Sooner Dead (Gamma World) - Mel Odom [109]
Stampede watched as well. “We don’t have a lot of choices, Red.”
“Do you think we can lie low and keep out of sight long enough for Trazall to pass on by?”
“Maybe.”
Down in the valley below them, sporadic gunfire echoed. The erratic, staccato noise made the bright day seem frightful. Death walked the hills.
Stampede grinned coldly. “We wait long enough, maybe Trazall and Pardot will kill each other off.”
High-pitched piercing woke Hella from a dreamless sleep. Her left hand was a weapon before she opened her eyes.
Stampede hovered over Ocastya. His size dwarfed the fractoid. Ocastya shook and shivered. She fought against Stampede, slapping at him and trying to escape. His nose and mouth were already bleeding.
Hella rolled to her feet and grabbed a stun baton from Stampede’s pack. With the baton in hand, Hella trotted over to them just as Ocastya broke free of Stampede and hit him hard enough to drive him back. Her legs still didn’t function, and that was the only thing that kept her from getting away quickly. Even without the use of her legs, she started hauling herself out of the cave with her arms.
“Ocastya.” Hella stood behind the fractoid.
“She can’t hear you.” Dizzily Stampede pushed himself to his feet and wiped at his bloody snout.
The high-pitched keening continued echoing through the cave. Hella started to feel certain that her eardrums were about to explode.
Scatter suddenly manifested in the air in front of her. “Stop her, Hella. Pardot and Trazall must not find her.”
Hella thought either of the others might be in more danger from Ocastya. The injured fractoid had hurt Stampede, and that wasn’t an easily done thing.
“How do I stop her?”
Scatter hesitated but Ocastya was already at the cave mouth. “Use the baton. It is the only way.”
“Will it hurt her?”
“I do not know. I hope not.”
Unable to wait any longer, Hella darted forward, touched the baton to Ocastya’s back, and pressed the firing stud. Electricity crackled and flickered along the baton’s length before spreading out across the fractoid’s body. She froze, straining forward, and when the charge finally exhausted, Hella was afraid Ocastya would resume her escape.
Instead the fractoid slumped forward. Her face clanged against the rock floor of the cave.
Hella rushed to her, afraid to touch her in case the electricity was running through her. She wanted to check to see if she was still alive, but she didn’t know how to do that either. Ocastya didn’t have a pulse, didn’t require respiration.
“She lives.” Scatter’s face floated in front of her. He looked tired and sad.
“Where are you?” Hella gazed at him and tried to get a clue to his location.
“I do not know.”
“Are you with Pardot?”
“No. I am with Trazall.”
“Do you know where he’s taking you?”
“No. Not for certain. I have heard some of the men talk about an encampment that is not too far away. They say there is a laboratory there with a working generator and that Dr. Trammell is happy about that.”
“Trammell?” Stampede growled. “She’s there?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“She is in league with Trazall. From what I have gathered, she is the one that told Trazall where Pardot planned to meet the zeppelins.”
Stampede shook his shaggy head, and his ears twitched. “Why would she join forces with Trazall?”
“I have not heard.” Scatter’s floating face turned to regard Stampede. “I am sorry.”
“It’s not your fault.” Stampede wiped blood from his mouth. “We’re in a bad situation.” He glanced at the unconscious fractoid. “She’s getting worse and she’s more than Hella and I can handle. Even if Ocastya was behaving, she’s paralyzed from the waist down. Hella and I can’t pack her out of here while dodging Trazall and Pardot.”
“The only answer, then, is to repair her.” Scatter shifted his attention back to Hella. “In order to do that, I need your help.”
Hella shook her head. “I don’t know anything about fixing her.”
“Together, Hella. Together you and I can save my mate. I cannot do it without you, but it will be hard and possibly dangerous.”
Hella knew what he was