Chapter 22.

Manny

Rolling Fuck was as bright, shiny, and chaotic as it had been when he left.

But Manny could see a real change among the citizens themselves.

Gone were the lounging crowds of half-naked people.

Instead of the perpetual party, a war camp spread out around the great superstructure of the city.

Hundreds of men and women were busy dawning armor, applying war paint and checking over stacks of weaponry.

Mani saw crates of guided mortars, piles of rocket launchers, boxes of high-velocity ammunition,

and enough firearms to equip every citizen a dozen times over.

There was no discernible rolling fuck uniform that Manny could see. Some of the city's warriors wore powered body armor, painted in

garish colors and bedecked with various quotations. Fuck your day seemed particularly popular.

Many of them wore pieces of pop culture costumery mixed in with their gear. Mani recognized

Darth Vader's helmet, Hellboy's red right hand, and a surprising number of people with Mickey

Mouse's face spray painted on their chest armor. An equal number of Fuckians wore no armor at all.

Some of them were dressed in their normal flowing lounge garments. The weapons they wore

were the only signs that they had plans beyond debauchery. Others were naked, or mostly so.

He saw one man wearing the helmet of a Greek hoplight and carrying two Viking axes on his

back. He saw a woman with a Dragonov rifle on her back, an old German stalelm on her head,

an Ottoman mirror armor on her chest. an old German stall helm on her head, an Ottoman mirror

armor on her chest. She waved at them, excited. It took Manny a second to recognize Topas's face

under the helmet. They're here! They're! She stopped. Tully had stopped, too. She cast her face down.

Many could see the shimmer of tears on her cheeks. A crowd gathered around them. In a few seconds, they were encircled by dozens of heavily armed post-humans in a dizzying array of war costumes. Skullfucker Mike pushed his way to the front and ran up to embrace Tully. Mani was surprised when she started to sob. The big man held her tight, but looked to Roland.

...