by Darrell Bain
Jamie retreated back the way he had come, mind numbed with weariness, to where Masters and the other scientists were still patiently waiting. They clustered around him, all talking at once. He held up a restraining hand. “There's nothing else here for the moment. Let's get back to camp and I'll tell you how it came out, if I can stay awake that long."
The others were disappointed at first that they would be unable to meet with the alien and receive their own thought-disks, but their feelings were helped considerably by Jamie's disclosure of the wealth of data he had received. Masters in particular was pleased; it meant that he could see the successful conclusion of his mission, and the knowledge that his three rangers had not died in vain.
“Well, Da Cruz, it looks like you're the man of the hour now. My only problem is whether to send you back on the first floater available and settle for what we have or to try for more. What do you think?"
“I'll let you decide,” Jamie told Masters, past caring. He headed in the direction of the shelters set up along the covered walkway, then found that he had no idea which one Kristi was in. Masters pointed him to the correct location, then left to consult with his lieutenants, except for Kristi, whom he left sleeping. Jamie found Kristi and all the pets in a heap, sleeping as peacefully as if they were back inside the safety of the Enclave. He threw himself down and wormed into a comfortable position among the bodies and was almost instantly asleep.
The sun was shining at a slant down through the arbor and into the shelter when he woke up the next morning. His skin itched and his mouth felt greasy from unbrushed teeth. He dressed quickly and went outside to find Kristi and all the pets near the entrance waiting on him. Kristi looked freshly bathed and cleaned; Woggly was still dripping.
“Good morning,” he said. “It looks as if y'all have had a bath this morning."
“We have,” Kristi confirmed. “There's a place upstream they use. Want to go?"
“You bet. Has Masters decided whether to send me home today or not?"
“I don't know. He said last night that he would make up his mind this morning after he talked to you again, but I guess you have time for a bath. It's a little early for the floater yet.” Kristi turned to Lady. “Fetch the captain, Lady. We'll be down by the river.” Her pet scampered off, barking happily with an errand to run.
Jamie fingered the large data disk through the pocket of his coveralls as they walked, remembering the events of the preceding night. “Did Masters tell you the whole story this morning?"
“About the alien, you mean? Yes, he did. That's why we were waiting on you. He told me not to let you out of my sight, and if you'll look behind you, there are four more of us he told the same thing to."
Jamie turned and saw Judy and three other rangers trailing them. “Drat. I don't want to be tailed around like a baby. Is this what it's going to be like when we get back home, too?"
“Quien sabe? Right now you may be the most important man on the planet. I may have to move in with you just to keep your admirers under control.” She grinned at him.
“Meow,” said Fuzzy Britches.
“Woof,” said Woggly. Lady was silent as usual and Conan was not in evidence.
“If you could keep these guys under control, that would be a big first step,” Jamie said, returning the grin.
The bathing area was upstream, where a grove of trees had taken root and advanced up the slope for a long stretch, growing clear to the entrances of some of the waterfront buildings. There was no one else present, except for the on looking rangers. Jamie ignored them. He set his pack down and rummaged in it for his toothbrush. He cleaned his teeth, then stripped and bathed in the cold silty water, thinking all the while that if he were to return to the Enclave today he could get a far better bath, but he was unable to endure being dirty any longer. Masters arrived just as he was pulling his clothes back on.
“Jamie, I've decided to send you back with the floater as soon as it locates us,” he said without preliminary. “You're too valuable to risk. I wish I dared call in and have them send in another squad of rangers and the other scientists with the first floater but I don't want to take the chance of them not locating us and having to go all the way back. They will be heavily loaded as it is. Besides, the fewer contacts with the Enclave the better until I can get this area defended. I'll just send word back. In the meantime, if that space creature wakes up again I'll see if someone else can get more information from it."
“Sounds good to me,” Jamie said. He looked up from where he was pulling on his boots. “Say, there comes the floater now.” From between the trunks of the trees and over the top of the low brush he spied the floater pass, then curve back toward the piers for a landing. Another followed in it's path, and behind it, yet more. “Why are there so many of them?” He asked. “I thought there was only one coming out this morning."
Captain Masters took one look and burst into action. “Those aren't our floaters! Kristi, get Jamie out of here! The rest of you follow me! We'll try to lead them away from you!” Jamie stood stupefied, then a rattling of shots broke out along the riverfront. “Move!” Masters snarled. “Get out of here!"
Kristi grabbed Jamie's arm and they began to run, away from the increasing volume of gunfire.
* * *
CHAPTER 21
Jeannie had become most impatient with John Whitmire. He had been putting her off from day to day, pleading one exigency or the other and she was having no more of it. “You promised,” she said, leaning on his desk with both hands, small, dark and angry. She had arrived at his office before daylight, dressed in ranger coveralls and carrying her pack, not intending to take no for an answer.
Whitmire looked up at her, more tired than ever. He had been practically living in his office ever since the night he had gone to Jamie's apartment. He ran his fingers through uncombed hair, wishing for a cup of the strong Indian tea he had enjoyed in his youth. Instead, he sipped at cold coffee. “Jeannie, please, will you wait—"
“No! I'm not waiting any longer! You can either send me out today or I start talking to everyone I know about Cadena, and about everything else I know, for that matter. I've waited long enough!” She straightened up and crossed her arms over her breasts, staring him down.
Whitmire capitulated. After all, he thought, the expedition had arrived at their destination the night before. There would be no more travel, which had been his main concern. He smiled faintly. “OK, Jeannie, you've been patient with me. I'll let you leave, and I'm sorry for the delay."
“I can go today, this morning?"
“You can go. Get yourself on down to the landing field. I'll call the pilot and tell him he has a passenger."
* * * *
“Jeannie Bostick?"
“That's me."
“I'm Charlie Nhu. Ready to go?” The short, slim pilot had met her in the tiny passenger's departure lounge. He was wearing standard ranger coveralls with a laser gun holstered across his chest. He led her out onto the tarmac where the floater was waiting. His co-pilot had earphones to his head and was already conversing with the tower computer about departure instructions.
The pilot handed her into the floater with an apology for the spartan seating arrangements, which were simply webbed seats with backrests and straps. Jeannie didn't complain. She could already feel her pulse elevating at the thought of not only her first floater flight, but her first time to ever leave the Enclave, and into the wilds at that. She hoped Jamie would be glad to see her; no, damn it, he had better be glad to see her. She felt a rush of affection for him and his pets. She was surprised at the depth of her emotion. Only a few short months before, she had still been in computer school, not even considering settling down, and now it seemed as if nothing else would do. Her night with Kristi had only reinforced the feeling, in a way she wasn't quite sure of. She wondered how all that would come out. She let the remembrance grow into a resolve that if she ever got Jamie back to the Enclave she would tell him immediately, then follow his decision
on whether to continue the relationship. She smiled to herself. He might even like the idea. She knew from talking to some of her girlfriends that one of the reasons threesomes remained popular was that many men enjoyed watching and participating as women made love with each other, even though the necessity for their formation was now only a historical footnote. She didn't really understand why just yet, but accepted it as fact. Of course the opposite type of threesome, two men and a woman, was also popular, but she had no desire for any other man than Jamie, at least for now.
The co-pilot received his final bits of data and entered them into the flight computer, along with instructions to follow the previously logged coordinates of the expedition's progress. Nhu spoke a command and the floater rose silently and gently into the air and headed northwest, gaining altitude as it went.
Jeannie was avidly curious and within minutes, her questions resulted in a traveling monologue by Nhu, describing the area they were passing over. The great barrier surrounding the Enclave appeared as a dark line from high in the air, miles and miles long, stretching back in both directions in a curve discernible only from a height. Beyond it, covering an area as far as the eye could see, lay the forest, appearing as a vast green carpet. It was broken here and there by bits and pieces of pavement not yet overgrown and streaked with scribbles of streams and splotches of lakes. The lakes appeared blue from the air but the streams were a muddy brown, imbued with the color of soil from far upstream, carried down from where some ecological disaster was causing violent erosion. Occasionally she could make out the ruins of towns and small cities abloom with encroaching green growth.
“Can we see any animals from up here?” She asked once.
“Not usually. The vegetation is too thick down there. Sometimes you can further west, where the country is more open, or so I hear. I don't go that way very often."
Like all Enclave citizens, Jeannie was aware that the overwhelming scourge of enhanced animals was the very reason for the Enclaves, and the thought of them held a fascinating grip on her mind under the present circumstances. Seeing the countryside below with bits and pieces of abandoned living areas was like traveling back in time. She tried to picture the world as it had once been and was unable to visualize such freedom to live and travel anywhere on the continent.
“Last coordinate coming up,” the co-pilot announced.
“Ok, get ready to track and enter. We follow this old highway into the city then come down along the river and start looking. They will be watching for us. It shouldn't take long."
The floater began a long glide, losing altitude. Jeannie could see the towers of the old city over Nhu's shoulder. Almost there! She thought, excited and happy.
As the floater dropped over the towers and toward the river, a brilliant flare of light assaulted their eyes. A cloud of purple smoke boiled up from near the river, shot through with ascending pieces of debris. A couple of seconds later came the sound of the explosion, muffled down to a dull flat boom by the floater's canopy.
“What in hell—"
Nhu grasped the controls away from his assistant and pulled up in a tight turn as he suddenly saw that other floaters were on the scene. One had been flipped into the river by the explosion and was rapidly sinking, but two others rose from the ground and headed toward them. Even as Nhu completed his turn, he saw streaks of laser fire cutting past them.
“My God, they're firing at us!” Jeannie shrieked, ducking her head reflexively.
“They sure as hell are! Mike, try to give some return fire, then let's get the hell out of here!” Nhu yelled. The co-pilot popped open a portion of the canopy and began looking for targets, but the angle was against him. The two pursuing floaters were behind them and floaters had never been designed for aerial warfare. The only war in recent memory was the one still going on, the fight to hold a place on the planet for humanity in the face of millions of enhanced animals.
Jeannie screamed as the canopy bubble shattered from the impact of a high velocity explosive slug, flinging shards of hard plastic through the cockpit. The co-pilot slumped in his harness, spraying goblets of blood backward into the sudden wind. It splattered against Jeannie's face and shoulders. She screamed again.
“Be quiet,” Nhu said in a strangled voice. Blood was running from his shoulder and the side of his neck where a wound gaped open.
Jeannie gasped and held her breath. Nhu began talking rapidly and urgently. She heard him describe the attack and begin reading off coordinates. He coughed and strangled, struggling to get the words out. Another slug hit the craft somewhere to the rear and smoke immediately began pouring into the broken canopy and was whipped away by rushing air. Nhu suddenly had both hands on the controls, trying valiantly to maintain altitude.
“We're going down,” he said, voice weaker, still coughing. He wiped at his neck and his hand came away smeared with blood. The craft slowed, tilted, then regained a precarious equilibrium but continued to fall. “Magnetics gone, fuel cell gone, solar cells can't keep up. Brace yourselves, it's going to be rough,” he intoned, struggling to talk. “Can't make the highway. We'll be north of it, east of the city. Hold on—"
Jeannie saw a rush of green blot out the horizon. She ducked forward, covering her head with her hands just before the wall of green smashed into the floater. She heard the bare beginnings of the tearing crash then a pressure wave of pain exploded through her body. The seat straps tore loose and she was catapulted forward, striking the back of Nhu's seat. The breath was crushed from her body as she hit with stunning force and she spiraled down into a black whirlpool of unconsciousness.
* * * *
At first, Jeannie was aware only of the pain, coming to her through the blackness like a shroud, enfolding her body and touching it with sharp corners and folds of searing fire. She struggled to orient herself. Her eyes were closed tight against the enveloping pain. She struggled to open them and found herself wedged half under the pilot's seat, covered with branches and leaves and shreds of plastic from the shattered canopy. It hurt horribly to move, but gradually she scrunched out from under the seat, shaking off litter as she did. She found her pack still secured behind where she had been sitting and dug into it, searching for the medicine packet with the single-mindedness of an addict after his next fix. Just as she thought she might black out from the pain she located an analgesic ampoule and pressed it against her forearm. It was a difficult operation. One arm and shoulder didn't want to work and every breath was a sharp, searing agony in her side. She slumped to the floor of the floater, hoping desperately that she had remembered the instructions right.
After a few minutes, the pain-killer began to work. She struggled to her knees and peered forward. A closer look showed what she had feared. Both men were dead. The co-pilot's head hung at an angle, nearly decapitated. Nhu was slumped in his seat, bled dry from his wounds.
Jeannie's mind began to work a little better. She examined herself as well as she was able, avoiding looking at the two dead men. Her shoulder and the side of her neck and face were terribly bruised, but she thought it was only that; careful touches failed to find any broken bones. The pain in her side was a different matter. It hurt to breathe, or even to move. She explored along her ribcage and felt at least two broken ribs grating together. Painfully, she dug into her pack again and located a bone healing ampoule. She pressed it against her forearm, despairing that it would take many hours to heal her ribs, but here was nothing to do that would hurry it. She considered another analgesic but decided to forego it for the moment. Only then did she begin to consider her situation. She was down in the wilds, alone, hurt, and unable to travel for at least a day or two, even if she knew where she was, which she didn't. Only then did she remember the explosion by the river and the enemy floaters.
“Jamie,” she whispered. Tears began running down her face, wetting the dried blood still covering it.
* * *
CHAPTER 22
Craig Randall stared down at the stark landscape below h
im. From his seat in the lead floater of his small fleet he could see ahead of him as well, and it was no better. The countryside around the Dallas Enclave was almost as devastated as the surface of the moon. A plague of locusts had for two successive years denuded the land of any hint of greenery. The wash of unchecked rains had cut gullies and paths and ditches through the bare earth until it looked as if some mad scientist had created a giant maze, then populated it with millions of rodents. Through field glasses he could make out the scurrying figures of thousands of rats madly searching for sustenance. An occasional cat or dog was visible but never in the vicinity of a very large concentration of the starving rats; they were predators, but they could become prey as well. He had been told that the rats must have survived and multiplied by feeding on the innumerable insect carcasses, but by now the last of them must have been eaten. Before long, they would be driven by starvation to swarm into the Enclave, taking their losses rather than perish in the bare desert the land had become.
Randall had had no problem in recruiting a force of mercenaries. The population as he had seen them at the landing field wore the pinched faces and thin bodies of long standing malnourishment. In his contacts with the authorities of the besieged Enclave, the appearance was not so noticeable, but their faces were haunted with the knowledge that the spacecraft from Moon City might be their last hope for escape before the Enclave fell, as they almost unanimously expected it to. The merest hint of passage to the moon was sufficient inducement for as many recruits as he could use. His only real problem had been that of secrecy; he feared that if very many of the starving population knew of the bargain he was offering, his landing craft would be overrun.