James Axler – The Mars Arena

“The man came prepared for some hard living,” Ryan said. “Take the food, water and the tent. Let’s see the maps.”

Jak passed them over, then started transferring items to his pack. There wasn’t much, but it added to the small stores they had.

“Mildred,” Ryan said, unfolding one of the maps, “take a look at the tattoo on the inside of this guy’s arm. Tell me what you think.”

Mildred hunkered down beside the dead man while J.B. took up guard.

Ryan unfolded the map carefully because it was old. Long strips of plaster tape held it together and repaired tears in different areas. Purple marker, looking almost black in the thin light reflected by the snow, stained the map, tracing routes across California, Oregon, Idaho and Montana.

Ryan passed the map to the Armorer. “Can’t tell if he was coming or going.”

J.B. took the map and looked it over.

“The dot,” Ryan said to Mildred, referring to the tattoo, “I figure is the sun. The concentric rings around it are the solar system.” He’d seen pictures in astronomy books he’d found in different places around Deathlands. “The corkscrewed ladder I don’t know. Seen it on some doors in a few of the redoubts we’ve been inside.”

“I think it’s supposed to be a representation of DNA,” the black woman replied, “building blocks of the universe. But why it would be overlapping the solar system like this so intentionally, I have no idea.”

Ryan picked up one of the corpse’s limp hands, cold as the stone around it, and felt the fingers and palm. “He didn’t do much honest work. Hands are too soft. No calluses. Big man like him, he’d be showing something of his life in his hands if he did anything physical. You have to wonder what brought him out here.”

“I’m guessing,” J.B. said, “but I think this guy come down from Montana.”

“What makes you think that?” Ryan looked up at his friend. He felt a little warmer in the coat now. Thoughts of Krysty and her welfare kept tumbling through his mind. The dead man was proof of the dangers that waited on the mountain. Ryan was ready to move, but what he learned here might help them all, so he made himself be patient.

“This place” J.B. touched the map just east of their present position, “is marked with one asterisk. There’s a plotted line that leads down to it.”

“That map is well drawn,” Ryan commented. “Whoever did it took the time to make it neat. But the coastline’s wrong. We know that from our trip up.”

“Yeah, but it’s bastard old. Paper’s even gone yellow with age. Mebbe when it was first drawn, it was more accurate. Things could have changed along the Western Islands. Hell, they’re changing now.”

Light suddenly flared in Jak’s hands, bright white and concentrated in a narrow beam. “Flashlight.”

The light didn’t have the finished machine look of some of those that Ryan had seen in the past.

“Homemade,” Jak stated.

“Let me borrow it,” J.B. told him. He took the flashlight when Jak passed it over, then shone it over the map. “Here.”

Ryan stood up to look, joined by Mildred and Jak.

The Armorer traced the purple line north with his forefinger, careful to keep his arm out of the light. The line ended at a point lettered Heimdall Point in the lower southwest quadrant of Montana. “This is where he must have started out.”

“I’ve never heard of Heimdall Point,” Ryan said.

Neither had anyone else.

“Norse mythology mentions a guy named Heimdall,” Mildred said. “Guarded Bifrost.”

Jak looked the question at her.

“Bifrost was a bridge,” Mildred explained. “Supposed to be made of fire, water and air and colored like a rainbow. Asgard was the home of the Norse gods. Bifrost stretched from Asgard to other parts of the world, or worlds depending on your interpretation of how things were. Way the story’s told, Heimdall had gold teeth and ears so sharp they could hear grass growing.”

“Sec man to gods,” the albino said.

“Pretty much sums it up. Heimdall carried a trumpet and blew it every time the gods came or went.” Mildred’s brow knitted. “The stories also mention that Heimdall was supposed to blow that horn the loudest to announce the end of the world. A time they called Ragnarok.”