Twilight's End

by Kaitlyn O'Connor

  The plants would be a little harder. She would be taking seeds with her, however, and would use the trip to locate the pods as an opportunity to sew them over as wide an area as she could manage.

  She was afraid of what she was going to find when she located the other pods, but she had to know. She would have to reprogram the pods anyway, assuming the women still lived. There was no way to remote program from the main lab.

  Regardless, if they were alive, she couldn’t take the chance that they would awake in such a primitive society. They would be easy prey for the barbaric culture that existed now and their lives could be in jeopardy, not just the project.

  Khan was asleep when she finally returned to her living quarters. She studied his form in the semi-darkness for several moments and finally went to take a shower to help her relax. When she emerged, she headed resolutely toward her bed without glancing at Khan’s pallet. She found, however, that she was wide awake the moment she lay down and, after staring at the ceiling for at least an hour, she finally sat up again.

  Khan had rolled over, she saw and was now facing in her direction. She stared at him hard but as far as she could see he was deeply asleep. Capitulating finally to the urge that had brought her out of bed, she crossed the room and knelt beside his pallet, very cautiously tugging at the skin to find a way to burrow under it.

  Khan flipped the fur back in invitation. She stared at him uneasily, embarrassed and without any believable lie to explain why she was trying to crawl into his pallet with him. “I was cold.”

  “The furs are warm.”

  Hesitantly, she climbed beneath the fur he held up, lying stiffly beside him while he straightened it, covering both of them. Finally, she rolled onto her side and presented her back to him. Both of them lay perfectly still for some time, rigid with tension. Finally, with a sound of impatience, Khan wrapped an arm around her and dragged her close. Heat instantly enveloped her and it wasn’t altogether shared body heat. Khan merely settled himself comfortably, however, and after a few minutes she heard his breathing slow to the deep, even rhythm of sleep.

  Sighing with a mixture of disappointment and relief, Dionne forced herself to relax, as well, but it was still a while before sleep finally claimed her.

  He was gone when she woke. Lazily, she turned over and snuggled deeper into the furs where he’d slept. Faintly, she detected, or thought she could detect, Khan’s scent on the fur. Sheets and a pillow would’ve been better. Still, it sent a pleasurable glow of satisfaction through her only imagining she could smell him next to her.

  That thought brought her more awake than she really wanted.

  Groaning, she rolled out from under the fur and headed for the bathroom, wondering where Khan had gotten off to. When she’d eaten and there was still no sign of him, she decided to stroll outside for a look.

  There were fresh tracks leading away from the lab in the direction of Khan’s village. She knew this because the bots hadn’t had time to eradicate them, not because she’d picked up any of Khan’s tracking skills.

  A faint smile curled her lips. He’d decided she was occupied in the lab and probably wouldn’t even notice he was gone.

  If he ran true to form, he wouldn’t be back until dark.

  There was a lot to be said for a man who was, at least occasionally, predictable.

  Entering the lab once more, she set about preparing quickly for her journey. The storage room contained the gear for ‘field’ trips. Fortunately, the project managers had shown remarkable foresight here. The gear was locked in an airtight, climate controlled pod much like the one she’d traveled a thousand years in. Even better, the materials used to construct the equipment were super synthetics. There’d been some deterioration, but not enough to make any difference.

  Summoning one of the bots, Dionne loaded the camping equipment into the bot’s half ton shovel. The hiking boots hadn’t survived the passage of time quite so well, but after walking around in nothing but the leather moccasin boots for so long Dionne figured the calluses on her feet were thick enough to protect her from the cracked and pocked synthetic insoles.

  Having shoved her feet into them and locked the catches, she stared at the equipment that remained in the locker. After a very brief hesitation, she removed two pistols and one rifle, checked them to make certain they were still safe and fully functional and added them to her pile along with enough ammunition packs, she figured, to start--or stop--a revolution.

  Almost as an afterthought, she added a pulley and wench, in case she encountered any terrain the bot had trouble with. In a general way, it wouldn’t. The bots were equipped with three options for mobility; a track system, retractable wheels and, for climbing over uneven terrain, a tripod ‘walking’ system.

  From her habitat, she took a case of rations. It was probably far more than she would need, but she preferred to err on the side of caution than be forced to the necessity of having to hunt and kill food. After adding three gallon containers of water, she gathered the case containing the electronics she figured she would need and the seeds she intended to disperse.

  Her heart was beating unpleasantly fast as she left the habitat, partly from anxiety that Khan would return early and catch her, and partly from pure adrenaline excitement.

  It was irrational and she knew it. Everyone she had known in the short life she’d had before she had been entombed was long gone. There would be no familiar faces, no people, no buildings. The city she had known would be nothing more than ruins now. Nothing that she remembered would be recognizable.

  Reason held no sway over her emotions, however.

  In her heart, she was going home.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The people who had been hired to construct the lab were from the opposite side of the country, and the site chosen had been as far from human habitation at the time that it was built as was possible. The decision had created a good many problems and slowed construction to a crawl, and often a complete halt, when materials that had been purchased from some distant manufacturing company were delayed in arriving.

  The scientists had still considered it well worth the aggravation.

  If it couldn’t be constructed in secrecy, then the next best thing was to make certain that no one near by knew of its existence. If no one close enough to reach it knew of its existence, then vandalism once authority broke down was less likely.

  The city was seventy five miles north, north east of the site--by the roads that had existed at the time. By Dionne’s calculations, walking as the crow flew, she should be able to make the trek in three to four days.

  She didn’t know whether Khan would decide to come after her or not, but she figured the more distance she put between herself and the lab the less likely he was to catch up to her, and the less likely it was that she would have to deal with an unpleasant confrontation.

  If she was right and he didn’t return until dark, he wouldn’t be able to start out after her until the following morning. He might be able to track her, but she figured by then she would be closer to the ‘forbidden lands’ than the lab and even he should agree that she might as well finish the trip she’d started.

  He wasn’t always entirely reasonable, however.

  Thrusting that thought aside, she focused on covering as much territory as possible, only stopping a couple of times to rest for a few minutes and catch her breath. Near dusk, she stopped to eat a quick meal, unearthed a flashlight and kept going. The cats, Nomi and Sachi ranged further and further as the night drew in, but Dionne wasn’t overly concerned about their disappearance. Their senses were sharp. If there’d been any sign of a threat they wouldn’t have wandered off.

  It was nearly midnight by the time she decided she’d made enough progress for her first day and stopped to make camp. Using the bot’s floodlights to see, she dragged the pop out tent from the bucket, set it up and staked the corners, then dragged out a thick sleeping bag.

  She didn’t like using the lights even the short length
of time it took her to set up, but she also didn’t like the idea of setting up her tent on top of anything that crawled or bit. The cougars bounded into view just as she’d finished. Relieved when she hadn’t even realized she was tense, Dionne ordered them to guard, crawled into the tent and passed out from sheer exhaustion almost before she’d settled in the bag.

  The first light of dawn awakened her--not because of the light but because every animal in the forest woke up chipper and ready to face the new day. Groaning, Dionne covered her ears to block out the noise. The movement, slight though it was, sent pure, undiluted agony through every muscle and bone in her body. She moaned then in pain, but she was thoroughly awake.

  Uttering little grunts of discomfort, she unzipped the bag, rolled out of it and rolled it up. Tucking it under one arm, she picked up the laser pistol she’d cuddled for comfort the night before--the very short night--and crawled out of the tent.

  The cats had disappeared again, but the ground where they’d lain was still warm. She knew they couldn’t have been gone long.

  Vaguely irritated, she dismissed it after a moment and set about packing the tent and bag and stowing them in the bucket with the rest of the equipment. She wasn’t particularly hungry, but she figured she might as well eat before she set out again.

  She discovered the blisters on her feet before she’d walked a half a mile.

  So much for calluses.

  She wasn’t going to be able to walk at all without excruciating pain if she didn’t do something before they got worse, she realized. She had three choices as far as she could see. She could sacrifice a piece of the tent, a piece of her sleeping bag or a piece of Khan’s tunic. She was more inclined to sacrifice the tunic, but upon consideration decided the leather would probably chafe her feet as badly as the boots. Any part of the tent was absolutely out as far as she was concerned. There were bugs. It might not be the bugs the scientists had considered a necessary ingredient for success, but they were still here and still in abundance.

  Feeling very much like a martyr, she used the laser pistol to cut two wedges from the top end of her bag and stuffed the fabric into the boots for padding. The blisters still hurt like a sonofabitch, but she thought the padding might keep them from getting worse.

  The sun had just risen above the tops of the trees when she made a discovery that took her breath for several painful moments.

  She was standing on top of a mountain that shouldn’t have been there.

  Completely disoriented by the discovery, Dionne simply stood on the ridge, staring out over the unfamiliar landscape.

  Her first thought was that it explained why every muscle, bone and sinew in her body felt like someone had been trying to draw and quarter her. She must have started climbing near dusk when she was already too tired to pay much attention to anything around her, she decided, trying to account for the fact that she hadn’t noticed.

  Her second thought was that it was going to take a good bit longer to reach the city than she’d anticipated. The climb down into the valley shouldn’t present too much of a problem, but crossing the river gorge at the bottom was going to be a real treat.

  Shaking off the shock, Dionne started down the graduating slope, wondering if she would even reach the gorge before dark.

  She did, but there wasn’t nearly enough light left to allow her time to look for a way across the gorge. Rather than stumble along in the dark and risk injury or death if she happened to wander too close to the gorge, she set up camp while there was still enough light to do so, ate yet another cold, tasteless meal and climbed into the tent before the biting bugs could suck her dry.

  Unlike the night before, sleep was slow to come.

  It should have been easy to drift off. She was tired, not as totally exhausted as the day before when she had been pushing herself so hard to make progress, but still tired. She was still sore from the unaccustomed exercise, but she’d walked off most of it and the discomfort was minimal. The rush of the water in the gorge below created a soothing background noise that filtered out the unfamiliar sounds of insects and animals, making it easier to relax, but her mind was still active, wandering from one thought to another.

  Her current problem teased at her for some time, but she knew she would have to look for a resolution. Thinking about it wasn’t going to help her find a way across.

  There had to be one. Khan had told her he had been to the forbidden lands and she didn’t think he would have swum across with the horse.

  The minute she allowed his name into her mind it conjured a welter of other thoughts and she found herself wondering if Khan would come after her at all.

  Not that she wanted him to. She had important business to take care of, whether he considered it important or not.

  She did wonder, though.

  It had been a mistake to cuddle with him in his furs. She’d known at the time that it was. She just hadn’t been able to resist the temptation to be near him.

  She’d told herself that it was only creature comfort she was seeking. The bed was hard and she’d had nothing to cover herself with and, despite the regulated temperature inside the lab, she grew chilly at night when she wasn’t moving around enough to generate much body heat.

  All of that was true and the furs were more comfortable, adding a modicum of padding between her and the hard surface of the floor, blocking the currents of circulating air and helping her to stay warm. That had only been part of the reason, though, the smallest part, and she knew it no matter what lies she told herself.

  She’d been hoping Khan would take advantage of the situation and relieve her of the responsibility of resisting. She wanted him to kiss her as he had before, to caress her with his hands, to possess her completely. It was scary how much she wanted him to and how desperately she wanted any kind of contact at all--or just his presence nearby. As long as she could glance up from her work from time to time and see him, she was content.

  It was wrong of her to want it, and worse still for her to want to shift her responsibility for her behavior onto him. She was a scientist, and an adult, not a child. It wouldn’t make her less guilty to yield to his persuasion.

  She knew he thought she was obsessed with her work. She supposed it looked that way from his viewpoint, but she had a responsibility that was unprecedented. At the time it had been given to her she’d felt nothing but pride and humility that it had been entrusted to her care. She couldn’t just discard it now because of her personal feelings. To do so would be criminal, unthinkable in the scope of its consequences.

  It could mean the extinction of mankind.

  She didn’t think that it would. She thought, in time, humanity would pick itself up and start again, but she couldn’t possibility be certain of that. They were vulnerable now in their ignorance as they had not been for ages, almost completely at the mercy of nature, disease, famine, even their own propensity for violence.

  If she gave up on them without even trying, gave up because her desire was leading her astray, they could fail to prosper and that would be entirely her fault.

  She didn’t want to have to live with that knowledge. It would be hard enough to live with failure if she tried and didn’t succeed. The knowledge, the guilt she would feel, that she hadn’t even tried would be unbearable.

  But the feelings Khan had stirred in her had escalated to debilitating proportions and she didn’t know anything to do except fight it with obsessive determination. Every time she let down her guard, even a little, the desire to give up and embrace everything Khan promised grew stronger.

  She would find herself staring at his hands and remembering how strong and warm they’d felt when he had clasped her hand. Images would fill her mind of his hands skating over her caressingly. Sometimes when he spoke to her, she would watch the movements of his lips and remember what it had felt like when he’d kissed her and she’d find herself wondering if it would feel like that if he did it again. She would remember what he’d looked like standing under the show
er and think how good it would feel to be pressed so tightly against him that every inch of his skin touched every inch of hers.

  And when she wasn’t thinking about those forbidden things, she was listening for the sound of his voice, the sound of his footfalls, feeling his presence nearby, expanding her senses just to detect a trace of the faint scent of his body if he moved near enough she thought she might.

  She placed her palms over her ears as if she could block the sound of her own thoughts.

  She shouldn’t even allow herself to think such things. It only made her want more what she knew she had no right to want.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Dionne woke more tired than when she’d lain down to sleep. It took more of an effort than usual to drag herself up and push onward. The cats, she discovered when she emerged from the tent, had wandered off again.

  Irritation immediately surged through her. They were supposed to stay close and guard her, damn their hides! She had the weapons, but she didn’t want to be forced to use them to protect herself. The huge cougars would be enough, if they were nearby, to discourage anyone or anything from considering aggressive behavior, she knew, but they had to be in view to have that effect.

  Depression settled over her shortly behind the anger. She knew what they were doing. They were looking for territory to claim. They were preparing to settle and breed offspring.

  They were not going to be any happier than she was about going back into the bio-pods.

  Sachi and Nomi appeared only minutes behind her call, reassuring her that they hadn’t wandered far and making her feel guilty for being so angry with them. She caught their attention and spoke directly to them. “You have to stay close by me,” she said firmly. “I need you two here to prevent the possibility of threats.”