by Darrell Bain
“That's always a pretty sight,” Lea said. “I love to watch the shuttles go by overhead. It's even better closer to the spaceport."
“It is pretty,” Gary agreed. “And exciting, too.” He had always been fascinated by spaceflight, especially the manned variety.
“Yeah. Too bad we can't get on one. In the space stations and Moon City they don't give a damn about what you look like. All they're interested in is whether you can do the work."
Gary agreed, but going into space was only a dream, and so far from reality now as to not be worth thinking about. Lea was right though. Moon city, the underground warren of tunnels and caves being built on earth's satellite needed trained help badly, but only the best and brightest were allowed passage to it and the space stations, and even then, applicants were few. Living conditions in both environments were still very harsh, and crowded to their limit. Seeing how the ecology and economy on earth were deteriorating, they were trying desperately to become self-sufficient, but attaining that goal was a long way off yet. Idly, he wondered if they needed geneticists, but it was only a thought. Whether they did or not, they certainly wouldn't want outlaws, which is what he was now. Besides, he didn't think they were allowing pets, so that ruled it out on another score. There was no way he would ever abandon Booger Bear. And he had Maria to take care of now too, although he thought wryly, she was taking care of him as much as he was her.
They watched until the plume began breaking up.
“We won't be seeing many more of them taking off from this part of the country,” Lea remarked. “I heard from a good source that they're going to close the Dallas port and just keep the east and west coast facilities open."
“You're right, they are,” Gary agreed. He had read the same thing just recently. He looked at the purpling bruise on Maria's face and asked, “Do you have any kind of a first aid kit on you, by chance? Maria could use something and I guess I could too. This arm and the place on my face is beginning to hurt."
Lea glanced over at her burning vehicle. “Everything I had went up with the truck. However ... those feds had to park somewhere close. Let's go take a look along the highway.” She got to her feet and Gary and Maria followed, with Booger Bear scampering along beside them, fully recovered now and happy to be out of confinement.
They were barely in time. A family of refugees in an old diesel-fired junker were just pulling up behind the sleek federal van, standing with its doors open. Gary supposed they intended to see if the smoke pouring from just beyond the brush line meant that it was being abandoned. If they had intended to try looting it, the sight of them with drawn weapons dissuaded them. They pulled back out onto the highway and rattled off.
They quickly found not only a first aid kit, but much more besides.
Gary stopped looking over the contents of the vehicle as soon as he spotted the red cross on a white box attached to one of the rear seat brackets. He began trying to open it. He couldn't find a way except the thumbprint indentation spot and he knew that wouldn't work. He cursed. So did Lea, who couldn't get the storage compartment open either. She abandoned the attempt, looking disgruntled, then suddenly brightened. She left the van and hurried over to the two dead Marshals, drawing her knife from its sheath as she went. When Gary saw what she was doing, he winced and turned his head.
Lea reappeared a few moments later, bringing four severed thumbs with her. Her lips parted in a caricature of a grin. “I didn't know whether they were right or left handed, so I took them all. If we're lucky, we can get the van to start and see what else we can find after we get on our way."
They weren't lucky. Lea cursed when none of the dead thumbs would fire the ignition, then went on to other matters as if she robbed federal vehicles every other day. She looked at the severed thumbs resting in her hands and turned to Gary. She handed him two of them. “Here, try the fist aid box with these while I work on some of the other locks. Best to hurry; I'm pretty sure that these FedRats have timed intervals for checking in."
“What happens if they don't?” Maria asked.
“I'm not sure. I've heard the vehicle blows up but that seems sort of drastic to me."
Drastic or not, Gary wouldn't put it past them. He hurried.
The first thumb he used opened the first aid box. He scooped the contents out and dropped them into Booger Bear's carrying pouch while Lea was getting the storage compartment open. When she saw what was inside, she gave a shout of triumph.
Gary came forward to look. The compartment contained an assortment of laserguns and laserifles folded into their stocks, but what Lea had been shouting about was the stash of gold pieces she found in a corner pocket.
“Easy to see they've been on the take, isn't it?” She began dropping coins into the pockets of her silver jumpsuit. When she filled several pockets with two dozen coins, she moved aside and let Gary finish the looting. He saw that she had been fair. There were at least that many left. He took some and handed the rest to Maria, then began removing the weapons, ammunition clips and powerpacks. Lea took a bundle of them in her arms and hurried off.
Gary handed another laserifle and more of the ammunition to Maria. She raised questioning brows and he noticed for the first time that they were the same pelt-like texture as her hair; they had simply been thinned and trimmed so that it wasn't quite so obvious. “I don't know what we can do with all these, but Lea seems to want them. Go!"
A half hour later they had robbed the van of everything worthwhile and had carried it into the woods where a fallen tree with a hollow trunk made a handy place to store their cache, and a good place to sit while they decided on their next course of action.
Gary was feeling somewhat ambivalent about taking the gold, weapons and other goods. He hadn't been raised to be a thief. He said so.
Lea laughed. “You're a real innocent, aren't you?” She gathered her locks of heavy, bright blond hair and pulled it behind her head. She fastened it there into a short ponytail. With her raised arms, the long sleeves of her shirt pulled back from her wrists.
The area revealed was a distinctively different color than the skin of her hands and face; it was a bright golden color, almost iridescent. She caught Gary's unintentional stare and laughed again. “Yeah, I guess you were wondering what turn my alterations took, huh?"
Gary nodded, too embarrassed to speak.
“Don't worry about it. You've been decent enough not to ask; lots of folks aren't. My parents were Sun Worshipers. Me and my brothers and sisters were born this color, along with a good bit of genetic design work on our bodies besides. If you've heard anything about Church of the Sun, you can pretty well guess what the rest of me looks like."
Gary could. COTS had sprung from the advent of global warming. He didn't know what the exact tenants of the religion were, but he definitely remembered seeing the image of its Deity on a program, though the members of the cult never showed that much of their bodies in public. The image he had seen was a stylized depiction of the sun rendered into the figure of a shining nude female of more than generous proportions. He could only imagine what Lea must look like beneath her clothes.
She finished binding her hair and knowing what he must be thinking, said “I'll let you look at me some other time. I don't mind. And in case you're wondering why my face and hands aren't dolled up like most of the Sunny People, it's because I paid a goddamn fortune for the gene work to get them back to natural after I split from my parents and the church. I almost had enough saved to have the rest of my body done, but I guess I'm stuck with it now."
“I'm sorry,” Gary said, sincerely.
“No need to be sorry. Even if I hadn't gotten hooked up with you two, these latest laws would have killed that idea anyway."
“There's always the black market,” Maria said.
“Yeah, but now the price will quadruple. Look, you two don't worry about it. I've lived with it for more years than either of you have been alive and it doesn't bother me that much. Matter of fact, some of my lovers ha
ve found it attractive—for a while."
“I wish...” Maria started to say something then stopped.
Gary knew what she had almost uttered. She had never had a real lover, only ones who paid for her services, and they could hardly be called lovers in the real sense of the word. He made a vow to himself that he would treat her with the utmost respect so long as they were together. Perhaps that would give her a start on learning to trust men. He patted her hand and she looked up at him gratefully.
“So where should we go?” Lea asked, bringing them back to their original subject. “We need to get away from here pretty soon, but it would be nice to have some idea of which direction we're heading."
“I really don't know,” Gary admitted, “except that we can't stay in the woods."
“Nice smells here,” Booger Bear contributed.
“But we need a house, Booger.” He looked at Maria and Lea. “And it can't be in Houston, for sure."
“Which leaves Dallas as the nearest place where we might get lost,” Lea said.
“How can we do that without credit or computers, and with the feds looking for geneticists and altered humans? Not to mention that enhanced animals like Booger here, are already being hunted down by the Department of Agriculture."
“They're not getting many of them,” Lea said. “They're too damned smart to get caught, huh Booger?"
“Cats smart,” Booger Bear agreed. He wasn't old enough yet to know much about the world other than what Gary had spoken of, and he frequently gathered misconceptions from both him and from watching holo programs.
“Whatever, you haven't answered the question."
“There's always an underground in any city, I would think,” Maria said. “Why should Dallas be any different?"
“Good point,” Gary said, but he had noticed a lisp in her voice, as if the swelling on her check also extended to the inside of her mouth. And his own wounds were hurting more than ever. “Listen, while we talk, I'm going to see what was in those first aid supplies we stole.” He began rummaging in his bag, taking items out and examining them. He quickly found a package of pain ampoules, strong enough to help his aches and then some. He took one and pressed it to the inside of his forearm and thumbed the dispenser.
“May I have some?” Maria said.
“I was getting there.” He took out another one, but warned, “This is fairly potent stuff. It will help, but it will make you a bit euphoric for a while."
“You too. And I know what they can do. Some ... customers ... used them on occasion to get a high. And I had to have it sometimes when I was with that damned Munoz couple. Anyway, I need something; my face is hurting like hell."
Gary gave her one and she used it. Within a few minutes she began to feel the familiar wave of relief blank out the pain, just as she remembered. It also made her feel as if she were sitting on a pile of feathers rather than the trunk of a tree.
Gary was already experiencing the same euphoric sense of relief as the pain from his wounds abated. He had used the medication before on a couple of occasions. It was sold freely everywhere, even though theoretically it was illegal to dispense without a prescription. As soon as he felt better, he found some disinfectant and healing balm. He applied some of that to Maria's cheek, then let Maria use the same product on him before binding his arm.
In the meantime, Lea began telling them about the Dallas underworld, where for enough money, personal identification was never requested so long as services were paid for in cash or gold. “It's a pretty big section of the old part of Dallas called Oak Cliff, but well south of it. It's just northwest of the spaceport and caters to the workers and astronauts and freight haulers looking for excitement."
By excitement, Gary knew that she meant drugs, sex and forays into the world of bizarre enhanced animals and altered humans. “You're sure we could get lost there?"
“Unless someone is really on your ass, you can."
“That might exclude me then,” Gary admitted, making direct eye contact with both of them. He didn't want them to have any illusions about how safe they might be around him. “I ran afoul of Bradshaw's religious supporters and they carry a lot of weight these days. I doubt that it much matters where I go; they'll still be looking for me. And just because I rescued Maria, they'll be after her too; if for no other reason than thinking she might lead them to me."
Lea frowned, but didn't seem discouraged. “I assume they know your face. How about Maria's?"
“Not yet, unless some customers from Del Rio are in Houston and have pictures they took of me. Or if some customers from Houston at Mac's place got me digitized, though I don't know why they would have since all I was doing was selling them drugs and happy juice."
“Well, let's assume they don't yet. Even so, you can cover your hair and wear glasses and loose clothing and you'll be pretty well disguised. And for the time being Gary can remain under cover. All that is just temporary though. Those feds were following my truck and they're bound to have reported it. My mug will be out there soon enough."
Gary was beginning to use his mind to see further than the next gun battle. “Well, suppose we do get hid well enough to keep the feds or the private Security Rats away from us. That still leaves us needing some way to make a living. Our gold won't last forever, or not even very long when you have to pay extra because you don't have computer credit."
“I could...” Maria began to speak very hesitantly, feeling as if she had to offer, but Gary cut her off immediately, knowing what she was preparing to say.
“No!” he said emphatically. “That's history Maria. Understand?"
Maria nodded meekly, her face blank, but inside she was pleased as a contentedly nursing kitten. She liked him more all the time.
“Look, let's not worry about what to do when we get to Dallas, or wherever for now,” Lea said. “How about we get on our way before the bad guys start looking for us here, much less some other place?"
Gary was nodding agreement at her sensible suggestion. It became even more sensible when a tremendous explosion rocked the forest, coming from the direction of the federal van. The force of it knocked them all off the log and got them moving as nothing else could have. They paused only to stick most of the weapons into the hollow of the tree, just in case they ever came back that way.
* * *
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Lea advised against walking along the highway or even trying to hitch a ride until a few days had passed and their escape had faded from memory a bit. That left only the forest and old secondary roads that they anticipated would be in disrepair if not completely overgrown. She had already been thinking of what to do when they were rifling the van for goods and had appropriated a map of the area from the driver's compartment. Once they were farther away from the still-smoking truck and destroyed van, she stopped and showed it to them.
“Look here, this map shows a secondary road just a few miles north that intersects the highway. I've seen it on my route. The access ramps are down so it's probably not being used much, especially by the feds. We can try it. If it's even halfway open it would be a lot better than the woods. And it parallels the interstate for a long way.” She swatted at a swarm of deer flies hovering around her head for emphasis.
“I'm for it,” Gary agreed readily, smearing blood-engorged mosquitoes from his hand. “Once that van went up, they'll sure as hell come after us."
“If they can spare the people,” Lea said. “The government is cutting back on a lot of things now, what with the economy going to hell. They may just try anticipating which direction we're heading and intercept us. But best not to take the chance. With those new laws, they have a license to kill now, and you know what kind of people that go into enforcement work these days."
“They're scum, for the most part,” Maria said. “I know."
“So let's get moving,” Lea said.
Gary was certainly no woodsman and quickly found out that the others weren't either. He did feel a little more secure ca
rrying one of the heavier laserifles taken from the van. No one knew any more how many, or what kinds of enhanced animals were loose in the wilds, but it was a certainty that there were plenty of them. Carnivores roamed the countryside that were too smart to be susceptible to the old ways of killing or capturing them, and mice, rats and rabbits were a scourge to crops, and they too were intelligent enough to learn quickly to avoid poisons, traps and the unenhanced animals that once preyed on them. It made a walk through the forest a study in caution, especially since they had only the sun to give them direction and it was frequently blocked by high trees. Many times they had to retrace their path to get back to traveling in a generally northerly direction.
After a while, Gary thought he would settle for a cougar or even a tiger rather than face any more mosquitoes or deer flies. They were persistent and ravenous and no amount of slapping or waving of hands discouraged them. Only Booger Bear seemed to be unaffected but he stayed close to Gary as they struggled through underbrush, vines and over and around fallen trees, the remnants of past hurricanes and tornadoes. Even the sounds were threatening since none of them were familiar with noises in the wilds made by unseen animals.
“Wrong way,” Booger Bear said.
Gary stopped, causing the others to do so too, as he was leading the way at the time. “How do you know, Booger?"
Booger Bear gave the cat equivalent of a human shrug. “Just know. Wrong way. This right way.” He scampered a few feet away from them at an oblique angle.
“Follow him,” Maria said. “He's right, I think."
Gary shrugged and took off the way the cat wanted to go. After another quarter mile of hard going, they came upon a large stream, running east to west. The forest formed a complete canopy over it.
Booger Bear hung back, causing Gary to stop. The cat looked around as if he were scared. “Bad,” he said, crouching nearer to his human.
“Gary, look up!” Maria warned from behind him.
Gary turned his gaze up to the trees. It took a moment but then he spotted what his pet had warned them about. A very large cougar was crouched in the fork of a pine that had grown two trunks. Its color blended almost perfectly with the brown bark. He saw that it had a high domed head, indicating that it was an enhanced variety. It had obviously been waiting on unwary prey coming to drink from the stream.