Under the Dome

'They're coming in two trucks.'

'Only two?'

'Yes.'

'Orange?'

'Yes!'

Chef hitched up his pjs (they subsided to their former position almost immediately) and nodded. 'Town trucks. Probably those same three dumbwits - the Bowies and Mr Chicken.'

'Mr-?'

'Killian, Sanders, who else? He smokes the glass but doesn't understand the purpose of the glass. He's a fool. They're coming for more propane.'

'Should we hide? Just hide and let them take it?'

'That's what I did before. But not this time. I'm done hiding and letting people take things. Star Wormwood has blazed. It's time for men of God to hoist their flag. Are you with me?'

And Andy - who under the Dome had lost everything that had ever meant anything to him - did not hesitate. 'Yes!'

'To the end, Sanders?'

'To the end!'

'Where-at did you put your gun?'

As best as Andy could recollect, it was in the studio, leaning against the poster of Pat Robertson with his arm around the late Lester Coggins.

'Let's get it,' Chef said, picking up GOD'S WARRIOR and checking the clip. 'And from now on you carry it with you, have you got that?'

'Okay'

'Box of ammo in there?'

'Yep.' Andy had toted one of these crates in just an hour ago. At least he thought it had been an hour ago; fry-daddies had a way of bending time at the edges.

'Just a minute,' Chef said. He went down the side of the supply building to the box of Chinese grenades and brought back three. He gave two to Andy and told him to put them in his pockets. Chef hung the third grenade from the muzzle of GOD'S WARRIOR by the pull-ring. 'Sanders, I was told that you get seven seconds after you yank the pin to get rid of these cocksuckers, but when I tried one in the gravel-pit back yonder, it was more like four. You can't trust your Oriental races. Remember that.'

Andy said he would.

'All right, come on. Let's get your weapon.'

Hesitantly, Andy asked: 'Are we going to take them out?'

Chef looked surprised. 'Not unless we have to, no.'

'Good,' Andy said. In spite of everything, he didn't really want to hurt anyone.

'But if they force the issue, we'll do what's necessary. Do you understand that?'

'Yes,' Andy said.

Chef clapped him on the shoulder.

13

Joe asked his mother if Benny and Norrie could spend the night. Claire said it was okay with her if it was okay with their parents. It would, in fact, be something of a relief. After their adventure on Black Ridge, she liked the idea of having them under her eye. They could make popcorn on the woodstove and continue the raucous game of Monopoly they'd begun an hour ago. It was too raucous, actually; their chatter and catcalls had a nervy, whistling-past- the-graveyard quality she didn't care for.

Benny's mother agreed, and - somewhat to her surprise - so did Nome's. 'Good deal,' Joanie Calvert said. 'I've been wanting to get schnockered ever since this happened. Looks like tonight's my chance. And Claire? Tell that girl to hunt up her grandfather tomorrow and give him a kiss.'

'Who's her grandfather?'

'Ernie.You know Ernie, don't you? Everybody knows Ernie. He worries about her. So do I, sometimes. That skateboard.'There was a shudder in joanie's voice.

'I'll tell her.'

Claire had no more than hung up when there was a knock at the door. At first she didn't know who the middle-aged woman with the pale, strained face was. Then she realized it was Linda Everett, who Ordinarily worked the school-crossing beat and ticketed cars that overstayed their welcome in the two-hour parking zones on Main Street. And she wasn't middle-aged at all. She just looked that way now.

'Linda!' Claire said. 'What's wrong? Is it Rusty? Has something happened to Rusty?' She was thinking of radiation... at least in the front of her mind. In the back, even worse ideas slithered around.

'He's been arrested.'

The Monopoly game in the dining room had ceased. The participants now stood together in the living room doorway, gazing at Linda solemnly.

'It's a whole laundry list of charges, including criminal complicity in the murders of Lester Coggins and Brenda Perkins.'

'No!' Benny cried.

Claire thought of telling them to leave the room and decided it would be hopeless. She thought she knew why Linda was here, and understood it, but still hated her a little for coming. And Rusty, too, for getting the kids involved. Except they were all involved, weren't they? Under the Dome, involvement was no longer a matter of choice.

'He got in Rennie's way,' Linda said. 'That's what it's really about. That's what it's all about now, as far as Big Jim's concerned: who's in his way and who isn't. He's forgotten entirely what a terrible situation we're in here. No, it's worse than that. He's using the situation.'

Joe looked at Linda solemnly. 'Does Mr Rennie know where we went this morning, Miz Everett? Does he know about the box? I don't think he should know about the box.'

'What box?'

'The one we found on Black Ridge,' Norrie said. 'We only saw the light it puts out; Rusty went right up and looked at it.'

'It's the generator,' Benny said. 'Only he couldn't shut it off. He couldn't even lift it, although he said it was real small.'

'I don't know anything about this,' Linda said.

'Then neither does Rennie,'Joe said. He looked as if the weight of the world had just slipped off his shoulders.

'How do you know?'

'Because he would have sent the cops to question us,'Joe said. 'And if we didn't answer the questions, they'd take us to jail.'

At a distance, there came a pair of faint reports. Claire cocked her head and frowned. 'Were those firecrackers or gunshots?'

Linda didn't know, and because they hadn't come from town - they were too faint for that - she didn't care. 'Kids, tell me what happened on Black Ridge. Tell me everything. What you saw and what Rusty saw. And later tonight there's some other people you may have to tell. It's time we put together everything we know. In fact, it's past time.'