Sooner Dead (Gamma World) - Mel Odom [84]
Stampede shifted his grip on his rifle. “I know, and I feel responsible for Scatter too. He’s really …”
“Innocent.”
Stampede nodded. “Yeah. That. You don’t see that out here a lot. In fact, the last time I saw it was the day I found you.”
CHAPTER 22
In the stream that ran near the camp, Hella scrubbed the tin plates she and Stampede had used for breakfast then rinsed them with sanitized water. Minnows and crawfish darted through the shallows and plucked tidbits of food that floated on the surface before swimming back into the depths with their prizes.
A shadow fell onto the ground beside Hella as she shook the water from the plates.
“You could have had breakfast with us.”
Holding on to the plates and utensils, Hella stood up and faced Riley. “Thank you, but no. Stampede and I were fine.”
“Look, about yesterday—”
“Scatter panicked Pardot and I overreacted. I understand that.” She said that but she still didn’t feel it was true.
“No hard feelings?”
“No.”
Riley smiled and nodded. “Good. That’s really good. I pointed out to Dr. Pardot that we couldn’t have come as far as we have or found the fractoid without the help you and Stampede provided.”
“I hope he understands that.”
“He does.”
“Are Scatter’s people really called fractoids?”
Riley laughed and the sound was almost honest and easy. “No. I heard Stampede say that, and I liked it. Even Dr. Pardot has begun calling them fractoids.”
“Scatter isn’t the first one they’ve found?”
Face darkening, Riley was silent for a moment. “That’s something I can’t tell you.”
“Can’t or won’t?” Hella kept her tone light, but she knew she wasn’t fooling anyone.
“If Dr. Pardot told me not to tell you, I wouldn’t. But he hasn’t told me, and I don’t know.”
Back at the camp, everything was in full swing as the security team loaded up the ATVs and mini wagons. Stampede stood with Dr. Pardot and consulted a map.
Hella turned back to Riley. “Where’s Scatter?”
“With Dr. Trammell.”
“I haven’t seen him this morning.”
“Dr. Pardot and Dr. Trammell have had a lot of questions for him. As it turns out, he’s had a lot of questions for them.”
After her experience with Scatter over the past couple of days, Hella easily believed that.
“We should be ready to move out within the next thirty minutes.”
Hella gazed at the eastern sky and saw the sun was up. She knew Stampede was antsy to get under way. “Do you know where we’re heading?”
Riley shook his head. “East. That’s all Dr. Pardot told me.”
“How far?”
“I don’t know. Why?”
“If we go very much farther, we’re going to run into Amichi Mountain country.”
A frown creased Riley’s forehead creased. “That’s a bad thing?”
“The eastern section of the Redblight is swampland. It’s hard traveling and the area is filled with every kind of winged, walking, slithering, and swimming bloodsucker you can imagine.”
“You don’t paint a very appetizing scenario.”
“Wait till you see the alligators. Some of them make Daisy look small.” Hella headed back up the hill toward the camp.
Riley fell into step beside her. “That’s a joke, right?”
“No.”
“Where are we going?” Hella stood at Stampede’s side, apart from the security people. She still hadn’t seen Scatter and wasn’t happy about that.
“East.”
“That’s what Riley said.”
“Then you know as much as I do, Red.”
“Why east?”
“Trammell.”
“More visions?”
“That’s what she says.”
“She tell you that?”
“Pardot did.”
Hella glanced around the camp and knew that Riley would have his people ready to go in a few more minutes. “Did you happen to tell Pardot about the Amichi Mountain range?”
“I did.”
“He knows what he’s getting into?”
“As best as I could explain it to him.”
Taking a hard candy from her pocket, Hella popped it into her mouth. “Did Pardot tell you what we’re looking for next?”
“No. He said we’ll know it when we see it.”
Hella sucked on the honey-flavored disk. “Have you talked to Scatter?”
“No. But I saw him.” Stampede nodded his horned head.
Stepping around the bisonoid, Hella looked at the tent