Axler, James - Deathlands 57 by Axler James

Author:Axler, James
Language: eng
Format: epub

Chapter Eleven

When Colonel Gabhart spun at the sound of his name, he lost his balance. Ryan caught him as he fell, and since he seemed too wobbly to stand, helped him to a seat on the ground.

"Shadow Man?" the colonel said, squinting up through eyelids so puffy they were nearly swollen shut.

"So the murdering bastards got you, too. What about the others?"

"Sit still," Ryan told him. He beckoned to the companions and they came running.

When they saw how ravaged the colonel was, they couldn't hide their shock. They were speechless.

"I guess I'm pretty messed up, huh?" Gabhart said, trying to laugh and choking.

"Take it easy now," Ryan cautioned him.

Mildred pointed at Gabhart's badge, which glowed bright green, even in daylight. "He's really giving off the rads," she said. "Try to touch him as little as possible."

"How long have you been here, Colonel?" Ryan asked.

"Twelve days." He nodded in the direction of the trooper standing guard at the water tank. "The fuckers won't give out extra water. When you start to get the nuke sickness, you get so damned thirsty."

"What about Captain Jurascik?" Krysty said. "Is she here, too?"

Gabhart shook his head. "She died the day before yesterday. It was horrible."

"Was it from the radiation?" Mildred asked.

"No," Gabhart said, "it was from the stickies. The geniuses from my world who are running this operation captured a big group of stickies to help work the mines."

"They're trying to put stickies to work?" J.B. said. "That's crazy! You can't train stickies to do anything."

"They didn't figure that out until it was too late," Gabhart said, "after they'd already let them loose in the mines. They actually thought they'd scared the sucker-fisted bastards into cooperating. Must be close to

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a hundred roaming free underground. They can't get rid of them now. It's a maze of crevices, side tunnels and air shafts down there."

"Stickies can squeeze through some mighty small spaces," J.B. agreed. "Got weird mutie cartilage. It lets them squash down their skeletons. Even their skulls compress a little."

"But the laser cuffs…?" Ryan said.

"They only activate after you run a certain distance from the center of the road," Gabhart said. "The stickies aren't running away from anything. They like it in the mines."

"The lasers can't be selectively activated?" Ryan said.

"There's no way to target individual slaves, if that's what you mean. The only way to get rid of the stickies now that they're loose is to trigger all of the cuffs on all the slaves, which would make the entire work force useless. The stickies are hiding deep in the mines. That's where they jumped me and Jurascik.

There was nothing I could do to help her. Nara was weak from the rad sickness, much worse off than me—most of her hair had fallen out, and she was coughing up blood. Stickies attacked and separated us, and then they dragged her off."

"Killed her," J.B. said.

"Fucking ate her," Gabhart stated, bitterly. "There's nothing to eat around here, except whatever you catch yourself under the glass.

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