Part 21 (1/2)
Sanjit nodded. ”I was sick for about a week, I guess. Thought I was going to die. Crawled as far as a pile of garbage and just ... Anyway, when I was able to move again I looked for her. But I didn't find her.”
The two of them sat there looking at each other. It seemed to go on for quite a while.
”I have to go to town,” Lana said finally. ”I can't seem to cure the flu thing. So much for being the Healer. But I can at least deal with the usual broken bones and burns and so on.”
”Of course,” Sanjit said and stood up. ”I'll let you go.”
”I didn't say you couldn't come with me,” Lana practically snarled.
Sanjit suppressed the smile that wanted badly to break out across his face. ”Whenever you're ready.”
Chapter Seventeen.
33 HOURS, 14 MINUTES.
”DEKKA. WAKE UP.”
Her eyes opened. She blinked up at Sam. It was full daylight. Not even early morning, later. She had slept a long time.
A sharp intake of breath. She jumped up and began patting her body, probing, pus.h.i.+ng, feeling for anything that shouldn't be there.
The divot in her shoulder burned like fire.
Her stomach growled. Her feet ached. Her sc.r.a.ped s.h.i.+ns hurt. So did her back from sleeping on a rock.
”I hurt all over,” Dekka said.
Sam looked concerned.
”I mean, that's good. Hunter couldn't feel much of anything, right?”
Sam nodded. ”Yeah. Yeah, that's good. So I guess burning a hole in you was actually a good thing?”
”Not quite ready to find that funny, Sam. Where's Jack?”
Sam pointed toward the top of a hill. They were in a very dry and empty place. The hill wasn't much more than two hundred feet high and was more of a dirt mound than a mountain.
Jack was at the top, shading his eyes and looking to the northeast.
”What do you see?” Sam yelled to him.
”There's a place over that way that looks like it's all burned.”
Sam nodded. ”Yeah. The hermit's shack. What else?”
”Bunch of rugged-looking hills, all rocky and stuff,” Jack yelled. He started to climb down but the dirt was loose, so he slid and slipped and fell. Then he stood up again and jumped.
He jumped thirty feet and landed very near Sam.
”Dude,” Sam said.
”Huh,” Jack said. ”I never realized I could do that.”
”There might be other ways you can use that strength, too,” Sam said.
”I wish I could use it to find some water.”
”Dekka, what do you think? We climb those mountains or go through the burned zone?”
”I kind of hate climbing.”
”The mine shaft isn't too far from the shack,” Sam pointed out.
”Yeah. I remember where it is,” Dekka said. ”We just don't go there.”
It wasn't far to the shack. Or more accurately the few charred sticks that marked Hermit Jim's shack. Sam pulled out the map again. He measured with his fingers. ”It looks like six or seven miles to the lake. I guess we'll all get a drink when we get there.”
The Santa Katrina Hills were on their left now. They were bare stone and dirt, and some of the rock formations looked as if they'd been shoved right up out of the earth, like the dirt was still sliding off them. Off to the right there was the taller mountain, and the cleft in that mountain, which hid the ghost town and the mine shaft.
None of them spoke of that place.
It was an hour's thirsty walk across very barren land before they reached a tall chain-link fence. The dirt was the same on either side of the fence. As far as they could see there was nothing that needed fencing.
There was a dusty, rusty metal sign.
”'Warning, restricted area,'” Jack read aloud.
”Yep,” Sam said. ”We are subject to search.”
”How great would it be if someone did come and arrest us?” Dekka said wistfully.
”Jack. Rip down the fence.”
”Really?”
”The barrier's that way.” Sam pointed. ”We should hit the barrier and follow it to the lake. And like Dekka says: if there was anyone around here to arrest us, it would be great. They'd have to feed us and give us something to drink.”
Sam wasn't sure quite what he expected to find at the Evanston Air National Guard base. He wasn't sure quite what he'd been hoping for. Maybe a barracks full of soldiers. That would have been excellent. But failing that, maybe a giant tank of water. That would have been nice, too.
What they found instead were a series of underground bunkers. They were identical on the outside: sloping concrete ramps leading down to a steel door. Jack kicked the first one open.
Sam provided illumination. Inside was a long, low room. Completely empty.