Chapter 16
Finn
I sleep too deeply to recall if I had nightmares.
When I wake up, Timothy is not in the room.
Based on the sun’s rays shining through the window, it seems like mid-morning.
I go pee and brush my teeth, my eyes puffy from sleep.
Once I change into clothes fit for the road, I step outside and climb down the steps, hearing River say, “You need to leave enough cheese for Finn.”
“There’s enough left,” Buck answers.
“But he eats a lot. His stomach is a wonder.”
“Good morning,” I say and enter the dining room.
River smiles, his red hair slightly damp from a recent shower. “I was just telling Buck about your stomach.”
“I heard.” I sit down next to Josh, who seems more relaxed than he did yesterday. “Where’s Timothy?”
“He has a new friend named Frankie,” River says. “We’ll pick him up before we leave.”
I pile food onto my plate. “How long should it take us to reach Pueblo?”
“About an hour,” Buck says.
I stop before I take a bite. “But it’s far to the south. It should take us a couple of days at least.”
“Not by air.”
“By air?”
“Buck kept the chopper we used to escape Vegas,” Josh says, and I can sense he’s not keen on returning to that thing.
“Is anyone else joining?” I ask.
“Just us and the spider,” Buck says and gets up. “Grab your weapons and gear before heading out. You know where to find me when you’re ready to leave, Josh.”
He walks out, and I pour myself a cup of coffee.
“I have good news,” River says. “The king is dead.”
I’m relieved that he’s no longer a threat, but I’m mostly sad about the damage he was able to cause. “Are Lyla and Remy okay?”
“Yes, but they still need to sort out who will lead the city.”
I nod. It seems we might have the alliance we were hoping for after all, but I wonder how many died during the coup.
“How did you sleep?” Josh asks me.
“Better than I did in days. How about you?”
“I managed a few hours. I didn't have a normal sleep since those fuckers… since High Hope.”
“If you want to talk about it…”
He shakes his head. “We have Caden to focus on. I spoke with Dino earlier; Timothy gave me the radio coordination. I promised to update him once we’re back from Pueblo.”
I finish eating, and we grab our weapons and bags for the road.
It’s a sunny day, with mutants and non-mutants working together in the fields or building new structures across town.
We reach the shopping area when River points to a one-story building with a sign for Frankie’s Repairs and Science Things. “Nanny Spider is over there.”
The air is cool inside the shop, with shelves showcasing different instruments and devices; some appear to be from the Before Times.
“It reminds me of Dino’s old place,” Josh says, sounding like the memory is sweet.
At the heart of the shop sits a tall man with a head so large, I can’t help but stare for a rude amount of time.
He’s bald, which only emphasizes the size of his skull.
It makes his plain face seem narrow, as if someone squeezed it from both sides.
He’s wearing a white lab coat as he talks with Timothy about something to do with numbers.
“It does sound worth exploring,” Timothy says. “I would love to assist with your research.”
“I shall consider your request.”
“Good morning, Finn,” Timothy says as we come over. He’s sitting on a tall chair next to a desk packed with small devices. “Frankie, this is Finn.”
Frankie nods, and I try hard to look at his eyes and not at his head. “Timothy Brown spoke fondly of you, both with his words and his tone of voice. His facial expression was difficult to decipher, but I tend to believe it would have correlated as well.”
“Hmm, that’s good.” I ask Timothy, “Are you ready to go? You can also stay here if you prefer.”
“I will continue my journey with my friends, thank you very much. Frankie, I would love to resume our conversation at a later date.”
“Noted. Please reconsider my offer to study your internal systems.”
“No,” River says and picks Timothy up.
We exit the shop and follow Josh until we reach an open clearing close to the town’s southern gate. There’s a chopper there and the largest buggy I have ever seen in my life.
“They rescued me with this.” Josh points at the buggy. “They use it to hunt down Raiders.”
“You guys ready?” Buck calls. He’s wearing a worn green army coat that seems to have been patched together to fit his broad frame.
We come close to the black chopper, and it’s hard for me to imagine something so massive flying through the air. Four missiles are attached to its bottom part.
“I haven’t been in one of these since I died,” River says.
I turn to look at Josh, who’s watching River with hurt in his eyes. “You just don’t get it, do you?”
River frowns. “What?”
Josh walks away and climbs into the passenger seat of the chopper.
“Get inside,” Buck tells us.
“I want to sit next to Josh,” River says.
“The pilot sits next to him.” Buck climbs inside and shuts the door.
River wraps his arms around himself, breathing heavily.
“You died, River,” I say softly. “We mourned you—Josh more than anyone. You shouldn’t act like it’s just something that happened.”
He wipes his eyes and climbs inside. I sigh and follow him with Timothy.
“Put the headsets on,” Buck calls from the front. “It’s gonna get loud.”
With my headset on, I take deep breaths and reach for Timothy’s hand, more worried than I thought I’d be.
The chopper begins to rumble as the propellers start to spin.
It’s bumpy when we leave the ground, but it gets smoother when we fly south.
I lean to look out the window. The sight of the wide, green world is breathtaking.
I can even see other settlements in the distance.
Timothy climbs carefully above my legs to see as well.
“It’s been so long since I’ve been so high!” he calls. “I used to fly for my work. You would have loved London, Finn. Well, maybe not the food. Or the weather.”
I wish that Caden were here to see this. He would’ve likely asked to pilot the chopper. But this journey is for him, and everything we discover will be used to get him back.
River doesn’t speak during the hour it takes us to get to Pueblo.
He barely even glances from the window. When we see the city getting closer, I’m amazed by how many industrial structures are located in one area.
Old factories cover the landscape, not far from where people used to live in rows of private houses.
I have no idea how the hell we’re supposed to find anything useful out here.
We can spend days walking around in the hopes of coming across anything connected to Hector.
“One of the bombs hit south of here if I remember correctly,” Timothy says.
I squint to have a better look. In the distance, I notice that some of the structures are heavily damaged, as if a massive wind blew parts of them away.
Buck brings the chopper lower, making it easier to see the industrial part of the city. Everything seems deserted, with vegetation covering most of the old structures.
“Right.”
I look at River. “Did you say something?”
“Yes. We need to fly right. I… I feel something.”
I’m the last person to doubt him, so I turn around and shout, “River says we should fly right! He senses something.”
Buck gives a thumbs up and sways the chopper to the west. River watches through the window with intent, and I do as well, though I only see more factories and old warehouses.
“Can you still feel it?” I ask.
River nods. “Something is calling me. It’s… strange.”
“You think it’s dangerous?”
“I don’t know.” He narrows his eyes, and I follow his gaze until I see it too.
“Do you guys see it?” Josh calls.
“Yes!” I call back. “It’s… glowing.” It’s coming from an old chemical factory with a lot of pipes and cooling towers.
A massive, flat structure stands at the center of the compound, and unless my eyes are fooling me, there’s a yellowish glow coming from inside it.
It almost feels as though it’s pulsing—changing from bright to dim at the pace of a heartbeat.
Buck brings us lower, and the pulsing light increases in speed, as if to signal us in excitement. Or maybe in warning?
“Should I land?” Buck calls.
“Yes!” River calls back.
“Maybe there’s radiation there,” I say.
River shakes his head. “There isn’t, at least not the dangerous kind.”
What does that mean?
There isn’t enough space for us to land close to the glowing structure, so we land about a mile away, in an open space between large warehouses.
We climb out onto a cracked concrete road.
The air is hot and unpleasant, with a scent I can’t quite define.
When the propellers stop spinning and the engine goes quiet, Buck and Josh climb out and join us.
River hurries to pull Josh aside and says, “I know that my death was horrible for you, but I thought… that if I pretended it wasn’t so bad, it would be easier for you.”
“It doesn’t work like that. It will never be easier for me. It will never not haunt me. I need us to pretend it never happened or act like it really was the most horrible thing in the world, and I’m never going to let it happen again.”
River pulls him into a hug. “Okay, my prisoner.”
I look away to give them this moment alone, and Buck quietly asks me, “Are you guys always so dramatic?”
“Yes.”
Josh seems lighter when he and River return, as if he unburdened something that had been weighing on him for a while.
We walk down the concrete road, and the silence around us is eerie, especially with all of these abandoned structures on both sides.
My heavy rifle makes me miss my old knife and the handgun Caden insisted I’d carry during our journey.
“Do you still feel that glowing thing?” Buck asks River.
“Yes. It’s like many heartbeats. They want us to come to them.”
“Maybe to kill us.”
“I don’t think so.”
I hope he’ll know for sure before we get too close to escape.