Chapter Eighteen

 

For a time Ryan didn't think the wag would have enough gas in it to take them to the redoubt. The needle, if it was accurate, hovered just above the quarter-tank mark and stayed there. But it was the road that finally gave out, getting passable only on foot or by horseback.

 

Four miles out from the redoubt by estimation, he pulled the wag over to the side. The steep grade allowed them to easily tip the wag into the gully below. They spent a few minutes gathering brush to cover it up, hacking it free with their knives.

 

"Dust line headed this way," J.B. called. He squatted farther up the hill, binoculars to his glasses.

 

"Didn't figure it would take them long to catch up," Ryan said. "How far out?"

 

"Four miles, mebbe five. The wind's blowing this way, so it might actually be a little ahead of them."

 

"Are you sure it's them?" Ryan checked his gear. The ammo J.B. had scavenged from Tinker Phillips's gun shop had been split up on the way over.

 

"Still got balloons tied to the bastard circus wag," J.B. said laconically.

 

"Thought all be bust in firefight," Jak said.

 

"Such are the vagaries and whims of the gods," Doc stated.

 

"Got no time to waste," Ryan said, feeling the miles evaporate between them and the wolves chasing at their heels. "Jak, Dean, take point. Figure we're operating on condition green and nothing's going to be ahead of us."

 

Both boys hurried ahead, already knowing where the redoubt was because they were in familiar territory.

 

"Doc, you and the short man go next. Albert, if you can't keep up, you can't go. And Doc, if I see you trying to carry him this time, I'm going to shoot you myself."

 

The old man fired off a snappy salute. Albert set himself to match Doc's pace.

 

"Mildred, you and Krysty go next. Walk a secondary drag. J.B. and I will bring up the rear a couple hundred yards behind. If we have to, mebbe we can buy some time."

 

 

 

THE FOUR MILES WENT quickly as they followed the sun to the west. Even Albert was able to stay the course.

 

Ryan watched the dust cloud trailing them draw closer, pausing now and again to study Handsome Wyatt's collection of jackers as they milled around where the road ended.

 

"More like jackals than jackers," J.B. commented as they crouched in the brush farther up the rough terrain than the wags were. "Running around in packs."

 

"Dangerous enough, though," Ryan said. "There's some who would say we were cut of the same cloth as those people back there. And like Kirkland."

 

"Mebbe. But we know where the difference is. You've seen the difference between a pack of jackals and a pack of wolves, Ryan," the Armorer said. "Jackals, hell, they'll kill just for sport. But a wolf pack, they hunt for food, shelter and some form of security. That's the way of the wolf. And that's the way Trader taught us. Lot of difference between a wolf and a jackal."

 

Ryan nodded, knowing it was true. "Hooray for the difference, but let's put some more distance in there, too." He turned and faded back into the brush.

 

 

 

LESS THAN FIVE MINUTES later, Ryan watched a band of jackers peel away from the wags. He counted twenty-three men in all, counting Wyatt, who had one hand bundled up in bandages.

 

"No way that bastard stupe finished raiding Hazard before he came after us," J.B. said.

 

"Kirkland's people could have managed to dig the jackers back out of the ville," Ryan replied.

 

"You really think that happened?"

 

"No."

 

J.B. shook his head. "So that means he's burning up our backtrail looking for a quick dose of get-even."

 

"Mebbe. And mebbe he talked to somebody about that anesthetic we brought in," Ryan said. "Could be he figures we found a major stockpile."

 

"Man's making a big mistake leaving those wags with so few guards."

 

"Yeah. Well, let's just make sure we don't make any right along with him. The sooner we get back to that mat-trans unit, the sooner we're out of here."

 

 

 

RYAN HAD TO SLOW a little to give his friends the room they needed to reach the redoubt ahead of him and J.B. If the Armorer noticed that he was hanging back, he didn't say anything.

 

But the decrease in speed allowed the jackers to draw closer.

 

"Going to be a near thing," J.B. said.

 

"Yeah, but we're on the downhill side of it now." Ryan kept moving, and kept his attention spread out across the forest. The grade was gradual now, sliding into the valley where the redoubt was housed. More than anything, he needed sleep. Fatigue ate into his bones and joints like acid rain.

 

 

 

KRYSTY STEPPED into the small stream and followed it against the current to the base of the towering silver-leafed maple the companions had chosen as a marker to remember the trail. She carried her .38 in her fist. Liberty and his gang might no longer be a threat in the area, but they had spotted mutated beasts in the forest.

 

Jak and Dean were far ahead of her. She glanced back in Ryan's direction, but didn't see him or J.B,

 

"They're okay," Mildred said quietly. "Would have been shooting if they hadn't been."

 

Krysty nodded. Her sentient hair coiled tight against her scalp. Perhaps it was from the cold, and maybe even from the dread of the coming jump. A trip through a mat-trans chamber was never any of the companions' idea of a good time.

 

She stepped out of the stream under the maple and walked along the bank. Her wet socks reminded her of the holes she had meant to have mended while in Hazard. Then she remembered that there were a few extra socks from that mall in the Carolinas where they'd picked up some necessities.

 

A little farther on, she found Doc and Albert waiting beside the stream. Frogs croaked in the wide spillway beneath moss-encrusted boulders towering thirty feet above the ground.

 

The dwarf wheezed hard, coughing a little as he tried to regain his breath. He excused himself in a squeaky voice as the two women approached.

 

"You did good, little man," Mildred complimented. "This is rough country."

 

"Been a rough life," Albeit wheezed. "Had to get hard or die." He glanced around. "How much farther?"

 

"We're here," Krysty answered.

 

Albert appeared puzzled. "You've got to be joking." He waved at the rock and trees surrounding them. "This is a box canyon. Those jackers following us will leave our corpses out here for the animals."

 

"We won't be here by the time they get here," Dean said. He stood on a shelf of rock twenty feet up the rock face. His Browning Hi-Power blaster was in his hand.

 

Krysty noted with satisfaction that the hammer on the blaster wasn't rolled back into the ready position.

 

Five minutes later J.B. and Ryan joined the group. "They're still behind us," the one-eyed man said. "Be here in a couple minutes."

 

Even now, with her mutie sensitive hearing, Krysty could pick up the sounds of men talking and breaking through the brush. They were careful men and didn't make as much noise as most, but if a listener knew what to listen for, the sounds were evident.

 

"Jak," Ryan said, "take us in. Condition yellow. Light up a torch. Krysty, you take up a torch, too. Make sure we can see where we're headed."

 

Krysty followed Mildred, climbing up onto the rock to a narrow shelf just below where Jak and Dean stood. Both the boys had already disappeared into the crack that sundered the wall of rock from top to bottom.

 

There had been a tunnel at one time, Krysty knew, but it had most likely caved in after the nukecaust. However, even as warped nature had taken away, it had also provided in the form of the crack that ran deep into the heart of the hill.

 

Krysty turned sideways and eased into the crack. The dim sunlight, already blunted by the leafy canopy overhead, darkened quickly to full black. She felt her way along cautiously, using her mutie senses, as well as her hands and feet.

 

"When those jackers get here," Albert said, "all they're going to have to do is cover us over."

 

"My dear, diminutive friend," Doc said confidently, "trust in us and fear not. For this path truly is our salvation from this grievous situation we currently find ourselves embroiled in."

 

"Still feel bad not knowing where we're headed," the dwarf replied.

 

Krysty felt along the wall, glancing back in time to catch sight of Ryan filing into the crack behind her. A cool wind breezed from the depths below.

 

Another dozen steps and the constricting crack opened up. Light flared in front of her as Jak cracked a self-light and ignited the oil-based torch they had set up after their arrival. The redoubt hadn't been stocked much in the supply department. Everywhere they had looked, there had been signs of looting and scavengers who had known their business. They had, however, managed to find several useful items. A collection of skeletons remained below, three of them with their skulls bashed in.

 

"Krysty," Jak called, holding out another torch. The light from the one he carried lent a yellow parchment color to his features.

 

Krysty took the torch and slipped a self-light from her pocket. She cracked it to life with her thumbnail, and the sulfurous fumes flooded her nostrils. She applied it to the oil-soaked material of the torch, and the warm flame crawled all over the sheet remnant they had used.

 

The trail wound down again, going through a natural archway so low all had to duck except Albert. Thirty yards farther on, the crack led into a concrete arm of the redoubt. The first glimpse of the metal housing occurred when the lantern's light gleamed from the opening ahead.

 

Jak made the short drop into the access tunnel. He lifted his torch high to illuminate the interior.

 

Krysty scanned the access tunnel, matching what she saw with what the companions had left behind only a few days earlier. Debris lay scattered across the concrete floor, covering the metal tracks laid in grooves in some places. Nearly twenty feet across and almost that in height, the tunnel had to have been part of the supply zones back before the nukecaust.

 

Krysty clambered into the tunnel and stood by the opening to light the way for J.B. and Ryan while Jak went on ahead. They wound through the long tunnel, following a sharper grade as it continued to go underground. At the end of it, they found the large freight elevator they had used to ascend.

 

Energized by nuclear power, the redoubt had survived the nukecaust and the hundred-odd years that had followed skydark, with every indication that it would continue functioning for hundreds more.

 

If they had found the redoubt before it had been gutted, Krysty knew it would have been a great find, the kind of find that had first set the Trader in business all those years ago.

 

The companions assembled in the elevator. J.B. manned the controls.

 

"Everybody's on condition red," Ryan said. "Wyatt and his jackers might find their way into the redoubt, as well, and we don't know that this place is still empty. Keep your blasters out, but be sure you know what you're aiming at before you squeeze the trigger." He glanced at Krysty.

 

She shook her head, letting him know her mutie senses hadn't detected anything. The redoubt felt as lifeless as a crypt.

 

"All right, J.B., let's go." The Armorer hit the control panel, choosing the level indicator for the lowest section of the redoubt. The doors closed, taking their time and squealing in protest. Despite having nuclear power that would last for centuries, regular maintenance had been missing for a long time.

 

After the long series of earsplitting screeches, the doors closed. Enclosed within the elevator cage, the smoke from the two torches quickly pooled against the ceiling, forming a black cloud.

 

The elevator dropped through the bowels of the earth.

 

Albert moaned and dropped to his knees.

 

"What's wrong, friend Albert?" Doc asked, bending to put a hand to the little man's shoulders.

 

"Sick," the dwarf gasped. Then he threw up. "Feels like I'm falling, but I see the floor right here."

 

"This is your first time with an elevator, then."

 

Doc said.

 

Albert's shoulders heaved again as he threw up once more.

 

Krysty took a step away. Luckily the freight elevator was large enough none of them were too close together.

 

"Read about elevators before," Albert groaned.

 

"Never saw one until today. Never want to see one again."

 

Jak laughed, a short, harsh bark of sound. "Think elevator bad? Wait till mat-trans."

 

The elevator cage shrilled to a jerky stop, metal grinding against metal. Without some kind of overhaul, Krysty doubted that it would last more than a few more trips to the surface and back.

 

"Everybody alert," Ryan ordered.

 

The companions tramped through the dust, Doc reaching down to hold the back of the dwarfs jacket to keep him upright. At least Albert's nausea seemed to be gone for the moment even if he hadn't gotten his land legs back.

 

Krysty probed the darkness with her mutie senses. Between her and Jak, she knew most of anything that might be waiting for them in the darkness would be caught.

 

The albino teen hugged the walls, following the blue line that marked the floor under the layers of dust. Every now and again he had to scuff his foot across the floor to make certain the line was still there. He correlated those with the marks put on the wall by the companions when they had come through the first time.

 

"What is this place, Doc?" Albert asked in a voice not much above a whisper.

 

"A long time ago," Doc said, "well before sky-dark even, there was a government entity that operated under the aggrandized nomenclature of the Totality Concept. They constructed these redoubts, and stocked them with myriad things. The mat-trans unit that we are seeking here was developed by a further division of secrets called Overproject Whisper under the code name Cerberus."

 

"Heard of Cerberus before," the little man said. "Some kind of three-headed mutie dog supposedly watching over hell. Called it Hades. The Greeks made up all the stories."

 

"That is correct. And as it turns out, the name was most aptly placed, because this Cerberus does open unto the very jaws of hell."

 

"There's one thing I always found curious about the Greeks' stories," Albert said.

 

"What's that, dear fellow?"

 

"They wrote about this hell like it was some kind of bad place."

 

"Yes."

 

"But, Doc, none of it really seemed as bad as what Deathlands turned out to be."

 

There was silence for a time. "My friend," Doc said gravely, "I believe that is because a healthy mind could not really envision how badly things could go for the human race once something like this happened."

 

Then Jak's torch lit up the door ahead of them. The albino keyed in the code, and the vanadium door slid open with near silent shushes. The friends cast aside their torches, as the redoubt was awash with cool fluorescent light.

 

Jak led the way inside, and they followed a twisting corridor, avoiding the other empty rooms they had found their first time through. From the way most of the rooms had been systematically stripped,

 

Ryan and J.B. had speculated that the military personnel who had survived the nukecaust had evacuated the structure at some point. But what had become of them remained a mystery, like so many other things after the world had died.

 

The end of the corridor opened into a large room that contained the mat-trans unit. The chamber was hexagonally shaped, and metal disks set in the floor and ceiling glowed with a pulsating light. Thick armaglass walls the color of fresh-cut jade shut them off from the mat-trans unit.

 

"What is that?" Albert asked.

 

"That," Doc said dryly, "is the very maw of perdition like none of you have ever seen, my little friend."

 

"Oh."

 

Krysty watched the dwarf and felt sorry for him. Doc could have gone on and elaborated more about what was going to happen to him once the transfer sequence was activated, but it would only have been cruel. When staying wasn't an option, a person had to go. Krysty had gotten that from her Mother Sonja.

 

"Everybody in," Ryan ordered after hurrying forward to open the door.

 

The companions filed into the gateway and stripped off their gear, making themselves as comfortable as they could across the glowing metal disks set into the floor.

 

"Is this another elevator, Doc?" Albert's voice held worry now, but he stripped off his blasters and the pack he carried.

 

"No," the old man said, stretching himself out prone. "I assure you, this grim piece of business is in nowise nearly as comforting as an elevator ride. Settle down as best you can, friend, because life as you know itfor a timeshall be over."

 

Albert glanced back through the jade armaglass walls. "Mebbe we should try to find another way, then."

 

"There is no other way," Mildred snapped.

 

Krysty knew the woman wasn't angry with Albert, just nervous about the upcoming jump.

 

"We came in the only way out," Krysty said, leaning in close to Ryan. Sometimes it helped if she touched her lover before they went under the mat-trans effects. Even then, she hardly ever woke up next to him.

 

Albert sat, stretching his legs before him as he put his back to the armaglass wall.

 

Ryan shut the door to begin the jump, then hurried to Krysty's side. The metal disks in the floor and ceiling glowed more brightly, and a fine mist descended from the ceiling.

 

Krysty twined her fingers in Ryan's. "Hope you have pleasant dreams, lover."

 

"Or at least," Ryan said, "ones that aren't too bad."

 

Nightmares and nausea seemed to be the two most prevalent byproducts brought about by the jumps. Rarely had the companions avoided them.

 

As she breathed in her first full, deep breath of the mist-laden air, Krysty's brains seemed to turn into oatmeal, dulling her mutie senses with a sensation of being suffocated.

 

Doc's voice singsonged from the corner, filled with a strength and vigor that was surprising. "Here we go, my friends. Can you envision some future when we can look back, and see our alternate possibilitiesif we chose this or that option? Could we ever say 'two roads diverged in a wood, and II took the one less traveled by.' I think Robert Frost summed up our present state quite well. Don't you?"

 

"Don't you?"

 

"Don't you?"

 

And as Doc's words seemed to hang in the air, growing more and more indistinct with each echo, Krysty knew the jump had begun. There was no saving them from the nightmares now.