Logan's Run by William F. & Johnson Nolan Read Free Book Online Page A

them. A strutting, feral-faced thirteen-year-old headed the pack. From the waist up he was dressed in the bloodstained uniform of a DS man. Below the ripped black tunic he wore sweat-darkened skintights. "Here now and look what Charmin' Billy led you to." He smirked. "The little rat-trapper and two stinkin' runners."
    Mary-Mary stomped her foot. "You go on away!" she demanded. "This is my place. Go back upstairs!"
    Charming Billy ignored her. "Going to have us a time, we are!"
    Logan measured the pack with his eyes. He could summon the car in another five minutes. How do you buy five minutes? He'd take out the blocky cub to his right first and then go for Charming Billy if nothing else worked. He eased Jess and the child behind him.
    Logan looked at Billy. "I feel sorry for you, boy."
    Confusion. The pack watched their leader.
    "For me? Better feel sorry for yourself, Runner!"
    "No—for you , Billy. How old are you?"
    Billy's eyes slitted. He didn't reply.
    "Twelve? Thirteen? Now me, I'm as old as you can get." Logan slowly exposed his blinking timeflower. "And you—your days are running out. How long can you last, Billy?"
    One minute gone.
    "Two years? A year? Six months?" he pointed to the blue flower glowing in Billy's palm. "What happens when you go to red?"
    "Got me a Sandman once, I did! They said I'd never get him, but I cut him up good, I did. Make the rules as I go. Cubs do what I say. Always have. Always will. I got Cathedral and I'll never let go!"
    "No cubs at fourteen, Billy. Ever heard of a cub with a red flower? You'll leave Cathedral then, Billy, when you're on red, because they won't let an adult stay here. The young ones. They'll gut-rip you if you stay, so you'll cross the river. And then, almost before you know it, Billy, you're twenty-one and your hand is blinking. And you'll die like a sheep."
    Two minutes gone.
    "Not me, I won't!" Billy shouted. "I'll—"
    "—run!" snapped Logan. "Isn't that just what you'll do? Run as I'm running. As she's running."
    "Shut up! Shut up your damn mouth! I ain't no stinkin' runner!"
    "We're the same kind, Billy. You're just like us. Help us, Billy. Don't fight us."
    The blocky cub cut in. "Let him suck Muscle. That'll shut his mouth. Let's us watch him shake himself to death!"
    The anger and frustration drained from Charming Billy's face. He smiled.
    Logan tensed. The talking was done.
    Three minutes gone.
    Drugpads materialized. The cubs squeezed the pads, inhaled the Muscle. They shimmered into kaleidoscopic blurs, into weaving color patterns. Here. There. They were everywhere.
    Logan fell back into a fighting crouch, but before he could strike a blow he was caught, dragged and slammed against the wall.
    Screaming, Mary-Mary broke from Jessica and ran off down the tunnels.
    A staccato burst of words; the blocky cub's voice, "GivehimsomeMuscle!"
    "Shakehimtodeath!"
    "Killhim!"
    A drugpad danced the air in front of Logan's face.
    Four minutes gone.
    Logan held his breath. The fumes enveloped him; if he breathed . . . He felt the Gun pressing into his thigh. The Gun .
    Despite revealing himself to Jess, he'd have to use the Gun.
    He wrenched his arms loose, dropped to the floor, rolled free of the weaving shapes, drew and fired.
    The nitro charge exploded into the pack. Fragmented bodies littered the platform.
    Five minutes!
    Logan quickly pocketed a drugpad and key-punched the callbox.
    Jess stared at him with revulsion. "Sandman! You're a Sandman!"
    A mazecar swooped out of the depths.
    "In!"
    Jessica hesitated. Logan pushed the girl inside, leaped after her. Before the hatch could engage a black shimmer filled the space.
    The shimmer solidified into Charming Billy.
    He was headless.
    The hatch shut.
    The mazecar slammed into night.

A light flares.
    He smiles. Logan's Gun has been fired.
    He notes the coordinates. They pinpoint a spot beneath the dead area of Cathedral.
    He goes there.
    He examines the bodies on the platform.
    He picks up a used Muscle pad, flings it