Sooner Dead (Gamma World) - Mel Odom [75]
Even though she had seen children react in similar manners before, Hella still marveled at the resiliency of their minds. It’s survival. She knew that was true. As long as a person was alive, he or she concentrated on living. Death waited around every corner. She turned her attention back to the metal man.
“Right.” Encouraged by the improvement, Hella smiled.
The metal man smiled back, but the expression was a mirroring reflex, not genuine at all. Then he closed his hand over hers in a viselike grip. “Learn.”
Adrenaline spiked through Hella’s system. The nanobots screamed. Her senses whirled and everything went black.
“Hey.”
The fiercest headache Hella had ever known pounded at her temples. Tears slid down her face as she struggled to remember where she was and what had happened.
Someone nudged her again. “Hey.”
She recognized Stampede’s voice and opened her eyes. She lay on her side and stared into the Wroths’ fireplace. When she tried to speak, her voice was dry as dust. “Did you kill him?”
“Who?”
“The metal man.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Can you sit up?”
“Don’t want to.”
Stampede wrapped his arms around her and helped her up to a sitting position.
The metal man sat in the same corner he’d been in the previous night. He appeared relaxed and well rested. Obviously he didn’t have a headache that threatened to split his skull. He gazed at her speculatively but didn’t move toward her. If he had, Hella was certain she would have shot him without hesitation.
She braced herself against the wall. “Give me a minute, and I’ll kill him myself.”
The metal man smiled.
For the first time, Hella realized she was squinting against the light streaming in through the windows. Several of the Wroth kids had bedded down in the big room, all snoozing in sleeping bags.
“Maybe killing Scatter isn’t such a good idea. Here. Drink this.” Stampede pressed a cup into her hands. He was dressed, his clothes worse for the wear but clean and dry again.
“Scatter?” Hella inspected the cup and found dark liquid. She sniffed at it and decided it was coffee.
“Scatter’s what I call him. His other name—” Stampede waved at the metal man. “Name.”
The metal man uttered a high-pitched squeaking squeal that sounded familiar and made Hella’s teeth hurt.
“That’s way too impossible to pronounce. Drink your coffee. You’ll feel better.”
Actually Hella was ready to believe she’d never feel good again. “What did he do to me?”
“May I speak?” The metal man’s—Scatter’s—dialogue sounded perfect and uninflected.
“You can now.” Stampede grinned at that.
“I apologize for hurting you. I did not mean to.”
“You did a pretty good job of it.”
“It was unavoidable. Your world is strange to me. I needed to learn where I was. Since you were amenable, I learned from you.”
Hella stared at him. “You didn’t learn the word amenable from me. And unless it means ‘stupid and naive,’ I don’t know what it means.”
“It means ‘willing.’ ” Stampede peered out the window. “We’ve read it in books we’ve shared, so I know you know the word.”
Actually Hella did know the word. “It’s not one I use.”
“Scatter pretty much learned everything you knew then he read a few books the Wroths have.” Stampede pointed toward the tall stack of books beside Scatter. Some were manuals; others were novels. “That’s only part of it. While you were sleeping—”
“Didn’t feel like sleeping to me.”
“—the kids took turns lugging books up and down from the Wroth library.”
“They have a library?”
“Yep. Surprised me too.”
Twyla Wroth stepped into the room carrying a coffee pot and a plate. “Reading is important. It’s all we really have to hang on to our pasts and have a chance at any kind of future. My husband knows—knew—that. Sometimes we write letters for people who are traveling that can’t write those letters themselves.” She looked at Hella. “I heard your voice. Knew you were awake. You need to eat and get your strength up.”
Hella was surprised to discover she had an appetite. Carefully, head spinning, she eased up the wall. Stampede let her manage on her own, but he stood nearby in case