JAK WASHED THE CUT in his scalp, where a piece of flying glass had slashed him. Mildred checked the wound carefully to ensure that there were no splinters left in it.
Dean was unhurt, other than the temporary damage to his hearing, which started to gradually return.
The rest of the friends took the opportunity to replenish water supplies and ready some of the food to take with them.
Ryan found himself in the larder area with Trader. “I told you,” he said.
“What? What did you tell me this time?”
“California. Western islands. I said that was probably where we landed up.”
“So?”
“So, you said Yellowstone and the hot springs and stinking fountains up there.”
Trader shook his head. “No, I didn’t.”
“You did.”
The older man shook his head, pointing his finger at Ryan. “Times I wish that What’s his name? Abe? Yeah, Abe. Times I wish he’d never tracked me down like he did.”
“It was ’cause he cared,” Ryan said quietly.
Trader gave a strange, grunting laugh. “Cared. Think that means shit to me, Ryan? After all the long years we rode the blacktops together, you think that caring means anything? Caring means weakness.”
Ryan shook his head. “I thought that, when I lived and fought with you. I believed it, because you said it. Like I believed most everything you told me. Since I’ve been awayaway from your shadow, I realize that not everything in Deathlands is like you said.”
“Like what?” Anger lay across the words.
Ryan shook his head. “I don’t want this to turn to a falling out. I owe you too much for that. Just that your view of the world is your view. Now I see that a man has to have his own view, or he’s not a man at all.”
Trader bit his lip. “Yeah,” he conceded. “I guess there’s something in that all right. Thing I find hard is that you’re in charge here. Not me.”
“Wheel turns,” Ryan said.
Trader grinned, patting him on the arm. “Now you’ll tell me that what goes around comes around.”
“I thought about it.”
IT WAS TIME to move on.
Dean had most of his hearing back, but Krysty noticed that the boy was tending to keep a little closer to Ryan than usual.
They gathered together near the main entrance.
J.B. had been with Abe to check out the ruined remnants of the games room, making sure that the small fires started by the implode grens hadn’t caused any damage. Now he stood with his hand poised over the control panel by the side of the big sec door that would open onto the outside world.
The stench of sulfur was much stronger, as was the salt smell of the sea.
“Ready?” he asked.
Ryan nodded. “Full red, everyone.”
The Armorer pressed 352 on the coded set of buttons. After the usual momentary delay, there was the familiar rumbling of the powerful machinery behind the thick concrete walls, followed by the first movement of the dark green doors. Ryan waited until they had rolled a few inches apart, then he gestured for J.B. to stop them.
He peered out through the narrow gap, while the others waited silently.
“What?” Trader asked, breaking the stillness. “Anything out there?”
“Lot of sea. Looks like we might be on the remains of an island. I can see a blacktop that runs clear into the ocean. No sign of life. Open her all the way up.”
J.B. pressed the triple-digit sequence again, and the sec doors finally rolled all the way open. And everyone could see what Ryan had glimpsed.
THE INRUSH of the Cific Ocean along the coast of California had been devastating. In places it had rolled in for well over a hundred miles, right up to the foothills of the Sierras. In others, where the cliffs were higher, the effect had been less intense. But the quakes and volcanic action that had followed, both during and after the long winters, had changed the shape of the Golden State beyond all modern recognition.
A map of what remained of California now would bear little resemblance to what had been there before.