“If we’re careful, there’s no reason why it should affect us,” claimed Mike, attentively observing the Geiger counter that he was holding in his bony hand. “I’ve already done it lots of times, and it’s safe.”

  “I don’t think so,” replied Steven, approaching Mike and looking at the rusty piece of equipment he held in his hand. The needle that should indicate the level of radiation oscillated uncontrollably from one side to the other, making it impossible to get a clear reading. “That piece of junk looks completely shot. We can’t know for sure if the radiation will affect us or not. I don’t know if we should go in,” he added, looking untrustingly at the sad state of his anti-radiation suit.

  They only needed to cover their heads with their helmets to complete their armor against radioactive waves. Steven hesitated before putting his on. He studied it suspiciously as he turned it around in his hands. The helmet was covered with a layer of filth that he had to rub forcefully just to clear off the visor. Finally, under the pressing weight of his friend’s glare, he put his head inside. It smelled like sweat, and he immediately felt claustrophobic. Adjusting the rest of his suit only made him feel more uneasy. It had taken a heroic effort for him to get the zipper on the pants to finally go up. The rusty buckle on the belt had screeched as if it were complaining about something. Steven frowned as he looked down at the marks that wear and tear had left on the knees of the suit.

  Mike didn’t seem worried in the least in spite of the fact that his suit looked as pitiful as Steven’s. He was doing some kind of bizarre stretches, and Steven assumed he was trying to get used to the incredibly uncomfortable attire.

  “We’re ready,” announced Mike, satisfied. His voice sounded distant, muffled by the grimy helmet. “Let’s go in.”

  They opened the back door of the van and got out. Their feet sank into the snow up to their ankles. They pulled out two shovels and a pathetic imitation of a wheelbarrow that consisted of a wooden box with a wheel on one end and two sticks that came out of the other end, and began dragging it through the snow. Steven’s only consolation was that the anti-radiation suit turned out to be quite effective against the hellacious cold.

  A strong wind was blowing from the east and the sun was hidden by a thick, threatening cloud deck. Steven could barely remember the last time he felt the sun’s golden rays warming his face.

  “I’m not planning on staying a long time,” he warned his friend. “I don’t trust these tattered rags. I’m only doing this because I’m desperate and have to feed my family. And we better find enough telio so we can stop this; it’s a disgusting way to make a living.”

  “Do you think I like this?” said Mike, making an effort to walk next to him. His heavy boots had a crust of snow on them that was making it difficult to move forward. Shaking them off was a waste of time since they’d be covered again ten steps later. “We made a deal. I’d show you where we could find telio and you’d get a city pass to get us into London to sell it on the black market. We just need to hit pay dirt and then we won’t have to do it anymore.”

  “I know, but you didn’t tell me about the radiation,” complained Steven. “I know no one’s been in this place more than two years without suffering from horrible degenerative illnesses. I don’t want to be exposed to this. I’m not even staying here two weeks.”

  “It’s the only way to get telio,” Mike reminded him. “The army has taken over all the spots around London where it can be found. This is the only place they’re not guarding. And don’t worry about the radiation. A friend of mine worked in a nuclear facility before the Wave so I know these suits are safe—no matter how bad they look.”

  Steven shook his head, unconvinced, and concentrated on dragging the wheelbarrow. He did not want to start the same discussion all over again, especially since he had no one to blame but himself. Down deep he knew exactly what he’d gotten himself into, so it was better to keep quiet and get this over with as soon as possible. He conjured up an image of his wife and his daughter in his mind, and tried to cheer himself up by thinking about what he was doing for them. He couldn’t let them down.

  It took them longer than Steven remembered to cross the five hundred feet that separated them from the crater. Though he was used to walking through the snow, as was everyone who lived in or near London, he hadn’t counted on having to drag a wheelbarrow whose wheel seemed to have lost the will to turn. Nor had he considered the extra weight of his suit. Finally, they got to the spot, and it was just as Mike had told him it would be.

  The Crater, as it was called, was an area of terrain about the size of two rugby fields. The most impressive thing about it was that there was not a single snowflake in it. The entire expanse of earth could be clearly seen. There were no plants growing and, logically enough, no animals were in the area. Birds didn’t even fly over this spot. The absence of life was due to the radiation, and Steven started thinking again about how crazy they were for going in there. It was no accident the army had avoided this place. The ground inside the Crater was turned over as if a gigantic rake had gone over it randomly. Reddish rocks of various sizes were sticking out all over and the terrain was made up of uneven elevations. Imitating Mike, Steven shook the snow off his boots by stomping them on the ground. He felt like they were about to enter into some god-forsaken place where no one else had dared to step foot.

  They went down a relatively level path and Steven noticed that the temperature had gone up considerably.

  “Let’s leave the wheelbarrow here,” suggested Mike, who was supposedly the expert, though Steven was more and more inclined to think he was just crazy—or, at the very least, too reckless. “We’ll split up and look for telio. Grab a shovel. When one of us finds it, we’ll let the other one know.”

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  That seemed like a workable idea to Steven. If they split up, they’d cover more ground and probably would find the mineral sooner. Getting the hell out of there was what he was most concerned about at the moment. He saw that Mike was walking around an enormous rock, and he turned to go in the opposite direction. He found a small mound a few yards from the wheelbarrow and decided it was as good a place as any to try his luck and start digging. And anyway, the whole crater area looked the same to him so he had no reason to go farther away.

  He stuck the shovel into the earth and then stepped down on it with his boot. To take his mind off the arduous work of digging up such a hard surface, Steven imagined what he would do after they sold the telio. He would get some medication and some new clothes for his family. And he knew he should get some warm clothes for himself. If he didn’t find a job in London, they would still be stuck living in the harsh world of the outskirts, so warm clothes would be essential. And then they’d buy weapons. He wasn’t about to lose everything again to some band of thieves attacking them in the dark of the night. The next time he would be prepared. He would make it very costly indeed for anyone who tried to snatch away what little they had.

  His thoughts were interrupted when he heard a muffled shout. Steven dropped the shovel and turned on his heels. He saw no one. The shout came from the direction Mike had gone off in. The voice was muted, but it had to be him. Who else would be there? Steven took off walking quickly toward the rock behind which he’d seen his friend disappear. He didn’t run since he was afraid of falling and tearing the anti-radiation suit. The sound of Mike’s voice was getting nearer and now he could make out his words. He was calling his name and telling him to come quickly. Steven hoped finding the mother lode of telio was the reason Mike had summoned him.

  “You have to see this,” said Mike nervously, stepping in front of him.

  “What?” asked Steven, intrigued. “Tell me you found telio.”

  “No. Get real. It’s . . . some guy.”

  Steven pushed him aside, irritated they still hadn’t found a trace of the mineral. He went over to see the guy Mike had found. A little farther up, lying on the ground, was a man’s body. He was quite tall and very thin. He was face-up on a blackened rock, in a position that arched his back in a way that would have been terribly painful for someone living. The man’s face was partially hidden beneath tangled black hair that was peppered with gray. His enormous nose protruded from his face and pointed directly at the sky. Steven froze in place when he saw that the stranger was not wearing an anti-radiation suit; he was dressed in a coat and dirty corduroy pants.

  “You so urgently called me over here for this?” snapped Steven. “To show me a body you found?”

  “But he’s not dead!” exclaimed Mike. Steven’s face showed his astonishment. “I swear to you. I head the sound of rocks tumbling to the ground. I turned and saw this poor guy falling down the slope. He was saying something but I couldn’t hear. I went up the slope over there to see if someone had pushed him, but there was no one there. So why would he be out here, dressed like that, without any kind of protection?”

  As if confirming Mike’s declaration that he was alive, the man moved. He turned over on his side and fell off the rock and onto the ground. Steven jumped back, startled.

  “Oh my God, it’s true!” he said, crouching down next to the man. “He’s alive. We have to get him out of here.”

  “Are you sure we should do that?” asked Mike, not moving a muscle.

  “We can’t just leave him in this place. He’ll die.”

  “He should already be dead! And if he isn’t, it won’t be long before he is.”

  Steven glared at him furiously, which inspired Mike to reconsider.

  “I’m . . . fine,” the stranger whispered faintly. He was trying to get off the ground but was apparently too weak. “I just fell . . . I . . . smashed into . . .”

  “Don’t talk,” Steven said. “We’ll get you out of here.”

  Mike grumbled something Steven couldn’t hear as he helped him pick the man up. They carried him to the wheelbarrow, put him in, and started pulling it. The man’s eyes were half-open and he was looking around in a state of bewilderment. Eventually he realized that the effort it took to hold his neck up was too much for him, and he let his head drop onto his shoulder.

  It took all the strength Steven and Mike had to pull the wheelbarrow. Making it back up the slope they’d come down on their way into the Crater was requiring an even greater effort now that they were carrying the extra weight.

  “This is not a good idea,” protested Mike when they got to the top. “There’s something really strange about this guy. I don’t like it.”

  “We’re taking him out of the Crater,” insisted Steven, ignoring him. At his core he knew his friend was right; there was something very strange about a person going into a radioactive area without protection and, apparently, without being affected by it. Still, he couldn’t let another human being die. He was nothing like those revolting looters who lived by stealing from and killing other people. “We’ll leave him in the snow, away from the radiation.”

  They sat down in the snow as well, exhausted from the exertion. Steven started to take off the foul-smelling mask to try to get some fresh air, but Mike stopped him, grabbing his arm.

  “Don’t take it off,” he cautioned. “This man has got to be badly contaminated. It’s not safe.”

  Steven followed his advice and concentrated on getting his breathing back to normal so he wouldn’t end up suffocating.

  “Thanks,” said the stranger, sitting up and slowly climbing out of the wooden box. “My name is Raven.”

  “Do you mind telling us what you were doing in the Crater without protection?” asked Mike.

  “I . . . I really don’t know,” he admitted, somewhat embarrassed. “I guess I got lost. I was walking along and I didn’t realize I’d gone into the area with no snow. I tripped and fell and hit my head,” he explained, bringing his hand up to the nape of his neck and rubbing the back of his head.

  “I don’t understand how anyone could overlook something like that,” challenged Mike. “And it’s even more incomprehensible that you didn’t die from the radiation. Not even bacteria can survive in this place.”

  “What were you doing in there, then?” asked Raven, who seemed to be feeling better. His voice now sounded normal.

  “That’s our business,” answered Mike curtly. “We need to go now. It’s late and it’s getting less and less safe to be out with so many thieves in the area.”

  “Is that your van?” Raven asked, looking at the vehicle. “Could you take me somewhere where I can get something to eat?”

  “We can’t take you anywhere, I’m sorry,” Steven quickly responded. “We got you out of the Crater, but you’re no doubt contaminated by radiation. I can’t put my family’s life in danger. I’m sorry, Raven.”

  “It’s all right. I understand. Thanks anyway.”

  Steven felt a pang of regret for abandoning the stranger there, but reminded himself that they had done something to help him. He’d been out there alone before they found him, so his situation had improved somewhat, after all. His family was the only thing that mattered and he couldn’t risk his wife and daughter dying from radiation. He took one last look at Raven to bid him farewell and left with Mike, who was angry about having to go back with empty hands. They’d wasted a whole day and hadn’t found so much as a speck of telio.

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