The young former Marine sitting opposite Zelig looked at him with a mixture of apprehension and expectation. The general had a reputation for jumping when you least looked for it.
“Cards, son?”
“Sure, sir?”
“Would that be five-card draw poker, by any chance? Playing for scrip at the base store?”
“Surely would, sir.”
Zelig sniffed and smiled. “It would pass the time.”
“GUESS THAT two little ladies and three smiling tens is enough to take the pot over those three sevens and a couple of aces. Thank you, gentlemen. It’s been a financial pleasure.”
“Damnation!” The ex-Marine with the fuzzy blond mustache who’d suggested the game shook his head sadly. “Guess that Wendy from the bakery at the base is going to have to take a rain check on tomorrow’s Christmas present, General. You cleaned me out. Still, don’t they say somethin’ about if you’re unlucky in cards then you’re lucky in marriage?”
“Something like that, son. You know, it slipped my mind for a while that tomorrow is Christmas Day. Perhaps we should try and arrange some sort of a ceremony.”
“That’d be nice,” said the skinny black soldier sitting on Zelig’s right.
“Yeah,” agreed someone else. “The first proper Christmas after we got us organized from Earthblood. Kind of first Christmas of the new life.”
Zelig folded his winnings: the hand-printed slips of paper that passed for scrip at Aurora. With a show of satisfaction he put them into the breast pocket of his uniform.
“Not much to celebrate yet, son.”
“We’re alive, sir.”
Zelig smiled. “Can’t argue with you. I suppose that— Listen! Is that the recon patrols?”
It was.
With bad news.
“Just no way through or over or around, General,” reported Major Lorraine Stotter. “Went as far as we could, but it looks like they’ve had a much worse fall of snow in these parts than we’ve seen yet.”
“No life?”
“No, sir. Truck with half a dozen corpses in it. Two adult males and four children. Looked like they probably starved to death, trapped in drifts.”
“And to the rear?”
“Forked farm road not shown on our high-scale map, General. But it looks like it might take us in the right direction to pull back onto the highway south.”
Zelig tapped his finger against his expensively capped front teeth. “Hell, why not?” he said. “Get everyone ready, and we’ll give it a try. Just hope that Jim Hilton and his party haven’t run into really turbulent weather.”
JIM WAS AT THE WHEEL when the group passed over the state line into Oregon. There’d been problems as they found themselves cutting farther inland, into worse weather. But they were now close to the coast, driving parallel to the Pacific, with the salt spray on the breeze fighting the snow and leaving sections of the highway completely clear.
They stopped in the middle of the afternoon for a food-and-comfort halt.
Jim walked to a point where the blacktop skirted cliffs above the sea. He stood and looked down and out, across the dull water broken only by wind-whipped combers. Hearing steps, he looked around and saw Carrie Princip.
“How’s the patient?” he asked.
“Sukie is making a great recovery, Jim. If it hadn’t been for those drugs and Nanci’s knowledge in identifying what was needed, then…” She let the sentence trail away.
“Yeah. Could have been the last straw for Mac, as well. He’s looked twenty years younger today.”
Carrie stretched, putting her hands to the small of her back. “The sleeping pods on Aquila were more comfortable than that horse trailer.”
“Want to drive awhile?”
“Sure. Be glad to. Tonight…do you think we could maybe get it together again? I really…”
Jim shook his head. “Not with Heather there a couple of feet away from us, Carrie. Sorry, but I just couldn’t.”
“No. I understand.”
“Truth?” He smiled at her warmly.
Carrie smiled back. “If we, when we get to Aurora, I guess I’d quite like it if we could have some sort of privacy and spend some quality time together, Jim. I know we’re thrown together here in this strange world, but I’d still…”
He kissed her on the cheek, very gently, one hand touching the back of her neck and drawing her closer to him. “I’d like to give it a try, too, Carrie.”