“Why not?”
THEY LEFT THE ART SECTION of the huge, rambling redoubt behind them and moved toward the marked entrance. Their route led them through an open set of double sec doors into a massive, vaulted hall, bigger than an aircraft hangar.
“Defensive positions all around here,” J.B. observed. “Ready to repel the enemy.”
Ryan nodded. “Only problem with that tactical planning was that all the enemy were dead, as well.”
“What happened to all of the tens of millions of corpses?” Mildred asked. “I’ve always wondered that. Should be boneyards, shouldn’t there?”
Doc answered her. “I also pondered that, madam. Indeed, I once was fortunate enough to visit the ruins at Mesa Verde and I asked the ranger on duty the same question. Where did all of the Anasazi bodies go?”
“And?”
“And, Dr. Wyeth, he pointed out that Nature is an excellent disposer of corpses. The weather combines with wild animals. It is close on one hundred years since the skies over the land of the free grew dark with nuclear warheads. Time enough for most bodies out in the open to have been absorbed back into the environment. Fortunately for all of us, mankind is intensely biodegradable.”
THE MAIN DOORS to each redoubt had, up to then, shared a common three-digit code to open and close. Three, five and two was punched in to open the vanadium-steel door, then two, five and three to close it again.
This one was the same.
The code was printed on a white card, sealed in plastic under the control panel.
“Not all that secret, is it?” Ryan said. “Still, I suppose there were so many soldiers and whitecoats who needed to come in and out of all the redoubts, it was simpler to have the same entrance code for all of them.”
“We using it?” Jak had moved to stand by the controls, his long white index finger poised over the buttons.
Ryan nodded. “Yeah. We’re using it.”
Chapter Eight
The air was fresh and clean with a hint of rain. The sky was overcast and dull, showing ten-tenths cloud cover, darkening toward the west. The door opened up on a dreary vista of what seemed like dozens of small lakes dotted with forested islands. There was no sign at all of human life.
J.B. had taken out his miniature sextant, using it to locate their position, checking with one of a number of tiny maps that he carried with him.
“Tennessee’s right,” he said. “Near as I can tell from this, we’re close to the north of the state, but it looks like there’s been some serious quake or fire damage up this way.”
“Don’t remember being around here with Trader,” Ryan commented. “We went to Memphis a few times and we were going to that place with the country music.”
“Nashville,” Mildred said. “I was going to go there the time I wanted to visit Graceland, Elvis’s home. I was real taken with country sounds. Willie and Waylon and Lyle and Dwight and Dolly and all. Wanted to go and see the Grand Ole Opry where they broadcast in the old days.”
“Look at door,” said Jak, who had lost interest in the conversation about predark times. Krysty had once pointed out this aspect of his character. It seemed as if the teenager wanted only to live in the present and the future. The past was an alien land to him.
They all turned away from the watery landscape and stared at the entrance to the redoubt, which was gaping like a gigantic maw.
“Looks like fire, sleet and candlelight,” Doc said, runic as ever.
The metal frame was scarred and pitted, though it was made, like the door, of high-tempered vanadium steel. The concrete around the entrance was also scorched with the marks of some old fire that had broken chunks of it away, opening the stones to the elements.
“Skydark damage,” Ryan commented, examining it more closely. “Must’ve been close to some serious nuking.”
J.B. ran his fingers over the pocked concrete, shaking his head. “Amazing that the whole place didn’t go. Look at the state of it.” He stood back to try to take in the whole frontage of the redoubt. “Dark night, but it’s well concealed. If you didn’t know it was here, I reckon you could walk within a hundred yards and not spot what it was.”