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STORY: Steratt is curly haired and light haired. He, Evans, and Gant
were coming to see the remains of Logan and Jess. The other two are angry but Steratt
smiles, happy for the chase perhaps. Mary Mary lived in a cave and that is where
Jess and she get Logan to. Mary Mary tells Jess that Gant doesn't care, he enjoys
inflicting pain. He homered a 17 year old once. Mary Mary came here with Ballard
as part of Sanctuary Line but she had to steal food to survive when Ballard died.
She knows Gant's plans: use Thinker to bring the cities back to life and control
the world. Thinker is just sleeping, not dead. Almost bald headed Fennister is soon
ready to activate the core--12 hours from now. Gant wants the core in six hours and
the main body in three days. From market, Gant has brought Fennister a dozen more
Techs to help. Logan comes to his senses somewhat. Mary Mary tells him, "I was
the little girl in the cathedral when you were running." Logan says, "I
remember." They look at the Worker's Supply: four guards, many with long blond
hair (or light brown). Logan will use the roof since Mary Mary tells him it is not
wired. "Who can hear a cat?" Logan asked. Logan gets protective suits (white
and with face masks with eye holes only) for the three of them. Mary Mary knows the
way to the Central Core and tells Logan she doesn't have a better idea but doesn't
have to like his. They get in the core with a changing shift of suited workers. If
they cut through the cords in the main power cables, the overload will blow up the
core. This will not stop Gant completely but will slow him down. By the time he reactivates
the core, Logan figures they can go and get help to stop him. For once, Gant was
drunk. Soon his desires would all be made flesh. Steratt informs Evans and Gant that
three flamers are missing. Logan flames a worker who asks what the girls and he are
doing. Logan huddles the girls away but Mary Mary goes back to the core...they are
not finished blasting the cables yet. Logan cracks another worker in the face and
wants to go back for Mary Mary but he and Jess are attacked with Nitro blasts. They
run toward the Technician's Cells. Gant catches Mary Mary, telling the others he
knows her. In a rock shelf, Jess and Logan see the riser and a clear view of it.
The vidphone in the prison area connects to Gant's personal quarters. Logan kisses
Jessica deeply. Logan calls in, telling them he is Steratt but when the brown haired
Sandman opens it and sees it is Logan, Logan kraks his neck and strips the body,
putting on the gray uniform. A guard on a higher bank asks about Steratt. Logan zaps
him to death and did not wait to see the guard die. Logan forces a guard to open
the cells but he tells Logan the cells are set to open automatically at shift time--only
Gant can open them between shifts. He orders the cringing man to get Gant on the
Vidphone and tells him to tell Gant he knows where Logan is and he wants to claim
the reward. Logan gets Gant at gun point. Mary Mary is alive, Gant says. Logan tells
him if she is dead Gant will wish he were...he will be a long time dying. Gant kicks
the gun from Logan who was distracted at the thought of Mary Mary being anguished.
Gant hits a wall switch which seals Logan in an area of steel panels, circular and
30 feet across. This was one of Gant's inventions in case he ever had to discipline
his workers. Logan bellied flat as the room became heated, then went black. Gant
comes in, wanting Logan to die by his hand alone. Logan's leg is hit. Gant keeps
talking, "No more Sanctuary, no more Jessica, no Ballard alive to help you..."
Gant forgot to keep moving. Logan gets behind him with a belt and chokes him, "Shut
up, Gant!" Gant reaches back and chokes him, "Damn you! Choke!" Gant
fell, beating the palms of his hands on the ground in panic. Then the fingers curled,
twitched, fluttered. Gant was dead. Jess came to face Gant when Logan didn't come
out. Workers were flooding out of cells, arming themselves. Evans could handle a
rag tag band of half starved workers. He needed some excitement...things had been
dull since Logan's escape. Logan clubbed the guard that was torturing Mary Mary in
the Storm Room. Inside, naked, Mary Mary was alive. Logan kraks the neck of the guard
once the door is opened. Evans, Steratt, and men are cornering the workers who took
refuge in a tunnel. Evans says, "The poor fools aren't even firing at us. Maybe
they think we'll go easy on them if they give up now." Steratt smiles, "Too
bad. I was actually looking forward to..." Evans and the entire group of Sandmen
were buried under a crushing downfall of rock under the personal direction of Jessica
6. Logan asks Fennister to kill Thinker. Fennister tells him that now that Gant is
dead, they could use it for the betterment of mankind instead of enslavement. Logan
says, "There's no good in it." Fennister is convinced by Logan to blow
it up and tells them that Crazy Horse must go with it. Fennister must stay inside
to monitor the device from inside, no way to do it from outside. He will die with
Thinker if he must. The countdown is from 100 and at 35, if Fennister makes it, he
will be back with them. There is a boom and Fennister slipped out and behind Logan
and Jess who saw each other and him after the white powder cleared. The evil that
died with Thinker was not the machine itself but the uses which men put it to. No
longer would metal and machine dictate life and death. Logan says, "It's done.
Really finished now." "Logan, with Jonath dead, the wilderness people need
a new leader---they need you." "No more leading. That's the wrong word.
I'll help people...you'll need help...Mary Mary will help...Fennister...all of us...together,"
Logan says. AND THE SUN BURNED, AND BURNED, AND BURNED IN THE ARCHED SKY OF THE BLACK
DAKOTAS. |