Sooner Dead (Gamma World) - Mel Odom [44]
“Sounds like a guy no one should be risking out here.”
Riley nodded. “Everyone thinks that way, and they tried to stop Dr. Pardot from coming. But he doesn’t trust anyone else to do the job.”
That was something Pardot shared with Stampede. Except that Hella knew Stampede trusted her.
“When they found the first—” Riley stopped and grimaced. Then he shook his head. “Sometimes I talk too much.”
“What did they find?”
“I can’t tell you. When the time comes, Dr. Pardot will make sure you know.”
If we’re not dead first. Hella kept that thought to herself. One of the salvagers ran past her.
Riley smiled. “I guess he’s in a hurry.”
“He’s young and stupid. That’s a combination that doesn’t last long. Sometimes, when an invading force has to retreat, they leave booby traps under the bodies of their dead.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“Good thing you’re not out looking for salvage.”
“Did these bikers really think they could bring down the trade camp?”
Hella looked at the dozens of dead armadillo men and women spread across the ravaged earth. “They did. But Stampede thinks their leader got desperate.”
“What do you mean?”
“Whoever put these gangs together, the group grew bigger than he expected. At first we thought maybe he was just stupid, believing that more was better.”
“Isn’t it?”
“Look at how many men you’ve got on this expedition. Think about how many supplies you’ve got to bring with you to survive. If you didn’t have your own food, Stampede and I never would have agreed to sign on with you.”
“Why?”
“Because we couldn’t feed you off the land. All we would have been doing was hunting the whole time, and during that time, you people would have been sitting ducks. When people run out of food out in the Redblight, it doesn’t take them long to decide to fit someone from among them in a pot.”
Riley’s face hardened in disgust. “Cannibals?”
“They don’t see it that way. They think of themselves as survivors.”
Riley hesitated.
Hella answered before he could ask the question that was on his mind. “No, I haven’t ever eaten someone. Neither has Stampede. We know how to hunt and trap and fish, and there’s only two of us to feed. We’re sustainable on our own. Autonomous.”
“I’m glad to hear that. Just so you know, we’re buying more food here.”
“Stampede and I know that, and we know you’ve got plenty left to trade with to get more food. Like I said, we weren’t going to bring you out here and watch you starve.” Hella kept walking. “But that’s what the leader of these Purple Dragons was faced with.”
“Watching his people turn into cannibals?”
“Yes. And if they did that, they’d have to have someone to blame.”
“They’d blame him.”
Hella nodded. “So he chose to attack Blossom Heat.”
“Why?”
“If they were able to take the camp, their problems would be over. At least for a while. If they couldn’t—which they weren’t—he’d be able to cut the numbers of his gang down to a more manageable size.”
“He knew they would die.”
“If they believed long enough that they could sack the camp.”
“So all of this was just for attrition?”
“To thin the herd, yeah.”
Riley looked around at all the dead and the devastation; then he looked at Hella. “The world I come from isn’t like this. We aren’t staring down the barrels of guns all day. There’s peace.” He paused. “You should come back with me and let me show you.”
For a moment Hella stood quietly, mesmerized by the idea of seeing where Riley had come from. The idea of a city filled with people appalled her, but getting to see it even for a short time would be fascinating.
“Maybe.” Her answer made Riley smile, but she knew he had too many secrets for her to completely trust him.
An explosion detonated only a short distance away. Riley’s hardshell closed up automatically, covering his face as dirt and rock peppered them. Looking to the left, toward the sound of the explosion, Hella watched as the mutilated body of one of the scavengers dropped back to earth.
A woman, perhaps