Sooner Dead (Gamma World) - Mel Odom [64]
Stampede stood and looked around. “We’ll need to be more careful. We’re gaining on them and they know it. Good catch, Red.” He shook his head. “Doubling back is something new. These ’Chine are smarter than any of the others we’ve come across.”
“Probably because they downloaded that mil-sat programming.” Hella was teasing but she didn’t want to ignore the possibility either.
“Even if they did, that’s not going to save them from an EMP.” Stampede started circling then found the juncture where the sled had been turned off the trail to head in another direction. “This way.”
The ’Chine continued doubling back every so often, but the ground at the base of the Buckled Mountains wasn’t karst and hadn’t shed the heavy rains that had come the past few days. The mechmen’s attempts at disguising the sled tracks stood out as well. But since they were ’Chine, they didn’t give up their efforts to throw trackers off their trail. Once a program started to run within a pack, it usually stayed until it was proven wrong or drew negative results. They weren’t bright but they were adaptive. The longer they lived, the more they learned.
Hella and Stampede tracked on the run, settling into an easy lope that could cover several klicks a day. Their bodies, hardened from life on the trade routes, met the task easily. The pace was a lot more than Riley and his men would have been able to manage on the ATVs. Daisy thought they were just playing and chirped in bliss.
With dark starting to fog the eastern sky and the sun a dying spark to the west, they halted just long enough for a quiet bite to eat and to rehydrate.
Stampede screwed the lid back onto his canteen. “They’re headed for the Coyle River.”
“If they’re not, they’re going to find it anyway.” Hella studied the tracks and saw that they ran south as far as she could see. “You can’t go much farther before you find the Coyle. Unless they stop somewhere along the way.”
“Not here. Maybe up around Coyle Point. Near the waterfall. There are a lot of caves in that direction. The ground’s mostly limestone. That’s a natural hiding place for them.”
“How far to the river, do you think?”
“About an hour.”
Hella nodded. That was what she had figured. “I’m thinking we’re about an hour behind them. If we’re both right—”
“We’re going to catch them at the river.”
A short distance away, Daisy had her head stuck in a feedbag and munched happily.
Reaching down, Hella fingered the tracks, felt the dampness of the earth. She was sure they were both right. “With the river swollen the way it will be from the rains, they’ll have to cross at Wroth’s Ferry. That’s if the river’s not too high for the ferry.”
“I know. The question is, do we want to catch the ’Chine on this side of the river or the other?”
“If they’re stranded there because the river’s too high, that’s where we’ll find them. But if the ferry’s not moving—” A chill raced through Hella as she considered that. “If we get caught on the other side of the river and things go badly—”
“You mean like the EMP grenades not quite living up to Pardot’s description?” Stampede smiled.
“We’ll end up getting run back into the river with nowhere to go.”
“That’s what I’m thinking too.”
“You know what the good thing is?”
“What?”
“We swim better than the ’Chine.”
If the river were navigable, that was; otherwise, they’d drown. Hella decided not to mention that because she knew Stampede was already aware of it.
They checked their gear and off-loaded everything that wasn’t necessary. Water went into a small waterhole left from the rains that was deep enough to conceal them submerged, followed by their rations. Stampede marked the nearby tree with a small trail flag, a bit of off-green twine they could pick up easily because they were used to looking for it. The Coyle River provided plenty of fresh water, and they could go hungry for the night.
The hardest part was leaving Daisy. The mountain boomer fretted and bawled when Hella tied her to a small tree and told her to stay. Neither the leash nor the