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at El Paso.
Colby Greene produced his government credentials and explained that people who
were involved in a vital official mission were stranded up in the hills about
ten miles west where their plane had crashed, and he needed assistance. The
major regarded him with much the same look as the sheriff's deputy had given
them back along the interstate.
"Well, I'm not sure that kind of authority means too much anymore," he said.
"And even if it did, we've got our hands kind of full right now to be worrying
about a few more people ten miles up in the hills. And even if we didn't, we
don't have any way of getting anyone there."
"You've got choppers," Dan said. "We heard one ourselves, coming in when we
were back the other side of the crater."
"No av-gas," the major told him. "A plane that went out of here earlier took
the last we had. Two road tankers were on their way here to fill our tanks,
but they didn't make it through Phoenix.
We're supposed to be getting an emergency load flown in tomorrow morning, but
until it gets here nothing's going out. So why don't you and your boys get
something to eat, find a corner to bed down, and rest up for the night? You
all look as if you could use it."
42
The tanker flight was diverted elsewhere. Back in the trailer the next
morning, Keene listened with Mitch, Colby, and Dan while the major talked on
the line with somebody in El Paso.
"Look, we've got half of California coming in off the interstate this morning.
I need food, I need doctors, and I need medical supplies. But I can't have
anything flown in, because until I've got something to refuel them with,
nothing that brings any of it can get out again. . . . Base facilities? What
are you talking about, base facilities? There aren't any base facilities. They
got wiped out yesterday. What planet have you been on? We're having to dig
ourselves holes in the ground here."
He listened a while longer, then replaced the receiver and looked at the four
who were waiting.
"All I can tell you is that this isn't the only area that got pounded. It's
still going on in some places. Everywhere's a mess. They said they'll do what
they can. We might be able to get a supply through by road from a depot I've
located in California. What else do you want me to say?"
It seemed there was nothing more to be done, probably for the rest of that
day. The group vacated the space they had been using in one of the previously
prepared shelters, and Mitch detailed
Legermount and three troopers to begin constructing one of their own. He
outlined a plan for a rectangular pit five feet deep, the excavated material
being used for sandbags to build up the sides, with a roof of alloy beams and
corrugated steel sheet from some wreckage nearby, topped with four feet of
sand. With that task under way, he left for a tour of the center, accompanied
by
Dan and the two other men to see what else was happening and if they could be
of help. Thousands of people were beginning to appear now, jammed into their
own vehicles or brought in by emergency trucks, many others walking. There
simply weren't the facilities or staff to take care of the horrendous numbers
of injured; trucks stacked with bodies left regularly for the mass graves that
had been bulldozed behind a hill a mile or so from the center.
The entire center had become a maze of workings and diggings along one side of
the airfield, made by human moles burrowing into the soil. Keene tried to put
in his share of pickaxing and shoveling, but it was hard to match the pace of
younger men at the peak of fitness and training, especially since his legs had
stiffened since yesterday. The dust choked, even through a wetted handkerchief
tied around his mouth. His lips had swollen and dried, and his tongue was
painful where he had bitten it in the crash, making speaking and eating
difficult. His face felt like one throbbing, open sore, and he could no longer
bear the touch of trying to wipe off the perspiration.
Page 186
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Halfway through the morning, meteorites and gravel began falling again. There
were no big detonations like the one that had gouged away part of I-10 the day
before, but a steady rain continued of missiles thumping into soil or
impacting on rocks and metal with bangs like rifle bullets. People were hit, [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]