The days passed in silence as Bax drove around the obstacles in the landscape, stopping occasionally to disrupt the void of sound with a visit into a town for supplies. Once, about halfway through the journey, an NEU helicopter stopped them in order to transfer the samples that Anabelle still had on her when they had left the scene. The biggest disruptions to the silence was whenever Anabelle would try to start a new conversation.

“So, where are we headed?” She would ask.

“Pre-war military base, division of science restoration.” Bax would respond, not looking away from the road.

“Which is…?”

“A military base built for the restoration of Last Era science.”

The conversation would end there until she felt like asking something again. It wasn’t common that she would ask, since she didn’t know Bax all that well, she had just been assigned to work with him on this case. The only thing that did push her to inquire was her own natural and crushing curiosity, science was involved, Last Era science, she shook just thinking about it.

“Why do you think they’re involved.” She would ask.

“Last Era military only had two bases with the technology and the knowhow for this.”

“So why is this one automatically responsible.”

“Other one burned up a few days after the bombs went off.”

“How do you know all of this?”

“... Passed down through the family, my grandpa was the only one to make it out of the other science base.”

The conversation would end there, but Ana would eventually get curious again as the daylight passed into the easy dark blue of night. The stars sparkled like Ana’s eyes, the darkness was cold like Bax’s. Eventually, Ana would ask an increasingly annoyed Bax another question.

“Can you tell me about your grandfather.” She would ask.

Silence, silence until she repeated her question, each time gaining no more information than before. Each time the slight frustration was multiplied by Ana’s increased curiosity. Each time Ana would ask again and become increasingly more persistent on more information, each time, Bax would go silent. This happened for days as they traveled further and further west.

The towns began to change from the waste landing scavengers to homebody “Altered” humans, switching from a gritty survivalist culture to prospering communities with diverse people with diverse abilities. People eyed them as they would walk into one of the shops, whispering things in worried tones. The Altered humans were wise to be afraid, Unaltered humans had a habit of growing anxious, jealous, or frightened around them, which would lead to small wars between Altered and Unaltered communities, the end result was always the same, massive casualties and bad blood.

Then there were the raiders. While the Altered humans were more successful when it came to cultivating food and materials due to their powers creating specialists of sorts, they weren’t particularly well armed because of their distance from weapon manufacturers and any well armed Last Era military base. This made them an easy target, and many raiders would send in scouts disguised as Unaltered NEU citizens. A week or so after the scouts would leave town the Altered community might be bombarded with waves of well armed sadists looking to take the shelter and food. Of course, raiders are idiots, and the food would soon run out and the shelter would fall into disrepair. The raiders would move on to sack another town, and leave behind nothing but the bones of a town.

The Altered were naturally dangerous, however, and many underestimated them, many raider tribes had been wiped out after unsuccessful attacks. Unaltered and Altered conflicts would only last so long because of the Altered’s natural abilities and years of being forced to strategize against combatants. As such, Altered society was always tight-nit and a bit stand-offish. Because of this, there were a few that wouldn’t serve Bax and Anabelle, there were even a few that tried to start something. Bax would usually shut these altercations down before it got violent, but once or twice an altered would come to regret earning his ire. Bax tried his hardest not to kill anyone, though it would have been so easy with his extensive combat training. By the time they had reached their destination they had passed twenty altered communities, and been welcomed to a degree where they could get what they need at eight.

They reached their destination, despite the reserved Altered communities, but they were barely equipped with enough food, water, gas, and ammo to make the trip back into NEU territories. Anabelle was quietly panicked about this, Bax, on the other hand, seemed level headed and focused on the task at hand. They parked at the bottom of a dust dune, Anabelle waited at the bottom as Bax climbed up to scout for enemies. When he gave the signal she climbed up after him to see a wide valley that was nearly empty. At the very bottom of the valley on the side opposite of them sat the only building, a sparkling, pure, multilayered cube of a building.

“How did it survive the bombs in such good shape?” Anabelle asked.

“It didn’t.” Bax said as he removed his binoculars and handed them to her.

She peered through them, seeing vaguely human shaped figures moving on the other side of the tinted glass. Some of the figures seemed huge, humanoid certainly but twice the size of the normal sized people. Baffled, she lowered the binoculars in awe.

“They...rebuilt? How? Who are they?” She asked, expecting no answers. Bax Answered.

“My bet, its the original inhabitants. The containment cells were deep below the ground so any surface damage wouldn’t have been detrimental to their survival. Scientists of this caliber… I wouldn’t be surprised if rebuilding is the least they’ve done in there.”

“That’s crazy!” She said. “They’d have to be a almost two hundred years old!”

“Last Era scientists were developing a way around age when the bomb fell. Probably the first thing they did when they got out of their cells was shove their little projects into their own veins.” He said bitterly. “Wish I had been there for the first few injections.”

“Why is that?” She asked, curious and suddenly distracted.

Bax took a moment to think, as if he was recalling terrible memories. “My, uh, great, or great great, you lose count, you know. Just called him gramps. Lived a long time, he was one of the first subjects, they tested on their own soldiers, and since he was so deep in they thought he was a good candidate. The problem was the injections, while they did basically make the subject immortal, were extremely painful and didn’t actually stop aging for the first few decades. The pain from the injections would resurface over those decades along with the health complications of growing older. When I was 12 the pain got to be too much for him, he begged me to… I hope they had those problems…”

“Well…” She began to say, a bit taken back by his sudden will to share. “If it's any comfort-”

“Duck.”

He grabbed her head and shoved both of their faces into the dust as swarms of bullets flew over their head. Anabelle was nearly deafened by the sounds of heavy artillery and screaming. As the firing subsided the sound of mechanical hydraulics shrinking away could be heard.

“WHAT HAPPENED!” She screamed.

“Shh.” Bax said emotionless.

“What happened!” She whispered insistently.

He pointed to a dune to the east which was now adorned with a dead raider scout. Then he gestured to small, smooth, silver caps that were camouflaged under the dust and dotted across the landscape.

“Why aren't we getting shot?” She asked.

“Because I’m welcomed here.” He said, pulling a card from his pocket that showed a picture of a man that looked similar to him. The card read in black letters “Lucas Hill.”

“Stay with the car, watch for ambushers, I’m gonna find out what the hell they’re up to.”