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flatland – at the end of which was a giant, jagged chasm. Its interior and sides were coated with xenofungus, and swarms of birds flew in and out of the great rent in the Earth.
    “The Grand Canyon,” Anna said. “Never thought I’d get to see it.”
    “It’s completely taken over,” Makara said.
    “That can’t be good for Vegas,” I said. “Isn’t the Colorado their water supply?”
    No one answered. That was a question that had to wait until we actually got there.
    The Great Blight had spread further in two months than I would have ever thought possible. The power of the xenovirus was terrifying. It was evolving in ways we could have never predicted. Who could have guessed that dragons were coming? There was so much more going on below the surface, answers that likely could only be found in the Great Blight itself and its alien heart – Ragnarok Crater. Those answers were not going to come anytime soon. We had barely survived our harrowing one-and-only trip into that heart of darkness. That we had lived this long to tell the tale seemed like sheer luck.
    The Grand Canyon to the north passed slowly, jagging its way through the bleak landscape. Finally, as the sun ebbed in the sky and as the shadows lengthened, the dust cloud below pulled to a stop between two dunes.
    Makara piloted Odin downward, setting the ship down a hundred feet or so from the Exiles.
    After unstrapping themselves, both Samuel and Makara left the cockpit. Anna and I followed them outside.

Chapter 4
    A few minutes later, we were all basking in the warm glow of a bonfire. I held Anna’s hand, sitting on the ground, as both Makara and Samuel spoke to Marcus.
    “It’s going to take them a while to go through everything,” I said.
    Anna said nothing, merely watching the fire.
    A stout, muscled man sat next to me. He had a scraggly black beard that went down to his chest. His weathered face was pockmarked with scars, and the skin of his hands seemed more like leather than flesh.
    Even though the man was a little intimidating, I decided to initiate a conversation.
    “What’s your name?”
    “Harold,” he said, in a deep, raspy voice.
    “How long have you been an Exile?”
    “None of us are here because we chose to be. It’s Char that keeps us here.”
    Around the fire, other heads nodded.
    “So, you all hate Char?”
    “He was in the wrong,” another Exile said from across the fire. “He kept us from passing Raider Bluff. Any who tried, he killed.”
    “Can you remind me what happened again?” Anna asked. “You said there was a disagreement a long time ago. What was it about?”
    The Exile who had just spoken stared at Anna balefully. The fire gave his dark eyes a devilish gleam. All the same, Anna did not look away.
    “You’re about to see it, girl. You might not know this, but there was another city, on the opposite shore of the Colorado. Rivertown, they called it. It was a peaceful city. In the old days, Bluff and Rivertown would help each other. Then, the Raiders took over. Bluff became Raider Bluff. The old ones remember those times.”
    The man stopped speaking. Everyone was listening now – Makara, Samuel, and Marcus included.
    “Nathan was there from the beginning,” Harold said.
    Nathan, the man who had been telling the story, nodded. “Aye, I was there. My wife lived in Rivertown. She died, that day, twelve years ago.”
    “When the dam broke?”
    Nathan scowled. “It didn’t break on its own, kid. Your friend Char broke it. Marcus was the only one with the guts to stand up to him.” Nathan shook his head. “Even when we backed up Marcus, Char wouldn’t listen. He was hungry for power, and he did not care who died in order to get it.”
    “That’s not the Char I know,” Anna said.
    Nathan stared hard at Anna. “You are still a child. You are too young to know anything.”
    Anna’s face burned. She was about to speak again, but I held her arm. She kept her mouth shut.
    “Maybe Char is different,