James Axler – Starfall

RYAN SAT BESIDE KRYSTY, nursing another self-heat of chicken-noodle soup as he watched her sleep. Hours had passed, and he’d slept some of them himself, but for a few minutes here and there, he’d talked with Krysty and with the other companions.

After his rescue, Ryan had instructed Morse to turn up-river again. The coldhearts were no longer a threat, and the companions passed the fort without incident. The river had calmed as they’d sailed, but with the sun hanging so low in the sky and the coastline so uncertain, there was no choice about dropping anchor for the night. Too much de­bris washing down from upriver created hazards. Morse had already had his boys working to patch the leaks from the bullet rounds that had cored through the decks. The boat had taken on a foot and a half of water before they’d been able to get most of them stopped. The boys, spelled by Jak, Dean, Doc and J.B., worked a hand bilge pump to clear the water. Ryan had even taken a couple turns himself, not wanting his wounded arm to stiffen too much.

“Got any of that soup left, lover?” Krysty croaked.

“Yeah.” Ryan handed it over, but she was too weak to sit up and take it.

“Sorry,” she said. “Stomach’s rolling. I’m hungry, but I’m too weak to take care of it myself.”

Ryan helped her sit, then patiently spoon-fed her. “Talked to Elmore earlier,” he said. “We’re mebbe four days out from where Donovan’s supposed to be up in the mountains around the Heimdall Foundation.”

“Long time,” Krysty said. “And a long way.”

“Seen longer times and longer ways,” Ryan replied. “We’ll see this one through just the same.”

“Wish I believed that as much as you do, lover. But I hear that bitch’s voice in the back of my mind just eating at me. It could be that by the time we get there, there won’t be much of me left.”

“You have a hard time believing in that,” Ryan told her, keeping his voice strong, “then you just believe in me. I ain’t never let you down before.”

“Haven’t, lover,” she corrected him gently. “You haven’t ever let me down.”

“Haven’t,” he said agreeably. “And I ain’t about to start now.” He thought she might correct him again, but instead she was asleep in his arms. He held her despite the pain it caused in his wounded shoulder, knowing it would be noth­ing like the agony he’d feel if he lost her.

Four days, but they could measure a lifetime—Krysty’s.

He concentrated on her breathing as he held her, hearing it even above the constant smack of waves against the boat’s hull and the crack of sailcloth.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

The four days passed hard for Ryan, and being forced to stay aboard the boat for the duration was intolerable. He was a man used to making his own way.

The wounded shoulder healed well, with only a slight case of infection. He’d lanced it himself with the heated blade of the panga. The other companions struggled with the claustrophobic feelings inspired by life on the boat. J.B. was the only one who handled the time without strain, but that was because the Armorer had room to spread out all the companions’ weapons and give them a proper cleaning.

Morse and his sons had grown increasingly belligerent about manning Junie. Morse himself had a lump on his jaw and behind his ear where Jak had pistol-whipped him with the .357 Magnum when the man had tried to jump Dean. To Dean’s own credit, he’d resisted killing the man out­right.

The deeper they got into what had once been the state of Montana before the nukecaust, the more hopeful Elmore had become. Evidently the man believed the Heimdall Foundation was going to get him out of his present predic­ament one way or another.

Ryan knew that wasn’t going to happen until after he’d gotten help for Krysty. His lover had remained asleep most of the trip, plagued by the sickness that wrenched her guts, and by the dead woman feeding her twisted dreams. She’d told Ryan some of them during the times she’d been awake, and even he’d been sickened. There’d been no loveplay, even though Ryan had tried to instigate it to bring her relief. The woman’s threats to kill whatever seed quickened in Krysty’s belly had frightened her too much.