“Taken out, lover.”
“Yeah. When the lines went down, the doors were set free. Might’ve taken a couple of weeks, but I think that’s the most likely story.”
“Can I open this one, Dad?”
“Sure. On red, people.”
“Are these precautions really essential, my dear fellow? Surely this charnel house contains nothing that could possibly threaten us? It is as safe as any pre-dark catafalque.”
“Mebbe, Doc. Mebbe not. Blasters out, everyone.”
Dean stood by the green lever, waiting for the nod from his father, who was crouching on the dusty, rubble-coated floor, ready to peer under the sec door for any sign of danger.
“Six inches, son.”
The control had become very stiff, and the boy had to use all of his strength to shift it. But they eventually heard the usual grinding sound and the sec door shuddered, beginning to move slowly upward.
“Stop it!” Ryan’s voice held the crack of command. “And lower it. Quick!”
Chapter Six
The boy reacted quickly, reversing the lever, allowing the sec steel door to drop back to floor level with the faintest sound and a tiny puff of dust.
“What is it?” J.B. asked, holding the heavy scattergun at the ready. “Someone out there?”
“Something out there?” Krysty added. “What?”
“Stone,” Ryan replied. “Bottom of what looked like a seriously big pile of stones.”
“Blocking way out?”
“Looks like it, Jak. Danger of lifting the door, and it’ll all come pouring in here on top of us.”
“Detour?” Mildred suggested. “I was just looking forward to getting out of here into the fresh air and sunlight and- Hey, wait a minute. There was good clean air coming out under the door for the moment or two it was open.”
Ryan straightened, brushing dust from his pants, wincing at the tugging of the arrow wound. “That’s true. There is. Was. Must mean the top layers of the redoubt were totally driven in and collapsed in the nuking.”
Jak was staring at the floor, near where Dean had been standing. “Tracks,” he said.
“Where? Those are mine.” Dean couched. “Real small. Like someone my age or size. But not my boots.”
“Not any of ours,” Ryan agreed. “Jak, can you follow them back inside? I haven’t seen them anywhere else.”
“I thought I saw them near the gateway,” J.B. said quietly. “But the dust wasn’t so thick as it is here, and I wasn’t sure. They went away left in the opposite direction to the way we took.”
“Two,” Jak said, his red eyes glowing in the overhead lights. Only about one in eight of the long neon strip lights were now working, the situation deteriorating the higher up they got through the complex.
“Anything about them?”
The albino shook his head at Ryan’s question, the errant hair a halo of white light. “Men not children. Tired. Feet dragging. Funny clothes.”
“How’s that?” Ryan asked.
“Long dust coats? Something like women’s dresses. Dragging and leaving marks.”
“Women, Jak?”
“Mebbe, Krysty. Can’t tell.”
He was following the faint marks as he spoke, working his slow way backward, cutting off toward one of the narrow side passages, cutting away from the route that they’d followed from the mat-trans unit.
Ryan called out to stop him. “No point in going any further, Jak. From what J.B. said, it looks like they somehow got out of the gateway. Came all the way up here by some different path. Must be that.”
“You believe that the strangers had made use of the gateway for a jump?” Doc shook his head. “I suppose that anything in Deathlands is possible.”
“And it looks like they got out through this sec door,” said Dean, on his hands and knees, head low, like an eager puppy. “There’s some fresh dust overlaying their trail.”
“Well spotted, son.” Ryan had joined the boy, nodding. “You’re right.”
“So, if they got out.” Mildred allowed the sentence to drift away.
“So can we.” J. B. Dix finished it for her. “Worth a try. You reckon, Ryan?”
“Alternative is to wander around the redoubt for hours-mebbe days-trying to find another, better way out of here. If someone else risked this door, then so can we. Dean?”
“Yeah, Dad?”