Dean cursed at the insects. “Are we moving on?”
“Sure, Dean, and there’s no need to curse. From my rad counter, it can’t be that far to the source of the leak.”
Krysty bit her lip, worried. “Is that a good idea, lover? Going on? What do you think, J.B.?”
“Reading’s not really high enough to present us with a serious, immediate health threat.” J.B. checked the small counter on the lapel of his coat again. “It looks like a long-term, slow-leak hot spot.”
“Men exposed at Chernobyl—that was a deadly serious Russian meltdown toward the end of the twentieth century—were only out unprotected for a minute or so, trying to do some instant repair work. And they were nearly all dead within months. Weeks, some of them.”
Everyone looked at Mildred, startled into silence by her information.
Ryan sniffed. “That so? Heard the name. Didn’t know it was that ferocious.”
“There are different kinds of radiation sickness.”
She stared at the towering trees all around them.
“Some’s quick and some’s slow. Noticed quite a few of the men and women in the ville showed signs of slow—hair loss, sores on their faces, especially around the mouth, bleeding gums, joint stiffness and problems in mobility. And, as we already know, there’s sterility for men and for women. So, no kids in Hopeville.”
“And then they have to steal from the Apaches,” Ryan said. “Sounds like what we remember about Joshua Wolfe. Trust him about so far—” he held his thumb and index finger an inch apart “—and no farther. He wouldn’t have an urge to take young Dean, I’d guess.”
“I’d shoot him, Dad. Already lost one parent, and I didn’t like being away from you when I was at the Brody School.”
“No one will ever take you from me—you know that, son.” The light of love glowed brightly in Ryan’s eye.
“You think we’re safe visiting this old ‘complex,’ lover? And how about hanging around in the ville, so close to a hot spot. Might be safer to move on.”
Ryan turned to Krysty. “We aren’t staying long. Couple of days or so. With Doc being ill, it’s mebbe better to keep to where he can be looked after.”
“Still not happy.”
Jak had wandered a little way ahead of where they’d all stopped, calling back, “Think see it!”
IT WAS MUCH SMALLER than most of the other redoubts that they’d encountered, scattered throughout Deathlands. Any thoughts that it might have concealed a gateway were immediately dashed. There was every sign it was a place that had been hastily built in the last days before skydark.
The overgrown remains of a tarmac roundabout, edged with disintegrating concrete posts about three feet high, stood in long grass, reminding Ryan of the grave markers that he’d once seen dotting the abandoned battlefield of the Little Bighorn.
The entrance to the redoubt gaped open, one of the double sec doors lying, rusting, in the dirt. The other hung by only one of the set of massive hinges. Even from thirty yards away, they could all smell the dank air.
Krysty sighed, closing her eyes in an expression of distaste. “Almost feel the wickedness here,” she said. “I know it’s imagination, but I swear that I can actually see the radiation poisoning seeping out of the black cavern, like a great slow cloud of evil.”
Ryan left her, walking to stand in the cold shadows of the entrance. He peered into the blackness, listening to the dismal sound of water dripping from the arched roof, some distance inside.
J.B. joined him, taking off his glasses to polish them on his sleeve. “Dark night! Smell of death. Not sure there’s much point in going on to recce much farther. Reckon we’ve seen most of what we need to see.”
It was obvious that the redoubt had been completely stripped when it was abandoned. The inside was bare and empty, glistening with a fluorescent green moss that seemed to cover all the walls and stone floor.
Ryan pointed to a place higher up the side of the hill, where there had been a vast earth shift, probably dating from very early in the days after the heavens were clouded with thousands of missiles and the people died. Dead trees leaned sideways, their rotting roots exposed to the sunlight.