James Axler – Deathlands 35 – Skydark

Ten.

Nine.

Kaa opened his third eye, and the stickies jerked. He sent one image into their mutant brains, a moving picture of them running, diving through the chamber door.

Seven.

Six.

By the time the counter dropped to five, the last stickle had hurled itself over the portal. Kaa slammed the door shut He glared out the window at the device that stood only a few yards away. It was close enough that he could see the readout

Four.

Three.

Fog tendrils caressed the top of his head, numbing

it.

He turned away from the chamber door’s window, knowing he had waited too long.

THE SECOND JUMP in such a short time took its toll on Ryan and the others. It left them shaky and disoriented. No one vomited, but they all tried, dry-heaving in chorus. Gradually the retching subsided, and they sat on the hexagonal floor plates with their backs pressed against the armaglass wall, trying to catch their breath.

“Do you think we got him?” Dix asked.

“If the nuke detonated,” Ryan replied. “I saw him come running out of the elevator right before everything went black. If it detonated, there’s nothing left of that redoubt. Probably took out half the mountainside

with it.”

Mildred opened the chamber door. She had her ZKR 551 target revolver out in front of her. “Don’t see any more stickies,” she said. “It looks all clear to me.”

They exited the gateway and, once outside, stretched and loosened their cramped muscles.

“See a big mutie mountain lion here?” Jak asked

the others.

“Yeah, we saw it,” J.B. said. “It was a blur going

that way.”

“You didn’t chill it?”

“We tried, my dear boy,” Doc said, “but we missed by more than a mile.”

“If you’re thinking about getting reacquaintcd with it,” Krysty said, “mebbe you’d better think again.”

Jak frowned at her.

“Because you aren’t the same critter it licked up and down a few hours ago,” Krysty went on. “You’ve lost something you were never supposed to have. It might not find you such a good companion anymore.”

“Might find it likes you more as lunch,” J.B. said, laughing.

“Not afraid of him.”

“Seriously, Jak,” Krysty said, “you’d be taking a big risk if you let that cat get close to you again.”

“Not around here, so not a problem.”

“Probably took off up the ventilation system,” Ryan said. “He’s out there, roaming Deathlands by now.”

“Fine with me,” Jak said. “Deserves to be free.”

They checked their weapons, then moved for the elevator, which was still where they had left it. It didn’t look as if they had any new hostiles to worry about.

When they reached the redoubt’s top level, J.B. once again disconnected the elevator from its power source. Then they walked up the ramp and through the double doors.

It was night outside. The moon was already high in the sky, a disk of polished bone. A soft, warm breeze ruffled their clothes.

“Smells good out here,” J.B. commented.

“Yeah, clean,” Jak said.

“Did you ever in your life see so many stars?” Doc asked, tipping his head back.

Ryan put his arm around Krysty’s slender waist, his fingers finding the rounded curve of her hip. She leaned against him, and as she did, strands of her hair uncoiled to softly brush his cheek.

“Where to now?” Mildred asked him.

“Don’t know. Mebbe we should take a hike over to Byrum ville.”

“Why would we want to go there?” J.B. asked.

“I’m just thinking that we don’t know if we chilled Kaa. Nuke could’ ve been a dud. Mebbe we should head on up the baron’s road and have a talk with Black-heart Button. Then mebbe go on and visit the other barons around here.”

“Ryan, we practically got ourselves chilled the last time we tried to warn them.”

“Yeah,” Jak said. “Didn’t believe us then. Why would they believe us now?”

“Because of that,” Ryan said. He pointed way down the valley, under the glittering field of stars. Almost on the horizon line, something glowed red-orange.

“That’s Willie ville?”

“Still burning,” Ryan said. “Everybody within fifty miles of that tower is going to know something bad went down. We don’t have to prove anything this