Nobody spoke, the only sound discernible the gentle humming of the tires.
“Radiation fries electronics. We go in there, the damn thing wouldn’t dare to follow us. Too many transistors and chips. Its main comp would scram.” He patted the dashboard. “But we’re mostly manual.”
“True enough. Radiation destroys advanced electronics as bad as it does flesh,” Mildred stated just as rainbow lights washed in through the windows and blasterports. Now that they were traveling straight and true, the Ranger was scoring a hit with every discharge of the unfocused laser.
“But just to be sure, we better turn off everything electric,” Ryan continued. “Lights, radio, the works.”
“Check.” Mildred started flipping switches. The UV screen winked out, the dashboard went dark and the interior lights dimmed to nothingness.
“And what about us?” Dean asked calmly.
“We should be safe. Check the land,” Ryan replied. “This is a really old blast crater.”
“That Does not mean it is not hot,” Doc said. “I have seen much older ones still glowing at night!”
“Our composite hull will give some protection,” J.B. said hesitantly. “But we’ve got lots of cracks.”
“No, the radiation is too low. We’ll be safe,” Ryan stated brusquely. The slick, fused soil under their wheels was nearly frictionless; it was worse than driving on ice. Scenes from their awful trek through the arctic flashed through his mind. “But the Ranger won’t know that”
“Wouldn’t the whitecoats program it to check rad levels?” Dean asked, worried. “Just to be sure?”
“Why? When a nuclear bomb goes off, if the tank survives the EMP wave, it still can’t go anywhere near a rad pit for hundreds of years. And no military would plan to leave its equipment alone for that long,” Mildred said.
“How about the folks who built the redoubts in the first place?” Dean said in stark candor. Nobody had an answer to that.
As Ryan angled Leviathan into an arroyo, the bottom of the rad pit came directly into view. Barren, featureless land, as level as a skillet, stretched into the distance, with low rolling hills rising in a perfect circle around the rim. Not a stick or a pebble marred the dead perfection, and not even a breeze seemed to disturb the pristine stillness of the hellblasted pit.
There was no time to take a rad count, so Ryan plowed straight into the crater.
“Here it comes!” J.B. said, as the laser rose above the hillock behind them. But before the tank came into view, the short barrel stopped and began to withdraw. “Hey, it’s retreating!”
“The trick worked,” Dean breathed in relief. Hugging his Mossberg shotgun, the boy slumped in his chair, looking twice his age.
“Advanced technology is so primitive.” Doc sighed in contentment.
“Keep going straight,” Mildred said, keeping a constant watch on the hilltop. “Don’t make your move until we’re far, far away from this point”
Ryan gave agreement and continued to pretend he was going to drive through the very heart of the nuke hole.
Slowing to a complete halt, the General Electric Ranger Mark IV sat on the lee side of the low hillock reviewing its options with machine speed. SIG REP DELTA? asked the auxiliary subprocessor, after the main subprocessor didn’t respond after the regulation four tries.
The main CDP replied, Confirm. Nuclear strike zone on record. Scram factor 99. Do not proceed on this course.
AFFIRMATIVE. QUERY: LAUNCH MISSILE SALVO?
Negative. Supplies depleted, February 14, 2095, 1409 AM.
CONFIRM. QUERY: FLANK ESCAPING ENEMY TANK?
Processing.
QUERY: RETURN TO BASE?
Processing.
QUERY: ABANDON PURSUIT OF TARGET?
Negative. There was a full millisecond pause. Repairs to the primary weapon system must be performed stat.
CONFIRM. ACCESSING FIELD REPAIR FILES… HIGHEST PROBABILITY LOCATION FOR SUCCESS IS–THE PEARL IN THE WHEEL.
Accepted. Implement. And the mammoth war machine rumbled off toward the east at its top speed.
Chapter Six
Rifles and handblasters were held tight in sweaty hands as good luck charms as Leviathan rolled over the flat plain of the nuclear crater for miles. In spite of their exhaustion, everyone’s face was pressed tight to a window or blasterport, watching for the return of the dreaded predark war machine.
Scanning ahead with binocs, Krysty cursed. “There’s a river coming up ahead. If the Ranger tries to circle around and ambush us from the other side, it’ll reach the water and be able to see inside the blast crater and track us.”