“The chute was pushed a few hundred feet,” Raspberry said as she brightened, seeing that he was actually alive. “But it caught on fire. We were on a hill and saw you come out. Figured it was the Dwarf and came cruising to take him into never-never land. But—it’s you.” Stone stood up, on very wobbly legs. The bleeding on his tourniqueted leg had slowed to a medium ooze. He needed emergency repairs, maybe a full overhaul and about a year of R&R. None of which were too likely.
Suddenly he remembered. How could he forget? The Dwarf had pushed all the damn buttons on the missile command. His eyes lifted to the sky. It was late afternoon and the heavens were slate gray like it was going to rain forever once it began. He couldn’t see any traces of missile flame, or glint of incoming nose cone. But then there might not have been time—yet. It had only been ten, maybe fifteen minutes since—
“We better get the hell out of here,” Raspberry said, hopping up on her bike. “Come on, Stone. There could be more secondaries from below. This whole area could go up.” Flames were shooting from several square acres now as the ground ripped to pieces and disappeared into burning fissures. Below he could see the crumbled levels, all fallen together like a deck of steel cards. Everything within was being churned in the flaming walls of moving steel and concrete, ground up into powder that glowed red-hot. Nothing could have survived below. Not even a germ.
“No, you go,” Stone said. “Me and my sister will stay and see what happens. I’m tired of running. If the end is coming, I want to be standing looking it in the face like a man. It sounds crazy; I won’t even begin to deny it, but—”
“I hear you, Stone,” Raspberry said. “Well, there’s a couple of gassed up bikes over there. Some of the girls didn’t make it. A lot of them didn’t. Still, we set out what we wanted to accomplish.”
“I owe you,” Stone said, looking over the eight Ballbus-ters who had lived through the attack, a third of their original number. “And my sister, as well. Neither of us would be alive—but for you. And if the world has the slightest chance of surviving it will be because of all of you. We’ll know damned soon enough.” He raised his eyes again to the skies thinking he saw a shape and feeling his heart speed up. But it was just a flock of birds flying fast and low like they wanted to get the hell out of there themselves.
“Hope we get to fuck again some day,” Raspberry smirked, throwing her blond hair back and sliding on her steel helmet. “Adios amigo,” She turned the accelerator of her Harley and the bikers tore off after her, bouncing over the wreckage as they followed in v-formation behind their Queen.
Stone stood up, pain ripping through his body. He supported himself for a moment on April’s shoulder. Their eyes met and she seemed clearer now, if still very tired, hardly able to move or talk. But her eyes, they were definitely clearer.
“Thanks,” she said, leaning over and kissing him on the cheek. “If we’re to die, I can stand it if it’s here and now —with you. We can join Mom and Dad, and—” Though the words were sad and made Stone feel like bursting into tears, her face was strong, eyes unafraid of the coming night. Stone wasn’t sure he was quite as unafraid. But it was true—at least they were together. His long search was over. He put his arm around her shoulder and they stood there staring at the skies, as the dog relieved itself on a jagged piece of concrete tilted sideways as big as the side of a house. Stone gazed up into the gathering clouds like a madman searching for sanity. And he waited and prayed and winced at every little shape that seemed to form up along the churning cloud line.
* * *
The earth was turned into a glowing powder that spread out through the solar system, blown by the atomic winds. In the orbit where the noble planet, third from the sun— and considered by many to be the most beautiful of the star system—had spun for billions of years, was now only a cloud of luminous dust and rocks that sparkled like murderous diamonds in the heavens, a beacon, a lighthouse signal to the rest of the universe for all time to come that an intelligent species had made all the wrong choices.
A THIRD WORLD WAR HAS LEFT AMERICA A LAWLESS AND BATTERED LAND. BUT AMID THE PILLAGE AND HEARTLESS KILLING, ONE BRAVE YOUNG MAN HAS BECOME AMERICA’S LAST HOPE FOR JUSTICE AND FREEDOM…
Stone heads south, through an electrical firestorm with his gravely wounded pit Bull, Excaliber, strapped to the back his bike. With the help of a lesbian bike gang, the Balbusters, Stone makes it to Amarillo—where he’s plunged into an underground fortress. Here a colony of corrupt government officials, mutant geniuses, sex slaves—and The Dwarf—high-tech War Board and a network of weapons and drugs. Stone’s sister April, the Last Ranger is to reed to battle denly. Stone is out of moves He fears no one in a fight. But this is a game with the highest stakes of all—and mankind’s future at the fingertips of madmen!
Martin Stone is
THE LAST RANGER
America’s Last Hope in America’s Darkest Age
Is This The End? Page 17