In amongst the boulders on the side of the hill, they finally felt secure enough to relax. The pebbles and sand and dirt crunched under their feet as they moved, and Brian and Sooty carefully covered their trail each step of the way.
"Listen," Kerry said.
"What?" Sooty looked around her. "I don't hear anything."
"Yeah. No animals." She shivered. "I've seen enough people die of radiation poisoning. I don't want to join them."
"You brought the geiger counter, didn't you?"
"I'm scared to turn it on."
"Fine. I will." Sooty grabbed the machine and turned it on. It clacked fiercely. Sooty turned it off.
"Well, we've probably already been here too long," Kerry sighed. "It doesn't really matter now."
"Cheom will provide," Brian added helpfully. "Keep the sacred word within your hearts. KAOT."
"Sounds kinda like KAOT PECTATE to me," Kerry laughed.
"BLASPHEMER!! Use not the sacred word in vain! Kaot pectate is almost as bad as pepto bismol, but worse."
An electric hum came from below. The three hid behind rocks and watched as a vehicle of sorts approached the checkpoint. It pulled up to the corpse and stopped. A door opened and another creature jumped out, gun ready. It looked around the surrounding area with some sort of binoculars, then said something to the vehicle. Two other creatures jumped out. One checked the charred corpse; the other approached the ruined Harley. After a brief discussion, they got back into the vehicle and headed down the road toward McNeeleywood.
"Poor John," Kerry whispered.
"Yes," Brian responded. "We must move quickly."
They scrabbled up the hill. The rocks were becoming slabs of concrete and rusted iron beams. Brian boosted Kerry up onto a large slab, and she helped Sooty up. Then she helped Brian up. With a grinding sound, the slab began to move and tip. It slid forward with a low rumble, then tipped over, throwing them into a very dark place.