The Apostates Read Free Page A

was a hotbed for the illicit trades and for resistance activity because of the light Regime footprint. As of late that had slowly changed as more Regime forces had been transferred to the West. Also prominent was the increased presence of L.O.V.E. Rangers. Regime forces had been conducting operations to find the resistance operating bases but were not having much success. Hades-Perdition knew that scout groups like his were crucial to this effort.
    The trio was hiking through rough terrain across the water from ruins of a sugar cane factory under a collapsed bridge that used to span the Carquinez Straight. They had hiked for hours from where they had previously camped and were coming upon one of their waypoints. The waypoints were locations of small remote sensors and camera traps that monitored traffic around traveled routes and trade networks. The infrastructure of the West was very different to that of back east. In the West, the population had fallen more drastically during the course of Climate Change and its effects. Drought was rampant and changed much of the West to desert. Previously productive farmland shriveled to wasteland. Cities that sprang up in the desert in previous centuries had relied heavily on water being piped in from other areas. These cities became ghost towns within a few decades after the snowpack disappeared in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Cities like Reno, Las Vegas, Phoenix, and many of the cities of the Central Valley in California had long been abandoned. The populations that remained moved closer to coastal cities. These coastal settlements were sustained by aging desalination plants. The East by contrast became wetter in climate, and never suffered the water shortages that the West endured. Although many died in the East due to the effects of Climate Change, it was not as severe, so after a time the population stabilized.
    The scouting party reached the waypoint, which consisted of an intersection of two trade routes. The pavement on these roads was torn up and riddled with potholes and weeds escaped to air at the edges. In a hollowed-out log just off road was a camera trap set up to monitor traffic. Hades-Perdition approached the log as the other two members of the scouting party took kneeling positions facing opposite directions. They scanned the approaches through scopes on their automatic weapons. Hades-Perdition began reviewing the footage caught by the camera trap on the flex screen. The footage had revealed that a Regime party had traveled through the area several days ago. He pulled a small object from out of the camera, which was filled with a miniscule amount of a solution composed of synthetic proteins encoded with data of recorded footage. He pocketed the applicator.
    Lore-Fiction scanned the horizon through his rifle scope for the slightest movement. Suddenly, a flash appeared on the horizon. A split second later Lore-Fiction’s scope shattered into pieces of shrapnel that lodged into Lore-Fiction’s right eye, shredding skin from his face. He recoiled in pain, and instinctively grabbed his face and shrieked.
    As training kicked in, Hades-Perdition and Aqua-Deluge rushed to Lore-Fiction, and each grabbed one side of him and dragged him to cover behind the log that housed the camera trap. Lore-Fiction’s cry had given away the scout’s position. Without the need of verbal communication, Hades-Perdition took the right flank and Aqua-Deluge the left, with the wounded lying in the middle protected by cover.
    Hades-Perdition used his neural implant to
ping Aqua-Deluge to open a line of communication. She accepted the invite and
instantly they were sharing perceived data of the battlefield, positions of
muzzle flashes, vital signs of the opposition, directions of attack from the
flanks. They surmised that they were under attack by five.
    An assailant was approaching the right
flank of Hades-Perdition’s position while he fired his sub-machine gun.
Hades-Perdition trained his