DUSK WAS CREEPING across the land, Aftershock’s mountain camp beneath a sky full of wheeling stars wrapped in a purplish hue. The blue of moonlight mingled with the red of a campfire burning at the crest of the northernmost peak, while spread out on the plains below were no less than a dozen other pinpricks of flickering crimson. Two dark figures huddled around the sputtering flames, light dancing across Aftershock’s tired features. As he sat quietly scratching his beard, the other figure sitting across from him was looking out intensely at the surrounding vista.
The handsome man was named Wyatt Jameson – widely known as Lobo – and he was younger than Aftershock, but not by much. Their beards on the other hand were vastly different; where Aftershock’s was thick and bushy, his was far shorter, thinner, and neater. A pair of large silver goggles were resting on top of his head, flattening his short black hair, and across his chest and arms were colorful tattoos. There was a leather pauldron strapped over one of his shoulders, gauntlet over a forearm, and across his back, a pipe rifle etched with a handmade pattern.
“You look like you’re about to bust something in your brain thinking so hard, Lobo. Cog for your thoughts?” said Aftershock lowly.
“Huh?” the man replied, shifting focus to Aftershock. From his torn denims, an artificial leg studded with spikes and painted skulls gleamed in the firelight. “Oh. It’s nothing really. Just wondering if I’m good enough for this. Things are changing so damn fast.”
“Good enough for what? Leading the Devil’s Shadow or…”
“Yeah that,” Lobo replied quickly, plucking off one of the glass vials he had strapped across his upper left arm. He took a sip, his lips curling back over his teeth. “I’m sitting here wondering if I rushed into this. Someone like you should be in this position; not me. Hell, me just talking to you about this kind of thing shows I’m not fit to lead.”
“It tells me the exact opposite, Lobo,” Aftershock said, looking down at the campfires below. “It’s a challenge no doubt, but the fact you realize you have imperfections is something half the clan leaders out there would never admit, the other half too dumb to realize.
“That gives you strength for this, since you know that you have to work for what you want and even harder still to keep it.” He paused, seeing Lobo ease up a bit. “That said, I wouldn’t talk too openly about it…plenty out there are looking for things to exploit. I’m a testament to that mistake. Keep it inside, knowing it, and owning it.”
“Yeah that’s why I feel comfortable talking only to you about it brother, especially since getting to know you over the last month. That was a bad situation for you and your blood. Not sure I would’ve made it.” Lobo took another sip, offering some to Aftershock.
“I got stronger waiting for me once the others return with grub,” he replied, waving it off.
“Suit yourself,” Lobo answered by taking another swig.
“Besides, I’ll leave the drinking of that lutrine spittle to you.”
“Hey, I told you that there’s only a couple of drops in this liquor! Keeps me looking young, fit, and with hair.”
Aftershock’s eyes narrowed and suddenly he looked ready to punch him in the throat.
“If looks could kill, right?” Lobo smirked.
“If only! At least I know how to grow a proper beard,” Aftershock laughed, slipping back to a serious look shortly after. His fingers were restless. “Lobo, I wouldn’t be around to offer any of these opinions had you not stepped in back at Pitchfork…”
“Nothing to it. I saw a brother in need, one that took care of that menace we called a chief. Didn’t have a second thought about vouching for you before the others cut your head off.”
“Technically, it was Jenny that took care of Dante…”
“True, but either way, you have my respect. That’s something that’s long been missing in this clan.”
“You got mine too, and my loyalty. I don’t forget where I’ve been or who’s helped my needy ass along the way.”
“Ah, yes, loyalty. I value that a lot; it’s a core principle for me. Don’t have it and your words are nothing but sounds and letters falling out of your mouth – empty and better left unsaid so you can keep your lungs full of breath.”
Aftershock was beaming.
“And here it was, you were doubting yourself not ten minutes ago. Sounds like everything is as it should be.”
“Hope it is,” said Wyatt, popping the now empty vial back into its slot on his arm band.
The sound of crunching soil and murmuring rose over the cracking wood, both raiders turning to see three shapes – two men and a woman – coming around the corner.
“Ah there you are!” Aftershock boomed. “Finally, and just in the nick of time. Was about to lop off ol’ Lobo’s other leg for a bite.”
Jenny was in front of the others, carrying two plates loaded with fresh beef, potatoes, and some greens. There was even a slice of cornmeal bread.
“Hey now,” she retorted, smiling heavily, “you could have just as easily drug yourself down there with us.”
“Nah, was too comfortable up here on these hard rocks. Plus, my friend here makes for good conversation.”
Jenny smiled, walking toward Aftershock to hand him a plate, but Jesse cut in front of her and handed him one of the two he was carrying.
“There you go,” he said wearing a thin smile in the trembling light. One of the logs in the fireplace fell awkwardly, sending a plume of sparks and flames into the air. “I’m sure it tastes just as good so be sure to enjoy it.”
Jesse was having some trouble adjusting to Aftershock, appreciative of his efforts in saving Jenny but something else was digging in his craw. Jenny liked to assume it was because they were both so similar in nature and it clashed at times, but her gut was far blunter, suggesting it was because Aftershock chose to walk around without a shirt all the time and was in no way a traditionally hideous raider as expected.
As Jesse continued toward Lobo to give him his food, Jenny slid her eyes over to Aftershock with a repentant shrug of her shoulders. He didn’t seem to mind, shaking his head coolly before shoveling meat into his mouth, its savory drippings wetting his beard.
Aero brought up the rear, carrying two pails full of long-lasting dried goods to place in the cave’s compartments. Lobo eyed the bot’s synthetic arms as he worked, wondering if his legs were of the same design.
“Hey, Jesse,” he said, in part out of curiosity but also to diffuse the tension, “are those things expensive?”
Jesse was taking a seat next to him, Jenny handing him the plate originally meant for Aftershock, and answered, “Bots? Older editions aren’t too much, finding their way into alternative uses and piece parts. But one like Aero there is unique. I’ve never seen one like him.”
Lobo popped a wedge of potato in his mouth and chewed loudly.
“How about one of those legs?”
“I think it was about two-hundred Gears,” Jesse answered.
“Just for the leg, eh? Never mind that!” Lobo said, giving his own artificial leg a thumb with his utensil. “I could buy a whole lot of shit for that kind of money.”
“Hopefully it’s good quality shit,” Aftershock added and laughter made its way around the camp fire, even from Jesse.
“Well ladies and gents, I hate to be the one to talk business while we eat,” said Lobo unhappily, “but now’s as good a time as any. The Pack down there is starting to show signs of getting restless. I’ll make sure that the Shadows are here for the long haul, but if we don’t act soon – whatever that may be – we are going to lose that entire clan’s support.”
Grumbling and murmurs filled the air.
“I wish we could just pay them,” Jesse said as he let his fork drop on the plate. “That would make all of this so much easier.”
“It would for sure,” Lobo replied, “but that’s kind of the reason we have them here in the first place.”
Aftershock and Jesse nodded in reluctant agreement but Jenny had apparently missed that part of the conversation over the last two weeks.
“Sorry, but why would that be the case? I’d think anyone out here would want the money. Send it my way if not.”
Aftershock chuckled.
“Normally that’s the case,” he said, “but for raiders it’s an honor thing. Yes, money is plundered and people end up killed, but in a weird sort of way, they end up earning the spoils. It’s not just given, which any true-blooded raider would take as an insult.”
“Seems the Vipers were playing dirty,” Lobo continued, using his fork to move his veggies around, “and the Pack found out about it. You see, there were whispers about two, maybe three months ago that their clan confirmed. Some city-dweller had plans to build himself an army. For what end game we don’t know, but an army is normally used for one thing.”
“Taking territory and then holding it after,” Jesse said spitefully. “Yet, he needed to convince certain people that there was a major threat in the first place. Then, he would be able to do his work and build those forces without suspicion. Three guesses as to who we’re talking about. I bet you only need one.”
“Frost,” she said sourly.
“Yep!” confirmed Aftershock, finishing his meal and folding his arms over his chest. “Turns out he was the one that supplied weapons and parts to the Vipers, and paid them well enough to attack the pipelines leading out of Diablo…”
“And the Gulch?” Jenny said, her sparkling eyes both sad and angry. With the plate resting in her lap, her hands vigorously rubbed her forearms.
Everyone stayed still and quiet except Aero, who had finished packing away provisions in the cave and had come to join them.
“Yes,” he replied. “Master was quite vocal about it once he had heard the news. Thrilled would be the word I would use to describe him.”
Jenny was fuming. She had been standing no more than a meter away from the bastard that caused the death of her old life and she had no idea. None of them did at the time.
“It all makes sense to you now, doesn’t it?” Jesse asked, recalling the weekly meetings with the mayor at Grand Hall. “He wanted sway the population into his waiting arms, thinking that more powerful and frequent raider activity would lead to an increased demand for security in Diablo.”
“Speaking of there, has there been any word on how things are?” Jenny was concerned for the few nice people she had met along the way. “It’s been nearly a week since we sent word to our contacts. With the mayor gone and you too, Jesse, he pretty much has free reign of the place.”
Jesse frowned, so deeply he appeared to sink down into the stone a few centimeters.
“Got word from someone named Marcus at the Junction today,” said Lobo, causing Jesse and Jenny to perk up with great interest. “Would have said something sooner but we were dealing with the stubborn Pack and their issues.”
“What’d he say?” asked Jesse.
Lobo proceeded to summarize the report he’d received (from those monitoring an old radio Aero had fixed up), starting with the fact that Frost didn’t seem to bothered by their escape.
“He’s not calling for searches or anything like it,” Lobo said, though he is incredibly angry with the bot.” All eyes fell on Aero. “He’s made it quite known that you are at the top of his shit list…”
Aero’s eyes looked away from the rest, and he placed his arms across his thighs.
“But yeah, he went straight for it and assumed control while things were in chaos,” Lobo continued. “I guess it was all sparked by your departure and he did so in the interest of, how was it Marcus put it? Peace and stability.”
“What kind of control?” Jenny asked as Jesse stood up and started walking around, still within earshot of Lobo.
Lobo watched Jesse carefully as he continued.
“Someone named Evelyn reported that Frost went for Winthrope Limited.”
Jesse immediately kicked the ground, a dusty, stony cloud of debris launching from the spot. He wanted to scream but spared the others from seeing his anger spill over. Frost was walking around his home, looking through his things, and stealing his inventions.
“You all right Jesse?” asked Aftershock, removing a flask from his pocket and flinging it at him. “You need that more than I do right now.”
“Do you want to know more?” Lobo asked out of courtesy.
Jesse opened the flask and swallowed two hefty gulps of liquor. It burned as it went down but he couldn’t care less. Holding onto it for a little longer, sure he’d need it, he nodded.
“Lemme guess, he’s been busy making steam capsules for all sorts of things?” Jesse said, taking another preemptive guzzle.
Lobo shook his head saying, “Marcus didn’t mention anything about steam capsules, whatever those are. He did say that several of your factories are making parts for something called a battery, while his are using your alloy specifications to make new bots.”
Jesse’s groan could have been a herd wild creatures for how loud it was. He stormed off to the edge of the overlook and took another drink. Aftershock got up and swaggered over.
“How are the people doing, Wyatt? Okay?” Jenny asked.
“Marcus didn’t say all too much, but I gathered from what he did tell me, and some reading between the lines, that there’s a menacing air hanging over the city. Citizens are confused, wondering where the officials are, and being mistreated by Frost’s emboldened security forces. Violence hasn’t erupted, yet, but tensions are running high.”
“That’s dreadful!” Jenny said, horrified. “We have to do something!”
“What, just waltz up in there and ask Frost to stop being mean?” Jesse said on his way back with Aftershock, who was now holding the flask. “We’ve been thinking about this for two weeks now and not finding many options on the table, fewer still to make all the wrongs done right again.”
“So, what are you saying?” Jenny snapped. “Now you just want to live in the wastes?”
“That isn’t what I said at all!” Jesse yelled, his voice cracking at the height of strain. The two of them stared at each other, equally stressed, and suddenly Jesse felt as if the stars were watching, judging, laughing at his plight.
“all right everyone, just calm down,” Aftershock urged. “I’m the first in line for a good fight but we don’t need to be wasting energy ripping each other’s throats out.”
Lobo dropped his shoulders and looked down at his boots; there was a hole worn into the left one and his toe was sticking out of it. Wiggling it, he sighed.
“I hope a plan forms soon, because if it’s something that we want to involve the Pack with, it needs to be soon.”
The group fell quiet as they ate their meals, the long days and nights with little sleep starting to show signs. Nerves had already been frayed and every little nuance, glance, or loud chew was enough to shred them that little bit more.
Aero sat and watched them alertly, neither tired nor hungry.
“Might I say something?” he asked politely, breaking the strangling silence.
Aftershock and Lobo were the first to look his way; both didn’t know what to say. Lobo felt a bit disturbed by the whole notion of bots, especially this one who looked more alive than any he’d seen before and acted like it, too. Aftershock on the other hand was intrigued, starting at the bot’s ice blue eyes and thinking, for a second only, that there was more.
“I think you’re entitled to that,” Jesse said. “You did save us from the gallows, after all.”
Jenny smiled, a little hope rekindled, saying, “What do you have for us, Aero?”
The bot exhaled intensely, a strange thing to see and hear which caused the others to breathe in sharply in expectation.
“Evidence that could be used to disgrace my Master and restore innocence to both you and Mr. Winthrope.”
It grew deathly silent again.
“Wait… what?” asked Jesse, his senses resurrected. “Did I hear you correctly? You have evidence on you?”
“Not on me,” said Aero, “in me.”
Jesse was an emotional rollercoaster again, hardly gentlemanly. He flung his arms up in the air and they came crashing down to his sides again, unable to grasp a single question in the mental storm going on in his skull.
Jenny looked at him, upset, wondering if he was going to explode.
“Well go on!” Jesse exclaimed, latching on to the most burning question he had. “What is this evidence that you’ve withheld from us, for two weeks no less, while we’ve been out here in the wastelands?”
Aero closed his eyes in shame.
“I was there the night Master murdered the mayor…”
Jenny gasped and Lobo leaned forward to better focus as Aero told them in detail about that night. Jesse paced, still listening, while mulling over a litany of his own thoughts.
“Master believed that by short circuiting all the bots he had involved in the conspiracy that he would be able to wipe all traces of his crime away. However, he did not factor in nor want me being there, recording everything I saw while saving it to my memory banks.”
“Why weren’t your robot brains scrambled?” Lobo asked doubtfully. “And how do we know you aren’t recording what we say and sending it back to the boss?”
Aero tipped his head and considered what Lobo was asking.
“To answer the first question,” he replied, “Master built me to be unique, more human like if you will. So, while I still have a means to be deactivated, I am not tied into the same systems as the rest of the control systems. Therefore, when he sent the purge signal to their receivers, I did not receive it.”
“And the second?” asked Aftershock, shifting his weight from one hip to the other while his arms were crossed tightly across his chest.
“You don’t, other than by trust.”
Lobo sputtered his lips as he stood, joining the rest in the seemingly more comfortable position of standing.
“Aero,” said Jenny, the only one of the group still seated with Aero. She sensed something good in him, even though he should just be a collection of bolts and gears wrapped in fake skin. “Why… why did you wait to tell us this until now?
“Loyalty,” he said without hesitation and both Aftershock and Lobo gave each other surprised glances. “Of course, I have it for Master… for Frost, as he is the one who created me. I would have no basis for all other judgement if that were easily dismissed.”
The group looked at each other with surprise.
“You think that’s all preprogrammed in there?” Lobo whispered to Aftershock. “Has to be, doesn’t it?”
“I have no damn idea,” he replied, looking over to Jesse and Jenny to see if they were faring any better with the bot that had a conscience.
“Over the last two weeks,” Aero continued, “between the all the stress you have endured, I have seen so many examples of laughter and joy and happiness, things that I have only ever witnessed at a distance, such as through a spyglass. Never have I seen the complexities of your interactions up close; you all show each other such a dynamic of friendship, of family, of love… that contrasts with my world view of abuse and pain.”
Jesse felt an odd feeling in his gut, tearing him in two directions. Aero talking about such highly emotional topics was moving, yet the ease at which he was divulging it was uncanny, both aspects shaking the notion that this was just a machine saying it all, no different than the vehicle they crossed the wasteland in before it crashed. Yet, right there in front of them was something more.
“Aero, you mentioned the fact you were there at the murder scene. How did you find out that the meeting was happening in the first place?”
“I was undergoing diagnostics, minor repairs, and fluid refills,” Aero said as Lobo cringed, “and overheard a discussion between Frost and –”
A series of jarring beeps sounded.
“Between Frost and –”
The beeps sounded again.
“It seems that I cannot say,” Aero said with distress, closing his eyes for a quick second. Another series of tones trilled before he reopened them. “There is a block that I cannot bypass.”
“Curious,” said Jesse lowly. “The burrow goes even deeper than we thought. Aero, if you can, continue trying to breach that wall. It seems like there are pertinent details waiting on the other side.”
“I shall.”
“Thanks,” Jesse replied, rubbing his eyes while trying to stifle a yawn. It escaped anyway. “Well, everyone, given this information it seems like we still need to develop a course of action and determine who to show it to, and soon. No pressure.”
“If we can get to the broadcast tower,” Aero said, “I may be able to hack in and interface with system to transmit the recording over the radio and holotubes.”
“That’s brilliant!” Jesse said. “Do you think it will work?”
“I honestly have no idea, but based on my capability and calculations, it’s probably our best chance.”
At that second, everyone saw a pinprick of light form at the end of the long tunnel, Jesse starting to say something else but not before he yawned again.
“I agree that’s probably our most promising option, Aero,” Aftershock said, “but looking at everyone made of flesh around this fire right now, it’s like the dead have come to life. We need to get some rest and finalize this in the morning, taking everything into account. Lobo?”
“Yes?”
“Do you think the Pack could wait for two, maybe three days for us to make sure this will work? I’m not even sure we will need you guys yet but this has me motivated.”
“I’ll try my best, Aftershock. Three days is doable for the Shadows; the Pack may start to leave before then.”
“Try your best, but if not, that’s fine, so long as we have some aid,” Aftershock replied. “If we are going to get Jesse back into Diablo, it’s not going to be easy and we will need all the help we can get.”