Genesis Echo (Deathlands 25) by James Axler

A narrow closet held brooms, brushes, dustpans and cleaning cloths. Another closet contained hangers for clothes.

Around the top of every bed was a long steel rail that Mildred told them would have been for curtains, to give the occupants of the wards some privacy.

She had gone out during the middle of the afternoon, while the others rested, exploring with J.B. for company and protection, returning in about ninety minutes.

“Definitely a hospital,” she reported. “I had a peek at the cryology section, but it was totally destroyed. Grass growing up through the floors. Same with the ruined wings we saw from back up the trail. But the other wing is closed off from us. Guards just said it was for experimenting and research.” She glanced at J.B. for confirmation. He nodded, and she continued. “This one has two operating rooms on the first floor along with what used to be a path lab and an X-ray department. Also a physio rehab unit at the far end, with double doors opening onto the gardens. They’re real pretty, too.”

“Security?” Trader asked.

The Armorer answered that one. “Thorough. Common weapon is the Mossberg. Silvered 12-gauge. Original blasters, but beautifully kept. Worth a fortune to a handful of frontier barons we all know of.”

“How many men?” Ryan queried.

“Difficult. Like Mildred says, we couldn’t get access to the closed wing. Also, the atrium at the heart of the complex had sections that we were steered away from. Didn’t like the idea of our going outside, either. If I had to make an informed guess from the one short and partial recce, then I think I’d have to be looking around the hundred mark. Saw about a dozen or so of the scientists, as well.”

“Well-trained guards?”

J.B. nodded. “You saw them working out in the back country, Ryan. Can’t add to what we all thought. Efficient. Mebbe not combat-hard, though, is my guess, like they know in theory what to do when faced with a firefight situation, but they’ve never actually done it.”

“Makes it easy.” Trader grinned.

“Sure,” Ryan said. “Just about as easy as taking candy off a gorilla.”

RYAN LEFT KRYSTY sleeping soundly in their room. Some of the color was seeping back into her cheeks. The horrific effect that using the mutie Gaia power had on her was so devastating that he couldn’t face the idea of her using it, ever again. There was the grim certainty at the back of his mind that the next time might be the last, that the force would ultimately be so overwhelming that it would rupture an artery in her brain or, more simply, burst her heart.

He went out into the corridor, passing a series of closed and locked doors, all with strange letter and number combination codes on them, in a variety of colors. A few bore their original predark signs-Nurses’ Rest Room, OrthodonticsDo Not Enter When Red Light Shows, TV RoomAbsolutely No Smoking; Dietician; Blood Bank, which had a small, homemade label fixed beneath it Dracula’s Castle.

He passed a pair of patrolling guards, each with a Mossberg slung over the shoulder. He nodded to them, and they both grinned cheerfully.

At the end of the wing he passed through two sets of double doors, finding himself in the main atrium area that Mildred had mentioned. Here the old signs had all gone, the walls painted fresh and clean. The closed wings were self-evident, the wreckage visible through some obviously sealed sec doors.

The other usable area, which had been barred to J.B. and Mildred, was the next one around the central core of the huge medical complex.

It had no sign to give a clue to what went on behind the guarded doors.

“Help you, outlander?”

Ryan spun, seeing a sec man holding his blaster, looking suspiciously at him. For a moment he thought the man was a stranger, then he realized that it was the sec boss, Ellison, the one with the vicious scar by his mouth. The reason he hadn’t recognized him straightaway was that the man had shaved off his luxuriant mustache.

“No. Just stretching my legs, thanks.”

“What’s your name?”

“You know my name, Ellison.”