[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
means you, then this means you
."
NOW THE KAWASAKI WAS giving trouble.
Pete had tried cleaning the plugs, but it hadn't done much good.
Also, both of the bikes were running low on fuel. The garage in the town with
no name had jerricans of gas stacked on a bench, and they strapped two spare
cans on each pillion before setting off again.
Now that was almost gone.
"Don't want to run out when we're halfway through what's left of Memphis,
Tennessee," said Henderson McGill.
"Best we go around it."
"Yeah. North or south?"
"North'd be quicker," Pete said, studying the creased map.
"Looks easy?"
file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Ja...r%20-%20Earthblood%201%20-%20Ea
rthblood.html (114 of 226) [12/29/2004 10:47:32 PM]
file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/James%20Axler%20-%20Earthblood%201%2
0-%20Earthblood.html
"Sure. Turn off north at Forrest City. Few miles to Wynne. Then east to bring
us onto 1-55. Seems easy on the map."
They rode on through endless fields on either side of them, fields that would
have once been lush with a variety of crops. Yellow and gold and green.
Now they all looked the same, like something out of a documentary vid about
the
Dustbowl Depression of a hundred years earlier.
The land on both flanks of the blacktop was blasted, layered with tumbled,
Page 60
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
red, withered plants so rotted that it wasn't even possible to guess what they
might originally have been.
They rode in single file, both keeping on the alert, ready for any kind of
threat.
Back in Arkansas they'd found a smashed Harley, with the remains of its
decapitated rider lying near the wreckage. Two telegraph poles on either side
of the road held the rusting remnants of a thin wire that had obviously been
strung across to catch the motorcyclist.
Pete was taking his turn in the lead and he suddenly held up his right hand,
in their agreed warning sign. Mac throttled back, easing down to almost
walking pace.
"What?" he shouted above the throbbing of the two engines.
"Look." Pete pointed to a hand-painted sign set up in a field about a quarter
mile ahead of them: Cheap Gas In Hustonville. Two Miles.
The paint seemed fresh.
"Why not?" yelled Mac.
Chapter Twenty
file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Ja...r%20-%20Earthblood%201%20-%20Ea
rthblood.html (115 of 226) [12/29/2004 10:47:32 PM]
file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/James%20Axler%20-%20Earthblood%201%2
0-%20Earthblood.html
The warning lights were flashing on the corners of the bright yellow school
bus.
Though Jim Hilton had tried every available switch and button, nothing seemed
to turn them off. Since there wasn't a lot of traffic on the back road, it
didn't much matter.
They hadn't actually seen any other traffic since they found the abandoned bus
the previous afternoon.
Now they were closing in on Jim's Hollywood home, via winding back road from
the north.
The first six days had been tough going. Carrie was having recurrent
headaches, like vicious migraines. They'd needed to stop several times while
she lay down, pale and sick, her face looking as if it had been rebuilt from
slabs of candle wax.
The bright sunlight was particularly trying for her, and twice they'd had to
rest up during the middle of the day then push on toward Los Angeles in the
cool of the evening.
Water hadn't been easy to find at first. Then they'd learned to break into
empty houses and top up their bottles from the standing tanks in the roof. The
water was brackish, layered with dust and dead flies, but it kept them going.
The morning that they found the school bus they'd woken early, packed up their
tents and had a light meal of hi-concentrate food.
Jim had thought it was safe to light a fire against the dawn's chill, using
dry branches from a fallen sassafras. A thick column of pale smoke had risen
into the still, cloudless sky.
It had brought them company.
file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Ja...r%20-%20Earthblood%201%20-%20Ea
rthblood.html (116 of 226) [12/29/2004 10:47:32 PM]
file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/James%20Axler%20-%20Earthblood%201%2
0-%20Earthblood.html
Despite all of his survivalist training, Jim still got taken by surprise. He
hadn't thought it necessary to post any sort of watch.
The cold voice from the shadows warned him not to turn around.
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]