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a few moments of peace and use it in that manner, knowing that they could just
for the moment let down their guard on the outside world and be totally
wrapped in each other.
But before that? The celebration was little more than a set of random images,
each distorted by that fearsome brew and its incredible strength. As Ryan
planted his feet on the ground and felt the impact travel up each calf, he
wondered how the others felt as they awoke.
JAK HAD AN aching head, but the will to dismiss it. Too long had he spent
hunting and living in hostile territories to let a hangover get to him. He
smiled as he spotted Doc, attempting to rise among a heap of bodies.
Considering that the surrounding ville dwellers were used to the brew and
mostly much younger than
Doc, it was a measure of the old man's constitution and wiry strength that he
was conscious before the majority of them.
The albino stepped over the bodies and assisted Doc to his feet.
"My thanks, Jak," Doc said, wincing at the apparent loudness of his own voice
in his aching head, "I fear that I in common with most imbibed far too much
last night."
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"Not much celebrate in this place," Jak commented. "Why not enjoy?" he added.
"True, true& but there was something troubling me last night. Something I felt
I
had to speak to Ryan upon& But I cannot for the life of me remember. Where are
the others?" Jak shrugged. "Too busy to notice."
"A fair point." Doc grinned. "I have not been that drunk since New Year's in
Vermont. For one wild, intoxicated moment I could almost have been back
there& " His eyes misted over as he recalled his beloved Emily, and his
children, Rachel and Jolyon, long since dead and buried even before skydark.
Jak took the old man's arm. "We find them," he said.
Doc looked confused for a moment. "What? Why, yes. It was just that I could
almost see them, before that hard rain began to fall and Wait!" He gripped
Jak's arm so hard that the albino felt Doc's bony fingers bite into the
muscle.
"The hard rain Sunchild. That's what I wanted to remember. Something I saw at
Samtvogel. They have more than just blasters, and now that they have been
routed, let us pray that he does not know how to use it, or that it isn't
operative."
Jak frowned and took Doc's chin in his free hand so that he could focus his
red eyes directly into Doc's.
"What worry you?"
Doc seemed to struggle for the words. "Hard rain& like the cursed whitecoats
and their appalling methods of destruction. It must have come from the redoubt
or a silo nearby. Thank whatever God is left that they didn't somehow detonate
it then."
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"Doc!" Jak barked, snapping the old man back to attention. "What it?"
Doc's voice was reduced to a whisper. "A nuke, my friend. They have, in the
middle of their ville, a nuke. The very thing that created them. A splendid
irony, is it not?"
WHEN DEAN REGAINED consciousness, he felt no pain from the blow that had
rendered him unconscious. He felt no headache, nor any of the pain and nausea
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from concussion or waking from unconsciousness. In fact, he felt as though he
were adrift on a sea of wool, muzzy but completely happy. He felt drugged.
He slowly realized that had to be the case, as he became aware of the fact
that his wrists and ankles were secured and that he was lying on the table in
the middle of the room.
Turning his head, he saw Jenna. There was no sign of the sec chief. Dean
smiled stupidly at her, unable to do anything else.
Jenna returned his smile, but with a sinister edge. "As you may have guessed,
young Cawdor, you've been sedated to keep you quiet and make you more
malleable. You'll make an interesting experiment. I've never had a subject as
young or as fit as you, nor one from outside this gene pool. I hope you're not
hiding any mutie traits, or that the redheaded mutie bitch isn't your mother.
Unfortunately, it's not easy to synthesize the drugs that were used on
previous experiments, not with what I have available at the moment. But I do
my best. I
think you'll find the chemicals I'll be using on you will perhaps hurt more
than they should, which is why I've put you under such a heavy dose. We'll
begin
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Axler,_James_-_Deathlands_56_-_Sunchild tonight, after I've appeased my idiot
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