After a century of chaos following the nukes, Deathlands is forming pockets of civilization, aided by pre-dark stockpiles of weapons, fuel and pieces of 21st-century knowledge. But these troves are hard to come by and survival remains a blood quest. For Ryan Cawdor and his warrior survivalists, luck is sparse, chances slimmer, yet hope drives them onward. The sulphur-teeming Gulf of Mexico is the poisoned end of the earth, but loaded cargo ships ruined by skydark lure doomie and cutthroat alike, Here, Ryan and the others glean rumors of whole cities deep in South America that survived the blast intact. But as the companions contemplate a course of action that may divide them, a new horror approaches unseen on the horizon. The Lords of Death are Mexican pirates raiding stockpiles with grim vengeance. When civilization hits rock bottom, a new stone age will emerge, with its own personal day of blood reckoning. In the Deathlands, the future could always be worse. Now it is... (Empire of Xibalba - 1 of 2)