Genesis Echo: Book Summary
The reason Sukie Smith screamed was because she happened to find the corpses of the people who brought the nuke to Jak’s homestead. The woman has been dead for nearly two days, and the man isn’t that far behind. They are still searching for the elusive note that Ryan knows Krysty would have left for him.
Out of the blue, Trader attacks Sukie, with a hard punch. Doc immediately comes to her rescue, but the reason he attacked her is because he knows she found the note that was left to them and took it. Reluctantly she admits to doing so. The reason is she wanted her and Doc to stay together. They learn where the others are waiting for them and prepare to leave.
They consider burning the ranch, but refrain from doing so as the ash would spread the radioactive material for hundreds of miles. They also consider burning the nuke, but after Doc relates a story on how over eight hundred and sixty men were given a shovel, then told to take one shovel full of radioactive material and dump it. Over seven hundred and fifty were dying or dead within two years from rad poisoning. His point having been made, they leave the nuke and simply post warnings on the farm.
An hour later, they meet up with the rest of the group, and after nearly two month’s absence, they are together again. Ryan and Krysty talk about the fact that Trader is now with them, and she wonders if he will end up coming between her and Ryan. He assures her that Trader will not.
Just before dawn the next day, Judas, the mule finds the camp, much to everyone’s surprise, including Doc’s. They spend a short time discussing their plans and in the end, everyone agrees to try a jump, see where it takes them. Doc is actually saddened to see the old Mule leave, and they then make their way to the ruined redoubt.
Sukie is on the verge of panic and despite everyone’s assurances she manages to get up and leave the chamber as the jump is occurring. All Ryan can hear is a scream before the darkness takes over his mind. When he comes to, she’s gone, and all that they can see is a part of her boot heal lying on the floor. To his shock and horror, he sees Trader with the barrel of the Armalite in his mouth, finger wrapped around the trigger, ready to pull it. He flicks the safety on the weapon before trying to take it away from his old leader. Good thing he did because Trader squeezes the trigger as he wakes up.
Ryan is forced to take control of the situation, and makes it clear to Trader that he, not Trader is the groups leader, and he decides what they do and don’t do. They wait around for Doc to finally come to and then go explore the redoubt.
Upon exiting the gateway they hear an automated voice. Other than a few minor isolated instances, like in the space station, they have almost never encountered such a thing. The redoubt itself seems to be in perfect condition, no sign of seismic damage. Along one corridor they spot a blood stain and pock marks in the wall from where an execution had taken place.
As they continue to explore, they find that most of the sprawling redoubt is closed off to them. The only section that they can get into is the dormitory section. Here they are unable to find any food but decide to bed down and get some badly needed rest.
During the night Abe goes to relieve himself and is attacked by hundreds, if not thousands of spiders that made the ventilation system their home. His screams of surprise and horror awaken the others who come running and rescue him. After the attack is over and Mildred pronounces him fit to fight, they go back to get some sleep.
The air in the redoubt gets worse and then the computer voice comes on and announces that the area’s four and five have to be evacuated as they are going to be purged to total vaccum in ten minutes time. They all race back towards the gateway to make another jump out. Ryan waits for Doc, which nearly cost both of them their lives.
The next redoubt they come to is quite large as well. Part of the redoubt is marked as nuked. They don’t spend much time exploring as it would be pointless and go outside. They discover that the redoubt is located in the Acadia national park. The redoubt is located deep in the Cadillac mountain.
Almost from the word go Trader and Doc have been at odds. Doc is quite upset about the fact that the military used and in some cases ruined some of the nations national parks to place their secret military installations. As they are apt to do, they go exploring.
Later in the day they kill a deer and eat. Ryan and Krysty talk again about Trader. He asks her straight if she likes his old leader. She tells him to ask her again in a few days time. They spend most of the day relaxing and taking it easy until Dean comes under attack from a huge German shepherd dog, as big as a huge wolf. They are too far away to help, so Mildred takes a shot. Trader is sure that all will happen is Dean’s Death. He is sure she missed, when in reality, she shot the dog right through the ear, killing it. They find a collar on the dog which Ryan pockets and then dump the corpse in the lake.
Ryan wants to examine the dog closely again and they go to retrieve it, when an identical dog shows up and Ryan has to put a round through it’s chest, killing it as well. The only difference between the first dog they killed and the second is the number on it’s collar. Ryan takes that collar as well.
Around the fire they discuss the encounter with the dogs and consider returning to the redoubt and jumping out again. But their curiosity regarding the redoubt and the park prevent them from doing so. They set guards and go to sleep. During the night while Ryan is on guard duty Doc is awakened by the sounds of something near the water. Turns out it’s a small army of water shrews going to get a drink. Jak also mentions that he is sure he heard someone calling out, and that he heard dogs.
Ryan also happens to find a badly tortured man while he is on patrol. They take him back to the camp where Mildred examines the dying man, announcing that he has been operated on many times, and it’s the combination of the operations that is killing him. Before he dies, Dean listens as he tries to speak. All he can hear is ‘twins’ and ‘coning’ before the man dies.
A few minutes later a group approaches the camp. Fearing that it may be the people responsible for the man they found, they through his body on the fire as well as a huge pile of wood. The camp is approached by a group of sec men and a whitecoat named Landrow Buford. He invites them to come back to the institute, and before they leave, he asks if they have seen something that they lost. After questioning, they find out that they were searching for the German Shepherds that the group killed earlier during the day. Dean says that they saw the dogs about five miles away.
On their way to the institute, Dean is sitting on a huge dead tree when it breaks and traps him below it. They want to get gear from the institute but Dean will not survive the wait. Krysty is forced to use her mutie strength to free him, which fascinates Landrow. He asks if when she has recovered if they can examine her more closely. She is severely drained, and it nearly kills her, so they are forced to wait several hours before they can continue on the way.
Once they near the institute they have to pass through three check points on the way, and when they arrive they can see that two of the buildings wings have collapsed and the rest are in fairly bad shape. They are taken inside and given rooms. The facility is called the Acadia Institute. Mildred learns that it had a cryonics facility but the wing that it had been housed in collapsed forty five years ago. She goes to check it out anyhow and is able to take a good look around. She figures that there is a little over one hundred people in the facility.
Ryan goes out on his own and runs into Ellison, but this time Ellison doesn’t have the mustache on his face. He claims that he has never met Ryan and they nearly get into a fight over it but Landrow steps in before blood can be spilt.
At supper, the food is terrible, but they have the chance to meet the head of the institute, a man named David Crichton. His grandmother was supposed to have started the institute way back in 1999, just two years before the skydark. He himself is eighty three years old. He refuses to answer the parties questions on what the white coats want from them, and Ryan really begins to dislike the man.
After the meal they go on a tour of the facility. The scientists can’t believe that Mildred has any knowledge regarding science or medicine. They also learn from the scientists that they possess no knowledge on how to perform even the simplist of operations, as all the knowledge they had was stored on books and film, and all these records were lost in a huge fire thirty years before. The main body of their research has been into genetic engineering, which they have had some success. They plan to purge the mutants from the Deathlands with this knowledge. Krysty reluctantly agrees to help them with some of their research.
Back at their room, Doc mentions that he spotted a sign mentioning that the institute had a MAT TRANS unit.
The next morning Krysty and Ryan talk about the gateway and come to realize that the facility must have had military funding to warrant a gateway being located on the premises.
At breakfast they learn from Ellison that there is a ville about fifteen miles away and that around noon several of the scientists as well as the sec men are going to go and hunt down a huge mutie bear and her cub. Ryan and the others are allowed to join, but Krysty and Mildred are staying behind.
Just after lunch Landrow, Ellison, and another scientist, a woman named Dorthea Gibson meet up with about twenty sec men and the party and prepare to head out. The weather is very bad for a hunt, the temperature well below freezing with the wind chill, but they still go out in it.
The combined hunting party splits into three groups to track the bear down. Ryan and Trader find themselves with the woman, Gibson. They don’t get along at all, but have no real choice in the matter.
As they travel to find the bear, a blizzard hits but quickly passes. Gibson is certain that the rest of the day is going to be fine, but Ryan is not so sure. He is sure that it’s only a lull in the storm and that within an hour, it’s going to return. He wasn’t wrong.
Mildred gets bored waiting with Krysty and decides to make another recce of the closed off section of the institute, to find out what the scientists are hiding. She leaves Krysty to finish waiting for the scientists to finally get to her.
With the weather turning really bad, the group J.B. is with, as well as Ellison’s group decide to forgo the hunt and return to the institute. Gibson wishes to return as well, but in the near white out conditions she gets the group lost. They do spot a cave to take shelter in though.
When the scientists finally bring Krysty in, they bombard her with question after question on her past. The scientists want to drug her but she flat out refuses and demands to be allowed to return to her room. She tells them that they can continue with their questioning in the morning.
Mildred stumbles upon an area which is guarded. The door she sees is very similar to a prison cell door she saw years before the skydark. She almost panics when she hears sem men approaching.
The cave Ryan and the others found turns out to be inhabited by the Grizzly that they were hunting. A cub comes out and they blow it apart, then ready themselves as it’s only a matter of time before the enraged female comes out after her dead cub. Sure enough, it comes charging out and chases after the surviving sec man as he loses his nerve and tries to race back down the trail. They can hear the mutie grizzly tearing the man apart.
Ryan opts to go into the cave and act as bait, knowing that the mother bear is going to be returning. As it enters the cave, Trader and Gibson open up on it, as well as Ryan. Their combined firepower kill the huge mutant, and it collapses on top of Ryan knocking him out. Other than that, he escapes unharmed.
There is no way that they can make it back to the institute before night falls so the three of them get to work and build a snow shelter to protect them during the night. They climb in and eventually manage to get some sleep.
The guards leave the secured area, allowing Mildred a chance to slip into the closed off area and see what they are hiding. She has discovered the scientists ‘failed experiments’. The sight of so many horribly deformed people sickens her. She is about to go back and meet with the others when a sec man catches her.
Gibson leads Ryan and Trader back to the institute through a seldom used back trail because she feels greatly indebt to them for helping keep her alive during the night. On the way they run into a three man patrol and Gibson distracts them. She hoped that Ryan and Trader would simply turn and run, but they don’t. It’s over faster than she could imagine and the three sec men are dead. She leads them inside the institute through an open window.
The scientists didn’t allow Krysty to return to the room. They kept her prisoner. They take her to a special laboratory where they clone a rat to prove their skills to her. They then show her a pair of small gateway chambers and use one to clone her.
Inside the building Trader and Ryan find themselves near the failed experiment section. They are planning to kill more sec men. Gibson can’t condone the killing of more of her people even though she is in debt to them both. She is about to betray them when Trader stabs her in the back three times, killing her. They go to check out the failed experiments, and end up letting the two headed mutie come with them.
The others decide that it is the best time for them to escape. As Ellison enters Jak throws one of his knives at him, hitting Ellison in the eye, killing the sec man. They are about to go out when the other Ellison enters, and Doc rams his Le Mat into his stomach almost blows him in two. They leave the room to go and find Krysty and hopefully Ryan and Trader. They hear someone approaching and Jak hurls one of his knives at the figure who turns out to be Krysty! If it wasn’t for her incredible relfexes she would have been killed. They learn from her about the cloning experiments.
Ryan, Trader and the mutie run into Landrow and kill his guards. They then force Landrow to take them to see David Crichton. Almost at the same time Krysty and the others arrive in Crichton’s room. Here when Krysty sees Ryan she goes to attack him, but Landrow gets in the way and she literally cuts him to pieces. The Real Krysty arrives as well as a group of sec men. A bloody and one sided fight breaks out, the sec men are wiped out. During the fight Dave Crichton suffers a heart attack and dies. The real Krysty and her clone begin to fight, and the original wins.
They set several of their grenades and set fire to the institute, leaving it to burn. They are not molested at all by the surviving scientists or sec men and make their way to the redoubt and jump out.
End of Genesis Echo