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Dead Zones are scattered across the world's fallout zones. Ultra contaminated regions were incredibly high yield thermonuclear warheads were set off, radiation absorbed here is measured by thousands of Terrarads a second. Not even the strongest Scorpions can hope to navigate them without the bleeding edge of ultra high end radiation equipment.

It was obvious to me that Evan and Alex had been around the block together a few times. They seemed to trust one another, perhaps from having served together during the war. Evan was nice enough to provide a barrack near the outer perimeter of his compound for us to bunk in for the time being. It was a double wide mobile home, like the kind they used for construction offices and this one seemed to have been originally designed for just that. Be that as it may, it was in good shape. Office space had been converted into a bunk room on one end with four bunk beds lined up against the walls in the main open space of the buildings, with a small bathroom complete with a "shower", a little more than an old evaporator coil distributor that had a sweat to pipe thread adapter welded to it that was screwed into a PVC wye fitting that had two ball valves feeding it, one with a red handle, perhaps for hot water, and another blue, cold maybe. The other end of the house had a couch and some salvaged appliances to facilitate a kitchen area, as nothing in the damn place matched. I set my rifle down on one of the bunks and was preparing to take off my plate carrier when the radio buzzed.

"Condor Ground, Rhino King", Truck said, "Condor Ground, please respond."

"Be right back guys", I said, "gonna step outside a minute."

"Truck?", Alex asked.

I nodded.

"Be gone thot", Shannon waved me off.

I shrugged and stepped outside.

"Rhino King, Condor Ground. What do you got?"

"We're running low on fuel", Truck said, "we're fixing to land at Houston Southwest airport, gotta be about 30 miles south of where you're at right now, you'll be without air support for at least a day at this point because we've for sure got a leak in a fuel line somewhere. Tanks of gas never go this fast."

"Any idea how the leak started?"

"No, we'll have to go through the plane to find out how and where it's at, usually takes a day or two to go through the lines completely, and we're going to go ahead and go through it completely while we're on the ground, it's way overdue. Usually takes about three days to go through the plane completely."

"Get yourself sorted Truck, we've secured support in the form of a Mark Seven Landship, code named Bottom Feeder for the time being. Unless we get swarmed by an armored division or Army Remnants, we should be okay."

"I'll hail you as soon as I'm airborne", Truck said, "There wasn't any activity within ten miles of the airport. It would take considerable time with the way the roads look in this part of the city for even infantry to get out here, as it doesn't look like there's anyway in or out of this particular area except by air, so for now we've got the strip to ourselves. What I can see, hanger looks intact, so I'll have concealment. I'll keep my radio on in case something comes up, but for now, focus on you. If you can find a place to rest a few days, do it and I'll join you soon as I'm sky worthy again. Rhino King out."

"Copy your last, out."

I turned heading back inside the barracks we'd been given for the time being. Wasn't much, a setup similar to the trailer we'd been towing behind James' rig while we had it. Rather plain two room mobile home with a living arrangement and facilities in one, cots in another. There was a single, two ton SubCooling unit on each end of the building that weren't currently running with dead thermostats. James set upon the one in the entrance room almost immediately, pulling it off the wall and beginning to check it.

"What did Truck want?", Eirren asked.

"He's touched down at Southwest Houston Airport", I said, "evidently they twigged at some point in the past few hours that they had a leak and now their tanks are dry. They're gonna sit on the runway for at least three days while they refuel and get the plane repaired. He wants us to just focus on ourselves and not worry about him, he'll hail us once he's airborne."

"Good, least he's safe", Eirren said, "gives us more time to get this Shadow Company shit sorted out."

"How's it feel to be home Arien?", James asked replacing the thermostat on the wall and putting a screwdriver back into his tool bag, one of the few things that had been saved from his rig.

"Feel's good", I said pulling the cable on my IOTV and the wire from my PTT, letting it hit the floor with a thump, happy to be free of it, "feel's better to be free from my plate carrier."

"I saw something online some years ago", Nat said, "It said something along the lines of males will never know what it feels like to take a bra off after a long day", she giggled, tossing aside her own carrier, "Clearly, that animal had never worn a plate carrier."

"Makes me happy I'm a reptile", Eirren shrugged, "I never had to wear either prewar, post war I only need one."

"Sure Eirren", Nat sighed, "just make fun of Shannon and I why don't you?"

"I'm not making fun of anyone", Eirren insisted, "I'm just saying that females bitched about the whole bra thing pre war and I never understood why."

"Probably because you're a reptile", Shannon stated, "not needing to breast feed your kids really removes the need for them in the first place."

"Possibly the most factually correct thing I've heard in a while", Alex suggested, unstrapping her helmet, "There was a chick I went to school with pre war who was constantly complaining that her kid was biting the shit out of her when she tried to nurse him."

"I never had that problem with Joey", Nat said, "Tia on the other hand? She bit me so hard once I was half tempted to just start bottle feeding the both of them. Benjamin came in right after it happened and saw me bleeding all over the everywhere and without any context whatsoever started freaking out."

"I'll never forget that day", Benjamin laughed, "I could have sworn she had some kind of horrid condition that was going to cost us tens of thousands to treat and Nat's just like, no you ass hat your daughter just tried to bite the right half of my chest off."

"Sounds painful", James said opening the return air grill, "It's not related to the subject, but I've got...what da' fuck is this shit!?"

"Something in the vent?", I asked.

"Uhh...", from that grill, James pulled the most disgusting looking air filter I'd ever seen. I'd seen some nasty air filters working for the supply house back home, but this damn thing had vines growing in it. I couldn't even really see the media itself any more.

"Yup", Alex said, "there's Dock 41 maintenance crews for you."

"If that's what the filter looks like, wonder what that evaporator coil looks like?", I asked.

"Here...don't let that touch anything", James said handing me the filter, peering into the return air, I heard him curse under his breath.

"Jesus Christ, I've never seen a coil this fucking nasty before", he muttered.

He popped back out, "hey did you guys save my gauges from the rig?"

I nodded, "yeah, they're in the back of the Tundra. Want me to get 'em?"

"Yeah, and see if you can get a bottle of R12, leak stop and some twenty by thirty by two pleats off someone. I guarantee as soon as I clean this coil it's gonna dump the charge."

I stepped outside, tossing the filter in a dumpster close to the barrack, unlocking the Tundra with the fob as I approached. I dug through the duffle bag to find James' gauges, a well worn Fieldpiece SMAN 480V that was paired with Uniweld EZ-Turn Hoses and ballvalves on each hose. A Sporlan C-032 was secured to the back of the gauge body with a piece of old duct tape. Closing the rear door, I heard Evan from behind me.

"Looks like your gauges have seen a few rooftops", he said.

"They're not mine, they belong to James. By any chance does your stock room happen to have a bottle of R22, and maybe some leak stop? James seems to think the Bard unit on our barrack is going to dump it's charge when he cleans the coil."

Evan laughed, "pretty sure we've got some in the warehouse somewhere. I gotta tell ya though brother, there's no saving the AC's on those barracks. I doubt they've been touched since the Dock came into our hands."

I shrugged, "James is a hell of a technician, when we met, he had seven tons of multi refrigerant package unit cooling his house. Let me tell you something bro, that shit was 100% custom."

"I'm sure", Evan didn't seem convinced, "so tell me something Arien, where did you pick up Alex at?"

"West Virginia I think?", I told him, "I've kinda lost track of what's happened where. Not even sure how long I've been on this trip any more. The days and nights just kinda blend together. Brain trauma perhaps."

"Well, if you feel like you want a once over, our Doc would be happy to lend a hand. Now, that aside, you are the commanding officer of your team, so to speak, correct?"

"It's a group effort", I said, "I wouldn't be where I am now if it weren't for the rest of 'em."

"Well", Evan said, "I think it's fair to warn you, I gave Alex the boot for a reason."

"What would that reason be?", I asked.

"Her methods are too brutal for my liking", Evan said, "on her last assignment, she acted more out of vengeance than justice. Now, I'm not going to sit here and say that Raul Holden didn't deserve everything she gave him, he did, and from what I understand, still does. But it shouldn't have happened, not like that."

"I know she beat the guy within an inch of death with a length of iron pipe", I shrugged, "anyone whose gonna boil animals alive deserves whatever they get from anyone who gets their paws 'round their neck far as I care."

"You didn't strike me as that type of animal", Evan raised an eye.

"What type did I strike you as?", I asked.

Evan leaned against the bed of my truck, "you struck me more as the type that would give someone the plate carrier off his back to keep them safe, or make yourself a living shield. I am many things Arien, a bad judge of other animals is not one of them."

I shrugged, "I've never been in that situation, but I'd like to think I'd go to that length to protect someone. What does this have to do with Alex?"

Evan shifted again, "I dunno that I should tell you this, but I want you to understand just the kind of Animal Alex is. She doesn't sit idly by and let Animals suffer, not if there's something she can do about it."

He reached into his back pocket and handed me a patch. It was half black, half white horizontally. In the middle of the patch was an upside down triangle with what looked like a 5.56 round in the middle. The left side of the triangle and bullet was white on top, black on bottom, the other side of the symbol was inverted. The patch had a bullet hole in one end, about the same size of the scar exposed on Evan's sleeveless left arm.

I laid James gauges on the hood of the truck, "This is the patch I've seen the Shadows wearing. How'd you happen across it?"

"Used to wear it", Evan said, "Alex and me both."

"You're...former Shadow Company?", I asked.

He nodded, "worked my way up to Head of the Science Division. Old Shadow Company brother, and damn proud of it. I still have my uniforms in my barracks. Don't wear them much any more though. Good way to get shot these days."

"So, enlighten me, what happened? What changed?"

"Raul Holden happened", Evan said, "he wanted the Company for himself. He said Shadow Company's efforts would be better spent making the populace serve us, rather than the other way around. Old Shadows dared him to try something. So he did. Shadow Company went to war with itself."

"I take it you got stomped?"

"They had three tanks, kept off of official documents. We walked into a trap, thought we were going to clean up trash, like we always did. Rest of the Shadows I served with are either dead or MIA. Alex lost her mate and son to Raul's power trip."

"I'd been wondering where Alex's mate was. Just figured she'd tell us whenever she told us."

Evan paused a moment then opened his mouth like he was going to say one thing, then switched his train of thought to something else completely, "Arien, I hope you don't mind, but I've got a favor to ask."

"Shoot."

"I know at least six of the Shadows I served with walked away from that fight", Evans said, "I can give you their code names and places that they might have gone. If you can hunt them down, I want to see if you can convince them to come out to the Dock. I want to rebuild Shadow Company to what it used to be, the Animals that get called when something or someone is threatening to take everything from someone who can't protect it."

I handed Evan back his patch, standing for a minute before I answered him.

"Okay Evan, I'm in."

Evan grinned widely, "I knew you would. I'll go fetch those files from my barrack, in the meantime, I'll have those supplies delivered to your barracks."

Evan took off back towards his lab. I picked up James' gauges and returned to the barracks. Where I found James had somehow managed to insert himself halfway into the return air. Mya was sitting on a table near by watching him, Nero was underneath said table, head pointed down, ears perked up.

"I think you'll find that sheet metal screws work a bit like Scale Cracker ammunition", I said setting his gauges down beside him.

"I think you'll find I don't care", James said hauling himself out of the return air, "besides, any screws in here are covered in shit. This unit is trashed to the point I don't think it'll turn over when I throw the breaker. From what I can see, the blower motor is an ECM and there appear to be scorch marks near the harness plug."

"Have you tried to run it yet?", I asked.

"Not yet, I was pulling old filter material and rats nests out of the wheels, was waiting for you to get back before I tried so I could disappoint everyone at once."

He walked across the room to the breaker panel. Throwing the cover open, he searched along the panel legend until he found the breaker for the unit. When he threw the breaker, the thermostat on the wall lit up.

"System off, 75 inside", I read the thermostat screen off.

"Turn it as low as it'll go. Let's see what happens."

The Honeywell was only as deep as 60 degrees. A second or two of leaving it alone had it click and a second later I heard the contactor pull in, bringing the SubCooler alive. The blower spit a copious amount of dried out dust and old filter material into the room, but after a second or two the air cleaned up. The air, of course, was not coming out cold, however there was no burning smell, which would indicate a motor or parts on their way out.

I pressed my head against the wall, listening for the deeper hum that would indicate a compressor had kicked on, I heard none.

"Don't hear a compressor dude", I noted.

"Yeah..neither do I", He said, "if that compressor is toast...that could be an issue."

"Wanna check it out?", I asked.

"Gonna have to", he said reluctantly, "if we're gonna be here a while, I'm not going without AC. Fuck that."

James picked up his tool bag and went outside, I followed. Here, we learned that the system had at least been coated against corrosion, and that included the compressor and condenser motor and coil, and that the unit from the outside at least appeared to have been properly PM'd at some point in time.

"Looks like someone kept up with the PM's at least. Never serviced a SubCooling unit before. Let's see what all the hype was about".

SubCooling Manufacturing was the talk of the town pre war. Unlike every other HVAC manufacturer out there, everything that wore their stickers was built from raw material right here in Texas, and was the only one who made their own parts, compressors and motors. Their units could be lost off the back of semi trailers and still be installed and meet their first in the industry 30 SEER rating. Addison was the only dealer for SubCooling around here, and despite the price tag, we sold the shit out of them at my shop. The thing they were really known for besides their high SEER, bullet proof equipment was their compressors. SubCooling's Mastercraft compressors were designed to be serviced, not replaced, and to run for incredibly long periods of time. Before the war, they had a livestream up on YouTube that had a Mastercraft Five Ton running round' the clock for about three years before the war. Far as I know, that compressor was still running when the bombs fell.

James dropped his tool bag at his feet, swiping his drill from it before it hit the ground. You know how those guys in the pits at races change tires? That was the kind of efficiency James moved with when he was pulling the screws from the sheets of armor that those SubCooling units wore around their coils and motors. With the screws all in his pocket and the guards stacked against the house, James connected his gauges. Working a set of gauges was the one thing I never quite could get the hang of, but It didn't take a genius to realize that the unit was short on refrigerant.

"System's full of air", James laid his gauges aside and shined a flashlight on the inner workings of the unit, "Okay, I need to figure out where the leak is, that still doesn't tell me why the compressor doesn't cycle on when the Thermostat is calling for cooling. God, this equipment is built like a fucking main battle tank."

"SubCooling's shit is built for war. You should see their packaged units if you think this is excessive."

"Rated at 30 SEER I'll bet they were monsters."

"You couldn't hope to move one without a forklift. BASF built a gargantuan warehouse/office complex out where my store was, they speced two, 100 ton split systems for it. Those were some bad motherfuckin' units. With a price tag to boot."

"100 tons?", James asked, "was it still rated at 30 SEER?"

"Everything they made was 30 SEER."

"How do you get 30 SEER out of a hundred tons of anything?" he asked.

"Black magic", I shrugged, "black magic and some giant fuckin' coils. The condenser's were the size of a small house. Air handlers going to the warehouse were the size of an over the road truck, mini split sized heads were going in the offices."

"I'd hate trying to work on a hundred tons of split VRF with one big condenser. Just thinking about how that must be piped is giving me chills."

James shook his head, searching around the wiring of the unit, testing the wires at seemingly random intervals, trying to make sense of the interface on the control board. Didn't have much luck.

"Arien, you seem to know about these SubCooling units. Do I need a navigator to work on this?"

"Only on six tons and up", I said.

"Okay", he sighed, "I'm a Yorkie, not SubCooler. Might take me a minute to figure this fancy shit out."

James went through the unit one piece at a time, until eventually he put his meter back in his bag.

"Welp, we need a new compressor motor", he said, "winding's on this one are open."

I peeked at the compressor, "Addison should have one in the warehouse. Shouldn't be far from here."

"Someone's gonna have to go get it at some point", James said, "it's too late to do anything about it tonight."

"Sun will be up soon", I checked my watch, "just about five in the morning."

"Fuck I've been up too late", He growled, "I need a cigarette. Don't think I'mma need you further Ari, gonna check the other unit out and see if I can get it running."

"Just call me if you need me", I left James to his thing, walking around the front of the building, where I found Evan waiting for me, he had a binder in his hand with Shadow Company's logo on it.

"Might get shot by your own Animals if they catch you with that", I noted.

"Nah", Evan said, "Only Animals around here I trust with guns are the ones who served with me. About half of the armed guards here are Shadows themselves, rest of them are US Army Remnants I recruited to the Dock after the Biomass took over Camp Leatherneck."

"USAR had a camp in Houston?", I asked.

"Used to", Evan said, "Walk with me."

"How many USAR you got here?"

"40", Evan said, "Half of them patrol the outer edges of Sector three, usually up to their balls in the fucking swamp this city is quickly becoming. Rest of them guard here at home."

"So Shadow Company's lintel was correct? The City is flooded out?", I inquired.

"More or less", Evan shrugged as we approached his lab. He opened the door and guided me past his actual lab equipment into another, large room with a round table, there were five other animals seated at it. Old guys, US Army remnants and government hold outs from the looks of them. They all stood when Evan entered.

"Sir", the oldest among them greeted.

"Sir", the others greeted.

"As you were Gentlemen", Evan said as he took out one of the seats, "I'd like to introduce the newest comer to the Dock, this is Arien Kyvart, Alex is under his command now, and you can credit them with killing the large Biomass near Tucker Memorial."

"How did you happen to pull that one off?", one of the officers sat at the table asked, "we couldn't find tankers willing to go near that hospital because of that monstrosity."

"I had a team member outfitted with several cybernetic life support devices, we went because we didn't have a choice. As for the Biomass, Alex was the one who pulled the trigger."

"We thank you greatly for it's removal. We're considering sending a team to get it restored to working capacity."

"Arien", Evan said, "these animals are my Board of Directors. Each one specializes in a different area, they're the ones working out of sight to help me keep the Dock running like it is. I've already briefed them of your goals, and your willingness to assist us. Keep in mind through the duration of this discussion, you are under no obligation to help in anyway. Should you decide at any point that you are not willing to risk your life, or the lives of your teams in helping us accomplish our mission, speak up. You will still be treated as an honored guest for dispatching the Tucker Biomass, it was responsible for a large number if civilian deaths in the early days following the bombs."

I nodded, "Okay Evan, so tell me, what you bring me down here for?"

"General Holland, you may begin", Evan said.

An old silver dragon sat at the other end of the table stood up and put on his glasses. He lit up a board on the wall that showed two maps of the united states. Areas of the Country were covered in splotches of color, they started out as a light green, gradually turning yellow, then orange, red and finally purple. If I didn't know any better, I'd say I was looking at a five day forecast. The other had sections of the country that were colored various shades. One was up north where I had come from, colored light brown, it read, "North East Desert".

Moving lower, the area of states we'd traveled through that was rabid infested was colored a dark brown "Rabid Territory". Where I guessed Khen was building his settlement was a light green "Eire Country". West of that, Long Island was all black, it read "NYC Exclusion Zone". Further south still, there was a giant splotch of brown with black lines through it, it consisted of the majority of the southern US, and some of the midland as well, "ZR-5 Bombing Zone" Most of the midland US was grayed out "Midland Territory". Further East, we had three distinct zones, more dark brown "West Coast Rabid Territory", dark green with light brown lines, "Zion Country." The most ominous of them, however, were these little black, transparent spots with red X's in them. They were scattered all over the country, some larger than others. According to the map legend, they were "Dead Zones."

"Arien", Holland said, "What do these maps mean to you?"

"One on the left looks like a chart of the fallout patterns caused by the different ordinance used during the war, the other looks like some sort of territories map.

"Yes", Holland said, "The left map is our most recent printout. Every three months we get a new print out, this was the fallout chart as of September first. What we've confirmed so far is that New York City and Washington DC were hit the hardest, the radiation levels there are so high that even retreating to the underground would offer little, if any protection, only Austin Texas might be worse than NYC, we know that the levels in both cities were too high for our equipment to measure. Every now and again, weather systems pick up this radiation and bring it down here. Because of that, we get violent chemical storms from time to time and these storms are strong enough to irradiate even dragons to death. Last time one of these storms came through here, we lost six animals and ran out of Triamidol. We have 400 Animals living on this Dock not counting our soldiers here and deployed, and with this storm set to come through in a few days, we stand to have our population roasted within hours of it setting in."

"What can I do to help?"

"Any idea what your immunity barrier is?", one of the officers asked.

"My barrier brakes at about 550 rads per second of exposure.

Two of the officers exchanged glances.

"He's a no go Evan, the last guy we sent through was four times his resistance and he died in minutes."

I took a deep breath, "where the fuck are you wanting to send me?"

Evan slid a map in front of me, this was an over view map of Houston with a fallout overlay on it. In the upper corner of the city, there was a giant splotch of purple well on it's way to becoming black.

"So what am I looking at?", I asked.

"What your seeing is a close up view of a Dead Zone", Evan said, "as you can see, notated by black spots with grey lines and a red x, they're all over the country. These, we suspect, are detonation sites of some of the most powerful nuclear bombs ever designed. You can absorb Terrarads of radiation in seconds in a Dead Zone and nothing can survive there for very long, even with the best gear. The issue is, the only place within running distance that we can resupply our cache of Radiation drugs in time for the coming storm..."

"Is in the middle of said Dead Zone?", I asked.

"Unfortunately", Evan said.

"Where is this Dead Zone?", I asked.

"About a five hour drive from here", Holland said, "near the upper end of the state. Kai has already offered to make the escort run for whoever heads out there."

"You guys realize that the mate's gonna kill me if I do this for you? I promised her after Medusa that I wouldn't fucking do this again."

"Do you understand what we're saying Arien?", Holland demanded, "we've got five hundred and seventy Animals that call this dock home and before long, that number could be as high as six hundred! If we don't get those meds, they all DIE! Everyone at this table will fry when that storm hits!"

"Holland!", Evan barked, "I implore you use diplomacy in this office! Arien is under zero obligation to help us! That mission could be a suicide run and Arien has a family to look after!"

"It's suicide to not do it!", Holland said, "What about all the other families on this Dock!? What about your boy!? My daughter!?", Holland pointed at another, much younger officer sitting at one end of the table, "Nick has two kids with a third on the way! What about him!? His family!?"

"HOLLAND!", Evan barked, slamming his fists down on the table as he stood up, "I said fucking be quiet! I'm not sending anyone to the Greenvile Dead Zone who isn't willing! Especially not someone who isn't part of our ranks!"

I took a deep breath, "How long do we have before this storm hits?"

"Less than a week", Holland said, "the radiation is too strong for us to measure. We can heard everyone under ground into a safe room underneath the channel, but without access to Triamidol, no one is going to survive. Within two to three hours, everyone will be fried."

"The Biomass will", One of the officers said.

I leaned in, my ears stood atop my head, "The Biomass can survive the storms?"

"They always do", the officer said, "they come to harass us whenever the Black Rain starts falling."

I paused for a minute.

"Evan, I may be able to pull this off for you. Do you know where the drugs are located?"

"The Texas Emergency Provision Stock pile", Evan said, "it's deep underground in the north end of the Houston Dead Zone. Thanks to the nuke that created the zone, you'll have no issues getting in."

"How much Triamidol do you need?", I asked, "and will Epinenosine be of any value?"

"If you can bring back two 24 count cases of Epinenosine, that would set the Dock for about six months", Holland said.

"Then I'll keep my eye out for both. What equipment do you have that I can use to survive the trip?", I asked, "I have a makeshift rad suit I used to brave Medusa, but with what you're saying about the Dead Zones, it won't last long."

"Well, Holland has an idea about that", Evan said.

"I've designed a new type of hazardous material suit", Evan said, "first run field tests have proven promising in reducing radiation and toxin exposure in hot zones around Houston to nearly nothing. Issue is, no one's been willing to wear it to a Dead Zone."

"Gotta be a first time for everything. Have you got three of them sized for dragons? Two males and one female?"

Holland nodded, "we also have a drug that has been tested in the outskirts of the dead zone that showed promising results. Don't worry about shooting up, the suit will handle that for you."

I stood up, "I'm going to go have a talk with my team. How long have we got until the storm hits?"

"A week, tops. Probably less."

"I'll let you know something in 20 minutes", I said.

I stood up, left the room and it my radio, "everyone on my team gather up in the barracks, we have something to discuss."

The radio chirped a round of replies. Upon arriving at the barrack, I found them gathered in the bedroom. James had managed to at least get that unit running, and the air wasn't stagnant.

"Where you been at for the past 20 minutes?", James asked, "you weren't answering the radio."

"I was in a meeting of sorts with Evan and his officers", I said, "he disclosed some information to me I think you all should know."

"Like what?", Alex asked.

I took a deep breath, "Evan is former Shadow Company, so are a lot of the soldiers here. Apparently, Evan founded Shadow Company to help survivors and rebuild after the war, and Alex's friend Raul Holden had different ideas. He staged a coup and took it over. Shadow Company went to war. Evan lost."

Eirren stiffened, so did most of them.

"That's fucking new", Alex huffed, I thought she played the part of being surprised as all get out quite well.

"Well", Zack said, "seems like that's a pretty good bit of information to have."

"Are we gonna have to shoot our way out of here?", Nat asked, "we all saw how fast Bottom Feeder can move. Can we even trust this Evan guy?"

I nodded, "yeah, he's doing Gods work here, for sure. May not be for much longer though."

"Why is that?", Alex asked.

"There's a storm fixing to blow in. It's bringing enough radiation with it that there's no place on the docks to hide from it. Evan said he can move animals underground, but it won't be enough. They ran out of radiation drugs last time a storm blew through and six animals fried as a result. The storm coming through will roast the dock within two to three hours."

Silence fell over the room.

"So...where does that leave us?", Eirren asked, "what about truck."

I hadn't thought about him until now, I hit my radio.

"Rhino King, Condor Ground, do you copy?"

"Arien", Truck said, "I've got two hours to sleep before guard duty, this had better be important."

"Brother, get your team up, everyone you've got needs to hear this."

"Gimme a minute", Truck said.

Five minutes passed before Truck was back on the radio.

"Okay, you have our attention, now what could be so important at six in the morning?"

"Withing a week, likely less, a storm system is going to bring through enough radiation to fry this entire city within three hours. Truck, lock up your plane and get to Dock 41, being underground is the only option you have to survive."

"Vy khotite, chtoby ya pokinul svoy samolet!?!", the pilot shouted in the background, "YA ne ostavlyayu moyu Antonov za musor, kotoryy zarazhayet etot gorod!!"

"Spokoystviye Aleks, kto v etom gorode mog letat' oruzhiyem, krome tebya?", Skeve asked.

"We can't leave the gunship here", Truck said, "there's too much that could happen to it."

"If you guys stay with that plane, the storms going to cook you. You don't want to leave your gunship, trust me, I fucking get that. But with it having a leaking fuel line and the tank being dry, it's not like anyone's going to steal it."

I heard more Russian being spoken in the background, the pilot came to the radio after a minute.

"If I come back and my plane has been stripped for parts", he hissed.

"Feel free to collect your pound of flesh", I said, "I'll hand you the knife. I just don't wanna see you guys die."

"We'll pack up, lock up the plane and head to the Dock", Truck said, "we can be there in a few hours."

"I'll tell Evan you're coming. Condor ground out."

"Rhino King copies last", Truck said, "out."

"Okay, with that done, that brings me to the main thing that Evan and I discussed."

"Which is?", Alex asked.

"He told me that the only way that they can replenish the stocks of radiation meds in time to survive the storm is a federal stock pile in the northern part of the state. Issue is, it's in a Dead Zone."

"Not like that's anything special", Nat said, "just don't take any electronics and we'll be fine."

"Not Dead Zones like that", I said, "Evan uses the term to describe the kill zones for the most powerful nukes that got dropped during the war. Radiation there is measured in Terrarads per second."

"Terrarads?", Eirren said, "Jesus Christ! I thought Medusa was a hot zone!"

"I guess we're gonna die then", James said, "Terrarads in a second is a scary thing to think about."

A dreadful silence fell over the room. Nero and Mya crawled into Eirren's lap and lay there, curled up in balls. Nat and Benjamin held each other tightly, I wasn't sure what they thought of the situation laced my fingers together, looking down at the floor as I tried to muster the courage to say what I had to.

"Arien?", Alex asked.

I looked up, "I volunteered. I'm going to Greenvile to get the medicine."

"No way!", Zack yelled, "that's a fucking suicide mission!"

"You can't!", Nero balled, "you promised!"

"Yeah!", Eirren's voice was as much rage as it was tears, "you think you can just run off and get yourself killed in a hot spot like that!? What about getting home!? You promised we could be a family once we were done!!!"

"You're fucking crazy", Alex said, "I'm certified insane and even I wouldn't go to fucking Greenvile!"

"Guys, I've spent my life just trying to help where I could. Everything I've done to this point has amounted to not a little less than nothing. Fuck, my most crowning achievement in my life was getting out of the house, into a converted shed in a trashy lot down a back road. I have a chance to do something real with my life. There are five hundred seventy Animals that live on this Dock. If someone doesn't go to Greenvile, every one of them is gonna die."

"Arien, if you fucking go to Greenvile, you will not come back", Alex said, "I saw the tapes, I saw the maps, I saw what the radiation there does to Animals. Please, think about this!"

"I can't just sit by and let these animals die in the gutter", I said, "I can't. If I die, I die knowing I tried."

Eirren set Nero and Mya aside and got on her knees in front of me, putting her hands on my shoulders, tears were streaming down her cheeks.

"If you go to Greenvile you will die, and I'm going to die with you. I lost my parents, my friends, and Mark to this fucking wasteland. Arien, I refuse to live without you. If you want to commit suicide by radiation, you had better not do it without me."

"No!", Nero started balling, harder than I'd ever heard a puppy ball, "No! You can't do that! You promised! You all did! Uncle Zack! Uncle James! Do something! I don't wanna lose Mommy and Daddy! Please stop them!"

Nero jumped at me from the floor, crying and growling, stuttering incoherently. Eirren and I held him tightly.

"Arien", Zack said, "fight me. You're not going, I'm not gonna let you get killed! If you go you'll die for sure! Ya'll turned the world on it's axis to bring me back from death...and I'm supposed to just let you go like this!?"

I could see, out of the corner of my eye, Alex take Zack's hand. She looked at him.

"Zack, he has a point. There's almost six hundred animals on this dock. The storm's coming, one way or another."

Zack looked at me, "are they at least supplying you a rad suit?"

"Holland has a special kind of Hazmat suit he designed specifically for the Dead Zones. That, combined with a powerful radiation drug and my immunity barrier, should buy me enough time to pull this off. They know exactly where the cache is. Said that the nuke has already taken care of the issue of getting in."

"I'm coming with", Eirren said, "this isn't up for discussion."

"James", I said, "Holland said that the Biomass is not affected by Radiation in any way. Your mass, combined with a suit and the drug, plus being biologically a reptile..."

"I get the hint boss. Count me in."

"Rest of us will stay behind and help prepare", Alex said, "and Arien?"

"Yeah?", I asked.

She handed me a patch, it was the same one Evan and his officers had.

"Stay safe. You're one of us now. Make us proud!"

I hit my radio.

"Have you made your decision?", Evan asked. It was like he held his breath waiting for my reply.

"I have. When do we leave?"