Deathlands 124: Child of Slaughter (31 page)

“What that?” Another strong quake knocked him around but didn’t knock him over. “Why big danger?”

“I’ll tell you this much.” She grinned as she turned the object around in her hand. “This won’t kill everyone living in the Shift, but it will summon something that can.”

Jak frowned. “What talking ’bout?”

“You’ll see.” Union slid the cone into the hip pocket of her jumpsuit. “Briefly, at least. You won’t live longer than that, I’m afraid.”

He got the feeling that she was about to make a move, and he steeled himself to do the same. “Don’t do it,” he said. “Why kill innocents with guilty?”

“Everyone’s guilty if they’re part of this sick society.”

“Not children,” Jak said. “Not babies.”

She shrugged. “Collateral damage happens. Tough shit.”

“Just kill everyone? You, too?”

“I guess so.”

“No!” Jak felt an irrational wave of emotion rise within him. “Carrie, Taryn, Dulcet, Rhonda not deserve to die! I want them live.”

“They’re already dead! Long dead!”

“Still alive in you!” Jak said. “Good still inside!”

“Gullible moron.” Union laughed cruelly, then stopped. A change came over her face, as the wickedness seemed to drain out of her features. Her eyes widened, her mouth
opened, her look softened. In the beat of a heart, she went from dark and secretive to bright and revealing. Her voice, when she spoke, was familiar—upbeat and sweet. “Jak, wait. You’re right! You’re so right about us!”

And her braid was brown.

“Dulcet.” Was it possible? Had Jak gotten through to her? “Good hearing voice.” He’d never stopped believing she and the others were still in there, no matter what Union had told him.

“Oh, Jak! We’ve missed you!” Suddenly, her expression changed again, becoming less open, more timid. “It’s true! We have!” Her braid was white now—Carrie.

The ground shook as Jak took a step toward her, searching her eyes. He thought he saw Carrie looking back at him, thought he felt her familiar presence.

Then her face shifted again, becoming rougher, more sardonic. Her braid turned auburn. “You pasty son of a bitch!” It was Rhonda. “I knew you were too pigheaded to give up on us!”

She changed one more time, then, turning frigid and distant with a jet-black braid.

“Taryn,” Jak said.

“Yes.” She nodded once. “And no.”

Then, in that one instant when he’d dropped his guard the tiniest bit, she suddenly lashed up the crowbar and hurled it at his head.

Jak had been half expecting something and leaped to one side, but the crowbar still struck his left shoulder. It threw him just enough off balance that the latest quake brought him down.

Even as he hit the floor, Union charged past him. Twisting, he saw her dive headfirst into the pit in the middle of the chamber and disappear. Her black boots were the last trace he saw of her.

It was then, as he scrambled to his feet, that he heard
another familiar voice over the rumbling of the quake and the crackling of the ruined lab.

“Holy shit!” It was Hammersmith, glaring in the doorway. “What did you motherfuckers do to my lab?”

Chapter Fifty-Two

The latest in a long line of earthquakes saved Doc’s life as he ran from Exo.

Just as the mutie fired the third shot from Doc’s LeMat, the ground shook violently, throwing Doc off his feet. He came down hard on his right side, crying out in pain, but at least he missed taking the bullet that soared past above him. No question: the round would have struck him if he’d still been upright.

Unfortunately, the fall that saved him also left him at Exo’s mercy. Doc wasn’t fast enough to leap up and keep running before Exo could get to him.

Wincing, the old man pushed himself to a sitting position, but that was as far as he got. Suddenly, Exo trotted up in front of him, grinning and pointing the revolver at Doc’s face.

“Wow, finally!” Exo was panting from the run. “What does a guy have to do to have a talk with you anyway?”

Doc was much more winded than the shifter. “What do you…want to…talk about?” He had to force himself to act as if he wasn’t worried about the revolver in Exo’s hand.

“My device, for starters,” Exo said. “You need to get back there and fix it for me, Hammersmith.”

Doc nodded as if he had every intention of doing just that. “Right.” Playing along with the brain-damaged lunatic had to be the better plan…if any plan was better in these circumstances.

There was another quake as Exo shook the LeMat at him. “My empire is crumbling from within! We need to save it!”

“Of course.” Doc slid a hand in the pocket of his coat and found the razor blade. He pinched it tightly between his thumb and forefinger, trying to gather the courage to use it.

Could he bring himself to try to slash Exo’s throat? Did he have the slightest chance of success against the insane and murderous shifter?

Sweating from the run and the stress of what he was considering, Doc got to his knees. “Ankh and Fixie forced me to help them,” he lied, fighting to stop the rampant shivers rippling through his body. “I ran away because I was afraid you would not understand.”

“I understand perfectly.” Keeping the LeMat in one hand, Exo reached down with his free hand to help Doc to his feet. “I know exactly what happened.”

“Thank you.” Doc saw his moment present itself, as both Exo’s hands were full, and his bare throat beckoned. “You were always so good to me.”

“We need to hurry, Hammersmith,” Exo said. “Time is running out.”

Doc nodded. “It is.” Slowly, he started to pull his hand with the razor blade out of his pocket.

* * *

A
S
R
YAN AND
the rest of the group pushed into the mat-trans chamber behind Hammersmith, Jak rushed over to the gaping maw of the pit. Gazing into it, he saw only darkness, but he knew Union was down there somewhere.

“Oh, my God,” Mildred said. “This big room is a mat-trans chamber. Of course!”

“Did that bitch do this?” Hammersmith still sounded furious. “Did Union tear this place apart?”

Standing on the edge of the pit, Jak waved for the others
to join him. “Come on! Need go now!” He jabbed a finger at the pit.

“Go where, Jak?” Ryan asked. “Where does that lead?”

“Not know, but she went this way!”

“We’re not here for her!” Ryan shouted over the loudest rumbling yet. “We’re here to rescue Doc!”

“Mebbe Doc there, too.” Again, Jak pointed at the pit.

“You see him go in?” J.B. asked.

Jak shook his head. “Big fight before got here. Two dead muties.” He gestured at the bodies of Ankh and Fixie on the floor. “Mebbe happen before Union got here, too. Mebbe Doc involved, got away.” Something caught his eye then, and he walked to the opposite edge of the pit. Bending, he picked up a long black object discarded there amid a jumble of wires and broken glass. “Look.”

Ryan marched over and took the item from Jak’s hand. “He was here, all right.” Ryan held the object up for the others to see. “It’s the sheath of his swordstick.”

“Which could have been left here by someone else,” J.B. pointed out.

“Gut says Doc there.” Jak motioned at the pit once more. “I go that way, too. You go somewhere else if want.”

With that, he nodded once at Ryan—goodbye—and leaped into the darkness on the trail of Union and, hopefully, Doc.

Chapter Fifty-Three

Doc slid the razor blade out of his pocket and tried to psych himself up enough to use it. If he slashed Exo with it and failed to kill him, it would be a death sentence…though, truth to tell, Doc might be a dead man soon anyway, given Exo’s volatile nature.

Swallowing hard, Doc tensed, about to sweep the blade up and across Exo’s throat.

Then, suddenly, he heard a thunderous clamor from the direction of the redoubt like the roar of a hundred lions…

Exo’s head snapped around at the noise. “What is that?”

Doc’s head did the same. “Dear God.” And, suddenly, he forgot what he’d been planning to do with the razor blade and dropped it on the ground.

One of the rounded hills beside the redoubt had been gouged open from within. A giant red creature—about twenty feet tall—was tearing its way out of the hill with huge scarlet claws, digging to freedom in a thrashing, roaring frenzy.

“Some kind of monstrosity,” Doc said in a hushed, awestruck voice. “A mutation, perhaps induced by Hammersmi…by my experiments with matter transformation.”

“Who’s that down there?” Exo pointed at a human figure on the ground, not far from the base of the hill. “That thing will stomp her into goo if she doesn’t get her ass the hell out of there!”

“What’s she doing?” Squinting, Doc saw the woman
raise an object to her mouth. He thought she was blowing into it, playing it like an instrument while looking up at the creature.

Meanwhile, the creature forced one giant leg out of the hole in the hill. When its vast red foot came down in a powerful stomp, the ground shook even harder than it was already shaking from the current quake.

“Wait a minute.” Exo, looking mesmerized, took two steps forward. “I know that woman. It’s her.”

“Her, who?” Doc asked.

Without further explanation, Exo started to run toward the woman and the monster.

Doc felt no compunction to join him, however…at least until he saw someone else emerge from the chute, leap up and run in the same direction as Exo.

Even from a distance, even in the dimming grayness of twilight, he instantly recognized the new arrival. The lean physique and long white hair were unmistakable; the face, as white as the moon rising in the sky, could belong to only one person.

“Jak!” Doc’s heart soared. His albino companion, whom he hadn’t seen for days, was a sight so welcome that Doc felt as if he might explode from pure joy on the spot.

Suddenly, the old man had a good reason to get closer to the creature after all…but not too close. For he hadn’t seen a friend in what seemed like ages.

And wherever Jak happened to be, Ryan and the rest of the companions couldn’t be too far behind.

* * *

R
YAN FLASHED THROUGH
the darkness of the chute, hoping he was doing the right thing.

Following Jak into the pit had seemed to make sense a few moments earlier, especially after the sheath of Doc’s swordstick had turned up. But the one-eyed man kept wondering if he and the others should have stayed in the mat-trans
chamber…if maybe they were heading farther from Doc rather than closer.

Only Hammersmith had stayed behind, determined to set the out-of-control equipment to rights and stop the disruptions attacking the core. Ryan had given him Union’s Heckler & Koch longblaster to defend himself, then locked and jammed the door to the chamber before leaping into the chute with the others.

But what if he was leading them in the wrong direction? And what if Doc paid the ultimate price for that mistake?

Just as these questions haunted him on his ride through the blackness, Ryan forced them back and committed himself to whatever lay ahead. Difficult decisions—and fatal mistakes—were part and parcel of daily life in the Deathlands.

Ryan knew it was more important to hold on tight to his weapons than his doubts. Doubts had never saved him from boarding the last train west.

* * *

A
S
J
AK RAN
toward Union, he couldn’t help staring up at the giant creature bursting out of the hill. The beast was enormous, and it was unlike any creature he’d ever seen before. From where he stood, it looked as if it was composed of a multitude of crimson-skinned mutie bodies and body parts jammed together in one monstrous form—hundreds of heads and upper torsos sticking out, mangled and contorted.

Were those muties even dead? As Jak watched, they flailed and writhed. Their mouths worked, and their eyes rolled and blinked. If they were dead, were they somehow animated by the force binding the creature together? If they were alive, were they aware of their imprisonment, struggling to break free?

Whatever those poor muties were or weren’t thinking, one thing seemed clear to him: Union was calling their
tune. She stood thirty yards away from Jak, playing the silver cone she’d retrieved from the mat-trans chamber as if it was some kind of trumpet. It blinked and flashed as she held it to her mouth and aimed it up at the creature. Union had said it would summon something that could kill everyone living in the Shift, and the creature certainly looked as if it fit that description.

Had she created the device or stolen it? At the moment, none of that mattered. Jak just kept racing toward her over the rumbling ground, determined to stop her and the monstrosity she was controlling at any cost. He would do the same for the mutie who was also running toward her, if he got in the way.

Chapter Fifty-Four

At the sound of approaching footsteps, Union lowered the device and turned. There, in the flesh, was someone from the top of her shit list. Exo.

Life was good. She wouldn’t have to chase him down, because he was coming right to her.

“Union!” Exo’s high-pitched screech cut right through the creature’s latest roar and the rumbling of the quake. “What have you brought me? What
is
that thing?”

Union flashed him her brightest smile and gestured with the controller at the creature. “I call him Fido.” She laughed. “He’s a girl’s best friend.”

“Amazing!” Exo stopped beside her and reached for the device. “Let
me
try!”

“Hold on.” She pulled the controller away from him and brought it to her lips. “Let me show you something first.”

Pointing the device at the creature, she blew into the mouthpiece gently and flickered her fingers over the jeweled control studs along its surface. No sound came out that she could hear, but the beast—like a dog with a higher range of hearing—picked up on the signal right away.

The great monstrosity was completely free of the hill now, towering above her on two massive legs. As the signal played, it stared down at her with bright yellow eyes that blazed like twin suns in a misshapen reptilian face.