by Axler, James
"How will you do that?" Mac asked in bemusement.
"Never mind. It'd take too long to explain. But trust me, we'll be okay. Now let's go. Jak, Dean, you help Doc."
As the albino slipped around to assist Doc, he handed him the LeMat and lion's-head swordstick.
"Where did you get these, lad?" Doc asked with a beatific smile.
"Leave things lying around, someone bound to pick up," the albino said, grinning. "Now quit talking. Let's move."
THE ELEVATORS were still working, but it was a rough ride up to the level where the wags had been left. The elevator shafts were reinforced against such movements of the earth, but the shock waves spread out by the explosion in the armory had started a series of tremors that were threatening to destroy the redoubt.
They reached the wags without incident. Most of the infighting was concentrated on the lower levels. Mac and Abner marshaled their few people into one of the wags, and Ryan hit the outer-door sec code, praying that the door wasn't too warped by the earth shifts to be jammed.
It lifted with an agonized and protesting squeal.
"Are you sure you won't come with us?" Abner asked. "It's not much of a life, but mebbe we could move out with your assistance, settle beyond the valley."
Ryan shook his head. "Thanks, but we always go our own way. Now move before the door comes down on you."
"Can you manage this?" he asked Mac.
The sec man nodded shortly and ground the wag into gear as another tremor shook the floor beneath them, the sec door dropping inches as the concrete frame split.
"Goodbye, friend Ryan," he yelled over the roar of the engine and the moaning of the earth. "It hasn't been fun, but it's been good."
Without looking back, he gunned the wag and drove it out into the enclave, weaving around the rocks and boulders that were tumbling down the sides of the rock walls.
Ryan had already turned away, before the wag had even left the redoubt.
"Let's move. Usual formation, and quick."
They moved to the elevator in single file. There was no one around at that level, but they could never afford to let caution lapse.
The elevator half dropped to the level of the mat-trans, the cable snagging as the car hit the buckling walls. It was time for them all to sweat, except for Doc. He was too wasted and drained by his experience to truly, at that point, take in what was happening.
Ryan and Jak forced the elevator doors back as it reached the level they wanted, the door mechanism opening too slowly for their liking as the earth shook and the walls started to shed shards of concrete and plastic. The metal lining of the air-conditioning shafts had come down through one point in the corridor, and they had to weave around it, stepping over the chilled corpses of sec men, whitecoats and techs.
"Ritual culling," Doc murmured to no one but himself.
Finally, hearts pounding and sweat pouring from them in exertion and fear, they reached the outer chamber of the mat-trans.
Krysty went straight to the comps in the control room.
"Still working, lover," she murmured as she hit the code to start the mat-trans, using the knowledge they had picked up from the few units they had seen that didn't use the door closing as a jump trigger.
They entered the chamber, taking their positions on the floor and preparing for the jump. Jak and Dean helped Doc to a sitting position, then huddled themselves against the wall. Mildred and J.B. sat together, holding hands, blasters close by.
Krysty sat and waited for Ryan as the one-eyed warrior closed the door and spun the wheel. He turned to join Krysty, and was thrown across the chamber as the redoubt screamed in agony, walls beginning to crumble and cave in under the pressure of the shifting earth.
As Ryan hit the floor, the disks began to glow, the air crackling around them with electrostatic discharge, and a white mist rose and formed around them in curling tendrils.
He reached out for Krysty as the nausea rose, and everything began to fade to black. The chamber shook around them, and his last thought was a hope that the jump would be made before the chamber was destroyed by the earthquakes.