Sooner Dead (Gamma World) - Mel Odom [112]
Then the bottom dropped out of the world again.
Afterward Hella couldn’t even guess at how many memories she had gone through. The emotions had been the roughest part up until the time when Scatter separated her from Ocastya. That separation was the hardest thing of all. By the time she’d finished spending years in Ocastya’s memories, Hella felt as if she were being ripped out of her own body.
She blinked her eyes and discovered she was still in the same position, leaning over Ocastya’s body. Sweat dripped from her, and her arms and back were knots of agony. Her legs were numb, and for one insane moment, she thought the paralysis that held Ocastya had somehow spread to her.
“Red?” Stampede sat across the cave. The cook fire flickered between them, the foot-high flames licking the breeze and caressing the pot that hung to one side.
“Yeah.” Hella felt tears on her face and grew embarrassed. She wiped them away with trembling hands.
“Are you okay?”
“Sure.” Hella was parched and her voice came out as a croak.
Stampede stood and crossed the cave to give her a canteen.
Uncapping the canteen, Hella drank thirstily. After a moment, Stampede gently pulled the canteen away. “Go slow. You’ll make yourself sick. You probably don’t want that.”
“No.” Hella wiped her lips with the back of her hand. She looked around then down at her unmarred palm. “Where’s Scatter?”
“I don’t know.” Stampede shrugged his broad shoulders. “I haven’t seen him since he wrapped around your face and put you in that trance.”
Hella felt for the fractoid but couldn’t sense him. She glanced down at her palm and saw his face there. Despite her efforts, she couldn’t elicit a response.
For the first time, she noticed that it was dark outside the cave mouth. Stampede had evidently dragged brush over the opening to hide the mouth to mask the presence of the fire. He’d left bare centimeters at the top for the smoke to stream out. “How long was I gone?”
“Hours.” Stampede’s ears twitched. “I was getting worried, but the last thing Scatter told me was to leave you alone and let you come out of it on your own. Otherwise you might not make it back.” He smiled. “I’m glad you did.”
“Yeah. Me too.”
“Want something to eat?”
Hella nodded. “I’m starving.”
“Figured you would be.” Returning to the fire, Stampede spooned up a plate of stew and handed it over. “Go slow.”
As she ate, Hella told Stampede everything she could remember about the worlds she’d just visited. She had to share it. She couldn’t keep something like that to herself. If she did, she felt certain she’d explode.
Only a few meters away, Ocastya lay inert. But the burned and twisted parts of her body glowed and shifted.
By morning, Scatter still hadn’t returned. Hella’s worry grew. She’d slept a little in the wee hours of the morning, and her dreams had been a constant, uncoiling and blending of her memories with Ocastya’s. She’d been gone hours from the cave, but she’d traipsed through years, decades, of Ocastya’s life. She believed she remembered less of those times than she had the day before, but there was still enough to be confusing. She had to concentrate to remember her own history, which had already been cored with holes.
Without a word, Stampede handed her a venison steak wrapped inside fried bread he’d made in a pan over the open fire.
“Thank you.”
“Eat all you want. I took a deer this morning.” Stampede waved to the silver, insulated bag in the back of the cave. “We can eat well for two or three days. Even feeding that black hole.” He jerked a thumb at Daisy, who slept on her side. Miraculously a small pile of deer carcass remained beside her. The blood on the rock was dark brown with age.
The meat was warm and tender, seasoned with some of the herbs they’d packed. Hella ate hungrily and stared out at the cotton white morning fog lying over the lowlands. “Did you see Pardot or Trazall while you were taking