CHAPTER 23

     While Jamie was still gathering his wits and Kristi was urging him away from the battle scene, they were both staggered by the terrible explosion from along the waterfront buildings. It was far enough away that it failed to knock them off their feet as Masters had been, but it halted them in their tracks.

     "What the hell was that," Jamie asked, pausing from their headlong flight. He turned to look, but Kristi grabbed him again.

     "Never mind. Run! Lady, scout! Cover!" She urged him along again, breaking into a run as soon as he began moving. Jamie hurried to keep pace, beginning to pant. Woggly and Fuzzy Britches and Princess ran at their side.

     Lady led them most of a mile down river until it began curving back northwest, then Kristi took over, turning them south. "This way. Through the city now. Hurry." They trotted through ruins of an old residential district where half the houses had fallen and most of the rest were crumbling. The whole district was thick with trees and underbrush. Kristi kept them under cover, never crossing an open space before scanning the skies in all directions.    

     "I have to rest," Jamie finally said, gasping for breath. A sharp pain stitched his side at every step.

     "Just a little further. Let me find a good place to stop."

     Jamie struggled on, legs turning to water, the pain in his side becoming fiercer. Only when the sound of battle had died completely away did Kristi allow a rest, under a grove of trees surrounded by a thick secondary growth. He fell to the earth immediately. Fuzzy Britches plopped down beside him, tongue lolling like a dog and panting even heavier than he was. Cats are not made for prolonged speed.

     When he finally had some of his breath back, Jamie asked, "Now what?"

     A troubled look settled over Kristi's face. "Jamie, I don't think I have to tell you that we're in trouble. Troy said to get you away and I've done that, but as you say, 'now what'? You have that disk with everything we came for, but it won't do a damn bit of good unless we get you back to the Enclave. That's the problem."

     "Do you think Masters is dead?" It was hard for Jamie to picture. The ranger captain was such a vital man that it was hard to imagine him gone. It was as if the force of several personalities had been packed into his one small tough body.

     Kristi had the same problem. She had known Masters almost as long as she could remember and to her he seemed like an elemental force, indomitable and unchanging. "I don't know, and for our purposes, it might be better if he is, hard as that is to imagine."

     "Why on earth do you say that?" Jamie was stricken with the idea.

     "Suppose he has been taken captive? You know as well as I that no one can resist interrogation under seronal. If that's the case, those bastards will be after us with everything they can scrape together. They will know we got away, and they will have our description."

     "So, I guess we better get moving again." Jamie got to his feet, though he still felt weak and shaky from their prolonged run.

     "Sit down a minute. We're safe here for a little while." Kristi wanted to think. She considered the previous route to Conan's home, their flight from the battle, their present position, and most importantly, the best way to get them back to the safety of the Enclave. She knew that Jamie had no realistic idea of how to gauge direction; she would have to lead and try to keep them alive. Although Jamie had become marginally competent in the wilds, she held no illusions about his chances of making it all the way back to the Enclave by himself, and his pets wouldn't be that much help. She finally decided that they should cut through the old city at an angle then follow the interstate on a parallel route until they were west of the city. From there, she would head them south across the highway and back toward the Enclave. She gave him a quick glance and noted his trusting face.

     No sense telling him how slim our chances are of making it. Two humans, two dogs and two cats, and only her and Lady with experience in eluding the enhanced animals. Rats and dogs and wolves. Large hunting cats and chimps. Even bears, now. Kristi shuddered inwardly at the thought of their slim company meeting bears again, especially if they were accompanied by their feral human cohorts. It wouldn't be a fight, it would be a slaughter, plain and simple. Yet somehow, she had to get them home again, not only because Jamie was one of the most endearing men she had known for a long time, but because of his vast importance now. She vowed to herself that she would succeed if there were any way possible. She doubted that there was, but no need to let him know that. She got to her feet.

     "Let's move on. We've got a long way to go."

     "I guess," Jamie said. "We walked here; we can walk back if we have to."

     Let him keep his optimism, Kristi thought. Hell, who knows? We may even make it. "OK, let's go. We'll stay under cover whenever possible and try to work our way back and across the interstate, then head south. Lady, you scout. Keep to cover. Don't bark unless it's necessary. Quiet, understand?"

     "Yes," Lady said. She moved off through the brush in the direction Kristi pointed out to her.

     "Woggly, why don't you bring up the rear?" Kristi suggested as they moved off. "Warn us if anyone is following. Or anything else, for that matter. OK?"

     "OK," Woggly agreed, foregoing his usual assertive woof. He thoroughly understood the gravity of their present situation.

     "You cats better stay close, now," Kristi added. "No mouse hunting." Neither of the cats answered. Both had been almost scared out of their wits by the sudden attack and  the violence of the explosion in their rear and had no desire to stray far from their humans. Princess was especially subdued. Fuzzy Britches was also, but he carried an undertone of resentment. He was aggravated that strange humans had tried to hurt them and wished that he had had a chance to get in a couple of swipes at them before fleeing.

     "What was that explosion, do you think?" Jamie asked as they wound through brush and overgrown dwellings at a slower pace.

     "It puzzles me," Kristi said. "I suspect that the gang which attacked us was recruited from the Dallas Enclave, but I can't imagine what they thought they were accomplishing by blowing up everything. They must want the same information we were after, but that wasn't a very intelligent way to go after it."

     "Maybe it was an accident of some kind," Jamie said.

     "Could be. Maybe we'll find out someday. Hold up, I see floaters in the distance."

     Janie could see them too, far to their rear, flying in  low circles as if they were searching for something. They were no danger to them, though, being as well concealed as they were, but they made him nervous anyway. He waited until Kristi gave the signal, then they moved on, always keeping to the brush and trees, or hugging the other side of ruined buildings to keep out of sight of the distant floaters. After a while, they were no longer visible and Kristi quickened the pace.

     They entered an area of lower ground, still boggy with the spring rains and struggled through it, followed by clouds of insects. Kristi sent Lady back over their trail once during the day to be sure that they weren't being followed. After that they went on, now and then having to climb upslope, cautiously, as cover thinned out.

     Late that afternoon Kristi halted them again. "I think we had better find a place to stop before it gets dark," she said. "I'm beginning to notice lots of rat signs."

     Jamie, of course, had not noticed any spoor, but he halted with alacrity. "Do you think there might be a rat town nearby?"

     "It's beginning to look like it, and if there is, I want us to pass it in the morning, not this late in the day. We might have to run for it and I don't want us crashing around in the dark if we do," Kristi said. She scouted ahead cautiously, then stopped and shook her head. "Let's go back a bit. I think we just passed a place that might do."

     Kristi led them back to the shell of a former service station, constructed of cinderblock, with all but one window still intact. The metal door was closed but Jamie was able to force it open after some effort. Birds and possibly bats had inhabited it in the past but there were no signs of them now. They swept out one corner with their feet to make room to stretch out. Jamie started to close the door but Kristi insisted that it be left open. "It's too easy to get trapped in here with the door closed. We'll sleep in our clothes as well and not set up the tent so we can move out fast if we have to."

     The two humans sat facing the entrance, with the dogs just outside and the cats inside with them. Kristi took out rations for herself and her pets. Jamie started to do the same, but she stopped him. "No, we may as well go on half rations now. I'll share with you and your pets tonight, then we'll use your supplies in the morning. No floater to replenish us on the way back, remember?"

     Jamie accepted half of her food bar. "Whitmire will send floaters out to look for though, won't he?"

     "I'm sure he will, but that doesn't mean anything, considering how many of the enemy floaters we saw. They would have the devil's own time finding us, anyway. We'll have to stay under cover, and that means off the highways for the most part. It's not going to be easy. Half rations may look good before it's over with."

     Jamie chewed thoughtfully, mentally counting the remaining rations in his pack. When he compared this figure to the least amount of time it might take them to walk all the way back to the Enclave, he came up with a sum so negative that he did the calculation over again. It still didn't compute.

     "Don't look so dismayed," Kristi said. "Look at me; I'm not complaining. It will be good for my figure to go hungry for a few days."

     Jamie forced a grin. "I am looking. I like your figure the way it is."

     "Why, thanks. Such a compliment will ease my conscience while I'm gorging myself when we get back." She poked him in the ribs. "I think you like full figures, especially the parts you're staring at."

     "Mother told me I was a greedy baby."

     "You haven't changed since, so far as I can tell. You can feast to your heart's content once we're home." Kristi took a deep breath. "But not until then. Isolated as we are, we can't take the chance of getting caught with our pants down, literally."

     Jamie was trying hard to help with the banter. He knew Kristi was trying to under play their predicament. "So much the better when we can take them down, then. I'll bet Jeannie would even help." He had intended to ease into the idea of forming a threesome with Jeannie and Kristi, but suddenly he remembered. "Oh no! Jeannie was supposed to fly out to join us today. Do you think the floater might have turned back?"

     "There's no way of telling," Kristi said, damning herself for letting Jamie bring the subject up. She had been worried, too.

     Jamie's whole body slumped. How could he have forgotten?

     "Take it easy," Kristi said. "Chances are, she never made it here."

     "I'm still worried."

     Kristi reached over to hug him. "I guess I am too, but there's nothing to do about it now. Tell you what. Woggly and I will take the first shift while you get some sleep, then Lady will stay with you while I rest. Cheer up, we'll all come out of this somehow, Jeannie included."

     Jamie nodded agreement. Kristi was putting an experienced human or dog on each shift and as she said, there was nothing at all he could do for Jeannie right now, worry as he might.

     "Two hours each?"

     "Yes, let's try that as long as we can. For a couple of days anyhow, until I'm sure we're not being followed. When we just have to rest longer, I'll find us a good spot to hole up in and we'll let the cats stand guard."

     "Sounds good." Jamie wormed over to the corner they had cleared of rubbish and stretched out, though he doubted that he could sleep with the events of the last two days still occupying his mind. He thought of Captain Masters, Conan, Judy and all the others he had traveled with. He wondered if they were still alive and perhaps struggling through the wilderness as he and Kristi were doing. His last thoughts were of Jeannie, then his mind quieted and he did sleep.

     He awoke with a hand over his mouth. Startled, he began to grapple until he realized his hands were touching female flesh. He relaxed and the hand left his mouth. It was almost pitch dark.

     "Kristi?"

     "You were dreaming." Her voice came to him as a whisper.

     "Is anything wrong?"

     "No, you were just making too much noise. Besides, it's your turn for guard."

     "Oh. All right. They changed places in the dark.

     At first Jamie started at every little night sound, but gradually he calmed. Lady moved around occasionally, circling the building, a pale wraith in the near total darkness. After a bit, Fuzzy Britches crawled into his lap and began purring softly. He thought how lucky he and Kristi had been to have their pets near when the attack came. Even luckier that the enemy force had apparently not brought dogs or they would have almost certainly been tracked down by now. He scratched affectionately at the base of Fuzzy Britches' ears. For all the trouble enhanced animals had caused, there was compensation. His pets had brought a wealth of love and companionship into his life. And really, once the techniques of genetic engineering became so simple, he thought it inevitable that the present situation should develop. Besides, the pet plague had solved a lot of other problems along the way. War, overpopulation, the nagging, insoluble poverty of the third world, even industrial pollution. Perhaps it would be a good thing in the end, even if man couldn't hold a place on the planet. We can leave now and let the animals have the planet! If I get back, that is.

     Jamie shifted his position to ease his cramped back, causing Fuzzy Britches to interrupt his purring for a moment, then roll over in Jamie's lap to have his belly rubbed, his favorite form of petting. Jamie scratched at the wiry fur, pausing occasionally to strip off a grass burr. Two weeks. Two weeks and we can be back. Jeannie. I wonder how she will react when I tell her I want to keep Kristi in my life as well as her. Or does she already know?

     The night passed.