“You’re triple stupe!”
“I don’t see the coldhearts charging in here,” Ryan said. “And I don’t think it’s just because of the number of people I’ve got holed up in here with me.” He put the Steyr’s crosshairs over the first of two men he’d spotted. Only a sliver of the man’s face was visible behind the wag wreckage where he took cover. The second man was attempting to scale the wags, avoiding the pockets of acid rain left in the dents in the rusted metal. Ryan put a round through the face of the first man, then managed a body shot to the second man before he could reach cover.
The first sec man flew backward, his brain pan emptied in a violent gush over the men behind him. The second sec man stretched out atop one of the ruined wags, his flesh sizzling in the pool of acid rain gathered on top. His hoarse screams echoed in the artificial canyons as he struggled to get out of the water.
A fusillade of shots slammed against the front of the building, driving Ryan to deeper cover. He took a moment to glance at Krysty, noting in satisfaction that the redhead was moving more smoothly now. Her face still contained pain and fear, and it hurt Ryan to see it.
“Stop firing!” Naylor bawled. “Stop your bastard firing or I’ll shoot the next man pulls a trigger myself!”
The blasterfire stopped, but the sec men challenged their chiefs decision with curses and questions. “Let’s chill all those stupe bastards in there and be done with it,” one man yelled. Most of the others agreed with the sentiment.
“Well,” Ryan demanded during the lull, “how do you want to handle it, Naylor?”
“Fuck you, Cawdor.”
“Something to think about,” Ryan said. “We sit here chilling each other, those coldhearts out there may decide to pitch in and help.”
“You think we can trust each other?” the sec chief asked.
“Mebbe a little more than before,” Ryan said. “At least this way you know we aren’t going to hesitate or back down.”
“You’re a hard man.”
“You haven’t seen hard yet,” Ryan promised. “We end up stuck here past sunset and you haven’t made up your mind, I intend to find out how good your men are in the dark. Of course, me and my people will only be a few predators out there among a bunch of others. You spotted all those skeletons out there, didn’t you?”
Naylor didn’t say anything.
“The coldhearts look like they’ve been feeding on human flesh when they had to or when they could get it,” Ryan pointed out. “And they don’t look to have been too particular about disposing of the leftovers. You can bet this place turns into a regular feedlot at night. And this close to rad-blasted areas, a lot of those night feeders are going to be muties. Mebbe some you haven’t seen before.”
“Dad.” Dean’s voice drifted up from the hole in the floor.
“Yeah, son. Come on through.” He drew the SIG-Sauer and kept his finger on the trigger just in case Dean wasn’t coming alone.
Chapter Thirteen
Dean eased up out of the hole. His hair was matted with dog shit and his clothing covered with it. He sat the lantern down on the floor, then raked pieces off his face with his fingers. “Found the other end. Comes out about 150 yards away.”
“The river?” J.B: asked.
Dean nodded. “Real close.”
“Where’s Jak?” Ryan asked.
“Watching the other end. Some coldhearts are out there. Coming this way.”
“Toward the tunnel?”
Dean shook his head. “Didn’t look like it. That tunnel isn’t where anybody would want to go unless they had to. Looks like it hasn’t been used by anything but dogs. Mebbe they’ve even been kept in there for a while. Triple bad going through there, Dad.”
“We don’t have a choice,” Ryan said.
“At least, after a bit the smell kind of goes away.” Dean brushed at his clothes some more.
“My boy,” Doc said, “you are sadly mistaken.”
“Mildred,” Ryan said, “you and Krysty get moving. Dean, help keep these youngsters moving along.”
The woman, Mary, started to protest, pulling at her son protectively.