Axler, James - Deathlands 61 - Skydark Spawn

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Axler,_James_-_Deathlands_61_-_Skydark_Spawn

"Survival of the fittest," Mildred stated

"What do you mean?" Ryan asked.

"There's something called the principle of natural selection that says the

strongest survive, and that a species continues to evolve through natural and

sexual selection. The baron's contest will ensure that the strongest male survives

to breed with the strongest female." Ryan nodded, then got up from the table to

"Where are you going?" the one-eyed man asked. Brody put a hand on Ryan's

shoulder. "There'll be at least a dozen men in that ring, all wanting to chill you.

If you're going to make a break out of here, you're going to have to be alive to do

it. You'll need someone to watch your back, and that's going to be me."

"Thanks, Brody. You're a good man."

"You're a good man, too, Ryan. Let's just hope for the sake of your woman that

you're also the best."

Skydark Spawn

#61 in the Deathland series

James Axler

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A GOLD EAGLE BOOK FROM WORLDWIDE

TORONTO • NEW YORK • LONDON • AMSTERDAM • PARIS • SYDNEY •

HAMBURG • STOCKHOLM • ATHENS • TOKYO • MILAN MADRID •

WARSAW • BUDAPEST • AUCKLAND

If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is

stolen property. It was reported as "unsold and destroyed" to the publisher, and

neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this "stripped

book."

It seems most strange that men should fear;

Seeing that death, a necessary end

Will come when it will come.

—William Shakespeare Julius Caesar

First edition March 2003

ISBN 0-373-62571-5

SKYDARK SPAWN

of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or

other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography,

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photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is

forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Worldwide Library,

225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the

author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or

names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or

unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

® and TM are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are

registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade

Marks Office and in other countries.

Printed in U.S.A.

THE DEATHLANDS SAGA

This world is their legacy, a world born in the violent nuclear spasm of 2001 that

was the bitter outcome of a struggle for global dominance.

There is no real escape from this shockscape where life always hangs in the

balance, vulnerable to newly demonic nature, barbarism, lawlessness.

But they are the warrior survivalists, and they endure—in the way of the lion, the

hawk and the tiger, true to nature's heart despite its ruination.

Ryan Cawdor: The privileged son of an East Coast baron. Acquainted with

betrayal from a tender age, he is a master of the hard realities.

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Krysty Wroth: Harmony ville's own Titian-haired beauty, a woman with the

strength of tempered steel. Her premonitions and Gaia powers have been

fostered by her Mother Sonja.

J. B. Dix, the Armorer: Weapons master and Ryan's close ally, he, too, honed

his skills traversing the Deathlands with the legendary Trader.

Doctor Theophilus Tanner: Torn from his family and a gentler life in 1896,

Doc has been thrown into a future he couldn't have imagined.

Dr. Mildred Wyeth: Her father was killed by the Ku Klux Klan, but her fate is

not much lighter. Restored from predark cryogenic suspension, she brings

twentieth-century healing skills to a nightmare.

Jak Lauren: A true child of the wastelands, reared on adversity, loss and

danger, the albino teenager is a fierce fighter and loyal friend.

Dean Cawdor: Ryan's young son by Sharona accepts the only world he knows,

and yet he is the seedling bearing the promise of tomorrow.

In a world where all was lost, they are humanity's last hope…

Chapter One

Ryan Cawdor opened his eye, then closed it quickly as a blinding jolt of pain

lanced through his skull. He half rose to his feet, then sank back to the floor,

dizzy. Bastard jumps always took a toll.

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The mat-trans jump was over, and, as usual, he and his companions lay on the

floor of the chamber, trying to gather their wits and keep the remnants of their

last meal in their stomachs.

After a few minutes, Ryan tried opening his eye again. The pain was still there,

but had now settled into a dull throb that he could handle.

"My word," Doc Tanner said, removing his swallow's-eye kerchief from a

pocket of his frock coat and wiping away a trickle of blood that had seeped from

his nose, "it never ceases to amaze me how utterly incapacitating these jaunts of

ours can be."

"Still able talk," Jak Lauren commented, lifting his right hand and moving his

fingers in a motion meant to simulate Doc's flapping gums. Jak hadn't fared as

well. The front of the young albino's tan T-shirt was stained with vomit that had

leaked out the corners of his mouth. He tried to clean himself up with a few

wipes of his sleeve, but all that did was spread the mess around.

Ryan's son, Dean, had fared better than the others. He looked a bit dizzy, but was

already able to stand. J. B. Dix sat with his back against one of the chamber's

walls. He'd lifted his head and had his eyes tightly closed as if he were in pain.

He was struggling to catch his breath.

"You all right, J.B.?" asked Ryan.

The Armorer shook his head as he removed his wire rimmed glasses from his

shirt pocket and put them on. "Had a nightmare. I was alone in a forest

somewhere. As I walked along a path, I was confronted by a huge mutie."

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"Chill it?" Jak asked.

"No, that's the thing. It approached me and I leveled my blaster and squeezed the

trigger…but the scattergun didn't fire. I tried it again and again, but nothing. The

creature kept coming, but the blaster wouldn't fire. Dark night! Didn't know what

was wrong with it because I'd just finished stripping and cleaning it in my

dream. So there I was, pointing a dead blaster at a mutie just itching to chill me."

"And did it?" Mildred Wyeth asked.

"Tore me to pieces with a set of talons as long and sharp as my Tekna. And I

couldn't even wake up. Hurt like hell."

Ryan looked at Mildred, wondering if the dream meant anything.

"Performance anxiety," Mildred stated.

"What? I don't have any problems with that."

"No, I don't mean sexual performance, John," Mildred chided. "Our lives often

depend on your knowledge. My guess is that lurking somewhere in your

subconscious you have a fear that at some point, when it matters most, you'll let

one of us down."

"But I was the one who was chilled."

"Yeah, and that's probably the way you'd want it to happen if it ever did."

"Not worry," Jak said, putting a hand on J.B.'s shoulder. "Not let us down."

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"Thanks."

The few moments Mildred had spent analyzing J.B.'s dream had done wonders

to revitalize the group. Krysty Wroth was showing signs of coming around, and

the rest of the companions were on their feet but still pretty groggy.

"I suspect," Doc said, tapping the silver lion's-head handle of his swordstick

against the walls of the chamber, "that this mat-trans is not constructed of

armaglass as is customary."

Ryan raised his arm and pounded the butt of his SIG-Sauer against one of the

dark charcoal-gray walls. Instead of the familiar tink of reinforced glass, his ears

were met with the sound of a dull, hard thud. "Concrete," he stated.

"Not only that, but look at the LD button," J.B. suggested.

Ryan scanned the walls, realizing that this chamber wasn't equipped with a Last

Destination button. "There is no button," he said.

"What does that mean?" Mildred asked.

"Not sure," Ryan replied.

"Maybe it's a one-way chamber," J.B. opined.

"What would you need one of those for?" Mildred asked.

"Who knows?" J.B. answered. "It's just a thought."

"The motivations of your predark government have baffled me at the best of

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times," Doc stated, "Add another puzzle to the file for future reference."

Ryan agreed with Doc. Whatever the reason behind this installation's

construction, it would be made clear to them soon enough.

"At least we're alive," Krysty stated.

Ryan turned and saw that Krysty was stirring. Her sentient hair had unfurled and

was now stretching to its full length, falling over her shoulders like red waves.

"How are you, lover?"

"I've had worse jumps," she answered. "Any idea where we might have ended

up?"

Ryan shook his head. It was possible to get an idea of the chamber's location by

the color of its armaglass walls, but they'd never been in this gateway before.

"I'll take a reading with my sextant when we get outside," J.B. said. "Hopefully

the skies will be clear."

Ryan sat down with his back up against one of the room's six walls. Now that he

knew his companions were all right, he decided to give himself some time to

recover from the jump. This one had been easier than most, but he still had a

fireblasted headache.

FIFTEEN MINUTES PASSED before the group had recovered and Ryan could

risk opening the chamber door.

As they'd learned over time, the friends needed to be on triple alert when

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entering a redoubt, never knowing who or what lay beyond the door. Anyone or

anything could have discovered a break in the solid concrete walls and found a

way inside.

"Triple red, people," Ryan said, putting his hand on the door. He looked around

the group, making sure that each of his friends was prepared for whatever might

be out there. Krysty had her Smith & Wesson .38 at the ready, while Doc

clutched his LeMat blaster. Mildred had her Czech-built target revolver in her

right hand, bracing her right arm at the wrist with her left hand to steady it. J.B.

had opted for his scattergun, despite its worrisome malfunction in his dream.

Dean leveled his Browning Hi-Power and Jak brought up the rear with his Colt

Python. Ryan had his SIG-Sauer ready, but since he was opening the door, it was

unlikely he'd be the one taking the first shot in the event of trouble.

"Ready?" Ryan asked one last time.

Everyone nodded.

He opened the door to an empty room.

After a few moments of tension, the companions relaxed somewhat. The room

was small and completely bare. The walls were made of cinder blocks, and the

floor and ceiling had been constructed of poured concrete. When the door had

opened, a single, naked bulb close to the high ceiling switched on, casting a dim

light into the room. The room's main feature was a concrete staircase that led

almost straight up thirty or more feet before terminating at a landing that was

about four feet directly below a set of large doors. The doors appeared to serve

as a hatchway.

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"What do you make of that?" Ryan asked.

"Strange," Jak commented.

There was no arguing with Jak's logic. The entrance to the redoubt was like

nothing Ryan had seen before.

"Hey, there isn't even a handle on the outside of the chamber," Krysty said.

Ryan turned to take another look at the chamber and saw that what Krysty had

said was true. If they shut the door they wouldn't be able to use the chamber

again.

"Looks like this really is a one-way chamber," J.B. said. "And that—" he

gestured to the stairway "—looks like the only way out."

"Well, if that's the only way out, we should quit standing around and find out

where it goes," Mildred suggested.

Without another word Ryan headed up the stairs toward the landing. When he

reached it he had to crouch to avoid hitting his head on the doors above them. He

signaled the others to join him.

"What now?" Krysty asked as the rest of the group reached the landing. Only

Dean was able to stand up straight, but even he had to duck his head a bit to

avoid hitting it against the heavy overhead doors.

Ryan pushed his right forearm against one of the doors. It didn't budge. For the

second try he put away his SIG-Sauer and pushed against the door with both

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Axler,_James_-_Deathlands_61_-_Skydark_Spawn"Survivalofthefittest,"Mildredstated"Whatdoyoumean?"Ryanasked."There'ssomethingcalledtheprincipleofnaturalselectionthatsayst\hestrongestsurvive,andthataspeciescontinuestoevolvethroughnatura\landsexualselection.Thebaron'scontestwillensurethatthestrongestmal...

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Axler, James - Deathlands 61 - Skydark Spawn

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