It was time to finish this, the ship headed back for port to discover a large crowd right in the town centre.

They landed and went up to see a wooden pillar had been placed right in the middle.

‘Ah look! The outsiders are here! Shall we give them a huge thank for taking care of her guards!?’ the crowd cheered, yet it was not out of happiness. They could pretty much smell the anger in the air, luckily it was not directed towards them.

In the middle stood Graham, appearing to lead the crowd. As they approached they saw Matilda tied to the pole, her face covered in bruises and clothes ripped with some blood stains on them.

‘We were just telling this tyrant what we think of her! Of what we think of her entire family!’ the crowd cheered, some yelling insults to her.

‘Murderer!’

‘Thief!’

‘Slaver!’

She looked down on the ground, so in shock that she didn’t even react anymore. Matilda had just shut down.

‘Was she really that awful?’

‘She killed several of us who didn’t do what she said. Not to mention the beatings, the extortion. And how she burned down the entire Samson house just cause they didn’t share their food with her! She and her gang had more than enough, they had more than our entire town combined! We have lived in fear of the Copper family for years! No more!’

This came as a somewhat surprise to the crew. But then again, they had only been there for a few days, they didn’t know the whole story nor did they intend to get involved. Matilda’s fate was pretty much sealed at this point.

‘And we of course have you lot to thank for it! Once we realized all their guns were left we had a golden opportunity! You let us take our town back!’

‘A beer for the crew!’

They brought out bottles and almost shoved them into the crews hands.

‘We misjudged you outsiders, you’re alright.’ one of the townsfolk said.

‘That reminds me! You just came back from the ocean, do you have any news of that Leviathan?’ everyone suddenly went quiet, wanting a update.

‘We have....its dead. We killed it.’ gasps and whispers of disbelief erupted around them.

‘How?’

‘Blew up a underwater lab, long story.’

‘So that’s where that sudden wave came from! There was a huge one who just showed up out of nowhere, almost knocked our boats over! So its actually dead??’

‘You can go check yourselves.’

Suddenly the energy vanished, no one had any idea how to react. They all looked at each other, slowly melting down the information. Their greatest fear, their doom, it was gone....dead.

‘We....we can sail again....we can fish again....’

‘My god...’ is it finally dawned on them Graham blew out a large gust of smoke from his pipe.

‘Well I did promise ye a reward didn’t I? Follow me outsiders.’ he took them to his house. A small, borderline shack, with a chest off in the corner. Inside was a thing things. Classic guns and decorative blades, a old globe and a small box of cigars.

‘It ain’t much but all of it is yours.’

‘It will have to do.’ they took all of it and headed for the ship.

‘I’ll have to prepare a celebration. You sure you don’t wanna stay?’

‘We gotta keep moving, can’t stay in one place to long.’

‘Alright...take care then. Its a scary world out there.’

They heard the crowd off in the distance growing more distant as they walked up the hill to their ship. To their surprise Sera stood right outside, holding two large bags.

‘Before you say anything I still wanna leave! I got payment on me and’ suddenly Jack took out her gun and fired. Everyone froze, seeing their captain just opening fire on someone who as on their side. Only then did they see someone, suddenly appearing out of nowhere in front of her. A man in some kind of full body suit morphed into existence, clutching his chest before collapsing dead on the ground.

‘Get on board all of you! We’re leaving!’

They all rushed up the ramp, Juan grabbing Sera’s arm as she stood there frozen in shock and confusion, dragging her on board.

The ship shot of the ground before the townsfolk could reach them, seeing only the Dreaded Lady fly off in the distance, and a body of a unknown man in a strange uniform.

*

‘Shades....fucking shades! This confirms it, the Empire’s hunting us now!’

‘How did they know were this far north!?’

‘Must have followed the trail we in the deserts. Plus we fly in a giant ship, it isn’t exactly subtle.’

‘Well what the fuck is that cube then?? what’s so important about the damn thing?!’

‘We’ll find out. If its this important then it can most likely hurt them. For now we gotta figure out where we go next.’

‘And what of our passenger?’ they all turned to Sera, looking nervous.

‘If you drop me off at some kind of settlement I’ll be happy.’

‘We killed the damn thing, you sure you wanna leave?’

‘I am, I thought about it a lot and....and I realized that I hate living there. I may know nothing outside our little sad harbour but I hate it there! I wanna start over somewhere else. And this is my one chance.’ she put down her duffle bag. Inside was money, some jewelry and one bottle of wine. Old world, really fancy stuff.

‘We don’t have a lot, but please...please just give me this.’

Juan looked to Jack pleadingly, obviously having taken a liking to the girl.

‘Fine...but you’ll make yourself useful.’ she grabbed a broom and handed it to her.

‘And no complaining.’

Sera agreed, going off to find something to sweep.

‘Now for the rest of us, any ideas where to go? Any at all?’

‘We still have the data from the base. I can finish rebuilding the computer Gregor left in the workshop and go over it.’ Said Caleb.

‘Get to it then. I’ll listen in to the tape of our mysterious friend over the radio to see if I can get anything from it.’

*

Well over an hour and she got nothing. She listened to the tape over and over again on the communication panel. Yet she couldn’t help but feel that there was something about her voice, the language. She could almost understand some of the words..so close yet their meaning just barely escaped her...

'.dlrow eht fo dne eht ta ruoy rof tiaw lliw I .yenruoj eht fo pets lanif eht ,siht fo lla ot yek eht stI....?eman yM'‘Whats that you’re listening to?’ Sera asked as she came sweeping.

‘Just some tape, trying to figure out what it means.’

She played that phrase again. '.dlrow eht fo dne eht ta ruoy rof tiaw lliw I .yenruoj eht fo pets lanif eht ,siht fo lla ot yek eht stI....?eman yM' 

‘Ym?...doesn’t that sound a bit strange?’

‘Ym....Ym...ym...ym, my...my! Eman....name! My god!’ she hastily started pushing the buttons, skipping to one of phrases.

*

Caleb was tinkering away on the computer, finally making some real progress when ‘CALEB! GET TO THE COCKPIT NOW!!’

Oh shit, if Jack shouted like that then this couldn’t be good.

He walked over there to find her sitting there, a serious, borderline grim expression on her face. ‘I figured it out, you need to hear this.’

She then started to play the tape.

‘?uoy era ohW’ she stopped it right there as the voice finished its sentence.

‘Uhh captain...I was there..’

‘Shhh listen!’ she then played it backwards.

‘Who are you?’ it was backwards!! That fucking was talking in backwards!!

Then all of its phrases was played backwards one by one for them to hear every word of the female stranger.

 

’You did? No surprise, they were weak anyway.‘

’I could ask you the same, killing my property and using my signal. But ti entertain you, I'm your ruler, your god. And if you're wise, you will watch your every word from here on out carefully.‘

 

’Well isn't this interesting? You wanna what I want?

To fulfill my goals. I want.....wait. That thing you have with you. Is that really you?‘

 

’My name?....Its the key to all of this, the final step of the journey. I will wait for your at the end of the world.‘

 

‘What the fuck....’

‘Ya....I’m not even gonna ask why she came out backwards over the radio but there’s something really unnerving about that woman...least I think it is..’

‘Any idea what she means?’

‘Well that thing I guess its the cube because that’s the only thing that makes sense. But the end of the world tough has me confused tough, the world is round so it has no end....she metaphorical. And she’s trying to lure us somewhere, most likely a trap.

And how the hell did she know you carry that thing?’

‘She must have some sort of connection to it. It reacted to the leviathan as well so its probably tied to the A-gene.’

‘That or it senses telepathy which could explain I guess....still feels weird to know it exists...’

They thought long and hard until Caleb looked on the map for even a single clue, anything to lead them somewhere.

‘I’m going to play this to the others, we obviously don’t have enough clues.’

*

Even hours later Caleb obsessed over it. The end of the world...what the fuck did she mean??

Even as he finally made the final touches on the computer and got it to boot up he was still distracted by her phrasing. Maybe the library’s worth of old world data could lend him a clue. And to help him search he hooked up 65 to the weak yet functional computer.

‘Run a search for the end of the world.’

‘Searching........no results found.’

‘Is there anything in your own memory that matches?’

‘Searching.....no results found.’

He almost slammed his head into the desk when Kel came in to his room.

‘You look like shit.’

‘Its that damn phrase. End of the world....we’re sitting on the biggest mystery of the fucking century and she’s playing vague mind games with me!’

‘That’s cause she’s fucking with you! Its how she wants you to react.’

She began massaging his shoulders, trying to calm him down.

‘There’s no time limit as far as we know alright? Don’t let that weird bitch get to you.’

‘I guess...Maybe its one of the other hidden labs. I mean how many can they have built right?’

‘As of this memory the US government as precisely 213 labs inside US borders.’

‘Oh...’

‘Well your theory could still be true.’ she slumped down on his bed.

‘Maybe one of them worked to end the world or some shit.’ she joked sarcastically.

‘What did you say?’

‘That the wanted to end the world?...Looked I just joked alright? Its not like they could get much closer anyway.’

‘That’s it!’

‘What?!’

‘End of the world!! I remember a couple of years back I was discussing the old world war with some friends of mine. He called it the Armageddon war, apparently that’s one of its many names! And whats Armageddon besides one of the words for..’

‘End of the world?’

‘Yes! Its a name for destroying the world!! And what was the biggest weapon used that fucked everything?? Nukes!!’

‘You’re gonna have to start to make sense...’

‘That’s the clue! Nukes! The weapons of Armageddon!’

‘Your mind is really weird but I kinda like it...’

‘Thanks!...I guess....65 whats the biggest nuke arsenal in the US?’

‘After a decision of former president Keira Limpton over 35% of the US nuclear arsenal was moved to fort First strike in Pandale Texas.’

‘Are you sure that’s right tough? I mean that sounds more like a place to end the world as opposed to the actual end of the world.’

‘But nukes are the only clue I have right now...unless....radiation! The very thing they’re famous for! The thing that makes them so deadly!’

‘See there you go!....I think.’

‘What’s the most radiated place in the US?’

‘After a decision of’ ‘Ok stop. Clearly you’re not up to date...’

‘Maybe Jack knows? Shes kinda been all over the place.’

‘Of course!’ he pretty much stormed out of his room, Kel following close behind.

‘Fucks sake wait up!’

To his delight she was still in the cockpit.

‘Jack! Whats the most heavily radioactive place in the world?’

‘Come again?’

‘What Caleb MEANT to say was he has an idea and its related to radiation.’

‘Oh...well I guess that would be over here.’ she pointed far to the south west, near the middle of the whole map.

A big ominous text reading death valley was written there, not a single city or place of note within many miles.

‘That’s probably the most dangerous place on earth. The entire place turned to a irradiated wasteland, even more so than the rest of the world. Its a uninhabitable hellscape. They say the place is literally snowing radiation from the sky, the sun never shines there and the very air is toxic. People who don’t go mad there has their skin burned from the inside out. Also mutants so horrible that they make the ones in Dead City look like cute pets in comparison. Its generally a place of death and misery.’

‘Sounds like something the old world government could make up.’

‘You can’t actually think we’re going there right?’

‘Why not? What other place could ever describe “end of the world”??’

Jack thought about it deeply, considering every other place she knew of.

‘I don’t suppose there is one.’

‘You both can’t be fucking serious!’

‘Relax Kel we have radiation suits and the bikes aren’t affected by it. We can survive.’

‘But the mutants then?!’

‘That’s why we have guns. Besides we just killed the biggest one of all. I don’t think anything there will be that big of a challenge.’

‘From the ocean to Death Valley....we’re fucking craziest psychos in the wasteland...’

‘I have a plan to get us in, just gotta drop off our guest and get some specialized supplies first.’ she turned her chair and turned the ship in the direction. For better or worse, they headed for single worst place on Earth..

*

The town celebrated hard, gulping down barrels worth of booze and lighting bone fires. Dancing, singing and tomfoolery everywhere, the town was saved! The leviathan was dead and so was Matilda, they could finally fish and live free!

Everyone was so overjoyed that no one even cared about the strange body that appeared right as the outsiders left, they could theorize on that later! For now it was a party to last all night long!

Graham was stumbling down the docks with a beer can in hand, giggling to himself like a small boy. He had forgotten what it was like to feel happy...how great it was!

He looked up to the moonlight sky to see something moving up there....that was a damn large bird. Fast to...very fast....and coming towards him. What kind of bird was that?

Then he started to hear it. It had a strange humming to it, didn’t sound like a bird to him....it wasn’t a bird....it was some matter of vehicle but what exactly?

He just stared at it curiously when it got so close that he could make out its shape. Some kind of boat is shaped thing with wings, two fast spinning blades attached to it.

Suddenly he was knocked out of his trance by the sound of a explosion behind him followed by panicked screaming. He turned around to see the town on fire, those flying machines shooting down the townsfolk from above. The bodies dropped down all over the streets as giant, red holes burst out of their bodies, blood staining the streets.

He couldn’t tell what was going on before he to was shot down, body hitting the concrete ground below.

In just a few minutes the whole town was a burning ruin. Trucks appeared out of the woods and soldiers spread over the whole place, searching for survivors.

‘Sir we got another one!’

Reginald sighted heavily. He really, really hated this part of the job. Why on earth the Empress ordered this entire landscape cleansed of civilians was beyond him, yet he had no choice. If he refused they would inflict some fate worse than death on him and someone else would do it instead. These people were dead the moment she wanted them to.

At least this way he could make sure they all died quickly and not suffered torture at the hands of one of his more sadistic underlings.

‘Is there any sign of the flying vessel?’

‘No sir, but we found the body of one of the shades.’

‘So it really is her...I should have guessed.’

‘Her?’

‘Nevermind soldier. Make sure everyone is dead before we move on.’

‘Yes sir!’

He lit a cigar and silently swore to himself.....how he hated this part of the job...