James Axler – Stoneface

When this select few, this powerful elite, did realize it, they were upset. It wasn’t part of their program. They had assumed that after ten years or so of waiting safely inside the Anthill, all the world would be theirs to rule.

However, the nuclear winter changed their plans, as did slow death from rad poisoning. Even if they managed to outlast the big freeze , they couldn’t cure radiation sickness. Their bodies, not their intellects, would eventually betray them to Father Death.

So they embarked on a radical and daring plan. Cybernetic technology had taken great leaps since the era of prosthetic limbs and artificial hearts, and that self-same technology existed inside Mount Rushmore.

Operations were performed on everyone living in the Anthill, making use of the advances in techniques in organ transplants and medical technology. The select few within the bosom of the mountain, over a period of several years, were turned into cyborgs, a hybridization of human and machine.

Of course, such transformations didn’t solve all of their survival problems, nor were they intended to do so. Compensation for the natural aging process of some organs was very difficult to arrange. The Anthill inhabitants needed a supply of fresh organs, preferably the organs of people who had died young with their bodies in generally good condition. Because of the nukecaust, this supply was severely limited, so they came up with the next best solutioncryogenics, or a variation thereof.

The temperature inside the facility was lowered just enough to preserve the tissuesnot to such a low degree that the organs were damaged, but low enough to suspend the aging process. Combined with their cybernetic implants, the people in the Anthill achieved a kind of immortality. But they had only halted Father Death, not defeated him.

They had spent over a century in their little frigid world, looking out over the wasteland, prisoners of their own fantasies of power.

“That’s the story,” Hellstrom stated. “And who should know it better than I? All right, question-and-answer time.”

“Who told you all of this?” J.B. asked suspiciously.

“The Beforetime pigs themselves oinked their tale to me, over a period of a few years. I filled in some of the gaps myself.”

“So you’re speculating,” Mildred challenged.

“Surmising. As a freezie yourself, you should know what is possible.”

“I do, and I’m more than just a freezie. I was a doctor of cryonics, and I know that for it to be effective the subjects have to be deep-frozen in liquid nitrogen at minus 196 degrees Celsius.”

“They found a way around that,” Hellstrom said.

“They, they,” Jak said acidly. “Keep saying ‘they.’ Don’t freezies have names?”

“Not as far as I’ve been able to learn. The only individual who has ever identified himself is a man calling himself the Commander.”

“How many times have you been inside the Anthill?” Doc asked.

“None. All of my communications have been conducted through the beetles, which they use as surveillance and early-warning devices.”

“How’d you arrange a trade agreement with them, then?” Ryan demanded.

Hellstrom tapped his temple with a forefinger. “A simple question of supply and demand. They demand certain products, and I supply them. I learned that from my father.”

“Your father?” Krysty echoed.

“Baron Hustav Hellstrom. You and I are very much alike in background, Cawdor. Like you, I was the privileged son, the heir to a barony in the Northeast. When I was fifteen, it was wiped out by a combined army of muties and Forest People. I was one of the few survivors. I had received what used to be called a ‘classical education,’ and though I was exceptionally book-smart and knew the predark history of the Americas, I had little firsthand knowledge of how to survive Deathlands.”

“It appears you managed,” J.B. observed. “And very well, too.”

“If you had met me only four years ago, you wouldn’t have said that. For a long time I wandered and walked, learning the different cultures of the land, the local dialects, the topography, the varieties of flora and fauna. I walked and walked. I must’ve walked the entire length and breadth of Deathlands. The entire focus of my life was walking. That’s why I hate to expend much energy on it now.”