Calliope and the other two-hundred members of Tree Crew gathered on a roof-top in Baltimore, or what once was Baltimore. "Thanks to your dad, we have a very real chance of dying out here, even if radiation doesn't get us first," August said as he went over a map of the Baltimore area. Luckily, they had a decent amount of resources- before Tree Crew left the bunker of the cult that was the Second Dawn, everyone took water and rations. It would be a few days before they'd really go hungry.
"Reese will be joining us with more supplies," Calliope chimed in, "I gave him the blood treatment before we left, he should know where we're at," August and the other members of Tree Crew nodded. "There's also an emergency base not too far from here, it's about a day's walk. We can leave tomorrow and all of the supplies we need should be there," Calliope continued, pointing at a spot on the map a few centimeters west of Baltimore.
As far as Tree Crew could see, there was nothing but the ruins of Baltimore. Only a few buildings were left standing. They weren't even sure there was even any natural resources left. That first strike from China had changed everything about the world they were in.
Tree Crew, all two-hundred of them, set up their tents on top of that building, anticipating the next day.
In her tent, Calliope studied ALIE 2.0, or the Flame as Becca called it. It was still charred since it was in Becca while she was being burnt at the stake. "Choose wisely… how can I choose?" Calliope asked herself, "Ascende superius," dozens of small but lively tendrils grew from the bottom of the Flame. She brought it closer to her face to study until one tendril lashed out at her face and she yelped as she threw it away from her. Calliope sighed. If she couldn't even have the courage to put the Flame in herself, how could she decide to put it into someone else? She picked up the Flame again, "Quia nunc vale," the tendrils receded into the Flame.
Becca told her that the Flame would become an extension of the user, making them far wiser. She said it would notice all mistakes before one could even make them. "So much power, but so much responsibility…" Calliope uttered to herself. Becca told her to choose the next person wisely, but she was twenty. Just how wise could she be? She knew that Tree Crew would need someone to rally behind in the apocalyptic world. Calliope decided that she would think about that later, and shoved the device into her pocket.
Newman watched over the ruins of Baltimore. He, for one, wasn't too saddened by the end of civilization. The misanthrope had a feeling that it would happen sooner or later, what with all the democratic backsliding and failure of the economy. He dug out his puff bar from his pocket and took a big rip, and exhaled with a sigh, his scrawny shoulders slumped as he studied the device. He saw movement on the ground out of the corner of his eye, and couldn't believe it. He fumbled for his binoculars and watched the two figures dart through the ruins of the city.
"Reese and… Tristan?" Newman whispered to himself as he followed the two with his binoculars. He woke up August and Calliope, dragging them to the ledge of the building as he told them about the two. Calliope laughed in relief, "HEY! Up here! Reese, Tristan!" Calliope shouted and jumped and waved both of her hands on top of her head.
They gave their attention to the roof-top, and jogged toward the base of the building, rushed up the dozens of flights of stairs to get to the roof-top.
Calliope ran up to Reese and smothered him in a hug, "I almost thought you weren't coming," she told him. "I'm sorry…" Reese admitted as he pulled out his pistol and aimed it at Calliope's chest, "give me the A.I. and no one gets hurt." Tristan pulled out his automatic rifle and aimed it frantically at all of the members of Tree Crew that were waking up and coming out of their tents to see what was going on.
Calliope's face fell, she was shaking as she tried to decide what to do. "Reese, what are you doing?" she asked, the betrayal apparent on her face as August frantically pulled her away from Reese.
"You're being selfish! Dad is going to save the human race and you're up here playing cave-man, and if you were anyone else, Dad would have had you killed already," he spat as he jabbed his pistol at her.
"You're following a cult leader. He's going to get us all killed with his arrogance," Calliope retorted.
While that argument was happening, August grabbed his pocket knife. If I can just throw this knife right I can get that gun out of Tristan's hands… huh. He hesitated for a beat and then threw the knife with all of his force at Tristan's right shoulder.
The Disciple yelped in pain and dropped his rifle as blood flowed from his shoulder. August dove for the rifle as chaos ensued, Reese shot his pistol repeatedly until a few Tree Crew members wrangled the weapon out of his hands, and he and Tristan managed to escape from the angry mob.
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The duo rushed down the stairs and out of the building. They looked up at the roof-top again, not seeing Calliope any more but an emboldened Tree Crew, one with two more guns.
Tristan cursed as he nursed his shoulder. The bullet wound appeared to be through-and-through, easy to heal. He and Reese, downtrodden at that point, walked away.
"Well, we can't go back now without the Flame. My Dad would kill us," Reese explained. Tristan understood, "We'll get that flame through any means possible," he urged. Reese nodded in response as the two walked west-ward, "I'm guessing they will be going to Mount Weather. It'll all come together if we can beat them there."
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Calliope sighed as she put her newly acquired pistol in her waistband, "We'll need to keep watch for the rest of the night. We don't know when they are coming back," she explained. A Tree Crew member volunteered to take first watch.
She found August and pulled him into her tent.
"We don't have a commander, and that's a problem," she explained to August, "it'll be a lot harder to take this," she brandished the Flame,"away from Tree Crew if it's inside of someone, like it's supposed to be used."
August was in contemplation for a moment, "Why not put it in yourself?" He nodded toward her. He got his answer when it seemed like she shrunk away from that option, "You're scared of it," he guessed correctly.
"I think," August started as he came a bit closer to her, "you're the only one who can handle being a commander right now. You don't want it. That's why you should do it. Think it through." He left the tent, probably to go to sleep as it was late.
"Calliope Sekonheda… huh," her fingers trembled as she held the Flame at her finger-tips— she knew what she had to do.
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Something was wrong with Calliope, and August knew it when he walked into her tent the next morning and she was slumped over, sitting with crossed legs.
"Calliope!" August gasped softly as he rushed to her side, prodding her, shaking her, finally checking her pulse with his two fingers.
Newman followed August into the tent, "What the fuck happened?" he accused.
"Calliope, wake up!" August shook her again, shooting Newman a panicked glance, only to have her wake up screaming.
"PLEASE! I JUST WANT TO HELP! CADOGAN, DON'T DO THIS!" she screamed in pain as she flailed her limbs.
"Hold her down!" August urged Newman as they held down her four limbs until Calliope finally calmed down and stopped screaming.
The two sighed in relief, "It's over, finally," Newman declared, he checked her pulse again to check if she was alive. August looked at Newman, his eyes questioning if she was even alive. Newman nodded yes, and August's shoulders relaxed in relief.
"We gotta start moving. I'll take Calliope and her tent, and I'll catch up to you," August said. Newman hesitated for a bit, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion, then left.
Calliope's eyelashes fluttered for a moment, and then she opened her eyes, looking emboldened, serene. She sighed. "Calliope!" August gasped as he rushed to her side again, "did you do it?"
She nodded, "Everything's clear. The Flame… it merged with my mind, but I have all of Becca Franco's memories too… China didn't end the world, August, it was ALIE," August's mouth hung ajar for a few moments until he remembered to close it.
She exhaled, and then straightened, whispered, "Someone's listening. I hear them around the tent."
August looked at her, clearly confused. She explained, "The Flame gave me heightened senses." He was satisfied. He grabbed his rifle, went outside of the tent, located the intruder, hit him with the butt of his rifle, and dragged him inside.
"Newman? What were you doing?" Calliope interrogated him. "Yeah, what the hell were you doing?" August piled on him.
"I thought you OD'd or something. Y'know, because you just wouldn't wake up. Glad you're okay," Newman sheepishly explained, scratching the back of his head. August and Calliope exchanged a suspicious glance, almost saying We probably shouldn't trust him.
A pregnant pause, then Calliope started, "That's fine. Everything's okay. I'm just a heavy sleeper." Newman nodded, clearly embarrassed, then vacated the tent.
"Everyone else?" Calliope asked. "They're on the ground, waiting for us," he replied.
She started packing, and started, "Have you seen Reese or Tristan after they almost…"
"Killed you? No. They probably went into hiding. A bunch of pussies," he finished her sentence.
"Maybe they are. But if they're smart, they're probably following us, or since I told him where we're going, the two are probably trying to beat us there. We need to be prepared."
"We have maybe twelve guns and a lot more knives. We're running low on food and water, though."
Calliope finished packing and broke down her tent, "That's fine. We'll pick things up as we go along. Not everything was destroyed."
The two descended the stairs and were met with Tree Crew watching them expectantly.
"I think they want a speech," August teased, and was met with a scoff from Calliope.
The two stood side-by-side as Calliope gazed at Tree Crew.
"This is our first day on the ground! We have a long trek to make. This isn't the time to relax. Tristan and Reese are not dead. Stay alert. If you see something, say something!" Calliope shouted across the ruins of the city.
A depressed crowd, Calliope saw panic and worry on everyone's faces. Her face softened.
"We are Tree Crew. We are some of the last people on Earth, and the rightful inheritors of what's left of it!" the faces brightened up, just a bit, some turning into smiles, "We are strong and can steam-roll any threat that comes in our way!" she finished, jutting her machete into the air, hoping Reese and Tristan were listening.
The crowd followed, putting their weapons in the air, "TREE CREW!" they chanted, "TREE CREW!" they chanted again, louder, the crowd a brazen and emboldened organism in itself, wanting, almost pleading to be organized and used for some greater goal.
August looked at her, somewhat proud. "Good job… commander," he teased again as they began walking. She met his gaze, she started, "Commander? I…"
She had been influential in Tree Crew before the apocalypse, sure. She went to most of the protests and took the brunt of the damage when the police inevitably showed up in riot gear and smacked the protesters around.
But a commander? This wasn't just a group of protesters any more. This was the beginnings of a nation. She'd have to lead them across that desolate wasteland, and that terrified her. The responsibilities, the mistakes that she would inevitably make. She knew that someone would die, and she wasn't sure who.
August saw that distant look on her face and reassured her, "Hey. We trust you. No matter what."
She gulped and nodded in response, jogging to catch up to the rest of Tree Crew.
August and Calliope were close. They had met the first time they tried to go to the surface after the apocalypse, but the Disciples had dragged them out of the air-lock right before they could get their radiation suits on.
At that point, though, he wanted stability, to be back on the ground. He hated the Second Dawn and the way they ran things. He spent his time before the apocalypse fighting in Tree Crew, fighting for better living conditions for humans, and he would be damned if he let a few nukes end humanity. And he believed Calliope could be their way to stability.
He jogged to the rest of the group, seeking out Calliope, finding her near the front, talking to Newman and a few others.
"…made a code when I was a kid, we can use that so Reese and Tristan can't figure out what we're saying. It's called Trigedasleng," Calliope was explaining.
"Tri-ged-as-leng?" one teenager sounded the word out. Calliope nodded, "I can teach you some once we rest."
"We need everyone to be in formation. No surprises," August yelled, "Everyone with guns, go to the perimeter. Everyone else, huddle together! Eyes and ears OPEN!" The group scrambled into a sort of diamond formation, moving slowly, carefully, through the narrow, gray Baltimore streets.
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"Hurry!" Reese harshly whispered, "we don't know where the rest of them are at." Tristan was limping, clearly dehydrated and suffered from blood loss, his clothes caked in blood.
Above all else, Reese was enraged. He had a right to Earth, to his father's approval, hell, to power. Calliope could do no wrong in Bill's eyes. If he had killed her, Bill would've killed him, he knew that. Still, he wanted her to feel some sort of retribution, just a taste of the real world.
"A few more miles to Mount Weather," Reese said.
"Wow, yeah Reese, my bullet wound is fine, thank you for asking," Tristan said, his words dripping with sarcasm.
"Shut up. We can intercept them here. We're not too far from Mount Weather and they'll be taking a similar route. Let's set up camp."
They made themselves at home in what used to be a church not too far from Mount Weather, sat on a wall of the church and rested.
"Why do you care so much anyway? We're outnumbered one-hundred people to one. Even if we get to Calliope what are the chances she even has the Flame anyway? She hates the Second Dawn so she might've destroyed it," Tristan interrogated him.
"She hates the Second Dawn…but she's obsessed with Becca. She wouldn't destroy something that she made," Reese explained, "I'm gonna tear that Flame out of her hands even if I have to break her fingers," he continued, somewhat maniacally.
In the bunker, Tristan and Reese were close enough. Tristan thought Reese was a little high-strung, but who wasn't after experiencing the worst apocalypse known to man-kind? But that rant from Reese was out of character to him. Disabling his own sister? Would he really be willing to go to such lengths? He didn't know. He didn't really care. All he wanted to do was go back home, anyway. The ground sucked.