Sooner Dead (Gamma World) - Mel Odom [91]
“Must have taken down a trade caravan this morning or last night.” Stampede hunkered down twenty meters away.
Hella silently agreed. “How close do you think their camp is?”
“Too close for us. From here on in, we’re going to stay away from the trail. If they find our trail, they’ll track us down.”
Hella knew that was true. The expedition had too many wagons and wheeled vehicles for the highwaymen to pass up. Not only was there the physical evidence of everything they had, but stories flew along the trade routes. The biker gang could have heard of them.
Stampede took the radio from his chest pocket and spoke briefly. Then he put it away and glanced up at the sky. “Riley says Dr. Trammell says the ripple we’ve been looking for is about to open up any second.”
“Bad timing.”
Stampede growled in agreement.
Shifting, Hella found a spot where she could peer up at the sky through the trees. The rose-colored dawn pushed shards into the reluctant darkness giving up the night.
When the ripple arrived, it was only a minor tear in the fabric of reality that was much closer to the ground than the one that had delivered Scatter. Something streaked out of the ripple and left a white contrail behind it. For a short time, it was eerily silent. Then, just before she lost it in the trees, sonic booms hammered the forest around her.
Stampede cursed. “No way did that go unnoticed.”
“No.”
“Let’s hope the Sheldons stay fat and happy with their score and stay out of our business. In the meantime, you and I need to see if we can find that meteorite.”
“Fractoid, you mean.”
“Yeah. Otherwise we’re going to be out here for a while longer. Did you see where it landed?”
“No. But I know the direction.”
“Let’s go.”
Hella took the lead and wished she’d thought to grab a bag of rations. Her stomach growled almost as loudly as Stampede.
CHAPTER 24
The object missed the Amichi Mountains and landed in the middle of one of the nameless swamps that filled the lowlands. Hella stopped eighty meters out and surveyed the surrounding wilderness. For a short time after the impact, the motorcycle and ATV engines had headed in their direction, but they stopped at least a klick away.
In a large area in the northwest corner of the swampland, a good seventy meters from the shoreline and in the boggy depths, the heated object caused the water to roil and bubble. The gasping, burping noise of it echoed across the flat waters of the swamp and around the shoreline. Birds flew from the treetops, abandoning the area. Chemical stink filled the air and burned Hella’s eyes, nose, and throat. She took a piece of cloth from her kit and wound it around her face. Her sunglasses helped somewhat, and breathing the filtered air was better.
Stampede talked quietly and quickly over the radio that connected them to Riley and the expedition. Finally he dropped it inside his chest pack in frustration. “Riley won’t hang back. He heard the bikers’ engines too.”
“He’s an idiot if he comes this way.”
“He’s doing it, though.”
“The Sheldons are going to be even more interested if they see him or his men.”
Stampede nodded. “I pointed that out too.”
“They don’t trust us.”
“I’d say that’s about the size of it, Red.” Stampede nodded toward the roiling water. “You or me?”
Thinking of entering the murky water gave Hella pause. She didn’t like not being able to see everything around her. And the water slowed her down. She swallowed and slipped off her rifle, putting it by a tree so she’d remember where it was so she could get it on the run if she had to. Draping a coil of rope and a grappling hook from her kit over one shoulder, she stood. “Me.”
“Okay.” Stampede laid his rifle over a rocky outcrop and sighted on the swamp. “I’ve got your back.”
At the shoreline, Hella hesitated a moment and thought about taking off