I began to move, slowly, to determine where the invisible barriers were. I considered ways to detect them. I could throw bullets, but that was a waste of resources, and I had no idea how the field would react to gunpowder. I tried throwing some loose earth, but it had no effect, which to me indicated it only reacted to certain substances and not others. I was forced to use my senses, and occasionally lose a fingertip as I maneuvered and searched. I realized that I wasn’t trapped. There were areas I could move through, that wrapped maze-like all around me.

I moved through deliberately, frustrated by my slow pace and frequent pain in my fingers. At one point, just as I was about to exit it, the unseen walls shifted and I found myself cut off. In spite of the frustration I was feeling, I considered myself lucky. The unseen anomalies hadn’t yet moved on top of me. I could recover from a lot, but being bisected, or evaporated when one of the anomaly fields plopped down onto me, could be too much for me to come back from.

Eventually, the anomalies forced me deeper into the deadzone, and I found myself looking at what appeared to be a garage, though it took me some time to identify it. The garages that existed within Horde Territory were all stripped clean and their materials taken either to Fette or other outpost garages. By the time I’d seen them, they were bare, used either as shelter or storage. From what I could tell though, the one I was looking at was untouched. I slipped between two anomalies to get closer to it, singeing my jacket a bit as I pushed through.

Once I entered the garage, I carefully scanned for anomalies and found none there. Either the concrete walls prevented them somehow, or I was just lucky. Given my experience I assumed the former rather than the latter. Inside was grimy, with old calendars on the walls, a small windowed waiting area, and a broken TV. In the garage itself there were still a number of cars that appeared to have been abandoned in the middle of service. The walls of the garage were covered with images of women in compromising positions that reminded me of Deux’ walls when we were younger.

I searched around for anything useful. All I found were a number of tools that likely would’ve made the average mechanic incredibly happy, a few long expired candy bars, and a small old canvas bag. I decided to take a brief break, napping in one of the cars for an hour while I considered my options. I could risk jumping through an anomaly and hope I’d survive, but even if I did I’d lose my equipment. No, from what I could tell the only way out I had available to me was the slow one. I’d just have to move through the anomalies until I found my way out of them.

I took one last look through the shop, and picked up a small bag that I filled with nuts and bolts. I took a step out of the front door of the garage, held a bolt in my hand, and threw it at an area where I saw a slight distortion. The bolt evaporated. I nodded, satisfied that my fingertips would no longer need to suffer, and started walking.

I tried to stay mostly on the same path I was initially following when I’d first entered the deadzone, attempting to make my way to the bunkers that were my primary target, but the anomalies gradually moved me off that path, then back onto it, then off it again. It took a full day off tossing bolts, moving carefully, and occasionally just waiting in the hopes that the anomalies in front of me would move out of my way, but eventually I made it through. I tucked the bolts into my pack and felt immense relief as I walked unimpeded for the first time in more than a day.

Just as I was finding my rhythm again, I got a notification.

Welcome Americans! The Second debate will begin in 10 minutes!

The Candidates who Qualified for this debate are as follows

Michael Masters

Mama

Please stand by to see what our potential future leaders have to say!

I nodded. It looked like Gary’s stunning debate performance last time wouldn’t be repeated. I suppose there weren’t enough Garys to nominate him for the second round of debates. I recalled that they were harder to qualify for each time. I walked for nine more minutes, then the debate started.

“Hello citizens of the United States of America, and welcome to the first presidential election since @!*($&(&.”

It was the same vaguely feminine robotic voice, speaking in the same inflection as last time.

“Our candidates are Michael Masters, and Mama. We will begin by allowing each of these candidates one minute to introduce themselves before we begin the debate.”

“Mama, you may begin.”

“Hello dearies. You know me now. You heard the last debate about who I am and what I stand for. I don’t want to bore you with a bunch of titles you don’t care about that came for lord knows where. I’m not running for accolades and grand plans, I’m doing it because I care for you, and every other waster.” She paused for a moment. “I cede the rest of my time.”

“Thank you Mama. Next will be Masters. You have one minute.”

“You know me. Mama, you know me well. I’m the leader of America, and I’m giving you a chance right now to back out. If you leave this debate now, or stay silent through the rest as I speak, I’ll let you and yours rot in that shithole you call a city. If you continue though, I will bring the full force of the reborn United States down on you like the hammer of god.”

“That is the end of your time. Next we will go into questions and rebuttals. Each candidate will have one minute to answer the question, then the other candidates will be able to provide a 30 second rebuttal.”

I’d almost stopped in my tracks when Masters uttered his threat. I’d met him only a handful of times, but the way he’d just spoken surprised me. He’d always seemed in control, affable, a smile on his face that it was hard not to return. The fact that he’d take this moment to make a threat meant there had been a shift. I wondered what force he could be talking about, was it an empty threat? He just sent two shrikes to attack Pott’s with clearly experimental weapons. If he had more to attack with, why hadn’t he done so already?

The system clearly had no way of monitoring what he said beyond the time, so hadn’t reacted in any way to what he said. It simply continued speaking.

“Mama. In the current United States. What are your plans for the Diplomatic Relations with other Countries that may or may not still exist?”

“Masters. You have already sent all you could against me and mine. I will not be silent and we will not cower in fear from idle threats. If you could get rid of me, you would have done it already. I have only two words for you. Bring. It.”

“Do you cede-?”

“I cede my time.”

“Mama, your time is up. Masters, rebuttal.”

Masters came back on. “So be it.”

From there the debate became more or less ‘normal’. With Mama and Masters going back and forth on more or less the same issues they had gone over during the first debate, just without the third wheel of Gary Garyson chiming in every so often. By the end of it I got the same impression I had last time. Mama had appealed to people on a personal level, and cast Masters as an outsider. Masters had made himself seem like a beacon of progress and American idealism made flesh that was there to reunite the contiguous united states back under government rule. My impression was still that Mama had the upper hand, and I wasn’t sure how the average citizen would respond to the threat Masters made at the beginning. Many might actually find such a bold declaration would cast him as the kind of strongman they could fall behind, but on the other hand, I didn’t think that the average waster liked the sound of him threatening an old woman named Mama.

I thought through all of this as I walked, and after another full day I reached my destination. The bunker was clear, as was the outpost that had clearly been set up by the Remnants outside of it. The only strange thing was that I didn’t smell anyone inside.