In seconds the companions and the Heimdall Foundation members were hiding behind the ridge overlooking the depression filled with muties. All of them kept their weapons at the ready, and the two prisoners took time to pick up stones to defend themselves.
“By the Three Kennedys!” Doc exclaimed in a hush. “They look like they are in the throes of some mystical epiphany!”
“What’s set them off like that?” Ryan asked, his curiosity aroused. There’d been no sign of pursuit by LeMarck’s group of raiders all during the day. With the muties gathered as they were in the area, that could work to their advantage, as well. Where he and his group might hope to slip through and escape notice, the wags would definitely draw attention.
“I do not know, Ryan.” The old man pointed. “As you can plainly see for yourself, they are not spending any time communicating with one another. Rather, they seem to be attempting to placate or seek acknowledgment from a being higher than themselves.”
“Muties with religion?” Jak shook his head. “No such thing, Doc.”
“That we have seen thus far, dear boy,” the old man corrected. “And might I remind you that we have seen many strange and wondrous things on our journeys.”
“Not religion,” Krysty said, “fear. They’re afraid of something, and they came here because they thought they might be protected.”
“From what?” J.B. asked.
Krysty shook her head. “It’s all mixed up. I don’t have an image. I’m not sure that they know what’s driven them here.”
“The space station?” Ryan asked. It was the only thing they knew that was going to make this night different from any others that had taken place in Smoke Creek Desert.
“I don’t know, lover. Mebbe.”
“Primitive instinct,” Mildred said.
“What do you mean?” J.B. asked.
“Those muties live on an intellectual edge barely higher than most animals,” the woman stated. “I think we can all agree on that.” The declaration passed without objection. “Back in the twentieth century, before California was nuked and collapsed off the face of the planet, scientists had already been studying the effects of natural phenomena on animals.”
“Don’t understand,” Jak said.
Mildred turned to him slightly, but included all the companions in her conversation. “Earthquakes. Flood. Storms. Extrahard winters. The lack of game. All things that take place in Nature that humans have a hard time detecting, animals seem to know about ahead of time. Like they have an extra sense that humans forgot about or never developed.”
“This is true,” Doc said. “Even after the invention of the seismograph, an observation of animals, especially their migratory habits, was maintained. Often the animals reacted to unknown stimuli that warned them sometimes as much as days before data-gathering devices would report activity.”
“You think those muties can sense the space station coming down out of the sky?” Bernsen asked. He barked a short laugh. “That’s preposterous. It took the teams at the Heimdall Foundation months to track Shostakovich’s Anvil .”
“And you people got it wrong once already,” Mildred said in a hard voice. “Or else you wouldn’t have been up around the seven villes. I see these muties sitting here now, waiting for what you say is going to happen.”
The fat scientist’s face colored slightly.
“Would you then,” Doc asked, “care to venture a hypothesis concerning the presence of the muties at this particular location at this precise time?”
“No,” Bernsen admitted after a moment.
“How far are we from the area where it’s supposed to come down?” Ryan asked.
J.B. took out his minisextant and did his calculations.
While the Armorer was busy, Ryan kept watch over the muties. They were growing more agitated, shifting individually and in small groups, not really noticing now when others encroached on their space. Some of them added more wood to their fires. Ryan knew that wood was scarce in the area. The companions had experienced some difficulty themselves in obtaining it in hopes of having a camp fire to warm themselves at some point in the night. The muties had come prepared with bundles of sticks, branches and driftwood tied by strings.
“About three hundred yards north and west of our position,” the Armorer announced.