by Cole, Nick
Those words were once a common part of my vocabulary. Of all our vocabularies. I remember entire conversations, courses of action, fears that were based on those two simple little words. Ground Zero.
As if listening in on the Old Man’s thoughts, the four torches veered to the left, heading into the gray and dusty ruins of a darkened casino. It loomed high above the tiny tank and the three figures like some scavenger bird of the wasteland. The wings of the two towers almost enveloped the street and all within it like a hunched and greedy eater of carrion.
We’ve passed the unmanned defenses of this Army of Crazy. If they’re anywhere, they’ll be hunkered down from this storm, inside one of these old places. Waiting for us.
And . . .
I don’t want to go in there. I don’t want anyone, any of these children, to have to go into that dilapidated and evil pile of ruin.
But we must, my friend. There is no other way through this city. No other way to stay on the road and keep the tank from throwing a tread, which we could never fix. If we take our chances on the side streets we could end up caught in one of their traps. Trust these children, my friend.
But why would they help us like this?
And the Old Man thought of his own journey and General Watt. Natalie.
When the Old Man didn’t follow immediately, Kyle, masked and armored, turned back in the thundering wind and waved both torches toward the tank and then back toward himself.
Are you sure?
He must be.
The Old Man pivoted the tank, once again feeling the weakness in the right tread, wondering if it wasn’t the control mechanisms that were responsible for his suspicions.
They attacked at that moment.
They came gushing out of the casino’s open mouth.
The Old Man watched through the hazy green optics of night vision as wild figures surged downward upon the three torchbearers.
At once, bright flashes erupted from the rifles of Grayson and Trash.
A bare-chested man waving an iron pipe studded with spikes was flung backward onto the rotting shreds of carpet that once dressed the steps of the palace.
A one-armed giant hurled a heavy stone, nearly crushing Grayson who batted it away with his arm. The Old Man saw the arm go limp, but Grayson continued to fire into the onslaught with the other.
Lumbering men in armor that shimmered in small points of white fuzz by the green light of night vision raced forward, leaping over downed comrades, waving machetes and nail-studded clubs. They wore turbans that wrapped their faces.
With her machine gun, Trash stitched a bright line of death across their charge, flinging some sideways as others stumbled forward waving their blades halfheartedly while blood pumped out darkly onto the dusty steps and shredded carpet. They fell before they reached her.
Now she was reloading, and the Old Man could see that the shimmering armor of the crazies was made up of coins. Coins that had been hole punched and stitched together into coats of mail.
Their coin-mail armor must be good against hand weapons but guns are another story.
He felt the Boy at his side.
“Sit down in there.” He pointed toward the gunner’s seat. “Look through this and you’ll see what’s going on.”
The Boy slithered past him.
When the Old Man looked into the night-vision scope, he saw Kyle moving forward, while Grayson covered him holding his rifle with his good arm. Trash seemed to be intent on fixing her battered rifle while still walking forward.
Her weapon is jammed.
The attackers were retreating now, disappearing into the dark gray of the casino halls beyond the once-grand entrance of marble and arch.
Kyle mounted the steps, waving his torches forward over his shoulders, indicating the tank should follow them in.
The Old Man gently pushed forward on the sticks and the tank began to mount the steps.
The attackers were all gone now.
Trash turned and waved at him with her torch, showing him how much room he had to thread the opening into the casino.
The Old Man gave it more gas, hearing the top of the archway leading to the casino scrape against the turret and then give way in a stony crumble of dust and metal that bounced off the armor above their heads.
Inside, a large dust-covered marble lobby vaulted toward a high domed ceiling of broken glass and blackened ironwork. Kyle waved both torches into an X and laid them on the debris-littered marble floor. He ran to the back of the tank, out of sight, and the Old Man knew he would hear from him on the small telephone attached to the rear of the tank.
“We can’t make it any farther down the street,” yelled Kyle over the internal hum of the communications system and the howling wind outside. “Follow us through this casino. On the other side of the machines there’s another entrance back onto the street on the far side of Ground Zero.”
“Okay,” said the Old Man.
“Oh,” said Kyle almost as an afterthought. “Does this thing have any ammo for its gun? Ours did a long time ago but we used that up.”
“There are eleven rounds left.”
“Don’t fire in here! It’s too dangerous. These buildings are barely standing up.”
The line went dead, and shortly after, Kyle reappeared in the fuzzy gray optics, picking up his torches and waving them forward over his shoulders in bright white blurs of light and shadowy smoke toward a long hallway that stretched off into the depths of the casino.
When it became so dark inside the long hallway that the Old Man could see nothing but gray, green, and ash, he switched on the tank’s high beams and turned off the night vision.
They followed a wide way of rotting red carpet and dust-covered advertising. Signs that had once held meaning remained embedded in graffiti-gouged wood paneling. Beautiful girls, faded and long dead, promised wealth untold. Thrilling spectacles dully offered entertainments that were sure to dazzle. There were even peeling pictures of unending amounts of food.
Lobster.
I had forgotten about lobster!
Concentrate, Old Man!
They entered a massive room of slot machines and overturned gaming tables. Silvery coins lay heaped in piles. Large torches guttered from makeshift holders along the walls. Campfires burned intermittently among the arranged stockades of slot machines.
The Old Man could see the three guides talking among themselves as they moved slowly forward.
They’re worried. They didn’t expect this.
We’ve walked into a hornets’ nest.
Sudden dark shadows arched through the upper atmosphere of the room and began to fall among the tank and the three guides.
They’re firing arrows at us!
The Old Man could hear their impact distantly on the outer hull of the tank. The three guides retreated to the far side of the vehicle, using it for cover. Coins used as sling bullets began to ricochet like metallic rain upon the tank.
“Move forward toward that arch at the far end of this hall.” It was Kyle on the tank’s phone. “We should be able to get back out to the street if we go that way.”
The Old Man gunned the tank’s engine, hoping the three of them were clear, unable to know for sure if they were.
“Poppa, are they going to be okay?”
“Yes. I would prefer if maybe you just closed your eyes until I say it’s good to look again, okay?”
There was no immediate reply and he suspected she would dis-
obey him.
Beyond the arch, the tank’s headlamp illuminated another long hallway. The ceiling sagged the length of it. Rich wood paneling that must have once assured the gambling audiences this was indeed the finest of places to lose all their money and homes had long since been pried loose in wide patches.
For firewood, I imagine.
At the end of the hall, they turned onto an arcade of shops long gutted. Fixtures spilled out onto a marble palazzo or hung like the bones of criminals from the ceiling.
The Old Man sw
iveled the gun sight, searching the optics for his three guides. He found them behind the tank, covering their retreat from the hall as dark figures swarmed beyond the light of the tank’s headlamp. Far down the hall he could see more of the coin-mailed warriors advancing behind crude shields.
The Old Man backed the tank out and onto the main thoroughfare of the arcade pointing it toward where he hoped the exit might be.
I’m lost in here.
Grayson ran forward and waved at the Old Man to follow him.
Their torches are lost or gone out now.
The Old Man maneuvered the tank after the armored and masked Grayson who ran forward weaving into and out of the destruction and litter that had once been a grand passage of fine shops and luxuries. What the Old Man could not steer around he crushed beneath the tank’s treads, hoping each time the right tread would not suddenly break and strand them all.
He checked the dosimeter.
The radiation is higher here. Maybe we are getting closer to the street again.
It’s better than being trapped in here with these lunatics, my friend.
“Can I look now, Poppa?”
She listened to me.
And . . .
She is good that way.
“Not yet, just a little farther.”
It was hot inside the tank and the Old Man wiped at the thick, stinging sweat on his forehead.
Maybe I am still sick.
Concentrate!
The explosions went off behind them.
The Old Man felt the tank lift up slightly and then shudder as it settled back down onto the palazzo. When he swiveled the gun sight to see what had happened behind them, all was a blossom of powdery white dust in the tank’s optics. He could see nothing through its sudden storm.
He switched off the lights and activated the night vision.
Everything was still gray and floating dust.
No good, my friend.
He switched the headlight back on and returned to normal optics.
They’ve brought the ceiling down upon us. They must have explosives.
He searched for Kyle and Trash within the swirling dust and settling debris.
Trash stumbled forward, bleeding and waving at them to push on.
Where is Kyle?
There is no time, Old Man! Move forward or you and your granddaughter and the Boy will be trapped in here too.
The Old Man gassed the engine and swiveled the gun sight forward in time to avoid Grayson’s crawling body. Large arrows jutted out of his back and chest and arm. He rose stiffly, firing his rifle wildly with one hand into a darkened arch to their left. A moment later, another massive iron spike shot from the darkness and went straight through his chest.
The Old Man could hear his granddaughter screaming.
Ahead of the tank, dust clouds, thick and ashy, swirled through a jumble of broken debris. Where the path through the casino lay the Old Man could not see.
There is no clear way forward!
Trash appeared and waved wildly, passionately, for him to follow her now.
She is all alone out there.
And . . .
She is very brave.
And . . .
They all were.
Everywhere, the Old Man could see moving shadows and sudden figures leaping as Trash walked forward, firing at unseen foes. When they neared the far end of the arcade, a massive dirty marble fountain rose up. Above it, bodies dangled from a dome of smashed glass and skeletal ironwork directly over the darkly stained marble sculptures within the dry fountain.
Trash went wide to the left, her gun hammering bullets into walls and doors where unseen oppressors lurked in the darkness. Suddenly her gunfire stopped and she slung the rifle back onto her shoulder, drawing out a large knife with her other hand. A man with tiny rat teeth rose up from within the fountain behind her and pulled her down onto the marble floor. Coin-mailed men rushed from the darkness and dragged her across the dusty litter, back toward the blackness behind a broken-down double door. They were already greedily clutching at her armor, ripping away her mask, revealing her horrified and angry face.
She’s gone now.
There’s nothing I can do to save her.
The Old Man had to release his sweating hands from the controls for fear of breaking them.
Think!
There is nothing I can do to help her.
You can’t save her. But you can help her, my friend.
The Old Man swiveled the main gun toward the broken-down doors, pointing the barrel into the darkness beyond where they had dragged her. He reached over to the fire control switch.
The Boy slid past him, opening the emergency hatch in the deck plate.
How did he know that was there?
The Boy looked at the Old Man.
“Just get back to the street,” he said, his voice hoarse and dry. “I’ll find her. Then I’ll find you.”
And he was gone, closing the hatch behind him.
The Old Man waited, unsure of how long it would take the Boy to crawl out from between the treads. A moment later he appeared, steel tomahawk out, limping toward the broken-down door and the darkness beyond.
Go now!
The Old Man gunned the engine and circled the fountain. On the other side he found a large arch, once grand and opulent, now fading in neglect and damage, leading to another long hallway. Along its length, torches revealed a hall of horrors as beheaded mannequins held their arms upward. The long hall narrowed to an opening impossible for the tank to clear and the Old Man pressed the engine to full power, closed his eyes, and smashed the tank straight into it.
On the other side he slammed on the brakes and the tank skidded across marble, careening into a lone desk that must have once greeted arriving guests. The Old Man swiveled the turret and found a wide entrance leading back out onto the street. He pivoted the tank and throttled the engine to full as it tore through the last remnants of broken glass and bent steel, surging out onto the wide steps and a driveway that led off toward the main road. The tank bumped its way down the steps, crushed an ancient taxi, and charged up the driveway and out onto casino row.
All around him, radiation-rotted towers and palaces rose up in only the color of burnt ash. Dry white grass and burnt earth lay beneath a constant snowfall of settling radioactive debris. In the middle of the street lay an airliner in two distinct parts, its center section long gone, the tail rising up at an odd angle in the background, the cockpit smiling sickly at some bad joke played forty years ago. Its sweptback wings akimbo, as though in some confession of final helplessness.
The dust storm had stopped.
The moon was out.
Fading flakes of ash drifted like snow on a winter’s night.
Everything that was not burnt black or tired gray remained bone white.
The Old Man checked the “outside” dosimeter. It was pegged to the red line. The “inside” counter was high, but still within the green.
It works.
Our little blanket works.
The Old Man maneuvered the tank onto the main road.
A path of frozen destruction lay carved from when the airliner had come down onto the street moments after takeoff and left a clear path through the forty years since. The Old Man settled the tank into the ditch of scarred asphalt and followed it east through the last of the collapsing palaces.
AT DAWN, IN the shadows among the pink light of first morning, the Old Man watched the ancient city refuse to illuminate in color. He had the tank backed up against a wall in a vacant lot beyond the casinos, watching the leaning towers and fallen arcades, waiting for the Boy.
There isn’t much fuel left.
I’ll give him until noon and then we must leave.
His granddaughter was asleep.
He’d had to explain a lot of what had happened. What she had seen. What she should’ve never seen.
And there was much he could not explain.
So he told her about ice cre
am.
She’d never had ice cream.
“One day we’ll find an ice cream maker, one with a hand crank. All we need is some milk, maybe we can get some from our goats, and then we only need to find some salt. Then we can have ice cream. You will love it.”
Sugar. You will need sugar, my friend.
There is the sugar from the date palms. We could use that.
“I know I will, Poppa. I just know I’ll love it.”
“There are even flavors.” And the Old Man began to name as many as he could remember.
Soon she was asleep.
I hope she dreams only of ice cream.
Ice cream dreams.
You were wrong to bring her with you, my friend.
I know that now.
In time, he saw the Boy limping across an abandoned lot of glittering broken glass, crossing a gray and dusty road, and cutting through a fallen mesh fence. Heading for the tank.
He was alone.
Chapter 29
As the morning sun began to bake the quiet destruction between the empty spaces and cracked parking lots of Vegas, the Old Man climbed down from the tank and handed the last of a half-filled canteen to the Boy.
The Boy began to drink, holding the canteen with his powerful right hand. The Old Man looked at the dried blood covering the Boy’s arms, still staining the tomahawk.
There is no need to ask him what happened in there.
He left the Boy to drink water alone in the silence of the place.
Inside the tank, he started the APU and radioed General Watt. Natalie.
“We’re on the other side of Las Vegas now.”
“Good.” Her voice was warm and clear. Like she’d just had a cup of morning coffee. Like there might be a cup waiting for him, wherever she was.
As if such good things exist anymore.
As if there are such moments left in this world.
“It’s a good thing you got us to that Radiation Shielding Kit,” he said. Then he told her what he could of the night. He told her about the three. How they’d made a way when there seemed none. And how each had died in doing so. He could not tell the one without the other. When he told General Watt of the bomb crater they’d come upon, she asked about the shielding kit. “We needed it to cross through a bomb crater.”
