The tower of Red-Rock Lookout was like a thorn in the side of the Northern Sector. Its name had two alternate sources; originally it got its name from the colour of the rock upon which the small fortress was built, until the Raiders pressed to the east and destroyed it, slaughtering its inhabitants, only to build a new tower slightly more to the south so that they could watch the west-bound road leading to the Raider capital, commonly known as Swine Town. Supposedly the rock upon which it was built had been strained with the blood of those who came before. The original tower was built by the founding members of Haven, the place July now intended to go, and during times of peace – when the aftermath of the war had calmed – it served as a beacon for travellers, signalling the location of the narrow pass acting as the only road into that region.
Like many things in the wasteland, the tower was invisible to the naked eye at noon due to the glare of the desert, and could only be seen when wearing tinted goggles. Tom parked the Jeep at the top of a hill and scanned the surrounding area with his binoculars, starting with the gloomy dishevelled shelters crowded around the base of the distant tower, where tiny figures moved about. Ahead of him the road snaked northwards across the desert plane eventually disappearing into the rocky alcoves of the Northern Pass. Open desert spanned way out to the north-west, where a massive salt-pan could be found near the base of the mountains there; this was also the location of one of the secret temples of the Sun Children.
Charlie glanced unnervingly to the south. “We shouldn’t stop here too long. Raiders do use this road.”
“The road ahead looks dangerous,” said Tom.
Biscuit pointed his ears at the tower camp and barked.
“Biscuit agrees.” July smiled. “Red-Rock was designed to catch people heading west but they’ll still see us if we go north.”
“Do we have a choice?” Charlie pointed out. “We wait till the cover of dark, keep the headlights off, sneak past them. Raiders get loud when the sun sets, they won’t hear us.”
July crossed his arms and stared down the winding road, but eventually shook his head. “I don’t like it, driving in the dark, we’ll need light to reach the pass. Besides, there’s worse things than raiders down there.”
Charlie shrugged. “So what then?”
There was another way to reach Haven but July was hesitant to mention it. He looked at Tom for confirmation, and based on his friend’s submissive expression, the same thought had occurred.
“Okay, here’s what we do,” July began, still looking at Tom. “Instead of taking on the raiders we go northeast across the salt-pan, there should be a supply cache belonging to the Sons, we’ll stock up and then head for the hidden Green Road.”
“Hold on, what’s the Green Road?” Charlie asked.
Thomas had to explain. “When July and I were kids we were… well, we decided to leave Haven, quietly. The local law enforcement had a checkpoint set up at the Pass so we had to find another way out, turns out there was another road leading into the mountains, few scavengers and hermits lived there, but the further we went the worse it got.”
July picked up the story. “The range was a dead-zone for radiation, pockets of it everywhere, so naturally it attracted all kinds of weird dangerous things, but no people. Point is we’re on good terms with the Sun People so we can afford to leave the jeep at the cache and go on foot through The Green Road, completely unnoticed.”
It was a good guess that Charlie had killed a lot of raiders with that fancy rifle of hers, so it was no surprise that she agreed to risk fighting mutants in a cave rather than risk getting caught by the enemy. They didn’t wait. Soon enough the jeep cruised towards the white expanse, destined for the deadly Green Road.
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