It was two more days of walking before I had any indication that I was making progress. The radio had gone from having two stations I could listen to, down to one, then back to just static. On the horizon I saw a thin black line, that I initially thought was just the edge of my vision, but as I approached that black line grew thicker, and thicker, until in front of was a desert of black sand. I rembered then what the Pilgrim Id t had said.
Through the forest of teeth, across the tal wastes, walk without rhythm as you cross the abyss, they will notice you otherwise, the black sand whispers and seeks fla, do not give it what it wants. Follow this path and you will find paradise.
This mustve been the black sand that whispered and sought fla. Id already assud that it would be what Id encounter first. The words were based on him traveling to my side of the Cut, so for going in the opposite direction, the lines and directions were reversed. Once I fully passed over into the area of the black sand I bent down and slid my hand through it slling it as I let it sift through my fingers. It slled like iron, sulfur, and sothing else I didnt recognize. I stood back up and focused on listening for a few monts, but heard only the sound of wind. It seed that whatever the whisper was I was ant to be hearing, I either wasnt far enough in yet, or it was just a bit of mad raving thrown in for flavor.
I found myself going over the words in my mind a few tis as I started to walk across the desert of black sand. There was sothing I found engaging about them that made want to repeat them over and over. They sounded like a prophecy out of one of my books. I imagined how the Rens would interpret it, versus how the Khan, or STAR, or even Potts might have considered it. They excited , in spite of myself. Made things feel more like an adventure than a mission. I didnt used to think of things like that, Id rembered my cynical feelings when Id first t the Rens. I could add hypocrisy to my long list of faults.
I walked for roughly a mile, finding myself completely surrounded by the black sand, and unable to see where it ended. I slled no life aside from myself, but kept my eyes and ears open in spite of that. Eventually, I thought I heard sothing. A kind of droning, repetitive, sound that was just barely audible. I strained my ears, continuing to walk in the sa direction I had been. Eventually the droning noise beca clearer, and I recognized it as an alarm of so kind. Beyond the alarm was another sound, a voice, though while I was certain it was talking I couldnt make out any individual words.
I kept moving, continuing to strain my ears in an attempt to hear and understand what the words were. Eventually I started making out individual words.
Command.Fire.Requesting....Confirmation.
I kept moving, when the voice ceased again and I was once again unable to hear it. I moved back until I could hear it again, trying to locate its source. I knew I could just keep moving, ignoring the voice, and its mystery, but my curiosity took over. One of the reasons Id wanted to travel across the Cut was to see things no one else had ever seen. Id beco an Undertaker because Id liked to wander, then a Postman for the sa reason, and now that I was a Marshall there didnt seem to be a limit on how far I could go.
I pulled so maps out of my pack, thinking, and marking the path with the points Id discovered so far, and jotting down so notes. As I looked at the map, and determined exactly where I was I realized sothing. So ti ago, before I was officially a Marshall, Id killed so raiders near a town called Boon. Id investigated a bunker in which theyd found the first lasguns Id encountered. In that sa bunker Id seen a map, and that map had markings that had corresponded to every bunker location Id seen so far. Id morized it before destroying it, and I rembered now, looking at my maps, that I was very close to another one.
I ignored the voice I was trying to find, and instead, made my way toward the location Id seen marked on my map. It was hard to judge exactly where I was. The black desert seed long and flat, but Id always had a keen sense of direction, even when I was riding in a crate in the back of a wagon, before I was old enough to pull it myself, I was usually able to tell where we were headed.
I reached a patch of sand that looked subtly different than the sand around it. It was slightly depressed, as if soone had dug an inch or so deep in a six foot square. I crouched down and started to dig, eventually feeling the cold sensation of tal against my fingertips. I dug more, expanding the hole Id created until Id revealed a hatch. It was large, and tapping on it with my fist I could tell it was thick as well. Luckily, it was also very old, with rusted corners. I found a handle and pulled, letting a bit of red mist fill my vision as I did so, my adaptive empowernt ability activating. I heard the tal groan a bit, and felt it start to give way, when suddenly it broke off entirely. I fell backward as the hatch swung open, the sound of the alarm Id heard earlier blaring loudly the instant the hatch door opened, along with the full voice ssage Id been straining to hear.
This is Black 1 Command. Requesting secondary confirmation to fire. There was a brief pause of roughly ten seconds. This is Black 1 Command. Requesting secondary confirmation to fire. Ten more seconds and it repeated a third ti.
I brought myself to my feet. There was a red light oscillating in ti with the ongoing alarm. I began my descent into the hatch, the red lights and repeating noise playing havoc on my senses and putting on edge. I ground my teeth and made my way inside. The first thing I encountered was a skeleton. It was so old that I didnt notice the scent of death before I saw It. What was left of the clothes resembled the remains of a military uniform. I moved further in, the hallway was long and it was a long ti before it began to branch off into separate rooms, and spaces. There were dormitories, spaces full of computers and plans, a map listing bunkers, a copy of the one Id morized to find this one. I cut it out with my knife, and folded it, placing it into my pack.
I made my way deeper inside, and found a forrly sealed room above which was labeled Ozymandias Project. Inside was another series of computer rows, walls covered with diagrams, and several piles of corpses. Several were lined up against the wall, a single bullet wound through their skulls, with one body, a man with a large number of dals, standing maybe eight feet away, a hole in the back of his skull, the revolver still clutched between his teeth.
I pulled the revolver out, checking its condition. It was in relatively good shape, so I dusted it off and slid it into my pack before looking around the rest of the room. Behind the largest pile of corpses, I saw a door. I peeled all the bodies away from it, finding the door riddled with scratch marks and even hints of dried blood. I pulled on the door, feeling it strain, but not give. I found the lock, pulled the cerberus out, aid it, and fired for a sustained five seconds. By the ti it was done there was a red hot circle of lted tal. I tried to open the door again, and after only minimal effort, I was able to pry it open, though it groaned as it did so.
The ssage was loudest in the room, and unlike the others, in here I slled the fresh scent of death. There was one massive monitor, with a console below it, and in the console was a single key, half turned in a lock. On the screen was the sa ssage that was repeating over and over again. Next to the console was a body. This one was much more preserved than the others. He was wearing a long white coat, glasses still sitting on his face. One of his wrists hung limply at his side, cut lengthwise across the vein, a pool of dried blood beneath it, and in the other hand was a crumpled piece of paper. I pried the hand open, and removed it, unfolding it carefully.
If soone is reading this, then Im gratified to know that I was probably right. My na is David Monroe. I was the head scientist on the Ozymandias project. The purpose of the project was to create a weapon capable of permanently disabling infrastructure on a wide scale. The nanites were based, in part, on the sa technology created for the (there was a blood stain on the page). When we got the ssage that the nukes were off, and the other weapons all being deployed, I was called in here by the general to finish the launch process, but I couldnt do it. I sealed the door, using a backdoor I programd into the computers to keep it sealed. I suppose Id thought about this more than once. If the project had gone out, everything wouldve gotten broken down. Cars, weapons, buildings, all of it turned to sand. Im sure that general Hammond tried to activate it from the outside, but without the dispersal activation here, I imagine it just turned the base and nearby town to dust. If it worked in spite of that, I suppose Ill never know. I just couldnt imagine, after all the destruction wed already unleashed, all that had been unleashed on us Wasnt it enough? Cant we at least leave our enemies a roof? Not to ntion that we still werent sure this wouldn't blow back on us sohow Im rambling. I apologize for the long winded note, just trying to put sothing off Im a bit afraid of. Goodbyegood luck.
I looked the note over one more ti, folded it, and put it into my pack. I bent down, removed the mans glasses and his eyes. Then I walked back to where the key was, turned it, and pulled it out. Suddenly I was back in the embrace of darkness and silence. I walked out of the bunker, and started walking again, across the black sand.
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