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Speaker 1: Chapter twenty one. Sasha. Alexander hadn't seen it coming. He

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Speaker 1: hadn't expected her at all. The sound of his furious

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Speaker 1: scream was the most beautiful thing Sasha had ever heard.

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Speaker 1: She hit him again and again, and he fell back

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Speaker 1: and then down to the ground. Blood streamed from his

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Speaker 1: nose in a gash above his brow. His eyes looked unfocused,

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Speaker 1: his lip was split. He tried to scream or cry

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Speaker 1: out or beg her, but she didn't give him the

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Speaker 1: time to say one damn word. Instead, she hit him

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Speaker 1: again and again and again. She didn't make the conscious

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Speaker 1: choice to dive down on top of him, and in fact,

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Speaker 1: Sasha was rather surprised to find herself straddling the prone,

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Speaker 1: broken boy soldier. But once she was there, she kept

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Speaker 1: hitting him until she felt his skull give way and

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Speaker 1: the helmet had something soft, squishy and hot that lay beyond.

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Speaker 1: She sat back and for what seemed like a year,

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Speaker 1: just stared at the helmet and bedded in Alexander's ruined face.

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Speaker 1: Blood pulsed out from around the edges where it met

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Speaker 1: the skin. The way the blood bubbled up looked just

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Speaker 1: a bit like the water and one of the fountains

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Speaker 1: outside the hospital, her mother ran. For some reason, that

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Speaker 1: similarity did more to raise her hackles than the act

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Speaker 1: of killing. Her ears still rang, and so it was

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Speaker 1: easy to lose herself. In contemplation of Alexander's body. Her

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Speaker 1: mind turned to the Book of John and the words

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Speaker 1: of her Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. Do not be

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Speaker 1: like Kine who belonged to the evil One and murdered

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Speaker 1: his brother? And why did he murder him? Because his

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Speaker 1: own actions were evil and his brothers were righteous? Had

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Speaker 1: Alexander's actions truly been righteous? Sasha knew if she searched

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Speaker 1: the Bible she could find scriptural justifications for everything Alexander

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Speaker 1: had done. That's why she'd come here in the first place,

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Speaker 1: wasn't it The heavenly Kingdom was finally going back to

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Speaker 1: the letter of the Bible, the Word of God. Only

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Speaker 1: now that she had seen what that looked like, Sasha

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Speaker 1: had found she could not abide it. Am I still

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Speaker 1: a Christian? She couldn't say. Her faith had been such

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Speaker 1: a part of her identity, it had been everything, and

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Speaker 1: now it felt like a lie. What am I if

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Speaker 1: not a righteous servant of the Lord? Where do I

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Speaker 1: go from here? Eisash little problem here. Roland's voice jerked

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Speaker 1: her out of her contemplation. She looked back at the

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Speaker 1: man and her mind recoiled in terror. His skin had

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Speaker 1: been shredded by gunfire. It hung in pale tatters down

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Speaker 1: his face and arms. His clothing had largely been shot away,

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Speaker 1: and the rags that remained were so drenched in blood

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Speaker 1: that they clung to him. He looked almost as if

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Speaker 1: he was clad in a single giant scab. One of

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Speaker 1: his eyes was unfocussed, dislocated, and something had happened to

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Speaker 1: his left arm. It looked as if an enormous straight

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Speaker 1: razor had burst out of the forearm. Where did you

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Speaker 1: get that? She asked. Sasha was surprised and a bit

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Speaker 1: disturbed by her curiosity. Roland seemed surprised too this. He

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Speaker 1: looked at the blade. I really no, I'd sort of

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Speaker 1: forgotten it was in there. He lifted his arm and

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Speaker 1: its blood soaked blade up and looked at it like

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Speaker 1: a small child opening a prized gift on Christmas morning.

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Speaker 1: Then he flicked his arm down towards the ground, and

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Speaker 1: the blade slid back into the meat of his forearm

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Speaker 1: with a wet thwack. Look, he said, we got more

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Speaker 1: press and shipped to deal with right now. You're all

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Speaker 1: those sirens. She actually couldn't. Her hearing had begun to

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Speaker 1: recover from the gunfight, but Roland was just barely audible

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Speaker 1: allowed tonight. As hums still rang through her ears, Sasha

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Speaker 1: was pretty sure she'd suffered permanent damage. I can't hear

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Speaker 1: much right now, she said, the gunfire, you know. Oh,

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Speaker 1: he frowned. I forgot that could happen to you folks. Well, uh,

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Speaker 1: there's a shipload of cops or martyrs or militia whatever.

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Speaker 1: A bunch of them are coming, probably two or three hundred.

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Speaker 1: They got tanks and drones and ship. God Almighty, Sasha

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Speaker 1: felt fear rise up in her heart again. Yeah, listen,

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Speaker 1: God's not really the dude to worry about right now.

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Speaker 1: Manny's all fucked up. I stopped his bleeding, but you're

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Speaker 1: gonna need to get him out of here. Manny, she'd

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Speaker 1: forgotten all about him. Sasha realized with a start that

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Speaker 1: she'd blotted the rest of the room from her mind.

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Speaker 1: She looked around and took it all in. Manny was

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Speaker 1: still lying where she'd left him, nursing a gunshot wound

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Speaker 1: to the belly. He was pale, sweaty, and he looked

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Speaker 1: to be in terrible pain. But he was conscious and alive.

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Speaker 1: That was more than she could say for Marigold. The

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Speaker 1: poor woman had been shredded by shotgun fire. Sasha couldn't

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Speaker 1: bring herself to look too closely at the shattered, steaming remains,

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Speaker 1: But Marigold's friends were alive. The young man Rick was

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Speaker 1: unconscious and drenched in blood, but most of that blood

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Speaker 1: didn't seem to be his own. His head was in

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Speaker 1: Tullie's lap. She'd been wounded in the buttocks and bled

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Speaker 1: quite a lot, but the wounds seemed to have clotted.

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Speaker 1: There were tears and a haunted, pained look in her eyes.

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Speaker 1: Oh my god, Sasha said, once her mind started to

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Speaker 1: process the visual stimuli. Lord in Heaven, No, no, no, no,

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Speaker 1: that poor woman, that unborn child. How could this happen?

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Speaker 1: How could this be? Sasha, Roland shouted, This is a

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Speaker 1: very bad time for you to have emotions. Try killing

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Speaker 1: those for a while. How just think about the fact

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Speaker 1: that everyone but me will die if he don't get

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Speaker 1: your ship together, And then get your ship together. Her

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Speaker 1: initial action was anger and frustration. Is he that disconnected

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Speaker 1: from humanity? Does he think people can just turn their

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Speaker 1: empathy off? But then she stopped herself, listened him, and tried.

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Speaker 1: She imagined herself putting on a heavy jacket, something that

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Speaker 1: blocked out pain and horror rather than the cold. It worked, okay,

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Speaker 1: she said, what do I need to do? You need

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Speaker 1: to take Monny and uh, what's her name and what's

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Speaker 1: his face? Touli and Rick right, take the non dead people,

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Speaker 1: run down and out the back door and find me

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Speaker 1: a car. Then you need to a car. He stopped

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Speaker 1: sifting through the dead men's firearms to roll his eyes

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Speaker 1: at her. Yes, a car. I'm not going to carry

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Speaker 1: all you lame bloods out of here on my fucking shoulders.

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Speaker 1: Where we need a getaway vehicle. I can't drive, she said.

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Speaker 1: All the cars in the am fat are autonomous. He shrugged.

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Speaker 1: You'll figure it out. Many moaned just then, almost as

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Speaker 1: if it was in response to roland suggestion. Sasha knew

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Speaker 1: it was more likely she'd just been too focused on

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Speaker 1: the big post human to notice Manny's pained moans the

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Speaker 1: whole time. Can he drive? Sasha asked, sure, Roland said

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Speaker 1: with sudden cheer He's only lost what two quarts of blood?

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Speaker 1: I gave him a little mine. I'm sure he'll be

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Speaker 1: right his rain soon, Many moaned again, handed his blood

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Speaker 1: soaked belly. He didn't appear to be bleeding still, but

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Speaker 1: he was pale and his face showed agony too obvious

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Speaker 1: to ignore. Sasha doubted he'd be capable of driving a

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Speaker 1: car in the immediate future. I can drive, Toullie said,

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Speaker 1: in a cracked, broken sounding voice. Right Roland said, well,

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Speaker 1: that's lovely. Get your asses up and get moving. You've

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Speaker 1: got about two minutes before shitting fans start their lovely dance.

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Speaker 1: The post human's good humor was incongruous in this blood

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Speaker 1: soaked room. Addressed to two people who lost a friend today,

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Speaker 1: he grabbed one of the guard's pistols, which he shoved

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Speaker 1: in his waistband and handed it to Sasha. Safety's off,

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Speaker 1: he said, cheerily, So once you pull the trigger, stuff'll happen.

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Speaker 1: Sasha took the gun and then went over to help

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Speaker 1: Manny up. Tullie did the same thing with her wounded friend.

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Speaker 1: Neither Manny or Rick were in great shape, but Manny

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Speaker 1: at least seemed capable of standing under his own power.

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Speaker 1: Once Sasha got him to his feet, he stayed there.

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Speaker 1: She looked him in the eye, and while he seemed

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Speaker 1: sort of dazed and glassy, his pupils fixed on hers,

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Speaker 1: and he nodded it. We have to go, She said,

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Speaker 1: sitrat a the tempo him. He muttered what Sasha asked said,

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Speaker 1: it's about fucking time. Just follow me, she said, with

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Speaker 1: more confidence than she felt. I'll take care of everything.

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Speaker 1: Oh funck that, Manny said. He put a hand on

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Speaker 1: her shoulder and moved as if to push in front

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Speaker 1: of her and shield her with his body. Then he

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Speaker 1: grabbed a side, groaned, and staggered back. All right, yeah,

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Speaker 1: you lead the way men. Tuli was up now. She

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Speaker 1: had an arm around her friend, and together they moved

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Speaker 1: almost as fast as a single elderly person with bad hips.

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Speaker 1: Manny was not much more mobile. Sasha looked back at Roland.

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Speaker 1: Where should we meet you? The next street behind this

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Speaker 1: building is called Alma. Take it and go left until

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Speaker 1: you hit a road named cross Bend. I should be

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Speaker 1: there by the time you arrive. What if we can't

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Speaker 1: find a he cut her off. Not finding a car

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Speaker 1: is not an option. Talking more is not an option.

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Speaker 1: I have to go kill people. You find something with

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Speaker 1: wheels and get Tullie in the driver's seat. Sasha start

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Speaker 1: to say something, but the sirens had drawn very close. Indeed,

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Speaker 1: she heard several shouts from outside the front of the building.

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Speaker 1: Roland cursed. He'd already gathered up two of the rifles

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Speaker 1: and slung them across his back. He had a large

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Speaker 1: pistol in his left hand. At the sound of the shouting,

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Speaker 1: he brought his right hand up to his belly and

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Speaker 1: dug it deep inside his skin. Sasha watched in horror

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Speaker 1: as he tore a heavy, blood caked weapon out of

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Speaker 1: his gut. Roland walked up to the front window of

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Speaker 1: the room and fired the weapon once, twice, three times.

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Speaker 1: Its report was deep and basy, like the sound of

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Speaker 1: a heavy drum being struck. There was a brief island

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Speaker 1: of quiet, followed by a trio of explosions that rattled

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Speaker 1: the walls of the jail. Look. Roland said as he

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Speaker 1: glanced back to her, I gotta go be a distraction.

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Speaker 1: Find the car, get to cross Bend and Alma, I'll

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Speaker 1: be therein He glanced out the window again and shrugged.

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Speaker 1: Ten maybe eleven minutes. Okay should Sasha started to ask

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Speaker 1: talking time is done. Toolie's flat voice interrupted, he moves,

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Speaker 1: We move now. She pulled her friend towards the door.

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Speaker 1: There would have been something almost comical about the agonizing

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Speaker 1: slowness with which they actually moved, but the gesture had

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Speaker 1: its intended effect. Sasha took Manny by the hand. She

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Speaker 1: let Tulli lead the way to the door, but once

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Speaker 1: they were in the hallway, the young woman had no

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Speaker 1: idea where to go. Sasha took the lead then and

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Speaker 1: guided her new comrades towards a flashing red exit sign

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Speaker 1: that she knew led to a rear stairwell. For a

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Speaker 1: brief passing second, she'd been worried that they might encounter

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Speaker 1: other guards or jailers during their flight. That concern proved groundless.

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Speaker 1: Gunfire had torn through the walls of the examination room

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Speaker 1: and ripped apart the interior of the jail. She saw

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Speaker 1: a few gouts of blood by the walls, and one

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Speaker 1: sinister looking pool of it beneath a desk. It all

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Speaker 1: drove an important lesson home for Sasha. Bullets don't stop

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Speaker 1: when they miss. The stairwell was as deserted as the

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Speaker 1: rest of the jail. They hobbled down at as quickly

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Speaker 1: as three wounded people could manage. Sasha stayed in the back,

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Speaker 1: under the instinctive assumption that it would be best from

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Speaker 1: a rale if she didn't rush ahead. Their progress down

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Speaker 1: the stairs was painfully slow, almost every step punctuated by

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Speaker 1: the sound of gunfire out on the street below. It

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Speaker 1: sounded like a full scale war had broken out there.

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Speaker 1: There was a lot of screaming, and Sasha tried not

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Speaker 1: to think too much about which of the nice young

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Speaker 1: martyrs she'd met in the square were now dying by

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Speaker 1: Roland's hand. What about Anne? What about Susannah? You're abandoning them?

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Speaker 1: Sasha shook the thoughts clear from her head. There'd be

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Speaker 1: time for self loathing later. Tulli and Rick reached the

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Speaker 1: bottom floor first. They leaned back against the wall together

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Speaker 1: and caught their breath. Rick was as white as a

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Speaker 1: sheet and looked like he could still barely stand. Tullie

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Speaker 1: was doing better, but not by a wide margin. When

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Speaker 1: she and Manny hit the bottom floor, he went straight

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Speaker 1: for the exit door. He clearly intended to be the

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Speaker 1: first out in case anyone had a weapon trained on

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Speaker 1: the door. Sasha stopped him. That wasn't hard, because he

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00:10:44,640 --> 00:10:47,240
Speaker 1: was only a little more stable than Tullie. She pushed

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Speaker 1: him back, put a hand on the door, and then

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00:10:49,000 --> 00:10:51,800
Speaker 1: drew the pistol Roland had given her. She fixed Manny

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Speaker 1: with what she hoped was a firm, fearless look. You're

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00:10:54,800 --> 00:10:57,520
Speaker 1: in no state to be heroic. He looked at her

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Speaker 1: as if he wanted to fight her, but then he

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Speaker 1: looked down at the shaking hand he had pressed into

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Speaker 1: the sopping wound in his side. Yeah, all right, you

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00:11:04,440 --> 00:11:07,120
Speaker 1: down to do the hero stuff. Then she nodded, well,

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Speaker 1: then be my guest. Sasha didn't know how to use

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Speaker 1: a gun. The m FED band almost all private firearm ownership.

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00:11:15,120 --> 00:11:18,280
Speaker 1: Her grandfather had owned a couple of bolt action hunting rifles,

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Speaker 1: and he'd let Sasha hold them a few times. That

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00:11:20,880 --> 00:11:23,800
Speaker 1: was as close as she'd gotten to firearms training. She'd

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00:11:23,840 --> 00:11:26,679
Speaker 1: never actually shot the darned things. Once he died, her

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Speaker 1: father had sold the guns rather than deal with the

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Speaker 1: hassle and expense of a license, So she burst out

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Speaker 1: onto the street with the pistol held high in front

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Speaker 1: of her, like she'd seen in movies. It took her

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00:11:37,000 --> 00:11:40,000
Speaker 1: a few seconds to realize, sheepishly that this behavior was

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Speaker 1: more likely to get her gun down than aid in

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Speaker 1: her defense. Thankfully, there'd been no martyrs watching the rear exit.

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00:11:45,920 --> 00:11:48,000
Speaker 1: Sasha waved for the others to follow her out and

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00:11:48,040 --> 00:11:51,000
Speaker 1: stashed the pistol under her shirt. For a few minutes,

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00:11:51,040 --> 00:11:53,760
Speaker 1: they'd ran, or rather hobbled, in what seemed like the

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00:11:53,840 --> 00:11:57,720
Speaker 1: right direction. The city still rang with the sound of sirens, gunfire,

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Speaker 1: and the occasional concussive blast, but seemed to be moving

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00:12:00,800 --> 00:12:04,120
Speaker 1: away from them. Plano wasn't exactly crowded, but there were

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00:12:04,240 --> 00:12:06,280
Speaker 1: enough people out on the street to notice the fresh

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00:12:06,280 --> 00:12:09,360
Speaker 1: wounds on Tuli, Rick, and Manny. No one approached them,

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Speaker 1: though Sasha wasn't sure if they passed unnoticed, but they

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00:12:12,280 --> 00:12:15,520
Speaker 1: were able to pass through the city without incident. Fear

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00:12:15,559 --> 00:12:17,640
Speaker 1: and the flight reflex were enough to carry them a

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00:12:17,640 --> 00:12:20,360
Speaker 1: few blocks in relative haste. Once they were out of

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Speaker 1: sight of the jail, Rick put up a hand as

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Speaker 1: he slumped back against the wall. Tulli continued to hold

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Speaker 1: him up. She was pale, sweaty, and pained looking. Ryan

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00:12:28,880 --> 00:12:31,440
Speaker 1: shook and shuddered. His eyes were unfocused, and he was

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00:12:31,480 --> 00:12:36,319
Speaker 1: clearly in shock. He needs to rest, Tulli said. Manny

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00:12:36,400 --> 00:12:39,000
Speaker 1: stopped next to them and leaned against the wall as well.

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00:12:39,320 --> 00:12:42,559
Speaker 1: He nodded at Tully and then looked back to Sasha. Yeah, ditto,

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Speaker 1: I might prefer to lay down and die at this point.

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00:12:45,840 --> 00:12:48,400
Speaker 1: We need to find a car anyway, Tullie said, as

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Speaker 1: she helped lower Rick down to sit against the wall.

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00:12:51,080 --> 00:12:53,800
Speaker 1: If I carry him for much longer, I'm going to drop.

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00:12:54,600 --> 00:12:58,600
Speaker 1: Sasha realized everyone was looking at her. Is that my job?

263
00:12:59,400 --> 00:13:03,600
Speaker 1: Manny looked mortified, Tuali looked angry. Rick bless him was

264
00:13:03,640 --> 00:13:07,600
Speaker 1: too deep and shocked to react. Yes, Tuli said, in

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00:13:07,640 --> 00:13:12,040
Speaker 1: a toneless voice that still somehow implied deep disappointment. Okay,

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00:13:12,040 --> 00:13:14,680
Speaker 1: then Sasha said, when I find the car, I assume

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00:13:14,679 --> 00:13:17,480
Speaker 1: you'll know how to hot wire it. Tullie laughed. It

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00:13:17,559 --> 00:13:20,560
Speaker 1: wasn't a nice laugh. If you're hiding a real nice

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Speaker 1: deck somewhere in that silly head of yours, or you

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00:13:22,800 --> 00:13:26,199
Speaker 1: find a car that's older than my dad, maybe otherwise

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Speaker 1: we're going to need something with keys in it. What

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00:13:29,640 --> 00:13:33,200
Speaker 1: so I'm just supposed to carjack someone? Tually stared dead

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00:13:33,200 --> 00:13:36,920
Speaker 1: eyed at her. Manny gave a pain helpful smile. I mean,

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Speaker 1: you've got a gun, he said. Sasha felt the heat

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Speaker 1: rise in her again. Why not, I've given up every

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Speaker 1: other principle I have today, I might as well commit

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00:13:45,640 --> 00:13:48,760
Speaker 1: armed robbery, the guilt staying her guts, but not as

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00:13:48,800 --> 00:13:51,320
Speaker 1: badly as it should have. Perhaps she was still numb

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00:13:51,360 --> 00:13:54,559
Speaker 1: from watching Dr Brandton Marigold die. Or maybe it's because

280
00:13:54,559 --> 00:13:57,160
Speaker 1: I killed Alexander. Maybe I'm evil now and this is

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00:13:57,200 --> 00:14:00,160
Speaker 1: what that feels like. There was no time to hold

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00:14:00,160 --> 00:14:03,040
Speaker 1: the possibilities. Sasha left Manny and the others to catch

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00:14:03,080 --> 00:14:05,440
Speaker 1: their breath and darted down an alley towards a larger

284
00:14:05,480 --> 00:14:08,520
Speaker 1: street that sounded like it might have traffic. She passed

285
00:14:08,559 --> 00:14:11,360
Speaker 1: two parked cars and looked inside with the vain hope that,

286
00:14:11,520 --> 00:14:14,400
Speaker 1: just maybe someone might have left their keys behind. It

287
00:14:14,480 --> 00:14:17,280
Speaker 1: was to no avail. Sasha soon found herself on the

288
00:14:17,320 --> 00:14:20,640
Speaker 1: cracked and shell popped asphalt of Alma Road. The buildings

289
00:14:20,680 --> 00:14:22,720
Speaker 1: on either side of this stretch of street had taken

290
00:14:22,760 --> 00:14:26,200
Speaker 1: significant damage during the Heavenly Kingdom's Birth Pains. There were

291
00:14:26,200 --> 00:14:29,000
Speaker 1: no people out on the sidewalks or visible in the windows.

292
00:14:29,280 --> 00:14:32,280
Speaker 1: Anyone alive had probably hunkered down to avoid the shooting.

293
00:14:32,720 --> 00:14:35,400
Speaker 1: There was still traffic on the road, though, three trucks

294
00:14:35,440 --> 00:14:38,360
Speaker 1: in a dented, fume spewing white sedan shot by her

295
00:14:38,400 --> 00:14:41,640
Speaker 1: at the speed of wartime traffic. Sasha drew her gun,

296
00:14:41,960 --> 00:14:44,320
Speaker 1: looked at it, and then hurriedly stashed it inside her

297
00:14:44,320 --> 00:14:46,720
Speaker 1: blouse again when she realized how dumb that had been.

298
00:14:47,240 --> 00:14:50,720
Speaker 1: Godly women do not carry guns. A series of four

299
00:14:50,840 --> 00:14:53,840
Speaker 1: loud booms sounded in the distance. Sasha didn't know enough

300
00:14:53,880 --> 00:14:56,440
Speaker 1: about weaponry to guess what those had been, but she

301
00:14:56,520 --> 00:14:59,760
Speaker 1: knew they'd had something to do with Rowland. People are dying,

302
00:14:59,800 --> 00:15:01,720
Speaker 1: so I can find us a car and get everyone

303
00:15:01,800 --> 00:15:05,520
Speaker 1: to safety. She started walking down the street, face pointed

304
00:15:05,520 --> 00:15:08,440
Speaker 1: towards oncoming traffic, hands waving above her head in the

305
00:15:08,440 --> 00:15:12,040
Speaker 1: international gesture for oh God, please help me. Two more

306
00:15:12,080 --> 00:15:14,680
Speaker 1: cars zoomed past without even slowing to check on her.

307
00:15:15,160 --> 00:15:17,240
Speaker 1: It was odd how that shocked her after everything else

308
00:15:17,280 --> 00:15:20,080
Speaker 1: she'd seen in the Heavenly Kingdom, the faithful protect and

309
00:15:20,120 --> 00:15:23,760
Speaker 1: support each other, pastor Mike had claimed, But not, it seemed,

310
00:15:23,880 --> 00:15:26,080
Speaker 1: when a half human monster was on a rampage through

311
00:15:26,120 --> 00:15:29,320
Speaker 1: their city. That helped debate her guilt, at least, or

312
00:15:29,320 --> 00:15:31,960
Speaker 1: it did right up until the moment A familiar jankie

313
00:15:32,040 --> 00:15:36,120
Speaker 1: brown truck rumbled to a stop next to her. Excuse me, ma'am,

314
00:15:36,160 --> 00:15:38,680
Speaker 1: do you need She turned around, and the man's face

315
00:15:38,760 --> 00:15:42,520
Speaker 1: lit up in surprise, Miss Sasha. It was Darryll, the

316
00:15:42,600 --> 00:15:44,680
Speaker 1: kindly old foreman who driven her to the House of

317
00:15:44,760 --> 00:15:47,360
Speaker 1: Miriam on her first day in the kingdom. Was that

318
00:15:47,400 --> 00:15:51,080
Speaker 1: really only days ago? It seemed like years. Sasha felt

319
00:15:51,120 --> 00:15:53,160
Speaker 1: like an old woman, even though she was just on

320
00:15:53,200 --> 00:15:56,400
Speaker 1: the edge of eighteen. You hurt? He slammed the car

321
00:15:56,400 --> 00:15:58,640
Speaker 1: into park and opened his door one sec I got

322
00:15:58,680 --> 00:16:00,640
Speaker 1: a first aid kit in the back. Did you get hit?

323
00:16:01,440 --> 00:16:03,960
Speaker 1: Sasha looked down at her chest and realized she looked

324
00:16:03,960 --> 00:16:06,800
Speaker 1: like she'd been badly injured. The blood wasn't hers, of course,

325
00:16:06,840 --> 00:16:09,200
Speaker 1: but Darrell couldn't have known that. He thought she was

326
00:16:09,280 --> 00:16:11,880
Speaker 1: hurt and he was trying to help. Am I really

327
00:16:11,880 --> 00:16:16,040
Speaker 1: going to rob a good Samaritan? She was? Sasha waited

328
00:16:16,120 --> 00:16:18,560
Speaker 1: until Darrel had closed the door, grabbed his medical kit

329
00:16:18,640 --> 00:16:21,160
Speaker 1: and turned towards her. Then she drew her pistol and

330
00:16:21,240 --> 00:16:23,840
Speaker 1: leveled it at his weathered, grease stained, and now thoroughly

331
00:16:23,840 --> 00:16:28,600
Speaker 1: surprised face. Huh, I need your truck, I need your truck,

332
00:16:28,920 --> 00:16:31,920
Speaker 1: she said. Darrel dropped the medical kit and put both

333
00:16:31,920 --> 00:16:34,800
Speaker 1: his palms out. Oh now, girl, all right, why don't

334
00:16:34,800 --> 00:16:37,520
Speaker 1: you just put that gun down. Darrel ain't gonna hurt you.

335
00:16:37,720 --> 00:16:39,840
Speaker 1: I'll take you anywhere you need to go. Let's just

336
00:16:39,920 --> 00:16:43,000
Speaker 1: be real, calm, real slow about all this. Did somebody

337
00:16:43,080 --> 00:16:46,400
Speaker 1: hurt you? I need your truck. It was so hard

338
00:16:46,440 --> 00:16:48,560
Speaker 1: to keep her voice, even, so hard to do this

339
00:16:48,600 --> 00:16:50,480
Speaker 1: cruel thing to a man who had only been kind

340
00:16:50,480 --> 00:16:53,360
Speaker 1: to her. Sasha could feel white hot tears streamed down

341
00:16:53,400 --> 00:16:56,160
Speaker 1: her face. I must look like a crazy person, she thought.

342
00:16:56,520 --> 00:17:00,120
Speaker 1: Maybe that will help, now, Miss Sasha. Darrell said, m

343
00:17:00,120 --> 00:17:01,640
Speaker 1: I guess you don't know how to drive a truck.

344
00:17:01,760 --> 00:17:05,320
Speaker 1: Mine ain't autonomous. It's old stick shift. Please, why don't

345
00:17:05,359 --> 00:17:06,920
Speaker 1: you let me take you where you need to go?

346
00:17:07,600 --> 00:17:10,919
Speaker 1: Sasha's mind raced. It was the same species of nervousness

347
00:17:10,920 --> 00:17:13,439
Speaker 1: that had always gripped her during major exams in college

348
00:17:13,480 --> 00:17:17,080
Speaker 1: admissions essays. She ran through and discarded a dozen different

349
00:17:17,080 --> 00:17:19,360
Speaker 1: courses of action in her head. What if he won't

350
00:17:19,400 --> 00:17:21,919
Speaker 1: give me the keys, What if he takes another step forward?

351
00:17:22,160 --> 00:17:25,400
Speaker 1: What if he moved? It started with a single glance

352
00:17:25,680 --> 00:17:28,480
Speaker 1: Darrell's eyes darted towards the driver's side door of his truck.

353
00:17:28,800 --> 00:17:31,399
Speaker 1: She almost didn't catch it, but for whatever reason, the

354
00:17:31,440 --> 00:17:33,760
Speaker 1: gesture rose goose pimples on the back of her neck

355
00:17:33,800 --> 00:17:39,760
Speaker 1: and forearms. I need your truck. Her voice was cold, strong, firm.

356
00:17:40,240 --> 00:17:43,280
Speaker 1: Darrell nodded at her. His body posture stayed the same,

357
00:17:43,680 --> 00:17:46,639
Speaker 1: but his eyes changed. There was something hard and haunted

358
00:17:46,680 --> 00:17:50,159
Speaker 1: in them. Now, all right, miss Sasha, I'm just gonna

359
00:17:50,200 --> 00:17:53,240
Speaker 1: reach in here for m keys. He took a step

360
00:17:53,240 --> 00:17:55,919
Speaker 1: back and moved towards the door. The bottom fell out

361
00:17:55,960 --> 00:17:58,159
Speaker 1: of Sasha's gut and she screamed at him to stop.

362
00:17:58,440 --> 00:18:01,480
Speaker 1: Don't make another move. He dove for the door, pulled

363
00:18:01,520 --> 00:18:04,000
Speaker 1: it open, and reached a hand down beside the driver's seat.

364
00:18:04,280 --> 00:18:06,320
Speaker 1: Sasha saw a flash of metal in his hand, and

365
00:18:06,400 --> 00:18:09,080
Speaker 1: she opened fire. She wasn't sure how many times she

366
00:18:09,160 --> 00:18:11,800
Speaker 1: pulled the trigger, but soon the gun was empty. Sasha

367
00:18:11,880 --> 00:18:14,320
Speaker 1: watched as Darrell stumble back into the truck and then

368
00:18:14,320 --> 00:18:17,159
Speaker 1: slid to the ground. Most of her shots had gone wide,

369
00:18:17,560 --> 00:18:20,080
Speaker 1: very wide. She'd chattered two of the truck's windows and

370
00:18:20,119 --> 00:18:22,800
Speaker 1: put four or five rounds into the vehicle's body, but

371
00:18:22,880 --> 00:18:25,320
Speaker 1: at least one had hit Darrell right in his throat

372
00:18:25,600 --> 00:18:29,119
Speaker 1: a kill shot. He slumped to the ground, gagged on blood,

373
00:18:29,160 --> 00:18:32,440
Speaker 1: and jerked like an electrified marionette. Part of her wanted

374
00:18:32,440 --> 00:18:34,240
Speaker 1: to run to him, to hold him while he died,

375
00:18:34,280 --> 00:18:36,720
Speaker 1: and say she was sorry. Then she saw the gun

376
00:18:36,760 --> 00:18:39,720
Speaker 1: at his feet. It didn't dissipate her guilt, after all,

377
00:18:39,800 --> 00:18:42,240
Speaker 1: she drawn on him first. But at least she hadn't

378
00:18:42,280 --> 00:18:45,600
Speaker 1: shot and killed an unarmed man. She'd killed an armed man,

379
00:18:46,520 --> 00:18:50,199
Speaker 1: an armed man who only ever helped me. Sasha slumped

380
00:18:50,200 --> 00:18:52,080
Speaker 1: against the hood of the truck and lost herself in

381
00:18:52,119 --> 00:18:55,080
Speaker 1: a storm of sobs. She didn't realize she dropped her

382
00:18:55,080 --> 00:18:57,240
Speaker 1: gun until it hit the asphalt with a dull clank.

383
00:18:57,560 --> 00:19:00,760
Speaker 1: She couldn't control her hands or her breathing. Frantic sobbing

384
00:19:00,840 --> 00:19:03,840
Speaker 1: had robbed all the air from her lungs. Her legs weakened,

385
00:19:03,840 --> 00:19:05,720
Speaker 1: and she started to stumble to the ground when a

386
00:19:05,720 --> 00:19:09,639
Speaker 1: pair of warm, semi strong arms caught her from behind. Hey, Hey,

387
00:19:09,680 --> 00:19:13,680
Speaker 1: it's all right, it's all right, Manny, it's okay. You're

388
00:19:13,680 --> 00:19:16,760
Speaker 1: gonna be okay. Her world went black for a little while.

389
00:19:17,000 --> 00:19:19,240
Speaker 1: Sasha felt Manny lift her up, heard the sound of

390
00:19:19,280 --> 00:19:22,240
Speaker 1: the truck's engine rumble back to life, but she couldn't see,

391
00:19:22,320 --> 00:19:25,520
Speaker 1: and she couldn't move, and she couldn't stop crying. Time

392
00:19:25,600 --> 00:19:28,600
Speaker 1: lost any sort of meaning. When she came back to herself,

393
00:19:28,720 --> 00:19:31,480
Speaker 1: there were in motion. Manny sat next to her, and

394
00:19:31,600 --> 00:19:35,160
Speaker 1: Rick next to him. Tully drove. Sasha's eyes were drawn

395
00:19:35,200 --> 00:19:37,960
Speaker 1: to Manny. He held Darrell's pistol in his left hand.

396
00:19:38,320 --> 00:19:40,399
Speaker 1: She couldn't help but stare at the four spots of

397
00:19:40,480 --> 00:19:44,000
Speaker 1: dried blood on the silver slide. You all right, Sasha,

398
00:19:44,240 --> 00:19:47,320
Speaker 1: Manny asked. His question passed through her ears without hitting

399
00:19:47,359 --> 00:19:51,200
Speaker 1: her mind. Sasha couldn't stop staring at Darrell's blood. I

400
00:19:51,359 --> 00:19:54,639
Speaker 1: did that. I ended him. She'd ended two men today.

401
00:19:55,000 --> 00:19:57,640
Speaker 1: She felt no guilt about Alexander, but that was almost

402
00:19:57,640 --> 00:20:00,800
Speaker 1: more disturbing. It seemed impossible to She'd been a pampered

403
00:20:00,840 --> 00:20:03,639
Speaker 1: suburban girl less than a month ago. Now she was

404
00:20:03,680 --> 00:20:07,680
Speaker 1: a murderer. Whoever sheds human blood by humans, shall their

405
00:20:07,680 --> 00:20:10,679
Speaker 1: blood be shed? Sasha felt as if a thick cloud

406
00:20:10,720 --> 00:20:14,080
Speaker 1: of doom had fallen on her shoulders. The truck veered

407
00:20:14,080 --> 00:20:16,439
Speaker 1: off to the right and slammed to a sudden stop.

408
00:20:16,720 --> 00:20:19,320
Speaker 1: Sasha was flung forward into the back of Tullie's seat,

409
00:20:19,600 --> 00:20:22,159
Speaker 1: A trio of vehicles zoomed past them, speeding in the

410
00:20:22,160 --> 00:20:25,880
Speaker 1: opposite direction, like several bats fleeing the same hell. Sasha

411
00:20:25,920 --> 00:20:28,399
Speaker 1: realized with a moment's focus that there was an awful

412
00:20:28,400 --> 00:20:31,200
Speaker 1: lot of traffic heading away from them as fast as possible.

413
00:20:31,840 --> 00:20:35,040
Speaker 1: Promp Tullie cursed and fought with a stick shift. The

414
00:20:35,080 --> 00:20:37,560
Speaker 1: truck lurched forward again and made it back onto the

415
00:20:37,640 --> 00:20:40,600
Speaker 1: road for a few seconds. Then another speeding car roared

416
00:20:40,640 --> 00:20:42,720
Speaker 1: into the oncoming lane and she was forced to veer

417
00:20:42,760 --> 00:20:46,360
Speaker 1: off to the shoulder again. The sounds of gunfire grew louder.

418
00:20:46,680 --> 00:20:49,679
Speaker 1: Sasha heard the thrumb of helicopter blades too, a second

419
00:20:49,680 --> 00:20:52,520
Speaker 1: before one buzzed right over their heads. It looked like

420
00:20:52,560 --> 00:20:55,920
Speaker 1: a military vehicle, painted matt black and laden with weapons.

421
00:20:56,200 --> 00:20:58,840
Speaker 1: Sasha watched as it zoomed ahead and rose up over

422
00:20:58,880 --> 00:21:00,919
Speaker 1: a pair of high rise up artment buildings near the

423
00:21:00,960 --> 00:21:04,040
Speaker 1: horizon line. There was a loud crump sound, and black

424
00:21:04,080 --> 00:21:06,600
Speaker 1: smoke billowed out from the side of the craft. It

425
00:21:06,640 --> 00:21:09,160
Speaker 1: spun around drunkenly in the air for one very long

426
00:21:09,240 --> 00:21:11,280
Speaker 1: second before slamming into the roof of one of the

427
00:21:11,359 --> 00:21:15,159
Speaker 1: high rises. The resultant blast rocked the truck. Tu Lee

428
00:21:15,240 --> 00:21:19,040
Speaker 1: veered left and right around a pothole at another speeding truck, respectively.

429
00:21:19,400 --> 00:21:22,360
Speaker 1: Her knuckles were white, her jaw was clinched. Sasha could

430
00:21:22,400 --> 00:21:24,720
Speaker 1: see Tuli's eyes in the rear view mirror. She looked

431
00:21:24,840 --> 00:21:27,879
Speaker 1: terrified and angry at the same time. Rick moaned in

432
00:21:27,920 --> 00:21:31,280
Speaker 1: pain with every shaken jostle. Manny closed his eyes, shook

433
00:21:31,320 --> 00:21:34,160
Speaker 1: his head, and muttered something low under his breath. Are

434
00:21:34,200 --> 00:21:37,320
Speaker 1: we close, Sasha asked Manny. He squinted and looked out

435
00:21:37,359 --> 00:21:41,520
Speaker 1: at the road for a second. I mean, he shrugged. Yeah, probably,

436
00:21:41,640 --> 00:21:44,520
Speaker 1: I'm gonna guess rolands close to the explosions and also

437
00:21:44,600 --> 00:21:48,480
Speaker 1: causing them. Smoke now dominated the horizon, which grew less

438
00:21:48,520 --> 00:21:51,840
Speaker 1: horizony and more imminent with each passing second. In spite

439
00:21:51,840 --> 00:21:54,320
Speaker 1: of all that, Sasha's eyes kept being drawn back to

440
00:21:54,359 --> 00:21:56,800
Speaker 1: the gun in Manny's hand and the dry red brown

441
00:21:56,840 --> 00:21:59,800
Speaker 1: stains on the slide that was a good man's blood.

442
00:21:59,840 --> 00:22:04,000
Speaker 1: She thought, how did it come to this? Hey, Jesus girl,

443
00:22:04,760 --> 00:22:07,320
Speaker 1: it was Tuli. Sasha looked up to the rear view

444
00:22:07,320 --> 00:22:09,919
Speaker 1: mirror and locked eyes with the other woman. Buck the

445
00:22:10,000 --> 00:22:13,159
Speaker 1: funk up Chica, Tuli said for the first time Sasha

446
00:22:13,240 --> 00:22:16,159
Speaker 1: heard real anger and not just cold indifference in her voice.

447
00:22:16,520 --> 00:22:19,600
Speaker 1: The other woman continued, My best friend was just shot

448
00:22:19,680 --> 00:22:22,440
Speaker 1: to pieces. My lover is bleeding out, and you're all

449
00:22:22,520 --> 00:22:25,320
Speaker 1: fucked up because you gunned down some crystal fascist ship.

450
00:22:25,359 --> 00:22:27,800
Speaker 1: Fuck suck your heart into your guts. I don't know

451
00:22:27,840 --> 00:22:29,680
Speaker 1: where you came from, girl, but you're in a hard

452
00:22:29,720 --> 00:22:34,640
Speaker 1: ass part of the world. Now it's time to fortify. Fortify.

453
00:22:34,800 --> 00:22:39,040
Speaker 1: Sasha held onto that word like a life preserver. Fortify survive.

454
00:22:39,400 --> 00:22:42,880
Speaker 1: Then you can lose your head in tears and shame. Okay,

455
00:22:42,920 --> 00:22:46,000
Speaker 1: she nodded. She started to apologize, but was interrupted when

456
00:22:46,000 --> 00:22:49,240
Speaker 1: the truck screeched to another's sudden halt and threw everyone forward.

457
00:22:49,600 --> 00:22:51,960
Speaker 1: Sasha's head hit the front seat again, and her world

458
00:22:51,960 --> 00:22:56,520
Speaker 1: dissolved into stars. Ship Tulie cried something rammed the rear

459
00:22:56,520 --> 00:22:59,960
Speaker 1: of the truck. Sasha lost all orientation to reality. When

460
00:23:00,000 --> 00:23:02,000
Speaker 1: her head and eyes cleared, the first thing she saw

461
00:23:02,119 --> 00:23:05,439
Speaker 1: was Toullie nursing a broken nose. Blood poured down the

462
00:23:05,480 --> 00:23:09,360
Speaker 1: other woman's face many seemed intact. Sasha looked behind them

463
00:23:09,359 --> 00:23:11,840
Speaker 1: and saw a small sedan had dashed itself against the

464
00:23:11,840 --> 00:23:14,560
Speaker 1: bed of their truck and must have been following right behind.

465
00:23:14,600 --> 00:23:17,520
Speaker 1: When Tullie hit the brakes, Sasha swung her eyes front

466
00:23:17,520 --> 00:23:21,679
Speaker 1: to see why they'd stopped. She saw Rowland. He stood

467
00:23:21,720 --> 00:23:24,119
Speaker 1: maybe ten feet in front of the truck's hood. That

468
00:23:24,359 --> 00:23:27,040
Speaker 1: arm raiser of his was extended again, but the blade

469
00:23:27,080 --> 00:23:29,919
Speaker 1: was cracked and half shattered. His other hand held some

470
00:23:29,960 --> 00:23:32,639
Speaker 1: sort of large, black assault rifle he hadn't been carrying

471
00:23:32,680 --> 00:23:35,399
Speaker 1: in the jail. The pistol grip grenade launcher he'd been

472
00:23:35,440 --> 00:23:37,600
Speaker 1: carrying was still with him, but he'd holstered it in

473
00:23:37,640 --> 00:23:40,520
Speaker 1: an open hole in his belly. The left side of

474
00:23:40,520 --> 00:23:42,800
Speaker 1: his cheek had been ripped away. Most of his hair

475
00:23:42,880 --> 00:23:45,040
Speaker 1: was burnt off, and Sasha made out at least one

476
00:23:45,080 --> 00:23:47,840
Speaker 1: clear bullet hole in his forehead. There might have been more.

477
00:23:48,160 --> 00:23:50,120
Speaker 1: All the caked on blood and gore made it hard

478
00:23:50,160 --> 00:23:53,240
Speaker 1: to discern. His clothing had been mostly shot, burned, or

479
00:23:53,280 --> 00:23:56,280
Speaker 1: torn away. The dominant colors on his body were black

480
00:23:56,280 --> 00:23:58,880
Speaker 1: and red, with a few horrible spots of white where

481
00:23:58,920 --> 00:24:02,320
Speaker 1: bones shone through the open air. The city behind him

482
00:24:02,320 --> 00:24:05,560
Speaker 1: was all smoke and fire. Emergency lights from several vehicles

483
00:24:05,560 --> 00:24:08,280
Speaker 1: blinked madly in the miasthma but there were no martyrs

484
00:24:08,320 --> 00:24:11,880
Speaker 1: or emergency workers visible, at least none that were standing.

485
00:24:12,280 --> 00:24:15,720
Speaker 1: Sasha saw several terribly still bodies lying among the piles

486
00:24:15,760 --> 00:24:19,159
Speaker 1: of rubble. Roland staggered towards the truck and flung the

487
00:24:19,200 --> 00:24:22,520
Speaker 1: passenger's side door open. He slumped into the seat, bringing

488
00:24:22,520 --> 00:24:25,520
Speaker 1: with him an overpowering stink of blood and fire. He

489
00:24:25,640 --> 00:24:28,080
Speaker 1: leaned back in his seat and took three long breaths,

490
00:24:28,400 --> 00:24:32,159
Speaker 1: and then he spoke, way, heads pretty clear, but you

491
00:24:32,240 --> 00:24:33,679
Speaker 1: might want to hang a right and then take a

492
00:24:33,760 --> 00:24:37,800
Speaker 1: left avoid the traffic. Truly nodded, and the truck jerked

493
00:24:37,840 --> 00:24:43,360
Speaker 1: forward again. The riotout was so easy it scared Sasha.

494
00:24:43,600 --> 00:24:46,639
Speaker 1: In fact, it seemed to scare everyone, but Roland. Manny's

495
00:24:46,680 --> 00:24:49,240
Speaker 1: knuckles grew wider and wider as they navigated their way

496
00:24:49,240 --> 00:24:53,159
Speaker 1: out of the old Metroplex. Toulli's expression didn't change, but

497
00:24:53,240 --> 00:24:55,639
Speaker 1: her body shook with nervous energy, and her jaw was

498
00:24:55,680 --> 00:24:58,040
Speaker 1: set so tight that the veins on her neck bulged

499
00:24:58,080 --> 00:25:00,600
Speaker 1: from the strain. It was immers s that Rick was

500
00:25:00,640 --> 00:25:05,040
Speaker 1: unconscious by that point. Convoys of military vehicles rolled past them,

501
00:25:05,119 --> 00:25:09,160
Speaker 1: sometimes escorting ambulances and other emergency vehicles, sometimes bringing more

502
00:25:09,240 --> 00:25:11,760
Speaker 1: soldiers to the chunk of the city. Roland had devastated

503
00:25:12,200 --> 00:25:15,000
Speaker 1: Sasha's heart leapt into her throat every single time, but

504
00:25:15,119 --> 00:25:18,640
Speaker 1: somehow no one stopped their truck. Roland assured them all

505
00:25:18,640 --> 00:25:20,919
Speaker 1: that it would be fine. I kicked their asses so

506
00:25:20,960 --> 00:25:23,359
Speaker 1: hard it'll take him an hour to find their cheeks.

507
00:25:23,600 --> 00:25:26,040
Speaker 1: His only discomfort came once they left the zone of

508
00:25:26,080 --> 00:25:29,840
Speaker 1: active danger. He seemed to deflate. Then, after a half

509
00:25:29,880 --> 00:25:32,600
Speaker 1: hour on the road, his wounds had mostly healed. The

510
00:25:32,640 --> 00:25:35,879
Speaker 1: new skin that grew back underneath seemed weirdly dark compared

511
00:25:35,920 --> 00:25:39,080
Speaker 1: to the skin above it. Roland scratched at it an irritation,

512
00:25:39,200 --> 00:25:41,439
Speaker 1: and then as casually as if he'd been tossing an

513
00:25:41,480 --> 00:25:44,240
Speaker 1: apple core, he ripped off his face in one smooth

514
00:25:44,240 --> 00:25:48,720
Speaker 1: atmotion and tossed the bloody skin out the window. Jesus dude,

515
00:25:48,880 --> 00:25:52,040
Speaker 1: Manny said, disgusted. Couldn't you have waited until we weren't

516
00:25:52,040 --> 00:25:55,560
Speaker 1: all in the car. Sasha stared in shock. Her hands

517
00:25:55,560 --> 00:25:57,760
Speaker 1: started to tremble, and she felt the urge to vomit,

518
00:25:58,119 --> 00:26:00,160
Speaker 1: but she fought it down and forced her stumf meck

519
00:26:00,200 --> 00:26:03,400
Speaker 1: to an uneasy calm. You've seen worse than this now,

520
00:26:03,720 --> 00:26:06,320
Speaker 1: and that was true. She looked back at Rowland and

521
00:26:06,359 --> 00:26:09,000
Speaker 1: forced herself to take in his new face, which she

522
00:26:09,080 --> 00:26:12,360
Speaker 1: guessed was really his old face. Neither iteration of him

523
00:26:12,359 --> 00:26:16,520
Speaker 1: had been exactly handsome. She watched in queasy fascination as

524
00:26:16,520 --> 00:26:18,280
Speaker 1: he picked the rest of the white skin from his

525
00:26:18,359 --> 00:26:21,120
Speaker 1: hands and tossed it out the window. When he'd finished,

526
00:26:21,160 --> 00:26:24,760
Speaker 1: he glanced up at Sasha. What he asked, Please tell

527
00:26:24,800 --> 00:26:26,720
Speaker 1: me you're not a racist. This would be a real

528
00:26:26,800 --> 00:26:30,159
Speaker 1: bad time for you to be racist. She's not racist, dude,

529
00:26:30,240 --> 00:26:32,800
Speaker 1: Manny said, you just ripped your skin off. That freaks

530
00:26:32,800 --> 00:26:38,680
Speaker 1: people out. Oh, said Rowland, right, Sorry, it's okay, She said,

531
00:26:38,960 --> 00:26:41,200
Speaker 1: this is just my first time seeing someone rip off

532
00:26:41,240 --> 00:26:45,520
Speaker 1: their own skin. First. Roland grunted, but probably not last.

533
00:26:46,520 --> 00:26:49,080
Speaker 1: Sasha didn't have the guts to question him, so she

534
00:26:49,200 --> 00:26:51,520
Speaker 1: kept quiet for the rest of the ride, so did

535
00:26:51,560 --> 00:26:54,240
Speaker 1: most of the other passengers. For a long time, the

536
00:26:54,320 --> 00:26:57,480
Speaker 1: only sounds inside the truck were Rick's unconscious moans and

537
00:26:57,560 --> 00:27:01,640
Speaker 1: Roland's occasional directions to Tully. He led them through underpopulated

538
00:27:01,680 --> 00:27:05,119
Speaker 1: neighborhoods and around checkpoints, past blackened buildings and wrecks of

539
00:27:05,200 --> 00:27:08,800
Speaker 1: military vehicles destroyed during the heavenly Kingdom's first great advance.

540
00:27:09,280 --> 00:27:11,960
Speaker 1: Sasha was surprised at the emptiness of most of the city.

541
00:27:12,200 --> 00:27:15,160
Speaker 1: She began to understand why Manny called this place Sioda

542
00:27:15,280 --> 00:27:18,399
Speaker 1: de Muerta. It took them two hours to escape the

543
00:27:18,440 --> 00:27:21,040
Speaker 1: city sprawl and finally make their way out onto the

544
00:27:21,119 --> 00:27:24,600
Speaker 1: open plains. They avoided the main highway that linked Dallas

545
00:27:24,640 --> 00:27:27,560
Speaker 1: to Waco. Instead, spider webbed their way across a series

546
00:27:27,560 --> 00:27:30,240
Speaker 1: of farm roads. Every few minutes they'd rolled past the

547
00:27:30,280 --> 00:27:33,760
Speaker 1: bones of a rural town. Every town out here seemed abandoned,

548
00:27:33,960 --> 00:27:36,399
Speaker 1: as dead and dry as the acres of yellow grass

549
00:27:36,440 --> 00:27:39,639
Speaker 1: that swallowed them up. A little before dark, they rolled

550
00:27:39,640 --> 00:27:42,520
Speaker 1: over a decrepit bridge across a dry river bed. A

551
00:27:42,560 --> 00:27:47,200
Speaker 1: bullet riddled sign identified this area as Basque County. Rowland

552
00:27:47,240 --> 00:27:49,600
Speaker 1: put a hand on Manny's shoulder and pointed towards a

553
00:27:49,640 --> 00:27:52,880
Speaker 1: big metal barn on the horizon. Take us up there.

554
00:27:52,960 --> 00:27:56,840
Speaker 1: We should probably stop for the night. What Tulie spoke up?

555
00:27:57,000 --> 00:27:58,920
Speaker 1: Why we could be at rolling fuck in an hour?

556
00:28:00,080 --> 00:28:02,600
Speaker 1: Land shook his head. We got two routes back to

557
00:28:02,640 --> 00:28:04,800
Speaker 1: the city. Either we find the main highway and deal

558
00:28:04,840 --> 00:28:07,560
Speaker 1: with Kingdom patrols, or we keep ride in these country roads.

559
00:28:07,840 --> 00:28:09,960
Speaker 1: That'll take at least another two or three hours and

560
00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:12,560
Speaker 1: a lot of time off road in the dark. There's

561
00:28:12,600 --> 00:28:15,280
Speaker 1: no better recipe for cracking an axle or blowing a tire.

562
00:28:16,240 --> 00:28:18,560
Speaker 1: Tuly fumed, but she rolled the truck up and through

563
00:28:18,600 --> 00:28:20,360
Speaker 1: a gap in what had once been the fence line

564
00:28:20,400 --> 00:28:23,480
Speaker 1: of a farm. There were a lot of farmhouses around them,

565
00:28:23,520 --> 00:28:26,840
Speaker 1: stretched out across acres and acres of fields and pecan orchards.

566
00:28:27,240 --> 00:28:31,320
Speaker 1: They all looked abandoned, devoid of light, half reclaimed by vegetation.

567
00:28:31,680 --> 00:28:34,119
Speaker 1: The barn Roland led them to was just as empty.

568
00:28:34,400 --> 00:28:36,399
Speaker 1: There were large holes in the sheet metal roof, and

569
00:28:36,480 --> 00:28:38,480
Speaker 1: chunks of the metal walls had been peeled away for

570
00:28:38,560 --> 00:28:42,040
Speaker 1: scrap metal. The underlying structure had been built from metal girders,

571
00:28:42,080 --> 00:28:45,240
Speaker 1: though it seemed solid. They got out of the truck,

572
00:28:45,520 --> 00:28:48,200
Speaker 1: Roland helped Tully carry her lover across the last few

573
00:28:48,280 --> 00:28:51,120
Speaker 1: yards of field and into the old barn. The innerds

574
00:28:51,160 --> 00:28:54,000
Speaker 1: of the building were dusty. Rusted tools hung from the wall,

575
00:28:54,040 --> 00:28:56,880
Speaker 1: and boxes of assorted goods littered the floor. Some of

576
00:28:56,920 --> 00:28:59,320
Speaker 1: them had been ripped open by scavengers, but most looked

577
00:28:59,320 --> 00:29:02,320
Speaker 1: like they'd sat unmolested since the property had been abandoned.

578
00:29:02,880 --> 00:29:06,120
Speaker 1: Manny found an old couch inside. Roland and Tullie helped

579
00:29:06,200 --> 00:29:08,760
Speaker 1: Rick on to it. Then Roland walked off into the

580
00:29:08,800 --> 00:29:11,320
Speaker 1: middle of the barn and started to root around in boxes.

581
00:29:11,760 --> 00:29:13,680
Speaker 1: He came back a minute later with a load of

582
00:29:13,680 --> 00:29:15,680
Speaker 1: canned goods in one arm and a handle of brown

583
00:29:15,760 --> 00:29:18,120
Speaker 1: liquor in the other. He sat the whole lot down

584
00:29:18,120 --> 00:29:20,239
Speaker 1: on the ground next to the couch, held up a

585
00:29:20,240 --> 00:29:23,080
Speaker 1: can labeled water in big red letters, and then punched

586
00:29:23,080 --> 00:29:25,480
Speaker 1: his finger through the top of the can. He handed

587
00:29:25,520 --> 00:29:27,840
Speaker 1: it to Tulli and she helped Rick drink. He was

588
00:29:27,920 --> 00:29:30,600
Speaker 1: semi conscious now, Sasha thought there might be a little

589
00:29:30,600 --> 00:29:34,120
Speaker 1: more color in his cheeks. Roland opened three more cans,

590
00:29:34,320 --> 00:29:36,400
Speaker 1: one of water and two filled with some sort of

591
00:29:36,400 --> 00:29:39,840
Speaker 1: gloopy beef stew. He ripped the aluminum tops open with

592
00:29:39,880 --> 00:29:43,120
Speaker 1: his bare fingers and then passed them around. Sasha was

593
00:29:43,160 --> 00:29:45,680
Speaker 1: still too deep in the throes of depression and adrenaline

594
00:29:45,760 --> 00:29:48,520
Speaker 1: dumpage to have any kind of appetite. The brown gray

595
00:29:48,560 --> 00:29:51,040
Speaker 1: color of the stew didn't help with that, but Manny

596
00:29:51,120 --> 00:29:53,280
Speaker 1: insisted she take a gulp, and as soon as the

597
00:29:53,320 --> 00:29:56,640
Speaker 1: food hit her tongue Sasha realized she was starving. She

598
00:29:56,720 --> 00:29:59,280
Speaker 1: took two more deep gulps of the salty, mushy mass

599
00:29:59,320 --> 00:30:02,400
Speaker 1: before passing it along to Tulli. The crew ate and

600
00:30:02,400 --> 00:30:06,440
Speaker 1: rehydrated without conversation. Although not in silence, the sounds of

601
00:30:06,440 --> 00:30:09,120
Speaker 1: gulping and lip smacking filled the barn for a few minutes.

602
00:30:09,600 --> 00:30:12,520
Speaker 1: Roland didn't join in the eating. Instead, he popped open

603
00:30:12,520 --> 00:30:14,600
Speaker 1: the liquor bottle and drained it dry over the course

604
00:30:14,640 --> 00:30:17,880
Speaker 1: of about ninety seconds. The big man closed his eyes,

605
00:30:18,080 --> 00:30:20,480
Speaker 1: a smile crept up onto his features, and he gave

606
00:30:20,520 --> 00:30:23,560
Speaker 1: a deep, contented sigh. When the food was almost gone,

607
00:30:23,560 --> 00:30:25,760
Speaker 1: he stood up and staggered back into the piles of

608
00:30:25,760 --> 00:30:28,760
Speaker 1: gear to grab two more bottles. These ones were filled

609
00:30:28,760 --> 00:30:31,240
Speaker 1: with an off yellow liquid. He sat one down in

610
00:30:31,280 --> 00:30:34,640
Speaker 1: between Manny and Sasha and immediately began to guzzle the second.

611
00:30:35,360 --> 00:30:38,080
Speaker 1: Many glanced at Sasha, then at Tulli, then down at

612
00:30:38,080 --> 00:30:40,400
Speaker 1: the bottle. He popped the top and took a belt.

613
00:30:40,600 --> 00:30:43,080
Speaker 1: Then he offered it to Sasha. If there was ever

614
00:30:43,120 --> 00:30:45,000
Speaker 1: a time to dive into drinking, it's the day I

615
00:30:45,120 --> 00:30:48,160
Speaker 1: killed two people. Sasha took the bottle and stared at

616
00:30:48,160 --> 00:30:51,360
Speaker 1: it for a second. The label, said Talisker, and identified

617
00:30:51,360 --> 00:30:54,040
Speaker 1: it as a product of Scotland. The bottle itself was

618
00:30:54,080 --> 00:30:59,080
Speaker 1: covered in dust. Hey, Rowland, she asked, suddenly curious. Did

619
00:30:59,080 --> 00:31:02,000
Speaker 1: you know this place have food and water and alcohol?

620
00:31:02,840 --> 00:31:05,800
Speaker 1: Roland paused draining his second bottle and fixed Sasha with

621
00:31:05,880 --> 00:31:09,000
Speaker 1: his strange blue eyes. He looked tired for the first

622
00:31:09,000 --> 00:31:11,680
Speaker 1: time since she'd met him. Sasha wasn't sure if that

623
00:31:11,760 --> 00:31:14,000
Speaker 1: was due to the rampage he just carried out or

624
00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:18,320
Speaker 1: her question. I've been here before, he half mumbled, years ago,

625
00:31:18,440 --> 00:31:20,240
Speaker 1: Back before this old chunk of dirt was as much

626
00:31:20,240 --> 00:31:23,000
Speaker 1: of a ship hole as it is now. Wait did

627
00:31:23,040 --> 00:31:25,880
Speaker 1: you used to live here? Manny asked, I don't know.

628
00:31:26,280 --> 00:31:29,160
Speaker 1: Roland shrugged. What do you mean you don't know? You

629
00:31:29,240 --> 00:31:32,440
Speaker 1: clearly know this farm. He shrugged and gave a vague

630
00:31:32,440 --> 00:31:35,560
Speaker 1: wave with his free hand. I have memories of this place,

631
00:31:35,720 --> 00:31:38,400
Speaker 1: bright lights at night, people dancing, drugs and wine, and

632
00:31:38,440 --> 00:31:41,040
Speaker 1: people in songs. I have memories of packing the supplies

633
00:31:41,040 --> 00:31:44,920
Speaker 1: into boxes, buying ammunition. He nodded towards the still locked

634
00:31:44,920 --> 00:31:47,560
Speaker 1: door of the barn. I remember locking that thing up,

635
00:31:47,600 --> 00:31:50,280
Speaker 1: but I don't remember why exactly. I might have lived here,

636
00:31:50,360 --> 00:31:52,680
Speaker 1: It might have belonged to a friend either way, I

637
00:31:52,720 --> 00:31:54,520
Speaker 1: feel like the last time I was here was back

638
00:31:54,560 --> 00:31:59,000
Speaker 1: before the revolution. His mind is full of holes, Manny explained,

639
00:31:59,200 --> 00:32:01,520
Speaker 1: something happened to him a few years back. He remembers

640
00:32:01,560 --> 00:32:04,040
Speaker 1: pieces of who he is, what he's done, but not everything.

641
00:32:04,960 --> 00:32:07,800
Speaker 1: Tulli kicked Sasha gently in the hip. She gestured to

642
00:32:07,840 --> 00:32:10,920
Speaker 1: the bottle of whiskey. If you're not drinking past the bottle,

643
00:32:11,120 --> 00:32:14,440
Speaker 1: some of us have grieving to do. On impulse, Sasha

644
00:32:14,440 --> 00:32:16,840
Speaker 1: took a pull from the bottle. She started to hand

645
00:32:16,880 --> 00:32:18,760
Speaker 1: it over to Tulli, but then the taste hit her

646
00:32:18,800 --> 00:32:20,960
Speaker 1: and she gagged. It was like someone had lit a

647
00:32:21,000 --> 00:32:23,600
Speaker 1: fire in her throat, one that tasted of burning pete.

648
00:32:24,080 --> 00:32:26,560
Speaker 1: She coughed and hacked for several seconds, while Tulli and

649
00:32:26,680 --> 00:32:30,320
Speaker 1: Roland laughed. Once she regained her breath, Sasha finally handed

650
00:32:30,360 --> 00:32:33,720
Speaker 1: off the bottle. You'll get better at it, the woman said,

651
00:32:33,880 --> 00:32:35,920
Speaker 1: her lips twisted up into what might have been a

652
00:32:35,960 --> 00:32:41,600
Speaker 1: real smile. Whiskey is in acquired taste, like cigars nanarchy.

653
00:32:42,200 --> 00:32:45,200
Speaker 1: Tully took a very deep pole and sighed and satisfaction.

654
00:32:45,560 --> 00:32:48,160
Speaker 1: She handed the bottle off to Manny and started gently

655
00:32:48,200 --> 00:32:51,200
Speaker 1: petting Rick's face. The wounded man was asleep, but he

656
00:32:51,240 --> 00:32:54,080
Speaker 1: seemed much healthier than he had been a half hour earlier.

657
00:32:54,800 --> 00:32:58,440
Speaker 1: How are you doing, Sasha, Manny asked. His eyes met hers,

658
00:32:58,520 --> 00:33:02,960
Speaker 1: and Sasha saw a deep concern in his gaze. I'm fine,

659
00:33:03,040 --> 00:33:06,719
Speaker 1: she said, not really meaning it. She's all funked up

660
00:33:06,720 --> 00:33:09,200
Speaker 1: over the guy she killed for the truck. Tullie grunted.

661
00:33:09,440 --> 00:33:13,240
Speaker 1: Shouldn't be fucker picked the wrong side, So did I.

662
00:33:13,280 --> 00:33:15,480
Speaker 1: Sasha tried to keep the anger out of her voice.

663
00:33:16,040 --> 00:33:19,000
Speaker 1: At first. Darrow was a good man. He didn't deserve

664
00:33:19,040 --> 00:33:23,600
Speaker 1: to die. Neither did Marigold, said Tulli. Neither did Major

665
00:33:23,600 --> 00:33:26,600
Speaker 1: pirone man, he added, in a quiet voice. They hung

666
00:33:26,680 --> 00:33:29,320
Speaker 1: him on the day you and I met. The whole

667
00:33:29,320 --> 00:33:32,640
Speaker 1: world's full of good dead people, said Tullie. My advice,

668
00:33:32,840 --> 00:33:35,720
Speaker 1: don't cry over someone you shot in self defense. That's

669
00:33:35,720 --> 00:33:39,360
Speaker 1: a karmic freebee. The guy had a gun man, he added,

670
00:33:39,560 --> 00:33:41,240
Speaker 1: seems like he just did what you had to do.

671
00:33:42,160 --> 00:33:44,800
Speaker 1: Roland was quiet through all this. He kept drinking, but

672
00:33:44,880 --> 00:33:47,640
Speaker 1: his pace had slowed. His face took on a dark cast,

673
00:33:47,680 --> 00:33:50,320
Speaker 1: and he slumped down into his chair. He seemed to

674
00:33:50,360 --> 00:33:54,200
Speaker 1: collapse in on himself a little look Chica Tuli said.

675
00:33:54,440 --> 00:33:57,120
Speaker 1: There was a slight, drunken slurry were words. Now. I

676
00:33:57,280 --> 00:33:59,000
Speaker 1: know I gave you a hard time and it was

677
00:33:59,080 --> 00:34:01,440
Speaker 1: dumb as fucky a move to this kingdom, But I

678
00:34:01,520 --> 00:34:04,600
Speaker 1: give you credit for breaking free and for helping us escape.

679
00:34:05,040 --> 00:34:07,000
Speaker 1: You might be a little dumb, but you aren't bad

680
00:34:07,040 --> 00:34:09,839
Speaker 1: people in my book. Don't beat yourself up over doing

681
00:34:09,880 --> 00:34:12,759
Speaker 1: what you had to do. There was quiet for a

682
00:34:12,840 --> 00:34:15,919
Speaker 1: little while. Manny passed the bottle to Sasha. She took

683
00:34:15,920 --> 00:34:18,320
Speaker 1: another gulp and managed to hold it down this time.

684
00:34:18,719 --> 00:34:21,480
Speaker 1: Tullie nodded an approval. When Sasha passed the whiskey on,

685
00:34:22,040 --> 00:34:25,040
Speaker 1: Sasha found her eyes drawn once more to Darryl's gun.

686
00:34:25,360 --> 00:34:29,120
Speaker 1: It was tucked into Tullie's waistband. Roland cleared his throat

687
00:34:29,120 --> 00:34:32,880
Speaker 1: and gave a loud, flimmy cough. Sasha looked back at him.

688
00:34:33,000 --> 00:34:35,239
Speaker 1: You didn't ask me for an opinion, he said, But

689
00:34:35,320 --> 00:34:37,520
Speaker 1: since everyone else's way in and I might as well.

690
00:34:37,880 --> 00:34:40,880
Speaker 1: There ain't nothing wrong with feeling bad about murder, even

691
00:34:40,920 --> 00:34:44,400
Speaker 1: justified murder. But personally, I don't think that's what's fucking

692
00:34:44,440 --> 00:34:48,000
Speaker 1: you up. What do you mean, she asked, He drained

693
00:34:48,080 --> 00:34:50,040
Speaker 1: the last of the whiskey bottle and tossed it off

694
00:34:50,080 --> 00:34:53,399
Speaker 1: into the darkness. It landed with a clank. I got

695
00:34:53,480 --> 00:34:55,719
Speaker 1: real good senses, you know, I can't turn him off.

696
00:34:55,880 --> 00:34:58,080
Speaker 1: So I heard your heart rate. I smelled the narrow

697
00:34:58,080 --> 00:35:01,440
Speaker 1: transmitters running through you synapses. I could taste the guilt

698
00:35:01,480 --> 00:35:04,200
Speaker 1: wafting off you. But that's not the only thing I taste.

699
00:35:04,760 --> 00:35:08,160
Speaker 1: He locked his unsteady gaze on hers. Sasha stared into

700
00:35:08,160 --> 00:35:10,799
Speaker 1: the cold blue of his pupils. A chill ran down

701
00:35:10,880 --> 00:35:13,160
Speaker 1: her spine. Sweat beaded on the back of her neck.

702
00:35:13,440 --> 00:35:16,040
Speaker 1: When he spoke next, his voice was barely above a

703
00:35:16,040 --> 00:35:19,320
Speaker 1: whisper back at the jail. When you crushed that guy's

704
00:35:19,320 --> 00:35:22,960
Speaker 1: skull with a helmet, you enjoyed yourself. He liked it.

705
00:35:23,719 --> 00:35:26,359
Speaker 1: Sasha broke his gaze. She stared down at her lap

706
00:35:26,360 --> 00:35:28,799
Speaker 1: and struggled to find a reply, But there was nothing

707
00:35:28,800 --> 00:35:40,640
Speaker 1: else for her to say. Roland was right. Chapter twenty two.

708
00:35:41,640 --> 00:35:45,920
Speaker 1: Manny Rolling Fuck was as bright, shiny, and chaotic as

709
00:35:45,920 --> 00:35:48,520
Speaker 1: it had been when he left, But Manny could see

710
00:35:48,520 --> 00:35:52,080
Speaker 1: a real change among the citizens themselves. Gone were the

711
00:35:52,120 --> 00:35:55,880
Speaker 1: lounging crowds of half naked people instead of the perpetual party.

712
00:35:56,120 --> 00:35:59,120
Speaker 1: A war camp spread out around the great superstructure of

713
00:35:59,160 --> 00:36:02,520
Speaker 1: the city. Hundreds of men and women were busy dawning armor,

714
00:36:02,560 --> 00:36:06,240
Speaker 1: applying war paint, and checking over stacks of weaponry. Manny

715
00:36:06,320 --> 00:36:09,880
Speaker 1: saw crates of guided mortars, piles of rocket launchers, boxes

716
00:36:09,880 --> 00:36:13,120
Speaker 1: of high velocity ammunition, and enough firearms to equip every

717
00:36:13,120 --> 00:36:16,800
Speaker 1: citizen a dozen times over. There was no discernible rolling

718
00:36:16,840 --> 00:36:20,200
Speaker 1: fuck uniform that Manny could see. Some of the city's

719
00:36:20,239 --> 00:36:23,480
Speaker 1: warriors wore powered body armor painted in garish colors and

720
00:36:23,520 --> 00:36:28,280
Speaker 1: bedecked with various quotations. Fuck your Day seemed particularly popular.

721
00:36:28,800 --> 00:36:31,800
Speaker 1: Many of them wore pieces of pop culture costumery mixed

722
00:36:31,800 --> 00:36:35,680
Speaker 1: in with their gear. Manny recognized Darth Vader's helmet, hell

723
00:36:35,760 --> 00:36:38,560
Speaker 1: Boy's red right hand, and a surprising number of people

724
00:36:38,560 --> 00:36:41,440
Speaker 1: with Mickey Mouse's face spray painted on their chest armor.

725
00:36:42,080 --> 00:36:44,560
Speaker 1: An equal number of Fuchians wore no armor at all.

726
00:36:44,960 --> 00:36:47,840
Speaker 1: Some of them were dressed in their normal, flowing lounge garments.

727
00:36:48,120 --> 00:36:50,319
Speaker 1: The weapons they wore were the only signs that they

728
00:36:50,320 --> 00:36:54,160
Speaker 1: had plans beyond debauchery. Others were naked or mostly so.

729
00:36:54,600 --> 00:36:56,680
Speaker 1: He saw one man wearing the helmet of a Greek

730
00:36:56,719 --> 00:37:00,120
Speaker 1: hoplight and carrying two Viking axes on his back. He

731
00:37:00,200 --> 00:37:02,680
Speaker 1: saw a woman with a Dragonov rifle on her back,

732
00:37:02,760 --> 00:37:05,840
Speaker 1: an old German stallhelm on her head, an Ottoman mirror

733
00:37:05,960 --> 00:37:09,160
Speaker 1: armor on her chest. She waved at them, excited. It

734
00:37:09,239 --> 00:37:12,720
Speaker 1: took Manny a second to recognize Topas's face under the helmet.

735
00:37:13,080 --> 00:37:17,440
Speaker 1: There here, there she stopped. Tullie had stopped too. She

736
00:37:17,600 --> 00:37:20,319
Speaker 1: cast her face down. Manny could see the shimmer of

737
00:37:20,360 --> 00:37:23,560
Speaker 1: tears on her cheeks. A crowd gathered around them. In

738
00:37:23,560 --> 00:37:26,200
Speaker 1: a few seconds, they were encircled by dozens of heavily

739
00:37:26,320 --> 00:37:29,319
Speaker 1: armed post humans and a dizzying array of war costumes.

740
00:37:29,520 --> 00:37:31,920
Speaker 1: Scofucker Mike pushed his way to the front and ran

741
00:37:32,000 --> 00:37:35,280
Speaker 1: up to embrace Tulli. Manny was surprised when she started

742
00:37:35,280 --> 00:37:37,839
Speaker 1: to sob. The big man held her tight, but looked

743
00:37:37,840 --> 00:37:42,200
Speaker 1: to Rowland what happened. Roland gave him a look that said,

744
00:37:42,520 --> 00:37:45,640
Speaker 1: you know, damn well what happened. But then he spoke, anyway,

745
00:37:46,640 --> 00:37:50,640
Speaker 1: your friend didn't make it. Scofucker Mike's jaw went tight,

746
00:37:51,000 --> 00:37:53,000
Speaker 1: his eyes bulged, and he held on to Tullie a

747
00:37:53,040 --> 00:37:55,839
Speaker 1: little tighter. Manny thought back to the night they'd spent

748
00:37:55,920 --> 00:37:58,640
Speaker 1: in brain Breakers and the things he'd said about Marigold.

749
00:37:59,200 --> 00:38:01,120
Speaker 1: Manny hadn't really known the woman at all, but he

750
00:38:01,160 --> 00:38:03,879
Speaker 1: could tell Mike had cared deeply for her. He looked

751
00:38:03,880 --> 00:38:06,360
Speaker 1: around at the crowd closing in on them, the dozens

752
00:38:06,400 --> 00:38:09,719
Speaker 1: of half human god monsters with helpless rage carved onto

753
00:38:09,760 --> 00:38:15,399
Speaker 1: their faces. What happened, Mike demanded. Roland opened his mouth

754
00:38:15,440 --> 00:38:17,960
Speaker 1: to speak, closed it and ran a hand over his

755
00:38:18,040 --> 00:38:21,120
Speaker 1: bald head. He opened his mouth again, managed to squeeze

756
00:38:21,160 --> 00:38:24,399
Speaker 1: out an eye before he slumped his shoulders and hung

757
00:38:24,440 --> 00:38:28,960
Speaker 1: his head. I wasn't fast enough, he said. Finally, they

758
00:38:28,960 --> 00:38:32,920
Speaker 1: had better gear, newer suits than I had expected, schoofucker.

759
00:38:32,960 --> 00:38:35,799
Speaker 1: Mike stared at him. Behind him, Tope has slid down

760
00:38:35,880 --> 00:38:37,840
Speaker 1: to the ground and buried her head in her knees.

761
00:38:38,400 --> 00:38:42,200
Speaker 1: Murmurs swept the crowd, and then Sasha spoke up. Your

762
00:38:42,239 --> 00:38:45,719
Speaker 1: friends saved my life. Mike looked over and seemed to

763
00:38:45,760 --> 00:38:48,799
Speaker 1: notice her for the first time, and who were you?

764
00:38:49,480 --> 00:38:52,959
Speaker 1: His voice was not unfriendly, it wasn't exactly warm either.

765
00:38:53,760 --> 00:38:56,759
Speaker 1: My name is Sasha, she said, her voice clearly on

766
00:38:56,800 --> 00:38:59,200
Speaker 1: the edge of a sob. She looked from Mike to

767
00:38:59,200 --> 00:39:01,439
Speaker 1: TOOLI to tope as to the crowd, and then back

768
00:39:01,480 --> 00:39:04,200
Speaker 1: to Manny. He saw a panic in her eyes, barely

769
00:39:04,239 --> 00:39:07,840
Speaker 1: held in check by a cage of steely resolve. I

770
00:39:07,920 --> 00:39:10,400
Speaker 1: made a mistake. I left my home for the Kingdom.

771
00:39:10,440 --> 00:39:12,440
Speaker 1: I thought it was the right thing to do. I

772
00:39:12,480 --> 00:39:14,480
Speaker 1: met Marigold while I was there, and she helped me

773
00:39:14,480 --> 00:39:17,600
Speaker 1: see how wrong I'd been. She pointed to Roland. I

774
00:39:17,680 --> 00:39:20,280
Speaker 1: tried to help him free your people. We all tried,

775
00:39:20,400 --> 00:39:23,400
Speaker 1: but they were ready for us. They shot him. She

776
00:39:23,560 --> 00:39:26,279
Speaker 1: gestured to Roland. They shot him a lot. They had

777
00:39:26,360 --> 00:39:28,680
Speaker 1: us all dead to rights. And then Marigold. I don't

778
00:39:28,719 --> 00:39:30,839
Speaker 1: know how, but she got a gun. She shot two

779
00:39:30,880 --> 00:39:34,040
Speaker 1: of them, and then they shot her. She died, saving us.

780
00:39:34,960 --> 00:39:38,040
Speaker 1: The silence that followed was louder than any artillery barrage

781
00:39:38,080 --> 00:39:42,120
Speaker 1: Manny had ever sat through. Finally, Skullfucker Mike nodded at her.

782
00:39:42,440 --> 00:39:45,400
Speaker 1: There were tears in his eyes, and Manny soon realized

783
00:39:45,719 --> 00:39:48,719
Speaker 1: tears on every face in the crowd. Some people fell

784
00:39:48,760 --> 00:39:52,560
Speaker 1: to their knees, others embraced and held their friends. One voice,

785
00:39:52,719 --> 00:39:55,719
Speaker 1: hoarse and heavy with pain, howled out in anguish. It

786
00:39:55,840 --> 00:39:58,720
Speaker 1: was met by another voice and then another, and then another,

787
00:39:58,880 --> 00:40:01,479
Speaker 1: as Fucky and after Bucky and tilted their head back

788
00:40:01,560 --> 00:40:03,960
Speaker 1: and roared their grief out to the empty blue of

789
00:40:04,000 --> 00:40:08,640
Speaker 1: the Texas sky. Rolling Fuck preferred to mourn through activity.

790
00:40:09,040 --> 00:40:11,800
Speaker 1: The wailing and gnashing of teeth over Marigold didn't stop

791
00:40:11,840 --> 00:40:14,280
Speaker 1: the city's medics from taking Rick and Tully to whatever

792
00:40:14,320 --> 00:40:17,920
Speaker 1: building served as their equivalent of a clinic. Topaz stayed

793
00:40:17,960 --> 00:40:20,879
Speaker 1: behind with a gathering crowd of mourners while skullfucker Mike

794
00:40:20,920 --> 00:40:24,319
Speaker 1: gathered up Manny, Sasha and Roland. There will be time

795
00:40:24,360 --> 00:40:27,040
Speaker 1: to process later, He'd said, as much to himself as

796
00:40:27,080 --> 00:40:29,799
Speaker 1: to them. There's a war council soon, and they'll be

797
00:40:29,800 --> 00:40:33,920
Speaker 1: wanting to debrief you. Fine, Roland said, but I'm stopping

798
00:40:33,960 --> 00:40:36,040
Speaker 1: at the bar first. I need some opium and some

799
00:40:36,200 --> 00:40:40,400
Speaker 1: got am tequila. Manny expected skullfucker Mike to be angered

800
00:40:40,400 --> 00:40:43,479
Speaker 1: by that, given the circumstances, but the other chromed man

801
00:40:43,520 --> 00:40:46,239
Speaker 1: just nodded and said I could use a drink or

802
00:40:46,320 --> 00:40:49,960
Speaker 1: nine myself. They headed for the lift underneath the main roller.

803
00:40:50,239 --> 00:40:52,640
Speaker 1: Manny started to prepare himself for the meeting with this

804
00:40:52,840 --> 00:40:55,799
Speaker 1: war council, whatever that term meant in a place like this,

805
00:40:56,560 --> 00:40:59,959
Speaker 1: whatever happens, it's bound to be weird. They reached the lift,

806
00:41:00,280 --> 00:41:03,319
Speaker 1: skullfucker Mike opened the door and gestured for everyone to enter,

807
00:41:04,120 --> 00:41:06,600
Speaker 1: and so. Less than an hour after arriving back in

808
00:41:06,640 --> 00:41:09,840
Speaker 1: the City of Wheels, Manny, Sasha, and Rowland found themselves

809
00:41:09,840 --> 00:41:12,120
Speaker 1: seated around the same red wood table where they had

810
00:41:12,160 --> 00:41:15,640
Speaker 1: first met Nana Yazi and Donald Ferris. The room was

811
00:41:15,680 --> 00:41:18,520
Speaker 1: more crowded this time around, with two new people he

812
00:41:18,560 --> 00:41:22,200
Speaker 1: didn't recognize. One was a shirtless man with writhing snake

813
00:41:22,239 --> 00:41:24,719
Speaker 1: tattoos across his chest and a pair of chaps that

814
00:41:24,800 --> 00:41:27,360
Speaker 1: did nothing at all to cover up his junk. It

815
00:41:27,400 --> 00:41:29,680
Speaker 1: didn't help that the man's legs were spread as wide

816
00:41:29,680 --> 00:41:33,880
Speaker 1: as possible. He seemed to be deliberately showing off. Manny

817
00:41:33,960 --> 00:41:36,439
Speaker 1: looked away and found himself staring at a very tall,

818
00:41:36,600 --> 00:41:39,600
Speaker 1: very muscular, young seeming woman with a mohawk made from

819
00:41:39,600 --> 00:41:43,440
Speaker 1: thick chrome spikes. She had light brown skin. Her cheeks

820
00:41:43,440 --> 00:41:47,160
Speaker 1: were covered in several long, thin, diagonal scars. The woman's

821
00:41:47,160 --> 00:41:50,200
Speaker 1: eyes had no pupils. They looked gray at first, until

822
00:41:50,239 --> 00:41:53,520
Speaker 1: Mannie realized they were actually just filled with static. When

823
00:41:53,520 --> 00:41:55,799
Speaker 1: Mannie finally pulled his gaze away from her. He was

824
00:41:55,840 --> 00:41:59,120
Speaker 1: met with the biggest surprise of the day. Deshaun Clark

825
00:41:59,320 --> 00:42:04,080
Speaker 1: was seated chairs down from Nanna Yazzi Major Clark, Manny.

826
00:42:04,239 --> 00:42:07,160
Speaker 1: The Major's lips cracked open into a wide mouthed grin.

827
00:42:07,560 --> 00:42:09,400
Speaker 1: The left side of his face was still covered in

828
00:42:09,440 --> 00:42:11,759
Speaker 1: hemostatic gauze, and the edges of the skin around the

829
00:42:11,760 --> 00:42:15,000
Speaker 1: gauze looked black and burnt. His right hand was a smooth,

830
00:42:15,080 --> 00:42:17,640
Speaker 1: angry pink color, a sure sign that had been severed

831
00:42:17,640 --> 00:42:21,000
Speaker 1: and regrown in the recent past. Major Clark was bloody

832
00:42:21,160 --> 00:42:24,160
Speaker 1: but unbowed. It's damn good to see you, Manny. I

833
00:42:24,200 --> 00:42:26,120
Speaker 1: can tell you how proud I was to hear you'd

834
00:42:26,200 --> 00:42:30,600
Speaker 1: volunteered for this mission. Mr Pirrone, Manny started to say,

835
00:42:30,800 --> 00:42:34,160
Speaker 1: but Major Clark put up his hand, I know, he said.

836
00:42:35,040 --> 00:42:38,320
Speaker 1: Donald Ferris ahemmed, which Manny took as a gentle reminder

837
00:42:38,360 --> 00:42:41,319
Speaker 1: that now was not the time for personal business. The

838
00:42:41,360 --> 00:42:43,640
Speaker 1: old brick gestured first to the man with the writhing

839
00:42:43,680 --> 00:42:48,080
Speaker 1: snake tattoos. This is Jim Shannon, he said. He heads

840
00:42:48,160 --> 00:42:51,640
Speaker 1: up a small mercenary outfit. I'm the guy who roped

841
00:42:51,719 --> 00:42:55,040
Speaker 1: Roland into helping, Jim said, with a wink and this

842
00:42:55,280 --> 00:42:58,360
Speaker 1: cheery lass. Donald pointed to the woman with a chrome hawk.

843
00:42:58,680 --> 00:43:01,640
Speaker 1: Is Kashore. She's the city's elected wally too for the

844
00:43:01,680 --> 00:43:05,600
Speaker 1: past three years. And who might this young lady be,

845
00:43:06,040 --> 00:43:09,400
Speaker 1: Nana Yazzi asked, nodding at Sasha. The old woman stood

846
00:43:09,400 --> 00:43:12,280
Speaker 1: and stepped forward to greet Sasha with a hub. Sasha

847
00:43:12,320 --> 00:43:15,560
Speaker 1: tensed up. She looked scared to return the embrace, so

848
00:43:15,680 --> 00:43:18,120
Speaker 1: Nana Yazzi backed off and favored the girl with a

849
00:43:18,120 --> 00:43:21,879
Speaker 1: warm smile. I'm sorry, child, I didn't mean to pressure you.

850
00:43:21,960 --> 00:43:25,520
Speaker 1: I'm just happy or hear with us. Sasha relaxed at that,

851
00:43:25,680 --> 00:43:30,280
Speaker 1: but she still didn't step forward. Her name, Sasha said Rowland.

852
00:43:30,560 --> 00:43:32,480
Speaker 1: She used to be with the Kingdom, now she's not.

853
00:43:33,040 --> 00:43:36,040
Speaker 1: He paused a second, considered his words, and added, she

854
00:43:36,160 --> 00:43:38,799
Speaker 1: beat one of them to death with a helmet. Oh my,

855
00:43:39,120 --> 00:43:42,439
Speaker 1: oh dear. Nana Yazzi tisked and shook her head. I'm

856
00:43:42,480 --> 00:43:45,719
Speaker 1: so sorry, Sasha, that must have been a terrible experience

857
00:43:45,760 --> 00:43:49,560
Speaker 1: for you. She enjoyed it, Jim said, with a harsh

858
00:43:49,560 --> 00:43:52,319
Speaker 1: bark of a laugh. I'm sure Rowland smells it too.

859
00:43:52,600 --> 00:43:55,319
Speaker 1: Isn't that a radhun you loved? Killing? Whoever the funk

860
00:43:55,400 --> 00:43:58,440
Speaker 1: you killed and you feel shitty about that. Will let

861
00:43:58,480 --> 00:44:01,400
Speaker 1: me still stop right now, or you'll leave this room.

862
00:44:01,880 --> 00:44:04,520
Speaker 1: Nana Yazzi's voice was firm, but devoid of any anger

863
00:44:04,600 --> 00:44:07,879
Speaker 1: or heat. To Manny's shock, Jim stopped the post human,

864
00:44:07,960 --> 00:44:11,640
Speaker 1: nodded and said, I apologized Sasha, that was a dick move,

865
00:44:12,040 --> 00:44:14,880
Speaker 1: and then he lowered his eyes just a little. In contrition,

866
00:44:15,880 --> 00:44:18,960
Speaker 1: Nana Yazzi offered Sasha a seat and then busied herself

867
00:44:19,000 --> 00:44:21,759
Speaker 1: in the corner making Sasha a cup of tea. Once

868
00:44:21,800 --> 00:44:23,840
Speaker 1: that was done and they were all settled in, Nana

869
00:44:23,920 --> 00:44:27,360
Speaker 1: sat back down and looked at Manny. What happened, is

870
00:44:27,400 --> 00:44:31,160
Speaker 1: all she asked. Manny started talking. He told her, and

871
00:44:31,239 --> 00:44:33,919
Speaker 1: by extension, the whole table, everything that had happened since

872
00:44:33,960 --> 00:44:37,160
Speaker 1: he and Rowland left rolling Fuck. He told them about

873
00:44:37,160 --> 00:44:39,360
Speaker 1: their trouble with the checkpoints on the way into town.

874
00:44:39,760 --> 00:44:42,520
Speaker 1: He walked them through the intake process, his and Roland's

875
00:44:42,520 --> 00:44:45,239
Speaker 1: few days as martyrs in training, and what he'd seen

876
00:44:45,320 --> 00:44:47,360
Speaker 1: in the few sections of Plano he'd been allowed to

877
00:44:47,400 --> 00:44:50,200
Speaker 1: haunt during his time there. The woman with the Chrome

878
00:44:50,239 --> 00:44:53,000
Speaker 1: Hawk was particularly interested in what he and Roland had

879
00:44:53,040 --> 00:44:56,239
Speaker 1: to say about the Kingdom's preferred assault tactics. They're not

880
00:44:56,280 --> 00:44:58,560
Speaker 1: going to be kicking indoors in fighting house to house.

881
00:44:58,800 --> 00:45:02,239
Speaker 1: Roland explained, just start shelling at the first sign of resistance.

882
00:45:02,440 --> 00:45:06,400
Speaker 1: They don't care about civilian casualties. When Manny explained what

883
00:45:06,440 --> 00:45:08,719
Speaker 1: the Kingdom had been doing at the old Tesla factory,

884
00:45:08,840 --> 00:45:12,560
Speaker 1: almost everyone looked horrified. Donald Ferris spat at the ground.

885
00:45:12,960 --> 00:45:15,480
Speaker 1: Most of the others cursed or at least shook their heads.

886
00:45:15,920 --> 00:45:19,759
Speaker 1: Nanna Yazi teared up. Jim, though, seemed almost enthusiastic about

887
00:45:19,760 --> 00:45:24,319
Speaker 1: the revelation. Fascinating, he muttered just loud enough for Manny

888
00:45:24,400 --> 00:45:28,080
Speaker 1: to hear. Once everyone was caught up the table fired

889
00:45:28,120 --> 00:45:30,560
Speaker 1: off a few questions at him and more towards Rowland.

890
00:45:30,760 --> 00:45:33,040
Speaker 1: They seemed mostly curious as to what they'd been able

891
00:45:33,080 --> 00:45:36,120
Speaker 1: to glean about the number of recruits in the Heavenly Kingdom.

892
00:45:36,200 --> 00:45:39,000
Speaker 1: Manny didn't have much useful there, so he shut up,

893
00:45:39,239 --> 00:45:42,320
Speaker 1: leaned back, and let Rowland give the answers. An awkward

894
00:45:42,440 --> 00:45:46,439
Speaker 1: silence descended on the table After a few minutes. Well,

895
00:45:46,960 --> 00:45:50,319
Speaker 1: Donald Ferris said, finally, I suppose we were fools to

896
00:45:50,360 --> 00:45:53,200
Speaker 1: hope for much more than what you've got as it stands.

897
00:45:53,200 --> 00:45:55,440
Speaker 1: Were left grappling to try an account for the sheer

898
00:45:55,520 --> 00:45:58,440
Speaker 1: number of men the Kingdom has deployed to assault Austin.

899
00:45:59,680 --> 00:46:02,319
Speaker 1: When a thousand martyrs, Jim spoke up and give a

900
00:46:02,360 --> 00:46:07,200
Speaker 1: take a grand Manny's blood went cold. The SDF at

901
00:46:07,200 --> 00:46:09,920
Speaker 1: its height hadn't been more than six thousand fighters, and

902
00:46:09,960 --> 00:46:12,480
Speaker 1: those were spread out across the serried battle grounds of

903
00:46:12,560 --> 00:46:15,680
Speaker 1: North Texas. The whole free city of Austin didn't have

904
00:46:15,760 --> 00:46:18,680
Speaker 1: more than five thousand people in its full time defense corps.

905
00:46:18,960 --> 00:46:23,719
Speaker 1: Twenty thousand men was impossible, he said, that's just fucking impossible.

906
00:46:24,360 --> 00:46:27,200
Speaker 1: I'd be inclined to agree with you, kid, said Jim,

907
00:46:27,440 --> 00:46:30,120
Speaker 1: if my own men hadn't double checked the count for us.

908
00:46:30,520 --> 00:46:33,239
Speaker 1: The Kingdom's already marshaled half of that force on the

909
00:46:33,280 --> 00:46:36,440
Speaker 1: outskirts of d f W near Lancaster. They'll be in

910
00:46:36,480 --> 00:46:39,680
Speaker 1: Waco tomorrow if no one stops him. Hell, they could

911
00:46:39,680 --> 00:46:43,680
Speaker 1: be pound in Austin with artillery by Doc Donald Ferris

912
00:46:43,719 --> 00:46:48,080
Speaker 1: nodded mister Shennon. Here he gestured to Jim as agreed

913
00:46:48,120 --> 00:46:50,960
Speaker 1: to lend a hand, along with several dozen of his mercenaries.

914
00:46:51,320 --> 00:46:53,640
Speaker 1: Add that to the warriors of Rolling Fuck, and we've

915
00:46:53,680 --> 00:46:56,799
Speaker 1: got seven hundred ish post humans. It's a large enough

916
00:46:56,840 --> 00:47:00,880
Speaker 1: force to hold Waco and badly bloody their nose. But

917
00:47:01,320 --> 00:47:03,839
Speaker 1: Kushori spoke for the first time. She had a deep,

918
00:47:03,920 --> 00:47:06,840
Speaker 1: gravelly voice that sounded like she'd been eating cigarettes for

919
00:47:06,840 --> 00:47:09,799
Speaker 1: the last ten years. Rolling Fuk is not in the

920
00:47:09,840 --> 00:47:13,840
Speaker 1: business of volunteering for our own Vietnams. My people aren't

921
00:47:13,840 --> 00:47:17,120
Speaker 1: signing up for a war. I can guarantee our presence

922
00:47:17,120 --> 00:47:19,959
Speaker 1: on the battlefield for up to forty eight hours, enough

923
00:47:20,000 --> 00:47:24,240
Speaker 1: time for vengeance, she continued. After that, you're hurting cats?

924
00:47:25,200 --> 00:47:27,640
Speaker 1: Is that a problem? Manny asked. I mean I saw

925
00:47:27,719 --> 00:47:30,879
Speaker 1: Roland lay waste to half a city, six hundred of him.

926
00:47:31,080 --> 00:47:34,520
Speaker 1: There's only one of him, Kushori said. Jim nodded in

927
00:47:34,640 --> 00:47:39,279
Speaker 1: agreement and fixed Manny with his uncomfortable gray eyes. See kid,

928
00:47:39,440 --> 00:47:42,200
Speaker 1: he said me. Any one a Roland Fox war is

929
00:47:42,239 --> 00:47:44,400
Speaker 1: as good for a few dozen normal troops in a

930
00:47:44,520 --> 00:47:48,279
Speaker 1: straight fight, more of Wotok and half trained Potazans. But

931
00:47:48,440 --> 00:47:52,360
Speaker 1: nobody is like Roland. Manny looked over to Roland. The

932
00:47:52,360 --> 00:47:56,000
Speaker 1: big man seemed distinctly uncomfortable with all the attention. He

933
00:47:56,120 --> 00:47:58,640
Speaker 1: stared down at his hands, which seemed to be occupied

934
00:47:58,680 --> 00:48:01,680
Speaker 1: with tearing up a paper drink coaster. The martyrs have

935
00:48:01,760 --> 00:48:05,800
Speaker 1: a lot of half trained partizans, but they've also got tanks, artillery,

936
00:48:05,800 --> 00:48:09,680
Speaker 1: as suits the resources of a nation state or close enough.

937
00:48:10,280 --> 00:48:12,480
Speaker 1: Rolland Fuck can hold that off for a while, But

938
00:48:12,600 --> 00:48:15,600
Speaker 1: without Rolland the best they can do is delay the inevitable.

939
00:48:16,200 --> 00:48:19,759
Speaker 1: Now with Roland, Jim continued, this is a two hour

940
00:48:19,920 --> 00:48:22,959
Speaker 1: five tops. We set up our troops in some little

941
00:48:23,000 --> 00:48:25,600
Speaker 1: chunk of the city and start dropping mortars and rockets

942
00:48:25,640 --> 00:48:28,400
Speaker 1: on the van guard. They pull up and circle us

943
00:48:28,400 --> 00:48:32,080
Speaker 1: and start deploying their artillery to bombus to kingdom come. Then,

944
00:48:32,280 --> 00:48:35,200
Speaker 1: when they are good and packed together, we drop Roland

945
00:48:35,239 --> 00:48:39,359
Speaker 1: on the asses. Kashurei nodded, yes, She said, he'll hit

946
00:48:39,400 --> 00:48:41,680
Speaker 1: them and disrupt their whole order of battle while our

947
00:48:41,719 --> 00:48:44,960
Speaker 1: cavalry rolls around their flanks and charges. That should be

948
00:48:45,120 --> 00:48:47,560
Speaker 1: enough to make them panic. Then we'd chase them down

949
00:48:47,640 --> 00:48:52,240
Speaker 1: until they lose cohesion. Rolland's heads stayed down. He didn't speak.

950
00:48:52,440 --> 00:48:55,719
Speaker 1: Manny looked from him to Jim Tannani Yazzi and Donald Ferris.

951
00:48:56,280 --> 00:48:59,000
Speaker 1: So what's the problem, Manny asked. If Roland and Rolling

952
00:48:59,000 --> 00:49:00,640
Speaker 1: Funk are all in the should be a walk in

953
00:49:00,680 --> 00:49:04,920
Speaker 1: the park, Rowland, Nanny Yazzi said, prefers not to fight,

954
00:49:05,719 --> 00:49:08,520
Speaker 1: But I just saw him. You just saw me break

955
00:49:08,560 --> 00:49:12,320
Speaker 1: a long streak of not killing people. Roland's voice sounded odd,

956
00:49:12,320 --> 00:49:14,719
Speaker 1: hollow and dry, and utterly without any of the mirth

957
00:49:14,840 --> 00:49:17,520
Speaker 1: or mischief Manny had come to expect from the chromed man.

958
00:49:18,520 --> 00:49:21,400
Speaker 1: I did that to get my memories back, Manny, he shrugged,

959
00:49:21,520 --> 00:49:23,560
Speaker 1: And I did it for you because you're my buddy.

960
00:49:23,680 --> 00:49:26,000
Speaker 1: But I got no stake in Austin. But you know

961
00:49:26,040 --> 00:49:28,200
Speaker 1: what the Heavenly Kingdom will do if they take the city,

962
00:49:28,320 --> 00:49:31,200
Speaker 1: Manny protested. You've seen what they did to Plaino. They'll

963
00:49:31,200 --> 00:49:33,239
Speaker 1: do that to millions of decent people if they can.

964
00:49:33,640 --> 00:49:35,840
Speaker 1: You have the power to stop that. You're telling me

965
00:49:35,880 --> 00:49:39,680
Speaker 1: you won't. Roland met his eyes and just said, yes,

966
00:49:40,800 --> 00:49:43,520
Speaker 1: you son of a bitch. Manny felt the anger well

967
00:49:43,600 --> 00:49:46,160
Speaker 1: up inside him. It merged with his grief over Major

968
00:49:46,200 --> 00:49:49,840
Speaker 1: Pirone's death, Oscar's death, and his rage at the Heavenly Kingdom,

969
00:49:50,120 --> 00:49:52,919
Speaker 1: the Martyrs, and every other group of assholes who'd helped

970
00:49:52,920 --> 00:49:56,799
Speaker 1: turn his young life into a parade of nightmares. Hugh, absolute,

971
00:49:56,840 --> 00:50:00,399
Speaker 1: son of a bitch, You fucking coward. Manny did think,

972
00:50:00,680 --> 00:50:03,080
Speaker 1: couldn't think. He pulled back his fist and swung as

973
00:50:03,120 --> 00:50:06,000
Speaker 1: hard as he could for Roland's face. The chrombed man

974
00:50:06,000 --> 00:50:08,640
Speaker 1: didn't move, didn't even blink. Manny hit him right in

975
00:50:08,640 --> 00:50:11,280
Speaker 1: the nose. He was softer than Manny would have guessed,

976
00:50:11,600 --> 00:50:14,760
Speaker 1: didn't feel any different from punching a normal human. Manny

977
00:50:14,840 --> 00:50:17,400
Speaker 1: swung again and again until he felt something crack in

978
00:50:17,480 --> 00:50:20,080
Speaker 1: his knuckles. He cried out from the pain and pulled

979
00:50:20,120 --> 00:50:23,200
Speaker 1: back to nurse his wounded hand. For a few seconds,

980
00:50:23,280 --> 00:50:26,040
Speaker 1: Manny forgot about the rest of the room. He closed

981
00:50:26,040 --> 00:50:28,240
Speaker 1: his eyes and let his thoughts dissolve into an ocean

982
00:50:28,280 --> 00:50:31,319
Speaker 1: of physical pain. The agony of his broken hand was

983
00:50:31,360 --> 00:50:34,520
Speaker 1: almost soothing. It was better than thinking about mister Perrone.

984
00:50:34,920 --> 00:50:38,120
Speaker 1: It was better than thinking about Alejandro or Oscar. It

985
00:50:38,239 --> 00:50:40,799
Speaker 1: was better than thinking about his soon to be shattered home.

986
00:50:41,560 --> 00:50:44,399
Speaker 1: Manny felt a hand on his shoulder. The sensation pulled

987
00:50:44,440 --> 00:50:46,920
Speaker 1: him out of his spiraling thoughts. He looked up and

988
00:50:46,960 --> 00:50:51,400
Speaker 1: saw nanny Azzi. She smiled her sad smile and said, Manny,

989
00:50:51,480 --> 00:50:55,520
Speaker 1: every one here understands your pain. Not me, said Jim.

990
00:50:55,719 --> 00:50:59,600
Speaker 1: I've never been a big fan. Austin too, damn. Roland

991
00:50:59,640 --> 00:51:02,080
Speaker 1: threw his empty pint glass at the other post human's face.

992
00:51:02,320 --> 00:51:05,840
Speaker 1: It shattered on impact, embedding shards deep into Jim's cheeks

993
00:51:05,880 --> 00:51:08,920
Speaker 1: and forehead. His head snapped back, and he blinked in

994
00:51:08,960 --> 00:51:12,799
Speaker 1: shock A few times. Sorry, he said, I deserve that,

995
00:51:13,480 --> 00:51:16,919
Speaker 1: and I deserved that. Roland said to Manny, no hard

996
00:51:16,960 --> 00:51:19,360
Speaker 1: feelings I get while you're piste, But kid, you gotta

997
00:51:19,480 --> 00:51:23,319
Speaker 1: understand something. Austin's home to you, to me, it's just

998
00:51:23,400 --> 00:51:26,960
Speaker 1: another city held by just another side. Half my remaining

999
00:51:26,960 --> 00:51:29,040
Speaker 1: memories are of one cause or another asking me to

1000
00:51:29,040 --> 00:51:31,520
Speaker 1: go murder in their name. I'm fucking done with it.

1001
00:51:32,320 --> 00:51:35,839
Speaker 1: Minnie looked to Major Clark, the STF officer's eyes were

1002
00:51:35,840 --> 00:51:38,480
Speaker 1: lit by a familiar cold fire. He spoke in a

1003
00:51:38,520 --> 00:51:42,280
Speaker 1: tone of barely controlled anger. That is, you're right, of course,

1004
00:51:42,560 --> 00:51:44,800
Speaker 1: you can choose to leave, just as I will choose

1005
00:51:44,840 --> 00:51:48,240
Speaker 1: to fight and die. I wonder what Manny will choose.

1006
00:51:49,600 --> 00:51:52,560
Speaker 1: Manny hadn't really settled on that himself. Before he could

1007
00:51:52,600 --> 00:51:56,960
Speaker 1: stumble through his response, Sasha spoke, I'll fight, She said,

1008
00:51:57,480 --> 00:51:59,720
Speaker 1: I don't know much about guns, but I'll do my best.

1009
00:52:00,320 --> 00:52:03,000
Speaker 1: Roland slumped back in his chair and tossed his arms

1010
00:52:03,080 --> 00:52:07,000
Speaker 1: up in a dramatic show of frustration at too. Jesus girl,

1011
00:52:07,960 --> 00:52:10,919
Speaker 1: I'll fight, Manny said to Major Clark, doing his best

1012
00:52:10,920 --> 00:52:14,440
Speaker 1: to talk over Rowland. I'll choose to fight too. This

1013
00:52:14,560 --> 00:52:16,799
Speaker 1: isn't gonna work, you know, Roland said. I'm not going

1014
00:52:16,880 --> 00:52:19,480
Speaker 1: to be shamed into fighting again. It's just not going

1015
00:52:19,560 --> 00:52:23,320
Speaker 1: to fucking happen. Jim leaned in. He fixed Roland with

1016
00:52:23,360 --> 00:52:26,920
Speaker 1: a look that seemed almost hungry. I think it will happen.

1017
00:52:27,360 --> 00:52:30,359
Speaker 1: I think the peculiar arc of your moral cumbas won't

1018
00:52:30,440 --> 00:52:33,520
Speaker 1: let you leave these kids to die. He seemed surprised

1019
00:52:33,560 --> 00:52:38,560
Speaker 1: by the revelation. Huh, fascinating enough of that. Donald Ferris

1020
00:52:38,560 --> 00:52:41,440
Speaker 1: sounded angry. I won't stand to see this man badge

1021
00:52:41,440 --> 00:52:43,759
Speaker 1: it and press it into fighting against his will. We

1022
00:52:43,840 --> 00:52:46,279
Speaker 1: might as well dissolve the council for now and reconvene

1023
00:52:46,280 --> 00:52:50,279
Speaker 1: without Rowland. Good. Roland stood up and stomped over to

1024
00:52:50,320 --> 00:52:52,359
Speaker 1: the exit. That's all you people need for me. I'm

1025
00:52:52,360 --> 00:52:54,520
Speaker 1: gonna go get good and pissed and start my walk

1026
00:52:54,560 --> 00:52:57,400
Speaker 1: back to Arizona. He flipped his middle finger out at

1027
00:52:57,400 --> 00:52:59,680
Speaker 1: the room and slammed the door behind him as he left.

1028
00:53:00,400 --> 00:53:04,919
Speaker 1: All eyes turned to Mannie. I should probably go talk

1029
00:53:05,000 --> 00:53:08,840
Speaker 1: to him. Don't do anything you're not comfortable doing. Emmanuel

1030
00:53:09,200 --> 00:53:12,840
Speaker 1: Donald said, fuck that. Jim said the best. It's on

1031
00:53:12,920 --> 00:53:16,680
Speaker 1: the ropes. Shame him, shame him good. As he headed

1032
00:53:16,680 --> 00:53:19,160
Speaker 1: for the exit, Manny looked to Major Clark. The old

1033
00:53:19,200 --> 00:53:23,239
Speaker 1: soldier's one good eye was narrow and focused Mannie. He said,

1034
00:53:23,560 --> 00:53:25,359
Speaker 1: if he didn't want to talk, he wouldn't have gone

1035
00:53:25,400 --> 00:53:27,759
Speaker 1: up to the bar, He'd have just left. There's no

1036
00:53:27,840 --> 00:53:33,640
Speaker 1: honor lost. In another conversation, another try, Roland was three

1037
00:53:33,640 --> 00:53:36,960
Speaker 1: beers in by the time Manny reached him, and knowing rolling,

1038
00:53:37,040 --> 00:53:39,920
Speaker 1: fuck that could mean he'd already ingested enough acid to

1039
00:53:40,000 --> 00:53:45,720
Speaker 1: kill a large octopus. Hey, Manny said, heybody rolland replied

1040
00:53:45,719 --> 00:53:49,760
Speaker 1: in a voice that was just super stoned. Sorry about

1041
00:53:49,800 --> 00:53:52,960
Speaker 1: getting angry. Back there, the post human spun his empty

1042
00:53:52,960 --> 00:53:55,360
Speaker 1: pint glass around on the bar table. It was a

1043
00:53:55,400 --> 00:53:58,480
Speaker 1: strange sight to see. Mannie had gotten so used to

1044
00:53:58,520 --> 00:54:01,480
Speaker 1: seeing Roland as something akin to a Greek god. He

1045
00:54:01,560 --> 00:54:05,640
Speaker 1: certainly wasn't omniscient or omnipotent, but he was unspeakably powerful

1046
00:54:05,719 --> 00:54:09,080
Speaker 1: and just as irresponsible to leave out around humans, And

1047
00:54:09,160 --> 00:54:11,680
Speaker 1: yet here he was fiddling with an empty pint glass

1048
00:54:11,719 --> 00:54:14,439
Speaker 1: like a nervous college freshman standing at the back wall

1049
00:54:14,480 --> 00:54:17,480
Speaker 1: of some house party. Many felt a surge of sympathy.

1050
00:54:18,080 --> 00:54:21,279
Speaker 1: It's okay, man, I think I actually get it, he said,

1051
00:54:21,480 --> 00:54:23,840
Speaker 1: like I've had plenty of chances to join either the

1052
00:54:23,960 --> 00:54:27,800
Speaker 1: SDF or the Austin Defense Forces. I never did. Maybe

1053
00:54:27,800 --> 00:54:30,279
Speaker 1: some of that's because I'm scared help. Up until like

1054
00:54:30,320 --> 00:54:32,400
Speaker 1: a few days ago, my plan was to get the

1055
00:54:32,440 --> 00:54:34,600
Speaker 1: funk off this continent as soon as I could afford it.

1056
00:54:35,239 --> 00:54:38,320
Speaker 1: Many paused and bit his lip. It was an instinctive gesture,

1057
00:54:38,480 --> 00:54:41,319
Speaker 1: his gut's reaction to a sudden burst of self awareness.

1058
00:54:41,760 --> 00:54:45,160
Speaker 1: Many hadn't thought about any of this before. I don't know,

1059
00:54:45,400 --> 00:54:47,680
Speaker 1: he said. This ship has been going on basically my

1060
00:54:47,719 --> 00:54:49,839
Speaker 1: whole life. I can't remember a time when I wasn't

1061
00:54:49,880 --> 00:54:53,080
Speaker 1: scared of something like this happening. I didn't understand any

1062
00:54:53,080 --> 00:54:54,960
Speaker 1: of it as a kid, but I can remember being

1063
00:54:55,080 --> 00:54:57,680
Speaker 1: seven or eight years old and just being so angry

1064
00:54:57,680 --> 00:55:01,000
Speaker 1: at the soldiers, even our soldiers. I thought, if all

1065
00:55:01,000 --> 00:55:03,320
Speaker 1: you assholes would just refuse to be led into battle,

1066
00:55:03,719 --> 00:55:06,879
Speaker 1: none of this could happen. You know, that's not how

1067
00:55:06,920 --> 00:55:09,680
Speaker 1: it works. Ryan Roland asked as he turned away from

1068
00:55:09,719 --> 00:55:13,440
Speaker 1: Manny and waved at the bartender. We love this war ship.

1069
00:55:13,600 --> 00:55:15,759
Speaker 1: At least someone us due those of us who were

1070
00:55:15,880 --> 00:55:19,400
Speaker 1: Oh the bartender arrived, Roland ordered my time mixed with

1071
00:55:19,440 --> 00:55:21,560
Speaker 1: the margharita and one of those what you got him column?

1072
00:55:21,560 --> 00:55:25,960
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, a fucking mohito Roland. Manny's voice was gentle

1073
00:55:25,960 --> 00:55:28,400
Speaker 1: but firm. How many beers did you drink before I

1074
00:55:28,440 --> 00:55:32,280
Speaker 1: got here? Not beers, Roland said in a casual voice.

1075
00:55:32,440 --> 00:55:35,760
Speaker 1: Mushroom rum, sweet but not bad. He licked his lips

1076
00:55:35,760 --> 00:55:38,440
Speaker 1: as he watched the bartender work through the herculean task

1077
00:55:38,480 --> 00:55:42,759
Speaker 1: of crafting his requested beverage. Roland Manny said, and the

1078
00:55:42,840 --> 00:55:46,279
Speaker 1: chrombed man turned back to him. Ah, sorry, it's just

1079
00:55:46,360 --> 00:55:48,480
Speaker 1: been too long a stretch of sober for me. I

1080
00:55:48,520 --> 00:55:51,640
Speaker 1: got excited. What the funk was I saying? That war

1081
00:55:51,840 --> 00:55:54,279
Speaker 1: is fun? Oh yeah, as long as you don't think

1082
00:55:54,360 --> 00:55:56,920
Speaker 1: you will die. That's why all throughout history he had

1083
00:55:56,960 --> 00:55:59,960
Speaker 1: so many generals and politicians kicking off conflicts because they

1084
00:56:00,120 --> 00:56:02,960
Speaker 1: felt safe and when you're pretty sure you'll live, war

1085
00:56:03,080 --> 00:56:06,239
Speaker 1: is an absolute hoot. That's the problem with me, and

1086
00:56:06,360 --> 00:56:10,000
Speaker 1: fighting the problem as you like it. Too much. Roland

1087
00:56:10,040 --> 00:56:13,040
Speaker 1: grabbed his hand. The chromed man moved so fast Manny

1088
00:56:13,080 --> 00:56:15,960
Speaker 1: didn't even see the motion blur. Roland's hand was just

1089
00:56:16,040 --> 00:56:19,520
Speaker 1: wrapped around his wrist, immovable. He squeezed hard enough that

1090
00:56:19,600 --> 00:56:22,560
Speaker 1: it hurt. Roland's eyes bulged out and stared into Manny

1091
00:56:22,640 --> 00:56:26,960
Speaker 1: with a manic intensity that was frightening. I fucking love it.

1092
00:56:26,960 --> 00:56:29,560
Speaker 1: It's like sex on heroin and bungee jumping and getting

1093
00:56:29,640 --> 00:56:31,320
Speaker 1: rammed in the assid and that first shadow liquor you

1094
00:56:31,320 --> 00:56:33,880
Speaker 1: is synake when you're fourteen, all at once, and mixed

1095
00:56:33,880 --> 00:56:36,759
Speaker 1: with the best actual battle drugs the most bloated military

1096
00:56:36,800 --> 00:56:40,120
Speaker 1: budget in history can buy. He loosened his grip and

1097
00:56:40,160 --> 00:56:43,319
Speaker 1: turned half away from Manny. That's why I shouldn't do it,

1098
00:56:43,440 --> 00:56:45,919
Speaker 1: because I'll get carried away like I got carried away

1099
00:56:45,960 --> 00:56:48,560
Speaker 1: in Dallas. Maybe this time I won't be able to

1100
00:56:48,560 --> 00:56:51,680
Speaker 1: stop when it's time to stop. Manny kept his eyes

1101
00:56:51,719 --> 00:56:54,279
Speaker 1: on Roland's. The big man turned a little further to

1102
00:56:54,320 --> 00:56:57,400
Speaker 1: the left, but he didn't look away. How do you

1103
00:56:57,400 --> 00:57:00,240
Speaker 1: know that your intervention won't make things better? Manny asked.

1104
00:57:00,440 --> 00:57:02,239
Speaker 1: Maybe if we can kill enough in the martyrs, their

1105
00:57:02,239 --> 00:57:05,120
Speaker 1: power will be broken forever. Maybe your intervention will be

1106
00:57:05,120 --> 00:57:07,359
Speaker 1: the first step towards making this a more livable part

1107
00:57:07,400 --> 00:57:11,040
Speaker 1: of the globe. Roland laughed. It started as a low

1108
00:57:11,120 --> 00:57:13,959
Speaker 1: chuckle that then cascaded into a series of rolling, rib

1109
00:57:14,000 --> 00:57:17,160
Speaker 1: cracking howls. Manny didn't get the joke, and he couldn't

1110
00:57:17,200 --> 00:57:19,479
Speaker 1: find any humor in his words, so he sat tight

1111
00:57:19,560 --> 00:57:22,560
Speaker 1: until Roland's mirth subsided and the chromed man had recovered

1112
00:57:22,680 --> 00:57:28,000
Speaker 1: enough to explain himself. All right, sorry, he said, between chuckles.

1113
00:57:28,160 --> 00:57:31,120
Speaker 1: It's just a ship. Kid. You're too young to know

1114
00:57:31,200 --> 00:57:34,160
Speaker 1: how funny that is. Roland straightened up and wiped a

1115
00:57:34,200 --> 00:57:36,960
Speaker 1: tear from his eye. So you're talking about me the

1116
00:57:37,000 --> 00:57:39,440
Speaker 1: exact same way people talked about the U. S. Military

1117
00:57:39,480 --> 00:57:42,400
Speaker 1: back when I was a kid. The bartender came by

1118
00:57:42,480 --> 00:57:45,360
Speaker 1: and sat down Roland's drink, an enormous jug filled with

1119
00:57:45,360 --> 00:57:48,800
Speaker 1: a multi hued mix of alcoholic beverages. The post human

1120
00:57:48,840 --> 00:57:51,520
Speaker 1: took a deep poll from his my Tai Garito. Manny

1121
00:57:51,560 --> 00:57:54,160
Speaker 1: took the chance to ask a question. I thought you

1122
00:57:54,200 --> 00:57:56,680
Speaker 1: didn't remember anything further back than a few years ago.

1123
00:57:57,560 --> 00:58:00,280
Speaker 1: I don't remember anything clearly, Roland said, what I do

1124
00:58:00,360 --> 00:58:02,800
Speaker 1: remember bits and pieces, and I remember being a young

1125
00:58:02,840 --> 00:58:05,360
Speaker 1: man and watching the news break in an off base bar.

1126
00:58:05,880 --> 00:58:09,280
Speaker 1: Some election had gone bad in Bolivia. The president announced

1127
00:58:09,320 --> 00:58:12,320
Speaker 1: he was sending in soldiers to keep the pace. Did

1128
00:58:12,360 --> 00:58:15,600
Speaker 1: it work, Manny asked? And no, kid, would your school

1129
00:58:15,680 --> 00:58:19,480
Speaker 1: teach you about Bolivia? That there was a genocide? At oh,

1130
00:58:19,720 --> 00:58:24,120
Speaker 1: Manny said, as Roland's points sunk in right yep. Roland

1131
00:58:24,120 --> 00:58:27,240
Speaker 1: grunted and took another deeper pull from his ridiculous beverage.

1132
00:58:27,680 --> 00:58:30,720
Speaker 1: They were quiet for a while. Manny took the opportunity

1133
00:58:30,760 --> 00:58:33,120
Speaker 1: to take a long look at Roland. His face held

1134
00:58:33,160 --> 00:58:35,520
Speaker 1: only a few lines around his eyes and lips, and

1135
00:58:35,600 --> 00:58:38,960
Speaker 1: yet he still looked old, positively ancient. There appeared to

1136
00:58:39,000 --> 00:58:42,160
Speaker 1: be a tremendous weight to the man's eyes, accentuated by

1137
00:58:42,160 --> 00:58:44,680
Speaker 1: the deep wrinkles underneath them. It looked as if the

1138
00:58:44,720 --> 00:58:47,440
Speaker 1: chromed man's face was sagging underneath the weight of what

1139
00:58:47,560 --> 00:58:51,439
Speaker 1: he had seen Roland. Manny asked, do you have any

1140
00:58:51,480 --> 00:58:54,440
Speaker 1: idea of where you came from? I think I was

1141
00:58:54,520 --> 00:58:58,600
Speaker 1: born around Mississippi ba No, Manny interrupted, not like where

1142
00:58:58,600 --> 00:59:00,360
Speaker 1: you were born, but how you became and what you

1143
00:59:00,360 --> 00:59:03,240
Speaker 1: are today? You said, you've been disconnected from the internet

1144
00:59:03,280 --> 00:59:05,080
Speaker 1: for the last ten years. I've got a guess your

1145
00:59:05,080 --> 00:59:07,600
Speaker 1: implants or even older than that. But the way everyone

1146
00:59:07,680 --> 00:59:11,560
Speaker 1: here talks about you, you're still king shit. Oh, Roland said,

1147
00:59:11,680 --> 00:59:14,600
Speaker 1: yeah that, I got no real idea what happened there.

1148
00:59:14,680 --> 00:59:16,400
Speaker 1: I know I was in the army. I'm pretty sure

1149
00:59:16,440 --> 00:59:20,000
Speaker 1: that's when the tinkering started, sure, man, he said, but

1150
00:59:20,040 --> 00:59:22,000
Speaker 1: didn't A lot of the road people start as ex

1151
00:59:22,040 --> 00:59:25,600
Speaker 1: special forces who went rogue? Why are you special? You

1152
00:59:25,680 --> 00:59:28,160
Speaker 1: had no clear answer to that, buddy, he smiled, as

1153
00:59:28,200 --> 00:59:30,800
Speaker 1: if he just remembered something good. I guess I've got

1154
00:59:30,840 --> 00:59:33,480
Speaker 1: that surgery coming up. Once I get my memories back,

1155
00:59:33,520 --> 00:59:36,720
Speaker 1: I'll let you know what I find out. Manny laughed too,

1156
00:59:36,760 --> 00:59:39,760
Speaker 1: but his was cold and bitter. Sure I'll probably be

1157
00:59:39,800 --> 00:59:43,800
Speaker 1: in a refugee camp at that point, or dead, damn good.

1158
00:59:44,320 --> 00:59:47,880
Speaker 1: Roland said, yeah, man, he said, I'm really not trying

1159
00:59:47,880 --> 00:59:50,440
Speaker 1: to manipulate you here. It's just now, I get it.

1160
00:59:50,520 --> 00:59:53,640
Speaker 1: I get it. Roland waved him off. It's fair, you

1161
00:59:53,720 --> 00:59:56,280
Speaker 1: get every right to be piste. I just can't. He

1162
00:59:56,400 --> 00:59:59,680
Speaker 1: trailed off. Many put a hand on Roland's shoulder. He

1163
00:59:59,720 --> 01:00:02,600
Speaker 1: didn't understand how the post human felt. How could he?

1164
01:00:02,960 --> 01:00:05,440
Speaker 1: Manny couldn't even conceive of having that kind of power,

1165
01:00:05,840 --> 01:00:07,920
Speaker 1: but he could see why it was a difficult choice.

1166
01:00:08,560 --> 01:00:11,200
Speaker 1: There was a part of Manny, a dark, manipulative chunk

1167
01:00:11,200 --> 01:00:13,000
Speaker 1: of his soul, that knew he was on his way

1168
01:00:13,000 --> 01:00:16,920
Speaker 1: to changing Roland's mind. This was essentially the same strategy

1169
01:00:16,960 --> 01:00:19,720
Speaker 1: he used on the job. You built empathy with people

1170
01:00:19,760 --> 01:00:23,440
Speaker 1: through a combination of shared experiences in regular engagement. That

1171
01:00:23,520 --> 01:00:26,520
Speaker 1: empathy paid dividends when you needed some lieutenant's approval to

1172
01:00:26,520 --> 01:00:29,480
Speaker 1: cross the check point. It would pay dividends here if

1173
01:00:29,520 --> 01:00:33,600
Speaker 1: he was careful and consistent as fucked up man he thought,

1174
01:00:33,680 --> 01:00:36,000
Speaker 1: you're manipulating your friend into killing a bunch of people.

1175
01:00:36,920 --> 01:00:39,400
Speaker 1: You know what, Manny said, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to.

1176
01:00:40,040 --> 01:00:42,600
Speaker 1: Roland drain the rest of his mug, belched and looked

1177
01:00:42,600 --> 01:00:46,160
Speaker 1: over at Manny. He looked unsteady, half conscious. The chrombed

1178
01:00:46,160 --> 01:00:48,360
Speaker 1: man put his left hand over Manny's hand while it

1179
01:00:48,400 --> 01:00:51,160
Speaker 1: rested on his shoulder. He fixed Manny with his half

1180
01:00:51,160 --> 01:00:55,520
Speaker 1: focused eyes and nodded, FuG it. Roland said, oh, fugen alpia,

1181
01:00:55,640 --> 01:00:59,200
Speaker 1: and be a dick of it. Didn't thank you, Manny said,

1182
01:00:59,200 --> 01:01:02,320
Speaker 1: with a nod. I know not say anything else, kid,

1183
01:01:02,600 --> 01:01:04,160
Speaker 1: I don't really want to think about what I just

1184
01:01:04,240 --> 01:01:08,680
Speaker 1: promised to do. Man. He found Sasha sitting around a

1185
01:01:08,680 --> 01:01:11,880
Speaker 1: fire pit outside the city, proper deep in conversation with

1186
01:01:11,920 --> 01:01:15,600
Speaker 1: Donald Ferris. She sat on the ground, legs splayed out wide,

1187
01:01:15,640 --> 01:01:18,800
Speaker 1: with her button the grass. Donald sat in a folding chair.

1188
01:01:19,160 --> 01:01:22,040
Speaker 1: It wasn't cold outside precisely, but it had cooled off

1189
01:01:22,040 --> 01:01:24,280
Speaker 1: a great deal from the heat of the day. The

1190
01:01:24,360 --> 01:01:26,960
Speaker 1: air held just the barest hint of winter. It was

1191
01:01:27,000 --> 01:01:29,320
Speaker 1: shaping up to be one of those odd September days

1192
01:01:29,320 --> 01:01:32,400
Speaker 1: where Texas seemed on the verge of an actual seasonal shift.

1193
01:01:33,200 --> 01:01:35,400
Speaker 1: One look at Sasha's face told him that she was

1194
01:01:35,440 --> 01:01:38,000
Speaker 1: at least as unsettled as Rowland. He didn't want to

1195
01:01:38,000 --> 01:01:40,280
Speaker 1: crowd her, so he squatted down on the other side

1196
01:01:40,280 --> 01:01:44,080
Speaker 1: of Donald. Emmanuel the old Man's voice was as smooth

1197
01:01:44,120 --> 01:01:46,240
Speaker 1: and rich as man. He remembered from the narration of

1198
01:01:46,320 --> 01:01:49,880
Speaker 1: his documentary, It's good to see you. Sasha's been telling

1199
01:01:49,880 --> 01:01:52,840
Speaker 1: me her story. She actually just turned to the subject

1200
01:01:52,840 --> 01:01:57,120
Speaker 1: of you, Yeah, Manny asked, Yes. She was telling me

1201
01:01:57,160 --> 01:01:59,400
Speaker 1: how she met you and Marigold, and how you both

1202
01:01:59,440 --> 01:02:02,800
Speaker 1: helped to find a way free of the kingdom. Oh,

1203
01:02:02,960 --> 01:02:06,280
Speaker 1: he said, and looked at Sasha. I never really met Marigold.

1204
01:02:06,360 --> 01:02:09,439
Speaker 1: I didn't realize you knew her well. Sasha shook her head.

1205
01:02:09,920 --> 01:02:11,800
Speaker 1: I only knew her a little while. I was just

1206
01:02:11,840 --> 01:02:14,680
Speaker 1: supposed to be administering tests to her. But I couldn't

1207
01:02:14,720 --> 01:02:17,960
Speaker 1: stop her from talking, and she made sense. She made

1208
01:02:17,960 --> 01:02:19,520
Speaker 1: more sense than what was going on out in the

1209
01:02:19,600 --> 01:02:23,400
Speaker 1: Kingdom every day. Sasha stared down into the fading embers

1210
01:02:23,440 --> 01:02:26,840
Speaker 1: of the fire. I feel stupid forever believing in that place.

1211
01:02:27,720 --> 01:02:31,160
Speaker 1: And what do you believe now? Donald asked, I don't know,

1212
01:02:31,440 --> 01:02:34,680
Speaker 1: She said. It seems arrogant to decide that God doesn't

1213
01:02:34,720 --> 01:02:37,040
Speaker 1: exist just because I let myself get taken in by

1214
01:02:37,080 --> 01:02:40,200
Speaker 1: a cult. M the old man nodded. The good news

1215
01:02:40,280 --> 01:02:42,720
Speaker 1: is you're young. You've got plenty of time to figure

1216
01:02:42,760 --> 01:02:45,520
Speaker 1: things out. Again, his cheeks turned up into a smile

1217
01:02:45,640 --> 01:02:48,960
Speaker 1: and his face blossomed with wrinkles. Now he looked up

1218
01:02:49,000 --> 01:02:51,120
Speaker 1: at Manny. What have you been up to, my dear

1219
01:02:51,240 --> 01:02:55,160
Speaker 1: boy talking to Roland. Manny said he agreed to help.

1220
01:02:55,200 --> 01:02:59,360
Speaker 1: By the way, he's going to fight. Donald Ferris's smile

1221
01:02:59,520 --> 01:03:03,320
Speaker 1: turned into were frown. Manny hadn't been expecting that. How

1222
01:03:03,400 --> 01:03:06,640
Speaker 1: did you do it? He asked in a somber, grave voice.

1223
01:03:07,520 --> 01:03:11,000
Speaker 1: We just talked for a while, Manny said. He explained

1224
01:03:11,000 --> 01:03:13,440
Speaker 1: why he didn't want to fight. It sounded very reasonable.

1225
01:03:13,920 --> 01:03:16,400
Speaker 1: Manny paused and then made the choice to lie just

1226
01:03:16,480 --> 01:03:19,160
Speaker 1: a little. I wasn't trying to change his mind. I

1227
01:03:19,200 --> 01:03:21,800
Speaker 1: didn't ask him to help. That last part was true.

1228
01:03:21,800 --> 01:03:24,640
Speaker 1: At least. I do feel bad, though, I'm sure he

1229
01:03:24,760 --> 01:03:27,960
Speaker 1: changed his mind because of me. Is it really on

1230
01:03:28,040 --> 01:03:30,959
Speaker 1: you if he chooses to fight, Sasha asked, I killed

1231
01:03:31,000 --> 01:03:33,280
Speaker 1: two men. Both of those deaths are on me. But

1232
01:03:33,360 --> 01:03:37,960
Speaker 1: you didn't order Roland to do anything. No. Donald Ferris agreed,

1233
01:03:38,200 --> 01:03:40,560
Speaker 1: but I doubt Roland would have made the decision to

1234
01:03:40,600 --> 01:03:45,720
Speaker 1: intervene if Manny hadn't pressed. That's probably true, Manny admitted.

1235
01:03:46,160 --> 01:03:49,800
Speaker 1: Donald looked from Manny to Sasha. There's a war ritual

1236
01:03:50,040 --> 01:03:53,160
Speaker 1: peculiar to the men and women in whatever's of this community.

1237
01:03:53,560 --> 01:03:58,240
Speaker 1: I think you'd benefit from seeing it. A ritual, Sasha asked,

1238
01:03:58,800 --> 01:04:01,480
Speaker 1: not a religious one, I assure you, but yes, they

1239
01:04:01,520 --> 01:04:04,360
Speaker 1: call it their war ritual. He extended a hand out

1240
01:04:04,400 --> 01:04:07,280
Speaker 1: to the field around Rolling Fuck. Many looked out at

1241
01:04:07,280 --> 01:04:09,360
Speaker 1: it for the first time since coming out here and

1242
01:04:09,400 --> 01:04:13,040
Speaker 1: realized that people seem to be packing up right now.

1243
01:04:13,240 --> 01:04:16,200
Speaker 1: Donald said, the citizens are packing up their tints and

1244
01:04:16,240 --> 01:04:19,480
Speaker 1: their ARVs and preparing the city for departure. It's moving

1245
01:04:19,480 --> 01:04:22,640
Speaker 1: out with their army. They'll drive that thing. He jerked

1246
01:04:22,640 --> 01:04:24,680
Speaker 1: a thumb in the direction of the City of Wheels,

1247
01:04:25,240 --> 01:04:28,160
Speaker 1: right up to the damn battlefield. It'll be behind them

1248
01:04:28,200 --> 01:04:30,840
Speaker 1: the whole time they're fighting. I think they've stole the

1249
01:04:30,880 --> 01:04:35,280
Speaker 1: idea from the ancient Celts. Anyway, he said. Once the

1250
01:04:35,320 --> 01:04:37,960
Speaker 1: cities in position, they'll open up these little boxes that

1251
01:04:38,040 --> 01:04:40,080
Speaker 1: look quite a lot like bee hives, and they'll let

1252
01:04:40,080 --> 01:04:43,280
Speaker 1: out a swarm of about a thousand little drones. Those

1253
01:04:43,280 --> 01:04:46,480
Speaker 1: are mostly just facial recognition cameras attached to wings and

1254
01:04:46,520 --> 01:04:50,080
Speaker 1: a wee engine. They'll record everything and send data on

1255
01:04:50,120 --> 01:04:52,800
Speaker 1: the faces of every enemy fighter to a central computer

1256
01:04:52,920 --> 01:04:56,160
Speaker 1: in the city. What did does that do, Manny asked.

1257
01:04:56,760 --> 01:04:59,920
Speaker 1: It gives us a chance to identify those men or women,

1258
01:05:00,160 --> 01:05:03,320
Speaker 1: so we can scrape their social media profiles and display

1259
01:05:03,400 --> 01:05:06,960
Speaker 1: pictures and videos from their lives. Once they die, the

1260
01:05:07,000 --> 01:05:10,320
Speaker 1: whole city, everyone who isn't fighting turns out to watch that.

1261
01:05:11,080 --> 01:05:14,640
Speaker 1: That sounds fucking terrible, Manny said, What do we gain

1262
01:05:14,720 --> 01:05:18,360
Speaker 1: from watching the home movies of Dead Men a memorial.

1263
01:05:19,280 --> 01:05:22,280
Speaker 1: Manny didn't understand, but he could see that Donald Ferris

1264
01:05:22,320 --> 01:05:25,560
Speaker 1: was revving himself up for an involved explanation. He let

1265
01:05:25,600 --> 01:05:29,560
Speaker 1: the old man speak. I was a small child when

1266
01:05:29,560 --> 01:05:32,360
Speaker 1: my country invaded a Rack, along with the United States

1267
01:05:32,440 --> 01:05:35,120
Speaker 1: and a few other nations. The war was news, yes,

1268
01:05:35,160 --> 01:05:37,720
Speaker 1: but that's all it was. Even our own soldiers were

1269
01:05:37,720 --> 01:05:41,200
Speaker 1: more numbers than real people. I'd hear that two Royal

1270
01:05:41,240 --> 01:05:43,880
Speaker 1: Marines had died in a roadside bombing, and it meant

1271
01:05:43,920 --> 01:05:46,040
Speaker 1: less to me than when my neighbor broke his legs

1272
01:05:46,080 --> 01:05:49,800
Speaker 1: slipping down the stairs. War isn't like that for us,

1273
01:05:49,960 --> 01:05:52,280
Speaker 1: Manny said, I don't know anyone in Austin who hasn't

1274
01:05:52,320 --> 01:05:54,840
Speaker 1: lost a friend or family to the fighting. It affects

1275
01:05:54,920 --> 01:05:57,959
Speaker 1: us all, So it does my boy, So it does,

1276
01:05:58,080 --> 01:06:00,240
Speaker 1: and if any of our warriors die today, you can

1277
01:06:00,280 --> 01:06:03,240
Speaker 1: bet it'll affect everyone in this social experiment we call

1278
01:06:03,280 --> 01:06:06,560
Speaker 1: a city. But you didn't let me finish. The first

1279
01:06:06,600 --> 01:06:09,600
Speaker 1: thing that was truly toxic about my childhood knowledge of

1280
01:06:09,640 --> 01:06:13,280
Speaker 1: war is that it erased the other side. Our boys

1281
01:06:13,320 --> 01:06:16,080
Speaker 1: didn't do body counts, so there were seldom reports on

1282
01:06:16,120 --> 01:06:19,160
Speaker 1: how many civilians we killed, how many enemy fighters died?

1283
01:06:19,680 --> 01:06:22,520
Speaker 1: That information was out there, but you had to look hard.

1284
01:06:22,960 --> 01:06:26,800
Speaker 1: Most people never did. Donald Ferris shrugged and then winced

1285
01:06:26,800 --> 01:06:30,280
Speaker 1: from the motion. It's easy to get people to care

1286
01:06:30,280 --> 01:06:33,040
Speaker 1: about their own soldiers, but if you want to stop wars,

1287
01:06:33,160 --> 01:06:35,120
Speaker 1: or at least make them less common, you've got to

1288
01:06:35,120 --> 01:06:37,280
Speaker 1: get people to give a shit about the soldiers on

1289
01:06:37,280 --> 01:06:40,400
Speaker 1: the other side. That, my young friend, is where your

1290
01:06:40,440 --> 01:06:43,040
Speaker 1: people are even worse than my own. You're close enough

1291
01:06:43,080 --> 01:06:45,360
Speaker 1: to the war to not just feel indifferent about these

1292
01:06:45,400 --> 01:06:48,880
Speaker 1: martyrs marching off to die. You actively want them to die.

1293
01:06:49,280 --> 01:06:53,920
Speaker 1: That's understandable, but it's also poisonous. When you dehumanize others,

1294
01:06:54,000 --> 01:06:58,000
Speaker 1: you become less human yourself. Many nodded, not sure of

1295
01:06:58,040 --> 01:07:02,040
Speaker 1: what to say, and my you, Donald Ferris continued. The

1296
01:07:02,080 --> 01:07:05,240
Speaker 1: country that occupied this continent was the most powerful nation

1297
01:07:05,280 --> 01:07:08,160
Speaker 1: on earth. They held the keys to the deadliest military

1298
01:07:08,200 --> 01:07:11,520
Speaker 1: machine ever constructed. It was easy to get Americans to

1299
01:07:11,560 --> 01:07:14,840
Speaker 1: support involvement in a thousand little conflicts because each only

1300
01:07:14,880 --> 01:07:18,280
Speaker 1: required a small fraction of the nation's military power and

1301
01:07:18,440 --> 01:07:22,120
Speaker 1: only risked a few American lives. But millions of people

1302
01:07:22,160 --> 01:07:25,520
Speaker 1: around the world died, women and children, and old men

1303
01:07:25,520 --> 01:07:28,800
Speaker 1: and dumby young boys from Yemen to Turkey to Guatemala.

1304
01:07:29,200 --> 01:07:32,440
Speaker 1: To justify those murders, Americans had to make those people

1305
01:07:32,520 --> 01:07:35,760
Speaker 1: less than human. And once they'd done that, it wasn't

1306
01:07:35,800 --> 01:07:38,000
Speaker 1: such a great jump to do it to their neighbors.

1307
01:07:38,920 --> 01:07:41,320
Speaker 1: He stared up at the setting sun, and many saw

1308
01:07:41,400 --> 01:07:44,880
Speaker 1: tears in his eyes. What you're going to see tomorrow

1309
01:07:45,080 --> 01:07:48,040
Speaker 1: is the best attempt I've seen so far to bridge

1310
01:07:48,080 --> 01:08:00,120
Speaker 1: the empathy gap between the people and their folds. Chapter

1311
01:08:00,240 --> 01:08:06,040
Speaker 1: twenty three. Sasha Rolling Fuck trundled forward, crunching its way

1312
01:08:06,040 --> 01:08:08,560
Speaker 1: over the Texas Plains and leaving a carpet of flattened

1313
01:08:08,600 --> 01:08:11,880
Speaker 1: grass and broken trees in its wake, and Sasha Marian,

1314
01:08:12,040 --> 01:08:14,600
Speaker 1: situated in a little purple building atop one of the

1315
01:08:14,640 --> 01:08:19,000
Speaker 1: city's tallest spires, couldn't quite believe her eyes. In spite

1316
01:08:19,000 --> 01:08:21,240
Speaker 1: of its many wheels, the city didn't look like the

1317
01:08:21,320 --> 01:08:23,559
Speaker 1: kind of thing that should be able to move. It

1318
01:08:23,720 --> 01:08:26,759
Speaker 1: was as if the Empire State Building had taken up jogging.

1319
01:08:27,680 --> 01:08:30,000
Speaker 1: Sasha had been more or less alone since the war

1320
01:08:30,080 --> 01:08:32,840
Speaker 1: Council had concluded. She'd wanted to go up to the

1321
01:08:32,880 --> 01:08:35,160
Speaker 1: bar with Manny and Rowland, since they were the only

1322
01:08:35,200 --> 01:08:38,320
Speaker 1: people here she even sort of knew, but their conversation

1323
01:08:38,360 --> 01:08:41,120
Speaker 1: had seemed a private sort of thing. At first, she

1324
01:08:41,280 --> 01:08:43,439
Speaker 1: thought that her hosts had made an oversight in leaving

1325
01:08:43,439 --> 01:08:46,120
Speaker 1: her unwatched. Surely they wouldn't let someone who had been

1326
01:08:46,120 --> 01:08:48,559
Speaker 1: their enemy just a few days ago wander freely through

1327
01:08:48,600 --> 01:08:51,559
Speaker 1: their home. But as the hours went by, it became

1328
01:08:51,600 --> 01:08:56,000
Speaker 1: clear that's exactly what they'd done, So Sasha explored it

1329
01:08:56,040 --> 01:08:59,000
Speaker 1: had been exhilarating. Actually, every inch of the city was

1330
01:08:59,080 --> 01:09:02,200
Speaker 1: different and strange, engine new to her. Across the gantries

1331
01:09:02,200 --> 01:09:05,000
Speaker 1: there were numerous market stalls with fresh meat and produce.

1332
01:09:05,400 --> 01:09:08,320
Speaker 1: At first she recognized all the foods, but the higher

1333
01:09:08,360 --> 01:09:11,719
Speaker 1: and further she went, the stranger everything seemed. The meat

1334
01:09:11,760 --> 01:09:14,920
Speaker 1: went from beef and chicken to alligator, in, zebra and mammoth,

1335
01:09:14,960 --> 01:09:18,840
Speaker 1: and eventually something Sasha thought might be from an actual dinosaur.

1336
01:09:19,360 --> 01:09:21,479
Speaker 1: She was sure it was all lab grown, and the

1337
01:09:21,560 --> 01:09:25,040
Speaker 1: produce was certainly gene modified. At one point, she came

1338
01:09:25,080 --> 01:09:27,400
Speaker 1: across a kiosk filled with fruit that had been tweaked

1339
01:09:27,439 --> 01:09:30,479
Speaker 1: to take the shape of gigantic erect penises. There were

1340
01:09:30,520 --> 01:09:34,360
Speaker 1: penis watermelons, penis oranges, penis apples, and even bags of

1341
01:09:34,400 --> 01:09:38,400
Speaker 1: tiny penis shaped grapes. She knew she should have felt disgusted.

1342
01:09:38,720 --> 01:09:42,280
Speaker 1: Two weeks ago, Sasha would have been horrified, but somehow

1343
01:09:42,320 --> 01:09:46,040
Speaker 1: she just wasn't. She felt a vague sense of unease

1344
01:09:46,160 --> 01:09:48,880
Speaker 1: awkwardness at the sight of so many genitals, but after

1345
01:09:48,920 --> 01:09:51,400
Speaker 1: all she'd seen in the Heavenly Kingdom, it didn't exactly

1346
01:09:51,439 --> 01:09:55,280
Speaker 1: horrify her either. How could it. The fondel boats were

1347
01:09:55,280 --> 01:09:58,559
Speaker 1: another matter. The sight and the strange, musky, sweet smell

1348
01:09:58,600 --> 01:10:01,240
Speaker 1: that wafted out of the grind and groping crowd inside

1349
01:10:01,240 --> 01:10:04,240
Speaker 1: it made her queasy. This is exactly as depraved as

1350
01:10:04,280 --> 01:10:06,800
Speaker 1: Pastor Mike said it would be, she thought. But she

1351
01:10:06,920 --> 01:10:09,879
Speaker 1: also thought, is this really worse than all that violence

1352
01:10:09,880 --> 01:10:14,160
Speaker 1: and death? Who were they hurting? The Lord? Said a shrill,

1353
01:10:14,280 --> 01:10:17,040
Speaker 1: small voice in the back of her mind. Why would

1354
01:10:17,080 --> 01:10:19,320
Speaker 1: God hate this and not the hanging of good people,

1355
01:10:19,520 --> 01:10:22,320
Speaker 1: Sasha wondered, Why would this make him angry but not

1356
01:10:22,439 --> 01:10:27,000
Speaker 1: the butchery inside that factory? You know what the Bible says, Sasha,

1357
01:10:27,240 --> 01:10:30,080
Speaker 1: There is no getting around that. The scriptures were clear.

1358
01:10:30,720 --> 01:10:33,960
Speaker 1: Well maybe they're wrong. Then maybe they've always been wrong,

1359
01:10:34,200 --> 01:10:36,519
Speaker 1: or maybe I read them wrong. Maybe they didn't say

1360
01:10:36,560 --> 01:10:39,639
Speaker 1: what I thought. They said it was odd, how freeing

1361
01:10:39,760 --> 01:10:44,519
Speaker 1: that thought was. She made her way past a fondle boat, and,

1362
01:10:44,640 --> 01:10:47,479
Speaker 1: for no reason beyond curiosity and the desire to stretch

1363
01:10:47,520 --> 01:10:51,160
Speaker 1: her muscles, Sasha started to climb upwards. The gantries that

1364
01:10:51,200 --> 01:10:53,639
Speaker 1: made up the bulk of rolling Fox walking space were

1365
01:10:53,680 --> 01:10:57,120
Speaker 1: fairly easy for a human to traverse. They had high walls,

1366
01:10:57,200 --> 01:10:59,760
Speaker 1: so even the very drunk were unlikely to fall, and

1367
01:10:59,840 --> 01:11:02,439
Speaker 1: in spite of the city's clutter and bustle, its designers

1368
01:11:02,439 --> 01:11:04,880
Speaker 1: had done a good job of making two clear lanes

1369
01:11:04,880 --> 01:11:08,240
Speaker 1: for foot traffic. But the gantries only gave Sasha access

1370
01:11:08,240 --> 01:11:11,080
Speaker 1: to a handful of the strange, glittering buildings that dotted

1371
01:11:11,080 --> 01:11:14,760
Speaker 1: the city's rolling superstructure. So she left them and she

1372
01:11:14,880 --> 01:11:18,000
Speaker 1: climbed up. It was not an easy climb. Here and

1373
01:11:18,040 --> 01:11:20,719
Speaker 1: there she found small sections of ladder or knotted rope

1374
01:11:20,760 --> 01:11:23,320
Speaker 1: to ease her passage. For the most part, though, she

1375
01:11:23,400 --> 01:11:26,560
Speaker 1: climbed hand over hand up the criss crossed metal girders.

1376
01:11:26,560 --> 01:11:29,759
Speaker 1: She passed several buildings filled with people drinking and partying.

1377
01:11:30,120 --> 01:11:32,920
Speaker 1: Sasha didn't stop to talk. The climb was hard, but

1378
01:11:32,960 --> 01:11:35,880
Speaker 1: at least it allowed her to avoid awkward conversation with

1379
01:11:35,920 --> 01:11:39,120
Speaker 1: whatever manner of creatures lived in this place. By the

1380
01:11:39,160 --> 01:11:41,679
Speaker 1: time she reached the top of the spindle, Sasha's body

1381
01:11:41,720 --> 01:11:44,120
Speaker 1: was drenched in sweat and her arms were too sore

1382
01:11:44,200 --> 01:11:47,040
Speaker 1: to pull her up one more foot. She was grateful

1383
01:11:47,080 --> 01:11:49,400
Speaker 1: to whoever had decided to cap this spindle with a

1384
01:11:49,439 --> 01:11:52,160
Speaker 1: tiny purple shack, and she was even more grateful that

1385
01:11:52,240 --> 01:11:56,479
Speaker 1: the shack appeared unoccupied. Sasha pulled herself inside and collapsed

1386
01:11:56,520 --> 01:11:58,760
Speaker 1: on the floor for a while. It was all she

1387
01:11:58,760 --> 01:12:01,920
Speaker 1: could do to regain her breath. She wondered, in a

1388
01:12:02,000 --> 01:12:05,120
Speaker 1: vague sort of way, if she'd just broken into someone's home.

1389
01:12:05,800 --> 01:12:08,120
Speaker 1: Nobody had warned her that there would be certain places

1390
01:12:08,160 --> 01:12:10,519
Speaker 1: she couldn't travel here, but no one had told her

1391
01:12:10,600 --> 01:12:13,559
Speaker 1: much of anything at all. After she'd arrived, Sasha took

1392
01:12:13,600 --> 01:12:17,160
Speaker 1: stock of her surroundings. The interior of the room was plush,

1393
01:12:17,439 --> 01:12:20,759
Speaker 1: The walls were carpeted in thick, cushiony velvet. The floor

1394
01:12:20,800 --> 01:12:23,200
Speaker 1: below her seemed to be some sort of black shag.

1395
01:12:23,640 --> 01:12:26,519
Speaker 1: There was a framed picture on one wall. Sasha didn't

1396
01:12:26,560 --> 01:12:29,080
Speaker 1: recognize the artist, but it looked like a cross section

1397
01:12:29,160 --> 01:12:32,400
Speaker 1: drawing of a handgun with fetuses as the bullets. The

1398
01:12:32,479 --> 01:12:34,559
Speaker 1: sight of it made her feel a bit sick, but

1399
01:12:34,600 --> 01:12:36,960
Speaker 1: there was also something about the art that drew her eyes.

1400
01:12:37,880 --> 01:12:40,120
Speaker 1: The center of the room was a low, flat table

1401
01:12:40,160 --> 01:12:43,080
Speaker 1: that appeared to be made entirely of mirrored glass. There

1402
01:12:43,120 --> 01:12:45,000
Speaker 1: was a pile of white powder on the center of

1403
01:12:45,000 --> 01:12:48,200
Speaker 1: the table, along with a strange, rectangular piece of green paper.

1404
01:12:48,720 --> 01:12:51,120
Speaker 1: Sasha picked up the paper and stared at it. It

1405
01:12:51,160 --> 01:12:54,679
Speaker 1: took her a moment to realize what it was. Money,

1406
01:12:54,880 --> 01:12:57,360
Speaker 1: said a voice from behind her. Oh, it used to

1407
01:12:57,400 --> 01:13:01,640
Speaker 1: be once upon a time. Saw Sha rose stiffened. She

1408
01:13:01,760 --> 01:13:04,320
Speaker 1: turned around, not sure what to expect, but with an

1409
01:13:04,320 --> 01:13:07,360
Speaker 1: apology already spilling out of her mouth. I'm sorry, sir,

1410
01:13:07,439 --> 01:13:10,439
Speaker 1: I didn't. Something in the man's smile and the relaxed

1411
01:13:10,479 --> 01:13:13,360
Speaker 1: slump of his shoulders made her stop talking. He stood

1412
01:13:13,360 --> 01:13:15,400
Speaker 1: in the doorway of the little building, just a few

1413
01:13:15,400 --> 01:13:17,920
Speaker 1: feet in front of her. She had no idea how

1414
01:13:17,920 --> 01:13:19,960
Speaker 1: he could have climbed up and in there without her

1415
01:13:19,960 --> 01:13:22,840
Speaker 1: hearing him. She didn't remember the man's name, but she

1416
01:13:22,920 --> 01:13:26,519
Speaker 1: recognized him from the war Council. Those writhing snake tattoos

1417
01:13:26,560 --> 01:13:30,040
Speaker 1: identified him as clearly as a name tag I'm she

1418
01:13:30,160 --> 01:13:33,040
Speaker 1: trailed off. He smiled at her. There was something about

1419
01:13:33,080 --> 01:13:37,000
Speaker 1: his eyes that seemed off wrong. She couldn't place it.

1420
01:13:37,320 --> 01:13:39,599
Speaker 1: His pupils were somehow different than they should have been

1421
01:13:39,840 --> 01:13:42,360
Speaker 1: when he spoke, though his voice was warm and friendly.

1422
01:13:43,479 --> 01:13:46,400
Speaker 1: You are, Sashamarian, the girl who was brave enough to

1423
01:13:46,439 --> 01:13:49,000
Speaker 1: flee her home and family for the heavenly Kingdom, and

1424
01:13:49,040 --> 01:13:51,320
Speaker 1: then brave enough to leave it when she realized what

1425
01:13:51,400 --> 01:13:54,840
Speaker 1: it truly was. His head dipped down into a slight bow.

1426
01:13:55,560 --> 01:13:58,679
Speaker 1: I'm Jim Shannon. It's an honor to meet you, miss Marian.

1427
01:13:59,600 --> 01:14:02,200
Speaker 1: Jim's squatted down on his haunches and dropped his arms

1428
01:14:02,200 --> 01:14:05,080
Speaker 1: in between his legs. It was a casual motion, but

1429
01:14:05,160 --> 01:14:08,639
Speaker 1: he executed it with almost mechanical precision. There was something

1430
01:14:08,640 --> 01:14:12,160
Speaker 1: to his movements that spoke of terrible potential energy, kinetic

1431
01:14:12,200 --> 01:14:16,320
Speaker 1: force just waiting to be unleashed. It's nice to meet you,

1432
01:14:16,600 --> 01:14:20,080
Speaker 1: she said, because what else could she say. Jim smile

1433
01:14:20,160 --> 01:14:23,559
Speaker 1: didn't change, but his eyes did. His pupils contracted and

1434
01:14:23,600 --> 01:14:28,160
Speaker 1: then changed shape from a circle to a spiraling, rounded star. No,

1435
01:14:28,640 --> 01:14:32,320
Speaker 1: it's not, he said. That's not a lie to each other. Eh, Sasha,

1436
01:14:32,560 --> 01:14:36,280
Speaker 1: I'm weird, I move wrong. My eyes as he spoke,

1437
01:14:36,360 --> 01:14:39,280
Speaker 1: his star pupils started to spin in a hypnotic spiral.

1438
01:14:39,680 --> 01:14:42,720
Speaker 1: Are wrong, They don't look human. I can hear your

1439
01:14:42,720 --> 01:14:46,040
Speaker 1: hotbeat elevated as we speak. I can smell cotazol in

1440
01:14:46,080 --> 01:14:49,280
Speaker 1: your brain and elevated levels of blood glucose. I can

1441
01:14:49,360 --> 01:14:51,840
Speaker 1: see in your eyes that me say in this has

1442
01:14:51,880 --> 01:14:56,840
Speaker 1: made you even more nervous. Yes, she admitted, Yes, you're right,

1443
01:14:57,200 --> 01:15:01,120
Speaker 1: you scare me. That's perfectly no on this, Marian. It

1444
01:15:01,240 --> 01:15:04,080
Speaker 1: is not an act of weakness to admit fear. Quite

1445
01:15:04,080 --> 01:15:08,519
Speaker 1: the opposite. You feel better now, don't you? She actually did.

1446
01:15:08,800 --> 01:15:10,920
Speaker 1: There was a queer sort of relief in admitting her

1447
01:15:10,960 --> 01:15:14,439
Speaker 1: fear and discomfort in this man thing's presence. I do

1448
01:15:14,640 --> 01:15:19,000
Speaker 1: feel better, she said. Why is that admitting fear is

1449
01:15:19,040 --> 01:15:21,920
Speaker 1: the first step to conquering it. You don't strike me

1450
01:15:22,000 --> 01:15:24,479
Speaker 1: as someone who wants to live in fear, miss Marian.

1451
01:15:24,960 --> 01:15:28,480
Speaker 1: You do strike me as someone who seeks control, strength,

1452
01:15:28,880 --> 01:15:33,240
Speaker 1: power over your own life. I, she sputtered, I don't.

1453
01:15:33,280 --> 01:15:35,360
Speaker 1: I don't know. A week ago, I'd have told you

1454
01:15:35,400 --> 01:15:38,400
Speaker 1: God was in control of my life. Sasha looked down

1455
01:15:38,439 --> 01:15:42,000
Speaker 1: at her lap, suddenly embarrassed. It wasn't very long ago,

1456
01:15:42,040 --> 01:15:44,879
Speaker 1: but it feels like a lifetime. It was so peaceful,

1457
01:15:45,000 --> 01:15:48,760
Speaker 1: just handing over control. Jim nodded and leaned his head

1458
01:15:48,800 --> 01:15:53,000
Speaker 1: forward a few inches. That didn't end well, though, did it.

1459
01:15:53,760 --> 01:15:56,960
Speaker 1: Sasha shook her head. You traveled to the heaven the

1460
01:15:57,080 --> 01:15:59,919
Speaker 1: Kingdom with a certain set of beliefs about the universe.

1461
01:16:00,360 --> 01:16:04,879
Speaker 1: Those beliefs met reality. Reality broke them into little pieces.

1462
01:16:05,439 --> 01:16:08,080
Speaker 1: There's no shame in that. It happens to all of us.

1463
01:16:08,560 --> 01:16:10,960
Speaker 1: Now you're a bit older and a few bits wiser.

1464
01:16:11,960 --> 01:16:14,759
Speaker 1: She looked up at him. His smile seemed somehow softer.

1465
01:16:14,880 --> 01:16:18,160
Speaker 1: Now she felt like opening up, confiding in this stranger.

1466
01:16:18,640 --> 01:16:21,960
Speaker 1: Sasha wondered if that was another aspect of his modifications,

1467
01:16:22,000 --> 01:16:24,960
Speaker 1: some alteration of his body, chemistry and physical appearance that

1468
01:16:25,000 --> 01:16:27,639
Speaker 1: allowed him to seem more familiar and trustworthy to her.

1469
01:16:28,280 --> 01:16:31,120
Speaker 1: She opened up anyway, I just don't know what to

1470
01:16:31,160 --> 01:16:33,040
Speaker 1: do now. I guess I could go home, but I

1471
01:16:33,040 --> 01:16:35,000
Speaker 1: don't think I was wrong in leaving home. I don't

1472
01:16:35,040 --> 01:16:37,800
Speaker 1: want a life in the American Federation. I know that.

1473
01:16:37,880 --> 01:16:42,000
Speaker 1: I just you don't know what's right, Jim finished, in

1474
01:16:42,040 --> 01:16:43,960
Speaker 1: a voice that was gentler than she would have guessed

1475
01:16:44,000 --> 01:16:47,120
Speaker 1: he was capable of sounding. She nodded as she struggled

1476
01:16:47,160 --> 01:16:50,040
Speaker 1: for her next words. I know I can't go back.

1477
01:16:50,200 --> 01:16:52,280
Speaker 1: I don't know where to go next. I don't have

1478
01:16:52,320 --> 01:16:55,000
Speaker 1: any money or really any useful skills, so I can't

1479
01:16:55,000 --> 01:16:58,479
Speaker 1: go to California or Cascadia. I doubt this place will

1480
01:16:58,479 --> 01:17:01,200
Speaker 1: take me, she gestured down at the rolling city below them.

1481
01:17:01,360 --> 01:17:03,919
Speaker 1: And even if they would, I don't really feel comfortable

1482
01:17:03,960 --> 01:17:09,120
Speaker 1: here either. Hm Jim nodded and leaned back. Perhaps he said,

1483
01:17:09,400 --> 01:17:11,680
Speaker 1: you should weary less about where you want to end

1484
01:17:11,760 --> 01:17:14,599
Speaker 1: up and more about what you want to end up doing.

1485
01:17:15,560 --> 01:17:18,519
Speaker 1: I don't have any options, Sasha said, fighting down a

1486
01:17:18,640 --> 01:17:21,280
Speaker 1: rising panic that tickled the back of her throat. I

1487
01:17:21,320 --> 01:17:23,559
Speaker 1: didn't even finish high school. I've spent the last two

1488
01:17:23,640 --> 01:17:25,639
Speaker 1: years preparing to join the Kingdom. I don't know how

1489
01:17:25,680 --> 01:17:29,360
Speaker 1: to do anything useful. That's where you're wrong, Jim said,

1490
01:17:29,400 --> 01:17:32,240
Speaker 1: in a firm voice. You lied well enough to hide

1491
01:17:32,280 --> 01:17:35,280
Speaker 1: your intention from your parents and am fed law enforcement.

1492
01:17:35,560 --> 01:17:38,640
Speaker 1: You did that for years. Sasha wanted to argue that

1493
01:17:38,680 --> 01:17:41,640
Speaker 1: she hadn't lied, not according to Pastor Mike's definition of

1494
01:17:41,680 --> 01:17:45,000
Speaker 1: the word, but she stayed silent while he spoke. You

1495
01:17:45,160 --> 01:17:47,880
Speaker 1: escaped from one of the most fortified boadas in the world,

1496
01:17:48,080 --> 01:17:51,480
Speaker 1: Jim continued, And you did useful work in a medical facility.

1497
01:17:51,840 --> 01:17:55,000
Speaker 1: Then you helped facilitate the escape of several prisoners from

1498
01:17:55,000 --> 01:17:58,559
Speaker 1: the Kingdom jail. You functioned effectively in a firefight and

1499
01:17:58,640 --> 01:18:01,640
Speaker 1: killed a trained soldier and a hand combat. Then you

1500
01:18:01,760 --> 01:18:04,320
Speaker 1: killed another man and stole a vehicle to aid your

1501
01:18:04,400 --> 01:18:08,559
Speaker 1: comrades in an escape. Am I missing anything? Sasha looked

1502
01:18:08,600 --> 01:18:11,759
Speaker 1: down again. She didn't speak. She felt bad about taking

1503
01:18:11,800 --> 01:18:15,559
Speaker 1: praise from murder, especially for Darrell's murder. She did, however,

1504
01:18:15,680 --> 01:18:18,360
Speaker 1: feel a tiny swell of pride at Jim's words. It

1505
01:18:18,439 --> 01:18:21,840
Speaker 1: was immediately accompanied by a flood of guilt. Killing is

1506
01:18:21,960 --> 01:18:25,880
Speaker 1: not something to be proud of, she said, Oh, I disagree,

1507
01:18:26,200 --> 01:18:30,000
Speaker 1: Jim chuckled. Killing is a highly technical skill, and you've

1508
01:18:30,040 --> 01:18:33,559
Speaker 1: proven yourself a talented amateur. With some training and a

1509
01:18:33,600 --> 01:18:37,439
Speaker 1: spot of chrome, you could really be something. He trailed off.

1510
01:18:37,800 --> 01:18:40,639
Speaker 1: Sasha was quiet for a moment. She looked into Jim's

1511
01:18:40,680 --> 01:18:43,519
Speaker 1: eyes and tried to read something in them that proved

1512
01:18:43,560 --> 01:18:46,160
Speaker 1: a fool's Errand there was nothing in those orbs but

1513
01:18:46,280 --> 01:18:49,559
Speaker 1: cool confidence, and even that might be false. What did

1514
01:18:49,600 --> 01:18:52,040
Speaker 1: any gesture or look mean from a man who could

1515
01:18:52,080 --> 01:18:55,280
Speaker 1: control every aspect of his body right down to his pupils.

1516
01:18:56,080 --> 01:18:58,400
Speaker 1: I don't want to get better at killing, she told him.

1517
01:18:58,680 --> 01:19:01,759
Speaker 1: I don't want to fill my body the natural things.

1518
01:19:02,320 --> 01:19:05,719
Speaker 1: Just thinking about it makes me feel ill. And yet

1519
01:19:06,280 --> 01:19:09,799
Speaker 1: Jim said, what do you mean? And yet she asked,

1520
01:19:10,520 --> 01:19:13,840
Speaker 1: And yet that thought intrigues you too. It's no use,

1521
01:19:13,920 --> 01:19:18,040
Speaker 1: hadn't it. I can taste deceit. Sasha shuddered a little

1522
01:19:18,080 --> 01:19:20,240
Speaker 1: at that, but she couldn't deny that he was right.

1523
01:19:20,680 --> 01:19:22,720
Speaker 1: As much as the idea repulsed her, she had spent

1524
01:19:22,760 --> 01:19:26,519
Speaker 1: too much time powerless to not crave power. I'm not

1525
01:19:26,600 --> 01:19:29,519
Speaker 1: looking to push you into anything, Sasha, but I would

1526
01:19:29,560 --> 01:19:33,120
Speaker 1: like to provide you with a unique opportunity. What do

1527
01:19:33,160 --> 01:19:36,920
Speaker 1: you mean, she asked. He smiled, plopped down on his butt,

1528
01:19:36,920 --> 01:19:39,120
Speaker 1: and swung his legs in to sit cross leget on

1529
01:19:39,160 --> 01:19:42,200
Speaker 1: the shag carpet. Jim stuck a finger into the thick

1530
01:19:42,240 --> 01:19:45,200
Speaker 1: black fibers of the carpet and started tugging at them.

1531
01:19:45,240 --> 01:19:48,000
Speaker 1: It was an idle, nervous gesture, and Sasha found it

1532
01:19:48,040 --> 01:19:51,360
Speaker 1: oddly endearing. Part of her suspected that had been his goal.

1533
01:19:52,360 --> 01:19:54,400
Speaker 1: I mean that I would be willing to take you

1534
01:19:54,479 --> 01:19:59,559
Speaker 1: on as a project. A project, he nodded. My organ

1535
01:19:59,680 --> 01:20:03,640
Speaker 1: is a shan has access to skilled surgeons, military grade agmatics,

1536
01:20:03,640 --> 01:20:06,439
Speaker 1: and vat growing organ's. I'll front the bill and I'll

1537
01:20:06,479 --> 01:20:10,479
Speaker 1: train you, and in return, you'll work for me forever,

1538
01:20:10,840 --> 01:20:14,240
Speaker 1: she asked. Jim laughed. She felt a little annoyed by that,

1539
01:20:14,400 --> 01:20:18,799
Speaker 1: and it must have shown on her face because he stopped. Sari, Sari,

1540
01:20:19,120 --> 01:20:22,679
Speaker 1: He said, it's just that be debt slavery. You must

1541
01:20:22,680 --> 01:20:25,080
Speaker 1: not know this, but I helped kill the last country

1542
01:20:25,080 --> 01:20:27,280
Speaker 1: that lived on this land in that sort of thing.

1543
01:20:28,360 --> 01:20:30,759
Speaker 1: So how much time would I owe you, Sasha asked?

1544
01:20:31,280 --> 01:20:35,280
Speaker 1: Five years, he said. Sasha's heart trembled with excitement at

1545
01:20:35,280 --> 01:20:38,040
Speaker 1: the offer. When she thought about the way the adrenaline

1546
01:20:38,040 --> 01:20:40,320
Speaker 1: had coursed through her during the fight in the clinic,

1547
01:20:40,439 --> 01:20:43,240
Speaker 1: she wanted to say yes, But when she thought about

1548
01:20:43,320 --> 01:20:46,240
Speaker 1: Darrell bleeding out next to his car, the shame inside

1549
01:20:46,240 --> 01:20:50,320
Speaker 1: her overwhelmed everything else. Sasha knew she couldn't handle more

1550
01:20:50,360 --> 01:20:53,479
Speaker 1: weights like that on her conscience. I don't want to

1551
01:20:53,560 --> 01:20:57,240
Speaker 1: kill people, she said in a tiny voice. Shame dripped

1552
01:20:57,280 --> 01:21:02,160
Speaker 1: from every syllable. That's fine, Jim said, his grin widening.

1553
01:21:02,520 --> 01:21:06,200
Speaker 1: We always need medics. You've shown an aptitude for them already.

1554
01:21:06,600 --> 01:21:09,400
Speaker 1: I have a feeling you'll take well to combat engineering.

1555
01:21:09,720 --> 01:21:12,160
Speaker 1: There's plenty for you to do without pulling a trigger.

1556
01:21:13,280 --> 01:21:15,600
Speaker 1: If I work for you, Sasha said, I have a

1557
01:21:15,640 --> 01:21:19,879
Speaker 1: feeling I won't be able to avoid pulling triggers. None entirely,

1558
01:21:20,240 --> 01:21:23,120
Speaker 1: Jim shrugged. But any shooting you'd do would be an

1559
01:21:23,120 --> 01:21:26,959
Speaker 1: immediate self defense, and you'd have the right to refuse

1560
01:21:27,000 --> 01:21:30,400
Speaker 1: an emissions that violate your moral code. I know that's

1561
01:21:30,439 --> 01:21:33,680
Speaker 1: important to you. The way he said that last bit

1562
01:21:33,800 --> 01:21:37,080
Speaker 1: set the hackles on her neck a rise. Is it

1563
01:21:37,280 --> 01:21:41,800
Speaker 1: not important to you, she asked, morality? I mean, he

1564
01:21:41,880 --> 01:21:44,559
Speaker 1: swung his hands out to the side, palms up in

1565
01:21:44,600 --> 01:21:47,720
Speaker 1: a vaguely Buddhic pose. When I was a young man,

1566
01:21:47,880 --> 01:21:50,280
Speaker 1: not much older than yourself, I knew a lot of

1567
01:21:50,320 --> 01:21:53,000
Speaker 1: gallant men who claimed to live by codes of honor.

1568
01:21:53,479 --> 01:21:57,200
Speaker 1: Such things were fashionable in the warrior culture of Adean Empire.

1569
01:21:57,760 --> 01:22:00,200
Speaker 1: None of those codes stopped the men I knew from

1570
01:22:00,200 --> 01:22:03,519
Speaker 1: serving that great beast we called a state. When you

1571
01:22:03,600 --> 01:22:07,160
Speaker 1: see enough good moral men enable war crimes, you stop

1572
01:22:07,200 --> 01:22:11,559
Speaker 1: seeing value in the term morality, So what matters to you?

1573
01:22:11,840 --> 01:22:16,479
Speaker 1: Sasha asked, what do you believe in change? Miss Marian

1574
01:22:16,800 --> 01:22:20,320
Speaker 1: He smiled, revealing rows of pearly white teeth, the snake

1575
01:22:20,360 --> 01:22:24,000
Speaker 1: tattoos on his chest and shoulders, writhed in excitement, I

1576
01:22:24,120 --> 01:22:27,200
Speaker 1: believe in change. I grew up in a time when

1577
01:22:27,200 --> 01:22:30,280
Speaker 1: the climate changed and my home became a deadly broiler.

1578
01:22:30,560 --> 01:22:35,200
Speaker 1: Politics changed, and democracy became a dictatorship of capital. For

1579
01:22:35,320 --> 01:22:38,240
Speaker 1: a time, I believed in the promises of change handed

1580
01:22:38,240 --> 01:22:42,320
Speaker 1: out by progressive politicians and scent of old revolutionaries. But

1581
01:22:42,400 --> 01:22:44,439
Speaker 1: every one of them was either co opted by the

1582
01:22:44,520 --> 01:22:48,400
Speaker 1: system or killed by it. He shrugged and cast his

1583
01:22:48,439 --> 01:22:51,200
Speaker 1: eyes down to the carpet for a while, just a

1584
01:22:51,280 --> 01:22:55,000
Speaker 1: moment his mask slipped, Sasha saw a deep, yawning pit

1585
01:22:55,080 --> 01:22:57,200
Speaker 1: of despair in the tight lines at the edge of

1586
01:22:57,240 --> 01:22:59,479
Speaker 1: his lips, and the subtle twitch of muscles below his

1587
01:22:59,560 --> 01:23:03,120
Speaker 1: left eye. It passed, and a black velvet smile took

1588
01:23:03,160 --> 01:23:06,519
Speaker 1: its place. Then I met a man who showed me

1589
01:23:06,600 --> 01:23:09,960
Speaker 1: the way. Nothing new could grow on this continent until

1590
01:23:09,960 --> 01:23:12,080
Speaker 1: the weeds of the old were pulled out by the

1591
01:23:12,160 --> 01:23:15,840
Speaker 1: root and tossed into the compost. Pile of history, So

1592
01:23:16,240 --> 01:23:19,760
Speaker 1: he said, forget the old debates about what system should

1593
01:23:19,800 --> 01:23:23,439
Speaker 1: replace capitalism. Kill the state, and the seeds of a

1594
01:23:23,479 --> 01:23:27,200
Speaker 1: thousand new worlds will sprout on its corpse. You've seen

1595
01:23:27,240 --> 01:23:31,479
Speaker 1: two of those sprouts already, Sasha shook her head. If

1596
01:23:31,560 --> 01:23:35,360
Speaker 1: you're referring to the heavenly Kingdom, it's a nightmare. The

1597
01:23:35,439 --> 01:23:38,760
Speaker 1: old US can't have been worse than that, Jim shrugged.

1598
01:23:39,080 --> 01:23:43,040
Speaker 1: Depends on your perspective. I suppose, tell, miss Sasha, you

1599
01:23:43,160 --> 01:23:46,920
Speaker 1: left the Amphid, the Old u Say's most direct successor state.

1600
01:23:47,479 --> 01:23:51,040
Speaker 1: Why was that? Because it's a soulless pit, she said,

1601
01:23:51,320 --> 01:23:54,800
Speaker 1: the words almost leaping from her throat. Jim smiled at that.

1602
01:23:55,560 --> 01:23:58,920
Speaker 1: This isn't though, is it, He gestured out at the

1603
01:23:58,960 --> 01:24:03,360
Speaker 1: city of wheels below them. No, Sasha said, whatever else

1604
01:24:03,400 --> 01:24:07,519
Speaker 1: it was rolling fuck was not soulless. Nither is the

1605
01:24:07,600 --> 01:24:11,639
Speaker 1: Navajo Nation, Jim said, or Cascadia, the black Stone Nation.

1606
01:24:11,720 --> 01:24:14,639
Speaker 1: Even the Mormons are up to some interesting things these days,

1607
01:24:15,000 --> 01:24:18,200
Speaker 1: one faction at least. So which do you believe in?

1608
01:24:18,479 --> 01:24:22,240
Speaker 1: Who do you fight for? He grinned again, night the child,

1609
01:24:22,800 --> 01:24:25,840
Speaker 1: as I told you, I fight for change, to cast

1610
01:24:25,920 --> 01:24:28,639
Speaker 1: down the ossified bones of the old world and make

1611
01:24:28,720 --> 01:24:32,759
Speaker 1: space for the new. I owe allegiance to no national god,

1612
01:24:32,880 --> 01:24:38,120
Speaker 1: save perhaps Lady Airis, who he smiled. A bit of

1613
01:24:38,160 --> 01:24:41,360
Speaker 1: smugness leached into the expression. She could see it clear

1614
01:24:41,400 --> 01:24:44,280
Speaker 1: as day, right around his eyes. It should have repelled

1615
01:24:44,320 --> 01:24:47,759
Speaker 1: her more than it did. Heiris was the Greek goddess

1616
01:24:47,760 --> 01:24:51,439
Speaker 1: of discord, back when people cared about what the Greeks believed.

1617
01:24:52,080 --> 01:24:54,760
Speaker 1: She set the spark that lit the Trojan wall. I

1618
01:24:54,840 --> 01:24:57,680
Speaker 1: know it's a bit silly reaching back to that old mythology,

1619
01:24:58,160 --> 01:25:01,439
Speaker 1: but I can't help myself. There's something about those old

1620
01:25:01,479 --> 01:25:05,600
Speaker 1: gods that calls to me. I can identify with them.

1621
01:25:05,680 --> 01:25:08,320
Speaker 1: He leaned in. There was an eagerness to his posture,

1622
01:25:08,520 --> 01:25:11,960
Speaker 1: his tone, his eyes. The snakes jerked and spun on

1623
01:25:12,040 --> 01:25:15,960
Speaker 1: his muscled chest and arms. I'm offering you a chance

1624
01:25:16,000 --> 01:25:19,400
Speaker 1: to join us on Olympus. Dear Sasha, you've spent your

1625
01:25:19,439 --> 01:25:22,960
Speaker 1: time in worship. It's time to embrace your own godhead,

1626
01:25:23,439 --> 01:25:27,160
Speaker 1: leave your antique books behind, and rewrite the world with

1627
01:25:27,280 --> 01:25:30,960
Speaker 1: your will. I don't know if that's what I want,

1628
01:25:31,479 --> 01:25:34,880
Speaker 1: Sasha said in a still small voice. She tried to

1629
01:25:34,920 --> 01:25:37,760
Speaker 1: ignore how much part of her ached for what he promised.

1630
01:25:38,040 --> 01:25:40,599
Speaker 1: The thought of killing again nauseated her as much as

1631
01:25:40,640 --> 01:25:43,439
Speaker 1: it excited her. But the thought of having power, the

1632
01:25:43,520 --> 01:25:48,160
Speaker 1: kind of power she'd seen Roland exercise, that was intoxicating.

1633
01:25:48,760 --> 01:25:52,760
Speaker 1: She hated how badly she'd started to want it. Well,

1634
01:25:52,920 --> 01:25:56,400
Speaker 1: you don't have to decide now, Jim shrugged his shoulders

1635
01:25:56,400 --> 01:26:00,320
Speaker 1: and gave an amiable smile. The floor rumbled underneath them.

1636
01:26:00,320 --> 01:26:03,240
Speaker 1: There was a loud clattering wine as the whole structure

1637
01:26:03,240 --> 01:26:06,719
Speaker 1: of Rolling Fuck came to a slow stop. Jim waited

1638
01:26:06,760 --> 01:26:09,400
Speaker 1: for the scrunching noise to cease and said, come and

1639
01:26:09,439 --> 01:26:16,040
Speaker 1: watch what we do to day, then make you call Rowland.

1640
01:26:17,520 --> 01:26:20,280
Speaker 1: Dawn broke just as Rolling Fuck pulled to a long

1641
01:26:20,439 --> 01:26:23,639
Speaker 1: slow stop by the shore of Lake Wago. The city

1642
01:26:23,680 --> 01:26:26,240
Speaker 1: had taken the long way around the reservoir, which had

1643
01:26:26,240 --> 01:26:28,439
Speaker 1: added at least an hour to their journey but also

1644
01:26:28,479 --> 01:26:31,559
Speaker 1: put a sizeable water barrier between Rolling Fuck and the

1645
01:26:31,600 --> 01:26:34,800
Speaker 1: advancing forces of the Heavenly Kingdom. It had been a

1646
01:26:34,800 --> 01:26:37,719
Speaker 1: tight fit at several points, and Rowland had enjoyed watching

1647
01:26:37,720 --> 01:26:40,880
Speaker 1: the wheeled city crunch over several abandoned homes in many

1648
01:26:40,920 --> 01:26:44,160
Speaker 1: a street lamp, but eventually the pilots and navigators had

1649
01:26:44,160 --> 01:26:47,200
Speaker 1: found a suitably large public park and brought rolling fuk

1650
01:26:47,240 --> 01:26:50,920
Speaker 1: to rest there. It's a nice sunrise, Manny said. The

1651
01:26:51,000 --> 01:26:53,639
Speaker 1: kid stood next to Rowland on a wooden deck built

1652
01:26:53,640 --> 01:26:56,519
Speaker 1: onto the side of the main roller skofucker. Mike had

1653
01:26:56,520 --> 01:26:59,360
Speaker 1: assured them this spot provided the best vantage point to

1654
01:26:59,360 --> 01:27:02,040
Speaker 1: watch the rising sun. It looked like he'd been right

1655
01:27:02,080 --> 01:27:04,599
Speaker 1: in that the sky around them was a heavy blend

1656
01:27:04,640 --> 01:27:07,200
Speaker 1: of red and orange that brought up fragmented memories of

1657
01:27:07,280 --> 01:27:11,080
Speaker 1: my ties and fireballs in Roland's head. Clouds clustered at

1658
01:27:11,080 --> 01:27:13,400
Speaker 1: the top of the horizon ripe to bursting with the

1659
01:27:13,439 --> 01:27:18,840
Speaker 1: color and light of the new days sun. Roland nodded. Yeah.

1660
01:27:19,000 --> 01:27:21,040
Speaker 1: The shame no one who lives here gets to see it,

1661
01:27:21,200 --> 01:27:24,880
Speaker 1: Manny said, I've never seen the city this empty. Roland

1662
01:27:24,880 --> 01:27:27,400
Speaker 1: looked over at his young friend. The boy had seen

1663
01:27:27,439 --> 01:27:29,599
Speaker 1: a lot for his age, and Roland could see how

1664
01:27:29,680 --> 01:27:32,559
Speaker 1: much it pained him. Sorrow had a sent all its own.

1665
01:27:32,960 --> 01:27:35,920
Speaker 1: The plunging levels of nora panephren and serotonin brought out

1666
01:27:35,960 --> 01:27:39,599
Speaker 1: the sharp stink of cortisol in the greasy odor of opioids.

1667
01:27:39,800 --> 01:27:42,960
Speaker 1: Lurking just below those smells was the odd, spicy tinge

1668
01:27:43,000 --> 01:27:46,280
Speaker 1: of the I L eighteen protein. Roland could almost hear

1669
01:27:46,280 --> 01:27:49,880
Speaker 1: it weaken the valves of Manny's heart. I imagine this

1670
01:27:50,160 --> 01:27:52,599
Speaker 1: sucks extra much for you. I mean, he's been where

1671
01:27:52,640 --> 01:27:57,760
Speaker 1: they are right twice, Manny said. Roland nodded. I can't

1672
01:27:57,760 --> 01:28:00,800
Speaker 1: exactly recall, he admitted, but I spect I had something

1673
01:28:00,840 --> 01:28:05,320
Speaker 1: to do with the first time Manny looked over to Rowland. Chemically,

1674
01:28:05,439 --> 01:28:07,439
Speaker 1: it was clear the kid was battling him a lunge

1675
01:28:07,479 --> 01:28:11,479
Speaker 1: of sadness, trauma, and anxiety. His actual thoughts, though, were

1676
01:28:11,520 --> 01:28:13,479
Speaker 1: just as hidden from Rowland as they would be from

1677
01:28:13,520 --> 01:28:17,240
Speaker 1: any stock human, perhaps more so. There were moments when

1678
01:28:17,360 --> 01:28:20,040
Speaker 1: Roland feared he was losing the ability to read human

1679
01:28:20,040 --> 01:28:24,320
Speaker 1: emotions or even display them properly. On his face. Was

1680
01:28:24,360 --> 01:28:27,840
Speaker 1: that look you're given me? He asked? Finally, what do

1681
01:28:27,880 --> 01:28:30,559
Speaker 1: you mean? I can't tell what a look on your

1682
01:28:30,560 --> 01:28:34,120
Speaker 1: face means, Rowland explained, And I'm curious. Are you angry

1683
01:28:34,160 --> 01:28:38,799
Speaker 1: at me? Manny shrugged, and then he sighed. His shoulders slumped,

1684
01:28:38,960 --> 01:28:43,000
Speaker 1: his head drooped forward and down just a bit. No,

1685
01:28:43,560 --> 01:28:46,600
Speaker 1: he said, I'm not angry. What would I even be

1686
01:28:46,640 --> 01:28:49,360
Speaker 1: angry about? If you can't remember what you did? Back then,

1687
01:28:49,800 --> 01:28:51,960
Speaker 1: are you even the same person who did those things?

1688
01:28:52,400 --> 01:28:54,479
Speaker 1: And even if you are, maybe you were doing the

1689
01:28:54,560 --> 01:28:57,320
Speaker 1: right thing. I assume someone was at some point in

1690
01:28:57,360 --> 01:29:01,439
Speaker 1: that fucking mess of a war. Maybe everyone was, Roland offered.

1691
01:29:01,880 --> 01:29:04,240
Speaker 1: I know the heavenly Kingdom think what they're doing is right,

1692
01:29:04,400 --> 01:29:06,800
Speaker 1: Manny said, I also don't give a shitting dick what

1693
01:29:06,840 --> 01:29:09,439
Speaker 1: they think. They're murderers. They can all sit and spin.

1694
01:29:10,520 --> 01:29:12,600
Speaker 1: You're confident in me murdering the lot of them is

1695
01:29:12,600 --> 01:29:15,320
Speaker 1: the right thing to do, then I'm confident it's better

1696
01:29:15,360 --> 01:29:19,240
Speaker 1: than letting them win, Manny said. Roland nodded quietly and

1697
01:29:19,320 --> 01:29:22,519
Speaker 1: stared out at the rising sun. The red had faded

1698
01:29:22,520 --> 01:29:24,720
Speaker 1: and the orange had grown brighter. He could see the

1699
01:29:24,760 --> 01:29:27,720
Speaker 1: shape of the sun behind the clouds missed rose off

1700
01:29:27,760 --> 01:29:29,840
Speaker 1: the field in front of them, and across the lake.

1701
01:29:29,960 --> 01:29:32,519
Speaker 1: A low light fog rolled in over what appeared to

1702
01:29:32,520 --> 01:29:36,240
Speaker 1: be an old golf course. You're probably right about that,

1703
01:29:36,680 --> 01:29:40,080
Speaker 1: Roland said, But where does it end. It ends when

1704
01:29:40,080 --> 01:29:44,160
Speaker 1: they're beaten and Austin is safe. Manny's words were forceful,

1705
01:29:44,400 --> 01:29:46,920
Speaker 1: but he looked down and away from Roland when he spoke.

1706
01:29:47,920 --> 01:29:50,880
Speaker 1: You know that's not true, Roland said. I forget my

1707
01:29:50,920 --> 01:29:52,519
Speaker 1: own name a lot of the time, and I still

1708
01:29:52,560 --> 01:29:55,599
Speaker 1: know you're full of it, killing these fox buys austin time,

1709
01:29:55,760 --> 01:29:58,000
Speaker 1: and probably not a lot of it. There are still

1710
01:29:58,160 --> 01:30:01,240
Speaker 1: millions of guns and millions of pist staff desperate people

1711
01:30:01,280 --> 01:30:05,000
Speaker 1: in this ragged chunk of country. So what are you saying, Roland?

1712
01:30:05,080 --> 01:30:07,080
Speaker 1: It'd be better to just let the one place around

1713
01:30:07,080 --> 01:30:11,360
Speaker 1: here that isn't terrible get eaten by darkness, no, Roland said,

1714
01:30:11,680 --> 01:30:14,599
Speaker 1: but read the riding on the damn wall this place.

1715
01:30:14,960 --> 01:30:17,320
Speaker 1: He waved a hand out in a gesture that encompassed

1716
01:30:17,320 --> 01:30:20,960
Speaker 1: the whole horizon is fucked. Don't stay here and die

1717
01:30:21,000 --> 01:30:24,479
Speaker 1: with it. Manny crossed his arms in front of himself

1718
01:30:24,479 --> 01:30:26,519
Speaker 1: and leaned forward on to the railing of the deck.

1719
01:30:27,000 --> 01:30:29,280
Speaker 1: His head slumped into his hands, and he was quiet

1720
01:30:29,280 --> 01:30:31,960
Speaker 1: for a while. Roland knew the army of the Heavenly

1721
01:30:32,040 --> 01:30:34,880
Speaker 1: Kingdom was less than forty miles distant. The scent of

1722
01:30:34,920 --> 01:30:38,080
Speaker 1: that vast ramshackle horde had grown more prominent over the

1723
01:30:38,160 --> 01:30:41,200
Speaker 1: last few minutes. His nose took in the stink of diesel,

1724
01:30:41,280 --> 01:30:44,559
Speaker 1: the ozone odor of discharging batteries, and the cumulative reek

1725
01:30:44,640 --> 01:30:47,760
Speaker 1: of hundreds of vehicles worth of engine oil. Behind those

1726
01:30:47,760 --> 01:30:50,880
Speaker 1: prominent smells lurked the foul gangren a stench of ten

1727
01:30:50,960 --> 01:30:53,840
Speaker 1: thousand men, sweating, fear and stress out of every pore.

1728
01:30:54,800 --> 01:30:57,439
Speaker 1: Roland looked down over the deck and onto the yellow

1729
01:30:57,479 --> 01:30:59,439
Speaker 1: grass that led up to the shores of the lake.

1730
01:31:00,080 --> 01:31:03,240
Speaker 1: The warriors of Rolling Fok had started to assemble themselves. There.

1731
01:31:03,800 --> 01:31:05,880
Speaker 1: A large group of men and women had started to

1732
01:31:05,960 --> 01:31:09,680
Speaker 1: unpack dozens of quadrfracts. The four legged robots had been

1733
01:31:09,680 --> 01:31:12,720
Speaker 1: built by Boston Dynamics back before the fall of the

1734
01:31:12,720 --> 01:31:15,879
Speaker 1: Old US. They'd been meant to ferry men and equipment

1735
01:31:15,960 --> 01:31:19,599
Speaker 1: up steep Afghan mountain sides. Roland stared at them, and

1736
01:31:19,960 --> 01:31:22,600
Speaker 1: he stalked through the lab, a razor sharp machete in

1737
01:31:22,640 --> 01:31:25,080
Speaker 1: one hand and a machine pistol in the other. The

1738
01:31:25,200 --> 01:31:27,880
Speaker 1: air reeked of blood. Ahead of him. He could smell

1739
01:31:27,880 --> 01:31:30,439
Speaker 1: the fierce wet wafting off two engineers as they hid

1740
01:31:30,439 --> 01:31:34,240
Speaker 1: beneath an overturned metal table. Pieces of robotic equipment were

1741
01:31:34,280 --> 01:31:37,600
Speaker 1: scattered on the floor. Roland reached out his senses and

1742
01:31:37,680 --> 01:31:40,080
Speaker 1: felt that these were the last two people alive in

1743
01:31:40,080 --> 01:31:43,439
Speaker 1: the facility. He stepped forward, swinging his blade in an

1744
01:31:43,520 --> 01:31:47,040
Speaker 1: arc that he knew would end in flesh. Roland shook

1745
01:31:47,040 --> 01:31:49,519
Speaker 1: his head and pulled himself out of the past. The

1746
01:31:49,560 --> 01:31:53,280
Speaker 1: flashes of memory were growing more frequent. Guilt came with them.

1747
01:31:53,320 --> 01:31:55,679
Speaker 1: It took some effort to force his mind to focus

1748
01:31:55,680 --> 01:31:58,760
Speaker 1: again on the world around them. Roland looked back out

1749
01:31:58,800 --> 01:32:03,080
Speaker 1: at the mustering yard warriors dawned armor, a fantastic array

1750
01:32:03,120 --> 01:32:06,920
Speaker 1: of old fashioned polished steel plate mail, ultra modern powered

1751
01:32:06,920 --> 01:32:10,800
Speaker 1: body armor, antique flack vests, and a significant number of costumes.

1752
01:32:11,240 --> 01:32:13,840
Speaker 1: He watched a man in armor that mixed the aesthetic

1753
01:32:13,880 --> 01:32:17,360
Speaker 1: of a polish winged hussar with an Imperial stormtrooper help

1754
01:32:17,400 --> 01:32:19,960
Speaker 1: a woman in a crop top neil green Giei suit

1755
01:32:20,000 --> 01:32:22,240
Speaker 1: as she locked a pair of rocket launchers onto the

1756
01:32:22,280 --> 01:32:25,320
Speaker 1: flanks of one of the four legged robots. Over to

1757
01:32:25,400 --> 01:32:27,839
Speaker 1: his left, another group of warriors had started to assemble

1758
01:32:27,880 --> 01:32:31,400
Speaker 1: the city's vehicle pool. Ramps had descended from garages in

1759
01:32:31,400 --> 01:32:34,080
Speaker 1: the bellies of the rollers. A slow, steady stream of

1760
01:32:34,160 --> 01:32:36,840
Speaker 1: armored vehicles motored their way down the ramps and into

1761
01:32:36,840 --> 01:32:39,920
Speaker 1: the ragged lines on the field. The bulk of rolling

1762
01:32:39,920 --> 01:32:43,560
Speaker 1: Fox vehicles were either modified a PCs or armored motorcycles

1763
01:32:43,560 --> 01:32:47,400
Speaker 1: sporting portable field guns or automatic grenade launchers on side cars.

1764
01:32:47,880 --> 01:32:50,599
Speaker 1: There were tactical arguments for the use of such vehicles

1765
01:32:50,600 --> 01:32:53,920
Speaker 1: in open field combat, of course, but Roland suspected they'd

1766
01:32:53,920 --> 01:32:57,000
Speaker 1: mainly been picked because they were fun to drive. Almost

1767
01:32:57,080 --> 01:32:59,639
Speaker 1: every vehicle's engine had been souped up well beyond any

1768
01:32:59,680 --> 01:33:03,000
Speaker 1: potent chill battlefield benefit. Most of them also had nitrous

1769
01:33:03,000 --> 01:33:06,759
Speaker 1: oxide tanks, although Roland suspected those were more for huffing

1770
01:33:06,800 --> 01:33:09,559
Speaker 1: than they were for speed. Where did they get all

1771
01:33:09,560 --> 01:33:14,120
Speaker 1: this stuff, Manny asked Roland. I had no idea, Roland said,

1772
01:33:14,439 --> 01:33:16,679
Speaker 1: but when the old government fell left behind a lot

1773
01:33:16,720 --> 01:33:20,320
Speaker 1: of equipment, basses and basses full of mothballed ordinance. I

1774
01:33:20,439 --> 01:33:22,679
Speaker 1: guess as these guys got in early before the rush

1775
01:33:22,720 --> 01:33:25,960
Speaker 1: and grabbed what they could. At that moment, Rowland caught

1776
01:33:26,040 --> 01:33:28,720
Speaker 1: Sasha scent moving down one of the spindles above the

1777
01:33:28,720 --> 01:33:31,439
Speaker 1: main roller. His hind brain guessed she was headed to

1778
01:33:31,520 --> 01:33:35,040
Speaker 1: the deck he and Manny occupied. Roland couldn't smell Jim,

1779
01:33:35,120 --> 01:33:37,360
Speaker 1: who was good at staying hidden, but he knew that

1780
01:33:37,400 --> 01:33:39,679
Speaker 1: Sasha couldn't have known where they were on her own.

1781
01:33:40,280 --> 01:33:43,240
Speaker 1: That meant Jim had likely sniffed Manny out and made

1782
01:33:43,240 --> 01:33:46,439
Speaker 1: the same assumption about Rowland's location that Rowland had made

1783
01:33:46,439 --> 01:33:50,040
Speaker 1: about Jim's. It wasn't long before the sliding metal door

1784
01:33:50,120 --> 01:33:52,600
Speaker 1: slid open and Jim and Sasha walked out on to

1785
01:33:52,680 --> 01:33:55,920
Speaker 1: the deck. Jim was in his familiar battle gear, his

1786
01:33:55,960 --> 01:33:58,960
Speaker 1: blood red chaps almost shone in the blinding light of

1787
01:33:58,960 --> 01:34:02,320
Speaker 1: the morning sun. He had a smug, self satisfied grin

1788
01:34:02,360 --> 01:34:05,960
Speaker 1: and gigantic pupils that spoke of recent drug use. Beside him,

1789
01:34:06,040 --> 01:34:09,400
Speaker 1: Sasha looked disheveled and exhausted, but jittery. He could smell

1790
01:34:09,439 --> 01:34:14,439
Speaker 1: the coffee wafting from her pores. Hey fuck nuts, Roland said, Hey, Sasha.

1791
01:34:14,920 --> 01:34:18,840
Speaker 1: She looked confused for a moment. Jim just nodded and said, hey,

1792
01:34:18,960 --> 01:34:22,800
Speaker 1: shit Bird, Hey Manny. Mannie waved vaguely at them, without

1793
01:34:22,840 --> 01:34:25,040
Speaker 1: turning his head to meet them. He continued to look

1794
01:34:25,080 --> 01:34:27,680
Speaker 1: out at the army assembling in the field. It's a

1795
01:34:27,760 --> 01:34:30,840
Speaker 1: pretty cool showdown there, Roland said, kinda wish I had

1796
01:34:30,880 --> 01:34:33,840
Speaker 1: some dissociatives and maybe a blunt. Now would be the

1797
01:34:33,880 --> 01:34:38,639
Speaker 1: time for one, ah, she, Jim said, Just so happens,

1798
01:34:38,680 --> 01:34:42,439
Speaker 1: I got both. He stepped up alongside Roland, extended his

1799
01:34:42,479 --> 01:34:44,840
Speaker 1: full arm and then tapped his left index finger to

1800
01:34:44,880 --> 01:34:47,080
Speaker 1: the back of his right hand. The tip of that

1801
01:34:47,160 --> 01:34:49,760
Speaker 1: finger detached and rolled up on to his knuckle. A

1802
01:34:49,840 --> 01:34:52,040
Speaker 1: line of white powder poured out onto the back of

1803
01:34:52,120 --> 01:34:56,080
Speaker 1: Jim's other hand. He offered it to Rowland. Sure, Roland said,

1804
01:34:56,360 --> 01:35:00,559
Speaker 1: and railed the line. Ketamine wasn't Roland's favoritest to drugs.

1805
01:35:00,720 --> 01:35:02,479
Speaker 1: He preferred m x C if he was going to

1806
01:35:02,520 --> 01:35:05,519
Speaker 1: snort a dissociat event. In all honesty, a big bottle

1807
01:35:05,560 --> 01:35:08,040
Speaker 1: of d x M heavy cough syrup mixed with vodka

1808
01:35:08,120 --> 01:35:11,280
Speaker 1: was even more his speed. But hey, drugs was drugs.

1809
01:35:11,880 --> 01:35:14,519
Speaker 1: Once Roland had finished, Jim poured out another line and

1810
01:35:14,560 --> 01:35:18,720
Speaker 1: offered it to Manny. No thanks, said the fixer. It's

1811
01:35:18,760 --> 01:35:21,920
Speaker 1: pretty good stuff, Roland said, in a helpful tone. Ketamine

1812
01:35:21,960 --> 01:35:24,800
Speaker 1: goes well with unspeakable violence. Might be fun to watch

1813
01:35:24,840 --> 01:35:26,960
Speaker 1: the battle that decides the future of your people from

1814
01:35:26,960 --> 01:35:31,960
Speaker 1: inside a khole. Manny looked defended. Roland shrugged. He glanced

1815
01:35:32,000 --> 01:35:33,880
Speaker 1: at Jim, who gave him an I don't know why

1816
01:35:33,920 --> 01:35:37,840
Speaker 1: you're looking at me. Look I'll try some, Sasha said,

1817
01:35:38,000 --> 01:35:41,400
Speaker 1: I mean, fuck it, why not? It was a little

1818
01:35:41,439 --> 01:35:44,280
Speaker 1: cute how she stumbled over the fuck. Roland found it

1819
01:35:44,320 --> 01:35:48,760
Speaker 1: in daring. It seemed Manny did too. The cocktail of dopamine, testosterone,

1820
01:35:48,760 --> 01:35:51,240
Speaker 1: at oxytocin that waffed it off and made his feelings

1821
01:35:51,240 --> 01:35:54,640
Speaker 1: as clear as day. Hell yeah, girl, Jim said, with

1822
01:35:54,680 --> 01:35:58,519
Speaker 1: an exaggerated Southern twang. Get all over here and rail this.

1823
01:35:59,560 --> 01:36:04,280
Speaker 1: That means snorted, Roland said helpfully. Sasha approached Jim's arm.

1824
01:36:04,560 --> 01:36:07,000
Speaker 1: She looked him in the eye, then looked over to Roland,

1825
01:36:07,040 --> 01:36:09,720
Speaker 1: and last to Manny. Then she stared down at the

1826
01:36:09,720 --> 01:36:11,880
Speaker 1: powder as if she was hoping it would say something

1827
01:36:11,920 --> 01:36:14,639
Speaker 1: to her. It didn't, but she leaned in any way

1828
01:36:14,760 --> 01:36:17,360
Speaker 1: and snorted about half of it before she sneezed and

1829
01:36:17,400 --> 01:36:19,439
Speaker 1: then wretched, and then staggered to the side of the

1830
01:36:19,479 --> 01:36:23,280
Speaker 1: deck and vomited over the side. Jim and Roland laughed

1831
01:36:23,280 --> 01:36:26,680
Speaker 1: in sheer joy. Manny, being a good person, moved to

1832
01:36:26,680 --> 01:36:28,400
Speaker 1: hold her hair back and help her deal with the

1833
01:36:28,439 --> 01:36:32,360
Speaker 1: puky aftershocks. While the humans engaged with their frailties, Roland

1834
01:36:32,360 --> 01:36:36,000
Speaker 1: and Jim did a couple more lines each. That was terrible,

1835
01:36:36,280 --> 01:36:40,200
Speaker 1: Sasha said, a few minutes later. Yeah, Jim chuckled it

1836
01:36:40,360 --> 01:36:43,360
Speaker 1: takes some getting used to, and then the door slid

1837
01:36:43,400 --> 01:36:47,280
Speaker 1: open again. Skullfucker Mike walked out onto the deck. Boy

1838
01:36:47,680 --> 01:36:50,599
Speaker 1: ass hats, he called out, we're about to war up.

1839
01:36:50,680 --> 01:36:52,519
Speaker 1: You should get down to the field as app if

1840
01:36:52,520 --> 01:36:56,479
Speaker 1: you want to see the face taking what Manny asked?

1841
01:36:56,800 --> 01:36:59,800
Speaker 1: Excuse me, Sasha said, at the same time. Mike just

1842
01:37:00,080 --> 01:37:02,839
Speaker 1: laughed and clapped them both on the shoulders. I'll explain

1843
01:37:02,960 --> 01:37:05,360
Speaker 1: down in the field. Get a move on. He nodded

1844
01:37:05,400 --> 01:37:08,559
Speaker 1: to Sasha and added, there's a pukeuash station just inside

1845
01:37:08,560 --> 01:37:12,559
Speaker 1: into the right, next to the bathroom. Right. Jim rubbed

1846
01:37:12,600 --> 01:37:15,360
Speaker 1: his hands together in excitement. Why don't you kids go

1847
01:37:15,520 --> 01:37:18,080
Speaker 1: roll with skull fucking Mike. I've got to get Roland

1848
01:37:18,160 --> 01:37:20,240
Speaker 1: up to my mechanics so we can suit him up.

1849
01:37:21,280 --> 01:37:23,920
Speaker 1: Roland didn't like the eagerness in Jim's eyes or the

1850
01:37:23,960 --> 01:37:26,519
Speaker 1: excitement in his voice when he said that there was

1851
01:37:26,560 --> 01:37:29,759
Speaker 1: something indecent about it. But a promise was a promise,

1852
01:37:29,920 --> 01:37:32,600
Speaker 1: so Roland nodded and gave Manny a little squeeze on

1853
01:37:32,640 --> 01:37:38,960
Speaker 1: the shoulder. I'll see you soon, buddy, This won't take long, Manny.

1854
01:37:40,240 --> 01:37:43,320
Speaker 1: Skull fucker Mike, Manny asked as the chromed man led

1855
01:37:43,360 --> 01:37:46,680
Speaker 1: them through the gantries and towards the elevator. What exactly

1856
01:37:46,720 --> 01:37:49,320
Speaker 1: is so special about Roland? I mean, he's a nice guy,

1857
01:37:49,439 --> 01:37:51,479
Speaker 1: but what makes him so much scarier than the other

1858
01:37:51,560 --> 01:37:54,800
Speaker 1: chromed folks like you and Topaz? What do you know

1859
01:37:54,880 --> 01:37:59,799
Speaker 1: about Roland's past, Mike asked. In return, very little Manny admitted,

1860
01:37:59,840 --> 01:38:02,320
Speaker 1: he doesn't seem to remember much. I've sussed out that

1861
01:38:02,360 --> 01:38:04,880
Speaker 1: he was in the army back before the revolution. He's

1862
01:38:04,880 --> 01:38:07,559
Speaker 1: talked about fighting in Turkey, but also in Dallas and

1863
01:38:07,640 --> 01:38:12,240
Speaker 1: Denver and a bunch of other American cities. Mike nodded, Yeah,

1864
01:38:12,320 --> 01:38:15,320
Speaker 1: we met in Dallas back before it was Cidad de Muerta.

1865
01:38:15,840 --> 01:38:18,920
Speaker 1: I had just been dishonorably discharged from the Marine Corps

1866
01:38:18,920 --> 01:38:23,080
Speaker 1: for He frowned, shook his head, and continued, it doesn't

1867
01:38:23,080 --> 01:38:25,240
Speaker 1: matter what. For I was broke and I had a

1868
01:38:25,240 --> 01:38:28,800
Speaker 1: body fellow Uncle Sam's chrome. He wanted it back. I

1869
01:38:28,840 --> 01:38:32,080
Speaker 1: wound up taking shelter in the White Rock Commune. Roland

1870
01:38:32,120 --> 01:38:34,880
Speaker 1: was there too. He was pretty political back in those days,

1871
01:38:35,200 --> 01:38:39,120
Speaker 1: always quoting baccoon In and Achalon and Red John. Did

1872
01:38:39,160 --> 01:38:42,479
Speaker 1: you guys actually know Red John? Sasha asked, Up until

1873
01:38:42,520 --> 01:38:44,640
Speaker 1: that point, she'd walked quietly in the rear of their

1874
01:38:44,680 --> 01:38:47,840
Speaker 1: little group. The few times Manny had glanced back, she'd

1875
01:38:47,840 --> 01:38:50,120
Speaker 1: had her head down, stuck in her own little world.

1876
01:38:50,520 --> 01:38:53,559
Speaker 1: But now she was alert and engaged. Many guessed it

1877
01:38:53,640 --> 01:38:56,120
Speaker 1: was hearing the name of the famous revolutionary that had

1878
01:38:56,160 --> 01:38:59,800
Speaker 1: done it. That's odd, he thought. I never met the

1879
01:39:00,400 --> 01:39:03,160
Speaker 1: Mike said, but Rowland did. He was in real deep

1880
01:39:03,200 --> 01:39:06,440
Speaker 1: with that whole circle. So was that weird fucker Jim.

1881
01:39:06,479 --> 01:39:08,360
Speaker 1: I was tight with Roland, but I've never gotten to

1882
01:39:08,400 --> 01:39:11,600
Speaker 1: the political side of things. I liked smashing stuff and

1883
01:39:11,640 --> 01:39:15,240
Speaker 1: they needed stuff smashers. How does this relate to why

1884
01:39:15,320 --> 01:39:20,080
Speaker 1: Rowland's Rowland? Manny asked, Well, I've known old Roland for

1885
01:39:20,120 --> 01:39:23,160
Speaker 1: a while. Magueni was still fully himself. He was always

1886
01:39:23,240 --> 01:39:26,560
Speaker 1: cagy about his background. But we had our theories, and

1887
01:39:26,760 --> 01:39:29,320
Speaker 1: mine was that he had been part of Project Orange.

1888
01:39:30,360 --> 01:39:34,280
Speaker 1: What was that, Sasha asked, Holy fuck Mann He said

1889
01:39:34,920 --> 01:39:38,599
Speaker 1: he'd heard of Project Orange, although he wasn't surprised Sasha hadn't.

1890
01:39:39,120 --> 01:39:41,400
Speaker 1: The am FED was the closest descendant of the old

1891
01:39:41,520 --> 01:39:44,519
Speaker 1: United States. They'd have kept most of the bad stuff

1892
01:39:44,560 --> 01:39:47,920
Speaker 1: out of their history books. Well, you know, Mike said.

1893
01:39:48,200 --> 01:39:51,519
Speaker 1: Through the twenties, the military struggled with declining enlistment numbers.

1894
01:39:51,920 --> 01:39:55,040
Speaker 1: All the little resource wars climate change sparked created a

1895
01:39:55,120 --> 01:39:57,719
Speaker 1: need for a capable, nimble force that could project power

1896
01:39:57,840 --> 01:40:01,120
Speaker 1: without requiring a public commitment of force. So back in

1897
01:40:01,200 --> 01:40:04,000
Speaker 1: the late thirties, the U. S. Military started fucking hard

1898
01:40:04,120 --> 01:40:07,360
Speaker 1: with gene editing tools and bio mods. At first, it

1899
01:40:07,439 --> 01:40:11,040
Speaker 1: was just basic upgrades to select combat units, early versions

1900
01:40:11,080 --> 01:40:13,640
Speaker 1: of the healing suites, y'all both have now. Then they

1901
01:40:13,720 --> 01:40:18,280
Speaker 1: moved on to carbon fiberlaced bones, bullet resistant skin, nanohealing suites.

1902
01:40:18,800 --> 01:40:21,920
Speaker 1: The end result was Project Orange, the best warriors in

1903
01:40:21,960 --> 01:40:25,679
Speaker 1: the whole military loaded down with experimental self adapting, neural

1904
01:40:25,800 --> 01:40:29,800
Speaker 1: and physiological upgrades. Yeah, man, he added. It was a

1905
01:40:29,880 --> 01:40:33,480
Speaker 1: real success, right till they wiped out a whole city. Skofucker.

1906
01:40:33,560 --> 01:40:36,679
Speaker 1: Mike nodded and looked back to Sasha. He's talking about

1907
01:40:36,720 --> 01:40:40,320
Speaker 1: the Battle of Inserlik. I've heard of that. Sasha said,

1908
01:40:40,400 --> 01:40:43,040
Speaker 1: a US air strike had a giant munitions cache. Like

1909
01:40:43,200 --> 01:40:47,320
Speaker 1: ten thousand people died. Schofucker. Mike gave a noncommittal grunt.

1910
01:40:47,920 --> 01:40:51,000
Speaker 1: There was one version of the story, he said. The

1911
01:40:51,120 --> 01:40:54,519
Speaker 1: story I heard the story everyone told back then is

1912
01:40:54,560 --> 01:40:57,679
Speaker 1: that it was Project Orange. They blew up a city.

1913
01:40:57,960 --> 01:41:01,880
Speaker 1: Sasha asked, they did blow it up, Manny said, they

1914
01:41:02,000 --> 01:41:06,400
Speaker 1: just butchered everyone, mostly in hand to hand combat. The

1915
01:41:06,520 --> 01:41:11,320
Speaker 1: DARPA guys miscalculated. Mike nodded to Manny. They'd entirely revamped

1916
01:41:11,360 --> 01:41:14,120
Speaker 1: the endocrine systems of these soldiers and made them immune

1917
01:41:14,160 --> 01:41:17,720
Speaker 1: to exhaustion and gave them perfect situational awareness. But it

1918
01:41:17,800 --> 01:41:21,080
Speaker 1: also made bloodshed. He trailed off and frowned while he

1919
01:41:21,120 --> 01:41:25,960
Speaker 1: searched for his next word. Addictive. So what happened to

1920
01:41:26,000 --> 01:41:30,800
Speaker 1: Project Orange, Sasha asked, Well, said Mike, the scientists did

1921
01:41:30,840 --> 01:41:34,520
Speaker 1: with scientists do. They refined things, They revised their hypotheses,

1922
01:41:34,600 --> 01:41:37,160
Speaker 1: and tweaked their creations until the Joint chiefs had another

1923
01:41:37,280 --> 01:41:39,800
Speaker 1: job for the Orange team. They must have done well

1924
01:41:39,880 --> 01:41:42,240
Speaker 1: for a while, and Sir Luke was thirty nine, and

1925
01:41:42,320 --> 01:41:44,559
Speaker 1: no one heard shipped from them until forty one, when

1926
01:41:44,600 --> 01:41:48,880
Speaker 1: they hit that protest in Denver six hundred dead, Manny said,

1927
01:41:49,040 --> 01:41:51,880
Speaker 1: reciting the facts he'd memorized a half dozen times during

1928
01:41:51,920 --> 01:41:56,680
Speaker 1: his elementary education, including a sitting senator. They reached the

1929
01:41:56,760 --> 01:41:59,920
Speaker 1: lift doors, which slid open once they got close, Sasha

1930
01:42:00,040 --> 01:42:02,360
Speaker 1: and Manny stepped in first, and Mike came after them.

1931
01:42:02,560 --> 01:42:04,519
Speaker 1: He fiddled with the control screen on the wall for

1932
01:42:04,600 --> 01:42:06,880
Speaker 1: a moment. I'm just making sure this thing is set

1933
01:42:06,920 --> 01:42:09,519
Speaker 1: to normal human speeds. We don't want any more puke

1934
01:42:09,600 --> 01:42:12,439
Speaker 1: from yall today, Mike winked at Sasha. As the lift

1935
01:42:12,560 --> 01:42:15,639
Speaker 1: doors closed, there was a soft clump sound and Manny

1936
01:42:15,720 --> 01:42:19,840
Speaker 1: felt the lift descend. So yeah, skullfucker, Mike continued. The

1937
01:42:19,960 --> 01:42:22,680
Speaker 1: President deployed the Orange Team against a fortified camp that

1938
01:42:22,760 --> 01:42:25,960
Speaker 1: had blocked off access to most of downtown Denver. They

1939
01:42:26,040 --> 01:42:28,559
Speaker 1: cleared out the camp sure enough. After the blood bath,

1940
01:42:28,680 --> 01:42:30,920
Speaker 1: some hackers with a Jesture collective took close to a

1941
01:42:31,040 --> 01:42:34,160
Speaker 1: terabyte out of the Pentagon servers. It contained a few

1942
01:42:34,240 --> 01:42:37,240
Speaker 1: files on Project Orange and a partly redacted report on

1943
01:42:37,320 --> 01:42:42,880
Speaker 1: the Insurlic massacre. And then Sasha asked, Mike shrugged. Then

1944
01:42:42,920 --> 01:42:45,880
Speaker 1: they disappeared. They weren't used during the revolution, and they'd

1945
01:42:45,880 --> 01:42:47,680
Speaker 1: have been pretty damn handy for the old U S.

1946
01:42:47,720 --> 01:42:50,240
Speaker 1: At a couple of points midway through the war, we

1947
01:42:50,360 --> 01:42:53,400
Speaker 1: recovered some intel that they'd been wiped out some terrible

1948
01:42:53,479 --> 01:42:59,960
Speaker 1: accident in orbit. Only only Roland Manny said softly, Yep, skullfucker.

1949
01:43:00,040 --> 01:43:03,479
Speaker 1: Mike nodded, that was certainly my suspicion, still is, but

1950
01:43:03,600 --> 01:43:06,439
Speaker 1: the fuckers never confirmed it or denied it, not that

1951
01:43:06,520 --> 01:43:10,040
Speaker 1: he remembers now anyway. The lift reached the ground with

1952
01:43:10,120 --> 01:43:12,920
Speaker 1: a gentle bump. Its doors slid open to reveal an

1953
01:43:13,000 --> 01:43:16,240
Speaker 1: army six hundred people in three large clumps out by

1954
01:43:16,240 --> 01:43:18,720
Speaker 1: the shore of Lake Waco. To the left was the

1955
01:43:18,800 --> 01:43:21,519
Speaker 1: city's vehicle pool, in the center where the infantry but

1956
01:43:21,600 --> 01:43:24,720
Speaker 1: decked in a ridiculous melange of medieval weaponry, small arms

1957
01:43:24,760 --> 01:43:28,120
Speaker 1: and handheld field artillery, and then to the right where

1958
01:43:28,160 --> 01:43:31,400
Speaker 1: the quadrifracts. The sight of them took Manny's breadth away.

1959
01:43:31,760 --> 01:43:34,080
Speaker 1: There were well over a hundred of the strange horse

1960
01:43:34,160 --> 01:43:37,200
Speaker 1: like robots. Most of them were still being fussed over

1961
01:43:37,280 --> 01:43:40,120
Speaker 1: by the riders, having bolts tightened, weapons belted on to

1962
01:43:40,160 --> 01:43:43,719
Speaker 1: their chassis, or, in a few cases old timey leather

1963
01:43:43,800 --> 01:43:47,120
Speaker 1: saddle strapped onto their backs. Manny saw one saddle with

1964
01:43:47,200 --> 01:43:49,720
Speaker 1: what looked like a large purple dildo attached to it.

1965
01:43:50,560 --> 01:43:53,839
Speaker 1: The quadrifract riders were the most uniform group of warriors

1966
01:43:53,920 --> 01:43:57,040
Speaker 1: on the field. While rolling Fox infantry wore everything from

1967
01:43:57,160 --> 01:44:00,519
Speaker 1: Roman legionary armor to bikinies made of bullets. The Cattley

1968
01:44:00,560 --> 01:44:03,519
Speaker 1: ward nothing. Even from here, he could see that every

1969
01:44:03,600 --> 01:44:06,240
Speaker 1: nipple in the group was as hard as diamond. They

1970
01:44:06,280 --> 01:44:09,040
Speaker 1: were all covered in the same sort of led tattoos

1971
01:44:09,080 --> 01:44:11,560
Speaker 1: that Jim wore, But where his took the form of

1972
01:44:11,600 --> 01:44:15,160
Speaker 1: ever writhing snakes, theirs appeared in blotches of gray black

1973
01:44:15,240 --> 01:44:18,960
Speaker 1: static all up and down their bodies. What are they,

1974
01:44:19,360 --> 01:44:24,920
Speaker 1: Sasha asked, voicing Manny's thoughts too, the elite skullfucker, Mike said,

1975
01:44:25,280 --> 01:44:28,880
Speaker 1: the best of the city's warriors, real tough motherfucker's mostly

1976
01:44:28,960 --> 01:44:32,360
Speaker 1: former soldiers who augmented their government issue upgrades way back

1977
01:44:32,400 --> 01:44:34,680
Speaker 1: in the day. Some of them have five or ten

1978
01:44:34,760 --> 01:44:38,519
Speaker 1: thousand hours of combat experience stored in their bodies. Why

1979
01:44:38,560 --> 01:44:42,760
Speaker 1: aren't you out there, Manny asked, Eh, he grunted. Quadrafracts

1980
01:44:42,840 --> 01:44:45,920
Speaker 1: make my ass look big. Besides, Tobez is a sniper.

1981
01:44:46,320 --> 01:44:48,280
Speaker 1: She keeps to the rear and I keep to her.

1982
01:44:48,560 --> 01:44:50,280
Speaker 1: It's not as fun as fucking shipped up at the

1983
01:44:50,360 --> 01:44:53,479
Speaker 1: front eFront. His lips curled up into a wistful smile.

1984
01:44:53,880 --> 01:44:57,160
Speaker 1: But we all got to grow up sometime. Well. Sasha

1985
01:44:57,200 --> 01:45:00,280
Speaker 1: and Manny gawkeed the main rollers other lift descended. The

1986
01:45:00,400 --> 01:45:03,639
Speaker 1: doors opened just twenty feet to their right. Nani Yazzi

1987
01:45:03,720 --> 01:45:06,720
Speaker 1: was the first one out. She moved slowly. Some of

1988
01:45:06,800 --> 01:45:09,240
Speaker 1: that was surely due to her advanced age, but there

1989
01:45:09,360 --> 01:45:12,040
Speaker 1: was also a note of ritual to her movements. It

1990
01:45:12,200 --> 01:45:14,719
Speaker 1: was something in the arc of her spine, the cadence

1991
01:45:14,800 --> 01:45:17,400
Speaker 1: of her step, the way she held her head. The

1992
01:45:17,560 --> 01:45:20,439
Speaker 1: enormous gold bladed knife in her hand didn't hurt either.

1993
01:45:21,439 --> 01:45:24,880
Speaker 1: Behind her walked the citizens of rolling Fuk. There were

1994
01:45:24,920 --> 01:45:27,240
Speaker 1: around fifty of them in the lift, but as that

1995
01:45:27,360 --> 01:45:30,360
Speaker 1: group walked forward, ropes and ladders began to roll out

1996
01:45:30,400 --> 01:45:33,639
Speaker 1: from all around the enormous wheeled city. Within a matter

1997
01:45:33,720 --> 01:45:36,840
Speaker 1: of minutes, hundreds and hundreds of people had descended. More

1998
01:45:36,920 --> 01:45:39,479
Speaker 1: continued to disgorge from the lifts. Under the main roller

1999
01:45:39,560 --> 01:45:42,240
Speaker 1: and the rear roller. The riders had all formed into

2000
01:45:42,360 --> 01:45:45,080
Speaker 1: ordered ranks. They stood at something very much like a

2001
01:45:45,200 --> 01:45:48,559
Speaker 1: military attention. It was the only time he'd seen post

2002
01:45:48,640 --> 01:45:52,559
Speaker 1: humans do anything in an orderly fashion. Nani Yazzi stood

2003
01:45:52,600 --> 01:45:55,280
Speaker 1: in front of the cavalry and the human civilians clustered

2004
01:45:55,320 --> 01:45:58,559
Speaker 1: behind her in a big semicircle. The other warriors gathered

2005
01:45:58,600 --> 01:46:01,040
Speaker 1: behind them. Mike maneuver for their little group to a

2006
01:46:01,120 --> 01:46:04,120
Speaker 1: hill that overlooked the whole scene. It took almost twenty

2007
01:46:04,160 --> 01:46:07,320
Speaker 1: minutes for the entire city to gather. What are they doing,

2008
01:46:07,400 --> 01:46:11,200
Speaker 1: skulp fucker, Mike, Sasha asked, only stumbling a bit over

2009
01:46:11,240 --> 01:46:13,960
Speaker 1: the curse word in his name. This is what I

2010
01:46:14,040 --> 01:46:16,920
Speaker 1: wanted you to see, he replied. She's about to take

2011
01:46:17,000 --> 01:46:23,280
Speaker 1: their faces. Roland, the process of getting ready for war

2012
01:46:23,479 --> 01:46:26,799
Speaker 1: made the bile rise up in his gut. That was curious.

2013
01:46:27,360 --> 01:46:30,400
Speaker 1: Roland's stomach didn't still produce bile, not the same kind

2014
01:46:30,439 --> 01:46:32,439
Speaker 1: of vile it had when he was human. It had

2015
01:46:32,479 --> 01:46:35,160
Speaker 1: been years since his nervous system had been natural enough

2016
01:46:35,200 --> 01:46:38,080
Speaker 1: to respond to anxiety with any kind of physical symptom,

2017
01:46:38,800 --> 01:46:41,920
Speaker 1: and yet there it was. The bile, or the hallucination

2018
01:46:41,960 --> 01:46:44,559
Speaker 1: of bile, curdled at the bottom of his stomach while

2019
01:46:44,640 --> 01:46:47,760
Speaker 1: Jim's men strapped him into the murder suit. The armor

2020
01:46:47,840 --> 01:46:50,800
Speaker 1: they'd constructed was altogether different from the powered armor he'd

2021
01:46:50,800 --> 01:46:53,639
Speaker 1: faced a few days ago in Dallas. It was also

2022
01:46:53,800 --> 01:46:56,040
Speaker 1: different from what little he remembered of the armor he'd

2023
01:46:56,040 --> 01:46:59,240
Speaker 1: warned as an American soldier. That made sense. Of course,

2024
01:46:59,680 --> 01:47:03,519
Speaker 1: Roland's wetware got better with time and experience. Gear did

2025
01:47:03,560 --> 01:47:07,120
Speaker 1: not age so well. He watched while Sardar bolted a

2026
01:47:07,120 --> 01:47:10,200
Speaker 1: gauntlet into place over his left forearm. In hand, he

2027
01:47:10,280 --> 01:47:13,160
Speaker 1: could tell it was made of boron nitride carbon tubes,

2028
01:47:13,200 --> 01:47:16,200
Speaker 1: but the weapon's blister carried a sextet of tiny rockets

2029
01:47:16,280 --> 01:47:20,040
Speaker 1: that were not familiar to him. Sar, what are these things?

2030
01:47:20,680 --> 01:47:25,879
Speaker 1: A smile split the little man's dark handsome features scatter rocklets,

2031
01:47:26,080 --> 01:47:29,320
Speaker 1: he said with relish. Each of them contains twelve guided

2032
01:47:29,439 --> 01:47:32,760
Speaker 1: solid fuel warheads. The left hand or all anti personnel

2033
01:47:32,840 --> 01:47:35,519
Speaker 1: built to blow up big the right hand rockets. He

2034
01:47:35,640 --> 01:47:38,120
Speaker 1: tapped the second gauntlet, which sat on the work table

2035
01:47:38,200 --> 01:47:41,080
Speaker 1: next to him. Those pack a tiny bronze dart. One

2036
01:47:41,080 --> 01:47:44,120
Speaker 1: will penetrate a Leopard Mark five's front armor, no problem.

2037
01:47:45,160 --> 01:47:47,800
Speaker 1: Roland's sighed and looked around at the Workshop of Death

2038
01:47:47,880 --> 01:47:50,439
Speaker 1: that Jim had flown out here. From the outside, it

2039
01:47:50,520 --> 01:47:52,839
Speaker 1: had looked a bit like a shipping container, but painted

2040
01:47:52,880 --> 01:47:56,320
Speaker 1: a glossy white. Its edges were rounded and smooth, and

2041
01:47:56,439 --> 01:47:58,439
Speaker 1: the whole thing looked slick enough that it could have

2042
01:47:58,479 --> 01:48:01,920
Speaker 1: been an apple product. Inside the box was wall to

2043
01:48:02,000 --> 01:48:06,679
Speaker 1: wall weaponry in armor Jim's personal stash. Roland couldn't actually

2044
01:48:06,800 --> 01:48:09,840
Speaker 1: name any of the weapons inside. Most were similar enough

2045
01:48:09,880 --> 01:48:12,559
Speaker 1: to older weapons systems that he could make an educated

2046
01:48:12,640 --> 01:48:16,000
Speaker 1: guess as to their capabilities, but there were strange new

2047
01:48:16,080 --> 01:48:19,559
Speaker 1: things on the walls that he'd never seen before. Jim

2048
01:48:19,640 --> 01:48:21,519
Speaker 1: sat in a comfy chair at the rear of the

2049
01:48:21,560 --> 01:48:24,599
Speaker 1: workshop and watched start our work while he sipped scotch

2050
01:48:24,640 --> 01:48:28,000
Speaker 1: out of an enormous ram's horn. So this so's it's

2051
01:48:28,080 --> 01:48:31,599
Speaker 1: like your man cave or what? Rowland asked him. Jim

2052
01:48:31,680 --> 01:48:34,920
Speaker 1: took a deep gulp and then smiled. I find it

2053
01:48:35,080 --> 01:48:38,240
Speaker 1: relaxes me, he said. I spent a lot of time

2054
01:48:38,400 --> 01:48:40,920
Speaker 1: carried in this collection over the years. I spent a

2055
01:48:41,000 --> 01:48:43,639
Speaker 1: lot of time working on that suit, too, so don't

2056
01:48:43,680 --> 01:48:47,400
Speaker 1: fuck it up. Something tingled at the back of Roland's mind.

2057
01:48:47,920 --> 01:48:51,040
Speaker 1: The suit had clearly been built to his specifications. That

2058
01:48:51,240 --> 01:48:54,080
Speaker 1: suggested Jim had been planning this for a while, but

2059
01:48:54,280 --> 01:48:57,880
Speaker 1: Rowland had been retired at Cammeltow until very recently. So

2060
01:48:58,040 --> 01:49:01,080
Speaker 1: how hey, man, I need your port Sardar said. The

2061
01:49:01,120 --> 01:49:03,799
Speaker 1: squat mechanic held up a pair of fiber optic cables

2062
01:49:03,840 --> 01:49:08,040
Speaker 1: that terminated in peculiar boxy plugs. Not unlike old ethernet cable.

2063
01:49:08,520 --> 01:49:10,880
Speaker 1: They were connected to a metal breastplate on the table.

2064
01:49:11,400 --> 01:49:14,080
Speaker 1: Roland pointed to a pair of lumpy white scars on

2065
01:49:14,200 --> 01:49:17,439
Speaker 1: his lower back. The input sockets are in there. They've

2066
01:49:17,479 --> 01:49:19,560
Speaker 1: scarred up. You'll have to cut em back open, but

2067
01:49:19,680 --> 01:49:22,120
Speaker 1: it should fit. But it should still fit. The nice

2068
01:49:22,200 --> 01:49:24,200
Speaker 1: thing about DARPA engineering is that a little bit of

2069
01:49:24,240 --> 01:49:27,599
Speaker 1: blood and skin never gets in the way. Sardar set

2070
01:49:27,680 --> 01:49:30,640
Speaker 1: to work carving the sockets back open. Roland felt the

2071
01:49:30,680 --> 01:49:33,120
Speaker 1: pain as a distant sort of itch. He was having

2072
01:49:33,160 --> 01:49:36,440
Speaker 1: a hard time focusing his senses on his immediate surroundings.

2073
01:49:36,880 --> 01:49:40,480
Speaker 1: The smells of the advancing army presented an almost overpowering

2074
01:49:40,560 --> 01:49:43,519
Speaker 1: flood of data. Roland had loaded up on ketamine and

2075
01:49:43,600 --> 01:49:46,680
Speaker 1: vodka to quiet his hind brain, but all that interfered

2076
01:49:46,720 --> 01:49:50,160
Speaker 1: with his introspection. He built this thing for me to wear. Jim,

2077
01:49:50,360 --> 01:49:54,160
Speaker 1: how long have you been planning this? He is, Jim said,

2078
01:49:54,520 --> 01:49:58,559
Speaker 1: his fourth rightness, surprised Roland. You'll pacifism is a mistake,

2079
01:49:59,000 --> 01:50:03,080
Speaker 1: Jim continued, brought on by your overactive conscience. There is

2080
01:50:03,160 --> 01:50:05,559
Speaker 1: still so much you need to do in the world.

2081
01:50:06,080 --> 01:50:09,160
Speaker 1: I figured at some point you'd realize that yourself, so

2082
01:50:09,320 --> 01:50:13,040
Speaker 1: I kept my men workin. Sardar lifted the heavy metal

2083
01:50:13,120 --> 01:50:16,440
Speaker 1: breastplate up over Roland's head and settled it over his shoulders.

2084
01:50:16,920 --> 01:50:20,320
Speaker 1: The weight was comforting. A cold electric shock ran through

2085
01:50:20,360 --> 01:50:23,240
Speaker 1: his body as the armor connected to his central nervous system.

2086
01:50:23,840 --> 01:50:26,519
Speaker 1: Roland felt parts of himself wake up that he hadn't

2087
01:50:26,560 --> 01:50:30,479
Speaker 1: truly realized were asleep. Something in him had missed that feeling,

2088
01:50:30,720 --> 01:50:33,920
Speaker 1: and he felt guilty for that. I'm taking this thing

2089
01:50:34,000 --> 01:50:36,760
Speaker 1: off the instant. The fight's over, Jim. You wasted your money.

2090
01:50:37,479 --> 01:50:41,719
Speaker 1: Jim smile only deepened. You've forgotten how fun it is, Rowland,

2091
01:50:42,400 --> 01:50:44,880
Speaker 1: and you've forgotten what it's like to be a fucking human.

2092
01:50:45,080 --> 01:50:48,320
Speaker 1: Roland countered, Have you always been a sociopath? Is this

2093
01:50:48,439 --> 01:50:50,919
Speaker 1: what I was like back before whatever took my memories?

2094
01:50:51,800 --> 01:50:55,200
Speaker 1: Jim's amused, smiled, and shift by so much as a nanometer.

2095
01:50:55,760 --> 01:50:58,840
Speaker 1: Roland felt a spike of irritation before he was distracted

2096
01:50:58,920 --> 01:51:02,320
Speaker 1: by Sardar. Rease your hand, please, the mechanic said. He

2097
01:51:02,479 --> 01:51:05,200
Speaker 1: lifted a four barreled machine gun on a circular frame

2098
01:51:05,240 --> 01:51:08,640
Speaker 1: and slid it around Roland's right arm. Sardar bolted the

2099
01:51:08,680 --> 01:51:12,040
Speaker 1: weapon into place while he explained, it's a stack charged

2100
01:51:12,080 --> 01:51:15,679
Speaker 1: machine gun magnetically fired, similar to the old metal storm weapons,

2101
01:51:15,880 --> 01:51:18,639
Speaker 1: but this fucker's capable of putting out twenty thousand rounds

2102
01:51:18,720 --> 01:51:22,840
Speaker 1: per second. How long and a fire? Sardar laughed, but

2103
01:51:23,080 --> 01:51:26,360
Speaker 1: less than a second. The mechanic turned back to his table,

2104
01:51:26,520 --> 01:51:29,240
Speaker 1: and Roland tried to direct his wandering mind back to

2105
01:51:29,360 --> 01:51:33,280
Speaker 1: the conversation with Jim. You're going to love it, his

2106
01:51:33,400 --> 01:51:36,439
Speaker 1: old friend said, I know you've been lovin' it when

2107
01:51:36,479 --> 01:51:38,800
Speaker 1: you've fought your way out of that Sidia could smell

2108
01:51:38,920 --> 01:51:41,519
Speaker 1: the dopamine waftin off your brain from all the way

2109
01:51:41,560 --> 01:51:45,320
Speaker 1: out here. Sardar snapped a queass around Roland's thigh. The

2110
01:51:45,479 --> 01:51:48,559
Speaker 1: armor also sported a bulky weapon's blister on its outside

2111
01:51:48,680 --> 01:51:52,679
Speaker 1: edge gas grenade launcher. The mechanic explained, should co great

2112
01:51:52,760 --> 01:51:55,720
Speaker 1: with all the frag rocklets. Uh so we're committing war

2113
01:51:55,800 --> 01:51:59,120
Speaker 1: crimes now, Roland asked Jim, with more indignation than he

2114
01:51:59,200 --> 01:52:02,960
Speaker 1: really felt. Jim rolled his eyes. Is just he A guess?

2115
01:52:03,160 --> 01:52:06,400
Speaker 1: He said? Mostly? At least I may have included some

2116
01:52:06,520 --> 01:52:09,040
Speaker 1: aresolized l S D in there. I've been on a

2117
01:52:09,120 --> 01:52:13,799
Speaker 1: big psychochemical warfare kick lately. For a little while Sardar

2118
01:52:13,920 --> 01:52:17,200
Speaker 1: worked in silence, Jim drank and Roland stared near him,

2119
01:52:17,400 --> 01:52:20,080
Speaker 1: but not at him. The self inflicted haze in his

2120
01:52:20,160 --> 01:52:22,439
Speaker 1: head had cleared a bit. That meant his hind brain

2121
01:52:22,560 --> 01:52:25,599
Speaker 1: grew louder. By now it was all but shouting about

2122
01:52:25,600 --> 01:52:29,640
Speaker 1: the approaching army. Roland felt a trickle of adrenaline, oxytocin,

2123
01:52:29,720 --> 01:52:33,760
Speaker 1: and endorphins. His left hand twitched involuntarily. He felt the

2124
01:52:33,800 --> 01:52:36,400
Speaker 1: power of the weapons system around him, and he felt

2125
01:52:36,439 --> 01:52:39,360
Speaker 1: the power in his own body. Something like a rousal

2126
01:52:39,439 --> 01:52:42,320
Speaker 1: gripped him. Roland fought it down as best he could,

2127
01:52:42,680 --> 01:52:45,200
Speaker 1: but it lingered there at the edge of his consciousness.

2128
01:52:46,360 --> 01:52:49,320
Speaker 1: I've been remembering more, he said to Jim, as much

2129
01:52:49,360 --> 01:52:51,559
Speaker 1: to distract himself as out of a desire to get

2130
01:52:51,600 --> 01:52:55,439
Speaker 1: it off his chest. Hum Jim cocked an eyebrow in interest.

2131
01:52:56,560 --> 01:52:58,880
Speaker 1: I've had a few big flashes of memories. Once we

2132
01:52:59,000 --> 01:53:01,559
Speaker 1: drove into Dallas, past the side of the Lakewood Blast,

2133
01:53:01,840 --> 01:53:05,439
Speaker 1: I remembered. He locked eyes with Jim, and Jim nodded

2134
01:53:05,520 --> 01:53:09,360
Speaker 1: back his eyes said, I know so. Roland moved on.

2135
01:53:10,400 --> 01:53:13,680
Speaker 1: The memories come most intensely when I'm in combat. I

2136
01:53:13,760 --> 01:53:17,400
Speaker 1: remembered hiking with Topez. I remembered burning the Taz in Denver.

2137
01:53:17,880 --> 01:53:19,920
Speaker 1: I got flashes of you and me in Mexico, and

2138
01:53:20,560 --> 01:53:23,920
Speaker 1: a lot more. I'm still certain through it. It's confusing

2139
01:53:24,040 --> 01:53:27,320
Speaker 1: because there's no timeline for any of this, just associated

2140
01:53:27,400 --> 01:53:31,120
Speaker 1: memories I know happened. At some point, Jim leaned forward,

2141
01:53:31,479 --> 01:53:36,600
Speaker 1: his eyes flashed with excitement interest, and he said, tell me,

2142
01:53:36,800 --> 01:53:39,400
Speaker 1: have you been able to draw any conclusions about who

2143
01:53:39,479 --> 01:53:42,439
Speaker 1: you were from what you've remembered? Have you gotten any

2144
01:53:42,600 --> 01:53:46,880
Speaker 1: insight into the old Roland? Roland frowned. He'd been so

2145
01:53:47,080 --> 01:53:49,200
Speaker 1: focused on trying to remember his old life that he

2146
01:53:49,240 --> 01:53:51,360
Speaker 1: hadn't given much thought to what the memories he had

2147
01:53:51,479 --> 01:53:54,759
Speaker 1: said about the man he'd been. As he pondered, Roland's

2148
01:53:54,800 --> 01:53:57,280
Speaker 1: mind lingered on the memory of shooting the Cheney boy

2149
01:53:57,320 --> 01:54:00,120
Speaker 1: in the back of the head. I think I to

2150
01:54:00,160 --> 01:54:03,839
Speaker 1: be a lot more like you, Roland said. Jim grinned,

2151
01:54:04,240 --> 01:54:07,040
Speaker 1: his lips curled up to reveal long rows of white,

2152
01:54:07,240 --> 01:54:11,400
Speaker 1: straight teeth. That's true, he said, Why else do you

2153
01:54:11,520 --> 01:54:18,400
Speaker 1: think I've missed you so much? Sasha? A part of

2154
01:54:18,479 --> 01:54:21,720
Speaker 1: Sasha had believed that after the Heavenly Kingdom, nothing she

2155
01:54:21,840 --> 01:54:24,840
Speaker 1: saw would ever shock her again. That part of her

2156
01:54:24,960 --> 01:54:28,519
Speaker 1: was proven wrong when Nana Yazzi's aged arthritic hand began

2157
01:54:28,600 --> 01:54:32,240
Speaker 1: to messily carve at the first warrior's face. Her target

2158
01:54:32,360 --> 01:54:34,560
Speaker 1: was the young woman with the chrome hawk Sasha had

2159
01:54:34,600 --> 01:54:37,880
Speaker 1: seen in the war Council. The carving was a messy thing.

2160
01:54:38,240 --> 01:54:40,040
Speaker 1: It took the better part of a minute for her

2161
01:54:40,080 --> 01:54:43,400
Speaker 1: to slice and peel the skin free. Sasha noticed that

2162
01:54:43,440 --> 01:54:46,440
Speaker 1: there was very little blood. It was messy, but not

2163
01:54:46,600 --> 01:54:49,480
Speaker 1: as messy as it should have been. Once she was finished,

2164
01:54:49,600 --> 01:54:52,400
Speaker 1: Nana Yazzi stepped back with the woman's face in her hand.

2165
01:54:52,800 --> 01:54:56,480
Speaker 1: As she did, dozens of citizens stepped forward. They pulled

2166
01:54:56,520 --> 01:54:59,880
Speaker 1: out daggers, swords, straight razors, and switchblades of their own.

2167
01:55:00,320 --> 01:55:03,320
Speaker 1: Each civilian paired off with a warrior and began to carve.

2168
01:55:03,840 --> 01:55:06,320
Speaker 1: Some of them were quick and practiced. The motion of

2169
01:55:06,400 --> 01:55:09,600
Speaker 1: their hands reminded Sasha of an autopsy video she'd watched

2170
01:55:09,640 --> 01:55:12,200
Speaker 1: in one of her pre met classes. But the other

2171
01:55:12,320 --> 01:55:15,680
Speaker 1: citizens were cruder with their cutting. A few verged on

2172
01:55:15,840 --> 01:55:18,680
Speaker 1: brutal hacking and slashing at the faces and necks of

2173
01:55:18,720 --> 01:55:22,040
Speaker 1: their persons. None of the post human warriors showed any

2174
01:55:22,120 --> 01:55:25,680
Speaker 1: signs of pain or discomfort. They just stood, unmoving and

2175
01:55:25,960 --> 01:55:31,760
Speaker 1: without their faces, seemingly without emotion. I don't understand, Sasha said.

2176
01:55:32,200 --> 01:55:35,120
Speaker 1: She hadn't expected to say it out loud, The words

2177
01:55:35,240 --> 01:55:40,120
Speaker 1: just slipped out. It's a symbolic thing, Scoffucker Mike explained.

2178
01:55:40,560 --> 01:55:43,520
Speaker 1: Before they leave, the city's warriors give up their identities

2179
01:55:43,560 --> 01:55:46,640
Speaker 1: to the group. They leave their humanity behind and bloody

2180
01:55:46,720 --> 01:55:49,080
Speaker 1: tatters in the hands of their friends and loved ones.

2181
01:55:49,480 --> 01:55:52,200
Speaker 1: It's a way of making sure the city civilians don't

2182
01:55:52,280 --> 01:55:55,000
Speaker 1: leave a war without blood on their hands. And it

2183
01:55:55,080 --> 01:55:58,120
Speaker 1: makes them look fucking terrifying, someone said from behind them.

2184
01:55:58,600 --> 01:56:02,160
Speaker 1: Sasha turned around. A short, fit man approached them. He

2185
01:56:02,280 --> 01:56:04,440
Speaker 1: had a thin build, but his body was girded with

2186
01:56:04,560 --> 01:56:07,760
Speaker 1: lithe muscle. There was something familiar about his face, the

2187
01:56:07,880 --> 01:56:10,800
Speaker 1: short mop of curly black hair atop his head. The

2188
01:56:10,880 --> 01:56:14,920
Speaker 1: man smiled when Sasha saw him, revealing pointed metallic fangs.

2189
01:56:15,280 --> 01:56:20,400
Speaker 1: Hey wait a second, low, Topez, skoolfucker Mike said. Manny

2190
01:56:20,480 --> 01:56:24,560
Speaker 1: looked shocked as well. He stared at the man in surprise. Topez,

2191
01:56:24,880 --> 01:56:28,000
Speaker 1: what happened? There was a woman with those exact same

2192
01:56:28,080 --> 01:56:31,200
Speaker 1: teeth yesterday when we arrived at the city. Sasha hadn't

2193
01:56:31,240 --> 01:56:34,160
Speaker 1: gotten a woman's name, but she'd borne a striking resemblance

2194
01:56:34,200 --> 01:56:37,360
Speaker 1: to this man. I felt like a man today, Topez said,

2195
01:56:37,560 --> 01:56:40,960
Speaker 1: what with the war and all? Sasha finally realized what

2196
01:56:41,040 --> 01:56:44,120
Speaker 1: had happened. Of course, she thought these people can change

2197
01:56:44,160 --> 01:56:49,040
Speaker 1: their physiology on a dime. Ah Manny said with a nod. Scofucker.

2198
01:56:49,120 --> 01:56:51,560
Speaker 1: Mike walked up to Topaz, and the two embraced and

2199
01:56:51,640 --> 01:56:54,720
Speaker 1: then kissed. They twined their arms together, and a few

2200
01:56:54,760 --> 01:56:59,240
Speaker 1: seconds later Topaz seemed to finally notice Sasha's presence. Sorry,

2201
01:56:59,480 --> 01:57:01,560
Speaker 1: he smiled old as he spoke. But I don't believe

2202
01:57:01,640 --> 01:57:07,680
Speaker 1: I got your name, Sasha, Sasha Mariian. Topaz stepped closer. Well,

2203
01:57:07,840 --> 01:57:10,600
Speaker 1: Sasha Mariian, He said, in a low voice, how are

2204
01:57:10,680 --> 01:57:15,800
Speaker 1: you liking our strange ways and customs? They're interesting? Sasha

2205
01:57:15,880 --> 01:57:19,520
Speaker 1: said diplomatically. Do you find this place more to your

2206
01:57:19,560 --> 01:57:23,560
Speaker 1: liking than the heavenly Kingdom? Topaz stepped closer. Sasha took

2207
01:57:23,560 --> 01:57:26,360
Speaker 1: a step back, and then another. The man's expression was

2208
01:57:26,440 --> 01:57:28,680
Speaker 1: friendly enough, but there was a sort of queer menace

2209
01:57:28,760 --> 01:57:30,840
Speaker 1: in the set of his shoulders. It may have had

2210
01:57:30,920 --> 01:57:33,720
Speaker 1: something to do with the very large rifle slung across

2211
01:57:33,760 --> 01:57:37,800
Speaker 1: his back. Sasha started to sweat. Fear gripped her mind.

2212
01:57:38,560 --> 01:57:42,400
Speaker 1: Topaz back off, schoolfucker. Mike's voice was devoid of anger

2213
01:57:42,520 --> 01:57:47,200
Speaker 1: but firm. You're scaring her. Topaz stopped and stared at Mike.

2214
01:57:47,760 --> 01:57:50,560
Speaker 1: His expression went from placid smile to rage, and then

2215
01:57:50,640 --> 01:57:54,880
Speaker 1: back to a smile almost faster than Sasha could process. Sorry, darling,

2216
01:57:55,120 --> 01:57:58,040
Speaker 1: he said, in an artificially chipper voice. I just wanted

2217
01:57:58,040 --> 01:58:00,520
Speaker 1: to make sure our guest was enjoying her day here.

2218
01:58:01,120 --> 01:58:06,160
Speaker 1: He looked to Sasha again. You are, aren't you? Yes, good,

2219
01:58:06,680 --> 01:58:10,000
Speaker 1: Topaz purred. Hopefully you won't be joining any more extremist

2220
01:58:10,040 --> 01:58:13,280
Speaker 1: groups to get my friends killed. He turned immediately to Manny,

2221
01:58:13,400 --> 01:58:16,120
Speaker 1: and with barely a pause for breath, embraced him and

2222
01:58:16,200 --> 01:58:19,120
Speaker 1: kissed his forehead. I'm proud of you, buddy, as far

2223
01:58:19,160 --> 01:58:23,160
Speaker 1: as I'm concerned your family. Manny mumbled his thanks and

2224
01:58:23,240 --> 01:58:25,760
Speaker 1: returned the hug, but he glanced to Sasha and they

2225
01:58:25,800 --> 01:58:29,320
Speaker 1: shared a what the hell look? Schoolfucker Mike seemed to

2226
01:58:29,320 --> 01:58:32,760
Speaker 1: want a plaster over the awkwardness. Yep, he said, We've

2227
01:58:32,840 --> 01:58:35,720
Speaker 1: made some wonderful friends these last couple of days, he

2228
01:58:35,840 --> 01:58:39,000
Speaker 1: pantomime looking down at his watchless wrist and checking the time.

2229
01:58:39,480 --> 01:58:42,360
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, he said, in mock surprise. Look at

2230
01:58:42,400 --> 01:58:44,360
Speaker 1: the time, Topaz. We've got a war to get to.

2231
01:58:44,840 --> 01:58:48,560
Speaker 1: You kids had better find some decent seats. Topaz smiled

2232
01:58:48,600 --> 01:58:51,560
Speaker 1: at skullfucker Mike. His eyes lingered on the big man's

2233
01:58:51,600 --> 01:58:55,400
Speaker 1: face and then drifted back to Sasha. Enjoy the show,

2234
01:58:55,920 --> 01:59:01,680
Speaker 1: he said, with an empty smile. Rowland, it was windy

2235
01:59:01,760 --> 01:59:04,440
Speaker 1: on the landing pad. He and Jim stood next to

2236
01:59:04,560 --> 01:59:07,560
Speaker 1: a heavy black feet Hole aircraft, the steed that would

2237
01:59:07,560 --> 01:59:11,360
Speaker 1: carry him into today's massacre. Roland could taste the dying

2238
01:59:11,480 --> 01:59:14,200
Speaker 1: summer and the faint stirrings of a North Texas fall

2239
01:59:14,320 --> 01:59:16,959
Speaker 1: in the air. It was cooler than he'd have expected

2240
01:59:17,040 --> 01:59:19,840
Speaker 1: this time of the year, grayer too. A gust of

2241
01:59:19,960 --> 01:59:23,280
Speaker 1: chill wind blew across his face, and Roland found himself

2242
01:59:23,400 --> 01:59:26,840
Speaker 1: falling back in time again. He was shorter, The world

2243
01:59:26,880 --> 01:59:29,720
Speaker 1: seemed sharper, even though his senses were dim and unenlightened.

2244
01:59:30,080 --> 01:59:33,200
Speaker 1: Roland felt a hand about his own. It felt big, powerful,

2245
01:59:33,240 --> 01:59:36,080
Speaker 1: and comforting. He looked up and saw a woman standing

2246
01:59:36,160 --> 01:59:38,840
Speaker 1: over him. She was tall, a giant. Her hair was

2247
01:59:38,920 --> 01:59:40,960
Speaker 1: brown and straight and long and clear as day in

2248
01:59:41,040 --> 01:59:44,080
Speaker 1: his mind's eye, but her face was blank, obscured even

2249
01:59:44,160 --> 01:59:46,800
Speaker 1: in memory. His head turned to track the passage of

2250
01:59:46,840 --> 01:59:49,680
Speaker 1: a blowing leaf. He felt chill winter air on his arm,

2251
01:59:49,720 --> 01:59:52,000
Speaker 1: and he watched as a red sedan rumbled past them,

2252
01:59:52,280 --> 01:59:54,200
Speaker 1: spraying water into the air as it had a puddle

2253
01:59:54,240 --> 01:59:58,560
Speaker 1: on the asphalt. Roland pay attention. Jim's voice snapped him

2254
01:59:58,600 --> 02:00:01,440
Speaker 1: back to reality. The other chrombed man held a paper

2255
02:00:01,520 --> 02:00:04,640
Speaker 1: thin tablet in front of Roland's face. That memory flash

2256
02:00:04,720 --> 02:00:07,400
Speaker 1: had been the most immersive yet, although not the longest.

2257
02:00:07,680 --> 02:00:10,160
Speaker 1: He was a little confused at that why that moment

2258
02:00:10,440 --> 02:00:13,200
Speaker 1: had it just been the similarity in weather or Rowland?

2259
02:00:13,800 --> 02:00:16,720
Speaker 1: Jim was angry. It was actually somewhat refreshing to see

2260
02:00:16,800 --> 02:00:20,160
Speaker 1: genuine emotion on the other man's post human face. Veins

2261
02:00:20,240 --> 02:00:22,560
Speaker 1: bulged at his neck, and his eyes were fully open.

2262
02:00:23,000 --> 02:00:25,960
Speaker 1: Roland caught a harsh whiff of methamphetamine from his breath.

2263
02:00:26,760 --> 02:00:29,520
Speaker 1: All right, all right, fucking chill, Roland muttered, what am

2264
02:00:29,520 --> 02:00:32,800
Speaker 1: I looking at? He needn't have asked. Once he focused

2265
02:00:32,840 --> 02:00:34,720
Speaker 1: on the tablet, it was obvious that it displayed a

2266
02:00:34,800 --> 02:00:38,400
Speaker 1: map of the area around Lake Waco. Rolling Fox warriors

2267
02:00:38,440 --> 02:00:41,960
Speaker 1: and vehicles were displayed in little blue pinpoints. Jim scrolled

2268
02:00:42,040 --> 02:00:44,440
Speaker 1: up a few inches and Roland saw a swarm of red.

2269
02:00:44,840 --> 02:00:47,040
Speaker 1: It was half over the Brazos right now, and it

2270
02:00:47,120 --> 02:00:51,320
Speaker 1: crept millimeter by millimeter towards their position. The river slowed

2271
02:00:51,360 --> 02:00:53,680
Speaker 1: him down a bit, Jim said, but the bridges there

2272
02:00:53,800 --> 02:00:56,080
Speaker 1: was still in good order. I'd say they'll hit Rock

2273
02:00:56,200 --> 02:01:00,200
Speaker 1: Creakin about ten minutes. Roland nodded and asked when we

2274
02:01:00,240 --> 02:01:03,320
Speaker 1: had killed those bridges bought some hours. Jim gave a

2275
02:01:03,400 --> 02:01:06,040
Speaker 1: careless shrug. Why would we want to slow him down?

2276
02:01:06,240 --> 02:01:10,200
Speaker 1: We're ready enough, No sense in dragging this out. There

2277
02:01:10,280 --> 02:01:12,440
Speaker 1: was a strong smell of ozone as the v Toal

2278
02:01:12,480 --> 02:01:15,480
Speaker 1: aircraft next to them woke up. Red lights glowed on

2279
02:01:15,560 --> 02:01:18,520
Speaker 1: the missile pods slung under its belly. The chain gun

2280
02:01:18,640 --> 02:01:21,880
Speaker 1: on its nose cycled. The whole thing hummed with potential energy.

2281
02:01:22,160 --> 02:01:24,240
Speaker 1: It was too modern for Roland to know the make

2282
02:01:24,280 --> 02:01:26,440
Speaker 1: and model, but it reminded him of the Russian Coba

2283
02:01:26,480 --> 02:01:29,120
Speaker 1: assault transport, which had been state of the art back

2284
02:01:29,160 --> 02:01:33,760
Speaker 1: in the mid forties. So is the plan, he asked Jim. Well,

2285
02:01:34,160 --> 02:01:36,280
Speaker 1: his friend said, we know they got at least a

2286
02:01:36,280 --> 02:01:39,840
Speaker 1: half a dozen mobile antia batteries Old U s Patriot

2287
02:01:39,920 --> 02:01:43,480
Speaker 1: threes an accurate garbage nothing I'm were it about the

2288
02:01:43,640 --> 02:01:46,520
Speaker 1: name conjured up a ghost of another memory. A big

2289
02:01:46,600 --> 02:01:50,000
Speaker 1: Patriot battery wheeled around on its truck sized chassis. He

2290
02:01:50,120 --> 02:01:51,960
Speaker 1: heard the machine whine of the motors, and then the

2291
02:01:52,040 --> 02:01:54,240
Speaker 1: reek of fear hit his nose as rich and heavy

2292
02:01:54,280 --> 02:01:57,000
Speaker 1: as Texas thunder. There were missiles in the air aimed

2293
02:01:57,040 --> 02:01:59,360
Speaker 1: at him as he fell. They were child's plated dodge

2294
02:01:59,360 --> 02:02:02,000
Speaker 1: in his suit. He descended, His fierce stink rolled up

2295
02:02:02,000 --> 02:02:05,680
Speaker 1: towards him from the soldiers below. The poor fucker's Rowland.

2296
02:02:05,880 --> 02:02:08,800
Speaker 1: Jim shouted, not gonna have to find another murder guerilla

2297
02:02:08,880 --> 02:02:12,760
Speaker 1: to take your place. What? No, Roland shook his head. Sorry,

2298
02:02:12,920 --> 02:02:16,440
Speaker 1: he said, just memories. Jim gave him a long look.

2299
02:02:17,040 --> 02:02:21,320
Speaker 1: Anything you need to talk about right now, No, Roland said,

2300
02:02:22,000 --> 02:02:24,720
Speaker 1: It's just the memories are coming at me faster now.

2301
02:02:25,160 --> 02:02:30,600
Speaker 1: It's distracting. That makes sense, Jim said, I'd imagine stimuli

2302
02:02:30,760 --> 02:02:33,120
Speaker 1: that reminds you of your past could prompt your brain

2303
02:02:33,200 --> 02:02:36,520
Speaker 1: into sudden healing hum. He reached into a bag at

2304
02:02:36,560 --> 02:02:39,200
Speaker 1: his hip. It looked like a standard dump pouch meant

2305
02:02:39,280 --> 02:02:41,760
Speaker 1: for half spent magazines in the heat of battle. But

2306
02:02:41,920 --> 02:02:44,960
Speaker 1: Jim pulled out a fully loaded crack pipe. Even un lit,

2307
02:02:45,120 --> 02:02:48,840
Speaker 1: it smelled like burning tires. A't an non percent pull.

2308
02:02:49,160 --> 02:02:52,840
Speaker 1: Jim held the pipe up to Rowland right. Roland grabbed

2309
02:02:52,880 --> 02:02:55,160
Speaker 1: the pipe and lifted it to his lips. Jim reached

2310
02:02:55,200 --> 02:02:57,880
Speaker 1: out and flipped on the lighter built into his index finger.

2311
02:02:58,320 --> 02:03:00,320
Speaker 1: He held it under the glass bubble of the pipe.

2312
02:03:00,680 --> 02:03:04,400
Speaker 1: The rocks vaporized into white smoke rolland inhaled and felt

2313
02:03:04,440 --> 02:03:07,880
Speaker 1: the vapor dissolve into his blood stream through his mucous membranes.

2314
02:03:08,280 --> 02:03:10,760
Speaker 1: There was a tingle as the crack reached his brain's

2315
02:03:10,880 --> 02:03:14,040
Speaker 1: ventral tegmental area, and said, in essence, you know how

2316
02:03:14,120 --> 02:03:16,880
Speaker 1: much dopamine you were planning to produce? Make a shipload

2317
02:03:16,920 --> 02:03:20,920
Speaker 1: more than that. The happy chemicals flooded Roland's mind. His

2318
02:03:21,040 --> 02:03:24,160
Speaker 1: anxiety at their recently churned up memories faded, as did

2319
02:03:24,200 --> 02:03:29,520
Speaker 1: the memories themselves better. Jim asked, super good, Roland said,

2320
02:03:29,800 --> 02:03:32,800
Speaker 1: can I? Jim waved show a man keep the pipe.

2321
02:03:32,920 --> 02:03:35,480
Speaker 1: In fact, he pulled his index finger free from his

2322
02:03:35,560 --> 02:03:38,320
Speaker 1: hand and gave it to Roland. Keep that I'll grow

2323
02:03:38,400 --> 02:03:42,080
Speaker 1: a new one. Cool. Roland took the finger, flicked at

2324
02:03:42,080 --> 02:03:44,440
Speaker 1: a light, and took another deep poll of burning crack,

2325
02:03:45,520 --> 02:03:48,280
Speaker 1: so he said, as he exhaled a plume of crack smoke.

2326
02:03:48,720 --> 02:03:52,560
Speaker 1: The plan right, said Jim, Like I told you, Rock

2327
02:03:52,640 --> 02:03:54,800
Speaker 1: Creek is where we planned to hit him. The Edmund

2328
02:03:54,840 --> 02:03:57,640
Speaker 1: Fitzgerald here. Jim banged a hand on the side of

2329
02:03:57,680 --> 02:04:00,440
Speaker 1: the v tooll craft. It's gonna take you up around

2330
02:04:00,600 --> 02:04:03,680
Speaker 1: fifteen thousand feet and then drop you right on the heads.

2331
02:04:04,280 --> 02:04:07,040
Speaker 1: I expect we'll take some flak afterwards, but this bird

2332
02:04:07,120 --> 02:04:10,040
Speaker 1: can handle it. And besides, he raised his voice and

2333
02:04:10,160 --> 02:04:14,000
Speaker 1: jerked his head towards the cockpit. Anderson's piloting it today,

2334
02:04:14,080 --> 02:04:16,120
Speaker 1: and it's not like I give a shit if he does.

2335
02:04:17,000 --> 02:04:19,480
Speaker 1: In response, the nosegun wheeled around on its mount and

2336
02:04:19,560 --> 02:04:22,040
Speaker 1: locked onto Jim. There was a clinking sound as it

2337
02:04:22,160 --> 02:04:27,520
Speaker 1: ratcheted around into its chamber. Jim rolled his eyes. Fucking pilots. Anyway,

2338
02:04:27,720 --> 02:04:29,760
Speaker 1: me and my people will be with the Roland. Fuck

2339
02:04:29,800 --> 02:04:33,480
Speaker 1: folks getting shot at. He tapped Roland's helmet. When we're

2340
02:04:33,520 --> 02:04:35,920
Speaker 1: ready for you, I'll ping you both and Anderson can

2341
02:04:36,000 --> 02:04:39,640
Speaker 1: drop you on top of the asses. So Roland asked,

2342
02:04:40,040 --> 02:04:41,920
Speaker 1: I've just got a fall on top of a hostile

2343
02:04:42,000 --> 02:04:49,520
Speaker 1: army and start shooting. Jim nodded, right, then, let's get started. Manny.

2344
02:04:50,480 --> 02:04:53,400
Speaker 1: Years ago and what now seemed like another life, Manny

2345
02:04:53,480 --> 02:04:56,040
Speaker 1: had gone to watch an outdoor movie at Silker Park

2346
02:04:56,200 --> 02:04:59,640
Speaker 1: in Austin Ghostbusters. He was pretty sure it had been

2347
02:04:59,680 --> 02:05:03,120
Speaker 1: ghost Busters. Hundreds and hundreds of people had shown up,

2348
02:05:03,320 --> 02:05:06,000
Speaker 1: families with children, and couples on dates, and so so

2349
02:05:06,200 --> 02:05:09,720
Speaker 1: many dogs. The sound hadn't been great, and the projectionist

2350
02:05:09,800 --> 02:05:12,440
Speaker 1: could have been better, but he remembered the evening fondly.

2351
02:05:14,440 --> 02:05:17,480
Speaker 1: Rolling fuck before a battle reminded him of that experience.

2352
02:05:18,040 --> 02:05:20,720
Speaker 1: The people were different. Very few of them were children,

2353
02:05:21,080 --> 02:05:24,440
Speaker 1: but clusters of citizens, friend groups, and families and families

2354
02:05:24,480 --> 02:05:27,000
Speaker 1: of friends had set up little viewing nooks across the

2355
02:05:27,040 --> 02:05:29,720
Speaker 1: wheeled city itself and in the field in front of it.

2356
02:05:30,240 --> 02:05:32,360
Speaker 1: The whole scene would have been idyllic if they weren't

2357
02:05:32,360 --> 02:05:36,000
Speaker 1: about to watch a battle. The vehicle's cavalry and infantry

2358
02:05:36,080 --> 02:05:39,440
Speaker 1: were already almost out of view. He could just barely

2359
02:05:39,600 --> 02:05:43,080
Speaker 1: see shapes out on the horizon. Setting up firing positions

2360
02:05:43,120 --> 02:05:45,960
Speaker 1: on top of buildings in Rock Creek. They moved so

2361
02:05:46,120 --> 02:05:49,000
Speaker 1: damn fast. Many didn't think he'd ever get used to

2362
02:05:49,080 --> 02:05:51,920
Speaker 1: the pace of post human life. He knew Topaths and

2363
02:05:52,000 --> 02:05:54,960
Speaker 1: skullfucker Mike were somewhere out there. He knew where they'd

2364
02:05:55,000 --> 02:05:57,880
Speaker 1: be soon, and in spite of their confidence, he worried

2365
02:05:57,960 --> 02:06:02,520
Speaker 1: for them more than anyone. He worried for Roland. Drinks

2366
02:06:02,600 --> 02:06:05,600
Speaker 1: for everyone. Donald Ferris said he had a tray full

2367
02:06:05,600 --> 02:06:07,920
Speaker 1: of drinks in his hands, fresh from the bar. He

2368
02:06:08,000 --> 02:06:10,840
Speaker 1: sat down next to Nana Yazi and smiled. Manny and

2369
02:06:10,920 --> 02:06:12,960
Speaker 1: Sasha sat on the opposite side of them in a

2370
02:06:13,040 --> 02:06:15,839
Speaker 1: booth in the main roller's bar, looking out over Waco.

2371
02:06:16,640 --> 02:06:20,200
Speaker 1: Donald started handing out beverages, first, bubbly drinks and long

2372
02:06:20,320 --> 02:06:25,120
Speaker 1: brown bottles that smelled familiar Coca cola, the old documentarian said,

2373
02:06:25,440 --> 02:06:28,200
Speaker 1: not the stuff they still sell all over, the original

2374
02:06:28,280 --> 02:06:31,720
Speaker 1: recipe with cocaine and alcohol. It's great ship. We go

2375
02:06:31,920 --> 02:06:35,240
Speaker 1: through gallons of it every day. Nana Yazzi took a

2376
02:06:35,280 --> 02:06:38,360
Speaker 1: sip from hers and smiled. It's quite good, she said,

2377
02:06:38,760 --> 02:06:42,440
Speaker 1: and the intoxicating effect is mild. Our chromed comrades have

2378
02:06:42,520 --> 02:06:47,040
Speaker 1: a stronger variant. Of course, we're all humans here. Donald smiled.

2379
02:06:47,200 --> 02:06:50,640
Speaker 1: More or less. Manny took one of the cokes, sipped it,

2380
02:06:50,720 --> 02:06:54,000
Speaker 1: and nodded to Sasha. It's really good. He said, you

2381
02:06:54,040 --> 02:06:57,080
Speaker 1: should try it. It was good and it didn't seem

2382
02:06:57,120 --> 02:06:59,800
Speaker 1: like it was too strong. Manny took another sip and

2383
02:07:00,080 --> 02:07:02,360
Speaker 1: mild as Sasha grabbed her bottle and took a gulp.

2384
02:07:02,760 --> 02:07:05,280
Speaker 1: She seemed to like it. There was a loud pop

2385
02:07:05,360 --> 02:07:08,480
Speaker 1: sound from somewhere up above. Manny tensed up, but then

2386
02:07:08,560 --> 02:07:10,840
Speaker 1: he tracked its origin to one of the landing pads

2387
02:07:10,880 --> 02:07:13,240
Speaker 1: that extended from a gantry tower at least a hundred

2388
02:07:13,320 --> 02:07:16,840
Speaker 1: feet above them. Dozens of small black shapes flitted out

2389
02:07:16,920 --> 02:07:19,600
Speaker 1: from it and soared forward oft in the same direction

2390
02:07:19,680 --> 02:07:24,000
Speaker 1: the army had gone spy drones. Donald Ferris explained, they'll

2391
02:07:24,040 --> 02:07:26,120
Speaker 1: be at the front by the time the fighting starts.

2392
02:07:27,000 --> 02:07:30,280
Speaker 1: This all seemed so weird, Sasha said, I think I

2393
02:07:30,400 --> 02:07:33,040
Speaker 1: read about people doing something similar during the Civil War.

2394
02:07:33,520 --> 02:07:36,200
Speaker 1: They'd set up picnic blankets on hills overlooking the battle.

2395
02:07:36,880 --> 02:07:40,200
Speaker 1: Donald Ferris grunted and shifted in his seat a bit awkwardly.

2396
02:07:40,680 --> 02:07:43,440
Speaker 1: Nanny Yazzi smiled and said, it is a bit like that.

2397
02:07:44,080 --> 02:07:46,880
Speaker 1: The differences that we're not doing this to be voyeurs.

2398
02:07:47,240 --> 02:07:51,640
Speaker 1: We won't see much fighting. What will we see? Just watch?

2399
02:07:51,960 --> 02:07:54,680
Speaker 1: Donald Ferris said, and reached for a tiny shot glass

2400
02:07:54,720 --> 02:07:57,880
Speaker 1: filled with a yellow brown liquid. But ever drink first,

2401
02:07:58,080 --> 02:08:01,280
Speaker 1: it'll help. Many took one of the shot glasses and

2402
02:08:01,360 --> 02:08:03,840
Speaker 1: moved to belt it down, but Nanyazzie put her hand

2403
02:08:03,920 --> 02:08:08,600
Speaker 1: on his. That's fine tequila son, I'd recommend sipping. So

2404
02:08:08,720 --> 02:08:11,720
Speaker 1: he sipped it and it was good. The burn rolled

2405
02:08:11,760 --> 02:08:14,200
Speaker 1: down his throat and mixed with the cocaine and alcohol

2406
02:08:14,280 --> 02:08:18,080
Speaker 1: from the Coca cola. A comfortable, warm haze settled over Manny.

2407
02:08:18,440 --> 02:08:20,920
Speaker 1: He was about to encourage Sasha to try some when

2408
02:08:20,960 --> 02:08:24,440
Speaker 1: another sound intruded. The high hum of drones filled the air.

2409
02:08:25,040 --> 02:08:28,720
Speaker 1: Manny fought down an irrational surge of anxiety. He wasn't

2410
02:08:28,800 --> 02:08:31,480
Speaker 1: sure he'd ever feel comfortable with the sound of drones again.

2411
02:08:32,360 --> 02:08:34,640
Speaker 1: Each of these drones was the size and rough density

2412
02:08:34,680 --> 02:08:37,400
Speaker 1: of a rottweiler. They flew in pairs, connected by what

2413
02:08:37,520 --> 02:08:40,280
Speaker 1: looked like a thick, bindy white tube that hung between them.

2414
02:08:40,720 --> 02:08:43,200
Speaker 1: Several pairs settled in front of the main roller's bar

2415
02:08:43,360 --> 02:08:45,400
Speaker 1: in a stable hover with a whirr and a click.

2416
02:08:45,520 --> 02:08:48,080
Speaker 1: The white tubes in between them opened up and unfurled

2417
02:08:48,160 --> 02:08:52,360
Speaker 1: into screens. A second later, the screens lit up. Manny

2418
02:08:52,400 --> 02:08:55,440
Speaker 1: took another sip of truly fabulous tequila and looked back

2419
02:08:55,520 --> 02:08:59,680
Speaker 1: across his new friends. Donald Ferris looked somber as Solomon

2420
02:08:59,760 --> 02:09:03,520
Speaker 1: Gray as a granite wall. Nana Yazi seemed almost excited,

2421
02:09:03,560 --> 02:09:05,600
Speaker 1: as if she'd reached the first jump scare in a

2422
02:09:05,640 --> 02:09:09,280
Speaker 1: good horror movie. Sasha hadn't touched her liquor, She didn't

2423
02:09:09,280 --> 02:09:11,080
Speaker 1: seem to have taken more than a few SIPs of

2424
02:09:11,160 --> 02:09:14,160
Speaker 1: the coke. Many found himself wondering what would happen to

2425
02:09:14,240 --> 02:09:16,520
Speaker 1: her after all this? What am I going to do

2426
02:09:16,600 --> 02:09:19,200
Speaker 1: after this? Many realized with a bit of shock that

2427
02:09:19,280 --> 02:09:21,960
Speaker 1: Oscar's wife was the only person he'd messaged in almost

2428
02:09:22,000 --> 02:09:24,840
Speaker 1: a week. He hadn't sent anything to his family or

2429
02:09:25,040 --> 02:09:27,640
Speaker 1: his friends back in Austin. He'd had the excuse of

2430
02:09:27,720 --> 02:09:30,360
Speaker 1: his deck being deactivated when he'd been inside the Kingdom,

2431
02:09:30,640 --> 02:09:32,879
Speaker 1: But now that he was back and his deck was functional,

2432
02:09:33,240 --> 02:09:36,600
Speaker 1: his lack of communication felt less and less defensible. Just

2433
02:09:36,800 --> 02:09:39,400
Speaker 1: thinking about Aisha and the terrible news he still had

2434
02:09:39,480 --> 02:09:41,920
Speaker 1: yet to deliver brought a spike of anxiety that was

2435
02:09:42,000 --> 02:09:45,480
Speaker 1: somehow worse than his fear over the coming battle. There's

2436
02:09:45,480 --> 02:09:47,920
Speaker 1: a certain sound that happens when a large group of

2437
02:09:48,000 --> 02:09:51,400
Speaker 1: people all noticed something at the same time. That sound

2438
02:09:51,480 --> 02:09:54,160
Speaker 1: shook Manny out of his contemplation and alerted him to

2439
02:09:54,200 --> 02:09:56,919
Speaker 1: the fact that something had started to happen on the screens.

2440
02:09:57,520 --> 02:09:59,600
Speaker 1: He looked up, and he saw that all the screens

2441
02:09:59,640 --> 02:10:01,960
Speaker 1: scattered it around the city and hovering over the field

2442
02:10:02,040 --> 02:10:05,240
Speaker 1: now shared the same images. One side of the screens

2443
02:10:05,280 --> 02:10:08,160
Speaker 1: displayed a video feed of a man in full tactical armor,

2444
02:10:08,440 --> 02:10:10,920
Speaker 1: his eyes covered by goggles and his head protected by

2445
02:10:10,960 --> 02:10:13,640
Speaker 1: a black helmet. He was seated in the cupola of

2446
02:10:13,680 --> 02:10:17,160
Speaker 1: an armored vehicle rolling fast over the highway. Next to

2447
02:10:17,240 --> 02:10:19,440
Speaker 1: that video feed was a picture of the same man,

2448
02:10:19,760 --> 02:10:23,160
Speaker 1: sand's armor and more peaceful days. He was fair skinned,

2449
02:10:23,200 --> 02:10:25,800
Speaker 1: with red hair and an easy smile. He wore a

2450
02:10:25,880 --> 02:10:29,480
Speaker 1: shirt that many guests signified his allegiance to some sports team.

2451
02:10:29,480 --> 02:10:32,440
Speaker 1: In the am fed the images sat there alone for

2452
02:10:32,520 --> 02:10:37,360
Speaker 1: a second. Manny looked out at the horizon towards Rock Creek,

2453
02:10:37,400 --> 02:10:41,000
Speaker 1: where Rolling Fox soldiers had embedded themselves. He saw three black,

2454
02:10:41,080 --> 02:10:43,680
Speaker 1: gray contrails rush out from an old office building and

2455
02:10:43,760 --> 02:10:46,960
Speaker 1: out towards the highway. The Heavenly Kingdom's forces were just

2456
02:10:47,200 --> 02:10:50,640
Speaker 1: barely visible to his naked eye, tiny ant size tanks

2457
02:10:50,680 --> 02:10:54,280
Speaker 1: and transports. All three rockets hit, and the black smoke

2458
02:10:54,360 --> 02:10:57,320
Speaker 1: of the detonations obscured the head of the vehicle column,

2459
02:10:58,200 --> 02:11:01,000
Speaker 1: and then on the video feed, a rocket burst right

2460
02:11:01,040 --> 02:11:03,880
Speaker 1: above the man in the cupola. Manny watched as he

2461
02:11:04,000 --> 02:11:06,920
Speaker 1: was torn apart in a hail of shrapnel. The video

2462
02:11:07,120 --> 02:11:09,839
Speaker 1: and the still image of his smiling face were replaced

2463
02:11:09,880 --> 02:11:12,160
Speaker 1: a second later by a looping video of an older

2464
02:11:12,200 --> 02:11:14,920
Speaker 1: man playing with a baby girl. He picked her up

2465
02:11:14,920 --> 02:11:17,080
Speaker 1: and spun her around, and the camera zoomed in on

2466
02:11:17,200 --> 02:11:20,440
Speaker 1: his joyous smile. Another video played of a younger man

2467
02:11:20,600 --> 02:11:24,400
Speaker 1: attending his high school graduation. More videos and still images

2468
02:11:24,440 --> 02:11:27,240
Speaker 1: popped up, displaying gentle moments in the lives of at

2469
02:11:27,320 --> 02:11:30,480
Speaker 1: least a dozen different men, and then all the screens

2470
02:11:30,520 --> 02:11:34,880
Speaker 1: cut violently to video of and exploding a PC. Manny

2471
02:11:35,000 --> 02:11:39,080
Speaker 1: jerked back in surprise. He saw that Sasha had reacted similarly.

2472
02:11:39,520 --> 02:11:44,200
Speaker 1: Naniazi just sat and stared, her face unreadable. Donald Ferris frowned,

2473
02:11:44,440 --> 02:11:46,840
Speaker 1: and when he noticed Manny looking back at him, he

2474
02:11:46,920 --> 02:11:49,360
Speaker 1: waved a gentle hand towards the screen and mouthed the

2475
02:11:49,400 --> 02:11:53,560
Speaker 1: word watch. Manny turned back to the screens in time

2476
02:11:53,640 --> 02:11:56,760
Speaker 1: to see them populate with more faces and more looping videos.

2477
02:11:57,360 --> 02:12:01,160
Speaker 1: He watched his children open birthday presents and sell alebrated graduations.

2478
02:12:01,440 --> 02:12:03,760
Speaker 1: He saw young men pose with team mates or hug

2479
02:12:03,800 --> 02:12:06,840
Speaker 1: their kids. He saw pizza parties and Christmas mornings and

2480
02:12:06,960 --> 02:12:11,360
Speaker 1: laughter and love, and then another vehicle detonated. The screen cleared,

2481
02:12:11,600 --> 02:12:14,360
Speaker 1: and then it populated again with scenes from four More

2482
02:12:14,480 --> 02:12:17,960
Speaker 1: Lives next to video of a detonating Leopard tank. The

2483
02:12:18,080 --> 02:12:20,880
Speaker 1: parade of shattered lives went on as rockets, mortars, and

2484
02:12:20,960 --> 02:12:24,560
Speaker 1: now gunfire lashed out from Rock creaking towards the vehicle column.

2485
02:12:25,200 --> 02:12:27,839
Speaker 1: Rowland isn't even there yet. This is just the beginning.

2486
02:12:28,520 --> 02:12:31,280
Speaker 1: Manny stared out, numb and queasy, and watched as the

2487
02:12:31,320 --> 02:12:35,200
Speaker 1: Heavenly Kingdom's armored spearhead changed direction and began the drive

2488
02:12:35,280 --> 02:12:38,960
Speaker 1: to Rock Creek. They were firing now, too, pouring explosive

2489
02:12:39,000 --> 02:12:42,240
Speaker 1: shot and long range rockets into the neighborhood. This is

2490
02:12:42,320 --> 02:12:44,920
Speaker 1: what you wanted, he reminded himself, as the parade of

2491
02:12:45,000 --> 02:12:51,200
Speaker 1: death sped up Rowland. It was downright cold at fifteen

2492
02:12:51,280 --> 02:12:54,120
Speaker 1: thousand feet Rowland relished the bite in the air and

2493
02:12:54,280 --> 02:12:57,120
Speaker 1: stared out the Edmund Fitzgerald's side window. As he hit

2494
02:12:57,200 --> 02:13:00,360
Speaker 1: Jim's crack pipe for the last time, his sin apses

2495
02:13:00,440 --> 02:13:03,280
Speaker 1: bubbled with dopamine. Now he couldn't stop his lips from

2496
02:13:03,360 --> 02:13:05,600
Speaker 1: curling up into a grin as he looked out onto

2497
02:13:05,640 --> 02:13:09,280
Speaker 1: the distant fields below. Five minutes to drop point, the

2498
02:13:09,360 --> 02:13:12,840
Speaker 1: pilot's voice echoed through the cargo compartment. Normally it would

2499
02:13:12,880 --> 02:13:15,560
Speaker 1: have held an array of smart bombs or close AsSalt drones.

2500
02:13:16,000 --> 02:13:19,600
Speaker 1: Today it held only Rowland. He stepped forward towards the

2501
02:13:19,680 --> 02:13:22,280
Speaker 1: rear bay doors of the craft. The feeling of the

2502
02:13:22,360 --> 02:13:25,360
Speaker 1: cold deck under his feet and the elevated hemoglobin levels

2503
02:13:25,360 --> 02:13:27,840
Speaker 1: in his blood brought the threat of another rush of

2504
02:13:27,920 --> 02:13:31,040
Speaker 1: memory to Roland's mind. The dizzy glee of the crack

2505
02:13:31,120 --> 02:13:35,000
Speaker 1: hi helped him shrug it off combat zone, battle and

2506
02:13:35,160 --> 02:13:39,200
Speaker 1: battle drugs. He tried to temper his excitement. He didn't

2507
02:13:39,240 --> 02:13:41,280
Speaker 1: want to crave that high as much as he did.

2508
02:13:41,800 --> 02:13:44,280
Speaker 1: It'll just take a few seconds, he told himself, and

2509
02:13:44,400 --> 02:13:47,520
Speaker 1: then I can disengage. He could already feel the Heavenly

2510
02:13:47,600 --> 02:13:51,080
Speaker 1: Kingdom's army far below settling in their nose. Had been

2511
02:13:51,120 --> 02:13:54,680
Speaker 1: bloodied by rolling Fox rocketry, but they'd suffered relatively few

2512
02:13:54,760 --> 02:13:58,000
Speaker 1: casualties so far. The plan did seem to be working.

2513
02:13:58,440 --> 02:14:01,000
Speaker 1: Dozens of vehicles and thousands of men had already moved

2514
02:14:01,040 --> 02:14:04,440
Speaker 1: into position around the Rock Creek neighborhood. Roland could hear

2515
02:14:04,480 --> 02:14:07,600
Speaker 1: the sounds of their mortars, RECOILSS rifles and assault guns

2516
02:14:07,680 --> 02:14:10,880
Speaker 1: opening fire. He reached out with his senses and tried

2517
02:14:10,920 --> 02:14:13,760
Speaker 1: to find Topaz and Skullfucker Mike in the mess, but

2518
02:14:13,880 --> 02:14:16,720
Speaker 1: their scents and heat profiles were obscured by shell fire

2519
02:14:16,760 --> 02:14:19,680
Speaker 1: and smoke. Roland was able to locate Jim, as well

2520
02:14:19,720 --> 02:14:22,600
Speaker 1: as Bigsby and his assault team. They were hunkered down

2521
02:14:22,680 --> 02:14:25,200
Speaker 1: at the edge of the neighborhood, embedded in an abandoned

2522
02:14:25,240 --> 02:14:28,240
Speaker 1: apartment complex, and engaged in a furious firefight with the

2523
02:14:28,280 --> 02:14:32,240
Speaker 1: Heavenly Kingdom's vanguard. Roland could smell the dopamine rushing into

2524
02:14:32,320 --> 02:14:35,800
Speaker 1: jim synapses from fifteen thousand feet in the air. His

2525
02:14:35,920 --> 02:14:38,640
Speaker 1: heart began to beat faster. He felt his left hand

2526
02:14:38,760 --> 02:14:42,440
Speaker 1: start to shake, not in fear, but in delirious anticipation

2527
02:14:42,520 --> 02:14:45,560
Speaker 1: of the battle drugs. Another flash of memory took him,

2528
02:14:45,640 --> 02:14:47,920
Speaker 1: and his hand shook so bad he could barely hold

2529
02:14:47,960 --> 02:14:50,600
Speaker 1: the needle straight. He'd already missed the vain troye. God

2530
02:14:50,640 --> 02:14:52,960
Speaker 1: darn it, God damn it, he cursed, before taking a

2531
02:14:53,040 --> 02:14:56,360
Speaker 1: deep breath and preparing himself to try again. Sixty seconds

2532
02:14:56,440 --> 02:14:59,640
Speaker 1: to drop. The pilot's voice pulled Roland back into the moment.

2533
02:15:00,080 --> 02:15:02,480
Speaker 1: That memory had felt weird. It had been blurry in

2534
02:15:02,560 --> 02:15:05,280
Speaker 1: his mind's eye, but Roland's arms and hands had felt smaller.

2535
02:15:05,360 --> 02:15:08,360
Speaker 1: Then Was I shooting up dope as a teenager? He

2536
02:15:08,480 --> 02:15:12,040
Speaker 1: knew the answer, based on his current predilections, was probably.

2537
02:15:13,000 --> 02:15:15,520
Speaker 1: Roland shook his mind away from the past and focused

2538
02:15:15,560 --> 02:15:19,120
Speaker 1: again on the war downstairs. The Kingdom had moved quickly.

2539
02:15:19,360 --> 02:15:21,800
Speaker 1: He guessed around four thousand of their men were already

2540
02:15:21,880 --> 02:15:25,600
Speaker 1: in position. These would be the elite, their most veteran fighters,

2541
02:15:25,880 --> 02:15:28,720
Speaker 1: the soldiers wearing power armor or writing in real armored

2542
02:15:28,760 --> 02:15:31,760
Speaker 1: transports and not up gunned trucks. He could feel the

2543
02:15:31,840 --> 02:15:34,440
Speaker 1: rest of the Kingdom's army flung out far behind them,

2544
02:15:34,600 --> 02:15:37,080
Speaker 1: in a long tail that stretched back to the brazos.

2545
02:15:37,760 --> 02:15:40,000
Speaker 1: How many of these men will die to day? How

2546
02:15:40,080 --> 02:15:44,080
Speaker 1: many are already dead? Ten seconds his nose caught the

2547
02:15:44,160 --> 02:15:46,800
Speaker 1: distant gasolene reek of a flame thrower opening up on

2548
02:15:46,840 --> 02:15:50,000
Speaker 1: a squad of advancing martyrs. That's gotta be Jim right.

2549
02:15:50,640 --> 02:15:53,720
Speaker 1: Five seconds the jump light turned from red to green,

2550
02:15:53,840 --> 02:15:56,000
Speaker 1: and the bomb bay doors opened with a rush of

2551
02:15:56,120 --> 02:16:00,360
Speaker 1: air and wind that cracked the uncovered skin on Roland's face. Three,

2552
02:16:00,800 --> 02:16:03,080
Speaker 1: said the pilot. He stepped out to the ledge and

2553
02:16:03,160 --> 02:16:06,080
Speaker 1: planted his feet. The world whipped by around them at

2554
02:16:06,080 --> 02:16:09,480
Speaker 1: a maddening speed. Roland looked down, focused and saw the

2555
02:16:09,520 --> 02:16:13,160
Speaker 1: Heavenly Kingdom's army underneath him. Dozens of vehicles and thousands

2556
02:16:13,200 --> 02:16:15,280
Speaker 1: of men had taken up position in a large park

2557
02:16:15,320 --> 02:16:18,960
Speaker 1: and several buildings surrounding Rock Creek. Two large gatherings of

2558
02:16:19,040 --> 02:16:21,280
Speaker 1: mortars and a trio of Leopard tanks made up the

2559
02:16:21,320 --> 02:16:24,760
Speaker 1: bulk of the artillery now pouring fire into rolling Fox forces.

2560
02:16:25,320 --> 02:16:28,200
Speaker 1: There were also several large field guns and rocket batteries

2561
02:16:28,320 --> 02:16:30,920
Speaker 1: currently being bolted into place in an old parking lot

2562
02:16:31,040 --> 02:16:34,840
Speaker 1: behind the park. Competent Roland was impressed by how the

2563
02:16:34,959 --> 02:16:37,800
Speaker 1: Kingdom's soldiers had parked their armored transports to help complete

2564
02:16:37,840 --> 02:16:41,160
Speaker 1: a fortress wall around one side of Rock Creek. They'd

2565
02:16:41,160 --> 02:16:43,840
Speaker 1: sent a few probing attacks of power armored troopers, but

2566
02:16:44,160 --> 02:16:46,840
Speaker 1: he could tell they wouldn't launch a full assault until

2567
02:16:46,879 --> 02:16:50,480
Speaker 1: they'd flatten the neighborhood to A trickle of endorphins and

2568
02:16:50,560 --> 02:16:54,200
Speaker 1: serotonin joined the soggy mush of dopamine and Roland synapses.

2569
02:16:54,640 --> 02:16:57,480
Speaker 1: He closed his eyes and with a thought, activated the

2570
02:16:57,520 --> 02:17:00,720
Speaker 1: sundry weapons systems that Sardar had wired into his body.

2571
02:17:01,280 --> 02:17:03,640
Speaker 1: The missiles and their pods hummed, and the barrels around

2572
02:17:03,680 --> 02:17:06,800
Speaker 1: his right arm chimed in readiness. Lyrics from a half

2573
02:17:06,879 --> 02:17:11,560
Speaker 1: remembered song flitted across his mind. Time time, time for

2574
02:17:11,680 --> 02:17:16,400
Speaker 1: another peaceful war. One. Roland stepped off the back of

2575
02:17:16,480 --> 02:17:22,640
Speaker 1: the craft and into the skies embrace Sasha. The faces

2576
02:17:22,720 --> 02:17:25,920
Speaker 1: flashed by, along with video clips and curated posts from

2577
02:17:26,000 --> 02:17:29,520
Speaker 1: social media, and of course, scenes of death. Some of

2578
02:17:29,600 --> 02:17:31,920
Speaker 1: the men died from sniper fire, cut down as they

2579
02:17:32,000 --> 02:17:35,400
Speaker 1: ran for cover. Others died in long range firefights or

2580
02:17:35,440 --> 02:17:38,680
Speaker 1: from shrapnel. The pace of death had gradually risen over

2581
02:17:38,760 --> 02:17:41,440
Speaker 1: the course of the battle. Some of that was due

2582
02:17:41,480 --> 02:17:43,480
Speaker 1: to the fact that the Martyrs had sent in several

2583
02:17:43,520 --> 02:17:46,600
Speaker 1: assault teams to test the metal of the defenders. Those

2584
02:17:46,680 --> 02:17:49,879
Speaker 1: men had died fast and badly. Many of them had

2585
02:17:49,920 --> 02:17:52,320
Speaker 1: been burnt alive. The sight of it all should have

2586
02:17:52,400 --> 02:17:55,840
Speaker 1: horrified her. She wanted it to horrify her. Everyone else

2587
02:17:55,879 --> 02:17:58,320
Speaker 1: at the table had tears in their eyes. Even Nanny

2588
02:17:58,360 --> 02:18:00,680
Speaker 1: Yazzi was crying, and that lady looked like she'd been

2589
02:18:00,720 --> 02:18:03,480
Speaker 1: through some ship. Since when a you curse like that?

2590
02:18:04,400 --> 02:18:06,760
Speaker 1: Sasha felt a pang of guilt at how easily the

2591
02:18:06,840 --> 02:18:09,960
Speaker 1: swear word had come to her mind. Then she felt really,

2592
02:18:10,200 --> 02:18:14,800
Speaker 1: really stupid. She was literally watching people die. She'd killed

2593
02:18:14,879 --> 02:18:17,960
Speaker 1: two human beings less than forty eight hours ago. What

2594
02:18:18,160 --> 02:18:21,640
Speaker 1: the fuck does cursing matter? But still the guilt was there.

2595
02:18:22,080 --> 02:18:24,720
Speaker 1: Perhaps what she felt was a betrayal of her past self,

2596
02:18:25,360 --> 02:18:27,920
Speaker 1: or maybe she was just dumb. Sasha shook it off.

2597
02:18:28,240 --> 02:18:31,240
Speaker 1: She tried to focus on the carnage. It was horrible,

2598
02:18:31,520 --> 02:18:34,800
Speaker 1: she knew that, in a detached, academic sense. She couldn't

2599
02:18:34,879 --> 02:18:37,640
Speaker 1: quite feel the horror, though. It was as if shooting

2600
02:18:37,720 --> 02:18:40,959
Speaker 1: Darrell had opened up a great, gnawing hole inside her heart,

2601
02:18:41,320 --> 02:18:44,280
Speaker 1: and that hole had spread like a black film over

2602
02:18:44,360 --> 02:18:48,200
Speaker 1: her entire body. All her feelings seemed so distant now.

2603
02:18:49,120 --> 02:18:51,760
Speaker 1: She wanted to cry about Darrell. She wanted to cry

2604
02:18:51,800 --> 02:18:54,840
Speaker 1: about this. She wanted to cry for Susannah and Anne

2605
02:18:55,120 --> 02:18:57,640
Speaker 1: left alone in that living hell of a kingdom. She

2606
02:18:57,760 --> 02:19:00,960
Speaker 1: wanted to cry for herself too, but she couldn't, and

2607
02:19:01,040 --> 02:19:04,160
Speaker 1: so she didn't. Instead, she sat and watched as the

2608
02:19:04,200 --> 02:19:07,280
Speaker 1: warrior gods of this strange city helped the martyrs earn

2609
02:19:07,360 --> 02:19:11,119
Speaker 1: their title. Sasha looked out at the citizens of Rolling Fuck.

2610
02:19:11,640 --> 02:19:13,720
Speaker 1: Most of the people she could see were crying, and

2611
02:19:13,840 --> 02:19:17,880
Speaker 1: even those who weren't looked shaken, horrified. The perpetual party

2612
02:19:17,920 --> 02:19:20,560
Speaker 1: atmosphere she'd come to associate with the City of Wheels

2613
02:19:20,680 --> 02:19:23,480
Speaker 1: was gone. It had been suspended to allow for pain.

2614
02:19:24,000 --> 02:19:27,320
Speaker 1: Sasha wanted to hurt with them, but instead she thought

2615
02:19:27,360 --> 02:19:30,040
Speaker 1: about the offer that man Jim had made. She thought

2616
02:19:30,040 --> 02:19:32,600
Speaker 1: about the squeaking sound of the razor blade ripping out

2617
02:19:32,640 --> 02:19:36,040
Speaker 1: of Roland's forearm. She'd seen the way he fought. She

2618
02:19:36,200 --> 02:19:38,240
Speaker 1: longed for the high that had come with the violence

2619
02:19:38,280 --> 02:19:40,400
Speaker 1: and the clinic, but she couldn't stand more of the

2620
02:19:40,440 --> 02:19:43,280
Speaker 1: guilt killing Darrell had brought her. I could be a medic,

2621
02:19:43,520 --> 02:19:46,800
Speaker 1: Sasha thought, Jim said so. She looked up to the

2622
02:19:46,879 --> 02:19:50,119
Speaker 1: screens again at the parade of death. She wasn't sure

2623
02:19:50,160 --> 02:19:52,520
Speaker 1: if any of the dead had been Rolling Fox soldiers.

2624
02:19:52,840 --> 02:19:55,400
Speaker 1: It didn't look like it, But as she settled back

2625
02:19:55,440 --> 02:19:58,840
Speaker 1: in to watch, something glitched on the screens. The stream

2626
02:19:58,879 --> 02:20:01,320
Speaker 1: of faces sped up well passed the point where she

2627
02:20:01,360 --> 02:20:04,879
Speaker 1: could focus on any of them. Then the floe stopped, sputtered,

2628
02:20:05,120 --> 02:20:09,000
Speaker 1: the picture glitched out, and then righted itself. Whatever algorithm

2629
02:20:09,120 --> 02:20:12,400
Speaker 1: handled the show eventually stabilized, and the individual images on

2630
02:20:12,520 --> 02:20:16,240
Speaker 1: each screen shrank to accommodate many many more people, a

2631
02:20:16,360 --> 02:20:19,160
Speaker 1: flood of the dead and moments from their lives. The

2632
02:20:19,320 --> 02:20:22,400
Speaker 1: nature of their deaths changed too. Most of the first

2633
02:20:22,480 --> 02:20:25,599
Speaker 1: waves seemed to come from a sudden burst of explosive detonations,

2634
02:20:25,959 --> 02:20:29,240
Speaker 1: but the explosions stopped and the dying continued, and whatever

2635
02:20:29,400 --> 02:20:31,920
Speaker 1: was killing the martyrs now moved too fast to be

2636
02:20:32,040 --> 02:20:37,480
Speaker 1: clearly seen. What's happening? She heard Manny, ask, is something wrong? No,

2637
02:20:38,160 --> 02:20:46,840
Speaker 1: the old man said, that's just Rowland. Rowland. Forty five

2638
02:20:46,879 --> 02:20:49,800
Speaker 1: seconds after his feet hit dirt, Rowland was out of AMMO.

2639
02:20:50,200 --> 02:20:52,640
Speaker 1: He'd managed to do a tremendous amount of damage in

2640
02:20:52,680 --> 02:20:55,520
Speaker 1: that short span of time, decimating their mortar batteries with

2641
02:20:55,600 --> 02:20:58,320
Speaker 1: cluster rockets and clearing the martyrs away from their field

2642
02:20:58,360 --> 02:21:02,000
Speaker 1: guns with a mix of gas and fragmentation grenades. He'd

2643
02:21:02,000 --> 02:21:05,320
Speaker 1: emptied his machine gun and three long bursts, mostly aimed

2644
02:21:05,320 --> 02:21:07,720
Speaker 1: at the infantry who had been clustered behind the APC

2645
02:21:07,879 --> 02:21:11,480
Speaker 1: barricades when he landed. Then he'd taken to scavenging rifles

2646
02:21:11,520 --> 02:21:14,279
Speaker 1: from the dead and emptying those into targets of opportunity.

2647
02:21:14,920 --> 02:21:18,080
Speaker 1: By the one minute mark, Roland's hindbrain estimated he'd killed

2648
02:21:18,160 --> 02:21:21,480
Speaker 1: or wounded close to a thousand men. The sheer ferocity

2649
02:21:21,560 --> 02:21:24,400
Speaker 1: of his initial assault sent the Kingdom's forces reeling and

2650
02:21:24,520 --> 02:21:27,119
Speaker 1: cleared a circle of ground around him about two hundred

2651
02:21:27,200 --> 02:21:30,280
Speaker 1: meters wide. Roland finished gunning down the crew of a

2652
02:21:30,320 --> 02:21:33,200
Speaker 1: Patriot battery and ran for an abandoned anti tank rifle

2653
02:21:33,320 --> 02:21:36,560
Speaker 1: lying next to a pile of bodies. Bullets smacked into

2654
02:21:36,680 --> 02:21:40,040
Speaker 1: him from all sides, diversionary fire meant to distract him

2655
02:21:40,080 --> 02:21:43,480
Speaker 1: from the uparmored matdis APC that suddenly gunned its engine

2656
02:21:43,520 --> 02:21:46,240
Speaker 1: and barreled towards him. They think they can run me over,

2657
02:21:46,760 --> 02:21:50,200
Speaker 1: Roland realized, with something like glee, so he slowed down,

2658
02:21:50,600 --> 02:21:53,600
Speaker 1: reducing his sprint to something like a normal human running speed.

2659
02:21:53,680 --> 02:21:56,760
Speaker 1: While the vehicle closed the gap between them. He jumped

2660
02:21:56,760 --> 02:21:59,400
Speaker 1: at the last moment, landed on the APC's roof and

2661
02:21:59,480 --> 02:22:01,640
Speaker 1: punched a hole through the top armor with both of

2662
02:22:01,720 --> 02:22:04,360
Speaker 1: his fists. Then he gripped the ragged metal at the

2663
02:22:04,440 --> 02:22:07,400
Speaker 1: sides of the hole and tore the APC open. The

2664
02:22:07,480 --> 02:22:09,440
Speaker 1: smell of fear hid his nose as he tore through

2665
02:22:09,440 --> 02:22:12,000
Speaker 1: the concrete wall. The room held a dozen men, a

2666
02:22:12,120 --> 02:22:14,600
Speaker 1: mix of guards and officers. One man in the middle

2667
02:22:14,640 --> 02:22:17,200
Speaker 1: wore the stars of a general in the United States Army.

2668
02:22:17,720 --> 02:22:20,440
Speaker 1: Some of the soldiers screamed, a few opened fire, but

2669
02:22:20,520 --> 02:22:23,600
Speaker 1: the general just stood there while Roland killed. He didn't

2670
02:22:23,640 --> 02:22:27,320
Speaker 1: even blink. No fear poured off him. It's our fault,

2671
02:22:27,480 --> 02:22:29,640
Speaker 1: the general said once they were the only men left

2672
02:22:29,680 --> 02:22:32,600
Speaker 1: alive in the room. This is all our fault, Roland time.

2673
02:22:32,959 --> 02:22:36,000
Speaker 1: A bullet hit his face and Roland snapped back to reality.

2674
02:22:36,520 --> 02:22:38,720
Speaker 1: The men in the APC below him were dead. It

2675
02:22:38,840 --> 02:22:41,000
Speaker 1: looked as if he'd shredded them with his bare hands.

2676
02:22:41,400 --> 02:22:43,480
Speaker 1: But while he'd been lost in a memory, two more

2677
02:22:43,560 --> 02:22:46,320
Speaker 1: a PC's had roared up and disgorged a dozen power

2678
02:22:46,440 --> 02:22:50,240
Speaker 1: armored soldiers. They shot him with big guns, weapons meant

2679
02:22:50,280 --> 02:22:53,160
Speaker 1: to hurt monsters. He avoided some of their rounds, but

2680
02:22:53,280 --> 02:22:56,320
Speaker 1: not most. Roland lost the better part of his right hand,

2681
02:22:56,400 --> 02:22:59,080
Speaker 1: a chunk of his skull in his left knee. It hurt,

2682
02:22:59,280 --> 02:23:01,959
Speaker 1: but that didn't stop him. He leapt off the mattess,

2683
02:23:02,000 --> 02:23:04,760
Speaker 1: and soon he was among them, ripping off armored plates

2684
02:23:04,800 --> 02:23:08,240
Speaker 1: and shattering bones with his bare hands. The battle drugs

2685
02:23:08,360 --> 02:23:10,920
Speaker 1: poured into his brain and lit his synapses up like

2686
02:23:11,000 --> 02:23:14,720
Speaker 1: the New York skyline. Roland let out a terrible whooping

2687
02:23:14,800 --> 02:23:17,280
Speaker 1: cry that was half laugh and half scream, and he

2688
02:23:17,400 --> 02:23:19,800
Speaker 1: tore into the men as they tried in vain to

2689
02:23:19,920 --> 02:23:23,760
Speaker 1: do him real harm. It took nineteen seconds to eliminate

2690
02:23:23,800 --> 02:23:26,880
Speaker 1: them all. As the last man dropped, Roland realized with

2691
02:23:27,000 --> 02:23:29,920
Speaker 1: some surprise that he could hear Jim's voice, distant but

2692
02:23:30,040 --> 02:23:33,800
Speaker 1: getting closer. His old friend was charging, screaming out war whoops,

2693
02:23:33,840 --> 02:23:36,920
Speaker 1: and firing those big dumb pistols. Then he heard the

2694
02:23:36,959 --> 02:23:40,720
Speaker 1: familiar crack of a Dragonov sniper rifle Topaz his rifle.

2695
02:23:41,000 --> 02:23:43,480
Speaker 1: He remembered it now. The sound was as familiar to

2696
02:23:43,560 --> 02:23:46,200
Speaker 1: him as the voice of his own mother. Holy shit,

2697
02:23:46,760 --> 02:23:49,600
Speaker 1: Roland realized that, for the first time in years, he

2698
02:23:49,680 --> 02:23:52,720
Speaker 1: could remember the sound of his mother's voice. Her name

2699
02:23:52,800 --> 02:23:55,080
Speaker 1: and face were still lost in memory, but all this

2700
02:23:55,280 --> 02:23:58,440
Speaker 1: violence was clearly knocking some things loose. He took a

2701
02:23:58,480 --> 02:24:01,480
Speaker 1: step back behind one of the intact a PC's to

2702
02:24:01,600 --> 02:24:04,000
Speaker 1: avoid a spray of heavy machine gun fire and take

2703
02:24:04,080 --> 02:24:07,280
Speaker 1: stock of the situation. Now that he focused, he could

2704
02:24:07,320 --> 02:24:10,360
Speaker 1: feel the hoofbeats of rolling Fox cavalry. He could sense

2705
02:24:10,440 --> 02:24:12,760
Speaker 1: that many of the city's infantry had charged out from

2706
02:24:12,800 --> 02:24:15,360
Speaker 1: their positions in Rock Creek to meet the martyrs in

2707
02:24:15,480 --> 02:24:19,080
Speaker 1: hand to hand combat. The Heavenly Kingdom was not in flight,

2708
02:24:19,520 --> 02:24:22,560
Speaker 1: not yet, but they would break soon. Roland knew it.

2709
02:24:22,879 --> 02:24:25,400
Speaker 1: He could smell it in the air. Time to stop now,

2710
02:24:25,879 --> 02:24:28,560
Speaker 1: Time to let Skullfucker, Mike Topaz and the others finish

2711
02:24:28,640 --> 02:24:32,000
Speaker 1: the fight. He'd done enough, He knew he'd done enough,

2712
02:24:32,680 --> 02:24:37,080
Speaker 1: and yet the drugs. Even after just a few seconds

2713
02:24:37,120 --> 02:24:39,760
Speaker 1: out of direct combat, the high was starting to fade,

2714
02:24:40,000 --> 02:24:43,240
Speaker 1: and Roland wanted more. He thought about cracking another skull

2715
02:24:43,280 --> 02:24:45,640
Speaker 1: in his hand. Itched. He heard one of the martyrs

2716
02:24:45,680 --> 02:24:48,640
Speaker 1: open up with an automatic grenade launcher and thought about

2717
02:24:48,720 --> 02:24:51,640
Speaker 1: how good that gun would feel bucking against the meat

2718
02:24:51,680 --> 02:24:54,720
Speaker 1: of his shoulder. The man with the grenade launcher was close.

2719
02:24:55,120 --> 02:24:57,800
Speaker 1: Roland could close the distance between them and two, maybe

2720
02:24:57,879 --> 02:25:01,680
Speaker 1: three seconds, No you'd don't need to do this stop.

2721
02:25:02,040 --> 02:25:07,640
Speaker 1: Fewer people will die if you just Roland charged Manny.

2722
02:25:08,720 --> 02:25:11,760
Speaker 1: Manny had seen nine people killed by bullets or bombs.

2723
02:25:11,959 --> 02:25:14,160
Speaker 1: He'd seen a good deal more fresh corpses in the

2724
02:25:14,280 --> 02:25:17,480
Speaker 1: aftermath of firefights. He had a strong stomach, and he

2725
02:25:17,600 --> 02:25:21,240
Speaker 1: was not easily distressed by gore. The opening stages of

2726
02:25:21,320 --> 02:25:24,280
Speaker 1: this battle and the war ritual had been unsettling, but

2727
02:25:24,440 --> 02:25:28,920
Speaker 1: not because of the violence that changed soon after Roland landed.

2728
02:25:29,440 --> 02:25:33,720
Speaker 1: He's just tearing people apart, Manny said, without really meaning

2729
02:25:33,760 --> 02:25:37,120
Speaker 1: to say anything at all. Donald Ferris replied with a

2730
02:25:37,200 --> 02:25:41,840
Speaker 1: grim nod. It's hard to watch, Nanny Yazzi admitted, as

2731
02:25:41,879 --> 02:25:45,000
Speaker 1: another dozen lives and did messily on the screens before them.

2732
02:25:45,480 --> 02:25:48,440
Speaker 1: It'll be over soon, though they can't take much more

2733
02:25:48,520 --> 02:25:51,840
Speaker 1: of this. I haven't seen any of your people die yet,

2734
02:25:52,040 --> 02:25:56,880
Speaker 1: Sasha said, Is that abnormal? No. Donald's voice was grim.

2735
02:25:57,520 --> 02:25:59,520
Speaker 1: There will be a lot of injuries, but I don't

2736
02:25:59,560 --> 02:26:04,560
Speaker 1: expect rolling fuck will lose a single warrior, good, Sasha said,

2737
02:26:05,160 --> 02:26:08,760
Speaker 1: is it? Donald asked, of course, it's good. You silly fuck.

2738
02:26:09,120 --> 02:26:12,039
Speaker 1: Nana Yazzi snapped. That was the first time Manny could

2739
02:26:12,080 --> 02:26:16,120
Speaker 1: recall hearing her angry. I disagree, the old man grumbled.

2740
02:26:16,440 --> 02:26:19,080
Speaker 1: We're on a precipice here, the edge of a deep cliff.

2741
02:26:19,480 --> 02:26:21,800
Speaker 1: Every time this happens, we get a little closer to

2742
02:26:21,920 --> 02:26:26,279
Speaker 1: falling off. What do you mean, Manny asked, He means,

2743
02:26:26,680 --> 02:26:29,160
Speaker 1: Nana Yazzi replied, with a bit of drunken slur to

2744
02:26:29,240 --> 02:26:32,000
Speaker 1: her voice. He doesn't trust the people of this city.

2745
02:26:32,400 --> 02:26:34,280
Speaker 1: He thinks they'll get a taste for war and this

2746
02:26:34,400 --> 02:26:37,960
Speaker 1: whole experiment will turn into a nightmare. You can't trust

2747
02:26:38,040 --> 02:26:41,720
Speaker 1: the dark, Donald Ferris insisted, And we're in the dark here,

2748
02:26:42,360 --> 02:26:44,320
Speaker 1: He waved out at the field and the hundreds of

2749
02:26:44,360 --> 02:26:47,120
Speaker 1: people watching, the faces of the dead and tearful silence.

2750
02:26:47,640 --> 02:26:50,200
Speaker 1: Right now, we've managed to lash together a chain of

2751
02:26:50,320 --> 02:26:53,320
Speaker 1: rituals that keep them peaceful. How long can that last?

2752
02:26:54,120 --> 02:26:56,680
Speaker 1: Nani Yazzi glared at him, and then shifted her gaze

2753
02:26:56,720 --> 02:27:00,200
Speaker 1: to Manny. She pointed a finger at Donald. He things,

2754
02:27:00,240 --> 02:27:02,920
Speaker 1: we should have let your people die. I think we

2755
02:27:03,040 --> 02:27:07,400
Speaker 1: have a responsibility to intervene. I'm not saying we don't,

2756
02:27:07,680 --> 02:27:11,280
Speaker 1: Donald Ferris insisted, I'm just saying I've seen how this

2757
02:27:11,480 --> 02:27:17,120
Speaker 1: story ends. History may not repeat itself, but it does rhyme, pithy,

2758
02:27:17,440 --> 02:27:21,600
Speaker 1: Nana Yazzi said, but oh. She stopped mid sentence and

2759
02:27:21,760 --> 02:27:24,960
Speaker 1: stared out into the screens. Manny looked back just in

2760
02:27:25,080 --> 02:27:27,720
Speaker 1: time to watch the flow of dead faces speed up again.

2761
02:27:28,240 --> 02:27:31,039
Speaker 1: The screens jerked and shuddered to accommodate the new flow.

2762
02:27:31,560 --> 02:27:34,440
Speaker 1: Once they adjusted, Manny was shocked again at the violence

2763
02:27:34,520 --> 02:27:37,760
Speaker 1: on display. He saw men run through with lances, gutted

2764
02:27:37,760 --> 02:27:40,760
Speaker 1: by scimitars, burnt by napalm, and trampled under the spiked

2765
02:27:40,760 --> 02:27:46,280
Speaker 1: hoves of quadrufrats. Oh god, he moaned. Ah yes, Nani

2766
02:27:46,320 --> 02:27:49,560
Speaker 1: Yazzi sighed, that would be the cavalry. It won't be

2767
02:27:49,720 --> 02:27:55,600
Speaker 1: much longer now they're here to finish the job. Rowland,

2768
02:27:56,560 --> 02:27:59,840
Speaker 1: the knights of Rolling Funck were a sight to see, truly.

2769
02:28:00,200 --> 02:28:03,080
Speaker 1: It wasn't often that Roland came across something that registered

2770
02:28:03,120 --> 02:28:06,400
Speaker 1: as completely new to the deep, battered banks of his memory.

2771
02:28:06,920 --> 02:28:09,640
Speaker 1: But there was no deja vous here, no sense that

2772
02:28:09,720 --> 02:28:13,520
Speaker 1: he'd watched anything like it before. Rolling Fox riders worked

2773
02:28:13,560 --> 02:28:16,720
Speaker 1: in two and three person squads, mostly using a mix

2774
02:28:16,800 --> 02:28:19,920
Speaker 1: of hand grenades, small arms, flame throwers, and melee weapons

2775
02:28:20,000 --> 02:28:24,440
Speaker 1: for shock value. Their timing was exquisite. One hundred riders

2776
02:28:24,520 --> 02:28:27,320
Speaker 1: hit the martyrs at the same time. They didn't seem

2777
02:28:27,400 --> 02:28:31,280
Speaker 1: to have specific targets or goals beyond causing mayhem, but

2778
02:28:31,400 --> 02:28:34,879
Speaker 1: they did this expertly, spiking armored vehicles and field guns

2779
02:28:34,920 --> 02:28:38,600
Speaker 1: with white phosphorus charges and scattering any clusters of martyrs

2780
02:28:38,640 --> 02:28:42,480
Speaker 1: they could find. The woman Kashori rode past him, her

2781
02:28:42,520 --> 02:28:44,959
Speaker 1: face skinned and weeping blood as she lobbed a hand

2782
02:28:45,000 --> 02:28:48,199
Speaker 1: grenade towards a group of martyrs hunkered behind the shattered

2783
02:28:48,240 --> 02:28:51,680
Speaker 1: remains of a public restroom. She pulled a maqua wheedle

2784
02:28:51,920 --> 02:28:55,040
Speaker 1: with an iron trunk and gleaming obsidian blades free from

2785
02:28:55,080 --> 02:28:57,600
Speaker 1: her belt as her steed leapt over the burning wreckage

2786
02:28:57,640 --> 02:29:01,560
Speaker 1: of a jeep and bounded towards the survivor. Roland followed her,

2787
02:29:01,840 --> 02:29:04,280
Speaker 1: tearing a piece of rebar free from some rubble as

2788
02:29:04,320 --> 02:29:07,200
Speaker 1: he charged. The restrooms were at one end of what

2789
02:29:07,280 --> 02:29:09,720
Speaker 1: had once been a giant playground in a public park.

2790
02:29:10,200 --> 02:29:12,480
Speaker 1: It had been derelict for more than a decade, but

2791
02:29:12,560 --> 02:29:15,200
Speaker 1: the corpses of swing sets and remnants of slides were

2792
02:29:15,240 --> 02:29:18,440
Speaker 1: still visible. Several hundred of the martyrs had fallen back

2793
02:29:18,520 --> 02:29:21,760
Speaker 1: to this position, trying to create some sort of defensive line.

2794
02:29:22,440 --> 02:29:24,480
Speaker 1: Panic and mass death had robbed them of a lot

2795
02:29:24,520 --> 02:29:27,360
Speaker 1: of cohesion, but they still managed to pour a lot

2796
02:29:27,520 --> 02:29:30,640
Speaker 1: of fire into Roland and Cashore. As they charged, a

2797
02:29:30,760 --> 02:29:34,039
Speaker 1: rocket propelled grenade hit the chest of her quadrifract and burst,

2798
02:29:34,400 --> 02:29:36,680
Speaker 1: ripping off one of the machine's legs and sending the

2799
02:29:36,760 --> 02:29:40,080
Speaker 1: Chrome woman tumbling to the ground, gravel and rubble embedding

2800
02:29:40,120 --> 02:29:43,800
Speaker 1: itself into the red musculature of her bleeding face. Roland

2801
02:29:43,840 --> 02:29:46,960
Speaker 1: didn't stop for her. He charged ahead, absorbed a few

2802
02:29:47,040 --> 02:29:49,720
Speaker 1: dozen rounds of small arms fire, and dodged a handful

2803
02:29:49,760 --> 02:29:52,760
Speaker 1: of rocket propelled grenades. He hid a group of twenty

2804
02:29:52,840 --> 02:29:55,960
Speaker 1: three men clustered behind a long, still glass barricade and

2805
02:29:56,040 --> 02:29:59,240
Speaker 1: several heavy metal crates. These martyrs had been trying to

2806
02:29:59,320 --> 02:30:01,920
Speaker 1: get a trio of anti tank guns back into the fight.

2807
02:30:02,560 --> 02:30:04,840
Speaker 1: They gave up on that once Roland had closed to

2808
02:30:04,920 --> 02:30:07,680
Speaker 1: about twenty feet. One of them, an older man with

2809
02:30:07,760 --> 02:30:11,560
Speaker 1: a spine, shouted words of encouragement and charged forward, firing

2810
02:30:11,720 --> 02:30:14,960
Speaker 1: with a dozen of his men. These soldiers weren't wearing

2811
02:30:15,000 --> 02:30:17,320
Speaker 1: powered armor. They weren't good enough to hit more than

2812
02:30:17,360 --> 02:30:20,480
Speaker 1: one and twenty shots. They wore old, up cycled body

2813
02:30:20,600 --> 02:30:23,840
Speaker 1: armor only a few of them had bayonets. They presented

2814
02:30:23,959 --> 02:30:26,920
Speaker 1: no real threat. Twenty seconds and I can put every

2815
02:30:26,959 --> 02:30:29,040
Speaker 1: one of these fuckers down for the rest of the fight.

2816
02:30:29,640 --> 02:30:33,040
Speaker 1: No one needs to die. His hand twitched, the river

2817
02:30:33,160 --> 02:30:36,080
Speaker 1: of dopamine and his synapses shrank to a babbling brook.

2818
02:30:36,600 --> 02:30:40,120
Speaker 1: Roland felt a craving rise. Maybe just a few more

2819
02:30:40,959 --> 02:30:43,800
Speaker 1: he was among them. Roland found that brave old fucker

2820
02:30:43,920 --> 02:30:45,760
Speaker 1: picked him up by the skull and used him as

2821
02:30:45,800 --> 02:30:48,520
Speaker 1: a flail until the bones of his face came loose

2822
02:30:48,560 --> 02:30:51,560
Speaker 1: in Roland's hands. He deployed the razor in his wrist

2823
02:30:51,680 --> 02:30:54,640
Speaker 1: and started slicing off hands and ears. He moved on

2824
02:30:54,800 --> 02:30:58,240
Speaker 1: to slashing tendons and muscles, and eventually just hacked at

2825
02:30:58,320 --> 02:31:01,760
Speaker 1: his enemies like a drunken butcher. One boy dropped his gun,

2826
02:31:02,120 --> 02:31:04,280
Speaker 1: tried to back away, and fell on his ass. As

2827
02:31:04,440 --> 02:31:08,040
Speaker 1: Roland stalked towards him, the protester screamed and screamed. They

2828
02:31:08,080 --> 02:31:10,320
Speaker 1: swung sticks and tried to bash him with their shields,

2829
02:31:10,360 --> 02:31:12,959
Speaker 1: and he knocked their clumsy strikes aside and waded into

2830
02:31:13,000 --> 02:31:16,240
Speaker 1: the mass. Roland didn't even consider drawing a gun. He

2831
02:31:16,440 --> 02:31:19,240
Speaker 1: tore every fistful of human flesh sent a wave of

2832
02:31:19,400 --> 02:31:22,960
Speaker 1: orgiastically bubbling through his brain. A young woman screamed and

2833
02:31:23,000 --> 02:31:25,000
Speaker 1: tried to run, and he grabbed her hair and pulled

2834
02:31:25,040 --> 02:31:27,120
Speaker 1: in the sound of her neck snapping almost made in

2835
02:31:27,240 --> 02:31:31,080
Speaker 1: shriek with joy. Please, said a different man before Roland

2836
02:31:31,120 --> 02:31:33,840
Speaker 1: shattered his skull against the pavement and left up to

2837
02:31:33,920 --> 02:31:36,840
Speaker 1: chase down a trio of fleeing martyrs. He was back

2838
02:31:36,879 --> 02:31:39,600
Speaker 1: and in serlick, bloody and injured, an almost snow blind

2839
02:31:39,680 --> 02:31:42,400
Speaker 1: from the battle drugs, Roland shoved his way through the

2840
02:31:42,480 --> 02:31:45,080
Speaker 1: door and into the air raid shelter. He'd already pulled

2841
02:31:45,080 --> 02:31:47,320
Speaker 1: a grenade free from his harness when he found himself

2842
02:31:47,560 --> 02:31:49,880
Speaker 1: face to face with a room full of women and children,

2843
02:31:50,080 --> 02:31:55,000
Speaker 1: old men and young boys, civilians, unarmed and with sudden shock,

2844
02:31:55,480 --> 02:31:58,680
Speaker 1: Roland realized he didn't care about that last part. His

2845
02:31:58,800 --> 02:32:04,320
Speaker 1: synapses screamed more. Roland obliged them, my god, stop stop.

2846
02:32:04,800 --> 02:32:07,200
Speaker 1: He came back to himself and realized he was on

2847
02:32:07,280 --> 02:32:09,920
Speaker 1: the ground and locked into a pretty darn good half Nelson.

2848
02:32:10,120 --> 02:32:12,760
Speaker 1: It took him a moment to realize that woman Kashorey

2849
02:32:13,120 --> 02:32:17,320
Speaker 1: was the one holding him. Oh, he said, what the fuck? Man?

2850
02:32:18,240 --> 02:32:21,000
Speaker 1: Roland looked around, none of the martyrs near him were

2851
02:32:21,080 --> 02:32:24,320
Speaker 1: still standing. It was hard even for his hindbrain to

2852
02:32:24,440 --> 02:32:27,959
Speaker 1: identify how many people had fallen around him. He guessed

2853
02:32:28,000 --> 02:32:30,920
Speaker 1: south of a hundred, but not far south. The number

2854
02:32:31,000 --> 02:32:33,880
Speaker 1: was shocking. It implied a longer blackout than any of

2855
02:32:33,959 --> 02:32:37,400
Speaker 1: the others. What was scarier was the sheer violence evident

2856
02:32:37,480 --> 02:32:40,119
Speaker 1: in these men's death. Most of them were in more

2857
02:32:40,160 --> 02:32:42,800
Speaker 1: than two pieces? Are you going to flip out if

2858
02:32:42,840 --> 02:32:46,520
Speaker 1: I let go? Roland shook his head and Kashoy released him.

2859
02:32:46,840 --> 02:32:49,680
Speaker 1: He turned around, still seated, and looked at the young woman.

2860
02:32:50,360 --> 02:32:52,720
Speaker 1: She was filthy with grime and blood, some of it

2861
02:32:52,840 --> 02:32:56,160
Speaker 1: her own. Her skinless face wept red, but even so

2862
02:32:56,640 --> 02:32:59,760
Speaker 1: he could still see the judgment in her eyes. That

2863
02:33:00,240 --> 02:33:05,640
Speaker 1: was not fucking necessary. She said, I'm sorry, I Rowland,

2864
02:33:06,080 --> 02:33:09,240
Speaker 1: It was skufucker. Mike Topaz trailed behind him at a

2865
02:33:09,320 --> 02:33:13,160
Speaker 1: sizeable distance, sweeping the field with a rifle. Roland tried

2866
02:33:13,240 --> 02:33:15,720
Speaker 1: to catch his eye. He avoided Roland's gaze for a

2867
02:33:15,800 --> 02:33:19,040
Speaker 1: second or two, but then they connected and she stared

2868
02:33:19,040 --> 02:33:21,680
Speaker 1: at him with those big, brown, tear stained eyes. This

2869
02:33:21,840 --> 02:33:24,240
Speaker 1: isn't what I wanted, Rowland, This isn't what we said

2870
02:33:24,280 --> 02:33:27,640
Speaker 1: we were fighting for this is just butchery. He felt

2871
02:33:27,680 --> 02:33:30,320
Speaker 1: angry at her blind rage that warred with his love.

2872
02:33:30,600 --> 02:33:33,680
Speaker 1: Of course, it's butchery, he screamed. The world is built

2873
02:33:33,760 --> 02:33:38,119
Speaker 1: by butcher's dude. Kushouri slapped him hard, and Roland came

2874
02:33:38,160 --> 02:33:41,920
Speaker 1: back to himself. Scofucker Mike was closer now. Roland looked

2875
02:33:41,959 --> 02:33:44,680
Speaker 1: for Topaz and found him. He was closer too, and

2876
02:33:44,800 --> 02:33:48,600
Speaker 1: looked worried, but he didn't say anything. Is Rowland all right?

2877
02:33:48,959 --> 02:33:52,880
Speaker 1: Mike asked Kushouri. Was he hit? Sure, But that's not

2878
02:33:53,040 --> 02:33:56,280
Speaker 1: the problem. Kushouri said, he just went bug funk, unlike

2879
02:33:56,320 --> 02:33:58,840
Speaker 1: a company of those guys, ripped them apart with his

2880
02:33:59,000 --> 02:34:03,920
Speaker 1: bare hands. It's a fuckin' relapse, said scuffucker Mike. He

2881
02:34:04,040 --> 02:34:06,080
Speaker 1: knelt down in front of Roland and put a hand

2882
02:34:06,160 --> 02:34:10,160
Speaker 1: on his shoulder. Buddy, he said, it's done. They're starting

2883
02:34:10,240 --> 02:34:13,199
Speaker 1: to run whole army. You'll be routed in a few minutes.

2884
02:34:13,720 --> 02:34:17,160
Speaker 1: You just sit here and catch your breath and routed.

2885
02:34:17,680 --> 02:34:20,840
Speaker 1: Roland looked around and realized his hands were shaking. He

2886
02:34:20,959 --> 02:34:25,080
Speaker 1: felt a vast, throbbing emptiness in his synapses. He realized

2887
02:34:25,120 --> 02:34:27,680
Speaker 1: that the emptiness was always there and had been for

2888
02:34:27,760 --> 02:34:30,440
Speaker 1: as long as he could remember. Most days, he hid

2889
02:34:30,480 --> 02:34:32,920
Speaker 1: it under a haze of narcotics, but now that he'd

2890
02:34:32,920 --> 02:34:36,320
Speaker 1: had it filled for just a minute, its emptiness hurt

2891
02:34:36,560 --> 02:34:40,080
Speaker 1: like an amputated limb. He looked out and saw that, yes,

2892
02:34:40,400 --> 02:34:44,840
Speaker 1: skuffucker Mike was correct. Several pockets of martyr still held out,

2893
02:34:45,120 --> 02:34:47,520
Speaker 1: but the bulk of the vanguard was either dead or

2894
02:34:47,640 --> 02:34:50,800
Speaker 1: fleeing for the line of transports and technicals that stretched

2895
02:34:50,840 --> 02:34:53,880
Speaker 1: back to the Brazos. It felt like the rest of

2896
02:34:53,959 --> 02:34:56,480
Speaker 1: the army had started the slow process of halting and

2897
02:34:56,560 --> 02:35:00,320
Speaker 1: reversing its advance. The Kingdom had decided to pull back.

2898
02:35:01,040 --> 02:35:03,879
Speaker 1: Are you done or not, Roland asked an evil voice

2899
02:35:03,879 --> 02:35:06,000
Speaker 1: in the back of his head. If you're not done,

2900
02:35:06,400 --> 02:35:10,440
Speaker 1: if you want more, you'd better go get it. Roland

2901
02:35:10,600 --> 02:35:13,879
Speaker 1: leaned back. He looked from skullfucker Mike, took a shore

2902
02:35:14,080 --> 02:35:17,720
Speaker 1: and finally to Topaz. Then he reached behind him, grabbed

2903
02:35:17,760 --> 02:35:20,160
Speaker 1: a busted rifle he could use as a club, and

2904
02:35:20,280 --> 02:35:25,520
Speaker 1: stood up Roland. No, skullfucker, Mike started to say. Roland

2905
02:35:25,560 --> 02:35:28,360
Speaker 1: didn't hear the rest. He bolted off as fast as

2906
02:35:28,440 --> 02:35:34,200
Speaker 1: he could run in the direction of the fleeing martyrs. Sasha.

2907
02:35:34,920 --> 02:35:37,040
Speaker 1: It was amazing how much she could tell about the

2908
02:35:37,080 --> 02:35:39,320
Speaker 1: course of the battle just from watching the faces of

2909
02:35:39,360 --> 02:35:42,240
Speaker 1: its casualties. The pace of the killing had escalated to

2910
02:35:42,320 --> 02:35:45,680
Speaker 1: a certain level and then started to slowly fall. More

2911
02:35:45,760 --> 02:35:47,520
Speaker 1: and more of the men died with their backs to

2912
02:35:47,600 --> 02:35:51,080
Speaker 1: the enemy running. Sasha guessed that meant the army, or

2913
02:35:51,120 --> 02:35:53,280
Speaker 1: at least a lot of it, had started to break.

2914
02:35:53,760 --> 02:35:56,800
Speaker 1: The pace of death slowed to a trickle. Well, then

2915
02:35:57,160 --> 02:36:00,880
Speaker 1: Donald Ferris grumbled, it seems like that's more or less settled.

2916
02:36:01,080 --> 02:36:03,320
Speaker 1: I'm going to get us another round. I think we've

2917
02:36:03,320 --> 02:36:07,120
Speaker 1: all eaten enough guilt. Father. He stopped, his jaw dropped.

2918
02:36:07,720 --> 02:36:11,320
Speaker 1: Oh no. Sasha turned back to the screen to see

2919
02:36:11,360 --> 02:36:13,680
Speaker 1: that the roll of the dead had started to increase again.

2920
02:36:14,120 --> 02:36:16,520
Speaker 1: These men were running too, but most of them weren't

2921
02:36:16,600 --> 02:36:19,760
Speaker 1: dying to ranged weaponry. They were being grabbed from behind,

2922
02:36:20,200 --> 02:36:22,840
Speaker 1: ripped apart, or clubbed to death by something moving far

2923
02:36:22,959 --> 02:36:27,600
Speaker 1: too fast for human eyes to focus on. Roland Manny

2924
02:36:27,680 --> 02:36:31,280
Speaker 1: said in a dull voice filled with sorrow. Sasha scanned

2925
02:36:31,360 --> 02:36:34,720
Speaker 1: the faces of her table mates. Manny looked almost overwhelmed

2926
02:36:34,800 --> 02:36:37,400
Speaker 1: with guilt. His eyes were watery, and he just kept

2927
02:36:37,440 --> 02:36:40,800
Speaker 1: shaking his head and muttering to himself. Nanni Yazzie's mouth

2928
02:36:40,920 --> 02:36:44,160
Speaker 1: was closed, her face looked tight and frozen in horror.

2929
02:36:44,640 --> 02:36:48,560
Speaker 1: Donald Ferris was quite clearly furious. His face was so red.

2930
02:36:48,680 --> 02:36:51,880
Speaker 1: Sasha worried his heart might give out, And yet she

2931
02:36:52,080 --> 02:36:56,039
Speaker 1: felt nothing. That's curious, isn't it. Sasha could remember how

2932
02:36:56,120 --> 02:36:58,400
Speaker 1: angry she'd gotten as a girl when she read some

2933
02:36:58,560 --> 02:37:02,480
Speaker 1: story about anti Christian brutality in Turkey or Illinois. She

2934
02:37:02,600 --> 02:37:05,680
Speaker 1: remembered being horrified by the execution she had witnessed, But

2935
02:37:05,800 --> 02:37:08,680
Speaker 1: she could only picture her emotional state in those moments

2936
02:37:08,959 --> 02:37:11,520
Speaker 1: from a great distance, as if she were staring at

2937
02:37:11,560 --> 02:37:14,720
Speaker 1: it through the fogged up lens of a telescope. Why

2938
02:37:14,760 --> 02:37:18,200
Speaker 1: am I not angry? Why am I not horrified? Her

2939
02:37:18,240 --> 02:37:22,199
Speaker 1: concern over this fact actually generated a stronger emotional reaction

2940
02:37:22,560 --> 02:37:26,160
Speaker 1: than anything happening out on that battlefield. Sasha stared out

2941
02:37:26,200 --> 02:37:29,520
Speaker 1: at the cameras and the continuing parade of violence. She

2942
02:37:29,680 --> 02:37:32,959
Speaker 1: heard Manny cursing under his breath. She heard Nana Yazi

2943
02:37:33,080 --> 02:37:37,160
Speaker 1: fight back a sob, but Sasha felt nothing, save perhaps

2944
02:37:37,600 --> 02:37:42,360
Speaker 1: a bit of jealousy. Rowland, the scene out by the

2945
02:37:42,440 --> 02:37:45,560
Speaker 1: Brasos felt less like a battlefield and more like a playground.

2946
02:37:45,959 --> 02:37:48,680
Speaker 1: This might be the highest I've ever been, he thought,

2947
02:37:48,760 --> 02:37:50,600
Speaker 1: as he broke a man's neck with the back of

2948
02:37:50,720 --> 02:37:53,320
Speaker 1: his hand. Bullets whizzed by as a few of the

2949
02:37:53,360 --> 02:37:56,240
Speaker 1: Braver soldiers tried to cover the retreat of their comrades.

2950
02:37:56,680 --> 02:37:59,680
Speaker 1: Most of them, even the drivers, had abandoned their transports.

2951
02:38:00,120 --> 02:38:02,959
Speaker 1: Hundreds of men were already wading into the river, tearing

2952
02:38:03,000 --> 02:38:05,320
Speaker 1: off their armor and tossing aside their weapons as they

2953
02:38:05,360 --> 02:38:09,160
Speaker 1: plunged in. The Heavenly Kingdom's army would not rally any

2954
02:38:09,240 --> 02:38:12,480
Speaker 1: time soon. A martyr turned and drew his knife in

2955
02:38:12,520 --> 02:38:15,800
Speaker 1: a feeble attempt at resistance. Roland caved in the man's

2956
02:38:15,800 --> 02:38:18,040
Speaker 1: sternham with a fist and squashed his heart like a

2957
02:38:18,120 --> 02:38:21,880
Speaker 1: june bug. Ten meters ahead, he saw three soldiers preparing

2958
02:38:21,959 --> 02:38:25,240
Speaker 1: to make their stand behind an overturned flatbed truck. As

2959
02:38:25,280 --> 02:38:28,080
Speaker 1: he ran, Roland grabbed at his garded rifle off the ground,

2960
02:38:28,400 --> 02:38:32,000
Speaker 1: a Thompson submachine gun. He realized it didn't feel like

2961
02:38:32,080 --> 02:38:35,400
Speaker 1: a reproduction either. Roland brought the gun up to his shoulder.

2962
02:38:35,840 --> 02:38:38,600
Speaker 1: The Thompson gun bucked in his hand. Roland laughed as

2963
02:38:38,640 --> 02:38:40,840
Speaker 1: he danced through the Charnel house that had once been

2964
02:38:40,879 --> 02:38:44,320
Speaker 1: a forward operating bass. Most of the National guardsmen were dead,

2965
02:38:44,360 --> 02:38:46,199
Speaker 1: but his nose told him one of them was still

2966
02:38:46,240 --> 02:38:49,000
Speaker 1: in the game. Roland turned past a hesco and saw

2967
02:38:49,080 --> 02:38:52,359
Speaker 1: the young man propped half up against a pile of sandbags.

2968
02:38:52,760 --> 02:38:54,800
Speaker 1: The boy held a hand to a bleeding hole in

2969
02:38:54,879 --> 02:38:58,039
Speaker 1: his gut. His black face was bloodless, pale, and young,

2970
02:38:58,680 --> 02:39:01,360
Speaker 1: so young. Roll didn't know if he'd ever seen a

2971
02:39:01,440 --> 02:39:04,600
Speaker 1: soldier who looked that young. There was something familiar about

2972
02:39:04,680 --> 02:39:09,480
Speaker 1: the boy's face, Roland, the kid said, and recognition dawned

2973
02:39:09,560 --> 02:39:12,800
Speaker 1: in Roland's eyes, and then he was back. He was

2974
02:39:12,800 --> 02:39:15,280
Speaker 1: about fifty yards further ahead than he had been before

2975
02:39:15,360 --> 02:39:18,040
Speaker 1: he blacked out. The Thompson gun was still in his hand,

2976
02:39:18,320 --> 02:39:20,600
Speaker 1: pointed at a man twelve yards to his left who

2977
02:39:20,720 --> 02:39:23,280
Speaker 1: was scrambling to get a wire guided rocket launcher into

2978
02:39:23,320 --> 02:39:26,320
Speaker 1: a firing position. Roland put a bullet through his brain.

2979
02:39:26,680 --> 02:39:29,400
Speaker 1: He turned past the burning wreckage of a semi truck.

2980
02:39:29,720 --> 02:39:33,400
Speaker 1: A dozen bullets impacted his chest inside. Then three martyrs

2981
02:39:33,480 --> 02:39:36,920
Speaker 1: charged him. Their bayonets fixed. The hit wasn't bad, nothing

2982
02:39:36,959 --> 02:39:39,879
Speaker 1: but a flesh wound schofucker. Mike looked worse. He lost

2983
02:39:40,000 --> 02:39:42,840
Speaker 1: most of his left arm Topaz had taken three rounds

2984
02:39:42,879 --> 02:39:45,120
Speaker 1: to the dome, but she was still firing her dragon off.

2985
02:39:45,680 --> 02:39:48,360
Speaker 1: Roland's mind stretched into the city of Dallas around them.

2986
02:39:48,560 --> 02:39:50,440
Speaker 1: There were a lot of men coming their way, but

2987
02:39:50,520 --> 02:39:54,560
Speaker 1: those men were mostly police swat officers, nothing substantial, no

2988
02:39:54,640 --> 02:39:56,920
Speaker 1: one who could stop them from getting this bomb where

2989
02:39:56,959 --> 02:40:00,160
Speaker 1: it needed to go. Roland screamed as he broke Chis

2990
02:40:00,280 --> 02:40:02,760
Speaker 1: Thompson gun over the head of another martyr. Then he

2991
02:40:02,879 --> 02:40:06,000
Speaker 1: reeled back and dropped the gun. That last memory had

2992
02:40:06,040 --> 02:40:09,680
Speaker 1: felt different, like it unlocked something. Roland shook his head.

2993
02:40:09,959 --> 02:40:11,879
Speaker 1: The last martyr in front of him broke and ran.

2994
02:40:12,360 --> 02:40:15,120
Speaker 1: Roland didn't even think to chase him. His head hurt

2995
02:40:15,440 --> 02:40:17,880
Speaker 1: in a way he couldn't remember it ever hurting before.

2996
02:40:18,360 --> 02:40:20,840
Speaker 1: What the hell is going on? It had all started

2997
02:40:20,879 --> 02:40:23,480
Speaker 1: the second he'd thought about the bomb. As small as

2998
02:40:23,600 --> 02:40:27,160
Speaker 1: nukes go, just about one megaton. It matches the ones

2999
02:40:27,200 --> 02:40:30,920
Speaker 1: that fought Leonarwood. The Guardian already released the hacked documents

3000
02:40:31,000 --> 02:40:34,360
Speaker 1: showing the government considered bombing several of the separatist camps.

3001
02:40:34,879 --> 02:40:37,600
Speaker 1: I think we can trust the American people to put

3002
02:40:37,680 --> 02:40:42,120
Speaker 1: two and two together, Jim smiled. Roland did not. This

3003
02:40:42,360 --> 02:40:44,960
Speaker 1: was his plan, but he didn't like it. He knew, though,

3004
02:40:45,240 --> 02:40:47,560
Speaker 1: that it was the only way forward for the revolution.

3005
02:40:48,360 --> 02:40:51,200
Speaker 1: There has to be another way, said Schuffucker, Mike. This

3006
02:40:51,400 --> 02:40:55,760
Speaker 1: feels wrong, really really wrong. The floodgates of Roland's mind opened,

3007
02:40:55,879 --> 02:40:58,600
Speaker 1: and a tidal wave of memory swept him away. He

3008
02:40:58,720 --> 02:41:02,560
Speaker 1: dropped to his knees. The martyrs around him continued to flee, too,

3009
02:41:02,680 --> 02:41:05,920
Speaker 1: shocked and awed to take advantage of his vulnerability. The

3010
02:41:06,000 --> 02:41:08,680
Speaker 1: battle drugs were gone now, or at least he couldn't

3011
02:41:08,760 --> 02:41:13,400
Speaker 1: feel them any more. Hundreds of memories assaulted his consciousness thousands.

3012
02:41:13,920 --> 02:41:16,840
Speaker 1: For the first time in years, Roland knew who he'd been,

3013
02:41:17,360 --> 02:41:22,360
Speaker 1: who he was again. I'm back, Roland stood. He took

3014
02:41:22,440 --> 02:41:25,480
Speaker 1: one halting step forward, and then another, and then he

3015
02:41:25,600 --> 02:41:27,720
Speaker 1: leaned against the frame of a broken A B C

3016
02:41:28,000 --> 02:41:30,560
Speaker 1: for a little while as he pictured his mother's face

3017
02:41:30,680 --> 02:41:33,840
Speaker 1: and voice for the first time in years. He wanted

3018
02:41:33,920 --> 02:41:36,920
Speaker 1: to sob, but there was no time. He knew who

3019
02:41:37,000 --> 02:41:39,320
Speaker 1: he was now, and he knew what he was bound

3020
02:41:39,360 --> 02:41:42,760
Speaker 1: to do if he stayed this way. Roland's conscience wouldn't

3021
02:41:42,760 --> 02:41:45,880
Speaker 1: allow that, so he trudged forward until he found the

3022
02:41:46,000 --> 02:41:49,280
Speaker 1: right tool, a hand held grenade launcher clutched in the

3023
02:41:49,400 --> 02:41:52,080
Speaker 1: dead hands of a martyr. He took the weapon and

3024
02:41:52,200 --> 02:41:56,400
Speaker 1: sat cross legged and the blood soaked Texas dirt. Roland

3025
02:41:56,480 --> 02:41:59,000
Speaker 1: looked up at the sky one last time and allowed

3026
02:41:59,080 --> 02:42:02,000
Speaker 1: himself a long moment to remember his parents and his

3027
02:42:02,120 --> 02:42:04,800
Speaker 1: brother in the day he and Topaz had first met.

3028
02:42:05,520 --> 02:42:15,400
Speaker 1: And then he closed his eyes and pulled the trigger. Manny,

3029
02:42:16,800 --> 02:42:20,000
Speaker 1: Nanni Yazzi, Sasha, Donald Ferris, and Manny had all rushed

3030
02:42:20,080 --> 02:42:22,720
Speaker 1: to a transport as soon as Roland's face showed up

3031
02:42:22,760 --> 02:42:25,720
Speaker 1: on the screen. It seems the drones either didn't know

3032
02:42:25,920 --> 02:42:28,840
Speaker 1: or didn't care enough to separate dead friends from dead foes.

3033
02:42:29,240 --> 02:42:32,520
Speaker 1: Maybe that was the point Nani Yazzi drove. It took

3034
02:42:32,560 --> 02:42:34,960
Speaker 1: about six minutes for the shiny green jeep to make

3035
02:42:35,000 --> 02:42:37,360
Speaker 1: its way over the broken roads and towards the side

3036
02:42:37,400 --> 02:42:41,359
Speaker 1: of the battle. No one spoke they reached the battlefield.

3037
02:42:41,720 --> 02:42:44,640
Speaker 1: There are so many dead people. Manny had seen a

3038
02:42:44,720 --> 02:42:47,120
Speaker 1: lot of carnage in his life, but nothing like this.

3039
02:42:47,800 --> 02:42:50,880
Speaker 1: The stinches of burning flesh, opened bowels, and burning fuel

3040
02:42:50,959 --> 02:42:54,520
Speaker 1: were so overwhelming they almost knocked him down. Donald Ferris

3041
02:42:54,600 --> 02:42:58,080
Speaker 1: and Nana Yazzi looked just as queasy, only Sasha whethered

3042
02:42:58,120 --> 02:43:01,240
Speaker 1: the sights and smells with calm. She stayed focused enough

3043
02:43:01,320 --> 02:43:03,959
Speaker 1: to spot Skullfucker Mike in the mess and direct Nana

3044
02:43:04,040 --> 02:43:07,960
Speaker 1: Yazzi his way. Rolling FUX soldiers were out in force.

3045
02:43:08,360 --> 02:43:10,680
Speaker 1: They stalked through the killing fields in groups of four

3046
02:43:10,800 --> 02:43:13,840
Speaker 1: or five, searching for survivors or just looking for loot.

3047
02:43:14,480 --> 02:43:16,960
Speaker 1: Mike stood with Topaz and Cashore and a couple of

3048
02:43:17,040 --> 02:43:20,440
Speaker 1: chromed Manny didn't recognize. Most of them were seated by

3049
02:43:20,480 --> 02:43:22,760
Speaker 1: a handful of large metal crates in the center of

3050
02:43:22,840 --> 02:43:26,880
Speaker 1: what had once been a large playground. Oh god, the

3051
02:43:27,000 --> 02:43:29,720
Speaker 1: dead men here had been torn apart. There was so

3052
02:43:29,920 --> 02:43:33,040
Speaker 1: much blood, more than Manny had ever seen. It sluiced

3053
02:43:33,040 --> 02:43:36,160
Speaker 1: around on the concrete like some sort of macab kittie pool.

3054
02:43:36,560 --> 02:43:38,720
Speaker 1: The jeep came to a wet stop in front of

3055
02:43:38,760 --> 02:43:41,120
Speaker 1: the group. The act of breaking sent a spray of

3056
02:43:41,200 --> 02:43:45,640
Speaker 1: gore out across Skullfucker Mike's legs. Hey, he said, what

3057
02:43:45,800 --> 02:43:49,720
Speaker 1: are you all doing here? Rowland? Manny said, what happened

3058
02:43:49,760 --> 02:43:53,800
Speaker 1: to Rowland? Mike looked confused. Topaz raised his head up

3059
02:43:53,840 --> 02:43:56,320
Speaker 1: to look out at them. Many was surprised to see

3060
02:43:56,360 --> 02:43:59,320
Speaker 1: tears rolling down his face. His lip trembled a bit,

3061
02:43:59,600 --> 02:44:02,040
Speaker 1: but when he spoke there was steel and fury in

3062
02:44:02,160 --> 02:44:06,039
Speaker 1: his voice. He decided to keep killing. I'm sure he's

3063
02:44:06,080 --> 02:44:10,200
Speaker 1: still killing now. No Manny said he's dead, or that's

3064
02:44:10,240 --> 02:44:12,879
Speaker 1: what the drone said. We have to find him. Get

3065
02:44:12,920 --> 02:44:15,480
Speaker 1: out of that seat, Mike said to Nanny Yazzie, I'm

3066
02:44:15,600 --> 02:44:19,320
Speaker 1: driving in an instant. Topaz his tears stopped, and before

3067
02:44:19,360 --> 02:44:22,440
Speaker 1: Manny could say anything, Topaz hopped into the back seat

3068
02:44:22,440 --> 02:44:26,040
Speaker 1: of the jeep. Fast. Topaz told skullfucker Mike. Because he

3069
02:44:26,080 --> 02:44:30,200
Speaker 1: took over from Nanny YAZZI go very fast. It didn't

3070
02:44:30,240 --> 02:44:33,320
Speaker 1: take long to find him. Roland's route through the army

3071
02:44:33,440 --> 02:44:36,440
Speaker 1: was painted in red. Hundreds of dead men, maybe more

3072
02:44:36,480 --> 02:44:39,279
Speaker 1: than a thousand, made a clear path with their corpses.

3073
02:44:39,840 --> 02:44:42,240
Speaker 1: That path didn't end until they were almost at the

3074
02:44:42,280 --> 02:44:46,520
Speaker 1: brazos and they saw where Roland had fallen. Roland's armored

3075
02:44:46,600 --> 02:44:49,240
Speaker 1: body was splayed out limp next to the carcass of

3076
02:44:49,280 --> 02:44:52,360
Speaker 1: an old semi truck. There were two very dead men

3077
02:44:52,480 --> 02:44:54,959
Speaker 1: directly in front of him, but neither of them looked

3078
02:44:55,000 --> 02:44:58,000
Speaker 1: to have done him in. Roland hadn't gone down to

3079
02:44:58,200 --> 02:45:01,000
Speaker 1: enemy fire. He jammed a every large gun in his

3080
02:45:01,120 --> 02:45:03,640
Speaker 1: mouth and blown the top off of his head. To

3081
02:45:03,760 --> 02:45:07,960
Speaker 1: all signs and to all logic, he looked dead. Donald

3082
02:45:08,000 --> 02:45:11,280
Speaker 1: Ferris shook his head and muttered something. Sasha just stared.

3083
02:45:11,720 --> 02:45:15,360
Speaker 1: Nana Yazzi put her hand on Manny's shoulder. He was

3084
02:45:15,800 --> 02:45:19,200
Speaker 1: she started to say, but she was interrupted by Rowland

3085
02:45:19,480 --> 02:45:21,800
Speaker 1: as he lifted his ruined head up to look at them.

3086
02:45:22,360 --> 02:45:25,840
Speaker 1: His eyes were still unfocused. Blood drooled down his nose,

3087
02:45:25,959 --> 02:45:28,240
Speaker 1: out of his mouth, and down from the gaping exit

3088
02:45:28,280 --> 02:45:32,000
Speaker 1: wound in his forehead. He spat out several teeth. Manny

3089
02:45:32,080 --> 02:45:35,680
Speaker 1: saw daylight through his skull, but still Rowland was able

3090
02:45:35,720 --> 02:45:39,800
Speaker 1: to speak. How the funk are you people? He asked,

3091
02:46:00,959 --> 02:47:00,640
Speaker 1: so a t mm hmmm