Fiction: Afterlife Volume 3 (Chapter 38)

If you’ve never read Afterlife before, click here to go to the first chapter.

Afterlife is a sci fi/western action serial published every other week. Join us in a post-apocalyptic journey through a future where life has become little more than a struggle for survival. However, where there’s life, there’s always hope.

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Read the previous chapter here:

Afterlife, Volume 3, Chapter 37

Where:
Ayman Ali and Ava Haddid get married.
Averil Jones is raped by Long John after an IAO meeting.
The Battle of Vulture’s Pass begins.

Find the Volume 3 Table of Contents page here.

View the Map here.

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Afterlife, Volume 3, Chapter 38

Abby made her way down the side of the dune, flanked by resistance soldiers.  She waved the flag as the resistance soldiers pressed forward, shooting at the IAO soldiers ahead of them.  Ayman was with them, with Wild Joe and Ava by his side, along with the other soldiers in his squad.  He fired his assault laser rifle at several IAO soldiers as they faded out, disguised by their camouflage projectors or whatever new technology they were using.  As long as he fired in the general direction where he’d last seen them, Ayman hoped to hit something.  He ran through a valley between two dunes, firing at the soldiers ahead of him as lasers came down from above him, blasting the sand all around him.  He turned to notice more resistance soldiers rushing across the tops of the dunes, taking out the IAO men who were firing at Ayman and his squad.  Ayman continued to press forward with Wild Joe leading the way.

Sand, smoke, and blood were everywhere as the chaos of war closed in on Ayman and his companions.  “Prometheus!” he yelled as he fired at another IAO soldier, cutting through him with laser blasts.  The battle cry was everywhere now as the resistance soldiers made their way to the hills at the foot of the pass.  Though he couldn’t see her any longer, Ayman knew that Abby was somewhere ahead of him, leading the charge.  He looked beside him to see that Ava was also trudging through the sand, blasting IAO soldiers with her laser rifle.  He periodically checked on her, though he knew she was perfectly capable of taking care of herself.  Still, he felt like it was his duty to look out for her now more than ever.

A torrent of sand rained down as some explosives went off nearby.  Ayman rubbed the sand out his eyes as lasers whizzed past him, and he continued forward, blasting IAO soldiers as he followed Wild Joe up the side of a dune.  They ran along the top of the dune as Ayman noticed a leveler up ahead.  The machine was still under IAO control.  It blasted a nearby dune with a green laser blast ten feet thick, destroying the dune in a mess of fire and melted sand, incinerating dozens of resistance soldiers who had been running on top of it.  The laser cannon aimed at the dune Ayman was running on as he quickly followed Wild Joe down the side of it.  They slid down through the sand as the huge laser blast hit the top of the dune.  Sand again rained down on Ayman as he slid to the bottom.  He turned to make sure Ava was still with him.  “I’m fine,” she said as she got up, brushing the sand off her tan uniform.  “Didn’t even break a nail.”  She winked at Ayman.  He looked behind her to see that Mary and Billy were also in one piece.  The Chief and Belle were also there.

“Keep movin’!” Wild Joe shouted.  “Don’t let a little dust off slow ya down!”  He led them towards some rocky terrain up ahead, blasting IAO soldiers hiding in the rocks.  They followed several other resistance soldiers up the rocky hillside, firing their weapons and taking cover behind a crag.  The pass wasn’t far.  They were in the foothills now.

Ayman watched as a squad of a dozen resistance soldiers made their way up the hillside towards some entrenched IAO soldiers.  One of the IAO soldiers fired an RLR on a tripod at the resistance soldiers, cutting them in half and decapitating several of them in a matter of seconds.  Ayman swallowed and turned away as bloody limbs and heads rolled down the hillside.  He looked at Ava, who was still beside him.  “Stay behind me,” he said.  “Always let me go first.”

She chuckled.  “You think that’ll help?  That thing’ll mow both of us down like we’re nothing.”

He glanced at her wounded arm.  “Maybe you should go back and find a medic.”

She shook her head.  “We have the Chief right here.  You’re not getting rid of me that easily.”  She smiled and he smiled back.

“We need to find a way to get up there,” Wild Joe said.  “One way or another.”

Ayman looked around the edge of the rocks and watched as five more resistance soldiers tried to rush the hill and were blasted to pieces in an explosion of blood and viscera.  The RLR continued humming, firing fifty laser blasts a second and ending lives by the dozens.  Ava pushed Ayman aside.  “Out of my way.”  She leaned out a little and aimed her laser rifle.

“Be careful!” Ayman shouted.  She fired and he watched the soldier with the RLR fall backwards.  Ava fired at the other IAO soldiers nearby, killing a few more.  Resistance soldiers around them cheered and rushed up the hillside.  Another RLR further up the hill mowed some of them down and Ava aimed and fired at its owner, taking him out also.  A barrage of laser fire came her way and Ayman pulled her back behind the crag.  Lasers blasted the rocks, sending pebbles spraying down on their heads.

“We can’t stay here,” Wild Joe said.  “We have to keep movin’ if we want to stay alive.”

He led them out onto the hill and Ayman followed him closely as he moved towards the pass.  They hid behind some more rocks as lasers hit the ground all around them.  Ayman noticed other resistance soldiers taking cover behind crags and boulders nearby.  “The soldiers hittin’ their flanks from the mountains still ain’t shown up,” Billy said.

Mary nodded.  “The IAO are still entrenched in their positions.  And they have the high ground.”

“This is quite literally an uphill battle,” Ava said.

“We can’t just let them sit up there and take out our soldiers,” Belle said with anger in her eyes.  Ayman had noticed a fire in her since her rescue.

“We still have to fight,” Wild Joe said.  “We have to keep them occupied until the reinforcements get here.”  He looked at the other resistance soldiers taking cover nearby.  “They have us pinned down.  It’s only a matter of time before they bring in the big guns and wipe out this entire hillside.”  Ayman frowned.  If only they could have used robots to storm the pass.  Ayman remembered hearing that in some of the other skirmishes and battles the resistance had fought with the IAO, the IAO used wireless reprogrammers to turn resistance robots against their masters, essentially turning the robots into additional soldiers for the IAO, so it wouldn’t be possible to use robots.  Disruptor and bullet tactics wouldn’t work in this battle, either, since the range of many of the weapons the IAO had in the pass outdistanced the range of disruptors by quite a bit.  It would have to be a straight up fight.  There was no getting around it.

Ayman noticed the IAO leveler several dunes away from them.  Some aerial assault vehicles had its attention currently.  There were also several hover tanks attacking it.  The resistance levelers were still far away.  They moved slowly and weren’t in range of the IAO leveler yet.  Ayman noticed two other levelers in the distance heading towards the resistance levelers as AAVs blasted at one another in the sky.  He glanced at Ava.  “We’re on our own.  We need to take this hill.”

“We do,” Wild Joe agreed.  “But if we move from this position, we’re likely dead.  It’s a classic catch twenty-two.”

Ayman heard some shouting and some cheering nearby.  He noticed a tan-uniformed figure running along the line of resistance troops taking cover on the hillside.  It was Abigail Song, and she was still holding her flag.  “There’s a day when each of us is going to die!” she shouted as she stopped to address the troops.  “And that day could very well be today.  It will be today for many of us.  But the resistance won’t die with us.  The resistance will only get stronger as long as we fight.  Just remember what you’re fighting for.  For your families and loved ones.  For their freedom.  For a society where all people can be free no matter who they are or where they come from.  It’s what this flag represents.”  She looked up at the burnt and battered flag she was holding, and back at the troops.  She glanced at Ayman with her piercing eyes as she looked around at all of the soldiers nearby.  Laser fire hissed by as she spoke.  “The IAO want to take that freedom away from us, but they won’t do that as long as we fight.  I don’t want to live in a world controlled by the IAO any longer.  I’d rather live or die free.  Remember that we’re fighting for something larger than ourselves, and there’s no way we’ll lose.  We will survive.  And we will thrive.  Because even if we die here today, each and every one of us will live forever!”

The troops cheered and chanted “Prometheus!” as Abby moved on to address another group of soldiers.

“We need to take this hill,” Wild Joe said.  “We need to get to the pass.  We ain’t gettin’ help any time soon.  The flankin’ battalions ain’t here.  We have to get up there somehow.”  Ayman nodded.

“Let’s see if we can get these other troops around to give us coverin’ fire while we storm the hill,” Billy said.

“I’ll hang back a little,” the Chief said.  “If any of you get hit, fall back and I’ll tend to you.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Wild Joe said.  “Cover us!” he shouted.  “We’re goin’ in!”  The resistance troops hiding behind crags and boulders on the hillside all started firing uphill towards the IAO positions.  “Follow me,” Wild Joe said, readying his assault laser rifle.  “We’ll try to move from boulder to boulder, cover to cover.”

The lasers continued firing up the hill as Wild Joe led Ayman and the others into the open.  Ayman noticed several other squads of resistance soldiers doing the same thing.  Apparently Abby’s speeches had made an impact.  Ayman stayed low as lasers whizzed by all around him.  He fired a few shots up the hill though he couldn’t see much.  Dirt and rock sprayed everywhere and explosions rocked the hillside as Ayman followed Wild Joe to a large boulder, checking on Ava along the way.  When everyone was safe behind the boulder, Wild Joe prepared for the next run.  “Three more of those and we should be where we want to be,” he said.  The resistance below them continued firing up the hill as the IAO fired down towards them.  Ayman watched as another group of seven resistance soldiers rushed up the hill.  A continuous green laser blast moved across the hill, slicing all seven of them in half and littering the ground with blood and intestines.  The laser line began cutting boulders in half, slicing through and butchering resistance troops taking cover behind them.  “Get down low!” Wild Joe shouted and Ayman dove to the ground, pulling Ava down with him.  The laser sliced through the boulder they were all lying prone behind as it sliced across the hillside.

Ava peeked out from the side of the rock, aimed her rifle, and started firing.  “Got him,” she said as lasers blasted the dirt and rocks around her.  She ducked back behind what was left of the boulder.

“We need to keep goin’ now,” Wild Joe said.  “Follow me.”  He ran out into the open and up the hillside as the resistance soldiers beneath them continued firing up the hill.  Ayman followed with Ava close behind him and the others behind her.  They ducked behind a crag next to a higher cliff rising to their right.

RLR’s were firing from the IAO positions above them.  Ayman could hear the humming and the shouts from wounded resistance soldiers.  “I’ll take another peek,” Ava said.  She peeked around the rocks and prepared to fire her rifle.  A laser blasted her in the head and she fell backwards.  Ayman pulled her behind the rocks and noticed the laser blast had only blown a hole through her helmet.  She took off her helmet, looked at the hole in it, and smiled at Ayman.  “Close one.”  He smiled and kissed her.

The Chief came over to check on her to make sure she really was all right.  “Stop doing stunts like that,” he said to her with a smile as he looked over her head.  “You’re liable to get yourself killed.”  A laser came in from the side, missing the Chief’s head by a millimeter.  He looked at Ayman and Wild Joe and frowned as they all tried to duck closer to the cliff side.

“You need to be careful, too, Chief,” Mary said.  “We can’t afford to lose you.”

The Chief smiled at her.  “I can take care of…”  Another laser shot through his face, blasting bone and brains across Ayman’s face and the dirt behind him.  Ayman immediately grabbed Ava and pulled her back further behind the rocks as she screamed and cried.  RLR’s were firing, humming and littering the hillside with laser fire.  Lasers were blasting the rocks behind them and whizzing by from all sides.

“We have to bury him!” Ava shouted.

“We have to keep moving!” Billy shouted back.

“He’d want us to move on, Ava,” Belle said.

“We all loved the Chief,” Wild Joe said.  “But we need to keep movin’.  We’ll bury our dead when the battle’s over.”  He looked at Ava and frowned.  “I’m sorry, Ava.  We need to move, though, or we’re all dead.”

Anger came over Ava’s face and she leaned out from the rocks and fired a volley of shots up the hill.  Wild Joe ran out as RLR fire whizzed down at him and resistance soldiers below them continued providing covering fire.  Ava followed Wild Joe and Ayman followed her, with Billy and Mary close behind.  Belle trailed them as they all made their way up the hill.  Lasers were coming from front and back and Ayman worried they’d get caught in the crossfire as they rushed up towards the next clump of rocks.  There was a vast open space between them that seemed like miles as Ayman ran through a sea of pink, red, and green laser blasts.  Dirt and rock rained down throughout the area, much of it incinerated by laser fire.  Ayman could see the line of IAO troops up above them.  They were getting close.  Wild Joe, Ava, Ayman, and the others ducked behind the rocks as lasers blasted the ground all around them.  “We can’t stay here long this time,” Wild Joe shouted over the sounds of battle.  “It’s gettin’ heavier up here, and it’s likely to get worse than this.  We need to head straight for that line up there and take as many of them out as we can.  No more takin’ cover.”  Ayman nodded.

Wild Joe ran out from behind the rocks and ran straight up the hill, firing his assault laser rifle as he went.  Ava followed close behind, with Ayman behind her and Billy and Mary behind him.  Belle was still there in the rear, firing and moving swiftly.  Ayman blasted away at the line of IAO troops as he ran.  They got to the trench and fired down into it at scattering IAO soldiers.  Ayman jumped down into the trench and there was an IAO soldier right in front of him.  He unloaded his assault laser rifle at the soldier’s face, blasting his head open and squirting blood and brains across the rocky trench wall.  A soldier with a knife came at him and Ayman blocked the knife with his gun.  He smashed the soldier into the wall and hit him in the head repeatedly with the butt of his assault laser rifle, cracking his skull open.  Ayman quickly aimed his rifle again and fired several shots into another group of IAO soldiers running towards him.  He noticed other resistance soldiers jumping into the trench and joining the fight.  Ayman turned to see Ava behind him and they embraced.  Ayman leaned against the wall and caught his breath.  “I think we almost have this.”

“There’s a whole other battalion just over this ridge,” she said.  “We don’t have this until our reinforcements show up to take their flanks.”

Ayman nodded as Wild Joe approached them.  “We can stay here until the reinforcements arrive,” he said.  “We need to hold this trench, though.  They ain’t gonna just let us keep it.”

Ayman noticed Billy and Mary setting up one of the RLR’s on a tripod facing the other direction.  Ayman climbed a low ledge that allowed him to look out from the trench at the pass.  IAO troops were quickly approaching.  Ayman noticed several hover tanks.  “Yeah,” he said.  “This isn’t gonna be easy.”

<>

Paul flew his AAV at the saucer-shaped enemy ship ahead of him, firing his lasers as anti-aircraft weapons blasted at him down below.  Another ship exploded and the sky above the battlefield was full of smoke and fire and chaos.  All formations had been broken and it was every man for himself as Paul maneuvered through the lasers firing up into the sky.  He got the ship in his sights and fired, blasting through it and sending it plummeting to the battlefield below.  Paul hovered for a second and took a deep breath.  He noticed below him that the resistance had taken the first trench just in front of the pass.  The IAO soldiers were swarming towards them like ants, though, and there were dozens of hover tanks with them.  Paul also noticed a leveler making its way to the newly established resistance position.  He shot down towards it, firing his lasers as he moved from side to side, trying to make himself a hard target.

Paul’s lasers hit the hull of the leveler repeatedly as its defensive cannons fired at him.  Paul weaved through the laser blasts and fired into a crowd of IAO soldiers, taking as many of them out as he could when he noticed lasers coming from behind him.  He quickly turned a 360 and shot up into the sky, firing at the two attack copters that had come up behind him.  His lasers blasted through the first one, tearing through its propeller and sending it crashing down into the mountains.  He turned and fired at the other one, blasting it to pieces as he shot higher into the sky.  There was an AAV on his tail now.

He flew up towards some clouds, turned another 360, and shot back down with the sun blazing behind him.  On the way down, he found the AAV and fired a volley of shots, ripping through it and sending it crashing down below.  Paul continued flying at the leveler, whizzing by with a volley of lasers, turning and whizzing back.  He fired another volley of lasers at the leveler and it burst into flames.  Seconds later, it exploded as Paul flew through the orange flames.  The explosion took out scores of IAO soldiers who were close-by.  Paul shot up into the sky again, narrowly avoiding another storm of laser blasts from anti-aircraft artillery.  He stopped and looked around, taking a mental inventory of what was happening around him.

AAV’s were in dogfights all around.  Several were attacking the levelers behind the resistance front, one of which appeared to be badly damaged.  The IAO were fighting the entrenched resistance soldiers directly beneath him.  Paul looked to the north and saw a battalion coming down a narrow trail through the rocky terrain.  Several troops had established positions in the rocks and were firing down at the IAO army.  General Schmidt’s troops had finally arrived.  To the south, Paul could see the other reinforcements with Della and Ace, but they were heading towards a steep cliff that was hundreds of feet high.  There were also troops approaching from the pass to the east.  Paul had no idea who they were.  At first he thought they were IAO reinforcements until he saw that they were attacking the IAO army from the rear, essentially blocking off any retreat.  Things were looking good for the resistance all of the sudden.

<>

“I don’t know who they are,” Ace said, “but it sure looks like they’re on our side.”  He was wearing a G-14 mining jumper on his back, a big metal box with two tubes on the sides.

Della nodded as he looked down at the force attacking the IAO from the east.  They looked like a bunch of farmers with guns from what Della could tell, though it was hard to see details from three hundred feet above the battlefield.  “Whoever they are,” Della said, “it looks like they’re here to help.”  He turned the switch on the side of the heavy G-14 he was wearing on his back and shouted the order for the other officers to do the same, and they relayed the orders to the rest of the men in the battalion.

G-14’s were electromagnetic anti-gravity fall suppressers used by miners to drop into deep mines without injury.  The resistance had found hundreds of them when they liberated a group of mining towns east of Iron Town and Ace suggested the army use them to drop from the cliff to attack Vulture’s Pass.  Everyone thought he was insane at first, but he managed to convince the high command to try the idea.  Now here they were standing at the edge of the cliff with the G-14’s on their backs.  “Get ready!” Ace shouted.  “Take the plunge on three!”  Della looked down at the IAO soldiers below them.  Many were fighting the entrenched resistance soldiers.  He took a deep breath and readied his assault laser rifle.  “One!” Ace shouted. “Two!  Three!”  Ace leapt off the cliff ledge and Della followed him.

Air rushed past as Della fell quickly.  His body wasn’t used to falling as fast as it was, but he was still able to ready his assault rifle and he started firing into the mass of IAO soldiers below him.  Lasers whizzed by him as he fell when the G-14 clicked in and his falling slowed until he was floating fifty feet above the rocky ground.  He looked around him to see lasers tearing through other floating resistance soldiers.  He continued firing into the IAO army, watching blood splatter as more of them looked up to notice the floating resistance soldiers and fired.  Della noticed as lasers hit the G-14’s some soldiers around him were wearing and they plummeted down into the pass, their bodies breaking and splattering blood across the rocks.  Laser whizzed past as Della checked on Ace beside him.  He was also floating down into the IAO army.  As Della got closer to the ground, he took out more IAO soldiers with his weapon until his feet were settled safely on the rocky terrain.  He dropped his G-14 backpack to the ground.  “Take positions behind the rocks!” Ace shouted as he and Della ducked behind the nearest outcropping.

Della leaned out and fired at the IAO soldiers, hitting three of them in the head.  The soldiers from the east were in the mix, blasting through the IAO positions as Della continued firing.  Now several of the soldiers who’d been in the trench were rushing out at the IAO army, who were now surrounded.  “Let’s go!” Della shouted, and he ran out from behind the cover and rushed the line of troops ahead of him with other resistance soldiers all around him.

He blasted an IAO troop’s head open and fired at several more.  He noticed a group of resistance soldiers firing into a trench where blood splattered up onto the ground.  Blood was splattering everywhere and smoke filled the battlefield with a red-tinted haze.  Della fired point-blank at two IAO soldiers, blasting their heads into red smithereens.  He found himself in a rocky dell where two resistance soldiers were blasting several IAO troops who were trying to run away from the battle.  He watched as three more resistance soldiers knelt five IAO troops on the ground and systematically shot them in their heads, executing them.  “Wait!” Della shouted.  Before he could say anything, the resistance soldiers were back in the thick of the battle.  Confusion and shouts surrounded Della as he walked along the cliff wall, trying to make sense of what was happening.  Resistance soldiers were shooting at one another.  He opened his mouth, but was unable to speak.  He didn’t know who to fire at any longer.  He stumbled along the rock wall, looking around him trying to find Ace or anyone who could help him restore some sanity to the situation.

He noticed two male resistance soldiers wrestling with a female resistance soldier and watched as one of them rammed her into the cliff wall as the other as the other tried to pull off her belt.  When Della realized what was happening, he shot both of the male resistance soldiers in the head and approached the woman, who looked up at him with fear.  “You’re okay!” he shouted.  “You’re okay!”  He looked around for IAO troops to shoot at as his head spun.  He saw soldiers on the ground who were ripped to pieces.  Limbs and heads and intestines and blood.  Della fell to his knees and vomited uncontrollably.  He closed his eyes and shook his head, trying to erase the nightmare that surrounded him.

He came back to his senses and heard the shouts all around him.  “Prometheus!” someone shouted.  Della thought of Abby and remembered her telling him about how she’d killed a sheriff in cold blood.  And Judith Isreal.  He remembered the sorrow Abby felt as she told him she’d never kill again.  “Prometheus!” another soldier shouted.  Della shook off his thoughts and stood, trying to regain his sanity.  He wondered if he’d just imagined any of the horrors he’d just seen.  “Victory!” a resistance soldier shouted as he stood.  “We’ve won!  We’ve won the battle!”  Cheers rang through the valley as Della looked over at the woman who’d almost been raped.  She was huddled against the cliff wall, sobbing.

<>

Ayman stood next to Wild Joe as Belle climbed out of the trench.  She fired at four IAO soldiers who had dropped their guns, cutting them to pieces with anger in her eyes.  “Stop!” Wild Joe shouted.  “Hold your fire!  This thing’s in the bag.”  Billy and Mary climbed out of the trench and aimed their laser rifles at four more unarmed IAO soldiers who were holding their hands in the air.

“We can’t trust these punks,” Belle said, aiming her weapon at the same four men Billy and Mary were aiming at.  “There’s no telling what sort of stuff they’ll try.”

“If we gun them down in cold blood,” Wild Joe said, “we become just like them.  We need to do what we can to preserve the sanity.”  Belle frowned and lowered her weapon.

Ayman hugged Ava and looked at her left arm.  It was burnt and bleeding pretty bad.  “Now that the fighting’s over, we need to get you a medic,” Ayman said.

Ava was still sobbing over the death of the Chief.  She wiped the tears away from her eyes and nodded.  Ayman looked around at the plateau to see patches of resistance soldiers scattered around rounding up the surrendered IAO troops.  There was some racket near the cliffs as a man who was holding a laser pistol to a woman’s head started shouting.  The man had goggles on his forehead and his eyes were darting around like crazy.  There were hypodermic needles hanging from his belt.  The tan-skinned boy standing next to him was wearing jeans and a red t-shirt and his belt was lined with bones that appeared to be human.  “Stay back!” the madman with the hostage shouted in a screechy voice as he backed away towards the cliff wall with the boy beside him.  “Stay back!  You see, we’re gonna leave.  And you’re gonna let us.  You see?  Because if you don’t, her death is on your hands.”  He nodded to the girl in front of him whose head his gun was aimed at.  She couldn’t have been more than twenty.  She was pretty with short blonde hair and she was wearing a tan resistance uniform.

“Let her go!” a nearby soldier shouted.  “Y’all already lost the battle.  Give ‘er up and we’ll just take ya prisoner.  We treat our prisoners well.  As long as ya ain’t war criminals or nothing like that.”

The boy laughed.  “You hear that, Jolly Roger.  War criminals.”

The man the boy called Jolly Roger nodded.  “Everyone’s a criminal in war.  But we’re walking away and you’re gonna let us.  Because if you don’t, her brains leave her head.”  The girl was being brave.  She looked scared, but she wasn’t crying or saying anything.  “I’ll sacrifice her to the lord of chaos,” Jolly Roger said with a cackle.  “Don’t think I won’t, now.”

A laser blasted through Jolly Roger’s head and he fell backwards into the cliff wall.  The girl was startled, but she wasn’t scathed.  Ayman turned to see Belle aiming her laser rifle at the kid.  “Don’t shoot ‘im,” Wild Joe shouted.  “He’s just a kid, Belle.”

“He’s not just a kid,” Belle said.  “He’s an evil murderer.”

“I surrender,” the kid said, raising his hands in the air.  There was a wicked grin on his young face.

“What are you trying, Jay Dog?” Belle asked as she aimed her laser rifle at him.

The kid walked towards Belle, Wild Joe, Billy, and Mary as they stood near the trench.  Ayman and Ava were also nearby and there were lots of other resistance soldiers and IAO prisoners nearby.  “I’m your prisoner,” Jay Dog said as he approached, still smiling.  Ayman noticed something under the boy’s shirt.  It looked like a bomb of some sort, and there were several more devices hidden under his belt.

“No!” Belle shouted.  She ran towards him and pulled him towards the trench.  Ayman heard several clicking sounds and he dragged Ava to the ground.  He watched Belle pull the boy into the trench where there was an explosion of blood and flesh.

Ayman helped Ava up as Wild Joe ran to the edge of the trench, looked into it, and took off his cowboy hat, which he placed over his heart.  Billy and Mary looked on in horror as Ava continued sobbing and Ayman held her close.

<>

Mavery sat in her new office waiting.  She looked out the window behind her at the cobblestone street below.  Eileen Traymont was walking towards the front door of the building, her usual stern expression on her face.  She was short, with a round face and glasses, wearing a dark blue pantsuit, but regardless of her small stature, Mavery found her intimidating.  Part of her thought Abby was crazy inviting Eileen to be the chief of the justice department, a member of the Lead Council.  The other Lead Council members voted her in, though.  If she’d gained their confidence and Abby trusted her, Mavery would have to try to find a way to get used to it.

Her office was neat and tidy, not like the messy one in Phoenix Books which had been her second home for so many months now.  There were bookshelves with books.  Mostly literature and poetry, but there were also books on history and politics.  Mavery figured if she was going to be a member of the lead council, she’d have to brush up on those topics.  All of the furniture was faux wood.  Mavery didn’t want to waste taxpayer money on the real deal if it wasn’t necessary.  She was on the second floor of a row house.  The first floor contained rooms full of files and servers along with Big Ed’s security post.

The door to the office opened and Big Ed peeked in with a smile.  “Eileen Traymont is here,” he said.

“Let her in, baby,” Mavery said.

Eileen walked in and sat in the chair across the desk from Mavery, her severe eyes fixed on Mavery’s.  “Good morning,” Mavery said with a grin.

“No small talk,” Eileen said.  “Let’s get down to business.”

“Sure,” Mavery said with a frown.

“I’m going to need more men if you want me to quell any potential uprisings,” she said.  “And more guns.”

“Uprisings?” Mavery asked.  “Is it getting that bad?”

“It could,” Eileen said.  “I like to be proactive.”

Mavery nodded.  “Tell me about what’s happening.”

“There was an attempted robbery,” Eileen said.  “The stables where we keep the horses that were confiscated from Iron Town.  A group of white supremacists tried to steal them.”  She smiled.  “We were able to put them down.  The white supremacists, of course.  Not the horses.”

Mavery cleared her throat.  “I hope no unnecessary force was used.”

“They shot at us first,” Eileen said.  “So we put them down.  Now, I know you’ve been pushing your propaganda, but there are still many who see Abby as a criminal.  She was robbing banks with Ace McCoy and Annabelle Rose, after all.  At least that much of the stories circulating wasn’t a lie.”

“They were helping the resistance, though,” Mavery said.  “That’s the truth.  They were robbing Rennock’s banks for the resistance, to help the war effort.”

“Theft is theft,” Eileen said.  “Anyway, I believe the only way to quell a possible civil war would be for my branch to thoroughly investigate her.  No one’s above the law, after all.”

Mavery nodded.  “I see.  Well, if that’s how you feel, go ahead, then.  Abby will cooperate, I’m sure, when she gets back from risking her life fighting a war to see that you and everyone else can live here safely.”

Eileen rolled her eyes.  “Keep doing what you do.  I’ll keep doing what I do.”

“The only way we’ll make this work,” Mavery said, “is if we can get the message of unity through to the people.  We all need to come together.  Factions and divisiveness isn’t the way to go.”

“Then you shouldn’t have chosen a known criminal to be our leader,” Eileen said.

“I didn’t choose her,” Mavery said.  “The people did.”

“Well we’ll see how the election goes when she gets back,” Eileen said.  “If the people really want her to be our first president, more power to her.”

“Power to the people,” Mavery said.  “And just remember, you’d still be rotting in a cell if it weren’t for Abby.”

“How could I forget?” Eileen asked.  “Look, I’m just trying to keep the peace.”

“Anything else?” Mavery asked.

“I think we should propose martial law for the time being,” Eileen said.  “It may be the only way to keep the peace here until the army returns.”

“Martial law,” Mavery repeated.  “You can bring it up to the council.  But I completely disagree.  If we can’t get the people behind us through peaceful means, they have every right to revolt.  It’s our job, and my job especially, to see that the people are with us and not against us.  If they chose to revolt, I’m not doing my job.”

“And then it’s time for me to do my job,” Eileen said.

“This is a fragile peace,” Mavery said.  “We aren’t going to be able to hold it by doing the same things that destroyed Rennock.  This is a democracy.  Government by the people, for the people.  And if the people want us out, we leave and let them find someone else to lead them.”

“There’s also the problem with the IAO.  Not just abroad, but domestically.  They still have members infiltrating out city.  Causing chaos in every way imaginable.  Robberies and murders.  I feel like they’re egging on the white nationalists.  And they also have their hand in some of the alternative news sites here in town.  We’ve captured some known traitors guilty of treason.  In the old days, treason was punishable by…”

Mavery raised her hand.  “You know we don’t use the death penalty here.  Never have.  Never will.”

“But in some cases…”

Mavery shook her head.  “Abby tells me you’re a Christian.  So you should understand that everyone is capable of being redeemed, no matter what they’ve done.  Everyone is worthy of forgiveness.  That doesn’t mean we let people off scot free.  Everyone has to pay for their crimes.  Some may be in prison for life.  But even in prison, there are ways people can contribute to society.  Work programs, for example.  They can work from within the prison walls.  In beneficial ways that will help the resistance.”

Eileen opened her mouth, thought for a second, and nodded.  “Well, that’s it until the council meeting, then.”

“Very well,” Mavery said.  “Have a good day.”

Eileen nodded as she stood.  “Have a good day.”  She turned and walked towards the door.

<>

Abby stood on top of the dune with Della and Ace close behind. The resistance army was setting up camp in the desert behind them. There in the distance were the metal walls of New Atlantis. “We’re finally here,” Abby said. “After everything we’ve been through.” After the Second Battle of Vulture’s Pass, the resistance army marched through the mountains and desert dunes for months, fighting skirmishes and battles along the way. Those who’d never fought a battle before they left Rose City were now seasoned veterans.

“This is it, honey,” Della said.  “This is gonna make or break us.”

Abby was nervous, even with the addition of the resistance members from the east.  Sammy had been with them, along with a few dozen soldiers he’d been able to drum up in Denver.  Some of the other survivors from the mountains had joined them, also.  They weren’t many, but Abby felt like they somehow helped grant the resistance legitimacy.  She wondered if they had the numbers to take New Atlantis, though.  They’d find out the next day.  “Well, let’s get some sleep.”

“We probably won’t be sleeping much tonight,” Ace said.

“Oh,” Della said with a laugh.  “I’ll leave you two alone, then.”

“That’s not what he meant, you perv,” Abby said.  Ace hadn’t touched her yet other than a few kisses, anyway.  It was probably for the better.  “You should join us in my tent tonight,” she said to Della.  “For cards and some fun.  Just for a little while.”

“Okay,” Della said.

Ace grinned.  “You aren’t actually going to try to play poker with me, are you?”

“Not if you’re gonna cheat,” Abby said, nudging him in the side as she started walking towards her tent.

“I’m appalled,” Ace said.  “Are you calling me a cheater, darlin’?”

“I call ‘em like I see ‘em,” Abby said.  Della and Ace followed her back to her tent as the distant walls of New Atlantis gleamed pink in the sunset.

 
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98W9QuMq-2k&w=560&h=315]
 

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Continue on to the next chapter:

Afterlife, Volume 3, Chapter 39
Where:
Resistance forces attack New Atlantis.
The resistance struggles to infiltrate the city walls.
The resistance tries to gain air superiority.

Find the Volume 3 Table of Contents page here.

View the Map here.

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