"Yeah? You going to make everything all better? Going to haul a cripple around with you while you 'bring the Divide' to the whole world?" Cassidy asked him as the Word Bearer edged closer to her.

"Yes. That's exactly what I'm going to do."

"Weak." she cursed. "The wasteland chews up weakness and spits it out."

"I'm the Courier. I'm the one who chews up the wasteland, not the other way around. Please, Cass. Let me look after you. It's the least I could do after everything that's happened. If I can't convince you that what I'm doing is right then...well I can't watch you all day every day." he pleaded even as he was just a couple arm's lengths away.

"And then I become your accomplice." she shook her head.

"No. You'll never help me in what I do. You'll stay what you are: my friend, my last friend, my only friend left in the whole world."

Crying Cassidy put her hand over her eyes. The Sequoia slipped down to her side to point at the floor and while attempting to seem like he was being casual the Word Bearer quickly put his hand on the revolver. Gently tugging the gun from her hand he tossed it aside. Hugging the blind woman's head to his chest he asked, "What would you give me for a basket of kisses?"

She didn't answer.


The small rest stop was little more than a couple of shacks serving wasteland food which amounted to rad animals killed that morning. The Herald of Ulysses hefted his pack and headed inside despite his reluctance to patronize such a place. A wasteland pit stop like this one was just begging for the Divide. Ducking into the makeshift door Marcus nodded to the shop keep.

"What have you got?" he asked.

"Fresh iguana and bighorn meat. Guaranteed not to give a stomach ache." the wasteland woman said.

"Caps?"

"Ten."

Dispensing the payment Marcus scanned the diner. There were few other patrons as he suspected and he set his pack down in one of the somewhat clean booths. Resting an elbow on the table he was thinking about his trip when a man and a woman got up to leave. The man he knew from somewhere but the woman he didn't and it took him a couple seconds after they walked by to remember why he knew the stranger.

Rushing out of the diner to catch up with them Marcus called, "Excuse me!' to the couple. The man spun around so quickly Marcus was taken aback. His hard eyes bore into the Herald and for a moment he wondered if he'd made a mistake.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to...I think we've met before." Marcus explained. "In Sunny Bluff."

The man's eyes softened and his expression changed when he too recognized the Herald. "Ah yeah. You're the feller I tussled with. Spoutin' that Courier garbage."

"Yes. Did you hear about Sunny Bluff?"

"Everyone has." Lyle spat. "Way I heard it the place was mostly abandoned anyhow. Reckon someone ought to thank you for scaring them folks away."

"I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for upsetting you. I was just trying to warn people." Marcus apologized.

"Take a big man to admit he's wrong. Sorry I had'a knock you down." Lyle tipped his hat.

"Look, I'm heading north. There's a camp of us. Heralds I mean. We're starting a new town, a new way of living. You're welcome there if you want."

"A new nation?" Lyle scratched his chin.

"You could say that. More of what's called a monastery." Marcus explained.

"A monastic community is usually bound by religion." Lyle observed somewhat more astutely than Marcus would have assumed he was capable of.

"Ah, true, but this isn't quite like that. We'd be more a history based community. We will use the lessons of the Great War, the prewar societies and the Word to help guide us to something different. Hopefully something better."

"Hmm. Ulysses would have like that." Lyle said thoughtfully.

"Pardon me? I though you were-"

"A nation taking its first breath. I always wondered what he saw there in the Divide that was so special. Worth dying over." Lyle continued as if the other man wasn't there and somehow lost his drawl.

"What! Who-"

Lyle yanked Marcus in close by the collar with frightening strength. "You'd better not mess this up. I don't want some half assed experiment gone wrong being done in my name." he growled with a voice that was not his own.

"Wuh...wuh...Word Bearer!"

"I'll be checking in on you." he promised and released the Herald. Turning around the Courier – the Courier! - took the hand of his female companion and walked down the road into the dust. Marcus could only stare open mouthed as the two of them disappeared into the swirling sands like a mirage that had never been there in the first place.

"Hey! Mister!" someone called. "Been talking to you. Order's ready." the shop keep was saying from the door of the diner.

"Yeah..." Marcus blinked as he turned around.

"You okay mister?"

"...yeah. Yeah. Sorry. Just thought I saw a ghost is all."

"Ghosts are all around us. It's a good idea not to piss them off."

"You have no idea how right you are, ma'am."

Sitting in the booth he ate his iguana and thought long about the story he would tell to his fellow Heralds when he made it North. He wasn't sure if they would believe him. He hardly believed what just happened himself. But the Courier was a man of his word and he would most certainly be by the new settlement. Marcus could only hope he liked what he saw or there'd probably be a massacre.

Of course, he wouldn't have it any other way.

The End