Chapter Nine

 

 

The control panel was battered and worn, some of the letters and most of the numbers completely illegible. Particularly, numbers two, three and five were wiped away.

 

"Water's a little more shallow here, Ryan," Krysty observed. "Over by the dormitories it was halfway up my boots. Here it only covers the heels."

 

"Some of it'll drain off soon as we get the sec doors opened." Ryan called across to Dean. "Ready on three, five, two to open them up."

 

"Long as the doors aren't at the bottom of a slope," J.B. said, grinning at his old friend. "Most of them that we've visited have been high up, so we best keep our fingers crossed."

 

While he stood there waiting, the Armorer was trying to wipe his spectacles clean, but was having problems finding any dry material.

 

"Go for it, son," Ryan said, standing at the center, where the twin doors met, his SIG-Sauer drawn in his right hand.

 

The boy peered at the controls, puzzling out which number was which, eventually deciding and quickly pressing the three numerals in order.

 

The massive single sec door from the mat-trans section usually opened upwards, but the double ones that connected the redoubt to the outer world usually slid sideways.

 

They all heard the noise of gears grating against one another, and it was several seconds before there was any visible movement. It crossed Ryan's mind that the family of guards who'd lived in the redoubt for most of the hundred years or so since skydark had to have been using the doors for all that time. And it was a peanut to a candy bar that the sec doors had never been serviced. After all that time it was amazing that they worked at all.

 

"Moving, Dad!" Dean called, his voice cracking with his excitement.

 

A sliver of daylight appeared, and Ryan tasted the freshness of the outer air. Breathing inside the redoubt had been unusually good, but it was still tainted with the smell of Mervyn and Titus and their cooking fires.

 

"Smells fine," he said.

 

The others were ranged on either side of him, all with their blasters readied, in case there was any immediate danger outside the sec doors.

 

The ash-covered water began to trickle through the narrow gap, running faster as the doors opened wider. All Ryan could see was an open space and bright sunlight.

 

"Hold it there, Dean," he called. "Let's just take a quick look outside."

 

He walked closer, peering out of the gap of about seven inches. It was possible to see through a wide arc outside. There was a trampled area, with scrubby undergrowth that looked and smelled like mesquite and sage. Beyond the open area there were trees, mainly conifers, and in the far distance was range upon range of tall mountains.

 

Ryan could also make out what looked like a bone-yard, a stack of rotting carcasses, ravaged by vultures and other predators, standing twenty or thirty feet high. He figured the kills had to have been left there by Titus and Mervyn's kin. There was also a huge pile of speckled ash and partly burned branchesthe remnants of hundreds of bonfires.

 

Beyond that there was no sign of life.

 

"All the way, son," he said.

 

The water flowed faster out onto the flattened area, finding its own level by running off in a new-made stream through the fringe of the trees.

 

"Still leaves some of the water pouring off someplace deep inside the redoubt," J.B. said. "Mebbe they got emergency storm drains to carry it off."

 

The sec doors slid remorselessly open, stopping with a sigh of compressed air. The gap was now wide enough for three big war wags to pass through side by side.

 

"Gaia!" Krysty exclaimed. "That air is wonderfully fresh. Reminds me of my teen times up in Harmony ville. Any idea where we are?"

 

J.B. slung the Uzi over his shoulder, where it rattled against the Smith amp; Wesson scattergun. He took out his minisextant and sighted at the sun, which was already a little way up in the eastern sky.

 

"Look at mountains," Jak said. Coming from the flatlands of the bayous, the teenager was always impressed when jumps took them into the high country.

 

The peaks were snowcapped, rising jagged and serene, highest toward the west.

 

"That one looks like a hooked bear claw," Mildred said. "I'd place a fistful of dollars on them being the Rockies."

 

Krysty was staring where the woman had pointed. "I may be wrong, but I'd place a handful of jack on us being within a hundred miles of Harmony."

 

She turned to Ryan. "You realize that, lover?"

 

"Could be. Old Colorado, mebbe."

 

J.B. had finished his calculations with the tiny comp-powered instrument.

 

"Not a bad guess, bro," he said.

 

"The Rockies?" Mildred asked.

 

The Armorer nodded, concentrating on folding up the fragile little sextant and stowing it once more in one of his capacious pockets.

 

"Yeah. Ryan was right about old Colorado. And you're right about Harmony, as well, Krysty."

 

J.B. had an astounding eidetic memory for a number of things, including weaponry. But he could also tell you where you were in Deathlands, simply from the digital parameters established by the sophisticated navigational aid.

 

"Where are we, my dear John Barrymore? It seems akin to Paradise."

 

"Nearest predark ville of any substance was called Glenwood Springs. Near as I can tell, we're a little ways north of there. Four or five miles. I think I recognize some of the mountains around us here."

 

"Then we're not that far from Harmony." Krysty clapped her hands. "We always said we'd visit my old home if we ever got close enough, Ryan."

 

He nodded. "Other thing that's important to remember is that the school we've been talking about for Dean is also up in these parts."

 

"Harmony first, lover."

 

Ryan looked directly at her. "No. Come too far to change on this. The school I've heard of that takes young boys as kind of lodgers"

 

"Boarders, is the word you seek, old friend. Bed and board for the lad. Do him the world of good. Some Latin and less Greek and cold showers and a flogging every morning."

 

"Doc!" Ryan exclaimed. "No need to talk like that and try and put Dean off."

 

"It was a jest," the old man replied. "A small jest. Though I must confess that such a regime did me no harm."

 

"Why can't we go to Harmony first?" Krysty persisted. "All of us go. We could mebbe meet old Uncle Tyas McCann, though he'd be good and white-haired by now."

 

"How about your mother, Sonja?" Mildred asked. "Will she still be living?"

 

Krysty shook her head, tears welling in her bright green eyes. "Likely not. She was not well when we parted. And we parted on poor terms."

 

"Where are the two places, exactly?" J.B. asked, taking in several deep breaths. "I'm certain it should be possible to visit both."

 

Ryan was stubborn. "No. I've set my heart on Dean getting something partway to a decent education. And that comes before everything. You can all go on to Harmony, and I'll meet up with you there."

 

"I'd like to see Harmony, too, Dad," Dean said. "Couldn't we just"

 

"No, we couldn't just anything! Much more of this and I'm goin' to start becoming a bit angered. This school is for a year or so at the most. When we all come to take you away again, then we can all go to Harmony together. It'll be something for us all to look forward to."

 

"Oh, Dad, why can't"

 

"Fireblast!" Ryan punched his right fist into his left palm. The shout of rage sent crows circling noisily into the air, like black tumblers, from the tall trees at the edge of the clearing.

 

"Sorry, Dad," Dean said, shuffling his feet in the carpet of pine needles that lay thickly around.

 

The fit of temper sidled away as quickly as it had come. "All right."

 

"Still nobody told me precisely where the school and Harmony ville are set," J.B. said.

 

Ryan considered. "From what I've heard of the school, it's on the back road to Leadville, off old 82."

 

"Harmony's that direction." Krysty closed her eyes as though she was visualizing a map. "We can go some of the way together. Harmony wasn't far from a small ville called Fairplay, high up at the head of a steep trail."

 

"That's above Breckenridge, isn't it?" Mildred asked. "I was taken up that way to ski when I was about thirteen. My father's brother, Josh, took me there. The skiing was all right, but it was triple snobby around there in winter." She slipped into a mock "mammy" voice. "Lordy, but yo din't see many of us pore nigras up there, and dat's de troof."

 

Ryan was already regretting his outburst of temper at his son and at Krysty, and was now looking for some way of trying to build bridges.

 

"My recollection of being around here with Trader is that there are backcountry trails south from Glenwood Springs, then heading east, up and over the high country towards Leadville. In summer you could get the wags over a dirt road towards Breckenridge. So mebbe we can go some of the track together."

 

Krysty smiled at him, the bright morning sunshine highlighting the vivid scarlet of her hair. "Sounds good to me, lover."

 

 

 

THEY CLOSED THE SEC DOORS to the redoubt, but only after a lengthy discussion between Ryan, Doc and J.B. about the leaking water.

 

Hundreds of gallons had come through the open doorway, bubbling past the pile of rotting deer carcasses, washing against both sides of a large, frost-splintered boulder, then trickling over the lip of the hillside and vanishing among the trees.

 

Doc argued that they had no way of knowing how much more liquid was going to flood from the broken pipes in the bathroom.

 

"It is not unreasonable to assume that there might indeed be some connection between the main tanks of the redoubt and some external supply. As long as it flows out one end, then it could, mayhap, keep gushing into the other end. It could go on until all of the water in Colorado has filled the redoubt from its top to its basement."

 

"And flooded the gateway," the Armorer said.

 

"I don't believe that the builders of these redoubts wouldn't have taken precautions in the case of flooding." Ryan shook his head. "Wouldn't make sense, would it?"

 

"These were the same people, or their superiors, who were responsible for the red buttons being pushed and civilization disappearing." Doc pointed a bony finger at Ryan. "Never, ever, underestimate the capacity of the government official for behaving like a headless chicken."

 

"So, you're saying we should go straight down and make a jump out of here?"

 

"No, bro." J.B. looked around. "We know where we are. For the sake of Dean and Krysty, we should make the most of this chance jump to explore some. If the redoubt floods completely, then is that so terrible?"

 

Ryan considered that. "I guess not," he said finally. "We know the locations of close to thirty gateways, and most of them are still functioning. We could always step it out and find another one for a jump."

 

"Never did too much jumping in the war wag days," J.B. said with a grin.

 

"Yeah," Ryan agreed.

 

Krysty had joined them as the argument reached its amicable ending. "So, we're going to do some walking?"

 

"Right," Ryan said. "Ace on the line, lover. We're going to do some walking."

 

 

 

ACCORDING TO THE ARMORER, the township of Glenwood Springs lay only an hour or so south of where they'd landed. It seemed reasonable to make it their first destination, so they set off in that direction.

 

It was a heaven of a morning. The sun climbed gently through a cloudless sky, the temperature was comfortably in the middle sixties, with a light westerly breeze.

 

They were still high up, high enough for breathing to be slightly affected. Doc called a halt after thirty minutes, panting and sweating. "Upon my soul! I had forgotten how thin the air can be up here."

 

"Reckon we're probably close to eight thousand feet," J.B. guessed.

 

Dean had wandered a little ahead, and he called back to them. "Hey, come and look at this!"