gamma world Sooner Dead

by Mel Odom

  Before Hella reached the campsite, word had reached Riley that they’d returned. He came out to meet them and ended up getting caught up in the small group of peddlers who smelled someone in charge of the campsite they could get to.

  “Trade, sir. Neither malice nor murder. I’ve got trade goods. Maybe you need something?”

  Ignoring the question, Riley brushed through the men and focused on Hella and Stampede.

  “Trade, sir.” One of the men remained adamant. “I’ve got goods. Carried them a long way. The least you could do is take time to take a look.”

  Riley turned to the man, and the face shield snapped closed. “Stand back or I will stand you back.”

  Hella recognized the man as Benjamin Thor, one of the more legitimate peddlers who traveled the trade roads. He could repair electronic things as well, and he was a fair gunsmith. He was a good cook and an even better storyteller.

  Reluctantly Benjamin turned and headed away from the campsite. He glanced at Stampede as he passed him. “Not a friendly face in the bunch.”

  “I know.” Stampede spoke in a low voice.

  Riley’s face shield popped open again, and he smiled at Hella. “It’s good to see you. We were beginning to get worried.”

  Hella threw her leg over Daisy’s head and slid off the lizard to the ground. “We had some trouble finding your meteorite.”

  Peering past her, Riley looked briefly then turned his attention back to her. “Where?”

  Hella pointed at Scatter. “There.”

  Still sitting on Daisy, Scatter waved and smiled. “Greetings.”

  Hella watched Riley’s face as he took that in. “Okay. Follow me to Dr. Pardot.” He turned and walked back into the campsite.

  Stampede twitched his ears and shook his head. “Don’t know about you, Red, but I don’t think he was expecting the cargo to be Scatter.”

  “Me neither.”

  “You’ve got to wonder if Pardot is expecting Scatter.”

  “We’ll find out soon enough.”

  Pardot stared at Scatter as the fractoid stood in the center of the camp. “Extraordinary.”

  “Thank you.” Scatter smiled. “You are extraordinary as well.” He looked at everyone around him. “We are all extraordinary.”

  Surprise drove Pardot back a step and his eyebrows raised. “You can talk?”

  “Yes.”

  Pardot turned his gaze on Stampede. “You taught it to speak?”

  Stampede shook his head. “No. He could already speak.”

  “Not our language.”

  Hella wondered how Pardot knew that.

  Masking his perturbation, although his ears flicked, Stampede kept his voice level. “He taught himself.”

  “How?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Hella was glad Stampede didn’t give away her part in Scatter’s education. The last thing she needed was the man wanting to poke and prod her or yell at her because of her unwilling complicity.

  Colleen Trammell stood beside Pardot, a genuine smile on her tired face. She didn’t look any better rested than when Hella had last seen her. “It’s more adaptive than we thought.”

  A stray thought from the woman bumped into Hella’s mind: Alice is going to be all right. Hella felt the relief as well. She drew her thoughts back and tried to shield herself. “He’s not an ‘it.’ He’s a he. He has a name.”

  Scatter opened his mouth and that high-pitched screeching squawk that Hella remembered filled her ears.

  “That’s his name. We call him Scatter.”

  Servos on his exo suit whining, Pardot walked around Scatter. “Why would you call him such a thing?”

  In order to follow the man, Scatter reflowed to continue facing Pardot. Stepping back quickly in surprise, Pardot’s servos whined in protest at the sudden movement.

  With effort, Hella kept from laughing. “That’s why.”

  Pardot halted in his tracks. “Extraordinary.”

  Scatter nodded. “Thank you. It is nothing.”

  Ignoring the fractoid, Pardot looked back at Colleen. “Did you know it—he—could do this?”

  “You know as much about the last one we saw as I do, Dr. Pardot.”

  The last one? Hella watched both of them carefully.

  Pardot scowled. “I meant while you were in your precog state.”

  “No. I only saw it—him—falling to earth where we found him.”

  “Excuse me.” Scatter folded his arms across his shiny chest. “You found another being such as me? Where did you find this being? Can you take me to this being?”

  Pardot shot Colleen a withering glare.

  Stampede cleared his throat and, to anyone who knew him, sounded testy. “If you knew we were looking for a metal man, you might have told us that. It would have made searching easier.”

  Impatiently, the first time Hella had seen that emotion in the fractoid, Scatter stepped in front of Pardot. “I want to know about the other being. I want to know—” He didn’t get any farther.

  Pardot raised a hand and placed it in the center of Scatter’s chest. An azure energy blast arced from Pardot’s hand and blew the fractoid back a dozen feet, taking two security guards down with him.

  “What are you doing?” Hella’s hands already formed weapons, and she took a step forward.

  Shifting to her, Pardot lifted his hand, and his second blast slammed into her and lifted her off her feet. She never felt herself hit the ground.

  Pain, way too familiar, jolted Hella back to wakefulness. She sat up in darkness, then realized she was under a tent. Her hands morphed into weapons before she drew her next breath.

  “Easy, Red.”

  Focusing on Stampede’s voice, Hella blinked and gave her vision a moment to adjust to the gloom. He sat cross-legged in the tent with his rifle across his knees.

  “What happened?”

  “Pardot shot you.”

  “I remember that.” Hella morphed her hand and ran it across her chest, but all she felt was the familiar hardness of the chain-mail shirt. “With some kind of energy weapon.”

  “He calls it a disruptor. It’s supposed to temporarily fry your synapses. Render you unconscious. He said it was nonlethal.”

  “I’m surprised you didn’t kill him.” Hella sat up. The disruptor had been nonlethal, but the experience felt only just.

  “I might have but I knew you were still alive, and if I opened up on Pardot, Riley and his people would have killed us both.”

  Hella looked around the tent, but they were alone. “Where’s Scatter?”

  “They have him.”

  “What are they doing to him?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Is he still alive?”

  “I’m pretty sure that he is.”

  “Why?”

  “They wouldn’t have gone all this way to just kill him.”

  “What are we going to do?”

  Stampede’s ears twitched. “We haven’t been fired. They still need us. At least that’s what I was told. And Pardot is willing to overlook your bad behavior.”

  “What bad behavior?”

  “Pulling weapons on him

  Awfully generous, isn’t he?”

  “Not a bit. He’s desperate. He still needs a guide, and we’ve got him this far.”

  Hella held her aching head. “Why did Pardot shoot Scatter?”

  “Because he felt threatened.”

  “Scatter wasn’t threatening Pardot. We saw Scatter catch a dragonfly on the wing. If he’d wanted to hurt Pardot, it would have been done before anyone could stop it.”

  Stampede sighed. “Pardot hasn’t seen Scatter catch dragonflies. He said he felt threatened, and I’ve given that some thought while I’ve sat here and listened to you sleep.”

  “Thanks.”

  “If I’d been Pardot, out in the middle of unfamiliar territory the way he is, confronted with something he didn’t know enough about that was suddenly up in his face, I’d have felt
threatened too.” Stampede fixed her with his gaze. “You would have too, and you’d probably have responded in the same fashion.”

  “Pardot shot me.”

  “You moved on him too quick, Red. He told me he just reacted and wasn’t thinking clearly at the time.”

  Hella knew the explanation was logical, but she felt protective of Scatter. She also knew that her feelings compromised her. “You heard what Pardot said about having seen another metal man?”

  Stampede nodded. “I did.”

  “I don’t suppose he said anything more about that?”

  “No, and I get the feeling that he’s not going to be very forthcoming with any more information.”

  Taking another breath, Hella decided to try what she’d learned from Scatter. She put her hands on her head and rubbed her temples, trying to create the healing rhythm. After a moment the buzzing sensation kicked in, and her headache went away. She smiled.

  “Better?” Stampede eyed her speculatively.

  “Yeah.” Hella peered through the open tent flap. “I know you’re probably ready to leave Pardot and the rest, but I want to stay long enough to figure out what they’re going to do with Scatter.”

  “I know, Red. So do I. But hanging around these people is going to be dangerous in a lot of ways.”

  “Scatter has taught me things about the nanobots. I’d like to see what else he knows. Maybe he can help me learn something about where I came from.”

  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 just behind Pardot’s. Colleen Trammell stood outside her tent, talking to Scatter, who seemed to hang on her every word.

  Alice is going to be all right. No matter what has to be done, Alice is going to be taken care of.

  “Did you say something, Red?”

  Startled, Hella glanced up at Stampede. “No.” She went to saddle Daisy, but she didn’t like the way the echoes of Colleen’s desperate thoughts rattled through her mind.

  Hella took point, but Riley flanked her with two wings to double up on security as they followed the trade road. Other travelers and merchants walked the road as well, and most of them approached the expedition. Several had goods they wanted to barter. A few had funds they wanted to invest in buying goods from the expedition.

  The way was hot, humid, and hard. Daisy flowed effortlessly along the trail, but Hella started to feel fatigued as she rolled in the saddle. She missed having Scatter behind her asking questions. Every now and again she caught sight of the fractoid walking with Pardot. The two chatted constantly, and Pardot appeared to be matching Scatter question for question.

  When they took a noonday break, Hella was disappointed to see that Scatter continued his dialogue with Pardot without approaching her.

  “What’s on your mind, Red?”

  Hella glanced over at Stampede as he took a jar of peaches from the goods they’d purchased in Blossom Heat. “Scatter.” She nodded at the fractoid still talking to Pardot.

  “I suppose they have a lot to talk about.” Stampede opened the jar of peaches and hooked out a slice with his fingers. He popped the peach into his mouth.

  “I didn’t figure he would stay away from us.”

  “We don’t have the answers he’s looking for.”

  “Do you think they’ve told him he doesn’t have a way home ag
ain?”

  “For all we know, Red, those people can get him there. But I’ve never heard about it.”

  “Why do you think that?”

  Stampede shrugged and slipped another peach into his mouth. “Dr. Trammell seems capable of finding fractoids.”

  “Don’t you think that’s odd?”

  “There’s a lot of odd things out in the Redblight. You’ve seen them.” Stampede cut his gaze to Daisy, who had her face happily inside a feedbag. “You ride one of the strangest anyone here has ever seen.”

  “You and I know how to follow tracks and sign. Do you think Colleen’s precog is something like that?”

  “Maybe.” Stampede looked at her. “You and I learned to track by following things. We know track and sign because we’ve seen them before.”

  “Right. Colleen and Pardot have seen a fractoid before.”

  “That’s what they said.”

  “I don’t have any answers about it, though.”

  “You’re right. But someone knows the answers.”

  Stampede screwed the lid back on the peach jar. “Maybe one of us should talk to Colleen Trammell.”

  “Sure.”

  “But do it carefully.”

  Although Pardot kept Colleen Trammell under his thumb most of the time, there were still occasions she was on her own. During the evening, after camp was made, Pardot took Scatter into the lab and performed tests by himself. Hella passed by without being seen. Through the tent flap, Scatter looked totally at ease as Pardot scanned him with instruments. Hella didn’t understand how Scatter could act so relaxed after getting blasted by the disruptor.

  Two guards stood watch over Colleen’s tent. They stopped Hella at the doorway.

  “I’d like to see Dr. Trammell.” Hella remained polite with effort. The schism between the security guards and her and Stampede seemed to have grown wider and wider all day. Whatever secrets Pardot guarded were splitting the expedition.

  “Dr. Trammell isn’t seeing anyone.” Broad and beefy, the guard bordered on the edge of rudeness.

  “I have a wound that I think may be getting septic.”

  “Have your boss take a look at it.”

  “I’d rather have a woman look. Stampede doesn’t embarrass easily, and I don’t either, but he’s not a medical doctor and he’s not female.”