“Got J.B. some adhesive bandages at least,” she announced. “There’s a brand-new box in the kit.”
“It’s not a redoubt,” Ryan said. “Just like J.B. predicted back in the gateway.”
“Feels and smells more like a hospital,” Mildred observed.
“Perhaps we need to question our new friend. I wonder how long he’s been down here anyway?” Krysty said.
“Blast in the wall looks fresh,” Ryan replied, picking up a chunk of concrete. “New grit on the ground from the explosion. Our timing might have been better or we might just be unlucky. I’d say the guy with the beard hasn’t been stumbling around in here for very long.”
“Could’ve done without him and those stickies. He probably brought them in here in the first place,” Mildred said.
When the two groups had converged, the scavie suggested adjourning to the cryo room, away from the smell of the fire the muties had set and the stench of death where the dead stickies had fouled themselves as they died. Ryan agreed, wanting to get the man away from the still intact and working gateway as quickly as possible.
They talked as they walked to the labs. The newcomer seemed to take particular delight in discovering Ryan had a son. His own boy was down south in Georgia with his mother and her kin.
“Guess you can say she left me. Her loss, as well as my own. Glad to meet all of you. I’m Alton, Alton Adrian. I guess you heard the explosion. That’s what brought you down here.”
“Uh, right,” Ryan improvised. “The explosion. Made my eardrums pop.”
Adrian shrugged. “I overdid it. Not a demo man. Better too much than too little.”
“Not always,” J.B. replied. “Can bring the roof in on your head.”
“I’ll remember that. Well, I owe you, I guess. I’d be chilled for sure if those stickies had got their hands on me. I’ve got squatter’s rights, so I’m claiming half, you all can divvy up the other part between yourselves. Fair?”
Ryan frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“Scavenge the cryo spots. Try and thaw a few of the freezies, see what valuables they decided to hang on to during their stay in the cooler.”
“Yeah. We were looking like anyone else,” Ryan said gamely. If the man wanted to think they were fellow ghouls, so much the better. Such beliefs saved questions, including the big one of how they’d gotten into this area in the first place.
“I didn’t think anyone else knew about this hidden level but me. I got sloppy and used too much plas ex. Muties must’ve heard just like your group did and followed me down here. Good thing you came along.”
“Timing is everything,” Krysty said with a smile.
“Don’t I know it,” he replied, reluctantly pulling his eyes away from Krysty’s beauty to peer back at Ryan and J.B.
“Listen, Cawdor, don’t take this wrong, but you and your pal there are two of the most curious-looking fellows I ever seen around here. The stories Abe told me didn’t say you had such weird coloration.”
Doc cackled. “I take it you are in awe of their dusky pigmentation.”
“Say what?” Alton asked.
“Their skin, man! You are talking about their skin!” Doc replied.
“Yeah. Take the lady doctor here,” Alton said, gesturing to Mildred, who was busy applying the bandages she’d found to the coin-sized flesh wounds on J.B.’s face. “She’s beautiful. Don’t get me wrong. Skin color don’t mean shit to me. Attractive is attractive. And the rest of you look like any other poor white bucks running around Deathlands, even the albino.”
Jak glared in way of response. The teen wasn’t sure if he trusted Alton yet or not, and as a newcomer the man invited and deserved extra scrutiny.
“But I never seen men with skin color like Ryan’s and J.B.’s,” Alton continued. “It looks, well, it don’t look natural. Looks kind of funny.”
“Well, it isn’t. We got into a scrape a while back and had to dye our faces and J.B.’s hair. Long story, but we got out alive,” Ryan replied. “You should have seen us right after the deed was done.”
“Man does anything to stay alive,” Alton agreed, not pushing further. Curiosity could get a man chilled triple fast, and the bearded man had escaped death already for the day. He believed in playing the odds and not causing problems. Whatever had forced Ryan Cawdor to dye himself a new skin tone was the one-eyed man’s business, and since there was no offer of volunteering to explain what had happened, it would remain a mystery.