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is, too."
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Smearing a dab of axle grease from the satchel on her chapped lips, Mildred
watched as Doc winced, flexing his shoulders. Jak took his bad arm out of the
sling and flexed it a few times to help the circulation and keep the limb from
going stiff.
"How's the back?" she asked, tucking away the tube of grease.
"Itches like the dickens," Doc said, gently making a fist.
"Good. That means it's healing."
Furrowing his brow, Doc merely grunted in reply. Pain was part of life. When
it stopped, they buried you.
Climbing down the embankment, the companions started across the flatland and
found the walking much less tiring with a hard surface underfoot. As their
speed increased, spirits rose. The sun was past azimuth now and the day was
ebbing.
Soon it would begin to get cool, and they were making good time. Even if the
Core knew where they were now, it would be impossible for them to strike from
below through the hard plain.
Everywhere around the companions the ground sparkled with hidden diamonds,
salt crystals sometimes as large as a fist. Dean found some rusted bits of
unidentifiable metal embedded in the hard ground. At a distance Mildred
spotted a half buried car tire arching up like a crochet hoop, then J.B.
tripped and fell to the sound of shattering glass. Getting off the ground, the
Armorer knelt again to see what he had broken.
"Nuke me, it's plastic," he said, running a hand across the satiny smooth
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material. "With neon lights lining the edge. I must have stepped on an intact
bulb. I'd say it was some kind of a big electric sign."
"Could be an entire building buried under this," Krysty said in amazement.
"If it happened fast enough, then most of the place would be in good
condition,"
Mildred said excitedly. Salt was a good preservative. One of the best.
"Machinery, clothing, and all we have to do is dig."
"Yeah, for about a month, with our bare hands in sunlight hot enough to ignite
ammo," Dean said scowling, hitching the heavy crossbow on his back. "No,
thanks."
The crossbow was becoming a real burden to the boy, as the heavy weapon kept
hitting him in the kidney, and he was giving serious thought to dumping the
crossbow and quiver. A blaster and clips weighed a lot less, and required less
maintenance, too.
Page 33
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
"J.B., mark it on your map," Ryan directed. "Mebbe the Trader would be
interested. But for right now, pulling air into our lungs is my main concern.
Keep walking. We rest at night."
Stepping over the buried sign, J.B. turned away and started walking when there
was a crackling sound and his leg went into the ground all the way to the
knee.
Panic hit the man, and as he tried to yank the limb free, cracks spread
outward from the small hole with more pieces of the white ground falling away
to enlarge the opening with frightening speed. Suddenly coming loose, J.B.
attempted to dive away from the expanding gap, but not fast enough, and he
fell into the blackness below.
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"John!" Mildred screamed, reaching for the man.
Throwing himself forward, Ryan hit the cracking ground and thrust out a hand
to try to grab his friend, even though he knew it was totally hopeless.
Incredibly, Ryan touched cloth and he grabbed the back of the wiry man's
jacket in an iron grip. Then the Armorer stood, the top of his hat only inches
below the salty plain.
"Good Lord!" Doc rumbled, taking a half step forward.
In the afternoon light angling into the crevice, the companions could see that
J.B.
was standing on the roof of a preDark building with a rotary ventilation fan
nearby. The unit was normally on top of skyscrapers to use the natural force
of the wind to drive fresh air deep into the immense structures. The plastic
J.B. had stepped on could now be seen as part of a rooftop billboard, the
faded picture advertising some vid about a flying war wag covered with
scantily clad women.
The colors were faded, but otherwise the sign was in perfect condition. Beyond
the edge of the roof, was Stygian darkness as impenetrable as outer space.
"Only fell five feet," J.B. said with a shaky laugh. "Damn near thought I was
taking the long ride."
"Climb onto the billboard," Ryan told him. "I can hoist you up from there."
But before the Armorer could move, a faint vibration shook the entire desert,
and a hundred tiny puffs of dust rose from different locations across the
flatland.
Now a horrible stench welled from below, increasing as the cracks began to
widen. Visibly, the salt-fall was shifting position, huge sections rising and
falling slightly, with a crackling sound that steadily got louder.
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"Oh, Christ, the pressure dropped!" Mildred cursed, in sudden realization.
"When we broke the crust, it let out the ancient gases supporting the dome.
Like popping a balloon! The whole salt land is starting to collapse!"
Ryan started to speak when a hundred feet away a huge section of the sparkling
white ground shook and plummeted out of sight.
"Get on the roof!" the man ordered, jumping into the hole. He landed hard,
sprawling near the ventilation fan. A foot to the left, and he would have been
gutted by the salt encrusted blades.
The others were only a heartbeat behind, the white landscape crumbling under [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]