In the Wasteland, a settlement with over half a million people was quite large, but in the grand scheme of things, it was just that—over half a million people. In a place like Triumph City or Ideal City, a disturbance involving a few thousand people would barely register as a sneeze.
But in Giant Stone City, a place long riddled with deep-seated problems, that sneeze could serve as the fuse that sparked a full-blown crisis, almost blasting its front teeth out...
By noon the next day, Alec, the head of security for Vijia Commerce, was rubbing his booze-reddened nose as he climbed out from a mountain of empty bottles.
Sometimes he felt that he was an Awakener too, just not as obviously so. Once, while following his boss to the "North Suburb," he sat in the lobby of a roadside inn and distinctly saw those so-called Awakeners in Blue Jackets flopping after five or six bottles, unlike him—a bona fide drinker who could handle a thousand cups without faltering.
