World's End

Page 95

120

Ilost the rover today. I knew I should have gotten rid of Spadrin.

I was trying to guide us through a boulder-choked gully, when he jumped me. He tried to bash in my skull with a bottle; but I've grown almost present. I dodged the blow and knocked the bottle out of his hands. But

Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

I had to let go of the controls. The rover ran up onto the rocks and flipped itself over.

We were thrown clear across the cabin when it happened.

The fall almost finished what Spadrin started. I

came within centimeters of breaking my neck. My shoulder hurts like hell. Spadrin was luckier, all he got was a knot on his head. ... Or maybe I'm still the lucky one: I stayed conscious. I got the rifle. Except it doesn't work. The integrator must have shattered. But he doesn't know that.

When Spadrin saw the rover lying on its back like a stranded beetle, he fell to his knees and beat his fists on the ground, screaming curses. And then, he looked up at me, with spittle dripping from his lips, and said, "You're crazy! You're fucking crazy! You don't even care!"

I only smiled, because I know what he couldn't know

--that it didn't matter. Nothing mattered--not Ang, not him. They were only tools, the means to an end. Because this was meant to happen "Pick up the supplies," I said.

I waved the gun. "Let's get going."

Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

We are getting closer. We are. We are. This is right. I feel it in my bones. I feel the heat of Fire Lake burning through my eyelids when

I close my eyes. I feel it throbbing in my chest. It warms me when the stones we lie on crack and groan with the night's chill, and I watch its glowing beacon through sleepless hours of darkness.

It purifies my blood, it leads me through the scorching days, through the valleys of death toward a ... toward a ... I'm afraid. I'm afraid.

22

ods, when did I say that? Was I delirious? Was it the drugs? Maybe I shouldn't take them, all the painkillers and the stims. . . . How can I

go on without them? But damn it, I can't afford to lose control again. How many days . . . Has time stopped?

I haven't slept at all. I've got to have sleep--but I can't sleep, with Spadrin waiting. A deathwatch beetle, waiting for the moment when I close my eyes. . . . That bastard, he can sleep, he's sleeping now, gods rot him. If only the gun worked, I could stun him. I want to strangle

Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html