Sooner Dead (Gamma World) - Mel Odom [113]
“No.”
“There can’t be many places around here that would have the laboratory Scatter said he was taken to.”
“I know. I’ve been thinking.” Scatter took out a map. “We haven’t strayed too far off the trade roads here in the mountains.”
“There are no raw materials or salvage areas out here worth having, and it’s dangerous because of the land as well as the creatures that live here. And that’s not mentioning the two-legged predators.”
Stampede nodded and tapped a section of the map to the northeast. “Before the collider exploded and the world changed, there was a large city up here.”
“Tulsa. I know.” Tulsa had been one of the largest cities in Oklahoma before the collider destroyed everything. Hella had never heard what happened to the city, but when the physical world had ruptured and changed, something had destroyed the city.
Some of the local legends talked about a massive star cruiser that got pulled out of orbit in one of the alternate worlds and crashed into Tulsa. The resulting series of detonations had ripped through the city and rendered it into a toxic wasteland. Seriously twisted and mutated things were pretty much all that remained of the populace.
“The city has a lot of research and development places there.” Stampede tapped the map. “If Scatter is correct, that Colleen Trammell is looking for facilities like that, she might head here.”
“Doesn’t mean she’s going to be there.”
“True. But if she has joined up with Trazall for the moment, I don’t see that as a long-lasting arrangement.”
Hella snorted derisively. “When Trazall is sure he’s milked Colleen for everything that he can, he’ll either sell her or kill her. And the profit he can get isn’t going to be worth much aggravation or effort on his part.”
“Yeah. I know. But if he’s going to play along with her to get all the information she has, he’ll have to deal with her a while longer. That gives us time.”
Hella’s palm with Scatter’s face on it itched. She scratched the flesh but couldn’t satisfy the irritation.
“You can’t reach Scatter?”
“No. I’ve tried.” Hella stood and approached Ocastya.
New metallic flesh had replaced the burned areas, and the twisted lines had straightened out.
“She looks new, like she should just open her eyes and wake up.”
Hella knelt and hesitantly reached out toward the fractoid.
“You sure you should do that?”
“No. But you can’t feel a pulse in her.”
“I already tried. If she’s alive, in any form or fashion, I can’t tell it.”
“And if she’s dead, we need to know. If she’s dead, Scatter is too. Doesn’t matter if he’s already dead; he will be. Then we don’t have any involvement in what Pardot and Trammell do to each other.”
“Trazall’s still got some pain coming for jacking our expedition.”
“He didn’t exactly jack it if Trammell approached him.”
“He could have turned away.” Stampede’s ears twitched and he snorted. “Any self-respecting scout would have.”
Working through the vibrating fear that filled her, Hella placed her hand on Ocastya’s forehead. All she felt was the cool metal.
Then Ocastya’s eyes opened. “We need to go. My mate is dying.”
CHAPTER 30
Hella drew back her hand and watched in astonishment as Ocastya “flowed” to her feet, shifting from a prone position to a standing one. The fractoid peered around the cave anxiously.
Stampede took a wary step back. “Can you speak to Scatter?”
“Scatter?”
Gingerly, moving slowly, aware that Ocastya flowed to face her more directly, Hella got to her feet. “Scatter is what we call your mate. We can’t say his name.”
“I see. And how am I to call myself?”
“Ocastya.”
“All right.”
Stampede shifted impatiently. Hella knew the past day or so had been hard on him. Stampede wasn’t used to taking an inactive role. His voice when he spoke sounded almost surly, though she knew he took care not to have it sound like that. “Can you speak to your mate?”
“No.” Ocastya frowned and shook her head. “He’s very … far from me right now.”
“How far?”
In the back of the cave, Daisy snorted and woke, obviously alerted by the new voice.
“Not so much distance. Perhaps