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“When we mutated human DNA samples with the ones taken from the titans, we had to choose which attributes and mutations to put forth. We could only change so much of the human genome without turning the subjects into monsters themselves. Choices were made. To some, we gave special abilities. Like electricity, fire, and being able to breathe underwater… Others were blessed with fast healing, brute strength, or speed. Some combinations turned out to be worse than others. We might pay dearly for our experiments.”

Audio description of an interview with Dr. Nolan Max, a scientist who worked on the Revival Project, 2047.

We fly to the Hoover Dam after nightfall. Jude woke up parched and grumpy. He was uncharacteristically quiet for the first hour after waking up.

To the point that Fyfe said, “You look a little pale, Mr. Jude. Do you require assistance?”

Jude’s answer was to flip off the control panel where Fyfe’s sensors were.

Once we reach the Hoover Dam, we land on a neighboring mountain. From up there, we have a decent view of the impressive man-made structure. Four towers stand in the lake in front of the dam itself. Most of the windows have light. The entire place is inhabited.

I’m surprised the dam is still intact. In twenty-seven years, no old god destroyed it.

“We will have to figure out where they’re keeping Marika,” Jude says, lowering his binoculars.

He has been dangling dangerously close to the edge of the cliff. Again, the thought of pushing him to his death crossed my mind. But it was quickly replaced by another kind of dirty thought as my eyes fell on his ass in his tight jeans.

We have kept all the Firefly’s lights off, and there will be no fire tonight. But I doubt that Jude intends on setting up camp, anyway.

I point toward the large parking lot on the side of the dam. It has been turned into a kind of village, with caravans and trucks. Mountains of junk already block some parts of the road. The Highwaymen have taken residency close to their new master.

“We could pick out a few stragglers,” I say. “Ask them questions.”

Jude nods. “I like how you’re thinking.”

No, you wouldn’t, I think. Because I was thinking about burying your head in the dirt while I fucked you just seconds ago.

It appears that one hate-fuck was far from enough to get him out of my system. I already crave more. He still smells like me. And under it, his arousal is fresh. I wonder if he’s thinking the same. If he would love to be fucked in the red dirt.

We hide the Firefly in the canyons surrounding the dam and start our hunt.

There are a few stragglers, but Jude dismisses them as unimportant. Mostly drunk men and women.

“Cannon fodder,” he says quietly. “They won’t know where Marika is.”

Until, finally, he recognizes someone. He gestures toward a man who is leaving the camp to take a piss on the rocks. He’s a middle-aged man with a beard and a shaved head.

Jude’s smile turns predatory as he walks in the shadows to reach his prey. But I have a feeling that he’ll kill the man before we can ask him questions, so I step forward.

The man turns as he hears my footsteps, but he doesn’t pull his gun fast enough. My hand finds skin just above the collar of his dirty shirt, and I send a quick but loaded electric shock. He convulses and falls to the ground.

Jude glares at me.

“He’s just unconscious,” I say.

We drag him to the Firefly and downriver, a good distance away from the dam, where no one will hear his screams.

After an hour, our new friend is still unconscious. Jude gives me a pointed look.

“I might have overdone it a little bit,” I say.

Jude chuckles. “You think?”

“I usually aim to kill.”

“Yes, I remember,” he says. He has fern-like scars that attest to it.

Right on cue, the man stirs. We tied him with the shackles that were used on me previously. He groans and jolts awake when he realizes that he’s in chains. Then he focuses his attention on Jude, whose face is illuminated by the pale glow of our solar lamp.

“You…” he starts.

“Me, the prodigal son. What’s up, Bernie?”

“You can’t do this,” Bernie says.

“Oh, but I can.”

Jude is crouching in front of him, but I’m on my feet behind his back. That seems to make our guest uncomfortable.

“Who’s that?” he asks, eyeing me suspiciously. He smells like bitter fear.

“That is none of your business,” says Jude. “And it’s not him you should be worried about.” He has his army knife in hand.

“I’m not working for your parents anymore,” says Bernie. “They’re not here to protect you. And—”

“Yeah, about that,” Jude cuts him off. “How come you didn’t end up dead like my parents? I thought you were one of my father’s best friends.”

The man is smart enough to look sheepish. “Come on, man. Their reign was over. Did you want me to die with them?”

“Yes,” Jude says, his voice cold. “You know my dad would have died for you.”

“Well, I’m not your dad. And I’m still fucking alive.”

“Not for long.”

“You can’t kill me. I’m important!” Bernie shouts. “She made me one of her commanders. She’ll hunt you down. She’ll—”

Jude slaps the man so hard his head snaps to the side. Bernie blinks a few times, taken aback. Having been at the receiving end of his slaps, I know their effect.

“Tell me more about that new master of yours,” says Jude. “She’s a mutant, right?”

Bernie spits to the ground. “Go to hell.”

“Been there, done that.” Jude drags his knife over the man’s dirty shirt before finishing its course over his dick. I know that move, too. “Bernie, there’s no need to make this more unpleasant than it needs to be. I just want to know who your new dictator is and where Marika is. It’s nothing worth losing your life over.”

“And then what? You gut me like a pig?”

“No. I won’t kill you, I promise,” Jude says.

Half-truth, and we all know it. But our friend Bernie doesn’t have much of a choice. Not as he’s shackled to the Firefly.

He sighs. “Maeve is our new master. She’s a mutant that came from the east. She’s powerful.”

“How powerful?”

“She’s strong. Really strong.”

“Okay. Very useful, Bernie,” says Jude. “What about Marika?”

“She lives in the north-west tower, like a queen. She’s the one who manages the electronic repairs around the dam. Maeve wants it to produce electricity once again and build a great city around it. We’ve been gathering supplies for a month.”

“As if that ever works…” Jude grumbles, looking up at me.

I close my eyes to refrain from punching him. My underground city might have thrived if not for Helios and his devil’s intervention.

“Let me go now,” says Bernie. “I answered your questions. For the love we shared for your parents, let me go.”

That was the wrong thing to say. Jude slowly rises and turns to me.

“Do you mind?” he asks me.

“It would be my pleasure,” I say.

Bernie pulls on his chains, the acrid smell of his fear overpowering the air surrounding us. I grab him by the throat and unleash a strong electric charge. His muscles lock up, and his eyes roll in their orbits before outright melting. The Litchenberg figures spread over his arms and face, smoking, then catching fire. And only then do I let go. He’s not coming back from that.

I expect Jude to throw up. Most people do the first time they witness the way I kill when I’m angry. When I ended his brother Malcolm, I just shocked him enough to stop his heart. But this… this is something else. I’ve been told that the smell is the worst part. Humans smell good when cooked. Like pork. And it’s knowledge most people prefer to live without. Especially with the rumors of cannibalism in the wastelands.

At least, I expect Jude to back away from me. But he doesn’t. There’s a satisfied smile on his face as he says to the dead man, “That’s for the love we shared for my parents. My love might have been ungrateful, but yours was weak.”

We throw Bernie’s still-smoking corpse into the Colorado. It’ll be taken down the river, and no one will be wiser.

We fly back to the Hoover Dam and once again hide the Firefly in the canyon. We wait for the early hours before sunrise to walk to the dam. There are no guards on the road. No patrols around the massive structure. The mutant—Maeve—isn’t expecting enemies to sneak in. Or she might be overconfident that no one poses a real threat to her and her new empire. We do meet two men on the first west tower, on their way back to bed. We take them by surprise and drop their bodies in the river, too. Jude has no mercy for the Highwaymen. I don’t blame him.

We reach the north-west tower fairly easily. The door isn’t even locked. But as we enter quietly, we find a small woman sitting on the bed with a gun aimed at us.

“Chill out, Marika. It’s me,” says Jude.

“Jude? What the fuck?”

She lowers her gun and reaches for a solar lamp. The yellow glow lights up the room, revealing the small Asian woman on the bed. Marika is over fifty, judging by her graying hair cut in a short bob.

She stares at Jude, then at me. Her eyes grow wide as she surveys me.

“You…” she says.

“Him?” Jude asks. “You know him?”

She shakes her head. “Not personally. But I’ve seen pictures and videos… You’re a mutant. The one from the Sierra Nevada.”

I knew videos of me and what I can do have been traveling through the wastelands. It only makes sense that the Highwaymen hacker knows about me.

“We need to hurry,” I say.

I have no desire to stay for long at the base of another mutant. In my condition, it’s a fight I would certainly not survive. I’m not exactly at the top of my strength.

“We came to rescue you, Marika,” Jude says.

“Rescue me?”

She looks confused. As if she has resigned herself to her new life and never expected to be saved from it.

Jude nods. “And to ask you for a small favor. Once we’re out of here, we’ll need you to hack into an aircraft for us.”

“But where are you taking me?” she asks, wary.

“I don’t know yet. We’ll figure it out once we’re out of here. Oliver is right; we need to hurry. Pack your things. The aircraft isn’t far.”

It feels strange to hear my name coming from his lips. He usually just says, ‘hey, you’. It does something to me that I’d rather not inspect too closely right now.

“If you want me to hack into something, I’ll need my computers. They’re in the main building,” she says.

“Can you get them now?”

Marika nods and gets out of bed as Jude gestures for her to hurry. She leaves us alone in the tower where she has taken residence. I take a seat while Jude rummages through the room. There are computers, laptops, screens, and everything else that a tech-savvy person might need. She must have been doing this before the Rise. I wonder briefly how she learned to cope with the end of the world as she knew it. I’ve never known anything else. It’s difficult to imagine a life where you don’t have to constantly look over your shoulder.

Jude must have been thinking the same thing because he says, “Marika was in her twenties when the Rise happened. She worked as an engineer for NASA. You know, the ones who used to send people into space?”

I chuckle. “We really used to do that?”

“It makes me wonder,” he says, sitting on the bed, “if we had been more advanced, we could have escaped to another planet. Like they do in the movies. Leave the old gods behind.”

“This is our home,” I say.

As dangerous as it is, I can’t imagine leaving behind the wonders of Earth.

“We have to be patient with Marika,” he changes the subject. “She’s soft. Like most people from before the Rise. She survived this long out of sheer luck. She met the right people to keep her alive. The survivors, like my parents.”

“Like you,” I say.

Jude smiles sadly. “What’s funny is that my family always considered me to be too soft. They tried to beat the kindness out of me. To them, it was a weakness.”

“You’re many things, but weak isn’t one.”

Jude meets my eyes, lips parted. And for the first time, I realize that he’s on a bed. If we’re quick enough, we could—

Hurried steps come from outside—too many steps—and right as we jump to our feet, the door crashes open, revealing a small army of men and women with their guns out.

A muscular woman walks in. Her eyes shine yellow in the dark. My mutant sister, Maeve.

“Hello, boys. You should have rung the bell,” she says with a smile.