Damnation Alley

"Nuts! They stopped the plague in L.A. That's why we had the serum out there."

"Then something else will come along."

Ta

"You're one of them, though."

"I am not. You said so yourself."

"I was wrong. I'm mad."

Ta

"What are you going to do with me?" Kanis asked.

"Nothing. Keep pointing a gun at you till the storm lets up, because I don't trust you. Then I'm going to get into my car and drive away."

"Why don't you trust me? Because I'm a scientist?"

"Because you're mad."

"_Touché_. You could kill me, though."

"Why bother?"

"Maybe I want to be dead."

"Then do it yourself."

"I can't."

"Too bad."

"Would you take me with you to Boston?"

"Maybe. If you really wanted to go, and I thought I could trust you."

"Let me think about it."

"You asked me. Think all you want."

Ta

Finally, "No thanks," Kanis said. "They'd probably kill me, since I'm a scientist."

"I don't think so. They wouldn't in L.A.…But I thought you wanted to die?"

"Sometimes I do, and sometimes I don't. Have you got anything to eat? Anything you could spare? I'm terribly hungry?"

Ta

"Okay," he said. "Walk ahead of me, and don't make any quick moves. I'll even leave you some rations."

Kanis preceded him, all the way to the car.

"Turn your back, and remember, there's a gun on it."

Kanis did an about-face.

Ta

"Here. Have yourself a ball," he said, and he set the containers down on the floor of the barn and backed away.

He watched Kanis eat, until he couldn't believe that a man could be so hungry.

Then, "How do you feel?" he asked.

"A lot better, thanks."

"I'm sure they won't kill you in Boston," he said. "If you want to come along, I'll take you with me. What do you say?"

"No. Thanks. I feel better now."

"Why, for God's sake?"

"Because I've eaten."

"I mean, why won't you come along?"

"They'll hate me."

"No they won't."

"I helped, you know, when they burned the universities."

"So don't tell them about it."

He shook his head. "They'll know."

"How, you dumb bastard? Tell me _how?_"

"They'll know. _I_ know."

"Man, you've got a guilt hang-up. I've heard of them, but I never believed it till now. Forget it! I'll take you there, you can do whatever you want to your butterflies from now till hell freezes over, and nobody'll give a damn."

"No, thanks."

Ta

"Any way you want it."

There came a flash of blue lightning. The force of the downpour increased, until it sounded as if a thousand hammers fell upon the rooftop. An u

"What's _your_ name?" Kanis asked.

"Hell."

"I knew it," he said. "Do you believe in God, Hell?"

"No."

"I didn't, but I do now. 'Forgive me my trespasses..."

"Don't give me that lineup," said Ta

"I'm sorry. I..."

There came a rumble of thunder, which drowned out his following words.

Then, "... Kill me," said the man.

Ta

"Will you?"

"What?"

"Kill me?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Why should I?"

"I'd like it."

"Go to hell."

"I have."

"As you say, you're nuts."

"That is off the point."

"Do you want another cigarette?"

"No, thanks."

The rains relented a bit, and the thunders died. The lightnings fled away, and a natural quality of darkness returned to the quivering shadows.

"Okay, forget it," said Kanis.

"I already have."

"I don't mean to be a nuisance."

"I know. What do biologists do?"

"I've a doctor-of-philosophy degree in biological science. I'm a botanist, actually..."

"A doctor?"

"Yes."

"There's another guy inside my car, and he needs medical care. Will you take a look at him?"

"I'm not that kind of doctor."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm a doctor, but not a medical doctor. All I know about is botany."

"Biology is cutting up people and stuff like that, isn't it? Won't that help?"

"Not really. I don't know anything about medicine."

"Okay. I'll buy it. Too bad, though. He's bashed pretty bad."

"Sorry."

A certain brightness crept back into the day.

"Seems to be letting up," said Ta

"Yes."

"So I'll be going now."

"Now?"

"Why not?"

"It may start again."

"And then again, it may not. I'll have to take my chances."

Ta

"Wait!"

"What?"

"Nothing."

Then Kanis lunged toward him, plunging his hand inside his shirt as he did so. Ta

"You damned fool! Why did you do that?" he cried, rushing to the fallen man's side.

Kanis coughed and spat blood.

"Why…not?" he asked. "We are all…mad... Hell!" and the rattle of his outgoing breath filled Ta

"Crazy… Crazy..." said Ta

"I wish you hadn't done that," he said, and then he returned to the barrel and sat down on it and lit another cigarette, his hand still feeling the impact of the hot and fired gun within it.

"Crazy," he repeated. "Absolutely out of his mind. Like, mad.

"That's what he was," he finally decided. "He was right."

He sat there for a long while, feeling the cold, moist breezes; and the rainfall lessened after a time, and he went back to the car and started it. Greg was still unconscious, he noted, as he backed out.

He took a pill to keep himself alert, and he ate some rations as he drove along. The rain continued to come down, but gently. It fell all the way across Ohio, and the sky remained overcast. He crossed into West Virginia at the place called Parkersburg, and then he veered slightly to the north, going by the old Rand McNally he'd been furnished. The gray day went away into black night, and he drove on.

There were no more of the dark bats around to trouble him, but he passed several more craters, and the radiation gauge rose, and at one point a pack of huge wild dogs pursued him, baying and howling, and they ran along the road and snapped at his tires and barked and yammered and then fell back. There were some tremors beneath his wheels as he passed another mountain, and it spewed forth bright clouds to his left and made a kind of thunder. Ashes fell, and he drove through them. A flash flood splashed over him, and the engine sputtered and died twice, but he started it again each time and pushed on ahead, the waters lapping about his sides. Then he reached higher, drier ground, and riflemen tried to bar his way. He strafed them and hurled a grenade and drove on by. When the darkness went away and the dim moon came up, dark birds circled him and dived down at him, but he ignored them, and after a time they, too, were gone.

He drove until he felt tired again, and then he ate some more and took another pill. By then he was in Pe

He halted twice to visit the latrine, and he tugged at the golden band in his pierced left ear, and he blew his nose and scratched himself. Then he ate more rations and continued on.

He began to ache in all his muscles, and he wanted to stop and rest, but he was afraid of the things that might come upon him if he did.