“Could have been a nuke meltdown in part of the redoubt,” Krysty suggested. “Account for the lack of babies and the rad sickness. These two look like they’re the last of the line of self-appointed guards to the redoubt.”
The words “guards” brought instant attention from the brothers.
“Guards of the Redoubt,” they said. “We have the task of keeping the redoubt safe from enemies.”
Titus suddenly looked sharply at Ryan. “You are enemies of the redoubt?”
“Course not.”
“Enemies die,” they chorused. “When shall that be? On the day of enemies? Who shall do it? The guards.”
They gave themselves a round of applause, which Ryan and then the others joined in.
“You got sleeping places?” J.B. asked. “Be real honored if we could stay a night.”
Ryan glanced at the tiny rad counter that he wore in his lapel, seeing that it was shading from yellow toward orange, lending credibility to Krysty’s theory of a nuke leak. It was severe enough not to want to spend several days in the redoubt, but one night should be safe at that rad level.
“Showing highish,” he said to the Armorer, who checked his own counter.
“Yellow sliding toward orange,” he said. “Probably risk staying one night.”
Ryan nodded. “Why not? Have shelter and then move on after dawn.”
Titus and Mervyn exchanged stares, both nodding at precisely the same second.
“We got plenty of beds,” they said together. “You friends of the redoubt, then you’re all friends of the Guards.”
“Hot pipe,” Dean said, clapping his hands together. “Any more of that buffalo meat left?” He shook his head at the response from Titus and Mervyn. “Well, mebbe tomorrow?”
THEY ALL WALKED up a corridor for about a hundred yards, straight into the domestic heart of the old redoubt, into the dormitories and living quarters of the complex.
Titus and Mervyn strutted together, perfectly in step, pointing out proudly where the washing facilities were, as well as a room that was filled with racks of camouflage clothes like the ones they wore.
“No weapons?” J.B. asked.
“Got our blasters.” Both tapped the butts of the holstered Smith amp; Wesson Model 29s. “Father of fathers said there was more, but they all got lost or broke.”
Mervyn spoke on his own. “Only got some small bits of ammo left now.”
Titus slapped him on the arm. “Guards don’t tell fuckin’ outlanders shit like that.”
“Sorry, brother.”
He turned to Ryan. “We Guards of the Redoubt got plenty of ammo.”
“Sure you do. Those are the sleeping quarters just ahead of us. You guards sleep in there?”
“Yeah, we do. But plenty of beds for all. Go look.”
THERE WERE five long rooms, each with about twenty iron beds, each bed with its own small footlocker. The mattresses, sealed in plastic, were in a separate room farther along the white-painted passage.
Ryan had seen similar sections in redoubts that had only been partially evacuated during the days immediately before or after skydark.
Once Titus and Mervyn had shown them where they could sleep, the brothers seemed keen to head off on their own again.
But J.B. called after them. “Hey!”
“What?”
“You know where we are?”
A look of contempt crossed both placid faces. “Course.”
“Where?”
Both freely waved a hand. “Here.”
Chapter Seven
There was no hot water, and the cold flowed from the taps with a grudging trickle, carrying with it the remains of myriad tiny insects.
“Looks like the boys aren’t that hot on washing in here,” Mildred commented.
“I was close to Mervyn and he was smelling kind of high,” Krysty agreed. “Mebbe it was the heating system that went west and caused the rad leak.”
Ryan looked around. “I reckon the best we can do is all take a rest as soon as possible. Then rise early and get out of the main gates. Find out where in Deathlands we are. Don’t want to linger with the rad count high as it is.”
“Taken its toll on the brothers,” Mildred said, glancing over her shoulder to make sure that Titus and Mervyn hadn’t come back. “They got all the signs of being inbred from the original folks that found their way into the redoubt. Way they look, I wouldn’t want to lay too much jack on their being around in another three months.”