Genesis Echo (Deathlands 25) by James Axler

Doc patted Sukie’s hand. “My dear, madam, you shall go where you wish.”

“You’d come with me?”

Doc stroked his chin, as if he were considering whether he needed a shave. “I think it is best to postpone such a decision until it becomes necessary.”

“You said you went into the hills because you were tired of your friends, Doc.”

“Not quite true,” he argued. “I was far more tired of myself and tired of the life that the whitecoats had condemned me to. These people heremy friends and companionsare all that I now hold dear and who have sustained me through the long days and nights of darkness.”

“I thought you cared for me, Doc?”

This public display of emotion was embarrassing the old man. “If the rest of you will excuse us,” he said, “Sukie and I will take a short walk together. Perhaps to the top of the ruined dam. Look at the river and the hills and discuss our lives and what we might yet make of them.”

They went close enough to the tethered Judas for the mule to try a halfhearted kick at Doc.

“She’ll come with us,” Trader said the moment they were out of earshot. “Woman can’t do without a man.”

“Woman needs a man like a turtle needs a helicopter,” Mildred commented.

“Yeah, sure. Fancy little saying. One I like is the truth about what a woman needs from a man. The answer is just what the man happens to be out of at that moment.” Trader laughed. “She’ll come with Doc.”

Krysty shook her head. “If I was into betting, Trader, I’d lay good odds that you’re wrong.”

Ryan clapped his hands. “Come on. Too many words and not enough talking.”

IN THE END, after a good deal of talking, with everyone offering opinions, it became clear that there wasn’t much of an argument.

Trader was keen to jump, having heard so much about the experience, and Abe, these days, tended to go along with everything that Trader suggested. Jak also made it obvious that the part of his life that had brought him to the Colorado Plateau, with his wife and baby, was ended forever and he wished to move far and fast.

Ryan inclined to side with them. He had told Krysty in the quiet moments between their lovemaking that he’d had enough of spine-jarring wags across unmade, quake-rippled highways. Even the brain-scrambling uncertainty of a jump was preferable to that for him.

Krysty was happy to agree to that, as was Dean. The boy quickly became bored with hanging around in the same spot for too long and was eager for fresh fields.

J.B. was less certain. “Could be interesting to drive up north and take a look around the Rockies.”

Mildred sided with him. “I agree with John. Get in the jump chamber in the guts of some sepulcber of a redoubt, and you never know how things’ll turn out.”

Doc and Sukie had been away for a long time, out of sight of the others. When they eventually returned it was close to the middle of the day. Krysty noticed that the buttons on Doc’s shirt had been unfastened and rebuttoned in the wrong order. There were also marks of red sand on the back of the woman’s dark blue jacket that had resisted attempts to brush them clean.

“Well, Doc?” Trader asked. “What’ve you and the little lady decided?”

“We have discussed the matter at some length, thank you, Trader. Our decision is that we will go with the majority, while both reserving the right to alter our minds at some undecided future date.”

“Still like to see my sister,” Sukie mumbled. “Gotta do that someday.”

“And so you will, my priceless pearl of the undiscovered Indies.”

Trader laughed. “Told you, Krysty. Said she’d stand by her man.”

Krysty didn’t rise to the taunt.

Ryan looked around the group. “Breaks down that five are kind of definite about wanting to go and make another jump out of here. Two are less certain. And Doc and Sukie’ll go along with the majority. That means we go.”

THE NEAREST REDOUBT WAS the one that had auto-destructed, nearly killing them all, when first they’d met again with Jak and his bride. It wasn’t that far from where they were camped, and there was enough room in the Volvo land wag for all of them.