CHAPTER 10

     Jamie had thought he was in good physical condition. He exercised on a somewhat irregular basis and swam a lot during his time off, but neither had given him much preparation for an extended hike over rough ground while carrying a thirty pound pack.

     Their march had begun along the ruins of old Highway 59 north, but there were frequent detours because of broken concrete slabs and rusting piles of old ground cars, twisted and jammed in groups like the petrified remains of extinct animals. The rangers had evidently traveled the same route before because there was no hesitation when they left the old highway and routed the group into the dense woods of oak and pine and sweetgum bordering the ruined road. The median strip was far gone in unhampered growth and bushes and small trees had taken root in every crack and crevice of the broken pavement.

     Jamie was extremely observant and curious during the first part of the march, half expecting to see feral animals abounding on all sides and strange, unfamiliar flora, but the landscape remained depressingly familiar and his attention soon waned. He did see insects in abundance and became intimately acquainted with more mosquitoes and gnats than he ever desired to know. The further from the Enclave they traveled, the worse they got, swarming around his face and hands like a thick black mist until he was forced to pull the head net of his coveralls from it's pocket in the thrown back hood to protect his face, and to smear some repellent over his hands. No sooner had that problem been solved when his attention became diverted by his packstraps, which seemed to have turned into piano wires rather than the nicely padded straps he had started with. They dug into his shoulders and pulled at his neck like some fiendish torture instrument.

     Judy Neilson remained as his marching partner, walking beside him except when the trail narrowed enough to force them into single file. He noticed that her chatter stopped whenever they left an open space and detoured into the forest. Then, her eyes ranged left, right, up and down in a repetitive pattern like that of the Enclave sentry robots, and she spoke not at all. He wondered what she was looking for and began imitating her, hoping that would detract some of his attention away from his aching back and the pack straps cutting into his shoulders.

     Eventually, the route led up an access ramp onto an intact overpass. There, vegetation grew in cracks and along the guard rails where earth had blown and gathered, but it was thin and stunted. At the top of the ramp, Masters called a halt. Jamie gratefully shed his pack. He flexed his neck and shoulder muscles and looked around.

     A forest of pine and oak and sweetgum stretched below as far as the eye could see, but near the ramp he could discern the block-like patterns of old streets, overgrown with brush, but still much shorter than the encroaching forest. Occasional buildings showed partial roofs and faces through the growth; some appeared to still be in relatively good condition while others were crumbling into ruins.

     While he was still stretching and looking around, Kristi separated herself from the group she had been marching with and walked over. Judy's face brightened as she approached, then fell as she spoke to Jamie rather than her.

     "Hi, Jamie. Are you making it all right so far?"

     "Fine, except for this thing," he said, touching a toe to his pack. "I haven't added anything to it, but somehow it's weight has doubled since this morning."

     Kristi laughed. "You'll get used to it in a few days. Would you like to see something interesting?"

     "Sure. Show me."

     Kristi fished a small monocular from a pocket of her coveralls and placed it briefly to her eye, then handed it to him. "Focus in on that big brown building that doesn't have  much growing in front of it. Watch the door and the area in front of it for a ways." She stood close behind him and pointed over his shoulder as he closed one eye and put the monocular to the other. The front of the building sprang into focus as if it were only twenty yards away.

     At first, he could see nothing unusual, mainly because most of his attention was distracted by the warm pressure of Kristi's breasts flattening softly against his back and the tickling of her breath in his ear., but presently he spotted the movement of small animals traveling to and fro from the open entrance. He adjusted the focus the tiniest bit and the scene became even clearer.

     "Rats! Is that a rat town?"

     "That's what it is. Look some more, up and around." She backed a step away from him and withdrew her arm, but left a hand resting lightly on his shoulder. He moved the view up and found the second story balconies of the building thick with rats, enjoying the sunlight which had finally broken through the fog. Young rats moved among the adults, playing or tussling. Some gnawed on bits of food. Below and in front of the building covering what had once been a paved parking area was an expanse of small and scanty vegetation, mostly weeds. There, lines of rats were moving along several narrow trails, appearing and disappearing from sight as they wound their way through and among the bits of growth. Individual rats also scurried here and there on errands of their own.

     He watched one line for a moment, then exclaimed, "Why, they're carrying packs of some kind!" As near as he could tell from the distance, many of the rats were burdened with pannier type baskets slung from each side of their back. He thought they were made from woven grass, but couldn't be certain.

     "They are bringing in food and other supplies. Can you see the guards?"

     He could. They wore sharp pointed sticks slung on their backs for easy access. Every few moments, in a pattern not immediately obvious, one of the guard rats would unsling it's spear and sit upright on it's back legs, peer around, then reharness the tiny spear and continue on it's way.

     "I see them," Jamie said. "I'll bet the other rats envy them, not having to carry packs."

     "Are you sore?" Kristi bought up her other free hand and began kneading his back and shoulder muscles.

     "Yeah. That feels good."

     "I'll give you a good back rub tonight. You'll really be hurting by then, but right now I think we're about ready to move on." She left off the massage and turned to Judy, who had been watching. Her long lashes were damp. Kristi put an arm around her shoulder and led her off a few paces, talking to her in a low voice, then rejoined her own marching companions as Masters called for them to resume the trek.

     As Jamie re-shouldered his pack, he wondered about the coming night and promised back rub. Did she mean for them to sleep together or was she talking about activities beforehand? He had heard no discussion about sleeping arrangements so far, other than Master's admonition not to sleep alone. He had been assuming, perhaps incorrectly, that since Judy had been staying near him that they would be sleeping in the same tent. He wasn't thinking of the assumed arrangement as automatically implying a sexual union, but was considering it as more of a safety measure as outlined by the ranger captain. In any case, the way his back felt, rest would be preferable over sex anyway. Oh, well, he thought, in his usual easy manner, it will sort itself out soon enough. He began concentrating again on the scenery and trying not to think about the shooting pains in his neck.

     After the overpass had disappeared from sight behind them, the route detoured a mile or two back into the forest, then emerged again onto sparsely overgrown pavement. Judy stopped her silent, alert searching and began to talk.

     "I think Lt. Carson likes you," she said abruptly, without preamble.

     "I like her, too. She must really know her business to be a lieutenant so young," Jamie said.

     "What I meant is that I think she's attracted to you." She hesitated, then added, "It's unusual for her to feel that way about a man."

     "Oh," Jamie muttered, feeling mildly complimented. He had completely missed the disconcerted expression on Judy's face at their break, when Kristi focused her attention on him rather than her. Same gender sexual preference was certainly no novelty within the Enclave, so he would have felt sympathetic toward her in any case, but he was still at a loss for an appropriate response. To change the subject, he asked, "How long has that rat town been there?"

     "Several years that I know of. Why?"

     "Couldn't we come back and wipe it out when this business is over with?" Like most Enclave inhabitants, Jamie had an abiding loathing for rats, derived from horror stories handed down from refugees of the past disorders during the formation days.

     Judy looked surprised. "Why would we want to do that? There's a million more just like it in the country. Besides, we've been noticing an increase it the cat population in this area lately. They will keep the numbers down, not that it matters that much. Cats can be worse than rats, in some cases, or dogs, or any of the other smart animals. What we're really worried about is the birds. The more exotic species that were enhanced are doing OK; they are smart enough for most of them to get along, but there never was much work done on the everyday variety like sparrows and robins and wrens and so forth. They seem to be dying out, and that's why you see so many insects these days. There just aren't enough birds to keep them in check."

     Before Jamie could fully consider the implications of that remark, he spotted Fuzzy Britches and Princess waiting by the side of the trail. They had been traveling with Kristi while Woggly and Conan had been accompanying him and Judy. The dogs woofed a greeting to him and the cats, then ran on ahead, presumably to join up with Kristi and leave the cats back with them, under some arrangement of their own.

     "Hi, Fuzz, Princess. Are you guys doing OK?" He asked as they began padding along beside them.

     "Not guy. Girl." Princess corrected him with the first words he had heard her speak.

     "Nice girl, too," Fuzzy Britches purred, stopping to nuzzle her neck and lick a stray bit of debris from her face, then running a few paces with her to catch back up.

     "Sorry," Jamie apologized. "Just a manner of speaking, and I agree with Fuzz. You are a nice girl. And pretty, too."

     "Like Kristi," Fuzzy Britches said.

     "She's pretty, too," Jamie agreed.

     "Woods coming up," Judy interrupted, and the conversation died. During this interval, Jamie finally  discovered one of the reasons for Judy's constant alertness. Without warning, a rock whizzed by his head, traveling with a force that could easily have broken his skull had it hit him. He ducked instinctively after the missile had already spent it's force against a tree trunk. Judy whipped out her sidearm and aimed it up at the trees but didn't get off a shot.

     "Come on," she urged, poking Jamie in the back to get him moving again. "It's already gone."

     "What was it?", he asked.

     "Tell you in a minute. Don't talk now." Very shortly, they followed the trail back up onto pavement. "That was a monkey of some sort; maybe a chimp. They don't care much for humans. Can't say I blame them much if what I've heard in history classes about all the experiments we used to do on them is right. Anyhow, there are quite a few in this area, and you always have to watch for them. They've learned ways to conceal their scent from the dogs, so it's we who have to spot them. Dogs are mostly colorblind, you know, so they have a hard time seeing them, especially from below."

      ****

     Jamie was bone weary by late afternoon, when the rangers finally called a halt for the day, again choosing the  top of an old overpass as a stopping point. He dropped his pack with a grateful sigh.

     He wanted mightily to sit down and rest but refrained when he saw that none of the rangers were doing so. They were moving about with silent efficiency, feeding their dogs and erecting their transparent shelters. One of them was talking over some sort of communications device, apparently contacting headquarters to let them know where they were. Captain Masters was engrossed in a conversation with Wolfgang, his dog, presumably giving him instructions for the night watch.

     Jamie passed out food to his own animals. His own appetite began stirring once he had gotten rid of his pack, but before he could do anything about it, Kristi came over, bringing Judy and another ranger he hadn't met yet.

     "This is Dick Forsyth. Jamie Da Cruz," she said by way of introduction. "Let's get our shelters up." She motioned to Jamie's pack and he dug it out, again not noticing the  unhappy expression on Judy's face as she began combining her shelter half with Forsyth's.

     The shelters were of a thin, transparent material weighing hardly anything, but which could assume several rigid shapes, depending on the programmed instructions, then collapse back into the original folded packet when not in use. As it unfolded, it sucked in enough air to provide a thin mattress, then expelled it automatically during the re-folding process. It would retain as much or as little of the heat given off by the human body as desired through the thermosmotic fabric. Jamie had seen only a brief holographic demonstration of it's workings and Kristi had to show him how to program his half to unfold and meld with hers. Together, they made a comfortable fifty square foot sleeping area, and when occupied, the body weight of the inhabitants provided an anchorage from the wind.

     "We have the first watch, Jamie," Kristi announced, once the shelter was up and she had attached a temporary tie-down to keep it from moving until it was occupied. "Is anyone else hungry?"

     Jamie was. His appetite had grown by leaps and bounds in the last few minutes. He thought wistfully of the last meal he and Jeannie had eaten as he pulled out a ration pack, but very shortly, he found that he had consumed it all and was wishing for more.

     "Not bad," he commented, licking his fingers and unstrapping his canteen for a drink. The food had made him forget about the hard, uncomfortable concrete he was sitting on.

     "Tell me again how good that stuff is after you've eaten a few hundred of them," Kristi said. "And go easy on the water," she warned. "It will be tomorrow morning sometime before we get to any worth purifying."

     "If some animals haven't occupied the drinking place since the last time we were there," Judy interjected from where she and her tent-mate were finishing their own meal.

     "Couldn't we drive then off?" Jamie asked.

     Forsyth answered that question. "We could, but it wouldn't be a good idea. We survive out here mostly by leaving the animals alone, if we can. So long as they know we're only passing through, they usually won't cause much trouble, but if we started fighting or killing them for no good reason, they would retaliate, just as we would if the roles were reversed. Not only that, most of the smart animals  can communicate after a fashion with other species, and they would pass the word on ahead of us. Then we'd really have trouble. Remember, most animals are territorial, especially out here in the wilds. If they think their territory is threatened, they will fight back, and they have the numbers on their side, while we have only so many shots in a gun. How would you like to try killing a thousand rats, or a hundred dogs, all at once?"

     "I see your point," Jamie said. "They could wipe us out any time they really wanted to, couldn't they?"

     "They could, but there is one nice thing about them being intelligent. They have an awareness of death, now. They won't risk their lives unless it's for a good reason."

     "Like ours, on this expedition?"

     "That's right, like ours," Forsyth concluded with a wry grin.