"'Cause I don't like livin' in this cave like a grub. I been up twice, and now I can't stay down here anymore. Nobody else's got guts enough to go up. So let 'em stay down here and rot! But I'm going back up on top, Chief. And I'm staying up there."
The Old Man leaned back. He couldn't hide the gleam of gruff respect in his eyes. "Go ahead, Jon, but don't come back down. Once they get on your tail, you can't shake 'em and you'd lead 'em right back here, and then they'd get the rest of us. As far as I know, Jon, we're the only humans left."
Jon's hands clenched. "And so might all of us be dead too. Livin' down here in this cave where they ain't never no sun, eatin' lizards and snakes, and dyin' off one by one anyway. We're all gonna be dead in another year. What's so great about spendin' that year crawlin' and grubbin' down here? Scared to even take one last look at the sun? It's not for me, Chief. I'm leavin'."
The Old Man shrugged again. "Go ahead, I said. Just promise not to ever come back and lead them down here. You'll promise that, Jon?"
Something thickened in his throat, but he managed to say yes. He turned, then twisted back toward the Old Man. "You're smart," he said. "You're supposed to know about when they took over. I've asked others. No one seems to know, and they care less. Would you tell me, Chief. What are they—the Mechs?"
The Old Man's voice echoed strangely against the surrounding grotesque bars of limestone stalactites and stalagmites in multicolored hues of fusing reds and orange, purple and browns. A pinched face peered at them from between the ancient bars, then withdrew its tired eyes.
"Maybe there's fifty humans left down here in Mammoth Hole," the Old Man said softly. "Maybe there ain't nobody else left in the world. Just them with their silent machinery drivin' over the wastes, and their red death eyes sweeping the dark, grubbin' for us. The big war went on and on, nobody knows how long. But humans couldn't fight it. Too much deadly radiation, so they made machines to fight for 'em. The sky and the land were just masses of machines, throwing out clouds and streamers and explosions. The land became nothing but pools and seas of deadly dust, and fire. The sky was clouded with it. And people went underground. They had to go down deep, and they couldn't come back up, what was left of 'em, for hundreds of years and more."
The Old Man was gazing with a distant, haunted expression at the small blind lizard crawling up the painted wall. Jon listened, his skin was cold. A shiver ran down his back.
"Then they started grubbing the humans out, and killing 'em. I don't suppose anyone knows how long it's been since they took over. That's wrong. I wasn't around then. Nor my father, nor my father's father's father. It was long, long before that. It was so long ago that—" The Old Man's eyes widened. His voice choked off with a cloud of unconscious fear that had slipped through.