Remember Tomorrow
After twenty-first century America exploded in the chaos of a nuclear nightmare, a raw new landscape emerged, a world where death and dreams clash. Still, the best of the human spirit endures: the hope, the will to survive.But so does the worst: the greed, tyranny, the easy death. In his enduring odyssey across the hostile world called Deathlands, Ryan Cawdor is a warrior no enemy wants to cross.An earthquake in the Arkansas dust bowls leaves the companions for dead, until they are all reunited except for armorer J. B. Dix. Alive, though with no memory of the past, he is in the uncertain employ of the iron fisted ruler of a vital outpost along the routes that traverse the wastelands. Duma is the biggest, most dangerous ville in all of Deathlands, where jolt, jack, booze and sex are worth more than human life. Stalking Duma and preparing to attack this orgy of firepower is a crazed band of inbred worshipers of Nagasaki… and their unwilling new sec force led by Ryan Cawdor.
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Remember Tomorrow
Death Lands>®
Mankind, by the perverse depravity of their nature, esteem that which they have most desired as of no value the moment it is possessed, and torment themselves with fruitless wishes for that which is beyond their reach.
âFrançois de Salignac de la
Mothe Fénelon 1651â1715
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter One
âWhoever they were, they sure didnât believe in housekeeping,â Mildred Wyeth said dryly as she surveyed the smoke-blackened walls and the piles of trash that littered the floor of the redoubt room. Once an office, the comp terminals had been ripped from the walls, the desks had been broken up for firewood. The garbage spread across the room had the look of something long dead, a fire extinguished by the smoke-triggered sprinkler system.
Doc Tanner stood in the doorway behind Mildred Wyeth, shaking his head sadly and making tsking noises through his teeth. âTruly, this is a sad sign of the madness that descended on people when the fires rained from the heavens. Consider it, my dear doctor. From the condition of the wreckage, and the perfect stillness that seems to surround us, I would be not in the least surprised to learn that this was perpetrated some decades ago. Possibly almost a full century.â
âYour point being?â The black woman sighed. She knew where Doc was going with this, but wanted him to take the shortcut rather than the scenic route: she was tired, ached all over and had very little patience for Docâs long-winded perorations.
âSimply this, my dear doctor. This small piece of carnage must have been perpetrated within a few years of what the whitecoats lovingly termed ânuclear winter,â that age of madnessâ¦. As if giving it a natural and seemingly innocuous name would, in some way, atone for the foulâforgive me, Iâm moving away from my theme,â he added, catching himself, âI merely meant to make the point that within a few years, people seemed to be reduced to the level of unthinking savages. The knowledge of old tech would not be wiped out that quickly.â
âYeah, I know what you mean, Doc, but it isnât always that simple, is it?â Mildred replied. âPanic sets in, rad sickness maybeâ¦. Whoâs to know the psychological state of anyone who managed to somehow drag themselves here through what was happening outside. Whoâs to know, even, the psychological state of whoever was inside?â
âMyself, perhaps,â Doc uttered, his mouth set grim as memories of his time at the hands of scientists fluttered at the edges of his consciousness while he fought them back from a full remembrance that would drive him into madness once more. He shook his head, half dismissing the memories, half sorrowful at what conclusions he could draw. âIf they were military men gone mad, then they were no more than the next in a long, long line,â he said softly. âPray let us leave this as a memorial to their insanity.â
âI wonât disagree with you on that one, Doc.â Mildred turned on her heel and followed the old man into the corridor of the redoubt.
They had jumped into this place a few hours previously and their bodies were still recovering from the rigors of the mat-trans unit. To be broken down into molecules and transported across vast distances in the blink of an eye before being reassembled was hardly the ideal way to travel. The stresses placed on the psycheâlet alone the human frameâwere incalculable. Doc was one of those who found it hardest to recover and his mind always seemed to lag a little behind his body. Mildred was inclined to let him ramble at these times, especially if there was no immediate danger. And it did seem as though the redoubt had been invaded, looted and long-since abandoned.
The companions had split into three groups. Usually, Mildred would go with J.B., while Ryan and Krysty recced together, and Doc would accompany Jak. The sharp skills and instincts of the wiry albino teen would cover for Docâs occasional frailties of mind and body. But after a mat-trans jump, Jak was always one of the last to fully recover. Something about his body makeup responded poorly to having itself ripped apart and reconstituted, and he was always weak for a while after, needing more time to recover. Chances were he was sharp, as Ryan always allowed them time to get it together, but chances were something the one-eyed man never took, so J.B. would ride shotgun for Jak until the redoubt was secured.
Securedâthat would imply that there was anything left in the empty military base to be secured. As Mildred could see, the place had been gutted. Either a fleeing army presence or invaders who had in some way been able to gain access and had taken anything with them that wasnât nailed down and could be of any use.
The situation worried the woman. They were short on supplies and the kitchens, sick bays and armories of these bases had come in useful in the past. It was especially reassuring when you had no idea which part of the continent you were currently walking under. Until they found a reliable map source or actually surfaced, they had no idea where they were geographically.
