that observation made Sasha

(13:12):
feel a little stronger. Go on. Then he said, we'll
talk tomorrow. Maybe we'll do more than talk. Maybe not.
She stood up, still fighting back tears, and left the
cafe without a response. Sasha wanted to go to someone, anyone,
in the wake of all this. There's nothing to do.
The smarter, colder part of her brain, the part that

(13:34):
always sounded like her mother, warned her, anything you say
will only make it worse. She knew that was true.
Even Helen couldn't do anything for Emmanual. Now she'd made
it very clear that military matters took precedence over everything
else in the Heavenly Kingdom. It made sense, and yet
shouldn't right and wrong be what matter most here? She

(13:54):
wasn't even sure what either of those words meant anymore?
Was this really what God wanted? Was this how a
society based on his laws operated? Sasha told herself over
and over again that she'd made the right decision, that
the Kingdom wasn't perfect, but it was the best of
all the other options. That voice grew quieter and less
convincing as she walked through the doors of the House

(14:15):
of Miriam and noticed another missing person. Where's Suzanne, she
asked Helen, after scanning the dining room for her friend.
The older woman smiled, but it wasn't the warm look
Sasha had come to expect. Helen looked strained, tired, perhaps
even a little ill. Suzanne met her husband today, Sasha

(14:36):
narrowed her eyes and fought down an immediate surge of rage.
She met him or did he see her and claim her?
Like Anne suitor? Helen did not like that. She almost
growled her next words, be very careful with what you insinuate,
Miss Sasha. I know this isn't what any of you
dreamed of, but you did come here to help further
the kingdom. This is how that looks Sasha knew in

(14:58):
that moment that there was nothing thing else she could
say to Helen. What would be the point? So she
nodded meekly, and she apologized, and then she ate her
dinner like a robot and cleaned up for bed. Throughout
all that, Marigold's words rang louder in her memory. You
got suckered into a fucking nightmare. It's time to wake ups.
Time to wake ups, Time to wake ups, time to

(15:18):
wake Sasha went to bed around nine. She'd had a
long and exhausting day. Tomorrow was sure to be more
of the same, but she couldn't sleep. Now that she
was safely in bed, hidden from the world, the tears
refused to stay hidden behind her eyes. It was all
Sasha could do to avoid audible sobs. She lay awake
for an hour, maybe more, until she heard a thwack

(15:39):
followed by a thump. She opened her eyes and rolled
over to face the door, and the time it took
to complete that motion, she heard the door whosh open.
And then a series of thumps so rapid they sounded
like one long drum roll. Sasha felt a rush of air,
and then since the presence of a new person. The
instant before she completed her roll, she looked up to
see a man at the side of her bed. He

(16:01):
was big, broad, and clad in a torn and bloodied
Martyrs uniform. He had a heavy metal pipe in his hand.
Sasha rose her hands up in an instinctive gesture of
self defense. The moment before she saw the holking man's
face and realized who he was, Aaron. The man blinked.
He looked confused for a moment, and then he laughed,
all right, Yes, saw my name, Han, you can call

(16:23):
me Roland. What do you What's happening? Are we under attack? Yes,
sorta by me. I knocked out the old lady. He
gestured his head back towards the other girls sleeping in
their beds. I knocked them all out too, just minor concussions,
but they're out cold. I am very confused, Sasha said,
in a flat voice, and very frightened. You're not frightened.

(16:46):
She was surprised to realize that he was right. Sasha
knew she should have been scared, but her heart rate
didn't elevate, she didn't start to sweat. She did feel confused,
but she also felt calm. Maybe I've just been so
scared the last few days my body can't handle any
more of it. Maybe I've reached the limit of my
capacity for fear. I guess you're right, she said, I

(17:07):
should be afraid. This is also She trailed off, grasping
for words. Yeah, it's fucked, Roland said, and then he
pulled up a canteen that had been hanging from his
shoulder and took a deep poll. The scent of alcohol
wafted over to her. You want some, he asked. I
made it in my guts, filled a ganteen as I
finished up at the base. Wait, Sasha said, what happened

(17:29):
at the base? Roland gave another shrug and took another pull.
The boss guys told me Manny had been reassigned to
some sort of I don't know, suicide battalion. This pissed
me off, so I broke exactly half of their bones.
Sasha could hear sirens now often the distance. It sounded
like there were rather a lot of them. She imagined
this was connected to whatever Roland had done. I'm going

(17:52):
to guess you and E Manual aren't really martyrs, are you,
he chuckled. I mean maybe some days, sister. Just now,
I don't say any causes worth dying for, but I
get your meaning. And no, I don't give a shit
about your heavenly kingdom. Man he actively hates it. We're spies,
or we were spies. Now he's a captive and I'm
a terrorist again. Oh, she said, And then I think

(18:16):
I would like a drink. He handed her the canteen
and she took a generous gulp. Sasha had only tried
alcohol once before. She'd been thirteen, not yet a Christian,
and at a party she'd been far too young to attend.
She remembered the sensation of gentle warmth spreading down her throat,
and the sense of elation and well being that had followed.
She'd taken a few more SIPs, which had made the

(18:36):
world far too spinny for her comfort. She'd vomited not
long after, but she figured if there was ever a
time to try alcohol again, it's now. The drink tasted
like beer, but it burned like a shot of hard liquor.
Sasha passed the canteen back. She felt like taking more
would be a bad idea. All right, then, Roland said,

(18:57):
I'm gonna make a few guesses. I guess one is
that you're a little less than enthusiastic about the heavenly
Kingdom now that you've seen it up close. Guests too
is that you're looking for a way out. And Guests
three is that you know something about where my little
buddy went. Huh, Immanuel, Manny, you know where he is?
I don't, she started. I'll bet you do. Even if

(19:18):
you don't know, you do. I know you were there
when he was taken. I could smell it in the street.
Smell it. He sighed, and needed the bridge of his nose.
This is the time where you explained things. The time
where I explained things comes later, or maybe never. He
lifted up the pipe in his hand so she could
see how bloody and dented it was. I have the pipe.
Whoever's got the pipe doesn't have to explain shit. Sasha

(19:42):
couldn't argue with his logic, and she did want to
see Emmanual free and safe. Look, she said, this, this boy,
I know, Alexander. He found us at the cafe. We
were just sitting down to coffee. He had two men
with him, and he said, Emmanuel had been selected for
the Storming Battalion. Do you have any idea where they
took him? The kids sent trail grows cold about a

(20:02):
mile from here. Sasha racked her brain. Of course, she
didn't know where the Heavenly Kingdom did this sort of training.
But Alexanders said something about the factory, and at that
Roland's eyes lit up. He turned around as if to leave.
I know where he is. Then he looked back and
down to Sasha and said, moment of truth time, Darlin,

(20:24):
you want to stay here in this ship pile Kingdom?
Or He jerked his thumb to the door. Do you
want me to break you out? And I'll make offers
like that often, so take it as a compliment. This time.
It didn't take long for Sasha to make up her mind. Yes,
she said, I'd like to go with you. Chapter nineteen.

(20:50):
Manny he knew where they were taking him as soon
as the transport exited Highway seventy. It took Exit forty
B White Avenue, Kenny. He visited the town a few
times as a kid, before things in this part of
df W had gone entirely to ship. Many thought of
the satellite photos Reggie had shown them. He thought about

(21:11):
that Tesla plant and what strange mysteries it must hide.
Somewhere in that plant was the answer to how the
martyrs had so thoroughly befucked the stf's defense network. Many
hadn't exactly planned to find an answer to that question
on this trip. Now it seemed like he wouldn't have
a choice in the matter. His escorts, Alexander's men, hadn't
said much. They directed him to the proper transport and

(21:33):
told him to keep his mouth shut when he asked
for an explanation. Manny did as they asked, because he
half expected them to gun him down if he made
a real fuss. Roland's bound to find me. He can
find any fucking one. I just need to stay alive
long enough for him to get here. Once upon a time,
the Tesla factory had been an immaculate sign of what
some commenters called the Texan Renaissance. After the fall of

(21:57):
the old United States, the Republic of Texas had been
one of the first functional states to arise in the Southwest.
Dallas had been wrecked by the Lakewood Blast, but the
rest of the state still had tens of millions of
people and abundant natural resources. For a while, the hardcore
libertarian policies of the Republic had created a minor economic miracle.
Tesla had gotten this factory going about three years before

(22:19):
that boom went bust. The first room they were taken
to had clearly been some sort of reception area and
probably a showroom at one point. There were three large
oval shaped plinths that had once held cars, and a
handful of metal desks bolted hard into the ground. There
were also several benches stripped of whatever they had once
been upholstered with, and a few dozen folding chairs that

(22:39):
were clearly recent additions. Manny could see signs that the
walls had been attacked at several places in an attempt
to strip them of wires. The damage was obvious, but
not as extensive as he'd expected. Bess de Muertas standards,
this building was in good shape. A dozen martyrs occupied
the room. They wore quality, nonpowered body armor and totaled
rifle that must have been looted new from their Republic's armories.

(23:03):
One of the desks was manned by a haired looking
young man in an off white suit. He wore no
sign of rank, but did have a white cross arm
band around his left bicep and a golden cross pin
on his lapel. He was balding, baby faced, and the
deep bags under his eyes spoke of severe exhaustion. His
face lit up when he saw Manny. Another, my prayers

(23:23):
have been answered, as the Lord wills it, one of
Manny's escorts replied. They brought him to the desk, and
the besuited man looked up at him. He had a
hungry look in his eyes. He'd started to sweat a
little too. You may call me Isaac. What's your name,
young man, Emmanuel Emmanuel Sanchez. The little Man jotted that
down on a piece of paper and then continued asking questions.

(23:46):
What's your date of birth? Do you have any family
history of allergies or illnesses? Have you ever undergone surgery before?
What biomodifications, if any, are currently active in your system?
Do you have any inactive modifications? And so? After about
ten minutes of questioning, the little Man told Mannie to
stand up and follow him into an examination room. His
tone was cordial, even warm, but Manny tasted doom behind it.

(24:10):
He smelled death in this place, and his soul cried
out against heading further into its bowels. But there was
nothing to do but follow. Alexander's men left after dropping
him off, but there were plenty of guards on the
front room. Two of them followed Mannie and the young
man backed through the double doors and into the heart
of the facility. They walked through what had once been
an open floor office. There were a few overturned desks

(24:33):
and chairs, but mostly the place was barren and half
cannibalized for scrap. It was ill lit and derelict. What
are we doing here, Manny asked. Isaac put a hand
on his shoulder and smiled. We're doing God's work, he said,
the same as everywhere in this blessed kingdom. I know that,
Manny said, in a slow, careful tone, but I don't

(24:54):
understand why I was pulled out of training or why
I was removed from my unit. What is this place?
Isaac didn't answer. Instead, he walked Mannie to a door
in the back of the empty office and opened it
to reveal a small, well lit, white room with a bench,
a weight scale, and a computer terminal built into the
wall above a rolling cabinet. Isaac weighed him, marked down

(25:15):
his height, and then pulled a strange measuring device out
of the cabinet. It looked like a cross between a
protractor and a pen vice. This is a craniometer, Isaac explained,
once he saw the confusion on Manny's face. It's for
measuring the size of your skull. Isaac set right to work.
He fit the strange device around Mannie's head and tightened
it until the vice grip bit into Mannie's scalp. Isaac

(25:37):
jotted down some more numbers on his notepad and removed
the craniometer. He looked pleased that alone was enough to
turn Mannie's stomach. Can you please tell me what this
is all about? Isaac's eyes darted up from his paper
for just a moment. He gave Mannie an insincere, distracted smile.
Everything will be explained soon enough, young man, right now,
which should be enough to know you're doing the Lord's work.

(26:00):
Manny was very, very tired of that response. Isaac finished
his notes and led many out a back door in
the room and into what Manny had to assume was
the final step in their journey. The scent of blood
in the air was too heavy for anything else to
be the case. Manny felt hair stand up on the
back of his neck, his shoulders went tinse, and a
moment later he felt the strong hands of his guards

(26:20):
on either bicep. This new room was part mechanic shop,
part abattoir. It had once been the main factory floor,
and it was filled with the half looted carcasses of
robotic auto workers. Several of those machines had been restored
to some level of functional capacity. Manny could see twentiish
new vehicles in various states of construction across the vast space.

(26:41):
Instead of sleek, consumer, gray electronic cars, most of these
vehicles seemed to be very old and worn sedans and trucks.
A handful of them were outdated and nigh obsolete. Military drones.
Palettes of plastic explosives sat outside several of the vehicles.
Many could see human workers packing blocks of it into
a battered off white Kia a few dozen feet in

(27:01):
front of him. None of this was particularly shocking. Vehicle
based improvised explosive devices had been de rigueur for terrorists
insurrections for the last seventy years. Two things about this
factory struck Manny as strange. The first is that none
of the vehicles in construction had any armor added to them.
Most V B I E. D s would be covered
in thick slabs of concrete and welded scrap metal to

(27:23):
ensure they made it safely to their target. The vehicles
here seemed like they would look normal when they finally
rolled off the reassembly line. The second odd thing was
the dozens of surgical tables and the rather significant amount
of red blood coating the floor underneath them. Five of
the beds were occupied with bodies covered by blood speckled
white sheets. The men under them appeared dead. Oh god,

(27:46):
Manny forgot his cover in the dawning horror of the moment.
What the hell is this place? What's your mouth? Young man?
Isaac snapped. This is a temple of the Lord, where
young heroes delivered themselves into the waiting arms of eternity.
A all man in a lab coat made his way
over to them. He had gray hair and warm brown
eyes behind horn rimmed spectacles. He gave Manny a warm

(28:07):
smile and extended out a hand in greeting. The Lord
be with you, Emmanuel I'm doctor Ernst. I'm sure you
must be full of questions right now, gentlemen, he glanced
towards the guards who still had their hands on Manny.
You can let him go now. This young man is
a hero and he should be treated as such. The
hands loosened. Manny heard the men step back. He flashed

(28:28):
a nervous smile back at the doctor. Keep him talking,
Manny thought, The longer you drag this out, the more
time Roland will have. What is going on here? These uh,
he grappled for the correct terminology, These martyrdom devices seem different.
And I don't know what's going on with with with
all the medical equipment and the bodies. Doctor Ernst finished

(28:48):
his question without so much a break in his warm smile. Yes,
God bless him, but diplomacy is not Isaac's strong suit.
He gets rather focused on the task at hand. Many
noticed that the odd little man had already wandered off
towards a rolling tray of medical equipment near one of
the surgical beds. That set Manny's heart beating even faster.
Follow me, said doctor Ernst, and I'll explain everything. The

(29:12):
doctor led him to one of the shrouded bodies and
pulled its covering down, revealing the dead man's face. Manny
wasn't exactly surprised to see that it was Jonathan, the
young man from Atlanta he'd met just a few days before.
Jonathan was, of course quite dead. A bloody red line
ran across his skull, just above his ears. His eyes
were closed, and his lips were turned up in a

(29:33):
beatific smile. You know this man, yes, doctor Ernst asked gently. Yes,
of course you do. The doctor chuckled. You're both colored
men and the heavenly kingdom. I'd be surprised if you
hadn't developed a connection. It's only natural to gravitate towards
your own kind. Manny fought down the urge to slap
Doctor Ernst. Jonathan here started his journey to martyrdom just

(29:56):
a few hours ago. I know he appears dead, but
as it was with our Lord and of your appearances,
quanby quite deceiving. His brain is still quite alive and alert.
It's just been moved. Doctor Arn't gestured over to the KIA.
Many saw that another lab coated worker was now carrying
a peculiar metal box over to the V B I E. D.

(30:16):
The box was about head sized and covered with sockets
and plugs. A single green light flickered on one side.
See they're loading him into his chariot now, and soon
he'll pilot this anointed engine of Heavenly Will to the
ruin of our enemies. Many thought, backed that last day
before the invasion, to Reggie's questions about that mysterious checkpoint bombing.

(30:36):
This must be how they did it. He realized v
sdf's checkpoints were perfectly capable of reading the itinerary of
any autonomous vehicle that drove towards them. They'd shoot anything
that didn't broadcast its destination, but the Kingdom had found
a way to hide a human driver capable of taking
over once the car was past the checkpoint. His eyes
drifted over to a combat drone lying half disassembled on

(30:57):
the table a few yards to his left. It was
a hefty, beetle black monster with a heavy underslung machine gun.
It reminded Manny terribly of the drone that had almost
killed him in Reggie a few days earlier. This explains
why the STF drone jammers didn't work. The Heavenly Kingdom
wasn't really using drones. Manny realized with dawning horror that
the drone's open cavity was likely the intended resting place

(31:20):
of his brain. Ah. Doctor Ernst smiled, I see you've
already spotted your chariot. Yes, Emmanuel, you are quite fortunate.
Martyre Ditmar noted your intelligence and suggested you be implanted
into a drone. I assure you, it's a high honor,
even in this sacred place. Manny's heart thudded like the
tolling of a church bell. For a while, he couldn't

(31:42):
hear anything else. He felt himself gripped by a sudden
claustrophobic terror. The worst thing wasn't even the thought of
being cut open, torn apart. It was the thought of
being trapped inside that little metal box, forced to kill
and die in the name of a cause he abhorred.
Manny knew he'd started to shake, but there was nothing
he could do to quell the terror. Doctor Ernst to
put a hand on his shoulder. Many assumed it was

(32:05):
meant to reassure him. It did not have that effect, Immanual.
I know this is quite a lot to take in,
but all you really need to know is that you've
been blessed, truly blessed with the chance to play a
real role in making the Heavenly Kingdom a reality. The
Storming Battalion are God's elite, the holiest of our martyrs.
I'm sure once the shock wears off, you'll realize what

(32:26):
a privilege this is. Manny heard footsteps. He didn't need
to look to know his guards were stepping back up
behind him. He felt the noose titan and his hope
slip ever farther away. Where the hell is Rowland? I
am um, he stuttered, Can I have some time to
er to prey on this? Of course? Emmanual Doctor ernst

(32:46):
smile never looked false or forced. He put a hand
on Manny's shoulder. It will be a few minutes before
we're ready to begin the operation. I commend you devotion.
This is an ideal time to pray for guidance. A
few minutes, his heart pound so hard he thought it
might beat its way free from his chest. He was
sure Doctor Ernest must have heard it, but if he did,

(33:06):
he said nothing about it. Instead, the doctor led Manny
over to a small carpeted area that looked to have
been set aside as a prayer room for the soon
to be martyred members of this battalion. It consisted of
a half dozen shares, at least they're padded, a three
foot tall white stone statue of Christ on a cross,
and two small inn tables, each with a couple of
dog eared bibles. Manny sat down, bereft of any better idea,

(33:29):
He grabbed a Bible and flipped it open to a
random page. King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, sixty
cubits high and six cubits wide. Manny rolled his eyes
the flaming ale as a cubit. He skimmed the next
few verses until he realized which story he'd stumbled upon.
His religious schooling hadn't been intense, but he had gone
to church most Sundays for the better part of a decade.

(33:51):
He'd listened to enough sermons and attended enough Sunday school
classes to know the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego,
three stupid assholes who'd wandered into a furness entrusted in
Deus ex deos to save them. If we are thrown
into the blazing furnace, the god we serve is able
to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us
from your Majesty's hand. But even if he does not,

(34:11):
we want you to know, your Majesty, that we will
not serve your gods or worship the image of gold
you have set up. It struck Manny that his current
predicament had more than a little in common with these
ancient men, if they'd ever existed in the first place.
The chief difference was that, of course Manny wasn't praying
for the help of a god. He was, however, strongly
hoping for rescue from a godlike being that felt close

(34:33):
enough to give him a sense of kinship towards the
men and the story. The king's command was so urgent
and the furnace so hot, that the flames of the
fire killed the soldiers who took up Shadrak, Mishak and
to bed Nego, And these three men firmly tied fell
into the burning furnace. He hadn't remembered that bit from
Sunday School, the part where the king's soldiers were burnt
alive by the heat of his fire. Many wondered what

(34:54):
kind of soldiers would so willingly step into a pointless
death at some mad king's command, and then he remembered
where he was. He looked up from the Bible at
the twenty or so armed men stationed around the factory.
I really really hope someone comes along to burn them
to death. Many heard footsteps behind him. He looked back
this time and saw Doctor Arnst advancing with two guards

(35:16):
in Isaac. The bald little man was visibly excited. An
obscene smile played across his features. He held an almost
comically large needle in his hands. Many looked over from
him to the doctor Immanuel. Doctor Ernst said, it's time.
Many stood. His mind raced for some sort of delaying tactic.
I need to uh pray more. I I need more pray.

(35:38):
Time Confusion passed over all the men's faces. Time is
of the essence here. Doctor Ernst insisted. Don't delay this
important work because you're scared. Trust in the Lord, open
your heart to his will. See, I have, I I
totally have, Manny stammered, and I'm pretty sure he's actually
not down with us. Yeah, I think he wants me
to be a soldier, a regular soldier with a gun,

(36:00):
not a brain in a drone. Doctor Ernst glanced back
at the two guards flanking him. He nodded and they advanced.
One man had a kalashnikov on his back, the other
had a holstered side arm. Both men were much larger
and more muscular than Manny. He glanced around for a weapon,
as if anything left around would be useful against two firearms.
There was still a Bible in his hands that probably

(36:21):
would have been enough for Roland. Manny had no doubt
the posthuman could kill a dozen men with a book,
more if it was hard cover. Immanuel, the doctor's voice
was low, soft and as comforting as a lullaby. I
know this is a frightening thing, but you must trust me,
You must trust all of us. The heavenly Kingdom would
not spend your life this way if we were not

(36:42):
certain your sacrifice would further the will of our Lord.
That is why you came here, Emmanuel. I know if
you listen to God, you'll see what's right. Manny closed
his eyes. He listened not for the voice of God,
but for the sound of footsteps. After a few seconds pause,
he heard the yards moved towards him again. He gripped
hard on the Bible in his hand, and he tried

(37:04):
not to think too much about what he had already
decided he had to do. The footsteps grew closer until
Manny could almost feel the heat coming off the other
men's bodies. Very good, Emmanuel, doctor Ernst cood, God loves you.
Manny opened his eyes. The guards were right in front
of him, now reaching for him. Manny swung the Bible

(37:24):
up underhanded into the kalashnikov man's chin. Then he dove
to the right and slammed his head into the other
man's crotch with all the force his five foot ten
inch frame could bring to bear. The man howled. Manny
half fell, caught himself, and dropped into a dead run,
aimed straight for Isaac. Both the bald headed needleman and
doctor Ernst stared at him in astonishment. Belatedly, Isaac raised

(37:45):
his arms up in defense. The gesture did nothing to
stop Manny from plowing into him and knocking him to
the ground. He punched the other man in the face hard,
and then scrambled back to his feet too. He felt
the pain of the gunshot before he heard it, or rather,
he didn't register the sound of the gunshot as a
gunshot until the pain made it clear. He'd been shot,
and then Manny was on the ground. His world shrunk

(38:07):
to the space below his belly button, which now pulsed
with spurts of deep red blood. His hands covered the wound,
pressing back against it in an instinctive attempt to protect himself.
He stared in fascination at the spreading red. He watched
as his blood turned chunky and thick. The spurting faded
away to a slow ooze. The pain caught up to
him now, and Manny's vision went black for a moment.

(38:29):
The world faded into view after a while. Doctor Ernst
Isaac and both guards were standing above him. The guard
with a handgun had a drawn a wisp of smoke
trailed up from the barrel. Manny watched, enthralled as it
curled up to the sky and gradually disappeared into the
air around them. You've made a grievous error, my boy.
Doctor Ernst's voice was grave, now, devoid of all compassion.

(38:52):
You was so close to paradise it almost brings me
to tears. The doctor was only a few feet away,
but his voice sounded distant and muffled. I'm dying, aren't I,
Manny thought, No, if that was a kill shot. I'd
be dead by now, the bleatings already stopped. The thought
did little to calm his nerves. He'd thoroughly blown his cover.
Even if they never guessed his true purpose in coming

(39:14):
to the Heavenly Kingdom. He'd be executed for trying to flee.
This is going to put us even further behind schedule.
That was Isaac. His nose was bleeding, but it didn't
look broken. I wish I was better at punching. Take
about side, Doctor Arts said to the guards, and make
it quick. There's no sense in stringing him up in
public for simple cowardice. So this is how it's going

(39:35):
to end. Manny was confused by how it peace. He
felt with that some of it was guilt. Alejandra was dead,
Amide was dead, Oscar was dead, mister Perrone was dead.
This was nothing more than he deserved. He was pleasantly
surprised to find that, as the little robots in his
blood flooded his system with happy drugs, that sense of
guilt began to fade. He felt wonderfully detached from the world.

(39:57):
He wondered if this was how Roland felt all the time,
this connected and pleasant in a vague, indefinable way. The
guards bent down. Many felt their hands on his arms.
He felt them lift him up. He felt a terrible,
shifting pain in his gut as another rush of clotting
blood poured out of him. Many thought of mister Perrone.
He could almost see his face. Maybe the Christians were

(40:17):
right about the afterlife. That was a nice thought. Actually,
he thought mister Perrone would be proud of him. I
tried to do something, Sir, I really did. Many didn't
see the source of the noise. It sounded like something
heavy falling from a high height onto something soft and squishy,
some one soft and squishy. He realized the guards dropped him.

(40:38):
Men started to yell. Gunshot gunshot gunshot Manny thought, and
he giggled a little bit. The sounds of chaos and
violence that had erupted inside the factory could only be
Roland's doing. Many lifted up his head with considerable effort
and looked over towards the waiting area, where most of
the guards had sat idle. It was a mess now.
Several of the chairs in one of the big tables

(41:00):
mashed together with a chunky red paste that resembled good salsa.
People salsa, he thought, and then giggled again. Manny caught
a glimpse of Roland as the chromed man rocketed across
the factory floor and into a trio of guards. The
men didn't even have the chance to fire their weapons.
The first guard burst like a balloon full of jelly.
It was hard to tell exactly what happened next, as

(41:21):
it occurred under a red cloud of human viscera. Manny
slipped in his own blood and fell back onto the floor.
He stared up at the ceiling for a little while
and just focused on trying to keep his breath steady.
There was nothing else he could do here anyway. Immanuel Sasha,
he thought, Lah, he said, it's okay. He felt her
warm hand on his forehead. Don't talk. You've been shot,

(41:43):
but you're probably not going to die. Probably, he had
to admire her fundamental honesty. I'm going to try to
drag you out of here. If you can walk, that
would be really helpful. She grabbed Manny under the armpits
and tried to pull him up. He let out a
coughing cry at the pain of being moved again, but
he also realized late in the game that he still
had some control over his legs. He pushed up, and,

(42:05):
with Sasha's help, fought gravity well enough that he soon
stood under mostly his own power. Sasha wrapped one of
his arms around her shoulder and took some of the
weight off his weakened limbs, and then together they hobbled
free of the Chanel factory that had almost been his tomb.
An hour later, Manny sat with Roland and Sasha on
the roof of an old Bank of America and watched

(42:26):
as the Tesla factory burned in the distance. Manny had
passed out almost as soon as Sasha had got him
out the door. He recalled waking up a few times
during the run away from the factory. At some point
Roland had met up with them and started carrying him.
He'd come too on the roof of the old bank
building just in time to see Roland dribble a trail
of weird ass blood into his gunshot wound. He'd felt

(42:47):
a little revulsion at the act, but it had passed
once his pain dissolved. I should really find a way
to bottle that stuff, he thought. What happened, Manny asked,
once reality had solidified a little more. Roland found me,
Sasha said, just after they took you, I told him
that Alexander had mentioned a factory, and then well he
seemed to know this must be the factory they'd been

(43:09):
talking about. Thanks for that, Reggie, he told me he
was going to Eh. She coughed a little and her
cheeks reddened an embarrassment, feed them their own dicks, and
that I should wait until they were engaged to run
and drag you out. A large explosion echoed across the city.
Escape and the Trio watched a small orange mushroom cloud

(43:29):
light up the sky where the Tesla factory had been.
It's about damned time, Roland grumbled. The detonators those fuckers
stole from the Republic were garbage. Hey. He looked over
to Manny. The hell was that place anyway? Yes, Sasha added,
and how exactly did you end up getting shot there?
Manny related the whole story as best he could. Sasha's

(43:50):
face went pale white with outrage and disgust when he
explained exactly how the Heavenly Kingdom had managed to get
its suicide vehicles past the sd f's checkpoints. Oh God,
she moaned, Oh God, above, no, no, no, Roland just laughed.
That's as clever as a two headed crow. I'll give
him that. He clapped Sasha on the shoulder. Come on, lady,
you can't still be surprised by how funk the kingdom is.

(44:12):
How many people did you watch them? Hang? Sasha didn't respond.
She just sat there, eyes red and watery, and stared
out at the burning factory. Manny felt like he should
have said something, but his mind was still catching up
to his body after the events of the last couple
of hours. Staring straight ahead represented the extent of his abilities.
Right now, Sorry, Roland said, in response to the silence.

(44:34):
I forget your kids aren't used to this sort of ship.
I'll tell you it gets easier. What almost dying? Asked Manny.
We're being betrayed by the only thing you ever believed in,
asked Sasha. Roland shrugged. Both. I guess. I mean neither
is much fun. But hey, y'all pop some cherries today,
so it's gotta bean nothing but downhill from here on out.
Neither of them responded, but Roland plowed right along. I

(44:56):
meant downhill and like the positive sense of the word,
you know, sledding like that something more silence Roland's side
and took a loud gulp from a piece of sheet
metal he'd been into a makeshift cup. The beverage inside
smelled like another batch of his gut liquor. It burned
Manny's nose from three feet away. A minute went by,
and then another Without a word. They listened as emergency

(45:17):
sirens sounded, and drew closer to the side of the blast.
So what the fund do we do now, Manny asked.
Roland grunted and then belched, Well, we'd probably gotta roll
back into town, break those ladies out of jail, and
then I don't know, we should probably leave right. Manny
rolled his eyes. The casual recklessness of Roland's confidence had
been fun and reassuring when he wasn't recovering from a

(45:39):
gunshot wound. The events at the Tesla plant had proved
to Manny that the post humans protection wasn't enough to
guarantee his safety or Sasha's. He was the deadliest thing
Manny had ever seen, but he couldn't be everywhere at once. Wait,
who are you breaking out of jail? Sasha asked those
three negotiators. Manny said, from the city of Wheels, the

(45:59):
woman and you examined and their male companion. Sasha gave
Manny a look he couldn't quite parse out what he asked.
Is that why you started talking to me? She asked,
because you knew I was working with those women and
you thought I might be able to get you into
the jail. No, started Manny, I mean sort of right,
finished Roland. That was sure as shed a big BLUs.

(46:20):
Many glared at the post human Roland had all attacked
and diplomacy of a chainsaw. That's why I'm here in
the first place, he reminded himself. Look, Roland continued, there's
no point in dressing any of this up. Sasha, you
fled your home to join a militant terrorist organization that
butcher civilians. Manny, you kind of manipulated her in the
hope of getting information. I just beat like twenty people

(46:41):
to death, plus I fed Martyr Ditmar his own hand,
and I feel genuinely bad about that. Roland shook his head.
I'm really trying not to fall completely off the murder
wagon here, guys, but when I get angry and the
battle drug start flowing, he shivered, I get ugly. Once again,
Roland's words were met with stunned silence, and once again
he cloud forward. Nonetheless, what I'm saying is this whole

(47:03):
situation as ugly as fun and none of us as
a hero. But we're probably the least shitty people in
the city with any kind of power. So let's all
forgive each other's trespasses and use that power to try
to save a couple of nice people from being crucified
or whatever it is Christians due to the people who
piss them off. Is it just hanging I Sasha started
to respond, then shook her head in exasperation. Probably not,

(47:24):
she said. Instead, all right, Roland clapped and put on
a bright smile. So how do we get in there?
I mean, I can just sort of balls my way
through the front door or the ceiling, but since this
is an actual jail, it's probably reinforced. There's a good
chance they'll kill the hostages before I punched my way
into the cells. Manny could almost hear the wheels turn
and Sasha's head as she caught her thoughts up with

(47:45):
what was now apparently her reality. To her credit, she
responded in short order, that's probably the case. She nodded.
There are armed guards outside of each cell. And there's
a real disgust for those captives. Among the martyrs, they
probably would shoot those women rather than let them escape.
And what about the guy? I never saw him. I
dealt with the women Marigolden. Oh what was her name? Tully?

(48:07):
But I assume he was in the same jail. He is,
Roland confirmed, or at least he was last time I
sniffed around there. Manny's mind finally spun up to full speed.
The pain in his guts had subsided, as had the lightheaded,
bloodless feeling he'd woken up with. He felt comforted by
the mere fact of having a simple problem to solve.
At the core, this question was a logistical one, just

(48:28):
like the problems he faced every day as a fixer.
He needed to deliver his team to a certain location
the jail, in a limited time frame, So Manny's first
job was to figure out what connections he'd need to
make in order for that to be possible. Sasha, he asked,
who can help us get inside that jail? Do you
know anyone who has the authority to come and go
from there with impunity? Dr? Brandt? She replied, he's a

(48:50):
good man, I think, but he's committed. He's not going
to work with us to betray the Kingdom. He doesn't
need to, Manny assured her. I'm going to guess he's
a smart guy, right, He has to be somewhat worldly
to be an actual doctor. Sasha nodded, he's not a
mindless zale it. If that's what you're asking most of us,
aren't you know there was a reasonable case for supporting
the Heavenly Kingdom at just She trailed off, and Many

(49:12):
put his hands out in a placating gesture. No, No,
that's not not what I'm getting at. I want to
make sure this guy has a sober, realistic understanding of
what someone like Roland can do. Sasha's eyes went cloudy,
but she nodded. He talked about them with me a little,
She said, I would say he has a healthy respect
for post humans, good Manny said, So we find him

(49:35):
and we make him an offer. Either Roland tears the
heart out of the Kingdom or doctor Brand helps us
get those captives out of the jail. If he's a
sensible man, who'll have to see the reason in that.
Sasha didn't look so sure about that, but after some consideration,
she nodded, and agreed that it was at least possible. Okay,
so we find this doctor Brandt, we use him to
get inside the jail. Roland does Roland things, and then

(49:57):
we beat feet to get out of Sea Demuerta. Oland
shrugged and took another deep pull from his gut beverage.
He seemed on board. Sasha raised another question, though, okay,
so who are you two supposed to be? Then? Every
time Dr Brandton I visited the jail, we had a
driver in, an armed guard. But you two don't exactly
look like you fit the bill. Right now, you, she
appointed to Manny, clearly just took a bullet, and you,

(50:19):
she jabbed a finger at Roland, look like you just
murdered dozens of people, which I guess you did, right,
Manny clapped his hands. That's easy enough to fix. It's
what five am. Now the city is starting to wake up.
Do you know what shift Dr Brandt's expected to work today, Sasha?
Lately he's been doing seven to seven and Roland. Manny continued,
do you know where the vehicle pool is? The big

(50:41):
Man nodded, Oh yeah, I dragged that down there in
my first recon day. It's about thirty minutes away on
foot for you guys five minutes from me. We'll go slow,
said Manny. Sasha, you let us know when you recognize
Dr Brand's jeep and driver will stop them, relieve them
with their uniforms and drive on to the doctor's house. Roland,
you think you can take out two men without bloodying
up their uniforms? He gave another shrug. All right, Manny nodded.

(51:06):
That's plan A, then, and what's plan B? Sasha asked,
close your eyes and hide behind Roland Chapter twenty. Roland,
that looks like them, Sasha whispered into his ear. The

(51:28):
three of them were stationed on the third floor of
an old office building that overlooked the Kingdom's vehicle pool.
Based on the posters and decorations inside, the people in
this office had once helped coordinate for a string of
restaurants supply stores. Roland suspected the coming of the war
might have been a relief to the people who'd been
stuck working here. He was positioned by the window, sitting

(51:48):
down so only the edge of his face would have
been visible to anyone looking in from the outside. Manny
had elected to take a nap out of view behind
one of the desks. His ability to fall asleep anytime,
anywhere marked him out as a true expert in war
zone survival. Sasha had situated herself on the other side
of the window frame. Roland had warned her to keep
her head out of view until he saw new arrivals

(52:10):
to the vehicle depot. He'd called for her eyes six
times already and gotten six negatives. Now it seemed their
target had arrived. Are you sure, he asked. Pretty sure,
she said, and nodded. The driver walks with a limp.
One of his legs is shorter than the other. I
think it's a birth defect. He must have come from
some part of the continent where those still happen. Good eye.

(52:32):
Roland was genuinely impressed. The girl had potential. So what
do we do now, she asked, you rouse, Mannie. I'll
keep an eye on things. When they depart, I'll carjack
them into unconsciousness and bring back the uniforms. And that's
more or less how it went. The guard and driver
departed in a jeep. Five minutes later. Roland bounded down
from one of the rear windows and landed on the

(52:53):
hood as they took a right hand turn out of
view of the vehicle depot. The guard did not do
his job title proud, Roland slammed his face into the
dashboard and knocked him out. He also knocked out most
of the man's teeth, but his hind brain told him
the guy's odds of a fatal brain hemorrhage were only
about six percent acceptable. He broke the driver's jaw with
a right cross, took the wheel, and steered the vehicle

(53:15):
to a stop while he was still hanging outside it.
Roland tossed both men in the back of the jeep
and pulled into the office buildings underground parking lot. He
stripped them both and cursed when he realized that the
guard's bleeding face had stained the neck of his uniform shirt.
He found some bottled water in the trunk and managed
to wash out the worst of it, but the stain
would still be visible to anyone who really took the
time to look. Still, it'd probably be enough to get

(53:38):
them through the door of the jail. He stashed both
men in a janitorial closet and dragged an old metal
dumpster in front of it to wedge the door shut.
Some one would probably find them before they starved to death.
He felt a pang of guilt for how little he
cared about what happened to those men. I should feel
worse about this. Roland knew the battle drugs had suppressed
his conscience. He knew that the longer they stayed in

(53:59):
this dangerous play, and the more fighting he did, the
more tempted he'd be to kill out right. Roland leaned
against the dumpster and closed his eyes. He tried to
force himself to take long, slow breaths and meditate on
the flow of air in and out of his lungs.
He helped taking a breather would prompt his system to
reduce the drip. Instead, he found himself flashing back to
more violence. Red siren lights screeched and blinked on walls

(54:21):
of institutional White men and women in lab coats ran
and screamed and died, died, died as he squeezed the
trigger of his sig sour Roland kicked at a lock
door and the metal buckled inwards, revealing a room with
giant glass organ filled vials. He shook his head and
tried to banish the memories he'd started flashing back to
this place when they had rescued Manny. But the memories
had kept coming even once the violence subsided. Please, Roland,

(54:45):
the old woman begged through blood stained teeth. He looked
down at the hole in her gut, the red blood
on her white lab coat. She slid backwards on the
tile floor until her shoulders hit one of the racks
of that grown organs. Please don't do this, Roland shook
his head. He didn't know why this was happening exactly.
It was likely just a glitch, some unforeseen interaction between
the wet wear of his hind brain, the procedural memory

(55:07):
stored at his DNA, and the battle drugs that flowed
through his system. He questioned again whether he really wanted
his memories back. This wasn't the time to ponder that question, though.
Roland headed back upstairs to grab Manny and Sasha. He
led them down to the garage and handed Manny the
unbloodied uniform. Dude, that's really obvious, Manny pointed to the
blood stains on Roland's own uniform. They're going to notice that,

(55:31):
you think so. Roland was so used to normal humans
not noticing much of anything, he sometimes underestimated their senses
I've got an idea, Sasha said, pop the hood. Roland
and Manny were both a little surprised, but he popped
it for her. The girl stared at the engine, reached
for the dipstick and pulled it free from its slot.
She rubbed her hand down the shaft and it came
away covered in sticky black grease. She rubbed the grease

(55:53):
onto Roland's collar, coated the dipstick again, and repeated the
process two more times. When she was done, he looked
like he'd been working on an engine rather than beating
a man half to death. Fucking brilliant, Roland said. Manny
nodded his agreement. Then he said, all right, let's go
abducted doctor. The abduction itself was easy. Doctor Brandt lived
in an undamaged mansion about two miles away from downtown.

(56:16):
As one of the kingdom's few medical professionals, Doctor Brandt
had apparently earned himself some luxury. Sasha hid in the
trunk so the doctor wouldn't notice anything was off until
he entered the vehicle. Where's Jerry and Samuel, Doctor Brandt asked.
As he opened the door and sat down inside the jeep.
Many gunned the engine and peeled away. Roland put a
hand on doctor Brandt's thigh and squeezed just hard enough

(56:37):
for the man to feel like his thigh bone might shatter.
I stuffed him in a closet somewhere, he explained, with
a smile. My name is Manny, the fixer said. The
guy who's about to break your leg is named Roland.
We're kidnapping you, ah, said doctor Brandt. Roland had to
give credit where credit was due. The doctor endured the
pain with a stony face and without any signs of panic.

(56:59):
We need you to help us get into the jail,
Manny continued, where those negotiators from Rolling Fuck are being held.
Doctor Brant grimaced, either from the obscenity or just do
to the continued pain of Roland's iron grip. And what
makes you think I'll give you any aid? There was
a bit of strain in his voice now, but the
doctor's features stayed decidedly neutral. I may be a doctor,
but I'm no less prepared to die for my kingdom

(57:21):
than anyone else here. You might as well just go
ahead and kill me. Roland relaxed his grip. The doctor's
sighed in relief. Yeah, we thought you might say something
like that, said Manny. That's why Roland and I prepared
an alternate proposal. Roland drew the guard stolen side arm
from its holster. He gripped the pistol in one hand
and then crushed it in his grip like he was
bawling up a piece of paper. The doctor's eyes widened

(57:44):
in shock and horror. So Manny said, my friends just
full of chrome, high grade stuff. He could walk right
through a tank if he wanted. You're an educated man,
you know what people like him can do. The doctor nodded,
but didn't say anything. Our offer is simple. You help
us out and we'll leave with our people. You refuse
to help, and we'll get our people anyway. Only Roland

(58:04):
here will take a little detour to burn half the
city to the ground. I see Roland could smell the
fear wafting off Doctor Brandt now, but the man's expression
didn't change. You wouldn't be a doctor if you didn't
see value in human lives. Manny's voice was soft. His
reasonable tone wouldn't have been out of place in a boardroom.
If you refuse to help us, we won't hurt you,
won't harm a hair on your head. But my friend

(58:26):
here will break this city and a few thousand of
the people in it. You'll be hail and healthy, so
you can pick up the pieces, and you'll know that
every ounce of that suffering could have been prevented if
you just helped us out. It's true, sir. Sasha spoke up.
Doctor Brandt stiffened, she sat up from her hidden position
in the back. The doctor was a smart man. He
put together that she was not being held as a prisoner.

(58:49):
His eyes narrowed in contempt Sasha. Doctor Brand's voice was cold.
I'm sorry to see you in such poor company, sir,
I'm really sorry. But but nothing, he snapped, and now
the anger showed on his face. Have you been a
traitor this whole time? Or did your will simply fail Sasha?
Manny spoke up, We really don't have time for this,

(59:10):
Roland disagreed. His hind brain estimated Sasha and the doctor
could afford us solid eight minutes of emotional closure before
they got too close to the jail. Is eight minutes
a lot of time for you people. Everyone stared at him,
their individual disagreements forgotten for a moment. Roland realized late
that he had spoken out loud. Sorry, he said, I
was just supposed to be in my head. They still stared. Well,

(59:33):
now you only have like seven minutes and forty seconds,
Ignore that, said Manny. He's a maniac. That's why you
don't want us to let him loosen your city, Doctor Brandt.
Sasha added, I know you're a good man. The Lord
put you on this earth to save lives. This is
your chance to do that. The doctor needed the bridge
of his nose with his hand. Hated an admirable job
of not giving too much away with his body language.

(59:55):
But Roland could smell the truth. The scent of stress
wafting off the doctor faded it as a sign the
man had made a decision. There was something about choosing
that calmed the human soul. You are correct, of course, Sasha.
I never approved of us holding those women in the
first place. It was foolish to antagonize things like him.
He nodded towards Rowland. If I can avert a massacre,

(01:00:16):
I will, But I sincerely hope you plan to escape
with them, Sasha. I won't hide to protect a traitor.
I'll leave, Sasha said. The doctor gave a somber nod.
I won't be able to get you out of the
jail with those prisoners, you know, he said to Rowland.
I can get you inside, and I can probably get
them to send the prisoners into an examination room, but
the guards won't let them leave the building. I'll take

(01:00:38):
care of that part, Rowland promised. I'm real good at
making doors. Rowland was aware of the old saying no
plan survives contact with the enemy. For some reason, his
hind brain remembered the original version of the quote from
an old Prussian general named Moltka. No plan of operations
extends with any certainty beyond first contact with the main
hostile force. People who observed Roland and battle tended to

(01:01:01):
think he just sort of winged it and ballsed his
way through on violent potential alone. But Roland was at
his core a planner. Having a plan was essential to
take maximum advantage of the way his hind brain worked.
A plan was nothing more than a clear set of
tactics meant to accomplish a concrete goal. In this case,
the goal was free the prisoners and take his new
friends to safety. The plan he constructed to achieve that

(01:01:23):
goal was based mainly on Sasha's recollections and his own
espionage on the jail. He knew it would change once
the shooting started, but the fact that he had a
rubric would give his hindbrain something to focus on while
it zeroed in on the best tactics for the evolving situation.
At any rate, the plan Manny and Sasha had cooked
up actually did survive first contact with the enemy. Roland
and Manny had posed as guards and followed Doctor Brandt

(01:01:44):
and Sasha right through the door. The martyrs inside were
all used to seeing the doctor and his assistant, and
they didn't pay a different set of armed guards any mind.
When Doctor Brandt requested they send all the prisoners into
the examination room, the officer in charge didn't even blink
at the request. The only thing that had seemed off
to Roland was an odd scent of anxiety in the air.
It wafted off the guards and hung in a thick

(01:02:05):
cloud above the entrance room. The Odor reminded Rowland of
countless hours spent sitting with nervous men in the cramped
belly of an a PC or a drop aircraft. He
assumed this had something to do with a giant explosion
he'd caused earlier, or his escape from the training facility.
Of course, these guys are un high alert, he thought.
Some nut fuck monster man blew up a factory this morning.

(01:02:25):
Doctor Brandt led them into a large waiting room and
closed the door. He let out a long, nervous sigh
and slumped back against the wall. Okay, you'll have your
prisoners soon enough, and no one else will need to die. Right,
he looked straight at Rowland. Right, Roland said, and then added,
until you Fox invaded Dallas. I've gotten years without killing anyone.
I'm actually pretty good at it. The doctor did not

(01:02:48):
seem comforted by this fact. Roland opened his mouth again,
but Manny put a hand on his shoulder. No, he said,
and Roland nodded. I could have avoided so many violent
misunderstandings with his kid's help. Roland molled this over and
wondered if Manny might be interested in an adjoining mountain
top shack. Just then the door opened, a guard entered.

(01:03:08):
He was followed by the three prisoners and then two
more guards. Rolling. Fox negotiators were all handcuffed to each other.
Roland had been shown pictures of all three captives before
they departed the city. Of wheels, so it wasn't hard
to recognize Marigold, Tulli, and Rick, but they all looked different.
Marigold's bright purple hair was limp and greasy. The sockets
on her augmented arm had been filled in with some

(01:03:29):
sort of resinous substance. Toullie Bald in her pictures, now
had a head full of peach fuzz. Her necklaces and
amulets and rings were all gone. Of course, she looked
pale and deflated. Roland could see the ghost of an
old black eye, likely earned during the initial capture. She
walked with a limp, but otherwise looked healthy enough. And
then there was Rick. His wounds were fresh and extensive.

(01:03:51):
He was covered in bruises, and it looked like his
guards had cut into him, writing over several of his
scarified tattoos with a combat knife. His left eye was
broken and looked dead. Roland could tell the man's orbital
bone had been shattered, and with the slow juttering way
his good eye looked around the room, it was likely
he'd suffered at least one concussion. Doctor Brandt sighed and
went right to the injured young man. Have the others

(01:04:13):
sit down, he told the guards. He started to examine Rick.
His jaw clenched, his eyes narrowed. Roland felt the doctor's
heart rate accelerate and anger. You've been at him again,
haven't you, Doctor Brandt sounded angry. I told you all
this had to stop. He's clearly concussed. You could have
killed him. The lead guard shrugged and rolled his eyes.
One of the other guards snickered. Roland could tell by

(01:04:33):
the look of fury on the doctor's face that he
was not used to being treated this way. Solja, I
am the senior medical doctor of this entire kingdom. I
will bring your superior into this and I will, Roland heard,
and then smelled six new men into the jail. His
mind rocketed downstairs, away from the petty argument and started
to analyze the new arrivals. They were soldiers, he could

(01:04:54):
tell by the sound of their footfalls and the strong
smell of gun oil and powder that wafted off of them.
One of them smelled familiar. He'd been present when Manny
had been abducted to the factory. Roland guessed this was
the guy Sasha had told him about during their impromptu
rescue mission. Huh. Roland said, out loud. Manny was the
only one who seemed to notice what Manny asked, in

(01:05:16):
a voice low enough that the guards wouldn't hear it
over the sound of doctor Brandt dressing them down. At
Guy Alexander, he just entered the building with a squad
of armed men. What does that mean? Uh uh, Roland shrugged.
Probably an ambush. Roland was a bit embarrassed that it
had taken him this long to piece it together. That's
why the guards had been so accommodating of doctor Brand's
unusual request. It's why they'd smelled so nervous. Somehow the

(01:05:39):
rescue attempt had been spotted before it had gone down.
The soldiers of the Heavenly Kingdom must have assumed the
doctor was a traitor too. Roland stood up. He knew
that violence would need to happen here. There were too
many decent people's lives at stake for anything else. The
instant his forebrain made that decision. His hind brain started
pouring adrenaline and battle drugs into his synapses. He felt

(01:05:59):
the electric crackle of chemical glee start deep in the
back of his neck. It spread out to his shoulders,
down his arms to the tip of his fingers. Roland
fought back against the building euphoria. While he analyzed the situation,
the world slowed down around him. He had plenty of
time to watch as the guards started to reach for
their side arms. The word ambush had keyed them in,
but it didn't matter. They still moved too slow to

(01:06:22):
effect anything. His hind brain calculated that Manny and Sasha
were relatively safe. No one had a gun on them
just now. The prisoners were his priority. Then they were
exposed both to the door that enemy reinforcements which soon
rush through, and to the guards already in the room.
Doctor Brandt was a tertiary responsibility. He seemed like a
decent enough guy in spite of it all. Alexander and

(01:06:44):
his men are two point oh four seconds from the door,
maybe faster if they dropped into a dead sprint. Roland
stepped forward into the lead guard. He grabbed the man
by the hair, lifted him into the air, and slammed
his skull hard into the second guard's face. Bone cracked
sixteen point three and seven percent chances of fatal hemorrhage, respectively.
Roland dropped the first man and plunged his fingers into

(01:07:06):
the third guard's eyes. He gouged deep, stopped just short
of the man's brain, and then pulled his hand free.
The man staggered back, opened his mouth, and started to scream.
A surge of battle drugs hit roland synapses at just
that moment, and in a fit of gleeful peaque, he
grabbed the man by the jaw and pulled. His intent
had been to yank the man's head into his knee,
but he pulled a little too hard and ripped the

(01:07:28):
whole jaw free. The man fell back, gurgled, bled, huh
my vad, Roland said to no one in particular. He
shoved the jaw into his front pocket, figuring it might
make a useful weapon when the reinforcement showed up. In
the meantime, he set to work ripping the prisoner's manacle
chains apart. It'd have taken too long to remove the manacles,
but at least with the chains free, they'd all be

(01:07:48):
able to move with what are you? Oh my god, Roland?
What Doctor Brandt, Manny and Sasha finally reacted. Roland had
to remind himself that their brains wouldn't have been able
to properly process what he'd done while it was happening.
The whole altercation had lasted barely a quarter second. To Manny, Sasha,
and doctor Brandt. The violence had been disorienting and almost unintelligible.

(01:08:10):
The three negotiators from Rolling Fuck were not stock Sapien.
They'd reacted faster and gone to ground almost as soon
as he'd rushed the first man. At least the women had.
The young man was too dazed and battered to react
much at all, so his friends pulled him down and
shielded him with their bodies. Of the other three, Manny
was the first to react. He grabbed Sasha by the
shoulder and shoved her down below the window line. Roland

(01:08:32):
was proud. He would have said something about that, but
everything went disastrously wrong a fraction of a second later.
Roland had known Alexander and his men were rushing the door.
He'd estimated a solid one point four seconds before they
breached the entryway. That's why he'd occupied himself by checking
on everyone. He'd trusted his senses and trusted that the
Heavenly Kingdom didn't have any gear he hadn't already seen.

(01:08:54):
That proved to be a mistake, because unbeknownst to Roland,
two men in powered armor hung off the outside wall
of the building, directly underneath the window. Their suits were
bleeding edge stealth technology utterly absent from Roland's pieda bites
of memory. His passive sensors had missed them entirely. Roland
first realized they were there and that he'd aired terribly
when they opened fire. Close to a hundred thirty caliber

(01:09:19):
slugs tore through the wall of the jail at roughly
forty two hundred feet per second. They were fired at
such close range and with such total surprise that Roland
was unable to dodge or prep his subdermal armor for impact.
Nineteen rounds hit him fifteen in his center of mass,
one in his left thigh, and three in his right shoulder.
Two hit Manny, ripping a hole through his left hand

(01:09:40):
and another through his kidney. Doctor Brandt, who had only
half turned to face Rowland at this point, was torn
apart in a feu salade of steel. Rowland also registered
hits on their not yet rescued captives, one in Tullie's
left butt cheek, one that severed Rick's index finger, and
another in the young man's shoulder. Roland staggered back from
the impact of the rounds as Alexander's point man burst

(01:10:01):
through the door. The coordination between the two teams was impressive,
as was the fact that the suited man hadn't hit
their allies on the other side of the door. On
a normal day, Roland would have ripped the shotgun out
of the point man's hands and castrated him with it.
But this was not a normal day, and Roland's brain
was occupied with a damage to his body. The point
man fired twice and sent one ounce tungsten slugs through

(01:10:23):
both of Roland's knees. He dropped, rolled, moaned, and then
the rest of the team was in the room. They
moved well, not like vets, but like men who'd trained
a lot for entries like this. They all wore heavy
body armor. It wasn't powered, but it provided solid protection
against small arms fire the mostly packed auto shotguns. Smart choice,
Roland thought, when fighting post humans, go for tissue damage.

(01:10:47):
He was hurt, nothing fatal yet, but the loss of
momentum and control had cost him dearly. Now six men
had a beat on him with weaponry powerful enough to
do some real damage. Roland listened as one of the
stealth suit smashed the remainder of the window in and
crawled inside the room. This armor was much more subtle
than the standard Airy's pattern power armor. Aside from plaiting
at the chest and shins, it didn't look like it

(01:11:08):
added a substantial amount of protection. But the suit was
covered in high definition display panels. The man was hard
for Roland to see. He would have been nigh invisible
to a normal human ship. Roland spat blood and looked
up just as a very satisfied looking young man stepped
into the room. He was tall, handsome, and well built.
He wore the same armor as his men, but lacked

(01:11:29):
a helmet. Instead, he had a red beret with a
lacquered gold cross pin to the front. Roland took one
look at the boy's prominent jawline and well tanned skin.
He grudgingly agreed that it would have been a crime
to cover up that face. How new were those fucking suits,
he asked the fancy man. The Republic had some very
choice gear in its armory. The youth replied, My superiors

(01:11:50):
will be happy to hear how well it worked against you.
He sauntered into the room like a conquering king, waving
his pistol lazily at the captives. Hello, Sasha, he said,
with a smile and a cheery wave of his free hand. Alexander,
she replied, in a tone as cold as ice. The
young man Alexander stopped in front of Rowland, peered down

(01:12:11):
and grinned the ship, eatingst grin in the history of
eating shit, you know, he said, it was rather easy
drawing you into this trap. Once you played your hand
at the training camp. We knew you'd come here sooner,
Old Lada. I was rather surprised to see you involved, Sasha.
He looked up at her, a wonda Was this your
plan all along? Or are you merely an opportunist clutching

(01:12:32):
to these men because my proposition injured your ego? He
laughed prickishly. Roland wanted to hit him, but the situation
merited further analysis before action. Much of the damage done
to him in the ambush had already healed, and none
of it was substantial enough to impede his deadliness, but
his position was rather tenuous. The second armored soldier crouched
at the window adhered to the outside wall. The first

(01:12:54):
stealth suited soldier had one gun trained on Manny and
another aimed at Rowland. Alexander's men all had him dead
to rights, shotguns leveled in fingers on triggers. He could
perhaps move fast enough to take out one or two
of them, but the others would do a significant amount
of damage in the meantime, and more to the point,
Roland could do nothing to ensure Sasha and Manny's safety.
He considered their deaths unacceptable. I really am a bit disappointed,

(01:13:18):
and how easy this owl was? The young fuck continued.
I thought we'd be infomo of a fight here. I
guess the stories about your kind were exaggerated, after all,
I suspected so no amount of scientific tinkering can replace
the blessings of God Behind a righteous man, Roland sensed movement,
not from Manny. He was frozen still next to Sasha

(01:13:40):
under the gun of one of the power armored troopers.
It didn't come from any of Alexander's men either. It
was Marigold. The woman had gritted her teeth and inched
her hand towards the body of the guard. Roland to
dee jawed. He watched she wrapped her hand around the
grip of his side arm Alexander stepped around him and
headed towards Sasha. The other soldiers still had their weapons
trained on Rowland. They didn't seem to have noticed Marigold.

(01:14:03):
I warn't you, didn't I, Sasha, Alexander asked, as a
smile played across his lips. I'll warn't you what came
of defying God's will? And then you allied yourself with
a baste whose very existence is a sin against a
heavenly father. If Christ had intended. Roland never got to
hear the rest of that sentence, because Alexander never got
to say it. He was interrupted by Marigold, pulling the

(01:14:25):
pistol free of its holster and swinging it up towards
the groin of the squad's point man. She fired twice,
switched targets, and pumped two more rounds into the unarmored
belly of a second man. Roland was up and off
the ground between the second and third shot. He swung
his fist hard into the face plate of the nearest
soldier's helmet. The plexiglass shattered, and Roland's knuckles pushed shards

(01:14:45):
into the man's cheeks and eyes. The martyr screamed and
fired a shot that went wide because Roland dove to
the left as he retracted his fist and pivoted to
rush the power armored man holding a gun on Manny
and Sasha. There were no good options here. Marigold intervention
had given them all a chance, but Roland had been
forced to make a choice between going after the armored
men and saving his friends, or taking out the entry

(01:15:07):
team and saving Marigold and her friends. He heard her
fire two more shots and heard them impact, but then
his attention was consumed by the two men in powered armor.
They had recovered first, and both men opened up on
Roland as he charged. There was no dodging at this distance.
It was barely possible to mitigate the damage in any way.
Roland took thirty high velocity rounds to the face, neck, shoulders,

(01:15:29):
and upper chest. Some of them were stopped by his
subderm alarmor, most weren't. He felt holy shit, real pain
for the first time in what felt like years. Roland's
wired nervous system rewarded this with a flood of chemical bliss.
As he charged, he smiled and whooped like a sixteen
year old. Railing his first line of blow. He dove
into the first man. Hands first, grabbed his enemy by

(01:15:50):
the neck and then bum rushed him into the man
hanging outside the window. This knocked the top of the
second man's body free from the wall and sent him
reeling half back into open air. The man's were still
attached to the building, but his body flailed free. Roland
kept his grip and focus on the first armored man.
The martyr's neck armor had hardened to resist the crushing
strength of Roland's grip, so he shook the man's head

(01:16:11):
back and forth and slammed it into the frame of
the building as hard as possible. The soldier pumped another
dozen rounds point blank into Roland's body. He saw red,
He felt red. He was numbly aware of the tremendous
amount of damage being done to him, but none of
it had yet rendered him unable to throttle this motherfucker,
so he continued to squeeze until the armor's neck seals failed, cracked,

(01:16:31):
and Roland's finger nails bit deep into the meat of
the man's throat and crushed his windpipe. Roland tossed the
body aside and went for the second man, still flailing
outside the window. He was interrupted when Alexander fired a
slug into his temple, the round impact at his reinforced
skull and ricocheted off, but the impact the force of
the blow itself made him seize stars it hurt Roland

(01:16:53):
staggered back into the side. Then several things happened in
very quick succession. Marigold fired another round her last. It
was followed by the sound of the two remaining guards
opening up with their shotguns. Roland heard as she was
torn apart. Just as his eyes started to focus again,
Alexander fired two more shots directly into his head. The
man on the wall finally found his grip again, and

(01:17:14):
Roland felt the power armored soldiers steady himself to open fire.
Roland shaken, hind brain advised him that going for the
armored man was probably his best decision, so he surged forward,
less steady than before, and hunched his shoulders in anticipation
of taking another slugger for to the brain pan, but
that didn't happen. For the second time to day, Roland
was surprised by the actions of a normal human. This

(01:17:36):
time it was Sasha. She'd gotten up from where she
and Manny had taken shelter from the gunfight and crawled
over to the body of the first guard Roland had disabled.
He'd been dimly aware of this in the semi conscious way.
He was aware of the traffic passing outside, his brain
had opted to not focus on it, since the heavily
armed men were a more pressing concern. But then Sasha
had removed the unconscious guard's helmet and rushed towards Alexander.

(01:17:59):
She swung first for his gun hand. Roland heard her
knock the pistol free of his grip. Then she hit
him in the face, over and over and over again.
Roland felt the urge to thank her, but just then
the power armored man became a concern again. The fucker
managed to get off three more shots before Roland ripped
the weapon free from its forearm mount and used it
to cave in the armored face plate. Blood spurted out,

(01:18:20):
and the man fell limp back out the window. His
feet continued to adhere to the outside wall while his jerking,
bleeding body dangled in the breeze. Roland turned just in
time to take another two slugs from another two shotguns,
but then the men were empty. They'd pumped most of
their rounds into Marigold's body. They fumbled to reload, panicked
and clearly unused to carrying out the task in a

(01:18:41):
combat situation. Roland could smell the terror as it wafted
off their bodies. Their fear hit his nervous system like
an ounce of crystal meth. He loomed towards them, and
for a second, the only sounds in the room were
his footsteps and the dull thwap of Sasha pounding her
helmet into Alexander's now shattered skull. Roland whipped his left
arm out A massive blade not unlike a straight razor,

(01:19:02):
tore through the flesh of his inner forearm and locked
into place. The men screamed. One dropped his shotgun and
tried to run. Roland tore into him first, using the
blade to sever the fucker's arms. Battle drugs and pure
liquid satisfaction flowed into roland synapses. His dick went hard,
and he screamed in wordless joy as he slashed downwards
and sliced off the man's face. The poor bastard fell away, burbling,

(01:19:25):
and Roland turned towards the last soldier. He died an
equally terrible death, and then it was done, the battle
was over. Quiet reigned. The only sounds audible to a
normal human would have been the blood spurting from dead
and dying bodies, and the sound of sobbing. Touli sobbed
for Marigold, Sasha sobbed for Roland guest her lost innocence.

(01:19:46):
And then out in the city beyond came the sound
of a hundred sirens. The martyrs were coming for them. Hey,
I've written a novel. It's called After the Revolution. You
can find it as a podcast under After the Revolution,
and you can find it at a t r book
dot com as a free e pub if you like it.

(01:20:07):
I am crowdfunding the sequel so that I can keep
making my books free. That will be it After the Revolution,
The Sequel on go fund me. That's After the Revolution
the Sequel on go fund me.

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Host

Robert Evans

Popular Podcasts

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

Crime Junkie

Ridiculous History

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}After the Revolution: Chapters Eighteen, Nineteen, and Twenty