Last Gasp полностью

Other travelers on the road had told them of conditions elsewhere. Arizona was a jungle as dense and impenetrable as any in darkest Africa. In California huge concentration camps covered half the state. Most of the travelers were hoping to find a way north, prepared to risk the tribal wars in getting to Idaho and Oregon. The jungle, so it was said, was advancing at the rate of four miles every month, but surely, surely, it had to stop somewhere; it had to, hadn't it?

"Is it still painful?" Ruth asked, examining Jo's leg. The wound in her thigh was superficial, but she was afraid that with the humidity and insects it might turn gangrenous.

"Not anymore. It's kind of numb. Doesn't bother me."

Ruth tightened her lips. "Well, that's good," she said, taking a fresh dressing from the medical pack. "I'll give you a shot to stop the infection spreading. Not much point in telling you to rest it, I guess. Not until we find somewhere safe." She glanced at Chase, her eyes clouded.

Nick and two other men appeared through the greenish gloom cast by the tall rubbery plants and swaying ferns. On the far side of the clearing what at first sight was a sheer ro.ck face was in fact the wall of a ten-story motel. Thick green lichen had gained a purchase in the pitted concrete, partly obscuring a signboard that read in faded Day-Glow: video gambling in every room plus 9-channel 3-d porno¹.

"Did you hear it?" Nick squatted down, the breath rasping in his throat. "I think it was a chopper."

"We saw it," Dan nodded. "It came in very low and flew straight down the river."

Nick's eyes brightened. "Did they see you? Any signal?"

"We kept out of sight."

"You . . ." Nick stared at Dan, then looked slowly around at the others. "What the hell for? Don't you know it means there's some kind of civilization around here--somewhere!" His shoulders sagged.

"That was a gunship with enough firepower to wipe out a city," Chase said. "I want to know who they are and what they're doing here. It's too late to ask questions when you've been napalmed--"

"You're talking as if we had a choice. Look around, Gav, open your eyes for Christ's sake!" Nick swept his arm out to indicate the thirty or so people in the clearing, weary, travel-stained, faces streaked with yellow, exuding hopelessness like a bad smell. "We're down to a few days rations, we've used up nearly all our medical supplies, we've nowhere to go, and you're fretting like a maiden aunt that someone's about to start World War Three." He shook his head in bewilderment. "Maybe it might be for the best if they did drop a nuke on top of us. At least it would be quick and painless."

Chase nodded grimly across the muddy water to the buildings choked with vines and foliage on the other side of the Strip. "If you're that anxious to die, Nick, that way's just as quick. I wouldn't give you fifteen minutes."

"I don't want to die, none of us do. But that's precisely what's going to happen unless we can get help. Any kind of help--and soon." Nick looked around despairingly. "Stay here and we starve, rot, and get eaten, and not necessarily in that order."

One of the others said, "I think Nick's right. Even if it was a gunship it must have been American, with our guys in it."

"Hell, for all we know it could have been a search-and-rescue mission!" said somebody else bitterly.

Ruth was staring hard at Chase, her eyes holding a message it took him a moment to decipher. Then he understood: It concerned Jo. Ruth said quietly, "We've got to find help, Gavin, and very soon."

During the day they had to contend with the airless oven heat, but after nightfall was worse. Insects came out in their millions. Centipedes a foot long undulated across the clearing and had to be beaten to a pulp before they got to the ration packs. Dan and some of the others went down to the brackish water to see if it was fit for drinking and disturbed a tribe of alligators snoozing in the mud.

They decided to seek shelter in one of the ruined buildings along the Strip.