Black Harvest. James Axler

Jak asked, putting the tip of his index finger into a large pit in the outside of the door.

      “Yeah, and mebbe some grens,” J.B. added. “Recent, too.”

      “And all other manner of weaponry as well,” Doc offered.

      There’d been a firefight in the redoubt, that much was obvious. There were blaster marks on the walls, and entire sections of floor and walls that had been scarred by blasters and who knew what else.

      “Thought redoubts nukeproof,” Jak stated.

      J.B. turned toward the albino teenager. “They are, but that’s when the nukes go off on the outside. From the looks of this damage, there were bombs or grens going off in here.”

      “Then how come the chamber wasn’t damaged?” Mildred asked.

      Ryan tried to close the door to the chamber, but it wouldn’t swing back. He left the door where it was, hanging open at a strange angle. “Inside wasn’t damaged. Outside was blasted to hell.”

      “So it held together just long enough,” Mildred continued, “to receive one last band of jumpers.”

      J.B. nodded again. “Looks like it.”

      They inspected the outside of the chamber more closely for several moments.

      “Ryan, over here,” Krysty called from a corner of the control room.

      As Ryan made his way over to her, he became aware of the stench of rotting flesh.

      “Bodies,” Krysty said. “Lots of them.”

      There were at least a dozen bodies strewed across the floor near the wall. They’d been cut down by blasterfire and had died where they’d fallen. There were skeletons at the bottom of the mess, but some of the corpses on top didn’t look that far gone.

      Krysty suddenly raised her hand.

      The rest of the friends went silent.

      “Someone’s coming,” Krysty announced, her hair tightly wound around her head and neck as an added indication of the danger.

      Ryan signaled the rest of them to scatter and find cover, and then he waited in silence for the sound of footsteps. At last he could hear them, softly padding feet approaching their position at a modest rate, seemingly walking without purpose.

      And then he saw her as she rounded the corner to the room surrounding the chamber. Or perhaps more correctly, saw it.

      It was a young, pale-skinned girl. Her hair was a dusty black and her body was covered in fresh red scars and bleeding sores. She wore only a pair of shorts, and the tiny buds of her breasts told Ryan she was younger than twelve.

      Ryan stepped forward, and the rest of the friends followed, stepping out of the shadows. “Hello,” he said.

      She didn’t answer. Instead she just looked at him and smiled. “You got bang?” she said.

      Ryan wasn’t sure what the right answer was, so he said nothing.

      “Want bang.”

      Ryan shook his head, then looked to the rest of the friends for an answer.

      Mildred stepped forward. “Are you all right, girl? Is someone you know hurt?” Mildred looked confused. “What’s bang?”

      “Gimme bang,” she said, turning to Mildred.

      “I’m sorry, child, but I haven’t got any… And from the sounds of it, I don’t think I want any, either.”

      “Gimme bang!” she demanded, louder this time.

      “What’s wrong with you?”

      The girl didn’t answer. Instead she ran toward Mildred and leaped into the air, a knife glinting in her hand.

      But as the girl soared through the air, there was a sharp crack of a blaster and half of her head vanished in a spray of blood-red mist.

      Mildred wiped a bit of the child’s blood and brain matter from her face. “Damn! Thanks, Jak.”

      “Yes, well done, Master Lauren. Quick, decisive and an expert shot,” Doc said. “As always.”

      “What did she want?” Krysty asked.

      “Bang, whatever that is,” Mildred answered. “I don’t think she was hurting.” She knelt over the body and examined it. “Most of these scars have been healed over for weeks. The fresh ones look like she’d been picking at them.”

      “Mebbe was crazy,” Jak said.

      Mildred ignored the comment. “Well, whatever bang is, she wanted it pretty bad.”

      “Think it’s a drug?” Ryan suggested.

      “That would be a good guess.” Mildred got up from beside the body. “Can’t be sure, though.”

      “Well, whatever it is, it’s a good bet that there are other people in the redoubt,” J.B. stated.

      Ryan nodded. “Triple red, people.”

      The chatter going on behind Ryan died down, and his companions followed him through the redoubt in silence.

      As they moved up and down stairs, along corridors and through holes blasted in the walls, they could find nothing of value left inside the redoubt and no evidence of anyone else living inside it. Most items left behind had been destroyed, or had otherwise been rendered useless. Two sections of the redoubt that had been cleaned out were the medical lab and the kitchen. Everything inside those rooms had been carted away, with pipes and wires neatly cut from the walls rather than torn out in a hurry. Somebody was making use of the equipment, and likely using it for more than making meals and treating the sick.

      They continued searching the redoubt for anything of value, and as they turned the corner at the end of a long corridor, Ryan saw a light in the distance.

      It was a dimly reflected light, and had to be checked out.

      “Jak,” Ryan said.

      The albino teen moved to the front of the line and came up by Ryan’s side.

      “See where that leads,” Ryan commanded.

      Without a word, Jak headed down the corridor toward the light. The others had their blasters trained on the end of the hallway, covering him just in case.

      They watched the teen’s body get smaller and smaller until all that could be seen was his stark white hair growing brighter the closer he got to the light source. And then, all of a sudden it was gone as he turned the corner into the light. Minutes later he reemerged, and when he neared, it was obvious that he had some good news.

      “Outside,” he said, gesturing down the hall.

      “People?” Ryan asked.

      Jak shook his head. “No.”

      “What’s out there, then?”

      “Sky. Rolling fields. River.”

      “Anything else?”

      “What more want?”

      Ryan and the others walked toward the light and exited the redoubt to a hot, sunny day, the sky tinged by a slight purple hue with streaks of green and orange throughout. The surrounding fields were barren, or else overgrown by weeds, but they seemed to roll with the irregular undulation of foothills, suggesting they might be somewhere in the Midwest.

      Jak tapped Ryan on the shoulder and pointed to the south. “River, near trees.”

      Ryan took out his marine telescope from a pocket in his coat, extended it to its full length and brought the lens up to his eye.

      After making several adjustments to focus, he said, “About an hour away on foot. We can make camp there, mebbe catch something to eat in the river.”

      “Sounds