Serial · complete
Beyond Here Lies Nothing
Two centuries after a nuclear holocaust, a pair of unlikely allies embark on an impossible quest.
Synopsis
Lily has spent her life fighting for survival. Born two centuries after a nuclear holocaust, she scratched out a living as a courier until a…
Chapter 1: Like a Rolling Stone, Pt. 1
The bones of the old world propped up the fresher corpse of the new. All things decayed. Fat grey snowflakes gathered soft as ash in Lily’s…
Chapter 1: Like a Rolling Stone, Pt. 2
In the morning Lily buried the bloody rags and tried not to think about wolves. 74 still wasn’t dead. Worse, he was on his feet, but he was…
Chapter 2: It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
That night Lily heard dogs howling somewhere out in the deep, dark cold. She heard 74 sit up with a sharp inhalation, heard the mechanical c…
Chapter 3: High Water, Pt. 1
She picked the stitches out herself. A glance into a pool of water revealed a scar forming, a glaring red indent in her weathered brown skin…
Chapter 3: High Water, Pt. 2
She was little. Safe. She sat in her mother’s lap, rocking gently like waves against a shore neither of them had ever seen. Johanna’s dark s…
Chapter 3: High Water, Pt. 3
They ate together as the light died, sitting in a noisy circle around the fire, trading off watch shifts by twos. The meal was a soup, thick…
Interlude: Man in the Long Black Coat
Bodies lie twisted and still in the scrub grass, dead long enough for the blood to blacken. Flies crawl in and out of their mouths and gathe…
Chapter 4: Mississippi
Freeport sprouted out of the marshland like a fungus. Small boats bobbed at docks that parted the water like thin fingers. Leaning houses on…
Interlude: Man in the Long Black Coat (Reprise)
The people of the Unincorporated Territories have traded the clean order of the Coalition for starvation and squalor. Independence and freed…
Chapter 5: World War III Blues
In the years since the accident Lily had developed a rocking, ground-eating stride. Step with the right leg. Bring the left around. Brief pr…
Chapter 6: Down the Highway, Pt. 1
The empty pack flopped against Lily's back as she limped down a half-buried road. Her skin had tightened over her bones and her cropped hair…
Chapter 6: Down the Highway, Pt. 2
Days passed in an indistinguishable blur as they followed the ancient highway toward the setting sun. They hauled the wealth of food and wat…
Chapter 7: Day of the Locusts, Pt. 1
There was no time in the Wasteland. There was walking, there were meals, there were half-awake intervals spent keeping watch, but there were…
Chapter 7: Day of the Locusts, Pt. 2
Lily woke under both blankets, her coat rolled up under her head. The cloth on her forehead was dry. Her forearm and calf were bandaged. Her…
Chapter 8: Everything is Broken, Pt. 1
All was lost. Mummified plants jutted from the powdery earth, crumbling to dust under Lily’s clumsy fingers. Even here at the top of the wor…
Chapter 8: Everything is Broken, Pt. 2
Details came together like a patchwork coat. Naomi's word was law and life and everything in between. The other Stations had failed. Everyth…
Chapter 9: Subterranean Homesick Blues, Pt. 1
Lily studied the crowd in the dining facility, savoring the last few spoonfuls of vegetable stew. A handful of older teens were dotted among…
Chapter 9: Subterranean Homesick Blues, Pt. 2
The clock read five-thirty. Abigail swooped in while Lily was organizing medical supplies in the closet and said, “Go give Michael a break.…
Chapter 10: Desolation Row, Pt. 1
Lily thrust her hand into the grow tank, feeling for a blockage in the filtration port. The edge of the transparent wall dug into her ribs a…
Chapter 10: Desolation Row, Pt. 2
The power came back on right at shift end, and after the collective sigh of relief faded it was a nightmare to get anywhere. Despite dark jo…
Chapter 11: I Threw it All Away
Michael turned the stolen ident card over and over in his hands as they descended, and Lily pinched the damp ends of her hair. The fifth bla…
Chapter 12: I'm Only Bleeding
The day opened with rolling brownouts, dimming the grow lamps and delaying the lifts. They didn’t prevent the two grim-faced security patrol…
Chapter 13: Heading for the Light, Pt. 1
They’d all figured there would be more time. Lily should’ve known better; tragedy was selfish and impatient, and it rarely gave notice. Twel…
Chapter 13: Heading for the Light, Pt. 2
Through a red haze of exhaustion Lily saw the number three painted white on the wall. She barely comprehended it. Her existence had narrowed…
Chapter 14: Chimes of Freedom
Ishmael’s son crouched at his side while Abigail worked on his leg; he sat in a puddle of blood despite a crude tourniquet. She kept shootin…
Chapter 15: Don't Think Twice, It's All Right, Pt. 1
Three weeks after leaving Quebec Station, Lily saw living trees for the first time in her life. The air cleared and softened as they came do…
Chapter 15: Don't Think Twice, it's All Right, Pt. 2
When the storm finally broke, the merciless downpour drove them off the road and into the forest. The trees provided little relief, and Lily…
Chapter 15: Don't Think Twice, It's all Right, Pt. 3
Lily tilted the knife back and forth, admiring the bloody tint cast by the armory’s emergency lights. A small 86 was etched just above the h…
Chapter 16: Lily, Rosemary & The Jack of Hearts
Yearend. Sparks from the bonfires raced toward the stars. Lily was ten days past seventeen, childhood scrawniness shifting to fluid, athleti…
Chapter 17: 4th Time Around
If Lily stopped talking she would have to look at Michael. Worse, she’d have to see him looking back at her. Judging her. Knowing her. “That…
Chapter 18: Only a Pawn in Their Game
He was young. Or at least he was very new. Going back that far was like grasping at soap bubbles. The memory of the rifle was sharp, though:…
Chapter 19: City of Gold
“I looked for her, after I started to remember.” Michael spoke to the exit sign above the door, to the racks of rifles. “Her records said sh…
Chapter 20: Not Dark Yet, Pt. 1
Something hairy had died in Lily’s mouth. She lay on the floor in a mess of blankets, shirt plastered to her clammy skin. The air had a burn…
Chapter 20: Not Dark Yet, Pt. 2
Lily dubbed the mechanical beast a Crawler. The horror of the thing had translated into humor aboveground; either a coping mechanism or the…
Chapter 21: Never Say Goodbye
The rain falling on Lily's face did nothing to put out the fires. The smell of burnt flesh took her straight back to Omaha. Numb fear rushed…
Chapter 22: Pay in Blood, Pt. 1
Lily woke with a jolt. The tiny room was whitewashed and neat. She lay in a narrow cot, under a thin woven blanket. A quick examination show…
Chapter 22: Pay in Blood, Pt. 2
The men were gone when Lily emerged, but the smell of smoke remained. Brenna tried to rearrange her face into something less guilty. “I wasn…
Interlude: Man in the Long Black Coat (Coda)
Not here. He stands in the center of the burning village, soot-streaked and bloodstained and shaking with rage in the remnants of his unifor…
Chapter 23: The Levee's Gonna Break
The wagon was packed with crates, but Lily figured there was room for one more. She stepped over water-filled divots in the dirt, trying to…
Chapter 24: Knockin' on Heaven's Door, Pt. 1
Crows scattered as Lily knelt by the corpse. This one was an old man, a civilian, his throat torn open. The thing that killed him lay a few…
Chapter 24: Knockin' on Heaven's Door, Pt. 2
The noise died away behind them; the sun was low, the streets were emptying. “When did they let you out?” It was the easiest question. “I co…
Chapter 25: One Too Many Mornings
Sunlight filtered through the window in dusty beams. Lily felt warm and hollow and at peace. Michael slept next to her, his arm thrown out a…
Chapter 26: Shelter from the Storm
Lily and Brenna went down to the square together, huddled close against an unexpected chill. At least they’d be warm once the bonfire was li…
Chapter 27: Masters of War
The agony vanished and his vision cleared. Sunlight glowed through faded curtains. She cradled his head in her lap, stroking his hair, hummi…
Chapter 28: Black Crow Blues, Pt 1
A demarcation line of white-painted rocks separated two halves of identical desert. Spring frost crusted the ground, and the air bit and dug…
Chapter 28: Black Crow Blues, Pt. 2
They passed through the gate into New Dallas, and Lily wondered if she’d also ridden backwards in time. The road was paved smooth, lined wit…
Chapter 29: Things Have Changed
74 wanted to see the sky. He eyed the bottles lined up above the sink. Should he? He’d been rinsing doses down the drain. Not all the time.…
Chapter 30: Silvio
Everything hurt and nothing made sense, but Lily tried to hold herself together. “Michael,” she repeated. “No,” he said slowly. “My name is…
Chapter 31: Heartland, Pt. 1
New Columbia sprawled and rolled in all directions, a golden wilderness studded with rocking grasshopper-like machines, watchtowers, herds o…
Chapter 31: Heartland, Pt. 2
The wall loomed over the floodplain like a rust-streaked concrete cliff. The last few dozen yards between the river and the gate were burned…
Chapter 32: A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall, Pt. 1
The windowless, menacing slab of the rationing center loomed over them like a tombstone. In its shadow a flame-gutted building smoked gently…
Chapter 32: A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall, Pt. 2
It occurred to Lily that she ought to be afraid. Death above her. The impregnable heart of the Coalition in front of her. No real plan, no w…
Chapter 33: Long & Wasted Years
Delphi of the past had been tunnels, concrete slick with slime, walls smoke-stained, air heavy. Up top was dead concrete; this was fitting t…
Chapter 34: Fixin' to Die, Pt. 1
The lift opened. Lily limped out, trembling like a plucked string. It had stopped on Level 49, and a machine voice had asked her for clearan…
Chapter 34: Fixin' to Die, Pt. 2
This corridor was familiar. The door to the locker room stood open, light and voices trickling out from inside. Michael held up a clenched f…
Chapter 35: See That My Grave is Kept Clean
Freezing brown water foamed around their ankles, surging against the walls, leaving muddy streaks on the lockers. She caught a single glimps…
Chapter 36: Death is Not the End
Of course it would be him. “Get it over with,” Lily said. 63 choked out a hoarse laugh and stood, wearing the same horrible, mad grin she re…