Sooner Dead (Gamma World) - Mel Odom [80]
Stampede shifted. “Fast. I’ve never seen anyone that fast.”
Turning his hand over, Scatter inspected the insect. A moment later, he opened his fingers, and the dragonfly flew away unharmed.
“And I’ve never seen anything with that kind of control.”
Scatter reflowed and stood facing them. He smiled. “I also have exceptionally good hearing. Thank you.”
“Sure.”
“Your world is not perfect, but it is fascinating.”
“Don’t let something fascinating kill you.”
Hella grinned at Stampede’s comment. “Didn’t you have insects on your world?”
“Of course. But not in a long time. And not these insects.”
“What happened to the insects?”
“They died. Everything organic on our world died.” Scatter looked around. “There are no animals. No trees. No plants. Not even the oceans remain. The whole world is … fractal, to use Stampede’s word. Of course, we can make landscapes the way we want them.”
He held up a hand, and it flowed, quickly becoming a cattail similar to one in the nearby pond. Except that the cattail he made was silver, just like his skin. He frowned.
“Color is more difficult, and not everyone can agree on what color to make things.” In the next instant, the silver cattail had perfect color and looked natural. “We can also shape the buildings we choose to have.”
When the cattail became a hand again, tiny buildings rose up from his palm. One was an office building. Another was a pyramid. And a third was a log cabin.
Hella raised her hand and looked at it. She tried to morph it into a building, but it just became a weapon. “Will I be able to do that?”
“No.” Scatter’s hand flowed back into a hand, and he dropped it at his side.
“Why?”
“You were not made to do something like this.” Scatter smiled. “But do not worry about that, Hella. You are perfect just as you are.”
“Thanks.” Hella morphed her hand back to normal.
“You are welcome.”
Stampede snorted impatiently. “If you two are through playing games, we’ve got a lot of ground to cover.”
Hella shouldered her kit and took the lead again, but she couldn’t help watching Scatter take in the world around him and feeling sorry for him. She couldn’t imagine a world like the one he described.
Of course, the good thing was that nothing on his world ever tried to kill him. And that got her to thinking, wondering what Pardot and Trammell intended to do with Scatter.
CHAPTER 21
Only a couple of hours later, Hella reached the spot where she and Stampede had left their discarded gear submerged in the small pond. Daisy’s leash still hung from the tree, but the mountain boomer was gone. When she saw the rope pooled at the bottom of the tree, Hella grew instantly anxious.
Stampede put a hand on Hella’s shoulder. “She won’t have gone far, Red. Relax.”
“I know.” Hella reached into her pocket and took out the specially carved whistle she’d made. When she blew on it, the whistle produced a trill that sounded a lot like Daisy. Pausing, Hella looked around while Stampede hauled their gear out of the pond.
“You are looking for someone.” Scatter stood beside Hella.
“Daisy.”
“Vegetation?”
“No. A lizard.” Hella examined the ground, reading the tracks Daisy had left. Judging from the way they crisscrossed, she’d spent considerable time in the area. Hella was going to have to venture wider to figure out what direction she’d gone in. She didn’t plan on leaving the area till she had Daisy back.
A shrill bleat sounded to the west.
Hella had just enough time to glance up before Daisy crashed through the brush. She carried a freshly killed deer in her crimson-stained jaws. When she reached Hella, the mountain boomer laid her prey at Hella’s feet and honked happily.
Scatter stared at the lizard. “Fascinating. It is yours?”
“Daisy doesn’t belong to me. She’s my friend. And she’s a girl.”
“I apologize.”
Hella reached up and hugged Daisy around the neck. The lizard butted her head against Hella so hard, she almost knocked