[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

your nose up my ass."
Doc bridled. "I assure you that such a feeling is entirely mutual, madam!"
"Why's one part got a bar across it and the other doesn't?" J.B. asked.
Page 109
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
It was a fair question, and it stopped the argument in midflow. Mildred
coughed.
"Well, from what I recall, never being a cyclist, the piece with the crossed
bar is for men. One without is for ladies, to accommodate their skirts."
"So the man takes the lead!" Doc said, unable and unwilling to conceal his
triumph.
"Looks that way," Ryan agreed.
"Well, now that I think about it, I have a feeling that most of these tandems,
were made this way. Suppose it was to spare the lady's dignity," Mildred said
huffily.
Doc bowed to her. "Then let us both hazard our dignity, dear lady, and risk
all on this velocipede? Shall we go?"
They went.
"Like drunk Siamese twins," Krysty commented, shaking her head and fighting to
control her helpless laughter.
"Like gators with tails tied," was Jak's description.
file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Ja...20Deathlands%2012%20-%20Latitud
e%20Zero.html (214 of 274) [12/29/2004 6:12:24 PM]
d16
"Like Doc and Mildred doing the best they can," Ryan said.
With Cort Strasser so far ahead of them, there was no longer any kind of
pressure.
No rush. No hurry. It wasn't until late morning that they'd mastered their
machines enough to risk the steep descent down the switchback towards the
tumbling spray of the invisible river.
Jak was in the lead, swerving confidently from side to side, often taking his
hands off the faded chrome of the bars. The others watched him with mixed
emotions.
"He sure is good on that machine," Krysty observed.
"I would personally take some pleasure in the cocky little devil falling off
on his ass," Doc grated.
"Sounds like you're cut up, Doc," J.B. said, wobbling around a deep pothole.
"Cut up!" the old man squawked, standing on the pedals. "Not even Tomas de
Torquemada and the finest brains of the Spanish Inquisition could have
invented such a subtle instrument of torture as this knife-edged saddle."
"Shut up and work," Mildred panted. "At least we'll soon be going downhill."
"Is that going to be better?"
"Sure, Doc." Looking ahead she reached for the caliper brakes. "Hang on,
everybody. Here we go!"
"The good news," Ryan said, "is that nobody's been seriously hurt."
The cycling expedition had eventually ground to a halt around two-thirds of
the way down the vicious bends of the trail. Not all of them had made it that
far.
file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Ja...20Deathlands%2012%20-%20Latitud
e%20Zero.html (215 of 274) [12/29/2004 6:12:24 PM]
d16
Jak had gone first. Grinning over his shoulder, he'd never spotted the
half-buried length of rusted girder. It had jammed his front wheel, and the
boy had gone flying over the bars, turning a complete somersault in the air.
Only his superb reflexes had enabled him to control his body, twisting so he
broke the fall by landing half on his shoulder. He rolled with the impact,
sliding in a cloud of dust, finishing perilously close to a sheer drop to the
river.
J.B. came off next, skidding sideways and losing control. Stepping from the
fallen bike, he brushed the dust off his pants. "The horse was easier," he
said ruefully.
Page 110
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Krysty had a brake cable snap, sending her wheeling faster and faster down the
steep hill, with Ryan pedaling at breakneck speed to catch up with her. He
threw his arm out for her to hang on, both bicycles slewing sideways in a
clatter of loose stones and sand.
Ironically it was Doc and Mildred who avoided an accident. Moving sedately
downhill, the brakes squealing, they both leaned in on the sharp corners.
Their slower pace left them well behind the others, but the chain of falls
eventually caught them up with everyone.
Ryan brought them to a halt. "If we go on I reckon someone could get badly
hurt."
Jak was trying to get the clots of crimson dust from his tangle of white hair,
examining the graze on his elbow. "Bikes fun but fucking danger," he said.
"Let's walk."
"Trail still shows that arma wag heading on," J.B. said. The deep ruts of the
studded tires were unmistakable, following the winding track.
The Armorer had to shout to be heard above the noise of the river. Looking
back upstream they could see the jagged remains of the locomotive and the
carriages, still being pounded by the merciless water. Downstream it looked as
though the gorge widened out a little and the fast-flowing current became a
tad less lethal.
On level ground again, they were able to ride their bicycles. Everyone found
the going much easier, though Jak was noticeably more cautious and didn't
indulge
file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Ja...20Deathlands%2012%20-%20Latitud
e%20Zero.html (216 of 274) [12/29/2004 6:12:24 PM]
d16
himself in so many flash stunts.
"Looks like it might lead south," Ryan shouted, pedaling alongside Krysty.
"What?" She shook her head to show the sound of the rapids had drowned out his
voice. "Said river goes south!"
He took his left hand off the bars to point and nearly lost control of the
bike.
"Shame these little boogers don't float," she yelled. "Could just drift along
all the way to the Grandee."
The idea had already crossed Ryan's mind, and he'd been trying to scan the
frothing edge of the river as they rode along, inviting the risk of a fall.
But there'd been only an occasional piece of floating driftwood, chewed and
splintered by the sharp-toothed boulders.
The cliffs loomed far above them, the orange and gray stone dappled with
patches of bright green where small bushes had managed to establish themselves
in narrow cracks.
A colony of swallows darted at the top of the ravine, etching crazy shadows
against the blue of the morning sky. It was a beautiful place and Ryan let his
thoughts wander, as they did with increasing frequency, to his future. A
future that he liked to think of in terms of settling somewhere with Krysty.
Somewhere with a small house, well fortified. Good grass and sweet water.
"Ryan!"
Jak's breaking voice shrilled into the middle of his daydream, jerking him to
the reality of where they were. And who they were chasing.
The boy had been pedaling a little ahead of the others, vanishing around one
of the steep curves that followed the oxbow river. Moments after his
disappearance,
file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Ja...20Deathlands%2012%20-%20Latitud
e%20Zero.html (217 of 274) [12/29/2004 6:12:24 PM]
d16
the boy came back, hair flowing over his shoulders like a torrent of
Page 111
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
incandescent fire, calling out a warning to the others.
The huge earth slip, two hundred yards across, made it obvious why Strasser
had abandoned the arma wag. And the clear trail showed that he, with a woman
and a man, had clambered over the obstacle.
What was infinitely more interesting was what lay on the far side of the
mountain of earth.
Chapter Thirty-Five
THE HUGE LANDSLIDE, combined with the barren isolation of the place, had kept
it sacrosanct ever since the roiling black clouds of sky-dark. The few
stragglers who'd made a home in the ville high above had never bothered to
tackle the perilous descent to the raging waters. They didn't need to. From
the old trestle bridge they could peer with a superstitious fear into the
rainbowed gorge.
Before the missiles sang across the sky, that gorge had been one of the great
tourist attractions of the Southwest. Not far away had stood the Best Western
Running Rapids, a brand-new building with its four pools, atrium and leisure
suites, each with individual redwood hot tub.
In Deathlands nobody except the hopelessly insane ever went walking anywhere
for pleasure. The very idea would have been greeted with cackles of
disbelieving laughter.
There was a warehouse that held half a dozen deflated rafts, a gas-powered
generator linked to an air compressor, a changing room that held the rotted [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]