[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
around Ryan, J.B. and the Trader like a soft black velvet.
"Need someplace," Trader said.
"Left it late." J.B. had the shotgun at his hip, head turning slowly from side to
side, as if he could already see an enemy approaching them.
"Some kind of mall ahead there," Ryan said. "Thought I saw an entrance before
the sun moved away."
"Underground?" Trader shook his head, his face a pale blur in the deepening
gloom. "Can't say I ever cared much for burrowing underground."
"Me neither." Ryan heard the faintest quiver in the Armorer's voice, and
remembered that his oldest friend suffered from claustrophobia.
"We don't have a lot of choice. Seems that this part of the ville is just wasted. No
houses. No stores. Nothing much for shelter."
"Sleep out?" Trader offered.
"In the heart of a ruined ville? Come on," Ryan said. "We all know better than
that."
THERE WAS some white-painted graffiti, just inside the entrance. "This is a
file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%2...0Deathlands%2024%20-%20Trader%20Redux.html (61 of 292) [12/29/2004 12:18:48 AM]
file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20E-books/James%20Axler%20-%20Deathlands%2024%20-%20Trader%20Redux.html
place of God's carelessness," it read.
None of them commented on it.
They also saw what might have been a street-gang symbol. Ryan had seen similiar
daubs in the heart of old Newyork skulls or squares or circles of one color or
another. This was an inverted cross, in red. "Think this was an underground
shopping mall?"
Trader asked, hesitating at the opening, constantly turning to peer back over a
shoulder.
"Looks like it." J.B. sniffed. "Smells like it's been used as a public outhouse for
the last hundred years."
"Best go in and find us a corner before it gets to be full dark." Ryan led the way
into the noisome chasm, picking his way among the rubble.
Though Ryan's night sight wasn't anywhere as good as Jak Lauren's, it was still
adequate to see in the darkening gloom, inside the mall.
The place had been completely stripped. Not a shard of glass or splinter of wood
remained. The shelves and signs had gone from all of the individual retail units,
and there were no doors or windows, just the bare concrete boxes, looking like the
unoccupied stalls in a gigantic stable.
"You still got that feeling, Ryan?"
"Yeah. You, Trader?"
"Strong. I might've been out of the way of firefights for a while, but you don't
forget that feeling."
J.B. nodded, the fading light glinting off his glasses. "Shame we haven't got
Krysty here. She could 'feel' if there was any real threat around."
file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%2...0Deathlands%2024%20-%20Trader%20Redux.html (62 of 292) [12/29/2004 12:18:48 AM]
file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20E-books/James%20Axler%20-%20Deathlands%2024%20-%20Trader%20Redux.html
Trader sniffed and spat. "Don't need a redhead mutie bitch to tell us that."
Ryan already bad the SIG-Sauer unbolstered, and he half turned toward the older
man, aware of that same dangerous flush of bitter anger.
Controlling it.
"We can always walk right out. Head south and east and we'll be back with Abe
around dawn. Is that what you two would like, huh?"
Neither J.B. nor Trader answered him.
Ryan carried on. "Then we find a nice quiet stone box and set our backs to the
wall and wait out the night. That the general idea, is it?"
"For fuck's sake, Ryan& " Trader began the sentence with anger riding high and
strong in his voice, then allowed it to trail away into the moist dripping stillness
around them. "Let's get settled."
"Sure. Sure."
IT WOULD HAVE BEEN unthinkable to spend the night in such a place, at the
heart of a huge nuked ville, without taking every precaution.
Ryan picked out a corner unit, to one side of the mall, where nobody could come
at them from the back without being spotted. He offered to take first watch. J.B.
picked second and Trader agreed that he'd be on guard through the last part of the
night, toward first light.
They all nibbled at some of the beef jerky that they'd taken from the ranch outside
Seattle, drank some water. Then the Armorer and Trader lay down, each wrapped
in a single blanket, to pass the night.
Ryan sat close to the entrance, where he could look both ways out across the
file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%2...0Deathlands%2024%20-%20Trader%20Redux.html (63 of 292) [12/29/2004 12:18:48 AM]
file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20E-books/James%20Axler%20-%20Deathlands%2024%20-%20Trader%20Redux.html
atrium space. His blaster was in his hand, and he leaned his back against the cold
wall. J.B. had folded his glasses and tucked them safely in a pocket, lying down
and falling almost instantly into a quiet sleep. His scattergun was close beside
him.
Trader was less peaceful.
He had twitched and snored as he started to doze off, then began to make a
peculiar clicking sound, a noise that surprised Ryan by its shrill, piercing quality,
and he nudged the old man with his foot to partly wake him. Trader had simply
moaned and muttered, then rolled over onto his other side, still snoring, but not so
loudly.
Ryan listened to the oppressive stillness that gathered all around him. He'd read
enough horror comix and books, as well as occasionally watching flickering bits
of ragged vids, to know that abandoned shopping malls were a favorite resort of
monsters and ghouls.
The mouth of the mall acted as an echo chamber for the far-off sounds of the
night. Ryan heard screams and barking and snuffling, but nothing seemed to enter
the catacomb. Water dripped across the far side of the building, and he once heard
what might have been a large frog or a lizard, splashing through one of the dark
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]