“Good locks,” J.B. said, testing one briefly. “Sorry, Millie, we’d need to blow them open, and that would give away our position to the droid.”
The physician peered through the saleted windows at the equipment cabinets in the rear; the supplies in there were priceless, irreplaceable! To be denied the tools of her trade by the thickness of a sheet of glass was intolerable! But Mildred turned her back to the treasure trove of healing supplies and strode away, trying not to cry from sheer frustration.
Stopping at a phone booth, Ryan picked up the telephone book, but it crumbled into dust at his touch. He had expected that, but hoped it might last long enough to give them the address of a supermarket, or a mall. A hissing sounded from an alleyway and the companions spun about with their blasters ready. Then they saw a limousine slowly tilting as its hundred-year-old tires finally expired under the onslaught of fresh air.
“No rats, no muties, no looters,” Krysty said. “If it wasn’t for the Core hot for our blood, I’d say we take the place as a home. It would be very hard for anybody to invade from the cliff.”
“We could make a hell of a ville wall with all these dead cars,” J.B. said, pushing back his fedora. “Remember the ville defenses at Zero City?”
“Not really,” Dean said stiffly.
Cradling the Winchester in his good hand, Jak bumped the boy with a hip. “Think not,” the Cajun snorted. “Near dead whole time.”
Dean shrugged. He had survived; that was what mattered.
Just then, the call of a bird echoing among the tall buildings made the companions glance upward with weapons at the ready. But there was nothing in sight. Then a puff of smoke appeared over a concrete parking garage.
“With the salt dome covering the sky last time, the fires ran out of oxygen and died quickly,” Mildred said grumpily. “That’s why there’s anything here at all.”
“Not happen this time,” Jak said. “Burn all.”
Ryan halted at a corner of a bank, the dead teller leaning against the bulletproof glass and staring down at them. Using a plastic mirror from a pocket, he checked the next street to make sure it was clear, then swept around to continue the recce. This road was wider than the rest, more a boulevard, and every store seemed to have a colorful awning and huge windows, the powdery salt mixed with the glistening glass shards.
Shuffling his boots to keep from stepping on the glass and shattering a piece with every step, Ryan swept the store with his eye, then paused and gave a low whistle, imitating the bird they had heard earlier.
The companions hurried into view and saw the man going across the traffic filled street to a dark supermarket, its windowless front gaping wide. Spreading out to avoid giving any hidden watchers a group target, the companions converged on the store and slipped inside, with Doc and Jak staying at the front as a rear guard.
Inside, the dead were everywhere, lying in disorganized lines at the registers, sprawled on top of gnarled fruit filling a bin, supine before an ATM with slips of paper and cash clutched in their gnarled fists.
“Clear,” Ryan announced, checking his rad counter. “Only background rads. The place was never hot nuked. Must have been a neutron bomb.”
Dean remembered hearing about those. Some sort of fancy nuke that only chilled people, but not buildings.
“I hope they were all slain instantly,” Doc said from the doorway. “Otherwise, any survivors would have been buried alive in perpetual darkness, sans air and hope.”
Sadly, Krysty shook her head. “Such a waste.”
Going to an endcap display of fruit juice, Krysty inspected the top can only to replace it with a disgusted expression.
“Rusted through,” she complained, wiping a hand clean on her thigh.
“Don’t take anything with any rusty spots,” Mildred warned. “The salt would eat through the galvanized tin easily. Stick with glass and plastic if possible.”
Spreading out in a standard search pattern, the companions walked along the deathly silent aisles, stepping over the desiccated bodies when they could. Which wasn’t often. Soon, their boots were coated with a gray dust and the air began to have a strangely appetizing aroma that was almost meaty.