Time Castaways by James Axler Read Free Book Online

confidently, jerking his Colt in that direction.
    “Now, how do you know that?” Mildred asked curiously, warily hefting her ZKR.
    Stoically, the albino teen shrugged. “Roots thinner to the right, thicker to the left. So that way out.”
    “Elementary, my dear Watson,” Doc said appreciatively.
    Having heard the quote many times before, Jak merely smiled in reply.
    “You do know that Holmes never actually said that, don’t you?” Mildred asked. “Not in the books, anyway. Only the movies.”
    “I am literate, madam,” Doc replied with a sniff.
    Ignoring the banter, the companions sidled carefully around the blaster crater, and Ryan took the lead. Heading to the left, the companions found a lot of closed hatches along the walls. If there had been time, they would have eagerly done a fast recon for anything useful. But right now, getting outside was the goal.
    Spying some lumps on the floor up ahead, Ryan slowed his advance, but soon he saw they were only a couple of crumbling skeletons covered with roots, the tendrils entwined among the loose bones and moldy strips of clothing. A gold ring glistened on the finger bones of a hand no longer attached to anything, and silver dots shone from the loose teeth inside a lopsided skull.
    “This might tell us something,” Mildred said, kneeling to inspect the plastic ID badge still pinned to a piece of uniform lying on a skeleton. Reverently, she lifted the rectangle from the morass of plant roots and human remains. “It seems that we are inside a U.S. Navy ship after all, the—” she bent and angled the badge to try to catch the light better “—the…USS Grover Harrington.”
    “Indeed, and who was that, madam?” Doc asked, craning his neck for a better look. “Some politician, perhaps?”
    Placing the badge down, the physician stood. “Never heard of the guy. He must have been an admiral.”
    “Don’t care who, what is?” Jak asked pragmatically.
    “Sorry, again I have no idea,” the woman replied honestly, wiping off her hands. “This could be anything from an aircraft carrier to a missile frigate.”
    “Well, at least we know it’s a boat,” Ryan said, easing his stance slightly. “Which means up is the way out.”
    Reaching the intersection, Ryan paused at the sight of a wide breach on the metal floor. The hole didn’t appear to have been caused by an explosion as the edges were feathered with corrosion, not bent and twisted from the force of a detonation. That was when he heard the slow drip of water from above. A split second later, a drop plummeted past the man, directly through the hole and into the darkness below.
    Kneeling slightly, Ryan lowered the flare into the darkness and froze at the sight of another robotic droid, apparently the same model as the one they had just aced. However, this one was in even worse shape, the dome already cracked, several of the rusty arms lying on the deck nearby, and a broken tread was hanging limply off the gears.
    “Not much of a danger there,” J.B. said with a touch of satisfaction in his voice.
    “Not unless we trip over it,” Krysty agreed.
    “What are those boxes behind it?” Mildred asked curiously, angling the beam of her flashlight.
    The weak beam did little to alleviate the murky interior, but slowly their sight grew accustomed to the darkness. Lining the rust-streaked walls in orderly rows were stacks of plastic storage boxes, faded numbers stenciled along the sides to identify the contents.
    “Those are full of MRE food packs!” Ryan exclaimed. “And those others contain ballistic vests!”
    “I see some Hummers and an LAV in the back!” J.B. called, grinning widely. “And the boxes over here are full of boots, field surgery kits, radios…there’s even one marked for freaking LAW rocket launchers.”
    “Excelsior!” Doc whooped in triumph. “We have hit the motherload of supplies.”
    “This much ordnance must have been en route to a military outpost when the world ended,”