Sooner Dead (Gamma World) - Mel Odom [24]
“Alice?”
“My daughter.” A smile flirted with Colleen’s lips, but in the end fear won out and she dropped her gaze. “I just hope we both live long enough to see each other again.”
“You will.”
Tears fell down the woman’s cheeks then, and Hella was surprised at how embarrassed she felt for Colleen. “I hope you’re right. Truly I do.” Colleen wiped at her tears. “I want to thank you for what you did last night. For saving me.”
“All part of the service.” That was something Stampede would say, but Hella felt awkward parroting it to Colleen. Bravado was another skill set the bisonoid had taught her, and she’d learned it well, but it didn’t feel right dealing with Colleen that way. Hella was getting weak.
“No. Please don’t denigrate risking your life for me.” Colleen’s blue eyes regarded her with desperation. “What you did was a fine thing, a good thing. I don’t know anyone else that would have done something like that.”
“Riley and his men—”
“Perform guard duty because they’re afraid of Dr. Pardot and what he can do to their lives when we get back to the complex.” Colleen lowered her voice. “Don’t make them out to be heroes, and don’t depend on them. They’re mercenaries, nothing more.”
Hella nodded because there seemed to be nothing for her to say. She waited a moment before she spoke again. “You weren’t awake when you went out into the forest last night, Dr. Trammell. I saw you. You were sleepwalking.”
Colleen looked away. “I don’t remember.”
“Has this ever happened to you before?”
“Dr. Pardot won’t allow me to talk about this.”
“I understand, but I need to know. Stampede needs to know. If we’re going to take care of you, we need to know what to look for. It’s important to know if it will happen again. Do you understand?”
The desperate look returned. “Yes. I’m not a fool.” Colleen sighed. “I’m sorry. I’m not mad at you. It’s just—”
“Dr. Pardot.”
“Yes.”
“Pardot has an armed guard around him that’s taking care of him. He’s protected.” Hella reached out and took Colleen’s hand. “I want to make sure you’re safe. So you can go back to Alice.” She felt guilty using the little girl against the woman, but she did it anyway. Her life and Stampede’s were at risk.
Colleen looked up at her, and the tears were back. “Bless you.” She took a breath. “What happened last night has never happened before. But I’m afraid it will, you know?”
Hella nodded and felt guilty about gaining the woman’s trust. At the same time, though, she knew she meant what she said.
“I’ve dreamed about the ripples since I was a child.” Colleen smiled briefly but it was forced. “Maybe I’m not exactly genetically pure either.”
“I promise not to hold it against you.”
“Dr. Pardot brought me out here because some of my recent dreams have interested him. There’s something out here that we’re going to discover that has the potential to change our world. All our worlds.” Colleen paused. “I just don’t know if it’s going to be for the better.”
“Can you tell me what it is?”
Colleen shook her head. “I’ve told you too much already. Even telling you that much may put you and your partner more at risk. But I had to tell someone.” She gave Hella’s hand a final squeeze and released it. “I’m sorry you got mixed up in this. You’re too young to see the things you may have to see.”
Hella sat there stunned, not knowing what to say. Silently she watched Colleen walk away. Two of Riley’s men gazed at them. Getting to her feet, Hella walked back to Daisy. “Well?”
Stampede spoke flatly over the comm link. “From here on out, Red, we both sleep with one eye open.”
CHAPTER 7
Hella hand-fed Daisy from a string of rats she’d caught that morning. All the rats were freshly killed, and it was the next best thing to the mountain boomer’s running them down herself. Hella wasn’t willing to let the lizard run free into the wilderness, especially not when they weren’t certain all the tentacled things were dead. She was certain the mountain boomer could hold her own against two or three of them, but they still had no way of knowing how many of the creatures had