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Back in their living quarters, the first person he saw was J.B. The Armorer
looked impassively at Ryan's torn and blood-soaked clothes and came as close
as he ever did to a smile.
"Fresh air good, Ryan?" he asked.
"I've had better," Ryan replied.
PREDICTABLY, IT WAS J. B. Dix who discovered the museum of arms and armaments.
"I can smell guns," he said. "Followed the scent of oil and steel and lead and
grease and brass. Found it up on top level. Even got ob slits. See for miles."
"See what?" Ryan asked.
"Nothin'. Snow. Couple of volcanoes north and east. Sky full of chem clouds
and general nuke shit. Lot of yellow, from the smokies, I guess. Come an' see
it."
Ryan grunted in reply, but didn't move, continuing to eat in silence,
oblivious to the rest of the group. Something peculiar was happening in the
redoubt. Three of the microwaves had already stopped working. Several of the
sealed clothes stores that Quint had allowed them to open were showing signs
of rapid deterioration, with garments becoming frayed and actually rotting.
The water-purifying plant in their dormitory had started to malfunction,
sometimes providing a thin green scummy liquid that smelled of death. Ryan had
talked about this with J.B. only the night before, and they'd agreed that the
redoubt and stockpile had been sealed against outsiders for so many years that
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their presence had upset the delicate balance of the machinery. Quint was
obviously aware of it and kept asking them when they were going to leave. Yet,
oddly, some of them got the feeling that he didn't want them to go.
They finished their evening meal, chucking the disposable plates and cutlery
down the garbage chute. Finn paused by the sliding panel for a moment,
listening.
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"Fuckin' funny noises down there. Like rocks grindin' against each other."
With J.B. leading the way, they left the dining room and headed for the
armaments museum, marking their progress on their own maps. From ingrained
caution, they paused at every turn of the corridor. They saw no sign of Quint,
Rachel or Lori as they advanced quietly up to the top of the stockpile.
"Here," J.B. said, putting his hand against an illuminated rectangle set flush
in the wall to the right of a door. The door slid silently open, revealing a
foyer. On the wall there was a sign.
"Do not touch exhibits. Ammo filed beneath under cross-refs," read Krysty.
"Look there," said Ryan, pointing to another sign, hand painted, not neatly
printed like the other one.
It's nice to come, if you've got your pass.
But if you don't we'll bust your ass.
The double doors at the far side of the foyer had small circles of glass set
in their tops. Ryan pushed them open, stopping so suddenly that Hennings
walked into him.
"Fireblast!"
"What the& Oh, fuckin'& "
The museum stretched out ahead of them, dim lights brightening in the large
hall as sensors detected their presence. It wasn't the array of weapons that
caught everyone's eyes. It was what was nailed to the floor just in front of
them.
All of them recognized it as the mummified corpse of a young child. Either it
had been assembled by a crazed and skilful surgeon, or it was one of the worst
mutations that any of them had ever seen. Despite the dried, leathery skin, it
was
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possible to make out scars from what had once been suppurating sores all over
the body. The umbilical cord dangled like a knotted brown string, and a
shrunken penis revealed the original sex of the child. Though it looked to be
only a few weeks old, it had a full set of needle-sharp teeth, and its
fingernails were long and curved like claws. Ryan counted nine fingers on the
right hand. The left hand sprouted from near the shoulder. It looked like a
little paddle of lacy skin and had at least a dozen fingers on it. The legs
were less than three inches in length, ending in toes that lacked nails.
At the shoulders there were the stubs of what looked like the wings of a
prehistoric flying reptile. The crucified baby had two heads, one with only a
residual stump of a skull, hardly visible in the shadows. The ribs were
appallingly distorted, running more from top to bottom than from side to side,
and the pelvis was strangely tilted, obscenely large for the rest of the
torso. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]