The Shock of the New

Chapter 38: The San Angeles Trip

Sam awoke early the next morning and immediately remembered his assignment. Pulling himself out of bed, he wondered what San Angeles was like. He'd heard about it many times and seen pictures, but he'd never actually been. From what he'd heard though it was a city of the gods. Every street oozed glamour and celebrity and everybody who lived there was a somebody.

Sam didn't know how much of this was true, and he wondered how much of a somebody Mick was.

After breakfast, Sam met with Krueger and Jamie in Krueger's office.

"Right then" Krueger finished his explanation "I want you to listen to what Jamie says. He's done this plenty of times and as long as you stick by him, you'll be safe"
"I understand" Sam nodded

Sensing his nervousness, Jamie laid a supporting hand on Sam's shoulder

"Trust me. We'll be there and back before you know it"

A short while later, Sam and Jamie had packed supplies, descended to the surface and navigated their way out of the Seattle ruins. The two of them hiked south for about an hour until they came to a railway track. Jamie lead Sam up the track and eventually they arrived at a station. The two of them walked up to the front barriers in which Jamie produced a pair of tickets that Krueger had prepared for them through unofficial channels and put them in. A second later, the machine disgorged the tickets and the barriers opened.

A few minutes later, the pair of them were heading south via train to San Angeles.

As they made their way there, Jamie removed a couple of imitation sandwiches and handed one to Sam (Normally the L.S.E.I. would eat regular foods, but in the W.E.R., this sort of behaviour was uncommon and frankly the two of them didn't want to draw any more attention to themselves then was necessary)

As they ate, Sam looked at Jamie. Swallowing a mouthful of food, he asked "What's Mick like?"

"Oh he's a decent guy" Jamie told him "He's been around a long time and he knows what's what"
"How long?" Sam asked

Jamie looked around to make sure nobody was listening. Then he leaned in close

"He's old enough to remember what the world looked like before the Giga Wars"
This caught Sam's attention "He's that old?" he blurted out
"Sssh!" Jamie looked around to make sure nobody was listening. Luckily for them, Sam's outburst hadn't attracted the attention of anybody on the train.

"Yeah" Jamie nodded "When we meet the guy, you ask him about it. I'm sure he'd love to tell you"

Sam spent the rest of the train journey in silence, excitedly thinking about Mick and the stories he could tell. At school everybody had constantly told Sam that the pre Giga Wars world was a nightmarish hellscape and had largely left it at that to sing the praises of the W.E.R.. Of course, since joining the L.S.E.I. Sam had realised that most of the stuff he'd been taught in school was complete bullshit. So it'd be interesting to see how the Giga Wars had really played out.

Eventually, a voice came over the train's intercom
"The next station is San Angeles central which will be our final destination. Please take all your belongings with you when leaving the train"
Shortly after that, the train pulled up to a station and came to a halt. The doors opened and Sam and Jamie departed.

San Angeles central was the busiest station Sam had ever seen. Everywhere he looked, people were scurrying about, talking to each other or checking their phones. The main hall of the station was an enormous roomed in stone with gigantic electronic billboards hung over the top telling the times of every train due to arrive or leave soon.

"Come on" Jamie whispered "Stick close to me, we don't want to draw any attention"
The two of them made their way through the station crowds and up an escalator leading out to the street. When they stepped outside, Sam got his first in person look at the city of San Angeles