Tammy and J.B. rounded up the war party and ferried the fighters into the lab where Doc and Mildred worked in relays, inoculating them all. After Krysty had been injected, she joined them, enabling them to get through the vast number of people with ease. Gate runners were sent out to the wags and returned with the men of the tribe, who were also inoculated.
THE ARMY RETURNED to Crossroads—not in triumph, as the Crossroads dwellers were thinking of those they had left behind and who, even in the space of twenty-four hours, may have breathed their last—with a supply of the antidote, and the means to administer it to the rest of the ville.
Baron Robertson was among the first to greet them, and the first to be inoculated. Hector was among the next batch, Doc making sure that the hollow eyed ville doctor, himself now covered in sores and breathing poorly, was treated, and making him rest until the injection had a chance to make some effect.
The ville was a hive of activity in the following days, as the Gate and the companions helped the decimated population to restore some kind of order and repair to homes that had been sundered by the action of the past few days. It would take a long time to rebuild totally, but the aim was for Crossroads to become the port of call for all convoys once more.
On the third day, Mildred and Tammy returned with a wag containing copious supplies of antidote, synthesized within the redoubt. The facility was now closed, but still operational, and Mildred met with Robertson and Hector to discuss the manufacture of more of the clear fluid in the future. It was important that the ville now act as a distribution center, sending the antidote across the lands with the convoys. The disease had spread beyond this area for sure—convoys had unwittingly carried it out. In which case, they could take the antidote along the same routes. The disease might never be truly eradicated, but it could be controlled.
What could have been a plague could now be little more than a localized nuisance. Hector and two of the ville women who had assisted him in his med building traveled with Mildred and Krysty to the redoubt, where they learned how to synthesize the antidote.
Within a few days, things were ready for both the Gate and the companions to move on. But to where?
LEAVING CROSSROADS to rebuild, the companions and the Gate retreated to the area where the Gate had previously camped, and the tribe set up there for some days. It was a rare chance for both parties to take some respite from the hardship of constant battle. With Jak recovering after his inoculation, it was a chance for the albino to spend some time with Gloria, and also for Dean to renew his relationship with Tammy. But for all four of them, it was bittersweet, tinged with the knowledge that the parting of the ways had to soon come.
By the fourth day, Ryan and J.B. were both itchy. New England made them uneasy, the memories of their exploits on the coast still too close for comfort, and both were keen to move.
So it was that they gathered around the campfire as the night drew on, cold in the woodlands—the companions and Tammy and Gloria.
"You know the time has come to part, don't you, sweets?" Gloria asked.
Ryan nodded. "We need to go. Mebbe move farther north. One day mebbe we'll settle, but for now…"
"For now we just have to keep moving, keep searching," J.B. added.
"For what?" Tammy asked.
Ryan shrugged. "I don't think any of us know, but we'll know when we find it."
"Have you found it, honey?" Gloria asked Jak.
The albino was silent for a moment, then looked her in the eyes. "Mebbe could have…but chilling follows, always. Can't be with, must always be alone. Safer for all."
The Gate queen agreed. "I can understand. I feel that way. And I'd like us to come with you, but we've got to stay."
"Why?" Mildred asked, curiosity getting the better of her.
Gloria looked into the fire, and for a moment it seemed as though she were lost in the flames, retreating into a trance state to look for an answer. Finally, she said, "Our legends have always spoken of the Gate, and the pathway to Illumination. I really thought that we'd found that gateway when we found these scum fuckers. I thought that I would be the one to lead the tribe to our ultimate destiny."
"And now?"
"And now I don't know. I kinda figure that the answer does lie with what's happened. Somehow it equates to what's in our legends. I just haven't worked out how yet. But if the answer does lie in that redoubt, then I'll work it out. It just may take some time."
She fell silent, looking once more into the fire.
WHEN THE GATE TRIBE rose in the early morning sun, the space in the camp where the companions had billeted was empty. Before the dawn had even begun, Ryan had rallied his people, and they were already at the redoubt.
AS RYAN CLOSED the door to the mat-trans unit and hurried to sit beside Krysty, he knew that none of them knew where they would end up.
They only knew that they had to keep searching.
For something—absolution, release, freedom, peace?
Just something…
Axler, James - Deathlands 60 - Destiny's Truth Page 29
