Sooner Dead

by Mel Odom

  Scatter also kept his distance. The fractoid remained talkative to Pardot for the most part, but not anyone else. Scatter's interest in the new world around him even seemed to wane.

  On the next day, they cut an unmarked trail at the foothills of the Amichi Mountains.

  When she saw the clearing snaking through the wilderness ahead of her in the early evening of the next day, Hella reined Daisy in. "Have Riley hold up his troops." She formed a weapon of her right hand as she stepped down out of the saddle and told the mountain boomer to stay.

  "What's wrong?"

  "I just cut a trail someone's been using a lot lately. I'm going to give it a look."

  "I'm coming to you."

  Hella eased through the brush and stayed low. Her passage didn't even disturb the foliage around her. Her rifle hung down her back, and she remained cognizant that a sniper up in the foothills could take her out in a heartbeat.

  The narrow trail held tracks through the heart of it. Judging from the tread and wear, horses as well as motorcycles used the route regularly

  "Too far off the trade roads to be used by traders." Stampede suddenly stood in the trees only a short distance away. He surveyed the hillside covered with trees and brush ahead of them.

  "Not too far for highwaymen. They like little bolt holes like this to run to after they take out a caravan." Hella tracked cardinals and bluebirds flying along the hillside in front of them. The birds were a good sign. They meant that no one lay in hiding in front of them. If someone were up there, all the birds would have left the immediate area.

  "I know." Stampede scratched the underside of his chin, and his ears twitched. "We make an attractive target."

  "Not to mention we're practically delivering ourselves to their doorsteps if this is a run for highwaymen."

  "Riley says Colleen Trammel's precog is pulling her straight through this." Stampede scanned the surrounding countryside. "This is the easiest way of going. We know that."

  Hella nodded. "Have you ever heard of a precog having a vision of something happening then not living long enough to see it come true?"

  "No."

  "Do you think it could happen?"

  Stampede shifted his big rifle and kept it at the ready. "Anything can happen. We just need to make sure it doesn't happen to us."

  "The trail goes up into the mountains along the same general route we're taking."

  "I see that. Taking the trail would mean faster travel time."

  "But we'd risk discovery by whoever uses this trail if they happen along."

  "I know. We've got Riley and his hardshells with us. No matter who's running this trail, they're not expecting that. Let's roll with it for right now."

  "Sure." Hella went back for Daisy, and they kept heading east. Stampede talked Pardot and Riley into bedding the expedition down early for the day so he and Hella could recon the area from higher up on the mountain.

  An hour later Hella told Daisy to stay below the ridgeline of the mountain she and Stampede has chosen as their observation point. Working in tandem, they made their way to the top and hunkered down.

  The Amichi Mountains had been shorter in the past, before the collider blew up. The resulting tectonic plate shifting out in California had manifested across the West. In the Redblight the mountains had grown taller, the swamplands more vast, and some of the fallout of mutations and strange creatures had taken up more frequent residence there.

  The people who lived in the swamplands were hard and cruel. Strangers weren't tolerated as a general rule, and in many places were considered a delicacy. Legend held that the human stock that had once existed there had interbred till a number of genetic problems manifested. Still other legends held that some of the creatures that crossed over from other worlds had added to the gene pool in strange and deadly ways.

  Whatever the truth was, the bottom line was that the Amichi Mountains were a bad place to be.

  Hella scanned the surrounding terrain with her binocs, and Stampede did the same with his telescope. For an hour they ate jerked meat in silence and watched the landscape. Just as dark closed in, a silver mist swept in from the west and came to a stop in front of them.

  A moment later Scatter formed out of the mist and stood before them. "Hello."

  Stampede's ears twitched. "What are you doing here?"

  "I came to see you." If Scatter noticed Stampede's irritable attitude, he gave no indication of it. "I thought it best that we should talk by ourselves. I do not trust Dr. Pardot or Dr. Trammell." He paused. "Actually I do not trust any of them. I trust you."

  Hella couldn't help smiling at the bald-faced honesty.

  Stampede's eyes narrowed and he looked grumpier. "Then why are you staying with them?"

  "Colleen Trammell will guide us to the next ripple. Once there, I hope to find a way back to my world or to locate the other person from my world." Scatter looked from Stampede to Hella then back again, as if knowing he would be the one who needed the most convincing.

  "You could have mentioned this earlier."

  "When?" Stampede looked patient. "Dr. Pardot has never given me any time by myself." He smiled. "Plus, I did not know for certain that I could trust you till I discovered they do not trust you." He paused. "Does that surprise you?"

  "That they don't trust us?"

  "Yes."

  Stampede shook his head. "They don't trust anyone outside of their own skin. That's the way most people are."

  Frowning, Scatter shook his head. "The ways of your world are very confusing. In my world there are no subterfuges, no secondary agendas. Quite frankly, I do not like your world. I much prefer mine. Everything there is a known quantity."

  "Your world wasn't always that way. Otherwise you wouldn't be in that body."

  "True."

  "Dr. Pardot gave you time to see us now?"

  "No. Dr. Pardot has, for the moment at least, succumbed to his own excesses. In addition to being very frail, flesh-and-blood bodies exhaust easily. Dr. Pardot's exhausts more easily than most, it appears. I could not imagine living in such a vessel."

  Hella smiled. "We don't think of our bodies as vessels."

  "You should. That's what they are."

  Stampede's ears twitched. "Pardot is asleep?"

  "Or in a fatigue-induced coma, yes. At present he requires no medical attention."

  "Has he told you about the other fractoid they found?" Hella continued scanning the countryside. Even with Scatter's ability to break into a collection of tiny robots and ride the wind, she didn't know if he'd escaped Riley's security equipment.

  "No. But I knew about him anyway. Who told you?"

  "Dr. Trammell. How did you know about the other fractoid if they didn't tell you?"

  Scatter held his hand up level with his face then blew. Fine, silver dust blew off his hand for an instant. Then he made a fist and drew the nanobots back to him. "Dr. Pardot was marked by—"

  The screech was so painful that Hella had to cover her ears. "I take it that's someone you know from your world."

  "We had never met, but I know him, yes. I read his history. He was a very good man." Scatter paused. "Dr. Pardot is marked by warning nanobots that broadcast a constant stream of information about the deceased as well as the danger declaration. The other fractoid marked him at some point."

  Stampede growled in the back of his throat. "Marker buoys."

  Scatter thought briefly then nodded. "Yes, they serve the same purpose."

  "If no one on your world is violent with anyone else, why would you have something like that?"

  "We knew we were not alone in the universe. Even though we had not branched out into space, the people who designed these bodies knew we would need ways to defend ourselves. Knowledge of enemies is paramount. The marking system was simple and direct."

  "And only other fractoids can read it?"

  "As far as I am aware, yes." Scatter reflowed and suddenly stood looking back toward camp. "I should really return. Dr. Pardot sleeps fitf
ully at best. But I wanted to warn you that they may turn against you."

  "We'd already figured that."

  "I thought you might, but I wanted to let you know you were not alone."

  "Thinking of leaving?" That surprised Hella to a degree.

  "I fear I cannot at this juncture." Scatter hesitated. "There are a number of reasons that I must stay till the other fractoid is found. I still wish to return to my world. I have hopes that Dr. Pardot and Dr. Trammell will at least provide a path for me to follow that will allow me passage." He paused then stuck out his hand. "I bid you good luck and good hunting. Neither malice nor murder."

  Stampede took the hand and shook it, and Hella did the same. Scatter's hand was cold and hard, and she felt the familiar tingle of her nanobots acknowledging him.

  In the next instant, Scatter turned into a silvery cloud and floated rapidly back down the hill like fog.

  "Hella. Wake up. We've got company."

  Before she could shrug away from Stampede's grip on her shoulder and roll over to pull the blanket over her head, Hella heard the thrum of powerful engines rolling through the swamplands. The sound was distant but close enough it had to be investigated, especially since they'd heard nothing but the expedition since they'd entered the wilderness. She slid out from under the covers, grabbed her rifle and slung it over her shoulder, then pulled on her boots.

  By that time Stampede was already through the tent flaps.

  Hella followed him, taking two steps to every one of his to match his stride.

  Riley and his hardshells shifted through the camp as well, taking up positions along the outer perimeters.

  "Who is it?" Riley stood encased in his armor.

  Stampede waved the handset radio that connected him to the security team at Riley. "Hella and I are going to take a look. We'll let you know when we know."

  "I can come with—"

  "No. You stay here. If I need you, I'll let you know." Stampede ran past the man. "Keep everything here locked down tight in case we have to hold a perimeter."

  Ten minutes later Hella sat hunkered down on a bluff overlooking the trail that cut through the Amichi Mountains. The expedition had traveled hard the past two days to reach their present location. They'd also left the trail behind.

  Early dawn lay over the land, cloaking the trees and brush in darkness that pooled over the ground and made most of the forest's features blend. A line of lights ran along the trail, though, winding around the morass of swampland that spotted the forest.

  Hella focused her binocs on the riders, knowing from the engine sounds that they were motorcycles and ATVs. She wasn't surprised to spot the bikers riding in single file. Some of the ATVs pulled small trade wagons behind them. Closer inspection revealed them to be Sheldons. She couldn't tell if they were flying the Purple Dragons colors. If they were, they'd evidently lost more members.

  "Must have taken down a trade caravan this morning or last night." Stampede hunkered down twenty meters away.

  Hella silently agreed. "How close do you think their camp is?"

  "Too close for us. From here on in, we're going to stay away from the trail. If they find our trail, they'll track us down."

  Hella knew that was true. The expedition had too many wagons and wheeled vehicles for the highwaymen to pass up. Not only was there the physical evidence of everything they had, but stories flew along the trade routes. The biker gang could have heard of them.

  Stampede took the radio from his chest pocket and spoke briefly. Then he put it away and glanced up at the sky. "Riley says Dr. Trammell says the ripple we've been looking for is about to open up any second."

  "Bad timing."

  Stampede growled in agreement.

  Shifting, Hella found a spot where she could peer up at the sky through the trees. The rose-colored dawn pushed shards into the reluctant darkness giving up the night.

  When the ripple arrived, it was only a minor tear in the fabric of reality that was much closer to the ground than the one that had delivered Scatter. Something streaked out of the ripple and left a white contrail behind it. For a short time, it was eerily silent. Then, just before she lost it in the trees, sonic booms hammered the forest around her.

  Stampede cursed. "No way did that go unnoticed."

  "No."

  "Let's hope the Sheldons stay fat and happy with their score and stay out of our business. In the meantime, you and I need to see if we can find that meteorite "

  "Fractoid, you mean."

  "Yeah. Otherwise we're going to be out here for a while longer. Did you see where it landed?"

  "No. But I know the direction."

  "Let's go."

  Hella took the lead and wished she'd thought to grab a bag of rations. Her stomach growled almost as loudly as Stampede.

  CHAPTER 24

  The object missed the Amichi Mountains and landed in the middle of one of the nameless swamps that filled the lowlands. Hella stopped eighty meters out and surveyed the surrounding wilderness. For a short time after the impact, the motorcycle and ATV engines had headed in their direction, but they stopped at least a klick away.

  In a large area in the northwest corner of the swampland, a good seventy meters from the shoreline and in the boggy depths, the heated object caused the water to roil and bubble. The gasping, burping noise of it echoed across the flat waters of the swamp and around the shoreline. Birds flew from the treetops, abandoning the area. Chemical stink filled the air and burned Hella's eyes, nose, and throat. She took a piece of cloth from her kit and wound it around her face. Her sunglasses helped somewhat, and breathing the filtered air was better.

  Stampede talked quietly and quickly over the radio that connected them to Riley and the expedition. Finally he dropped it inside his chest pack in frustration. "Riley won't hang back. He heard the bikers' engines too."

  "He's an idiot if he comes this way."

  "He's doing it, though."

  "The Sheldons are going to be even more interested if they see him or his men."

  Stampede nodded. "I pointed that out too."

  "They don't trust us."

  "I'd say that's about the size of it, Red." Stampede nodded toward the roiling water. "You or me?"

  Thinking of entering the murky water gave Hella pause. She didn't like not being able to see everything around her. And the water slowed her down. She swallowed and slipped off her rifle, putting it by a tree so she'd remember where it was so she could get it on the run if she had to. Draping a coil of rope and a grappling hook from her kit over one shoulder, she stood. "Me."

  "Okay." Stampede laid his rifle over a rocky outcrop and sighted on the swamp. "I've got your back."

  At the shoreline, Hella hesitated a moment and thought about taking off her boots.

  "You've got another pair back at the camp. You'll have to squish all the way back when you get those wet, but that's better than stepping on a spine-fin while you're wading through that swamp."

  Hella knew that was true. Spine-fin were some kind of mutated cross between a catfish and lizard. Equally at home in the water and on land, they remained a constant threat to the uninitiated or the unwary. The spines were sometimes as long as twenty-five centimeters and pierced flesh like edged steel. They also carried enough toxin to cause a great deal of pain but no permanent injury. The larger ones were a meter long and weighed upward of forty kilos.

  She morphed her hands into weapons, reminded herself that bullets tended to ricochet off the water surface, and waded in. Her throat grew tight with anticipation with each step she managed into the muddy bottom.

  The swamp got deep quicker than she'd thought it would. Nearly twenty meters out, the water was up to her hips. Another ten meters and it had risen to her shoulders. Her stomach tightened and she thought she would be sick.

  Throw up and you're just going to chum the water. Everything in here that feeds on everything else is going to show up for breakfast. She made herself breathe deeply and willed herself to remain cal
m, but she'd have rather been facing a dozen Sheldons than be out in the water.

  "Easy does it, Red. You get water in your ear, and our comm link is going to get garbled."

  "I know that." Hella didn't mean for the reply to come out so sharply, but it was gone before she knew it. "Sorry. I don't like this."

  "I know. It doesn't feel any better from up here."

  Hella visualized Stampede in her mind as she pushed forward and started swimming toward the bubbling spot in the swamp. He'd be behind his rifle, both eyes open, one trained through the scope, finger resting on the trigger guard.

  "Gotta go under." Hella took a big breath of the stinking air, hoped she'd be able to hold it in her lungs, and dived. The water felt warmer as she swam down to the object resting on the swamp bed.

  Only a few feet down, the object that had landed there glowed a dull red. The bubbling water muddied the image, but she felt confident that nothing that had a brain would be anywhere near the thing. With all the action, the outlines of the thing were blurred and indistinct.

  She put out a hand and managed to get within a few meters before the heat made her pull her hand back. Nearly out of breath, she surfaced. When she blinked the murk from her eyes, she spotted the telltale triangular head floating barely out of the water as it arrowed toward her.

  The muddy-green alligator was easily twice as long as she was tall, not the biggest she'd seen in the Amichi Mountains, but a lot bigger than she'd ever wanted to meet face-to-face. Treading water, knowing she'd never get away in time, she lifted her arms, turned her hands to weapons, and took quick aim.

  "Stampede!" Her voice sounded odd in her ears, and she didn't think the communication got through.

  The alligator opened its mouth, exposing the pink-white gums and throat and the curved, yellow teeth. Then its head evaporated in a bloody mist. Decapitated, the vicious creature slid past her, jostling her with its scaled torso and one leg.