After the Revolution: Chapters Twenty One, Twenty Two, and Twenty Three

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Chapter twenty one. Sasha. Alexander hadn't seen it coming. He
hadn't expected her at all. The sound of his furious
scream was the most beautiful thing Sasha had ever heard.
She hit him again and again, and he fell back
and then down to the ground. Blood streamed from his
nose in a gash above his brow. His eyes looked unfocused,

(00:22):
his lip was split. He tried to scream or cry
out or beg her, but she didn't give him the
time to say one damn word. Instead, she hit him
again and again and again. She didn't make the conscious
choice to dive down on top of him, and in fact,
Sasha was rather surprised to find herself straddling the prone,
broken boy soldier. But once she was there, she kept
hitting him until she felt his skull give way and

(00:44):
the helmet had something soft, squishy and hot that lay beyond.
She sat back and for what seemed like a year,
just stared at the helmet and bedded in Alexander's ruined face.
Blood pulsed out from around the edges where it met
the skin. The way the blood bubbled up looked just
a bit like the water and one of the fountains
outside the hospital, her mother ran. For some reason, that

(01:04):
similarity did more to raise her hackles than the act
of killing. Her ears still rang, and so it was
easy to lose herself. In contemplation of Alexander's body. Her
mind turned to the Book of John and the words
of her Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. Do not be
like Kine who belonged to the evil One and murdered
his brother? And why did he murder him? Because his
own actions were evil and his brothers were righteous? Had

(01:28):
Alexander's actions truly been righteous? Sasha knew if she searched
the Bible she could find scriptural justifications for everything Alexander
had done. That's why she'd come here in the first place,
wasn't it The heavenly Kingdom was finally going back to
the letter of the Bible, the Word of God. Only
now that she had seen what that looked like, Sasha
had found she could not abide it. Am I still

(01:50):
a Christian? She couldn't say. Her faith had been such
a part of her identity, it had been everything, and
now it felt like a lie. What am I if
not a righteous servant of the Lord? Where do I
go from here? Eisash little problem here. Roland's voice jerked
her out of her contemplation. She looked back at the
man and her mind recoiled in terror. His skin had

(02:11):
been shredded by gunfire. It hung in pale tatters down
his face and arms. His clothing had largely been shot away,
and the rags that remained were so drenched in blood
that they clung to him. He looked almost as if
he was clad in a single giant scab. One of
his eyes was unfocussed, dislocated, and something had happened to
his left arm. It looked as if an enormous straight
razor had burst out of the forearm. Where did you

(02:34):
get that? She asked. Sasha was surprised and a bit
disturbed by her curiosity. Roland seemed surprised too this. He
looked at the blade. I really no, I'd sort of
forgotten it was in there. He lifted his arm and
its blood soaked blade up and looked at it like
a small child opening a prized gift on Christmas morning.
Then he flicked his arm down towards the ground, and

(02:55):
the blade slid back into the meat of his forearm
with a wet thwack. Look, he said, we got more
press and shipped to deal with right now. You're all
those sirens. She actually couldn't. Her hearing had begun to
recover from the gunfight, but Roland was just barely audible
allowed tonight. As hums still rang through her ears, Sasha
was pretty sure she'd suffered permanent damage. I can't hear

(03:17):
much right now, she said, the gunfire, you know. Oh,
he frowned. I forgot that could happen to you folks. Well, uh,
there's a shipload of cops or martyrs or militia whatever.
A bunch of them are coming, probably two or three hundred.
They got tanks and drones and ship. God Almighty, Sasha
felt fear rise up in her heart again. Yeah, listen,
God's not really the dude to worry about right now.

(03:38):
Manny's all fucked up. I stopped his bleeding, but you're
gonna need to get him out of here. Manny, she'd
forgotten all about him. Sasha realized with a start that
she'd blotted the rest of the room from her mind.
She looked around and took it all in. Manny was
still lying where she'd left him, nursing a gunshot wound
to the belly. He was pale, sweaty, and he looked
to be in terrible pain. But he was conscious and alive.

(03:59):
That was more than she could say for Marigold. The
poor woman had been shredded by shotgun fire. Sasha couldn't
bring herself to look too closely at the shattered, steaming remains,
But Marigold's friends were alive. The young man Rick was
unconscious and drenched in blood, but most of that blood
didn't seem to be his own. His head was in
Tullie's lap. She'd been wounded in the buttocks and bled

(04:20):
quite a lot, but the wounds seemed to have clotted.
There were tears and a haunted, pained look in her eyes.
Oh my god, Sasha said, once her mind started to
process the visual stimuli. Lord in Heaven, No, no, no, no,
that poor woman, that unborn child. How could this happen?
How could this be? Sasha, Roland shouted, This is a
very bad time for you to have emotions. Try killing

(04:42):
those for a while. How just think about the fact
that everyone but me will die if he don't get
your ship together, And then get your ship together. Her
initial action was anger and frustration. Is he that disconnected
from humanity? Does he think people can just turn their
empathy off? But then she stopped herself, listened him, and tried.
She imagined herself putting on a heavy jacket, something that

(05:04):
blocked out pain and horror rather than the cold. It worked, okay,
she said, what do I need to do? You need
to take Monny and uh, what's her name and what's
his face? Touli and Rick right, take the non dead people,
run down and out the back door and find me
a car. Then you need to a car. He stopped

(05:24):
sifting through the dead men's firearms to roll his eyes
at her. Yes, a car. I'm not going to carry
all you lame bloods out of here on my fucking shoulders.
Where we need a getaway vehicle. I can't drive, she said.
All the cars in the am fat are autonomous. He shrugged.
You'll figure it out. Many moaned just then, almost as
if it was in response to roland suggestion. Sasha knew
it was more likely she'd just been too focused on

(05:46):
the big post human to notice Manny's pained moans the
whole time. Can he drive? Sasha asked, sure, Roland said
with sudden cheer He's only lost what two quarts of blood?
I gave him a little mine. I'm sure he'll be
right his rain soon, Many moaned again, handed his blood
soaked belly. He didn't appear to be bleeding still, but
he was pale and his face showed agony too obvious

(06:06):
to ignore. Sasha doubted he'd be capable of driving a
car in the immediate future. I can drive, Toullie said,
in a cracked, broken sounding voice. Right Roland said, well,
that's lovely. Get your asses up and get moving. You've
got about two minutes before shitting fans start their lovely dance.
The post human's good humor was incongruous in this blood

(06:26):
soaked room. Addressed to two people who lost a friend today,
he grabbed one of the guard's pistols, which he shoved
in his waistband and handed it to Sasha. Safety's off,
he said, cheerily, So once you pull the trigger, stuff'll happen.
Sasha took the gun and then went over to help
Manny up. Tullie did the same thing with her wounded friend.
Neither Manny or Rick were in great shape, but Manny

(06:48):
at least seemed capable of standing under his own power.
Once Sasha got him to his feet, he stayed there.
She looked him in the eye, and while he seemed
sort of dazed and glassy, his pupils fixed on hers,
and he nodded it. We have to go, She said,
sitrat a the tempo him. He muttered what Sasha asked said,
it's about fucking time. Just follow me, she said, with

(07:11):
more confidence than she felt. I'll take care of everything.
Oh funck that, Manny said. He put a hand on
her shoulder and moved as if to push in front
of her and shield her with his body. Then he
grabbed a side, groaned, and staggered back. All right, yeah,
you lead the way men. Tuli was up now. She
had an arm around her friend, and together they moved

(07:31):
almost as fast as a single elderly person with bad hips.
Manny was not much more mobile. Sasha looked back at Roland.
Where should we meet you? The next street behind this
building is called Alma. Take it and go left until
you hit a road named cross Bend. I should be
there by the time you arrive. What if we can't
find a he cut her off. Not finding a car

(07:51):
is not an option. Talking more is not an option.
I have to go kill people. You find something with
wheels and get Tullie in the driver's seat. Sasha start
to say something, but the sirens had drawn very close. Indeed,
she heard several shouts from outside the front of the building.
Roland cursed. He'd already gathered up two of the rifles
and slung them across his back. He had a large
pistol in his left hand. At the sound of the shouting,

(08:14):
he brought his right hand up to his belly and
dug it deep inside his skin. Sasha watched in horror
as he tore a heavy, blood caked weapon out of
his gut. Roland walked up to the front window of
the room and fired the weapon once, twice, three times.
Its report was deep and basy, like the sound of
a heavy drum being struck. There was a brief island
of quiet, followed by a trio of explosions that rattled

(08:35):
the walls of the jail. Look. Roland said as he
glanced back to her, I gotta go be a distraction.
Find the car, get to cross Bend and Alma, I'll
be therein He glanced out the window again and shrugged.
Ten maybe eleven minutes. Okay should Sasha started to ask
talking time is done. Toolie's flat voice interrupted, he moves,

(08:55):
We move now. She pulled her friend towards the door.
There would have been something almost comical about the agonizing
slowness with which they actually moved, but the gesture had
its intended effect. Sasha took Manny by the hand. She
let Tulli lead the way to the door, but once
they were in the hallway, the young woman had no
idea where to go. Sasha took the lead then and

(09:15):
guided her new comrades towards a flashing red exit sign
that she knew led to a rear stairwell. For a
brief passing second, she'd been worried that they might encounter
other guards or jailers during their flight. That concern proved groundless.
Gunfire had torn through the walls of the examination room
and ripped apart the interior of the jail. She saw
a few gouts of blood by the walls, and one

(09:36):
sinister looking pool of it beneath a desk. It all
drove an important lesson home for Sasha. Bullets don't stop
when they miss. The stairwell was as deserted as the
rest of the jail. They hobbled down at as quickly
as three wounded people could manage. Sasha stayed in the back,
under the instinctive assumption that it would be best from
a rale if she didn't rush ahead. Their progress down

(09:56):
the stairs was painfully slow, almost every step punctuated by
the sound of gunfire out on the street below. It
sounded like a full scale war had broken out there.
There was a lot of screaming, and Sasha tried not
to think too much about which of the nice young
martyrs she'd met in the square were now dying by
Roland's hand. What about Anne? What about Susannah? You're abandoning them?
Sasha shook the thoughts clear from her head. There'd be

(10:19):
time for self loathing later. Tulli and Rick reached the
bottom floor first. They leaned back against the wall together
and caught their breath. Rick was as white as a
sheet and looked like he could still barely stand. Tullie
was doing better, but not by a wide margin. When
she and Manny hit the bottom floor, he went straight
for the exit door. He clearly intended to be the
first out in case anyone had a weapon trained on

(10:41):
the door. Sasha stopped him. That wasn't hard, because he
was only a little more stable than Tullie. She pushed
him back, put a hand on the door, and then
drew the pistol Roland had given her. She fixed Manny
with what she hoped was a firm, fearless look. You're
in no state to be heroic. He looked at her
as if he wanted to fight her, but then he
looked down at the shaking hand he had pressed into
the sopping wound in his side. Yeah, all right, you

(11:04):
down to do the hero stuff. Then she nodded, well,
then be my guest. Sasha didn't know how to use
a gun. The m FED band almost all private firearm ownership.
Her grandfather had owned a couple of bolt action hunting rifles,
and he'd let Sasha hold them a few times. That
was as close as she'd gotten to firearms training. She'd
never actually shot the darned things. Once he died, her

(11:26):
father had sold the guns rather than deal with the
hassle and expense of a license, So she burst out
onto the street with the pistol held high in front
of her, like she'd seen in movies. It took her
a few seconds to realize, sheepishly that this behavior was
more likely to get her gun down than aid in
her defense. Thankfully, there'd been no martyrs watching the rear exit.
Sasha waved for the others to follow her out and

(11:48):
stashed the pistol under her shirt. For a few minutes,
they'd ran, or rather hobbled, in what seemed like the
right direction. The city still rang with the sound of sirens, gunfire,
and the occasional concussive blast, but seemed to be moving
away from them. Plano wasn't exactly crowded, but there were
enough people out on the street to notice the fresh
wounds on Tuli, Rick, and Manny. No one approached them,

(12:09):
though Sasha wasn't sure if they passed unnoticed, but they
were able to pass through the city without incident. Fear
and the flight reflex were enough to carry them a
few blocks in relative haste. Once they were out of
sight of the jail, Rick put up a hand as
he slumped back against the wall. Tulli continued to hold
him up. She was pale, sweaty, and pained looking. Ryan
shook and shuddered. His eyes were unfocused, and he was

(12:31):
clearly in shock. He needs to rest, Tulli said. Manny
stopped next to them and leaned against the wall as well.
He nodded at Tully and then looked back to Sasha. Yeah, ditto,
I might prefer to lay down and die at this point.
We need to find a car anyway, Tullie said, as
she helped lower Rick down to sit against the wall.
If I carry him for much longer, I'm going to drop.

(12:54):
Sasha realized everyone was looking at her. Is that my job?
Manny looked mortified, Tuali looked angry. Rick bless him was
too deep and shocked to react. Yes, Tuli said, in
a toneless voice that still somehow implied deep disappointment. Okay,
then Sasha said, when I find the car, I assume

(13:14):
you'll know how to hot wire it. Tullie laughed. It
wasn't a nice laugh. If you're hiding a real nice
deck somewhere in that silly head of yours, or you
find a car that's older than my dad, maybe otherwise
we're going to need something with keys in it. What
so I'm just supposed to carjack someone? Tually stared dead
eyed at her. Manny gave a pain helpful smile. I mean,

(13:37):
you've got a gun, he said. Sasha felt the heat
rise in her again. Why not, I've given up every
other principle I have today, I might as well commit
armed robbery, the guilt staying her guts, but not as
badly as it should have. Perhaps she was still numb
from watching Dr Brandton Marigold die. Or maybe it's because
I killed Alexander. Maybe I'm evil now and this is
what that feels like. There was no time to hold

(14:00):
the possibilities. Sasha left Manny and the others to catch
their breath and darted down an alley towards a larger
street that sounded like it might have traffic. She passed
two parked cars and looked inside with the vain hope that,
just maybe someone might have left their keys behind. It
was to no avail. Sasha soon found herself on the
cracked and shell popped asphalt of Alma Road. The buildings

(14:20):
on either side of this stretch of street had taken
significant damage during the Heavenly Kingdom's Birth Pains. There were
no people out on the sidewalks or visible in the windows.
Anyone alive had probably hunkered down to avoid the shooting.
There was still traffic on the road, though, three trucks
in a dented, fume spewing white sedan shot by her
at the speed of wartime traffic. Sasha drew her gun,

(14:41):
looked at it, and then hurriedly stashed it inside her
blouse again when she realized how dumb that had been.
Godly women do not carry guns. A series of four
loud booms sounded in the distance. Sasha didn't know enough
about weaponry to guess what those had been, but she
knew they'd had something to do with Rowland. People are dying,
so I can find us a car and get everyone
to safety. She started walking down the street, face pointed

(15:05):
towards oncoming traffic, hands waving above her head in the
international gesture for oh God, please help me. Two more
cars zoomed past without even slowing to check on her.
It was odd how that shocked her after everything else
she'd seen in the Heavenly Kingdom, the faithful protect and
support each other, pastor Mike had claimed, But not, it seemed,
when a half human monster was on a rampage through

(15:26):
their city. That helped debate her guilt, at least, or
it did right up until the moment A familiar jankie
brown truck rumbled to a stop next to her. Excuse me, ma'am,
do you need She turned around, and the man's face
lit up in surprise, Miss Sasha. It was Darryll, the
kindly old foreman who driven her to the House of
Miriam on her first day in the kingdom. Was that

(15:47):
really only days ago? It seemed like years. Sasha felt
like an old woman, even though she was just on
the edge of eighteen. You hurt? He slammed the car
into park and opened his door one sec I got
a first aid kit in the back. Did you get hit?
Sasha looked down at her chest and realized she looked
like she'd been badly injured. The blood wasn't hers, of course,
but Darrell couldn't have known that. He thought she was

(16:09):
hurt and he was trying to help. Am I really
going to rob a good Samaritan? She was? Sasha waited
until Darrel had closed the door, grabbed his medical kit
and turned towards her. Then she drew her pistol and
leveled it at his weathered, grease stained, and now thoroughly
surprised face. Huh, I need your truck, I need your truck,
she said. Darrel dropped the medical kit and put both

(16:31):
his palms out. Oh now, girl, all right, why don't
you just put that gun down. Darrel ain't gonna hurt you.
I'll take you anywhere you need to go. Let's just
be real, calm, real slow about all this. Did somebody
hurt you? I need your truck. It was so hard
to keep her voice, even, so hard to do this
cruel thing to a man who had only been kind
to her. Sasha could feel white hot tears streamed down

(16:53):
her face. I must look like a crazy person, she thought.
Maybe that will help, now, Miss Sasha. Darrell said, m
I guess you don't know how to drive a truck.
Mine ain't autonomous. It's old stick shift. Please, why don't
you let me take you where you need to go?
Sasha's mind raced. It was the same species of nervousness
that had always gripped her during major exams in college

(17:13):
admissions essays. She ran through and discarded a dozen different
courses of action in her head. What if he won't
give me the keys, What if he takes another step forward?
What if he moved? It started with a single glance
Darrell's eyes darted towards the driver's side door of his truck.
She almost didn't catch it, but for whatever reason, the
gesture rose goose pimples on the back of her neck

(17:33):
and forearms. I need your truck. Her voice was cold, strong, firm.
Darrell nodded at her. His body posture stayed the same,
but his eyes changed. There was something hard and haunted
in them. Now, all right, miss Sasha, I'm just gonna
reach in here for m keys. He took a step
back and moved towards the door. The bottom fell out

(17:55):
of Sasha's gut and she screamed at him to stop.
Don't make another move. He dove for the door, pulled
it open, and reached a hand down beside the driver's seat.
Sasha saw a flash of metal in his hand, and
she opened fire. She wasn't sure how many times she
pulled the trigger, but soon the gun was empty. Sasha
watched as Darrell stumble back into the truck and then
slid to the ground. Most of her shots had gone wide,

(18:17):
very wide. She'd chattered two of the truck's windows and
put four or five rounds into the vehicle's body, but
at least one had hit Darrell right in his throat
a kill shot. He slumped to the ground, gagged on blood,
and jerked like an electrified marionette. Part of her wanted
to run to him, to hold him while he died,
and say she was sorry. Then she saw the gun
at his feet. It didn't dissipate her guilt, after all,

(18:39):
she drawn on him first. But at least she hadn't
shot and killed an unarmed man. She'd killed an armed man,
an armed man who only ever helped me. Sasha slumped
against the hood of the truck and lost herself in
a storm of sobs. She didn't realize she dropped her
gun until it hit the asphalt with a dull clank.
She couldn't control her hands or her breathing. Frantic sobbing

(19:00):
had robbed all the air from her lungs. Her legs weakened,
and she started to stumble to the ground when a
pair of warm, semi strong arms caught her from behind. Hey, Hey,
it's all right, it's all right, Manny, it's okay. You're
gonna be okay. Her world went black for a little while.
Sasha felt Manny lift her up, heard the sound of
the truck's engine rumble back to life, but she couldn't see,

(19:22):
and she couldn't move, and she couldn't stop crying. Time
lost any sort of meaning. When she came back to herself,
there were in motion. Manny sat next to her, and
Rick next to him. Tully drove. Sasha's eyes were drawn
to Manny. He held Darrell's pistol in his left hand.
She couldn't help but stare at the four spots of
dried blood on the silver slide. You all right, Sasha,

(19:44):
Manny asked. His question passed through her ears without hitting
her mind. Sasha couldn't stop staring at Darrell's blood. I
did that. I ended him. She'd ended two men today.
She felt no guilt about Alexander, but that was almost
more disturbing. It seemed impossible to She'd been a pampered
suburban girl less than a month ago. Now she was
a murderer. Whoever sheds human blood by humans, shall their

(20:07):
blood be shed? Sasha felt as if a thick cloud
of doom had fallen on her shoulders. The truck veered
off to the right and slammed to a sudden stop.
Sasha was flung forward into the back of Tullie's seat,
A trio of vehicles zoomed past them, speeding in the
opposite direction, like several bats fleeing the same hell. Sasha
realized with a moment's focus that there was an awful

(20:28):
lot of traffic heading away from them as fast as possible.
Promp Tullie cursed and fought with a stick shift. The
truck lurched forward again and made it back onto the
road for a few seconds. Then another speeding car roared
into the oncoming lane and she was forced to veer
off to the shoulder again. The sounds of gunfire grew louder.
Sasha heard the thrumb of helicopter blades too, a second

(20:49):
before one buzzed right over their heads. It looked like
a military vehicle, painted matt black and laden with weapons.
Sasha watched as it zoomed ahead and rose up over
a pair of high rise up artment buildings near the
horizon line. There was a loud crump sound, and black
smoke billowed out from the side of the craft. It
spun around drunkenly in the air for one very long
second before slamming into the roof of one of the

(21:11):
high rises. The resultant blast rocked the truck. Tu Lee
veered left and right around a pothole at another speeding truck, respectively.
Her knuckles were white, her jaw was clinched. Sasha could
see Tuli's eyes in the rear view mirror. She looked
terrified and angry at the same time. Rick moaned in
pain with every shaken jostle. Manny closed his eyes, shook
his head, and muttered something low under his breath. Are

(21:34):
we close, Sasha asked Manny. He squinted and looked out
at the road for a second. I mean, he shrugged. Yeah, probably,
I'm gonna guess rolands close to the explosions and also
causing them. Smoke now dominated the horizon, which grew less
horizony and more imminent with each passing second. In spite
of all that, Sasha's eyes kept being drawn back to

(21:54):
the gun in Manny's hand and the dry red brown
stains on the slide that was a good man's blood.
She thought, how did it come to this? Hey, Jesus girl,
it was Tuli. Sasha looked up to the rear view
mirror and locked eyes with the other woman. Buck the
funk up Chica, Tuli said for the first time Sasha
heard real anger and not just cold indifference in her voice.

(22:16):
The other woman continued, My best friend was just shot
to pieces. My lover is bleeding out, and you're all
fucked up because you gunned down some crystal fascist ship.
Fuck suck your heart into your guts. I don't know
where you came from, girl, but you're in a hard
ass part of the world. Now it's time to fortify. Fortify.
Sasha held onto that word like a life preserver. Fortify survive.

(22:39):
Then you can lose your head in tears and shame. Okay,
she nodded. She started to apologize, but was interrupted when
the truck screeched to another's sudden halt and threw everyone forward.
Sasha's head hit the front seat again, and her world
dissolved into stars. Ship Tulie cried something rammed the rear
of the truck. Sasha lost all orientation to reality. When

(23:00):
her head and eyes cleared, the first thing she saw
was Toullie nursing a broken nose. Blood poured down the
other woman's face many seemed intact. Sasha looked behind them
and saw a small sedan had dashed itself against the
bed of their truck and must have been following right behind.
When Tullie hit the brakes, Sasha swung her eyes front
to see why they'd stopped. She saw Rowland. He stood

(23:21):
maybe ten feet in front of the truck's hood. That
arm raiser of his was extended again, but the blade
was cracked and half shattered. His other hand held some
sort of large, black assault rifle he hadn't been carrying
in the jail. The pistol grip grenade launcher he'd been
carrying was still with him, but he'd holstered it in
an open hole in his belly. The left side of
his cheek had been ripped away. Most of his hair

(23:42):
was burnt off, and Sasha made out at least one
clear bullet hole in his forehead. There might have been more.
All the caked on blood and gore made it hard
to discern. His clothing had been mostly shot, burned, or
torn away. The dominant colors on his body were black
and red, with a few horrible spots of white where
bones shone through the open air. The city behind him
was all smoke and fire. Emergency lights from several vehicles

(24:05):
blinked madly in the miasthma but there were no martyrs
or emergency workers visible, at least none that were standing.
Sasha saw several terribly still bodies lying among the piles
of rubble. Roland staggered towards the truck and flung the
passenger's side door open. He slumped into the seat, bringing
with him an overpowering stink of blood and fire. He

(24:25):
leaned back in his seat and took three long breaths,
and then he spoke, way, heads pretty clear, but you
might want to hang a right and then take a
left avoid the traffic. Truly nodded, and the truck jerked
forward again. The riotout was so easy it scared Sasha.
In fact, it seemed to scare everyone, but Roland. Manny's

(24:46):
knuckles grew wider and wider as they navigated their way
out of the old Metroplex. Toulli's expression didn't change, but
her body shook with nervous energy, and her jaw was
set so tight that the veins on her neck bulged
from the strain. It was immers s that Rick was
unconscious by that point. Convoys of military vehicles rolled past them,
sometimes escorting ambulances and other emergency vehicles, sometimes bringing more

(25:09):
soldiers to the chunk of the city. Roland had devastated
Sasha's heart leapt into her throat every single time, but
somehow no one stopped their truck. Roland assured them all
that it would be fine. I kicked their asses so
hard it'll take him an hour to find their cheeks.
His only discomfort came once they left the zone of
active danger. He seemed to deflate. Then, after a half

(25:29):
hour on the road, his wounds had mostly healed. The
new skin that grew back underneath seemed weirdly dark compared
to the skin above it. Roland scratched at it an irritation,
and then as casually as if he'd been tossing an
apple core, he ripped off his face in one smooth
atmotion and tossed the bloody skin out the window. Jesus dude,
Manny said, disgusted. Couldn't you have waited until we weren't

(25:52):
all in the car. Sasha stared in shock. Her hands
started to tremble, and she felt the urge to vomit,
but she fought it down and forced her stumf meck
to an uneasy calm. You've seen worse than this now,
and that was true. She looked back at Rowland and
forced herself to take in his new face, which she
guessed was really his old face. Neither iteration of him

(26:12):
had been exactly handsome. She watched in queasy fascination as
he picked the rest of the white skin from his
hands and tossed it out the window. When he'd finished,
he glanced up at Sasha. What he asked, Please tell
me you're not a racist. This would be a real
bad time for you to be racist. She's not racist, dude,
Manny said, you just ripped your skin off. That freaks

(26:32):
people out. Oh, said Rowland, right, Sorry, it's okay, She said,
this is just my first time seeing someone rip off
their own skin. First. Roland grunted, but probably not last.
Sasha didn't have the guts to question him, so she
kept quiet for the rest of the ride, so did
most of the other passengers. For a long time, the

(26:54):
only sounds inside the truck were Rick's unconscious moans and
Roland's occasional directions to Tully. He led them through underpopulated
neighborhoods and around checkpoints, past blackened buildings and wrecks of
military vehicles destroyed during the heavenly Kingdom's first great advance.
Sasha was surprised at the emptiness of most of the city.
She began to understand why Manny called this place Sioda

(27:15):
de Muerta. It took them two hours to escape the
city sprawl and finally make their way out onto the
open plains. They avoided the main highway that linked Dallas
to Waco. Instead, spider webbed their way across a series
of farm roads. Every few minutes they'd rolled past the
bones of a rural town. Every town out here seemed abandoned,
as dead and dry as the acres of yellow grass

(27:36):
that swallowed them up. A little before dark, they rolled
over a decrepit bridge across a dry river bed. A
bullet riddled sign identified this area as Basque County. Rowland
put a hand on Manny's shoulder and pointed towards a
big metal barn on the horizon. Take us up there.
We should probably stop for the night. What Tulie spoke up?

(27:57):
Why we could be at rolling fuck in an hour?
Land shook his head. We got two routes back to
the city. Either we find the main highway and deal
with Kingdom patrols, or we keep ride in these country roads.
That'll take at least another two or three hours and
a lot of time off road in the dark. There's
no better recipe for cracking an axle or blowing a tire.
Tuly fumed, but she rolled the truck up and through

(28:18):
a gap in what had once been the fence line
of a farm. There were a lot of farmhouses around them,
stretched out across acres and acres of fields and pecan orchards.
They all looked abandoned, devoid of light, half reclaimed by vegetation.
The barn Roland led them to was just as empty.
There were large holes in the sheet metal roof, and
chunks of the metal walls had been peeled away for
scrap metal. The underlying structure had been built from metal girders,

(28:42):
though it seemed solid. They got out of the truck,
Roland helped Tully carry her lover across the last few
yards of field and into the old barn. The innerds
of the building were dusty. Rusted tools hung from the wall,
and boxes of assorted goods littered the floor. Some of
them had been ripped open by scavengers, but most looked
like they'd sat unmolested since the property had been abandoned.

(29:02):
Manny found an old couch inside. Roland and Tullie helped
Rick on to it. Then Roland walked off into the
middle of the barn and started to root around in boxes.
He came back a minute later with a load of
canned goods in one arm and a handle of brown
liquor in the other. He sat the whole lot down
on the ground next to the couch, held up a
can labeled water in big red letters, and then punched

(29:23):
his finger through the top of the can. He handed
it to Tulli and she helped Rick drink. He was
semi conscious now, Sasha thought there might be a little
more color in his cheeks. Roland opened three more cans,
one of water and two filled with some sort of
gloopy beef stew. He ripped the aluminum tops open with
his bare fingers and then passed them around. Sasha was

(29:43):
still too deep in the throes of depression and adrenaline
dumpage to have any kind of appetite. The brown gray
color of the stew didn't help with that, but Manny
insisted she take a gulp, and as soon as the
food hit her tongue Sasha realized she was starving. She
took two more deep gulps of the salty, mushy mass
before passing it along to Tulli. The crew ate and
rehydrated without conversation. Although not in silence, the sounds of

(30:06):
gulping and lip smacking filled the barn for a few minutes.
Roland didn't join in the eating. Instead, he popped open
the liquor bottle and drained it dry over the course
of about ninety seconds. The big man closed his eyes,
a smile crept up onto his features, and he gave
a deep, contented sigh. When the food was almost gone,
he stood up and staggered back into the piles of
gear to grab two more bottles. These ones were filled

(30:28):
with an off yellow liquid. He sat one down in
between Manny and Sasha and immediately began to guzzle the second.
Many glanced at Sasha, then at Tulli, then down at
the bottle. He popped the top and took a belt.
Then he offered it to Sasha. If there was ever
a time to dive into drinking, it's the day I
killed two people. Sasha took the bottle and stared at
it for a second. The label, said Talisker, and identified

(30:51):
it as a product of Scotland. The bottle itself was
covered in dust. Hey, Rowland, she asked, suddenly curious. Did
you know this place have food and water and alcohol?
Roland paused draining his second bottle and fixed Sasha with
his strange blue eyes. He looked tired for the first
time since she'd met him. Sasha wasn't sure if that

(31:11):
was due to the rampage he just carried out or
her question. I've been here before, he half mumbled, years ago,
Back before this old chunk of dirt was as much
of a ship hole as it is now. Wait did
you used to live here? Manny asked, I don't know.
Roland shrugged. What do you mean you don't know? You
clearly know this farm. He shrugged and gave a vague

(31:32):
wave with his free hand. I have memories of this place,
bright lights at night, people dancing, drugs and wine, and
people in songs. I have memories of packing the supplies
into boxes, buying ammunition. He nodded towards the still locked
door of the barn. I remember locking that thing up,
but I don't remember why exactly. I might have lived here,
It might have belonged to a friend either way, I

(31:52):
feel like the last time I was here was back
before the revolution. His mind is full of holes, Manny explained,
something happened to him a few years back. He remembers
pieces of who he is, what he's done, but not everything.
Tulli kicked Sasha gently in the hip. She gestured to
the bottle of whiskey. If you're not drinking past the bottle,
some of us have grieving to do. On impulse, Sasha

(32:14):
took a pull from the bottle. She started to hand
it over to Tulli, but then the taste hit her
and she gagged. It was like someone had lit a
fire in her throat, one that tasted of burning pete.
She coughed and hacked for several seconds, while Tulli and
Roland laughed. Once she regained her breath, Sasha finally handed
off the bottle. You'll get better at it, the woman said,
her lips twisted up into what might have been a

(32:35):
real smile. Whiskey is in acquired taste, like cigars nanarchy.
Tully took a very deep pole and sighed and satisfaction.
She handed the bottle off to Manny and started gently
petting Rick's face. The wounded man was asleep, but he
seemed much healthier than he had been a half hour earlier.
How are you doing, Sasha, Manny asked. His eyes met hers,

(32:58):
and Sasha saw a deep concern in his gaze. I'm fine,
she said, not really meaning it. She's all funked up
over the guy she killed for the truck. Tullie grunted.
Shouldn't be fucker picked the wrong side, So did I.
Sasha tried to keep the anger out of her voice.
At first. Darrow was a good man. He didn't deserve

(33:19):
to die. Neither did Marigold, said Tulli. Neither did Major
pirone man, he added, in a quiet voice. They hung
him on the day you and I met. The whole
world's full of good dead people, said Tullie. My advice,
don't cry over someone you shot in self defense. That's
a karmic freebee. The guy had a gun man, he added,

(33:39):
seems like he just did what you had to do.
Roland was quiet through all this. He kept drinking, but
his pace had slowed. His face took on a dark cast,
and he slumped down into his chair. He seemed to
collapse in on himself a little look Chica Tuli said.
There was a slight, drunken slurry were words. Now. I
know I gave you a hard time and it was
dumb as fucky a move to this kingdom, But I

(34:01):
give you credit for breaking free and for helping us escape.
You might be a little dumb, but you aren't bad
people in my book. Don't beat yourself up over doing
what you had to do. There was quiet for a
little while. Manny passed the bottle to Sasha. She took
another gulp and managed to hold it down this time.
Tullie nodded an approval. When Sasha passed the whiskey on,

(34:22):
Sasha found her eyes drawn once more to Darryl's gun.
It was tucked into Tullie's waistband. Roland cleared his throat
and gave a loud, flimmy cough. Sasha looked back at him.
You didn't ask me for an opinion, he said, But
since everyone else's way in and I might as well.
There ain't nothing wrong with feeling bad about murder, even
justified murder. But personally, I don't think that's what's fucking

(34:44):
you up. What do you mean, she asked, He drained
the last of the whiskey bottle and tossed it off
into the darkness. It landed with a clank. I got
real good senses, you know, I can't turn him off.
So I heard your heart rate. I smelled the narrow
transmitters running through you synapses. I could taste the guilt
wafting off you. But that's not the only thing I taste.

(35:04):
He locked his unsteady gaze on hers. Sasha stared into
the cold blue of his pupils. A chill ran down
her spine. Sweat beaded on the back of her neck.
When he spoke next, his voice was barely above a
whisper back at the jail. When you crushed that guy's
skull with a helmet, you enjoyed yourself. He liked it.
Sasha broke his gaze. She stared down at her lap

(35:26):
and struggled to find a reply, But there was nothing
else for her to say. Roland was right. Chapter twenty two.
Manny Rolling Fuck was as bright, shiny, and chaotic as
it had been when he left, But Manny could see

(35:48):
a real change among the citizens themselves. Gone were the
lounging crowds of half naked people instead of the perpetual party.
A war camp spread out around the great superstructure of
the city. Hundreds of men and women were busy dawning armor,
applying war paint, and checking over stacks of weaponry. Manny
saw crates of guided mortars, piles of rocket launchers, boxes

(36:09):
of high velocity ammunition, and enough firearms to equip every
citizen a dozen times over. There was no discernible rolling
fuck uniform that Manny could see. Some of the city's
warriors wore powered body armor painted in garish colors and
bedecked with various quotations. Fuck your Day seemed particularly popular.
Many of them wore pieces of pop culture costumery mixed

(36:31):
in with their gear. Manny recognized Darth Vader's helmet, hell
Boy's red right hand, and a surprising number of people
with Mickey Mouse's face spray painted on their chest armor.
An equal number of Fuchians wore no armor at all.
Some of them were dressed in their normal, flowing lounge garments.
The weapons they wore were the only signs that they
had plans beyond debauchery. Others were naked or mostly so.

(36:54):
He saw one man wearing the helmet of a Greek
hoplight and carrying two Viking axes on his back. He
saw a woman with a Dragonov rifle on her back,
an old German stallhelm on her head, an Ottoman mirror
armor on her chest. She waved at them, excited. It
took Manny a second to recognize Topas's face under the helmet.
There here, there she stopped. Tullie had stopped too. She

(37:17):
cast her face down. Manny could see the shimmer of
tears on her cheeks. A crowd gathered around them. In
a few seconds, they were encircled by dozens of heavily
armed post humans and a dizzying array of war costumes.
Scofucker Mike pushed his way to the front and ran
up to embrace Tulli. Manny was surprised when she started
to sob. The big man held her tight, but looked

(37:37):
to Rowland what happened. Roland gave him a look that said,
you know, damn well what happened. But then he spoke, anyway,
your friend didn't make it. Scofucker Mike's jaw went tight,
his eyes bulged, and he held on to Tullie a
little tighter. Manny thought back to the night they'd spent
in brain Breakers and the things he'd said about Marigold.

(37:59):
Manny hadn't really known the woman at all, but he
could tell Mike had cared deeply for her. He looked
around at the crowd closing in on them, the dozens
of half human god monsters with helpless rage carved onto
their faces. What happened, Mike demanded. Roland opened his mouth
to speak, closed it and ran a hand over his
bald head. He opened his mouth again, managed to squeeze

(38:21):
out an eye before he slumped his shoulders and hung
his head. I wasn't fast enough, he said. Finally, they
had better gear, newer suits than I had expected, schoofucker.
Mike stared at him. Behind him, Tope has slid down
to the ground and buried her head in her knees.
Murmurs swept the crowd, and then Sasha spoke up. Your

(38:42):
friends saved my life. Mike looked over and seemed to
notice her for the first time, and who were you?
His voice was not unfriendly, it wasn't exactly warm either.
My name is Sasha, she said, her voice clearly on
the edge of a sob. She looked from Mike to
TOOLI to tope as to the crowd, and then back
to Manny. He saw a panic in her eyes, barely

(39:04):
held in check by a cage of steely resolve. I
made a mistake. I left my home for the Kingdom.
I thought it was the right thing to do. I
met Marigold while I was there, and she helped me
see how wrong I'd been. She pointed to Roland. I
tried to help him free your people. We all tried,
but they were ready for us. They shot him. She
gestured to Roland. They shot him a lot. They had

(39:26):
us all dead to rights. And then Marigold. I don't
know how, but she got a gun. She shot two
of them, and then they shot her. She died, saving us.
The silence that followed was louder than any artillery barrage
Manny had ever sat through. Finally, Skullfucker Mike nodded at her.
There were tears in his eyes, and Manny soon realized
tears on every face in the crowd. Some people fell

(39:48):
to their knees, others embraced and held their friends. One voice,
hoarse and heavy with pain, howled out in anguish. It
was met by another voice and then another, and then another,
as Fucky and after Bucky and tilted their head back
and roared their grief out to the empty blue of
the Texas sky. Rolling Fuck preferred to mourn through activity.

(40:09):
The wailing and gnashing of teeth over Marigold didn't stop
the city's medics from taking Rick and Tully to whatever
building served as their equivalent of a clinic. Topaz stayed
behind with a gathering crowd of mourners while skullfucker Mike
gathered up Manny, Sasha and Roland. There will be time
to process later, He'd said, as much to himself as
to them. There's a war council soon, and they'll be

(40:29):
wanting to debrief you. Fine, Roland said, but I'm stopping
at the bar first. I need some opium and some
got am tequila. Manny expected skullfucker Mike to be angered
by that, given the circumstances, but the other chromed man
just nodded and said I could use a drink or
nine myself. They headed for the lift underneath the main roller.

(40:50):
Manny started to prepare himself for the meeting with this
war council, whatever that term meant in a place like this,
whatever happens, it's bound to be weird. They reached the lift,
skullfucker Mike opened the door and gestured for everyone to enter,
and so. Less than an hour after arriving back in
the City of Wheels, Manny, Sasha, and Rowland found themselves
seated around the same red wood table where they had

(41:12):
first met Nana Yazi and Donald Ferris. The room was
more crowded this time around, with two new people he
didn't recognize. One was a shirtless man with writhing snake
tattoos across his chest and a pair of chaps that
did nothing at all to cover up his junk. It
didn't help that the man's legs were spread as wide
as possible. He seemed to be deliberately showing off. Manny

(41:33):
looked away and found himself staring at a very tall,
very muscular, young seeming woman with a mohawk made from
thick chrome spikes. She had light brown skin. Her cheeks
were covered in several long, thin, diagonal scars. The woman's
eyes had no pupils. They looked gray at first, until
Mannie realized they were actually just filled with static. When
Mannie finally pulled his gaze away from her. He was

(41:55):
met with the biggest surprise of the day. Deshaun Clark
was seated chairs down from Nanna Yazzi Major Clark, Manny.
The Major's lips cracked open into a wide mouthed grin.
The left side of his face was still covered in
hemostatic gauze, and the edges of the skin around the
gauze looked black and burnt. His right hand was a smooth,
angry pink color, a sure sign that had been severed

(42:17):
and regrown in the recent past. Major Clark was bloody
but unbowed. It's damn good to see you, Manny. I
can tell you how proud I was to hear you'd
volunteered for this mission. Mr Pirrone, Manny started to say,
but Major Clark put up his hand, I know, he said.
Donald Ferris ahemmed, which Manny took as a gentle reminder

(42:38):
that now was not the time for personal business. The
old brick gestured first to the man with the writhing
snake tattoos. This is Jim Shannon, he said. He heads
up a small mercenary outfit. I'm the guy who roped
Roland into helping, Jim said, with a wink and this
cheery lass. Donald pointed to the woman with a chrome hawk.

(42:58):
Is Kashore. She's the city's elected wally too for the
past three years. And who might this young lady be,
Nana Yazzi asked, nodding at Sasha. The old woman stood
and stepped forward to greet Sasha with a hub. Sasha
tensed up. She looked scared to return the embrace, so
Nana Yazzi backed off and favored the girl with a
warm smile. I'm sorry, child, I didn't mean to pressure you.

(43:21):
I'm just happy or hear with us. Sasha relaxed at that,
but she still didn't step forward. Her name, Sasha said Rowland.
She used to be with the Kingdom, now she's not.
He paused a second, considered his words, and added, she
beat one of them to death with a helmet. Oh my,
oh dear. Nana Yazzi tisked and shook her head. I'm

(43:42):
so sorry, Sasha, that must have been a terrible experience
for you. She enjoyed it, Jim said, with a harsh
bark of a laugh. I'm sure Rowland smells it too.
Isn't that a radhun you loved? Killing? Whoever the funk
you killed and you feel shitty about that. Will let
me still stop right now, or you'll leave this room.
Nana Yazzi's voice was firm, but devoid of any anger

(44:04):
or heat. To Manny's shock, Jim stopped the post human,
nodded and said, I apologized Sasha, that was a dick move,
and then he lowered his eyes just a little. In contrition,
Nana Yazzi offered Sasha a seat and then busied herself
in the corner making Sasha a cup of tea. Once
that was done and they were all settled in, Nana
sat back down and looked at Manny. What happened, is

(44:27):
all she asked. Manny started talking. He told her, and
by extension, the whole table, everything that had happened since
he and Rowland left rolling Fuck. He told them about
their trouble with the checkpoints on the way into town.
He walked them through the intake process, his and Roland's
few days as martyrs in training, and what he'd seen
in the few sections of Plano he'd been allowed to
haunt during his time there. The woman with the Chrome

(44:50):
Hawk was particularly interested in what he and Roland had
to say about the Kingdom's preferred assault tactics. They're not
going to be kicking indoors in fighting house to house.
Roland explained, just start shelling at the first sign of resistance.
They don't care about civilian casualties. When Manny explained what
the Kingdom had been doing at the old Tesla factory,
almost everyone looked horrified. Donald Ferris spat at the ground.

(45:12):
Most of the others cursed or at least shook their heads.
Nanna Yazi teared up. Jim, though, seemed almost enthusiastic about
the revelation. Fascinating, he muttered just loud enough for Manny
to hear. Once everyone was caught up the table fired
off a few questions at him and more towards Rowland.
They seemed mostly curious as to what they'd been able

(45:33):
to glean about the number of recruits in the Heavenly Kingdom.
Manny didn't have much useful there, so he shut up,
leaned back, and let Rowland give the answers. An awkward
silence descended on the table After a few minutes. Well,
Donald Ferris said, finally, I suppose we were fools to
hope for much more than what you've got as it stands.

(45:53):
Were left grappling to try an account for the sheer
number of men the Kingdom has deployed to assault Austin.
When a thousand martyrs, Jim spoke up and give a
take a grand Manny's blood went cold. The SDF at
its height hadn't been more than six thousand fighters, and
those were spread out across the serried battle grounds of
North Texas. The whole free city of Austin didn't have

(46:15):
more than five thousand people in its full time defense corps.
Twenty thousand men was impossible, he said, that's just fucking impossible.
I'd be inclined to agree with you, kid, said Jim,
if my own men hadn't double checked the count for us.
The Kingdom's already marshaled half of that force on the
outskirts of d f W near Lancaster. They'll be in

(46:36):
Waco tomorrow if no one stops him. Hell, they could
be pound in Austin with artillery by Doc Donald Ferris
nodded mister Shennon. Here he gestured to Jim as agreed
to lend a hand, along with several dozen of his mercenaries.
Add that to the warriors of Rolling Fuck, and we've
got seven hundred ish post humans. It's a large enough

(46:56):
force to hold Waco and badly bloody their nose. But
Kushori spoke for the first time. She had a deep,
gravelly voice that sounded like she'd been eating cigarettes for
the last ten years. Rolling Fuk is not in the
business of volunteering for our own Vietnams. My people aren't
signing up for a war. I can guarantee our presence

(47:17):
on the battlefield for up to forty eight hours, enough
time for vengeance, she continued. After that, you're hurting cats?
Is that a problem? Manny asked. I mean I saw
Roland lay waste to half a city, six hundred of him.
There's only one of him, Kushori said. Jim nodded in
agreement and fixed Manny with his uncomfortable gray eyes. See kid,

(47:39):
he said me. Any one a Roland Fox war is
as good for a few dozen normal troops in a
straight fight, more of Wotok and half trained Potazans. But
nobody is like Roland. Manny looked over to Roland. The
big man seemed distinctly uncomfortable with all the attention. He
stared down at his hands, which seemed to be occupied
with tearing up a paper drink coaster. The martyrs have

(48:01):
a lot of half trained partizans, but they've also got tanks, artillery,
as suits the resources of a nation state or close enough.
Rolland Fuck can hold that off for a while, But
without Rolland the best they can do is delay the inevitable.
Now with Roland, Jim continued, this is a two hour
five tops. We set up our troops in some little

(48:23):
chunk of the city and start dropping mortars and rockets
on the van guard. They pull up and circle us
and start deploying their artillery to bombus to kingdom come. Then,
when they are good and packed together, we drop Roland
on the asses. Kashurei nodded, yes, She said, he'll hit
them and disrupt their whole order of battle while our
cavalry rolls around their flanks and charges. That should be

(48:45):
enough to make them panic. Then we'd chase them down
until they lose cohesion. Rolland's heads stayed down. He didn't speak.
Manny looked from him to Jim Tannani Yazzi and Donald Ferris.
So what's the problem, Manny asked. If Roland and Rolling
Funk are all in the should be a walk in
the park, Rowland, Nanny Yazzi said, prefers not to fight,

(49:05):
But I just saw him. You just saw me break
a long streak of not killing people. Roland's voice sounded odd,
hollow and dry, and utterly without any of the mirth
or mischief Manny had come to expect from the chromed man.
I did that to get my memories back, Manny, he shrugged,
And I did it for you because you're my buddy.
But I got no stake in Austin. But you know

(49:26):
what the Heavenly Kingdom will do if they take the city,
Manny protested. You've seen what they did to Plaino. They'll
do that to millions of decent people if they can.
You have the power to stop that. You're telling me
you won't. Roland met his eyes and just said, yes,
you son of a bitch. Manny felt the anger well
up inside him. It merged with his grief over Major

(49:46):
Pirone's death, Oscar's death, and his rage at the Heavenly Kingdom,
the Martyrs, and every other group of assholes who'd helped
turn his young life into a parade of nightmares. Hugh, absolute,
son of a bitch, You fucking coward. Manny did think,
couldn't think. He pulled back his fist and swung as
hard as he could for Roland's face. The chrombed man
didn't move, didn't even blink. Manny hit him right in

(50:08):
the nose. He was softer than Manny would have guessed,
didn't feel any different from punching a normal human. Manny
swung again and again until he felt something crack in
his knuckles. He cried out from the pain and pulled
back to nurse his wounded hand. For a few seconds,
Manny forgot about the rest of the room. He closed
his eyes and let his thoughts dissolve into an ocean
of physical pain. The agony of his broken hand was

(50:31):
almost soothing. It was better than thinking about mister Perrone.
It was better than thinking about Alejandro or Oscar. It
was better than thinking about his soon to be shattered home.
Manny felt a hand on his shoulder. The sensation pulled
him out of his spiraling thoughts. He looked up and
saw nanny Azzi. She smiled her sad smile and said, Manny,

(50:51):
every one here understands your pain. Not me, said Jim.
I've never been a big fan. Austin too, damn. Roland
threw his empty pint glass at the other post human's face.
It shattered on impact, embedding shards deep into Jim's cheeks
and forehead. His head snapped back, and he blinked in
shock A few times. Sorry, he said, I deserve that,

(51:13):
and I deserved that. Roland said to Manny, no hard
feelings I get while you're piste, But kid, you gotta
understand something. Austin's home to you, to me, it's just
another city held by just another side. Half my remaining
memories are of one cause or another asking me to
go murder in their name. I'm fucking done with it.
Minnie looked to Major Clark, the STF officer's eyes were

(51:35):
lit by a familiar cold fire. He spoke in a
tone of barely controlled anger. That is, you're right, of course,
you can choose to leave, just as I will choose
to fight and die. I wonder what Manny will choose.
Manny hadn't really settled on that himself. Before he could
stumble through his response, Sasha spoke, I'll fight, She said,

(51:57):
I don't know much about guns, but I'll do my best.
Roland slumped back in his chair and tossed his arms
up in a dramatic show of frustration at too. Jesus girl,
I'll fight, Manny said to Major Clark, doing his best
to talk over Rowland. I'll choose to fight too. This
isn't gonna work, you know, Roland said. I'm not going
to be shamed into fighting again. It's just not going

(52:19):
to fucking happen. Jim leaned in. He fixed Roland with
a look that seemed almost hungry. I think it will happen.
I think the peculiar arc of your moral cumbas won't
let you leave these kids to die. He seemed surprised
by the revelation. Huh, fascinating enough of that. Donald Ferris
sounded angry. I won't stand to see this man badge

(52:41):
it and press it into fighting against his will. We
might as well dissolve the council for now and reconvene
without Rowland. Good. Roland stood up and stomped over to
the exit. That's all you people need for me. I'm
gonna go get good and pissed and start my walk
back to Arizona. He flipped his middle finger out at
the room and slammed the door behind him as he left.
All eyes turned to Mannie. I should probably go talk

(53:05):
to him. Don't do anything you're not comfortable doing. Emmanuel
Donald said, fuck that. Jim said the best. It's on
the ropes. Shame him, shame him good. As he headed
for the exit, Manny looked to Major Clark. The old
soldier's one good eye was narrow and focused Mannie. He said,
if he didn't want to talk, he wouldn't have gone

(53:25):
up to the bar, He'd have just left. There's no
honor lost. In another conversation, another try, Roland was three
beers in by the time Manny reached him, and knowing rolling,
fuck that could mean he'd already ingested enough acid to
kill a large octopus. Hey, Manny said, heybody rolland replied

(53:45):
in a voice that was just super stoned. Sorry about
getting angry. Back there, the post human spun his empty
pint glass around on the bar table. It was a
strange sight to see. Mannie had gotten so used to
seeing Roland as something akin to a Greek god. He
certainly wasn't omniscient or omnipotent, but he was unspeakably powerful
and just as irresponsible to leave out around humans, And

(54:09):
yet here he was fiddling with an empty pint glass
like a nervous college freshman standing at the back wall
of some house party. Many felt a surge of sympathy.
It's okay, man, I think I actually get it, he said,
like I've had plenty of chances to join either the
SDF or the Austin Defense Forces. I never did. Maybe
some of that's because I'm scared help. Up until like

(54:30):
a few days ago, my plan was to get the
funk off this continent as soon as I could afford it.
Many paused and bit his lip. It was an instinctive gesture,
his gut's reaction to a sudden burst of self awareness.
Many hadn't thought about any of this before. I don't know,
he said. This ship has been going on basically my
whole life. I can't remember a time when I wasn't
scared of something like this happening. I didn't understand any

(54:53):
of it as a kid, but I can remember being
seven or eight years old and just being so angry
at the soldiers, even our soldiers. I thought, if all
you assholes would just refuse to be led into battle,
none of this could happen. You know, that's not how
it works. Ryan Roland asked as he turned away from
Manny and waved at the bartender. We love this war ship.

(55:13):
At least someone us due those of us who were
Oh the bartender arrived, Roland ordered my time mixed with
the margharita and one of those what you got him column?
Oh yeah, a fucking mohito Roland. Manny's voice was gentle
but firm. How many beers did you drink before I
got here? Not beers, Roland said in a casual voice.
Mushroom rum, sweet but not bad. He licked his lips

(55:35):
as he watched the bartender work through the herculean task
of crafting his requested beverage. Roland Manny said, and the
chrombed man turned back to him. Ah, sorry, it's just
been too long a stretch of sober for me. I
got excited. What the funk was I saying? That war
is fun? Oh yeah, as long as you don't think
you will die. That's why all throughout history he had

(55:56):
so many generals and politicians kicking off conflicts because they
felt safe and when you're pretty sure you'll live, war
is an absolute hoot. That's the problem with me, and
fighting the problem as you like it. Too much. Roland
grabbed his hand. The chromed man moved so fast Manny
didn't even see the motion blur. Roland's hand was just
wrapped around his wrist, immovable. He squeezed hard enough that

(56:19):
it hurt. Roland's eyes bulged out and stared into Manny
with a manic intensity that was frightening. I fucking love it.
It's like sex on heroin and bungee jumping and getting
rammed in the assid and that first shadow liquor you
is synake when you're fourteen, all at once, and mixed
with the best actual battle drugs the most bloated military
budget in history can buy. He loosened his grip and

(56:40):
turned half away from Manny. That's why I shouldn't do it,
because I'll get carried away like I got carried away
in Dallas. Maybe this time I won't be able to
stop when it's time to stop. Manny kept his eyes
on Roland's. The big man turned a little further to
the left, but he didn't look away. How do you
know that your intervention won't make things better? Manny asked.

(57:00):
Maybe if we can kill enough in the martyrs, their
power will be broken forever. Maybe your intervention will be
the first step towards making this a more livable part
of the globe. Roland laughed. It started as a low
chuckle that then cascaded into a series of rolling, rib
cracking howls. Manny didn't get the joke, and he couldn't
find any humor in his words, so he sat tight
until Roland's mirth subsided and the chromed man had recovered

(57:22):
enough to explain himself. All right, sorry, he said, between chuckles.
It's just a ship. Kid. You're too young to know
how funny that is. Roland straightened up and wiped a
tear from his eye. So you're talking about me the
exact same way people talked about the U. S. Military
back when I was a kid. The bartender came by
and sat down Roland's drink, an enormous jug filled with

(57:45):
a multi hued mix of alcoholic beverages. The post human
took a deep poll from his my Tai Garito. Manny
took the chance to ask a question. I thought you
didn't remember anything further back than a few years ago.
I don't remember anything clearly, Roland said, what I do
remember bits and pieces, and I remember being a young
man and watching the news break in an off base bar.

(58:05):
Some election had gone bad in Bolivia. The president announced
he was sending in soldiers to keep the pace. Did
it work, Manny asked? And no, kid, would your school
teach you about Bolivia? That there was a genocide? At oh,
Manny said, as Roland's points sunk in right yep. Roland
grunted and took another deeper pull from his ridiculous beverage.

(58:27):
They were quiet for a while. Manny took the opportunity
to take a long look at Roland. His face held
only a few lines around his eyes and lips, and
yet he still looked old, positively ancient. There appeared to
be a tremendous weight to the man's eyes, accentuated by
the deep wrinkles underneath them. It looked as if the
chromed man's face was sagging underneath the weight of what
he had seen Roland. Manny asked, do you have any

(58:51):
idea of where you came from? I think I was
born around Mississippi ba No, Manny interrupted, not like where
you were born, but how you became and what you
are today? You said, you've been disconnected from the internet
for the last ten years. I've got a guess your
implants or even older than that. But the way everyone
here talks about you, you're still king shit. Oh, Roland said,

(59:11):
yeah that, I got no real idea what happened there.
I know I was in the army. I'm pretty sure
that's when the tinkering started, sure, man, he said, but
didn't A lot of the road people start as ex
special forces who went rogue? Why are you special? You
had no clear answer to that, buddy, he smiled, as
if he just remembered something good. I guess I've got
that surgery coming up. Once I get my memories back,

(59:33):
I'll let you know what I find out. Manny laughed too,
but his was cold and bitter. Sure I'll probably be
in a refugee camp at that point, or dead, damn good.
Roland said, yeah, man, he said, I'm really not trying
to manipulate you here. It's just now, I get it.
I get it. Roland waved him off. It's fair, you

(59:53):
get every right to be piste. I just can't. He
trailed off. Many put a hand on Roland's shoulder. He
didn't understand how the post human felt. How could he?
Manny couldn't even conceive of having that kind of power,
but he could see why it was a difficult choice.
There was a part of Manny, a dark, manipulative chunk
of his soul, that knew he was on his way
to changing Roland's mind. This was essentially the same strategy

(01:00:16):
he used on the job. You built empathy with people
through a combination of shared experiences in regular engagement. That
empathy paid dividends when you needed some lieutenant's approval to
cross the check point. It would pay dividends here if
he was careful and consistent as fucked up man he thought,
you're manipulating your friend into killing a bunch of people.
You know what, Manny said, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to.

(01:00:40):
Roland drain the rest of his mug, belched and looked
over at Manny. He looked unsteady, half conscious. The chrombed
man put his left hand over Manny's hand while it
rested on his shoulder. He fixed Manny with his half
focused eyes and nodded, FuG it. Roland said, oh, fugen alpia,
and be a dick of it. Didn't thank you, Manny said,
with a nod. I know not say anything else, kid,

(01:01:02):
I don't really want to think about what I just
promised to do. Man. He found Sasha sitting around a
fire pit outside the city, proper deep in conversation with
Donald Ferris. She sat on the ground, legs splayed out wide,
with her button the grass. Donald sat in a folding chair.
It wasn't cold outside precisely, but it had cooled off
a great deal from the heat of the day. The

(01:01:24):
air held just the barest hint of winter. It was
shaping up to be one of those odd September days
where Texas seemed on the verge of an actual seasonal shift.
One look at Sasha's face told him that she was
at least as unsettled as Rowland. He didn't want to
crowd her, so he squatted down on the other side
of Donald. Emmanuel the old Man's voice was as smooth
and rich as man. He remembered from the narration of

(01:01:46):
his documentary, It's good to see you. Sasha's been telling
me her story. She actually just turned to the subject
of you, Yeah, Manny asked, Yes. She was telling me
how she met you and Marigold, and how you both
helped to find a way free of the kingdom. Oh,
he said, and looked at Sasha. I never really met Marigold.

(01:02:06):
I didn't realize you knew her well. Sasha shook her head.
I only knew her a little while. I was just
supposed to be administering tests to her. But I couldn't
stop her from talking, and she made sense. She made
more sense than what was going on out in the
Kingdom every day. Sasha stared down into the fading embers
of the fire. I feel stupid forever believing in that place.

(01:02:27):
And what do you believe now? Donald asked, I don't know,
She said. It seems arrogant to decide that God doesn't
exist just because I let myself get taken in by
a cult. M the old man nodded. The good news
is you're young. You've got plenty of time to figure
things out. Again, his cheeks turned up into a smile
and his face blossomed with wrinkles. Now he looked up

(01:02:49):
at Manny. What have you been up to, my dear
boy talking to Roland. Manny said he agreed to help.
By the way, he's going to fight. Donald Ferris's smile
turned into were frown. Manny hadn't been expecting that. How
did you do it? He asked in a somber, grave voice.
We just talked for a while, Manny said. He explained

(01:03:11):
why he didn't want to fight. It sounded very reasonable.
Manny paused and then made the choice to lie just
a little. I wasn't trying to change his mind. I
didn't ask him to help. That last part was true.
At least. I do feel bad, though, I'm sure he
changed his mind because of me. Is it really on
you if he chooses to fight, Sasha asked, I killed
two men. Both of those deaths are on me. But

(01:03:33):
you didn't order Roland to do anything. No. Donald Ferris agreed,
but I doubt Roland would have made the decision to
intervene if Manny hadn't pressed. That's probably true, Manny admitted.
Donald looked from Manny to Sasha. There's a war ritual
peculiar to the men and women in whatever's of this community.

(01:03:53):
I think you'd benefit from seeing it. A ritual, Sasha asked,
not a religious one, I assure you, but yes, they
call it their war ritual. He extended a hand out
to the field around Rolling Fuck. Many looked out at
it for the first time since coming out here and
realized that people seem to be packing up right now.
Donald said, the citizens are packing up their tints and

(01:04:16):
their ARVs and preparing the city for departure. It's moving
out with their army. They'll drive that thing. He jerked
a thumb in the direction of the City of Wheels,
right up to the damn battlefield. It'll be behind them
the whole time they're fighting. I think they've stole the
idea from the ancient Celts. Anyway, he said. Once the
cities in position, they'll open up these little boxes that

(01:04:38):
look quite a lot like bee hives, and they'll let
out a swarm of about a thousand little drones. Those
are mostly just facial recognition cameras attached to wings and
a wee engine. They'll record everything and send data on
the faces of every enemy fighter to a central computer
in the city. What did does that do, Manny asked.
It gives us a chance to identify those men or women,

(01:05:00):
so we can scrape their social media profiles and display
pictures and videos from their lives. Once they die, the
whole city, everyone who isn't fighting turns out to watch that.
That sounds fucking terrible, Manny said, What do we gain
from watching the home movies of Dead Men a memorial.
Manny didn't understand, but he could see that Donald Ferris

(01:05:22):
was revving himself up for an involved explanation. He let
the old man speak. I was a small child when
my country invaded a Rack, along with the United States
and a few other nations. The war was news, yes,
but that's all it was. Even our own soldiers were
more numbers than real people. I'd hear that two Royal
Marines had died in a roadside bombing, and it meant

(01:05:43):
less to me than when my neighbor broke his legs
slipping down the stairs. War isn't like that for us,
Manny said, I don't know anyone in Austin who hasn't
lost a friend or family to the fighting. It affects
us all, So it does my boy, So it does,
and if any of our warriors die today, you can
bet it'll affect everyone in this social experiment we call
a city. But you didn't let me finish. The first

(01:06:06):
thing that was truly toxic about my childhood knowledge of
war is that it erased the other side. Our boys
didn't do body counts, so there were seldom reports on
how many civilians we killed, how many enemy fighters died?
That information was out there, but you had to look hard.
Most people never did. Donald Ferris shrugged and then winced

(01:06:26):
from the motion. It's easy to get people to care
about their own soldiers, but if you want to stop wars,
or at least make them less common, you've got to
get people to give a shit about the soldiers on
the other side. That, my young friend, is where your
people are even worse than my own. You're close enough
to the war to not just feel indifferent about these
martyrs marching off to die. You actively want them to die.

(01:06:49):
That's understandable, but it's also poisonous. When you dehumanize others,
you become less human yourself. Many nodded, not sure of
what to say, and my you, Donald Ferris continued. The
country that occupied this continent was the most powerful nation
on earth. They held the keys to the deadliest military
machine ever constructed. It was easy to get Americans to

(01:07:11):
support involvement in a thousand little conflicts because each only
required a small fraction of the nation's military power and
only risked a few American lives. But millions of people
around the world died, women and children, and old men
and dumby young boys from Yemen to Turkey to Guatemala.
To justify those murders, Americans had to make those people

(01:07:32):
less than human. And once they'd done that, it wasn't
such a great jump to do it to their neighbors.
He stared up at the setting sun, and many saw
tears in his eyes. What you're going to see tomorrow
is the best attempt I've seen so far to bridge
the empathy gap between the people and their folds. Chapter

(01:08:00):
twenty three. Sasha Rolling Fuck trundled forward, crunching its way
over the Texas Plains and leaving a carpet of flattened
grass and broken trees in its wake, and Sasha Marian,
situated in a little purple building atop one of the
city's tallest spires, couldn't quite believe her eyes. In spite
of its many wheels, the city didn't look like the

(01:08:21):
kind of thing that should be able to move. It
was as if the Empire State Building had taken up jogging.
Sasha had been more or less alone since the war
Council had concluded. She'd wanted to go up to the
bar with Manny and Rowland, since they were the only
people here she even sort of knew, but their conversation
had seemed a private sort of thing. At first, she
thought that her hosts had made an oversight in leaving

(01:08:43):
her unwatched. Surely they wouldn't let someone who had been
their enemy just a few days ago wander freely through
their home. But as the hours went by, it became
clear that's exactly what they'd done, So Sasha explored it
had been exhilarating. Actually, every inch of the city was
different and strange, engine new to her. Across the gantries
there were numerous market stalls with fresh meat and produce.

(01:09:05):
At first she recognized all the foods, but the higher
and further she went, the stranger everything seemed. The meat
went from beef and chicken to alligator, in, zebra and mammoth,
and eventually something Sasha thought might be from an actual dinosaur.
She was sure it was all lab grown, and the
produce was certainly gene modified. At one point, she came
across a kiosk filled with fruit that had been tweaked

(01:09:27):
to take the shape of gigantic erect penises. There were
penis watermelons, penis oranges, penis apples, and even bags of
tiny penis shaped grapes. She knew she should have felt disgusted.
Two weeks ago, Sasha would have been horrified, but somehow
she just wasn't. She felt a vague sense of unease
awkwardness at the sight of so many genitals, but after

(01:09:48):
all she'd seen in the Heavenly Kingdom, it didn't exactly
horrify her either. How could it. The fondel boats were
another matter. The sight and the strange, musky, sweet smell
that wafted out of the grind and groping crowd inside
it made her queasy. This is exactly as depraved as
Pastor Mike said it would be, she thought. But she
also thought, is this really worse than all that violence

(01:10:09):
and death? Who were they hurting? The Lord? Said a shrill,
small voice in the back of her mind. Why would
God hate this and not the hanging of good people,
Sasha wondered, Why would this make him angry but not
the butchery inside that factory? You know what the Bible says, Sasha,
There is no getting around that. The scriptures were clear.

(01:10:30):
Well maybe they're wrong. Then maybe they've always been wrong,
or maybe I read them wrong. Maybe they didn't say
what I thought. They said it was odd, how freeing
that thought was. She made her way past a fondle boat, and,
for no reason beyond curiosity and the desire to stretch
her muscles, Sasha started to climb upwards. The gantries that

(01:10:51):
made up the bulk of rolling Fox walking space were
fairly easy for a human to traverse. They had high walls,
so even the very drunk were unlikely to fall, and
in spite of the city's clutter and bustle, its designers
had done a good job of making two clear lanes
for foot traffic. But the gantries only gave Sasha access
to a handful of the strange, glittering buildings that dotted
the city's rolling superstructure. So she left them and she

(01:11:14):
climbed up. It was not an easy climb. Here and
there she found small sections of ladder or knotted rope
to ease her passage. For the most part, though, she
climbed hand over hand up the criss crossed metal girders.
She passed several buildings filled with people drinking and partying.
Sasha didn't stop to talk. The climb was hard, but
at least it allowed her to avoid awkward conversation with

(01:11:35):
whatever manner of creatures lived in this place. By the
time she reached the top of the spindle, Sasha's body
was drenched in sweat and her arms were too sore
to pull her up one more foot. She was grateful
to whoever had decided to cap this spindle with a
tiny purple shack, and she was even more grateful that
the shack appeared unoccupied. Sasha pulled herself inside and collapsed

(01:11:56):
on the floor for a while. It was all she
could do to regain her breath. She wondered, in a
vague sort of way, if she'd just broken into someone's home.
Nobody had warned her that there would be certain places
she couldn't travel here, but no one had told her
much of anything at all. After she'd arrived, Sasha took
stock of her surroundings. The interior of the room was plush,

(01:12:17):
The walls were carpeted in thick, cushiony velvet. The floor
below her seemed to be some sort of black shag.
There was a framed picture on one wall. Sasha didn't
recognize the artist, but it looked like a cross section
drawing of a handgun with fetuses as the bullets. The
sight of it made her feel a bit sick, but
there was also something about the art that drew her eyes.

(01:12:37):
The center of the room was a low, flat table
that appeared to be made entirely of mirrored glass. There
was a pile of white powder on the center of
the table, along with a strange, rectangular piece of green paper.
Sasha picked up the paper and stared at it. It
took her a moment to realize what it was. Money,
said a voice from behind her. Oh, it used to
be once upon a time. Saw Sha rose stiffened. She

(01:13:01):
turned around, not sure what to expect, but with an
apology already spilling out of her mouth. I'm sorry, sir,
I didn't. Something in the man's smile and the relaxed
slump of his shoulders made her stop talking. He stood
in the doorway of the little building, just a few
feet in front of her. She had no idea how
he could have climbed up and in there without her
hearing him. She didn't remember the man's name, but she

(01:13:22):
recognized him from the war Council. Those writhing snake tattoos
identified him as clearly as a name tag I'm she
trailed off. He smiled at her. There was something about
his eyes that seemed off wrong. She couldn't place it.
His pupils were somehow different than they should have been
when he spoke, though his voice was warm and friendly.

(01:13:43):
You are, Sashamarian, the girl who was brave enough to
flee her home and family for the heavenly Kingdom, and
then brave enough to leave it when she realized what
it truly was. His head dipped down into a slight bow.
I'm Jim Shannon. It's an honor to meet you, miss Marian.
Jim's squatted down on his haunches and dropped his arms
in between his legs. It was a casual motion, but

(01:14:05):
he executed it with almost mechanical precision. There was something
to his movements that spoke of terrible potential energy, kinetic
force just waiting to be unleashed. It's nice to meet you,
she said, because what else could she say. Jim smile
didn't change, but his eyes did. His pupils contracted and
then changed shape from a circle to a spiraling, rounded star. No,

(01:14:28):
it's not, he said. That's not a lie to each other. Eh, Sasha,
I'm weird, I move wrong. My eyes as he spoke,
his star pupils started to spin in a hypnotic spiral.
Are wrong, They don't look human. I can hear your
hotbeat elevated as we speak. I can smell cotazol in
your brain and elevated levels of blood glucose. I can

(01:14:49):
see in your eyes that me say in this has
made you even more nervous. Yes, she admitted, Yes, you're right,
you scare me. That's perfectly no on this, Marian. It
is not an act of weakness to admit fear. Quite
the opposite. You feel better now, don't you? She actually did.
There was a queer sort of relief in admitting her

(01:15:10):
fear and discomfort in this man thing's presence. I do
feel better, she said. Why is that admitting fear is
the first step to conquering it. You don't strike me
as someone who wants to live in fear, miss Marian.
You do strike me as someone who seeks control, strength,
power over your own life. I, she sputtered, I don't.

(01:15:33):
I don't know. A week ago, I'd have told you
God was in control of my life. Sasha looked down
at her lap, suddenly embarrassed. It wasn't very long ago,
but it feels like a lifetime. It was so peaceful,
just handing over control. Jim nodded and leaned his head
forward a few inches. That didn't end well, though, did it.

(01:15:53):
Sasha shook her head. You traveled to the heaven the
Kingdom with a certain set of beliefs about the universe.
Those beliefs met reality. Reality broke them into little pieces.
There's no shame in that. It happens to all of us.
Now you're a bit older and a few bits wiser.
She looked up at him. His smile seemed somehow softer.

(01:16:14):
Now she felt like opening up, confiding in this stranger.
Sasha wondered if that was another aspect of his modifications,
some alteration of his body, chemistry and physical appearance that
allowed him to seem more familiar and trustworthy to her.
She opened up anyway, I just don't know what to
do now. I guess I could go home, but I
don't think I was wrong in leaving home. I don't

(01:16:35):
want a life in the American Federation. I know that.
I just you don't know what's right, Jim finished, in
a voice that was gentler than she would have guessed
he was capable of sounding. She nodded as she struggled
for her next words. I know I can't go back.
I don't know where to go next. I don't have
any money or really any useful skills, so I can't
go to California or Cascadia. I doubt this place will

(01:16:58):
take me, she gestured down at the rolling city below them.
And even if they would, I don't really feel comfortable
here either. Hm Jim nodded and leaned back. Perhaps he said,
you should weary less about where you want to end
up and more about what you want to end up doing.
I don't have any options, Sasha said, fighting down a

(01:17:18):
rising panic that tickled the back of her throat. I
didn't even finish high school. I've spent the last two
years preparing to join the Kingdom. I don't know how
to do anything useful. That's where you're wrong, Jim said,
in a firm voice. You lied well enough to hide
your intention from your parents and am fed law enforcement.
You did that for years. Sasha wanted to argue that

(01:17:38):
she hadn't lied, not according to Pastor Mike's definition of
the word, but she stayed silent while he spoke. You
escaped from one of the most fortified boadas in the world,
Jim continued, And you did useful work in a medical facility.
Then you helped facilitate the escape of several prisoners from
the Kingdom jail. You functioned effectively in a firefight and
killed a trained soldier and a hand combat. Then you

(01:18:01):
killed another man and stole a vehicle to aid your
comrades in an escape. Am I missing anything? Sasha looked
down again. She didn't speak. She felt bad about taking
praise from murder, especially for Darrell's murder. She did, however,
feel a tiny swell of pride at Jim's words. It
was immediately accompanied by a flood of guilt. Killing is

(01:18:21):
not something to be proud of, she said, Oh, I disagree,
Jim chuckled. Killing is a highly technical skill, and you've
proven yourself a talented amateur. With some training and a
spot of chrome, you could really be something. He trailed off.
Sasha was quiet for a moment. She looked into Jim's
eyes and tried to read something in them that proved

(01:18:43):
a fool's Errand there was nothing in those orbs but
cool confidence, and even that might be false. What did
any gesture or look mean from a man who could
control every aspect of his body right down to his pupils.
I don't want to get better at killing, she told him.
I don't want to fill my body the natural things.
Just thinking about it makes me feel ill. And yet

(01:19:06):
Jim said, what do you mean? And yet she asked,
And yet that thought intrigues you too. It's no use,
hadn't it. I can taste deceit. Sasha shuddered a little
at that, but she couldn't deny that he was right.
As much as the idea repulsed her, she had spent
too much time powerless to not crave power. I'm not

(01:19:26):
looking to push you into anything, Sasha, but I would
like to provide you with a unique opportunity. What do
you mean, she asked. He smiled, plopped down on his butt,
and swung his legs in to sit cross leget on
the shag carpet. Jim stuck a finger into the thick
black fibers of the carpet and started tugging at them.
It was an idle, nervous gesture, and Sasha found it

(01:19:48):
oddly endearing. Part of her suspected that had been his goal.
I mean that I would be willing to take you
on as a project. A project, he nodded. My organ
is a shan has access to skilled surgeons, military grade agmatics,
and vat growing organ's. I'll front the bill and I'll
train you, and in return, you'll work for me forever,

(01:20:10):
she asked. Jim laughed. She felt a little annoyed by that,
and it must have shown on her face because he stopped. Sari, Sari,
He said, it's just that be debt slavery. You must
not know this, but I helped kill the last country
that lived on this land in that sort of thing.
So how much time would I owe you, Sasha asked?

(01:20:31):
Five years, he said. Sasha's heart trembled with excitement at
the offer. When she thought about the way the adrenaline
had coursed through her during the fight in the clinic,
she wanted to say yes, But when she thought about
Darrell bleeding out next to his car, the shame inside
her overwhelmed everything else. Sasha knew she couldn't handle more
weights like that on her conscience. I don't want to

(01:20:53):
kill people, she said in a tiny voice. Shame dripped
from every syllable. That's fine, Jim said, his grin widening.
We always need medics. You've shown an aptitude for them already.
I have a feeling you'll take well to combat engineering.
There's plenty for you to do without pulling a trigger.
If I work for you, Sasha said, I have a

(01:21:15):
feeling I won't be able to avoid pulling triggers. None entirely,
Jim shrugged. But any shooting you'd do would be an
immediate self defense, and you'd have the right to refuse
an emissions that violate your moral code. I know that's
important to you. The way he said that last bit
set the hackles on her neck a rise. Is it

(01:21:37):
not important to you, she asked, morality? I mean, he
swung his hands out to the side, palms up in
a vaguely Buddhic pose. When I was a young man,
not much older than yourself, I knew a lot of
gallant men who claimed to live by codes of honor.
Such things were fashionable in the warrior culture of Adean Empire.

(01:21:57):
None of those codes stopped the men I knew from
serving that great beast we called a state. When you
see enough good moral men enable war crimes, you stop
seeing value in the term morality, So what matters to you?
Sasha asked, what do you believe in change? Miss Marian
He smiled, revealing rows of pearly white teeth, the snake

(01:22:20):
tattoos on his chest and shoulders, writhed in excitement, I
believe in change. I grew up in a time when
the climate changed and my home became a deadly broiler.
Politics changed, and democracy became a dictatorship of capital. For
a time, I believed in the promises of change handed
out by progressive politicians and scent of old revolutionaries. But

(01:22:42):
every one of them was either co opted by the
system or killed by it. He shrugged and cast his
eyes down to the carpet for a while, just a
moment his mask slipped, Sasha saw a deep, yawning pit
of despair in the tight lines at the edge of
his lips, and the subtle twitch of muscles below his
left eye. It passed, and a black velvet smile took

(01:23:03):
its place. Then I met a man who showed me
the way. Nothing new could grow on this continent until
the weeds of the old were pulled out by the
root and tossed into the compost. Pile of history, So
he said, forget the old debates about what system should
replace capitalism. Kill the state, and the seeds of a

(01:23:23):
thousand new worlds will sprout on its corpse. You've seen
two of those sprouts already, Sasha shook her head. If
you're referring to the heavenly Kingdom, it's a nightmare. The
old US can't have been worse than that, Jim shrugged.
Depends on your perspective. I suppose, tell, miss Sasha, you
left the Amphid, the Old u Say's most direct successor state.

(01:23:47):
Why was that? Because it's a soulless pit, she said,
the words almost leaping from her throat. Jim smiled at that.
This isn't though, is it, He gestured out at the
city of wheels below them. No, Sasha said, whatever else
it was rolling fuck was not soulless. Nither is the

(01:24:07):
Navajo Nation, Jim said, or Cascadia, the black Stone Nation.
Even the Mormons are up to some interesting things these days,
one faction at least. So which do you believe in?
Who do you fight for? He grinned again, night the child,
as I told you, I fight for change, to cast
down the ossified bones of the old world and make

(01:24:28):
space for the new. I owe allegiance to no national god,
save perhaps Lady Airis, who he smiled. A bit of
smugness leached into the expression. She could see it clear
as day, right around his eyes. It should have repelled
her more than it did. Heiris was the Greek goddess
of discord, back when people cared about what the Greeks believed.

(01:24:52):
She set the spark that lit the Trojan wall. I
know it's a bit silly reaching back to that old mythology,
but I can't help myself. There's something about those old
gods that calls to me. I can identify with them.
He leaned in. There was an eagerness to his posture,
his tone, his eyes. The snakes jerked and spun on
his muscled chest and arms. I'm offering you a chance

(01:25:16):
to join us on Olympus. Dear Sasha, you've spent your
time in worship. It's time to embrace your own godhead,
leave your antique books behind, and rewrite the world with
your will. I don't know if that's what I want,
Sasha said in a still small voice. She tried to
ignore how much part of her ached for what he promised.

(01:25:38):
The thought of killing again nauseated her as much as
it excited her. But the thought of having power, the
kind of power she'd seen Roland exercise, that was intoxicating.
She hated how badly she'd started to want it. Well,
you don't have to decide now, Jim shrugged his shoulders
and gave an amiable smile. The floor rumbled underneath them.

(01:26:00):
There was a loud clattering wine as the whole structure
of Rolling Fuck came to a slow stop. Jim waited
for the scrunching noise to cease and said, come and
watch what we do to day, then make you call Rowland.
Dawn broke just as Rolling Fuck pulled to a long

(01:26:20):
slow stop by the shore of Lake Wago. The city
had taken the long way around the reservoir, which had
added at least an hour to their journey but also
put a sizeable water barrier between Rolling Fuck and the
advancing forces of the Heavenly Kingdom. It had been a
tight fit at several points, and Rowland had enjoyed watching
the wheeled city crunch over several abandoned homes in many

(01:26:40):
a street lamp, but eventually the pilots and navigators had
found a suitably large public park and brought rolling fuk
to rest there. It's a nice sunrise, Manny said. The
kid stood next to Rowland on a wooden deck built
onto the side of the main roller skofucker. Mike had
assured them this spot provided the best vantage point to
watch the rising sun. It looked like he'd been right

(01:27:02):
in that the sky around them was a heavy blend
of red and orange that brought up fragmented memories of
my ties and fireballs in Roland's head. Clouds clustered at
the top of the horizon ripe to bursting with the
color and light of the new days sun. Roland nodded. Yeah.
The shame no one who lives here gets to see it,
Manny said, I've never seen the city this empty. Roland

(01:27:24):
looked over at his young friend. The boy had seen
a lot for his age, and Roland could see how
much it pained him. Sorrow had a sent all its own.
The plunging levels of nora panephren and serotonin brought out
the sharp stink of cortisol in the greasy odor of opioids.
Lurking just below those smells was the odd, spicy tinge
of the I L eighteen protein. Roland could almost hear

(01:27:46):
it weaken the valves of Manny's heart. I imagine this
sucks extra much for you. I mean, he's been where
they are right twice, Manny said. Roland nodded. I can't
exactly recall, he admitted, but I spect I had something
to do with the first time Manny looked over to Rowland. Chemically,
it was clear the kid was battling him a lunge

(01:28:07):
of sadness, trauma, and anxiety. His actual thoughts, though, were
just as hidden from Rowland as they would be from
any stock human, perhaps more so. There were moments when
Roland feared he was losing the ability to read human
emotions or even display them properly. On his face. Was
that look you're given me? He asked? Finally, what do

(01:28:27):
you mean? I can't tell what a look on your
face means, Rowland explained, And I'm curious. Are you angry
at me? Manny shrugged, and then he sighed. His shoulders slumped,
his head drooped forward and down just a bit. No,
he said, I'm not angry. What would I even be
angry about? If you can't remember what you did? Back then,

(01:28:49):
are you even the same person who did those things?
And even if you are, maybe you were doing the
right thing. I assume someone was at some point in
that fucking mess of a war. Maybe everyone was, Roland offered.
I know the heavenly Kingdom think what they're doing is right,
Manny said, I also don't give a shitting dick what
they think. They're murderers. They can all sit and spin.

(01:29:10):
You're confident in me murdering the lot of them is
the right thing to do, then I'm confident it's better
than letting them win, Manny said. Roland nodded quietly and
stared out at the rising sun. The red had faded
and the orange had grown brighter. He could see the
shape of the sun behind the clouds missed rose off
the field in front of them, and across the lake.
A low light fog rolled in over what appeared to

(01:29:32):
be an old golf course. You're probably right about that,
Roland said, But where does it end. It ends when
they're beaten and Austin is safe. Manny's words were forceful,
but he looked down and away from Roland when he spoke.
You know that's not true, Roland said. I forget my
own name a lot of the time, and I still

(01:29:52):
know you're full of it, killing these fox buys austin time,
and probably not a lot of it. There are still
millions of guns and millions of pist staff desperate people
in this ragged chunk of country. So what are you saying, Roland?
It'd be better to just let the one place around
here that isn't terrible get eaten by darkness, no, Roland said,
but read the riding on the damn wall this place.

(01:30:14):
He waved a hand out in a gesture that encompassed
the whole horizon is fucked. Don't stay here and die
with it. Manny crossed his arms in front of himself
and leaned forward on to the railing of the deck.
His head slumped into his hands, and he was quiet
for a while. Roland knew the army of the Heavenly
Kingdom was less than forty miles distant. The scent of
that vast ramshackle horde had grown more prominent over the

(01:30:38):
last few minutes. His nose took in the stink of diesel,
the ozone odor of discharging batteries, and the cumulative reek
of hundreds of vehicles worth of engine oil. Behind those
prominent smells lurked the foul gangren a stench of ten
thousand men, sweating, fear and stress out of every pore.
Roland looked down over the deck and onto the yellow
grass that led up to the shores of the lake.

(01:31:00):
The warriors of Rolling Fok had started to assemble themselves. There.
A large group of men and women had started to
unpack dozens of quadrfracts. The four legged robots had been
built by Boston Dynamics back before the fall of the
Old US. They'd been meant to ferry men and equipment
up steep Afghan mountain sides. Roland stared at them, and
he stalked through the lab, a razor sharp machete in

(01:31:22):
one hand and a machine pistol in the other. The
air reeked of blood. Ahead of him. He could smell
the fierce wet wafting off two engineers as they hid
beneath an overturned metal table. Pieces of robotic equipment were
scattered on the floor. Roland reached out his senses and
felt that these were the last two people alive in
the facility. He stepped forward, swinging his blade in an

(01:31:43):
arc that he knew would end in flesh. Roland shook
his head and pulled himself out of the past. The
flashes of memory were growing more frequent. Guilt came with them.
It took some effort to force his mind to focus
again on the world around them. Roland looked back out
at the mustering yard warriors dawned armor, a fantastic array
of old fashioned polished steel plate mail, ultra modern powered

(01:32:06):
body armor, antique flack vests, and a significant number of costumes.
He watched a man in armor that mixed the aesthetic
of a polish winged hussar with an Imperial stormtrooper help
a woman in a crop top neil green Giei suit
as she locked a pair of rocket launchers onto the
flanks of one of the four legged robots. Over to
his left, another group of warriors had started to assemble

(01:32:27):
the city's vehicle pool. Ramps had descended from garages in
the bellies of the rollers. A slow, steady stream of
armored vehicles motored their way down the ramps and into
the ragged lines on the field. The bulk of rolling
Fox vehicles were either modified a PCs or armored motorcycles
sporting portable field guns or automatic grenade launchers on side cars.
There were tactical arguments for the use of such vehicles

(01:32:50):
in open field combat, of course, but Roland suspected they'd
mainly been picked because they were fun to drive. Almost
every vehicle's engine had been souped up well beyond any
potent chill battlefield benefit. Most of them also had nitrous
oxide tanks, although Roland suspected those were more for huffing
than they were for speed. Where did they get all
this stuff, Manny asked Roland. I had no idea, Roland said,

(01:33:14):
but when the old government fell left behind a lot
of equipment, basses and basses full of mothballed ordinance. I
guess as these guys got in early before the rush
and grabbed what they could. At that moment, Rowland caught
Sasha scent moving down one of the spindles above the
main roller. His hind brain guessed she was headed to
the deck he and Manny occupied. Roland couldn't smell Jim,

(01:33:35):
who was good at staying hidden, but he knew that
Sasha couldn't have known where they were on her own.
That meant Jim had likely sniffed Manny out and made
the same assumption about Rowland's location that Rowland had made
about Jim's. It wasn't long before the sliding metal door
slid open and Jim and Sasha walked out on to
the deck. Jim was in his familiar battle gear, his

(01:33:55):
blood red chaps almost shone in the blinding light of
the morning sun. He had a smug, self satisfied grin
and gigantic pupils that spoke of recent drug use. Beside him,
Sasha looked disheveled and exhausted, but jittery. He could smell
the coffee wafting from her pores. Hey fuck nuts, Roland said, Hey, Sasha.
She looked confused for a moment. Jim just nodded and said, hey,

(01:34:18):
shit Bird, Hey Manny. Mannie waved vaguely at them, without
turning his head to meet them. He continued to look
out at the army assembling in the field. It's a
pretty cool showdown there, Roland said, kinda wish I had
some dissociatives and maybe a blunt. Now would be the
time for one, ah, she, Jim said, Just so happens,
I got both. He stepped up alongside Roland, extended his

(01:34:42):
full arm and then tapped his left index finger to
the back of his right hand. The tip of that
finger detached and rolled up on to his knuckle. A
line of white powder poured out onto the back of
Jim's other hand. He offered it to Rowland. Sure, Roland said,
and railed the line. Ketamine wasn't Roland's favoritest to drugs.
He preferred m x C if he was going to

(01:35:02):
snort a dissociat event. In all honesty, a big bottle
of d x M heavy cough syrup mixed with vodka
was even more his speed. But hey, drugs was drugs.
Once Roland had finished, Jim poured out another line and
offered it to Manny. No thanks, said the fixer. It's
pretty good stuff, Roland said, in a helpful tone. Ketamine
goes well with unspeakable violence. Might be fun to watch

(01:35:24):
the battle that decides the future of your people from
inside a khole. Manny looked defended. Roland shrugged. He glanced
at Jim, who gave him an I don't know why
you're looking at me. Look I'll try some, Sasha said,
I mean, fuck it, why not? It was a little
cute how she stumbled over the fuck. Roland found it
in daring. It seemed Manny did too. The cocktail of dopamine, testosterone,

(01:35:48):
at oxytocin that waffed it off and made his feelings
as clear as day. Hell yeah, girl, Jim said, with
an exaggerated Southern twang. Get all over here and rail this.
That means snorted, Roland said helpfully. Sasha approached Jim's arm.
She looked him in the eye, then looked over to Roland,
and last to Manny. Then she stared down at the

(01:36:09):
powder as if she was hoping it would say something
to her. It didn't, but she leaned in any way
and snorted about half of it before she sneezed and
then wretched, and then staggered to the side of the
deck and vomited over the side. Jim and Roland laughed
in sheer joy. Manny, being a good person, moved to
hold her hair back and help her deal with the
puky aftershocks. While the humans engaged with their frailties, Roland

(01:36:32):
and Jim did a couple more lines each. That was terrible,
Sasha said, a few minutes later. Yeah, Jim chuckled it
takes some getting used to, and then the door slid
open again. Skullfucker Mike walked out onto the deck. Boy
ass hats, he called out, we're about to war up.
You should get down to the field as app if

(01:36:52):
you want to see the face taking what Manny asked?
Excuse me, Sasha said, at the same time. Mike just
laughed and clapped them both on the shoulders. I'll explain
down in the field. Get a move on. He nodded
to Sasha and added, there's a pukeuash station just inside
into the right, next to the bathroom. Right. Jim rubbed

(01:37:12):
his hands together in excitement. Why don't you kids go
roll with skull fucking Mike. I've got to get Roland
up to my mechanics so we can suit him up.
Roland didn't like the eagerness in Jim's eyes or the
excitement in his voice when he said that there was
something indecent about it. But a promise was a promise,
so Roland nodded and gave Manny a little squeeze on

(01:37:32):
the shoulder. I'll see you soon, buddy, This won't take long, Manny.
Skull fucker Mike, Manny asked as the chromed man led
them through the gantries and towards the elevator. What exactly
is so special about Roland? I mean, he's a nice guy,
but what makes him so much scarier than the other
chromed folks like you and Topaz? What do you know

(01:37:54):
about Roland's past, Mike asked. In return, very little Manny admitted,
he doesn't seem to remember much. I've sussed out that
he was in the army back before the revolution. He's
talked about fighting in Turkey, but also in Dallas and
Denver and a bunch of other American cities. Mike nodded, Yeah,
we met in Dallas back before it was Cidad de Muerta.

(01:38:15):
I had just been dishonorably discharged from the Marine Corps
for He frowned, shook his head, and continued, it doesn't
matter what. For I was broke and I had a
body fellow Uncle Sam's chrome. He wanted it back. I
wound up taking shelter in the White Rock Commune. Roland
was there too. He was pretty political back in those days,
always quoting baccoon In and Achalon and Red John. Did

(01:38:39):
you guys actually know Red John? Sasha asked, Up until
that point, she'd walked quietly in the rear of their
little group. The few times Manny had glanced back, she'd
had her head down, stuck in her own little world.
But now she was alert and engaged. Many guessed it
was hearing the name of the famous revolutionary that had
done it. That's odd, he thought. I never met the

(01:39:00):
Mike said, but Rowland did. He was in real deep
with that whole circle. So was that weird fucker Jim.
I was tight with Roland, but I've never gotten to
the political side of things. I liked smashing stuff and
they needed stuff smashers. How does this relate to why
Rowland's Rowland? Manny asked, Well, I've known old Roland for
a while. Magueni was still fully himself. He was always

(01:39:23):
cagy about his background. But we had our theories, and
mine was that he had been part of Project Orange.
What was that, Sasha asked, Holy fuck Mann He said
he'd heard of Project Orange, although he wasn't surprised Sasha hadn't.
The am FED was the closest descendant of the old
United States. They'd have kept most of the bad stuff

(01:39:44):
out of their history books. Well, you know, Mike said.
Through the twenties, the military struggled with declining enlistment numbers.
All the little resource wars climate change sparked created a
need for a capable, nimble force that could project power
without requiring a public commitment of force. So back in
the late thirties, the U. S. Military started fucking hard
with gene editing tools and bio mods. At first, it

(01:40:07):
was just basic upgrades to select combat units, early versions
of the healing suites, y'all both have now. Then they
moved on to carbon fiberlaced bones, bullet resistant skin, nanohealing suites.
The end result was Project Orange, the best warriors in
the whole military loaded down with experimental self adapting, neural
and physiological upgrades. Yeah, man, he added. It was a

(01:40:29):
real success, right till they wiped out a whole city. Skofucker.
Mike nodded and looked back to Sasha. He's talking about
the Battle of Inserlik. I've heard of that. Sasha said,
a US air strike had a giant munitions cache. Like
ten thousand people died. Schofucker. Mike gave a noncommittal grunt.
There was one version of the story, he said. The

(01:40:51):
story I heard the story everyone told back then is
that it was Project Orange. They blew up a city.
Sasha asked, they did blow it up, Manny said, they
just butchered everyone, mostly in hand to hand combat. The
DARPA guys miscalculated. Mike nodded to Manny. They'd entirely revamped

(01:41:11):
the endocrine systems of these soldiers and made them immune
to exhaustion and gave them perfect situational awareness. But it
also made bloodshed. He trailed off and frowned while he
searched for his next word. Addictive. So what happened to
Project Orange, Sasha asked, Well, said Mike, the scientists did
with scientists do. They refined things, They revised their hypotheses,

(01:41:34):
and tweaked their creations until the Joint chiefs had another
job for the Orange team. They must have done well
for a while, and Sir Luke was thirty nine, and
no one heard shipped from them until forty one, when
they hit that protest in Denver six hundred dead, Manny said,
reciting the facts he'd memorized a half dozen times during
his elementary education, including a sitting senator. They reached the

(01:41:56):
lift doors, which slid open once they got close, Sasha
and Manny stepped in first, and Mike came after them.
He fiddled with the control screen on the wall for
a moment. I'm just making sure this thing is set
to normal human speeds. We don't want any more puke
from yall today, Mike winked at Sasha. As the lift
doors closed, there was a soft clump sound and Manny
felt the lift descend. So yeah, skullfucker, Mike continued. The

(01:42:19):
President deployed the Orange Team against a fortified camp that
had blocked off access to most of downtown Denver. They
cleared out the camp sure enough. After the blood bath,
some hackers with a Jesture collective took close to a
terabyte out of the Pentagon servers. It contained a few
files on Project Orange and a partly redacted report on
the Insurlic massacre. And then Sasha asked, Mike shrugged. Then

(01:42:42):
they disappeared. They weren't used during the revolution, and they'd
have been pretty damn handy for the old U S.
At a couple of points midway through the war, we
recovered some intel that they'd been wiped out some terrible
accident in orbit. Only only Roland Manny said softly, Yep, skullfucker.
Mike nodded, that was certainly my suspicion, still is, but

(01:43:03):
the fuckers never confirmed it or denied it, not that
he remembers now anyway. The lift reached the ground with
a gentle bump. Its doors slid open to reveal an
army six hundred people in three large clumps out by
the shore of Lake Waco. To the left was the
city's vehicle pool, in the center where the infantry but
decked in a ridiculous melange of medieval weaponry, small arms

(01:43:24):
and handheld field artillery, and then to the right where
the quadrifracts. The sight of them took Manny's breadth away.
There were well over a hundred of the strange horse
like robots. Most of them were still being fussed over
by the riders, having bolts tightened, weapons belted on to
their chassis, or, in a few cases old timey leather
saddle strapped onto their backs. Manny saw one saddle with

(01:43:47):
what looked like a large purple dildo attached to it.
The quadrifract riders were the most uniform group of warriors
on the field. While rolling Fox infantry wore everything from
Roman legionary armor to bikinies made of bullets. The Cattley
ward nothing. Even from here, he could see that every
nipple in the group was as hard as diamond. They
were all covered in the same sort of led tattoos

(01:44:09):
that Jim wore, But where his took the form of
ever writhing snakes, theirs appeared in blotches of gray black
static all up and down their bodies. What are they,
Sasha asked, voicing Manny's thoughts too, the elite skullfucker, Mike said,
the best of the city's warriors, real tough motherfucker's mostly
former soldiers who augmented their government issue upgrades way back

(01:44:32):
in the day. Some of them have five or ten
thousand hours of combat experience stored in their bodies. Why
aren't you out there, Manny asked, Eh, he grunted. Quadrafracts
make my ass look big. Besides, Tobez is a sniper.
She keeps to the rear and I keep to her.
It's not as fun as fucking shipped up at the
front eFront. His lips curled up into a wistful smile.

(01:44:53):
But we all got to grow up sometime. Well. Sasha
and Manny gawkeed the main rollers other lift descended. The
doors opened just twenty feet to their right. Nani Yazzi
was the first one out. She moved slowly. Some of
that was surely due to her advanced age, but there
was also a note of ritual to her movements. It
was something in the arc of her spine, the cadence

(01:45:14):
of her step, the way she held her head. The
enormous gold bladed knife in her hand didn't hurt either.
Behind her walked the citizens of rolling Fuk. There were
around fifty of them in the lift, but as that
group walked forward, ropes and ladders began to roll out
from all around the enormous wheeled city. Within a matter
of minutes, hundreds and hundreds of people had descended. More

(01:45:36):
continued to disgorge from the lifts. Under the main roller
and the rear roller. The riders had all formed into
ordered ranks. They stood at something very much like a
military attention. It was the only time he'd seen post
humans do anything in an orderly fashion. Nani Yazzi stood
in front of the cavalry and the human civilians clustered
behind her in a big semicircle. The other warriors gathered

(01:45:58):
behind them. Mike maneuver for their little group to a
hill that overlooked the whole scene. It took almost twenty
minutes for the entire city to gather. What are they doing,
skulp fucker, Mike, Sasha asked, only stumbling a bit over
the curse word in his name. This is what I
wanted you to see, he replied. She's about to take
their faces. Roland, the process of getting ready for war

(01:46:23):
made the bile rise up in his gut. That was curious.
Roland's stomach didn't still produce bile, not the same kind
of vile it had when he was human. It had
been years since his nervous system had been natural enough
to respond to anxiety with any kind of physical symptom,
and yet there it was. The bile, or the hallucination
of bile, curdled at the bottom of his stomach while

(01:46:44):
Jim's men strapped him into the murder suit. The armor
they'd constructed was altogether different from the powered armor he'd
faced a few days ago in Dallas. It was also
different from what little he remembered of the armor he'd
warned as an American soldier. That made sense. Of course,
Roland's wetware got better with time and experience. Gear did
not age so well. He watched while Sardar bolted a

(01:47:07):
gauntlet into place over his left forearm. In hand, he
could tell it was made of boron nitride carbon tubes,
but the weapon's blister carried a sextet of tiny rockets
that were not familiar to him. Sar, what are these things?
A smile split the little man's dark handsome features scatter rocklets,
he said with relish. Each of them contains twelve guided

(01:47:29):
solid fuel warheads. The left hand or all anti personnel
built to blow up big the right hand rockets. He
tapped the second gauntlet, which sat on the work table
next to him. Those pack a tiny bronze dart. One
will penetrate a Leopard Mark five's front armor, no problem.
Roland's sighed and looked around at the Workshop of Death
that Jim had flown out here. From the outside, it

(01:47:50):
had looked a bit like a shipping container, but painted
a glossy white. Its edges were rounded and smooth, and
the whole thing looked slick enough that it could have
been an apple product. Inside the box was wall to
wall weaponry in armor Jim's personal stash. Roland couldn't actually
name any of the weapons inside. Most were similar enough
to older weapons systems that he could make an educated

(01:48:12):
guess as to their capabilities, but there were strange new
things on the walls that he'd never seen before. Jim
sat in a comfy chair at the rear of the
workshop and watched start our work while he sipped scotch
out of an enormous ram's horn. So this so's it's
like your man cave or what? Rowland asked him. Jim
took a deep gulp and then smiled. I find it

(01:48:35):
relaxes me, he said. I spent a lot of time
carried in this collection over the years. I spent a
lot of time working on that suit, too, so don't
fuck it up. Something tingled at the back of Roland's mind.
The suit had clearly been built to his specifications. That
suggested Jim had been planning this for a while, but
Rowland had been retired at Cammeltow until very recently. So

(01:48:58):
how hey, man, I need your port Sardar said. The
squat mechanic held up a pair of fiber optic cables
that terminated in peculiar boxy plugs. Not unlike old ethernet cable.
They were connected to a metal breastplate on the table.
Roland pointed to a pair of lumpy white scars on
his lower back. The input sockets are in there. They've
scarred up. You'll have to cut em back open, but

(01:49:19):
it should fit. But it should still fit. The nice
thing about DARPA engineering is that a little bit of
blood and skin never gets in the way. Sardar set
to work carving the sockets back open. Roland felt the
pain as a distant sort of itch. He was having
a hard time focusing his senses on his immediate surroundings.
The smells of the advancing army presented an almost overpowering

(01:49:40):
flood of data. Roland had loaded up on ketamine and
vodka to quiet his hind brain, but all that interfered
with his introspection. He built this thing for me to wear. Jim,
how long have you been planning this? He is, Jim said,
his fourth rightness, surprised Roland. You'll pacifism is a mistake,
Jim continued, brought on by your overactive conscience. There is

(01:50:03):
still so much you need to do in the world.
I figured at some point you'd realize that yourself, so
I kept my men workin. Sardar lifted the heavy metal
breastplate up over Roland's head and settled it over his shoulders.
The weight was comforting. A cold electric shock ran through
his body as the armor connected to his central nervous system.

(01:50:23):
Roland felt parts of himself wake up that he hadn't
truly realized were asleep. Something in him had missed that feeling,
and he felt guilty for that. I'm taking this thing
off the instant. The fight's over, Jim. You wasted your money.
Jim smile only deepened. You've forgotten how fun it is, Rowland,
and you've forgotten what it's like to be a fucking human.

(01:50:45):
Roland countered, Have you always been a sociopath? Is this
what I was like back before whatever took my memories?
Jim's amused, smiled, and shift by so much as a nanometer.
Roland felt a spike of irritation before he was distracted
by Sardar. Rease your hand, please, the mechanic said. He
lifted a four barreled machine gun on a circular frame

(01:51:05):
and slid it around Roland's right arm. Sardar bolted the
weapon into place while he explained, it's a stack charged
machine gun magnetically fired, similar to the old metal storm weapons,
but this fucker's capable of putting out twenty thousand rounds
per second. How long and a fire? Sardar laughed, but
less than a second. The mechanic turned back to his table,

(01:51:26):
and Roland tried to direct his wandering mind back to
the conversation with Jim. You're going to love it, his
old friend said, I know you've been lovin' it when
you've fought your way out of that Sidia could smell
the dopamine waftin off your brain from all the way
out here. Sardar snapped a queass around Roland's thigh. The
armor also sported a bulky weapon's blister on its outside

(01:51:48):
edge gas grenade launcher. The mechanic explained, should co great
with all the frag rocklets. Uh so we're committing war
crimes now, Roland asked Jim, with more indignation than he
really felt. Jim rolled his eyes. Is just he A guess?
He said? Mostly? At least I may have included some
aresolized l S D in there. I've been on a

(01:52:09):
big psychochemical warfare kick lately. For a little while Sardar
worked in silence, Jim drank and Roland stared near him,
but not at him. The self inflicted haze in his
head had cleared a bit. That meant his hind brain
grew louder. By now it was all but shouting about
the approaching army. Roland felt a trickle of adrenaline, oxytocin,

(01:52:29):
and endorphins. His left hand twitched involuntarily. He felt the
power of the weapons system around him, and he felt
the power in his own body. Something like a rousal
gripped him. Roland fought it down as best he could,
but it lingered there at the edge of his consciousness.
I've been remembering more, he said to Jim, as much
to distract himself as out of a desire to get

(01:52:51):
it off his chest. Hum Jim cocked an eyebrow in interest.
I've had a few big flashes of memories. Once we
drove into Dallas, past the side of the Lakewood Blast,
I remembered. He locked eyes with Jim, and Jim nodded
back his eyes said, I know so. Roland moved on.
The memories come most intensely when I'm in combat. I

(01:53:13):
remembered hiking with Topez. I remembered burning the Taz in Denver.
I got flashes of you and me in Mexico, and
a lot more. I'm still certain through it. It's confusing
because there's no timeline for any of this, just associated
memories I know happened. At some point, Jim leaned forward,
his eyes flashed with excitement interest, and he said, tell me,

(01:53:36):
have you been able to draw any conclusions about who
you were from what you've remembered? Have you gotten any
insight into the old Roland? Roland frowned. He'd been so
focused on trying to remember his old life that he
hadn't given much thought to what the memories he had
said about the man he'd been. As he pondered, Roland's
mind lingered on the memory of shooting the Cheney boy

(01:53:57):
in the back of the head. I think I to
be a lot more like you, Roland said. Jim grinned,
his lips curled up to reveal long rows of white,
straight teeth. That's true, he said, Why else do you
think I've missed you so much? Sasha? A part of

(01:54:18):
Sasha had believed that after the Heavenly Kingdom, nothing she
saw would ever shock her again. That part of her
was proven wrong when Nana Yazzi's aged arthritic hand began
to messily carve at the first warrior's face. Her target
was the young woman with the chrome hawk Sasha had
seen in the war Council. The carving was a messy thing.
It took the better part of a minute for her

(01:54:40):
to slice and peel the skin free. Sasha noticed that
there was very little blood. It was messy, but not
as messy as it should have been. Once she was finished,
Nana Yazzi stepped back with the woman's face in her hand.
As she did, dozens of citizens stepped forward. They pulled
out daggers, swords, straight razors, and switchblades of their own.

(01:55:00):
Each civilian paired off with a warrior and began to carve.
Some of them were quick and practiced. The motion of
their hands reminded Sasha of an autopsy video she'd watched
in one of her pre met classes. But the other
citizens were cruder with their cutting. A few verged on
brutal hacking and slashing at the faces and necks of
their persons. None of the post human warriors showed any

(01:55:22):
signs of pain or discomfort. They just stood, unmoving and
without their faces, seemingly without emotion. I don't understand, Sasha said.
She hadn't expected to say it out loud, The words
just slipped out. It's a symbolic thing, Scoffucker Mike explained.
Before they leave, the city's warriors give up their identities

(01:55:43):
to the group. They leave their humanity behind and bloody
tatters in the hands of their friends and loved ones.
It's a way of making sure the city civilians don't
leave a war without blood on their hands. And it
makes them look fucking terrifying, someone said from behind them.
Sasha turned around. A short, fit man approached them. He
had a thin build, but his body was girded with

(01:56:04):
lithe muscle. There was something familiar about his face, the
short mop of curly black hair atop his head. The
man smiled when Sasha saw him, revealing pointed metallic fangs.
Hey wait a second, low, Topez, skoolfucker Mike said. Manny
looked shocked as well. He stared at the man in surprise. Topez,

(01:56:24):
what happened? There was a woman with those exact same
teeth yesterday when we arrived at the city. Sasha hadn't
gotten a woman's name, but she'd borne a striking resemblance
to this man. I felt like a man today, Topez said,
what with the war and all? Sasha finally realized what
had happened. Of course, she thought these people can change
their physiology on a dime. Ah Manny said with a nod. Scofucker.

(01:56:49):
Mike walked up to Topaz, and the two embraced and
then kissed. They twined their arms together, and a few
seconds later Topaz seemed to finally notice Sasha's presence. Sorry,
he smiled old as he spoke. But I don't believe
I got your name, Sasha, Sasha Mariian. Topaz stepped closer. Well,
Sasha Mariian, He said, in a low voice, how are

(01:57:10):
you liking our strange ways and customs? They're interesting? Sasha
said diplomatically. Do you find this place more to your
liking than the heavenly Kingdom? Topaz stepped closer. Sasha took
a step back, and then another. The man's expression was
friendly enough, but there was a sort of queer menace
in the set of his shoulders. It may have had

(01:57:30):
something to do with the very large rifle slung across
his back. Sasha started to sweat. Fear gripped her mind.
Topaz back off, schoolfucker. Mike's voice was devoid of anger
but firm. You're scaring her. Topaz stopped and stared at Mike.
His expression went from placid smile to rage, and then
back to a smile almost faster than Sasha could process. Sorry, darling,

(01:57:55):
he said, in an artificially chipper voice. I just wanted
to make sure our guest was enjoying her day here.
He looked to Sasha again. You are, aren't you? Yes, good,
Topaz purred. Hopefully you won't be joining any more extremist
groups to get my friends killed. He turned immediately to Manny,
and with barely a pause for breath, embraced him and

(01:58:16):
kissed his forehead. I'm proud of you, buddy, as far
as I'm concerned your family. Manny mumbled his thanks and
returned the hug, but he glanced to Sasha and they
shared a what the hell look? Schoolfucker Mike seemed to
want a plaster over the awkwardness. Yep, he said, We've
made some wonderful friends these last couple of days, he
pantomime looking down at his watchless wrist and checking the time.

(01:58:39):
Oh my goodness, he said, in mock surprise. Look at
the time, Topaz. We've got a war to get to.
You kids had better find some decent seats. Topaz smiled
at skullfucker Mike. His eyes lingered on the big man's
face and then drifted back to Sasha. Enjoy the show,
he said, with an empty smile. Rowland, it was windy

(01:59:01):
on the landing pad. He and Jim stood next to
a heavy black feet Hole aircraft, the steed that would
carry him into today's massacre. Roland could taste the dying
summer and the faint stirrings of a North Texas fall
in the air. It was cooler than he'd have expected
this time of the year, grayer too. A gust of
chill wind blew across his face, and Roland found himself

(01:59:23):
falling back in time again. He was shorter, The world
seemed sharper, even though his senses were dim and unenlightened.
Roland felt a hand about his own. It felt big, powerful,
and comforting. He looked up and saw a woman standing
over him. She was tall, a giant. Her hair was
brown and straight and long and clear as day in
his mind's eye, but her face was blank, obscured even

(01:59:44):
in memory. His head turned to track the passage of
a blowing leaf. He felt chill winter air on his arm,
and he watched as a red sedan rumbled past them,
spraying water into the air as it had a puddle
on the asphalt. Roland pay attention. Jim's voice snapped him
back to reality. The other chrombed man held a paper
thin tablet in front of Roland's face. That memory flash

(02:00:04):
had been the most immersive yet, although not the longest.
He was a little confused at that why that moment
had it just been the similarity in weather or Rowland?
Jim was angry. It was actually somewhat refreshing to see
genuine emotion on the other man's post human face. Veins
bulged at his neck, and his eyes were fully open.
Roland caught a harsh whiff of methamphetamine from his breath.

(02:00:26):
All right, all right, fucking chill, Roland muttered, what am
I looking at? He needn't have asked. Once he focused
on the tablet, it was obvious that it displayed a
map of the area around Lake Waco. Rolling Fox warriors
and vehicles were displayed in little blue pinpoints. Jim scrolled
up a few inches and Roland saw a swarm of red.
It was half over the Brazos right now, and it

(02:00:47):
crept millimeter by millimeter towards their position. The river slowed
him down a bit, Jim said, but the bridges there
was still in good order. I'd say they'll hit Rock
Creakin about ten minutes. Roland nodded and asked when we
had killed those bridges bought some hours. Jim gave a
careless shrug. Why would we want to slow him down?
We're ready enough, No sense in dragging this out. There

(02:01:10):
was a strong smell of ozone as the v Toal
aircraft next to them woke up. Red lights glowed on
the missile pods slung under its belly. The chain gun
on its nose cycled. The whole thing hummed with potential energy.
It was too modern for Roland to know the make
and model, but it reminded him of the Russian Coba
assault transport, which had been state of the art back
in the mid forties. So is the plan, he asked Jim. Well,

(02:01:34):
his friend said, we know they got at least a
half a dozen mobile antia batteries Old U s Patriot
threes an accurate garbage nothing I'm were it about the
name conjured up a ghost of another memory. A big
Patriot battery wheeled around on its truck sized chassis. He
heard the machine whine of the motors, and then the
reek of fear hit his nose as rich and heavy

(02:01:54):
as Texas thunder. There were missiles in the air aimed
at him as he fell. They were child's plated dodge
in his suit. He descended, His fierce stink rolled up
towards him from the soldiers below. The poor fucker's Rowland.
Jim shouted, not gonna have to find another murder guerilla
to take your place. What? No, Roland shook his head. Sorry,
he said, just memories. Jim gave him a long look.

(02:02:17):
Anything you need to talk about right now, No, Roland said,
It's just the memories are coming at me faster now.
It's distracting. That makes sense, Jim said, I'd imagine stimuli
that reminds you of your past could prompt your brain
into sudden healing hum. He reached into a bag at
his hip. It looked like a standard dump pouch meant

(02:02:39):
for half spent magazines in the heat of battle. But
Jim pulled out a fully loaded crack pipe. Even un lit,
it smelled like burning tires. A't an non percent pull.
Jim held the pipe up to Rowland right. Roland grabbed
the pipe and lifted it to his lips. Jim reached
out and flipped on the lighter built into his index finger.
He held it under the glass bubble of the pipe.

(02:03:00):
The rocks vaporized into white smoke rolland inhaled and felt
the vapor dissolve into his blood stream through his mucous membranes.
There was a tingle as the crack reached his brain's
ventral tegmental area, and said, in essence, you know how
much dopamine you were planning to produce? Make a shipload
more than that. The happy chemicals flooded Roland's mind. His

(02:03:21):
anxiety at their recently churned up memories faded, as did
the memories themselves better. Jim asked, super good, Roland said,
can I? Jim waved show a man keep the pipe.
In fact, he pulled his index finger free from his
hand and gave it to Roland. Keep that I'll grow
a new one. Cool. Roland took the finger, flicked at

(02:03:42):
a light, and took another deep poll of burning crack,
so he said, as he exhaled a plume of crack smoke.
The plan right, said Jim, Like I told you, Rock
Creek is where we planned to hit him. The Edmund
Fitzgerald here. Jim banged a hand on the side of
the v tooll craft. It's gonna take you up around
fifteen thousand feet and then drop you right on the heads.

(02:04:04):
I expect we'll take some flak afterwards, but this bird
can handle it. And besides, he raised his voice and
jerked his head towards the cockpit. Anderson's piloting it today,
and it's not like I give a shit if he does.
In response, the nosegun wheeled around on its mount and
locked onto Jim. There was a clinking sound as it
ratcheted around into its chamber. Jim rolled his eyes. Fucking pilots. Anyway,

(02:04:27):
me and my people will be with the Roland. Fuck
folks getting shot at. He tapped Roland's helmet. When we're
ready for you, I'll ping you both and Anderson can
drop you on top of the asses. So Roland asked,
I've just got a fall on top of a hostile
army and start shooting. Jim nodded, right, then, let's get started. Manny.

(02:04:50):
Years ago and what now seemed like another life, Manny
had gone to watch an outdoor movie at Silker Park
in Austin Ghostbusters. He was pretty sure it had been
ghost Busters. Hundreds and hundreds of people had shown up,
families with children, and couples on dates, and so so
many dogs. The sound hadn't been great, and the projectionist
could have been better, but he remembered the evening fondly.

(02:05:14):
Rolling fuck before a battle reminded him of that experience.
The people were different. Very few of them were children,
but clusters of citizens, friend groups, and families and families
of friends had set up little viewing nooks across the
wheeled city itself and in the field in front of it.
The whole scene would have been idyllic if they weren't
about to watch a battle. The vehicle's cavalry and infantry

(02:05:36):
were already almost out of view. He could just barely
see shapes out on the horizon. Setting up firing positions
on top of buildings in Rock Creek. They moved so
damn fast. Many didn't think he'd ever get used to
the pace of post human life. He knew Topaths and
skullfucker Mike were somewhere out there. He knew where they'd
be soon, and in spite of their confidence, he worried

(02:05:57):
for them more than anyone. He worried for Roland. Drinks
for everyone. Donald Ferris said he had a tray full
of drinks in his hands, fresh from the bar. He
sat down next to Nana Yazi and smiled. Manny and
Sasha sat on the opposite side of them in a
booth in the main roller's bar, looking out over Waco.
Donald started handing out beverages, first, bubbly drinks and long

(02:06:20):
brown bottles that smelled familiar Coca cola, the old documentarian said,
not the stuff they still sell all over, the original
recipe with cocaine and alcohol. It's great ship. We go
through gallons of it every day. Nana Yazzi took a
sip from hers and smiled. It's quite good, she said,
and the intoxicating effect is mild. Our chromed comrades have

(02:06:42):
a stronger variant. Of course, we're all humans here. Donald smiled.
More or less. Manny took one of the cokes, sipped it,
and nodded to Sasha. It's really good. He said, you
should try it. It was good and it didn't seem
like it was too strong. Manny took another sip and
mild as Sasha grabbed her bottle and took a gulp.

(02:07:02):
She seemed to like it. There was a loud pop
sound from somewhere up above. Manny tensed up, but then
he tracked its origin to one of the landing pads
that extended from a gantry tower at least a hundred
feet above them. Dozens of small black shapes flitted out
from it and soared forward oft in the same direction
the army had gone spy drones. Donald Ferris explained, they'll

(02:07:24):
be at the front by the time the fighting starts.
This all seemed so weird, Sasha said, I think I
read about people doing something similar during the Civil War.
They'd set up picnic blankets on hills overlooking the battle.
Donald Ferris grunted and shifted in his seat a bit awkwardly.
Nanny Yazzi smiled and said, it is a bit like that.

(02:07:44):
The differences that we're not doing this to be voyeurs.
We won't see much fighting. What will we see? Just watch?
Donald Ferris said, and reached for a tiny shot glass
filled with a yellow brown liquid. But ever drink first,
it'll help. Many took one of the shot glasses and
moved to belt it down, but Nanyazzie put her hand
on his. That's fine tequila son, I'd recommend sipping. So

(02:08:08):
he sipped it and it was good. The burn rolled
down his throat and mixed with the cocaine and alcohol
from the Coca cola. A comfortable, warm haze settled over Manny.
He was about to encourage Sasha to try some when
another sound intruded. The high hum of drones filled the air.
Manny fought down an irrational surge of anxiety. He wasn't

(02:08:28):
sure he'd ever feel comfortable with the sound of drones again.
Each of these drones was the size and rough density
of a rottweiler. They flew in pairs, connected by what
looked like a thick, bindy white tube that hung between them.
Several pairs settled in front of the main roller's bar
in a stable hover with a whirr and a click.
The white tubes in between them opened up and unfurled
into screens. A second later, the screens lit up. Manny

(02:08:52):
took another sip of truly fabulous tequila and looked back
across his new friends. Donald Ferris looked somber as Solomon
Gray as a granite wall. Nana Yazi seemed almost excited,
as if she'd reached the first jump scare in a
good horror movie. Sasha hadn't touched her liquor, She didn't
seem to have taken more than a few SIPs of
the coke. Many found himself wondering what would happen to

(02:09:14):
her after all this? What am I going to do
after this? Many realized with a bit of shock that
Oscar's wife was the only person he'd messaged in almost
a week. He hadn't sent anything to his family or
his friends back in Austin. He'd had the excuse of
his deck being deactivated when he'd been inside the Kingdom,
But now that he was back and his deck was functional,
his lack of communication felt less and less defensible. Just

(02:09:36):
thinking about Aisha and the terrible news he still had
yet to deliver brought a spike of anxiety that was
somehow worse than his fear over the coming battle. There's
a certain sound that happens when a large group of
people all noticed something at the same time. That sound
shook Manny out of his contemplation and alerted him to
the fact that something had started to happen on the screens.

(02:09:57):
He looked up, and he saw that all the screens
scattered it around the city and hovering over the field
now shared the same images. One side of the screens
displayed a video feed of a man in full tactical armor,
his eyes covered by goggles and his head protected by
a black helmet. He was seated in the cupola of
an armored vehicle rolling fast over the highway. Next to
that video feed was a picture of the same man,

(02:10:19):
sand's armor and more peaceful days. He was fair skinned,
with red hair and an easy smile. He wore a
shirt that many guests signified his allegiance to some sports team.
In the am fed the images sat there alone for
a second. Manny looked out at the horizon towards Rock Creek,
where Rolling Fox soldiers had embedded themselves. He saw three black,

(02:10:41):
gray contrails rush out from an old office building and
out towards the highway. The Heavenly Kingdom's forces were just
barely visible to his naked eye, tiny ant size tanks
and transports. All three rockets hit, and the black smoke
of the detonations obscured the head of the vehicle column,
and then on the video feed, a rocket burst right
above the man in the cupola. Manny watched as he

(02:11:04):
was torn apart in a hail of shrapnel. The video
and the still image of his smiling face were replaced
a second later by a looping video of an older
man playing with a baby girl. He picked her up
and spun her around, and the camera zoomed in on
his joyous smile. Another video played of a younger man
attending his high school graduation. More videos and still images

(02:11:24):
popped up, displaying gentle moments in the lives of at
least a dozen different men, and then all the screens
cut violently to video of and exploding a PC. Manny
jerked back in surprise. He saw that Sasha had reacted similarly.
Naniazi just sat and stared, her face unreadable. Donald Ferris frowned,
and when he noticed Manny looking back at him, he

(02:11:46):
waved a gentle hand towards the screen and mouthed the
word watch. Manny turned back to the screens in time
to see them populate with more faces and more looping videos.
He watched his children open birthday presents and sell alebrated graduations.
He saw young men pose with team mates or hug
their kids. He saw pizza parties and Christmas mornings and

(02:12:06):
laughter and love, and then another vehicle detonated. The screen cleared,
and then it populated again with scenes from four More
Lives next to video of a detonating Leopard tank. The
parade of shattered lives went on as rockets, mortars, and
now gunfire lashed out from Rock creaking towards the vehicle column.
Rowland isn't even there yet. This is just the beginning.

(02:12:28):
Manny stared out, numb and queasy, and watched as the
Heavenly Kingdom's armored spearhead changed direction and began the drive
to Rock Creek. They were firing now, too, pouring explosive
shot and long range rockets into the neighborhood. This is
what you wanted, he reminded himself, as the parade of
death sped up Rowland. It was downright cold at fifteen

(02:12:51):
thousand feet Rowland relished the bite in the air and
stared out the Edmund Fitzgerald's side window. As he hit
Jim's crack pipe for the last time, his sin apses
bubbled with dopamine. Now he couldn't stop his lips from
curling up into a grin as he looked out onto
the distant fields below. Five minutes to drop point, the
pilot's voice echoed through the cargo compartment. Normally it would

(02:13:12):
have held an array of smart bombs or close AsSalt drones.
Today it held only Rowland. He stepped forward towards the
rear bay doors of the craft. The feeling of the
cold deck under his feet and the elevated hemoglobin levels
in his blood brought the threat of another rush of
memory to Roland's mind. The dizzy glee of the crack
hi helped him shrug it off combat zone, battle and

(02:13:35):
battle drugs. He tried to temper his excitement. He didn't
want to crave that high as much as he did.
It'll just take a few seconds, he told himself, and
then I can disengage. He could already feel the Heavenly
Kingdom's army far below settling in their nose. Had been
bloodied by rolling Fox rocketry, but they'd suffered relatively few
casualties so far. The plan did seem to be working.

(02:13:58):
Dozens of vehicles and thousands of men had already moved
into position around the Rock Creek neighborhood. Roland could hear
the sounds of their mortars, RECOILSS rifles and assault guns
opening fire. He reached out with his senses and tried
to find Topaz and Skullfucker Mike in the mess, but
their scents and heat profiles were obscured by shell fire
and smoke. Roland was able to locate Jim, as well

(02:14:19):
as Bigsby and his assault team. They were hunkered down
at the edge of the neighborhood, embedded in an abandoned
apartment complex, and engaged in a furious firefight with the
Heavenly Kingdom's vanguard. Roland could smell the dopamine rushing into
jim synapses from fifteen thousand feet in the air. His
heart began to beat faster. He felt his left hand
start to shake, not in fear, but in delirious anticipation

(02:14:42):
of the battle drugs. Another flash of memory took him,
and his hand shook so bad he could barely hold
the needle straight. He'd already missed the vain troye. God
darn it, God damn it, he cursed, before taking a
deep breath and preparing himself to try again. Sixty seconds
to drop. The pilot's voice pulled Roland back into the moment.
That memory had felt weird. It had been blurry in

(02:15:02):
his mind's eye, but Roland's arms and hands had felt smaller.
Then Was I shooting up dope as a teenager? He
knew the answer, based on his current predilections, was probably.
Roland shook his mind away from the past and focused
again on the war downstairs. The Kingdom had moved quickly.
He guessed around four thousand of their men were already
in position. These would be the elite, their most veteran fighters,

(02:15:25):
the soldiers wearing power armor or writing in real armored
transports and not up gunned trucks. He could feel the
rest of the Kingdom's army flung out far behind them,
in a long tail that stretched back to the brazos.
How many of these men will die to day? How
many are already dead? Ten seconds his nose caught the
distant gasolene reek of a flame thrower opening up on

(02:15:46):
a squad of advancing martyrs. That's gotta be Jim right.
Five seconds the jump light turned from red to green,
and the bomb bay doors opened with a rush of
air and wind that cracked the uncovered skin on Roland's face. Three,
said the pilot. He stepped out to the ledge and
planted his feet. The world whipped by around them at
a maddening speed. Roland looked down, focused and saw the

(02:16:09):
Heavenly Kingdom's army underneath him. Dozens of vehicles and thousands
of men had taken up position in a large park
and several buildings surrounding Rock Creek. Two large gatherings of
mortars and a trio of Leopard tanks made up the
bulk of the artillery now pouring fire into rolling Fox forces.
There were also several large field guns and rocket batteries
currently being bolted into place in an old parking lot

(02:16:31):
behind the park. Competent Roland was impressed by how the
Kingdom's soldiers had parked their armored transports to help complete
a fortress wall around one side of Rock Creek. They'd
sent a few probing attacks of power armored troopers, but
he could tell they wouldn't launch a full assault until
they'd flatten the neighborhood to A trickle of endorphins and
serotonin joined the soggy mush of dopamine and Roland synapses.

(02:16:54):
He closed his eyes and with a thought, activated the
sundry weapons systems that Sardar had wired into his body.
The missiles and their pods hummed, and the barrels around
his right arm chimed in readiness. Lyrics from a half
remembered song flitted across his mind. Time time, time for
another peaceful war. One. Roland stepped off the back of

(02:17:16):
the craft and into the skies embrace Sasha. The faces
flashed by, along with video clips and curated posts from
social media, and of course, scenes of death. Some of
the men died from sniper fire, cut down as they
ran for cover. Others died in long range firefights or
from shrapnel. The pace of death had gradually risen over

(02:17:38):
the course of the battle. Some of that was due
to the fact that the Martyrs had sent in several
assault teams to test the metal of the defenders. Those
men had died fast and badly. Many of them had
been burnt alive. The sight of it all should have
horrified her. She wanted it to horrify her. Everyone else
at the table had tears in their eyes. Even Nanny
Yazzi was crying, and that lady looked like she'd been

(02:18:00):
through some ship. Since when a you curse like that?
Sasha felt a pang of guilt at how easily the
swear word had come to her mind. Then she felt really,
really stupid. She was literally watching people die. She'd killed
two human beings less than forty eight hours ago. What
the fuck does cursing matter? But still the guilt was there.

(02:18:22):
Perhaps what she felt was a betrayal of her past self,
or maybe she was just dumb. Sasha shook it off.
She tried to focus on the carnage. It was horrible,
she knew that, in a detached, academic sense. She couldn't
quite feel the horror, though. It was as if shooting
Darrell had opened up a great, gnawing hole inside her heart,
and that hole had spread like a black film over

(02:18:44):
her entire body. All her feelings seemed so distant now.
She wanted to cry about Darrell. She wanted to cry
about this. She wanted to cry for Susannah and Anne
left alone in that living hell of a kingdom. She
wanted to cry for herself too, but she couldn't, and
so she didn't. Instead, she sat and watched as the
warrior gods of this strange city helped the martyrs earn

(02:19:07):
their title. Sasha looked out at the citizens of Rolling Fuck.
Most of the people she could see were crying, and
even those who weren't looked shaken, horrified. The perpetual party
atmosphere she'd come to associate with the City of Wheels
was gone. It had been suspended to allow for pain.
Sasha wanted to hurt with them, but instead she thought
about the offer that man Jim had made. She thought

(02:19:30):
about the squeaking sound of the razor blade ripping out
of Roland's forearm. She'd seen the way he fought. She
longed for the high that had come with the violence
and the clinic, but she couldn't stand more of the
guilt killing Darrell had brought her. I could be a medic,
Sasha thought, Jim said so. She looked up to the
screens again at the parade of death. She wasn't sure

(02:19:50):
if any of the dead had been Rolling Fox soldiers.
It didn't look like it, But as she settled back
in to watch, something glitched on the screens. The stream
of faces sped up well passed the point where she
could focus on any of them. Then the floe stopped, sputtered,
the picture glitched out, and then righted itself. Whatever algorithm
handled the show eventually stabilized, and the individual images on

(02:20:12):
each screen shrank to accommodate many many more people, a
flood of the dead and moments from their lives. The
nature of their deaths changed too. Most of the first
waves seemed to come from a sudden burst of explosive detonations,
but the explosions stopped and the dying continued, and whatever
was killing the martyrs now moved too fast to be
clearly seen. What's happening? She heard Manny, ask, is something wrong? No,

(02:20:38):
the old man said, that's just Rowland. Rowland. Forty five
seconds after his feet hit dirt, Rowland was out of AMMO.
He'd managed to do a tremendous amount of damage in
that short span of time, decimating their mortar batteries with
cluster rockets and clearing the martyrs away from their field

(02:20:58):
guns with a mix of gas and fragmentation grenades. He'd
emptied his machine gun and three long bursts, mostly aimed
at the infantry who had been clustered behind the APC
barricades when he landed. Then he'd taken to scavenging rifles
from the dead and emptying those into targets of opportunity.
By the one minute mark, Roland's hindbrain estimated he'd killed
or wounded close to a thousand men. The sheer ferocity

(02:21:21):
of his initial assault sent the Kingdom's forces reeling and
cleared a circle of ground around him about two hundred
meters wide. Roland finished gunning down the crew of a
Patriot battery and ran for an abandoned anti tank rifle
lying next to a pile of bodies. Bullets smacked into
him from all sides, diversionary fire meant to distract him
from the uparmored matdis APC that suddenly gunned its engine

(02:21:43):
and barreled towards him. They think they can run me over,
Roland realized, with something like glee, so he slowed down,
reducing his sprint to something like a normal human running speed.
While the vehicle closed the gap between them. He jumped
at the last moment, landed on the APC's roof and
punched a hole through the top armor with both of
his fists. Then he gripped the ragged metal at the

(02:22:04):
sides of the hole and tore the APC open. The
smell of fear hid his nose as he tore through
the concrete wall. The room held a dozen men, a
mix of guards and officers. One man in the middle
wore the stars of a general in the United States Army.
Some of the soldiers screamed, a few opened fire, but
the general just stood there while Roland killed. He didn't
even blink. No fear poured off him. It's our fault,

(02:22:27):
the general said once they were the only men left
alive in the room. This is all our fault, Roland time.
A bullet hit his face and Roland snapped back to reality.
The men in the APC below him were dead. It
looked as if he'd shredded them with his bare hands.
But while he'd been lost in a memory, two more
a PC's had roared up and disgorged a dozen power
armored soldiers. They shot him with big guns, weapons meant

(02:22:50):
to hurt monsters. He avoided some of their rounds, but
not most. Roland lost the better part of his right hand,
a chunk of his skull in his left knee. It hurt,
but that didn't stop him. He leapt off the mattess,
and soon he was among them, ripping off armored plates
and shattering bones with his bare hands. The battle drugs
poured into his brain and lit his synapses up like

(02:23:11):
the New York skyline. Roland let out a terrible whooping
cry that was half laugh and half scream, and he
tore into the men as they tried in vain to
do him real harm. It took nineteen seconds to eliminate
them all. As the last man dropped, Roland realized with
some surprise that he could hear Jim's voice, distant but
getting closer. His old friend was charging, screaming out war whoops,

(02:23:33):
and firing those big dumb pistols. Then he heard the
familiar crack of a Dragonov sniper rifle Topaz his rifle.
He remembered it now. The sound was as familiar to
him as the voice of his own mother. Holy shit,
Roland realized that, for the first time in years, he
could remember the sound of his mother's voice. Her name
and face were still lost in memory, but all this

(02:23:55):
violence was clearly knocking some things loose. He took a
step back behind one of the intact a PC's to
avoid a spray of heavy machine gun fire and take
stock of the situation. Now that he focused, he could
feel the hoofbeats of rolling Fox cavalry. He could sense
that many of the city's infantry had charged out from
their positions in Rock Creek to meet the martyrs in

(02:24:15):
hand to hand combat. The Heavenly Kingdom was not in flight,
not yet, but they would break soon. Roland knew it.
He could smell it in the air. Time to stop now,
Time to let Skullfucker, Mike Topaz and the others finish
the fight. He'd done enough, He knew he'd done enough,
and yet the drugs. Even after just a few seconds

(02:24:37):
out of direct combat, the high was starting to fade,
and Roland wanted more. He thought about cracking another skull
in his hand. Itched. He heard one of the martyrs
open up with an automatic grenade launcher and thought about
how good that gun would feel bucking against the meat
of his shoulder. The man with the grenade launcher was close.
Roland could close the distance between them and two, maybe

(02:24:57):
three seconds, No you'd don't need to do this stop.
Fewer people will die if you just Roland charged Manny.
Manny had seen nine people killed by bullets or bombs.
He'd seen a good deal more fresh corpses in the
aftermath of firefights. He had a strong stomach, and he
was not easily distressed by gore. The opening stages of

(02:25:21):
this battle and the war ritual had been unsettling, but
not because of the violence that changed soon after Roland landed.
He's just tearing people apart, Manny said, without really meaning
to say anything at all. Donald Ferris replied with a
grim nod. It's hard to watch, Nanny Yazzi admitted, as

(02:25:41):
another dozen lives and did messily on the screens before them.
It'll be over soon, though they can't take much more
of this. I haven't seen any of your people die yet,
Sasha said, Is that abnormal? No. Donald's voice was grim.
There will be a lot of injuries, but I don't
expect rolling fuck will lose a single warrior, good, Sasha said,

(02:26:05):
is it? Donald asked, of course, it's good. You silly fuck.
Nana Yazzi snapped. That was the first time Manny could
recall hearing her angry. I disagree, the old man grumbled.
We're on a precipice here, the edge of a deep cliff.
Every time this happens, we get a little closer to
falling off. What do you mean, Manny asked, He means,

(02:26:26):
Nana Yazzi replied, with a bit of drunken slur to
her voice. He doesn't trust the people of this city.
He thinks they'll get a taste for war and this
whole experiment will turn into a nightmare. You can't trust
the dark, Donald Ferris insisted, And we're in the dark here,
He waved out at the field and the hundreds of
people watching, the faces of the dead and tearful silence.

(02:26:47):
Right now, we've managed to lash together a chain of
rituals that keep them peaceful. How long can that last?
Nani Yazzi glared at him, and then shifted her gaze
to Manny. She pointed a finger at Donald. He things,
we should have let your people die. I think we
have a responsibility to intervene. I'm not saying we don't,

(02:27:07):
Donald Ferris insisted, I'm just saying I've seen how this
story ends. History may not repeat itself, but it does rhyme, pithy,
Nana Yazzi said, but oh. She stopped mid sentence and
stared out into the screens. Manny looked back just in
time to watch the flow of dead faces speed up again.

(02:27:28):
The screens jerked and shuddered to accommodate the new flow.
Once they adjusted, Manny was shocked again at the violence
on display. He saw men run through with lances, gutted
by scimitars, burnt by napalm, and trampled under the spiked
hoves of quadrufrats. Oh god, he moaned. Ah yes, Nani
Yazzi sighed, that would be the cavalry. It won't be

(02:27:49):
much longer now they're here to finish the job. Rowland,
the knights of Rolling Funck were a sight to see, truly.
It wasn't often that Roland came across something that registered
as completely new to the deep, battered banks of his memory.
But there was no deja vous here, no sense that
he'd watched anything like it before. Rolling Fox riders worked

(02:28:13):
in two and three person squads, mostly using a mix
of hand grenades, small arms, flame throwers, and melee weapons
for shock value. Their timing was exquisite. One hundred riders
hit the martyrs at the same time. They didn't seem
to have specific targets or goals beyond causing mayhem, but
they did this expertly, spiking armored vehicles and field guns

(02:28:34):
with white phosphorus charges and scattering any clusters of martyrs
they could find. The woman Kashori rode past him, her
face skinned and weeping blood as she lobbed a hand
grenade towards a group of martyrs hunkered behind the shattered
remains of a public restroom. She pulled a maqua wheedle
with an iron trunk and gleaming obsidian blades free from

(02:28:55):
her belt as her steed leapt over the burning wreckage
of a jeep and bounded towards the survivor. Roland followed her,
tearing a piece of rebar free from some rubble as
he charged. The restrooms were at one end of what
had once been a giant playground in a public park.
It had been derelict for more than a decade, but
the corpses of swing sets and remnants of slides were

(02:29:15):
still visible. Several hundred of the martyrs had fallen back
to this position, trying to create some sort of defensive line.
Panic and mass death had robbed them of a lot
of cohesion, but they still managed to pour a lot
of fire into Roland and Cashore. As they charged, a
rocket propelled grenade hit the chest of her quadrifract and burst,
ripping off one of the machine's legs and sending the

(02:29:36):
Chrome woman tumbling to the ground, gravel and rubble embedding
itself into the red musculature of her bleeding face. Roland
didn't stop for her. He charged ahead, absorbed a few
dozen rounds of small arms fire, and dodged a handful
of rocket propelled grenades. He hid a group of twenty
three men clustered behind a long, still glass barricade and
several heavy metal crates. These martyrs had been trying to

(02:29:59):
get a trio of anti tank guns back into the fight.
They gave up on that once Roland had closed to
about twenty feet. One of them, an older man with
a spine, shouted words of encouragement and charged forward, firing
with a dozen of his men. These soldiers weren't wearing
powered armor. They weren't good enough to hit more than
one and twenty shots. They wore old, up cycled body

(02:30:20):
armor only a few of them had bayonets. They presented
no real threat. Twenty seconds and I can put every
one of these fuckers down for the rest of the fight.
No one needs to die. His hand twitched, the river
of dopamine and his synapses shrank to a babbling brook.
Roland felt a craving rise. Maybe just a few more

(02:30:40):
he was among them. Roland found that brave old fucker
picked him up by the skull and used him as
a flail until the bones of his face came loose
in Roland's hands. He deployed the razor in his wrist
and started slicing off hands and ears. He moved on
to slashing tendons and muscles, and eventually just hacked at
his enemies like a drunken butcher. One boy dropped his gun,

(02:31:02):
tried to back away, and fell on his ass. As
Roland stalked towards him, the protester screamed and screamed. They
swung sticks and tried to bash him with their shields,
and he knocked their clumsy strikes aside and waded into
the mass. Roland didn't even consider drawing a gun. He
tore every fistful of human flesh sent a wave of
orgiastically bubbling through his brain. A young woman screamed and

(02:31:23):
tried to run, and he grabbed her hair and pulled
in the sound of her neck snapping almost made in
shriek with joy. Please, said a different man before Roland
shattered his skull against the pavement and left up to
chase down a trio of fleeing martyrs. He was back
and in serlick, bloody and injured, an almost snow blind
from the battle drugs, Roland shoved his way through the
door and into the air raid shelter. He'd already pulled

(02:31:45):
a grenade free from his harness when he found himself
face to face with a room full of women and children,
old men and young boys, civilians, unarmed and with sudden shock,
Roland realized he didn't care about that last part. His
synapses screamed more. Roland obliged them, my god, stop stop.
He came back to himself and realized he was on

(02:32:07):
the ground and locked into a pretty darn good half Nelson.
It took him a moment to realize that woman Kashorey
was the one holding him. Oh, he said, what the fuck? Man?
Roland looked around, none of the martyrs near him were
still standing. It was hard even for his hindbrain to
identify how many people had fallen around him. He guessed

(02:32:28):
south of a hundred, but not far south. The number
was shocking. It implied a longer blackout than any of
the others. What was scarier was the sheer violence evident
in these men's death. Most of them were in more
than two pieces? Are you going to flip out if
I let go? Roland shook his head and Kashoy released him.
He turned around, still seated, and looked at the young woman.

(02:32:50):
She was filthy with grime and blood, some of it
her own. Her skinless face wept red, but even so
he could still see the judgment in her eyes. That
was not fucking necessary. She said, I'm sorry, I Rowland,
It was skufucker. Mike Topaz trailed behind him at a
sizeable distance, sweeping the field with a rifle. Roland tried

(02:33:13):
to catch his eye. He avoided Roland's gaze for a
second or two, but then they connected and she stared
at him with those big, brown, tear stained eyes. This
isn't what I wanted, Rowland, This isn't what we said
we were fighting for this is just butchery. He felt
angry at her blind rage that warred with his love.
Of course, it's butchery, he screamed. The world is built

(02:33:33):
by butcher's dude. Kushouri slapped him hard, and Roland came
back to himself. Scofucker Mike was closer now. Roland looked
for Topaz and found him. He was closer too, and
looked worried, but he didn't say anything. Is Rowland all right?
Mike asked Kushouri. Was he hit? Sure, But that's not
the problem. Kushouri said, he just went bug funk, unlike

(02:33:56):
a company of those guys, ripped them apart with his
bare hands. It's a fuckin' relapse, said scuffucker Mike. He
knelt down in front of Roland and put a hand
on his shoulder. Buddy, he said, it's done. They're starting
to run whole army. You'll be routed in a few minutes.
You just sit here and catch your breath and routed.

(02:34:17):
Roland looked around and realized his hands were shaking. He
felt a vast, throbbing emptiness in his synapses. He realized
that the emptiness was always there and had been for
as long as he could remember. Most days, he hid
it under a haze of narcotics, but now that he'd
had it filled for just a minute, its emptiness hurt
like an amputated limb. He looked out and saw that, yes,

(02:34:40):
skuffucker Mike was correct. Several pockets of martyr still held out,
but the bulk of the vanguard was either dead or
fleeing for the line of transports and technicals that stretched
back to the Brazos. It felt like the rest of
the army had started the slow process of halting and
reversing its advance. The Kingdom had decided to pull back.

(02:35:01):
Are you done or not, Roland asked an evil voice
in the back of his head. If you're not done,
if you want more, you'd better go get it. Roland
leaned back. He looked from skullfucker Mike, took a shore
and finally to Topaz. Then he reached behind him, grabbed
a busted rifle he could use as a club, and
stood up Roland. No, skullfucker, Mike started to say. Roland

(02:35:25):
didn't hear the rest. He bolted off as fast as
he could run in the direction of the fleeing martyrs. Sasha.
It was amazing how much she could tell about the
course of the battle just from watching the faces of
its casualties. The pace of the killing had escalated to
a certain level and then started to slowly fall. More

(02:35:45):
and more of the men died with their backs to
the enemy running. Sasha guessed that meant the army, or
at least a lot of it, had started to break.
The pace of death slowed to a trickle. Well, then
Donald Ferris grumbled, it seems like that's more or less settled.
I'm going to get us another round. I think we've
all eaten enough guilt. Father. He stopped, his jaw dropped.

(02:36:07):
Oh no. Sasha turned back to the screen to see
that the roll of the dead had started to increase again.
These men were running too, but most of them weren't
dying to ranged weaponry. They were being grabbed from behind,
ripped apart, or clubbed to death by something moving far
too fast for human eyes to focus on. Roland Manny
said in a dull voice filled with sorrow. Sasha scanned

(02:36:31):
the faces of her table mates. Manny looked almost overwhelmed
with guilt. His eyes were watery, and he just kept
shaking his head and muttering to himself. Nanni Yazzie's mouth
was closed, her face looked tight and frozen in horror.
Donald Ferris was quite clearly furious. His face was so red.
Sasha worried his heart might give out, And yet she

(02:36:52):
felt nothing. That's curious, isn't it. Sasha could remember how
angry she'd gotten as a girl when she read some
story about anti Christian brutality in Turkey or Illinois. She
remembered being horrified by the execution she had witnessed, But
she could only picture her emotional state in those moments
from a great distance, as if she were staring at
it through the fogged up lens of a telescope. Why

(02:37:14):
am I not angry? Why am I not horrified? Her
concern over this fact actually generated a stronger emotional reaction
than anything happening out on that battlefield. Sasha stared out
at the cameras and the continuing parade of violence. She
heard Manny cursing under his breath. She heard Nana Yazi
fight back a sob, but Sasha felt nothing, save perhaps

(02:37:37):
a bit of jealousy. Rowland, the scene out by the
Brasos felt less like a battlefield and more like a playground.
This might be the highest I've ever been, he thought,
as he broke a man's neck with the back of
his hand. Bullets whizzed by as a few of the
Braver soldiers tried to cover the retreat of their comrades.
Most of them, even the drivers, had abandoned their transports.

(02:38:00):
Hundreds of men were already wading into the river, tearing
off their armor and tossing aside their weapons as they
plunged in. The Heavenly Kingdom's army would not rally any
time soon. A martyr turned and drew his knife in
a feeble attempt at resistance. Roland caved in the man's
sternham with a fist and squashed his heart like a
june bug. Ten meters ahead, he saw three soldiers preparing

(02:38:21):
to make their stand behind an overturned flatbed truck. As
he ran, Roland grabbed at his garded rifle off the ground,
a Thompson submachine gun. He realized it didn't feel like
a reproduction either. Roland brought the gun up to his shoulder.
The Thompson gun bucked in his hand. Roland laughed as
he danced through the Charnel house that had once been
a forward operating bass. Most of the National guardsmen were dead,

(02:38:44):
but his nose told him one of them was still
in the game. Roland turned past a hesco and saw
the young man propped half up against a pile of sandbags.
The boy held a hand to a bleeding hole in
his gut. His black face was bloodless, pale, and young,
so young. Roll didn't know if he'd ever seen a
soldier who looked that young. There was something familiar about

(02:39:04):
the boy's face, Roland, the kid said, and recognition dawned
in Roland's eyes, and then he was back. He was
about fifty yards further ahead than he had been before
he blacked out. The Thompson gun was still in his hand,
pointed at a man twelve yards to his left who
was scrambling to get a wire guided rocket launcher into
a firing position. Roland put a bullet through his brain.

(02:39:26):
He turned past the burning wreckage of a semi truck.
A dozen bullets impacted his chest inside. Then three martyrs
charged him. Their bayonets fixed. The hit wasn't bad, nothing
but a flesh wound schofucker. Mike looked worse. He lost
most of his left arm Topaz had taken three rounds
to the dome, but she was still firing her dragon off.
Roland's mind stretched into the city of Dallas around them.

(02:39:48):
There were a lot of men coming their way, but
those men were mostly police swat officers, nothing substantial, no
one who could stop them from getting this bomb where
it needed to go. Roland screamed as he broke Chis
Thompson gun over the head of another martyr. Then he
reeled back and dropped the gun. That last memory had
felt different, like it unlocked something. Roland shook his head.

(02:40:09):
The last martyr in front of him broke and ran.
Roland didn't even think to chase him. His head hurt
in a way he couldn't remember it ever hurting before.
What the hell is going on? It had all started
the second he'd thought about the bomb. As small as
nukes go, just about one megaton. It matches the ones
that fought Leonarwood. The Guardian already released the hacked documents

(02:40:31):
showing the government considered bombing several of the separatist camps.
I think we can trust the American people to put
two and two together, Jim smiled. Roland did not. This
was his plan, but he didn't like it. He knew, though,
that it was the only way forward for the revolution.
There has to be another way, said Schuffucker, Mike. This

(02:40:51):
feels wrong, really really wrong. The floodgates of Roland's mind opened,
and a tidal wave of memory swept him away. He
dropped to his knees. The martyrs around him continued to flee, too,
shocked and awed to take advantage of his vulnerability. The
battle drugs were gone now, or at least he couldn't
feel them any more. Hundreds of memories assaulted his consciousness thousands.

(02:41:13):
For the first time in years, Roland knew who he'd been,
who he was again. I'm back, Roland stood. He took
one halting step forward, and then another, and then he
leaned against the frame of a broken A B C
for a little while as he pictured his mother's face
and voice for the first time in years. He wanted
to sob, but there was no time. He knew who

(02:41:37):
he was now, and he knew what he was bound
to do if he stayed this way. Roland's conscience wouldn't
allow that, so he trudged forward until he found the
right tool, a hand held grenade launcher clutched in the
dead hands of a martyr. He took the weapon and
sat cross legged and the blood soaked Texas dirt. Roland
looked up at the sky one last time and allowed

(02:41:59):
himself a long moment to remember his parents and his
brother in the day he and Topaz had first met.
And then he closed his eyes and pulled the trigger. Manny,
Nanni Yazzi, Sasha, Donald Ferris, and Manny had all rushed

(02:42:20):
to a transport as soon as Roland's face showed up
on the screen. It seems the drones either didn't know
or didn't care enough to separate dead friends from dead foes.
Maybe that was the point Nani Yazzi drove. It took
about six minutes for the shiny green jeep to make
its way over the broken roads and towards the side
of the battle. No one spoke they reached the battlefield.

(02:42:41):
There are so many dead people. Manny had seen a
lot of carnage in his life, but nothing like this.
The stinches of burning flesh, opened bowels, and burning fuel
were so overwhelming they almost knocked him down. Donald Ferris
and Nana Yazzi looked just as queasy, only Sasha whethered
the sights and smells with calm. She stayed focused enough
to spot Skullfucker Mike in the mess and direct Nana

(02:43:04):
Yazzi his way. Rolling FUX soldiers were out in force.
They stalked through the killing fields in groups of four
or five, searching for survivors or just looking for loot.
Mike stood with Topaz and Cashore and a couple of
chromed Manny didn't recognize. Most of them were seated by
a handful of large metal crates in the center of
what had once been a large playground. Oh god, the

(02:43:27):
dead men here had been torn apart. There was so
much blood, more than Manny had ever seen. It sluiced
around on the concrete like some sort of macab kittie pool.
The jeep came to a wet stop in front of
the group. The act of breaking sent a spray of
gore out across Skullfucker Mike's legs. Hey, he said, what
are you all doing here? Rowland? Manny said, what happened

(02:43:49):
to Rowland? Mike looked confused. Topaz raised his head up
to look out at them. Many was surprised to see
tears rolling down his face. His lip trembled a bit,
but when he spoke there was steel and fury in
his voice. He decided to keep killing. I'm sure he's
still killing now. No Manny said he's dead, or that's

(02:44:10):
what the drone said. We have to find him. Get
out of that seat, Mike said to Nanny Yazzie, I'm
driving in an instant. Topaz his tears stopped, and before
Manny could say anything, Topaz hopped into the back seat
of the jeep. Fast. Topaz told skullfucker Mike. Because he
took over from Nanny YAZZI go very fast. It didn't
take long to find him. Roland's route through the army

(02:44:33):
was painted in red. Hundreds of dead men, maybe more
than a thousand, made a clear path with their corpses.
That path didn't end until they were almost at the
brazos and they saw where Roland had fallen. Roland's armored
body was splayed out limp next to the carcass of
an old semi truck. There were two very dead men
directly in front of him, but neither of them looked

(02:44:55):
to have done him in. Roland hadn't gone down to
enemy fire. He jammed a every large gun in his
mouth and blown the top off of his head. To
all signs and to all logic, he looked dead. Donald
Ferris shook his head and muttered something. Sasha just stared.
Nana Yazzi put her hand on Manny's shoulder. He was

(02:45:15):
she started to say, but she was interrupted by Rowland
as he lifted his ruined head up to look at them.
His eyes were still unfocused. Blood drooled down his nose,
out of his mouth, and down from the gaping exit
wound in his forehead. He spat out several teeth. Manny
saw daylight through his skull, but still Rowland was able
to speak. How the funk are you people? He asked,

(02:46:00):
so a t mm hmmm

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 Twenty One, Twenty Two, and Twenty Three