Margaret Tabor’s voice rose over the noise, bringing instant silence.
“Quick and efficient, please. I want the usual guards placed and I want lights out an hour after sunset. It’s my intention, if the weather cooperates with us, to be back in the air again before first light.”
“We got far to go, Chief?” called a voice from the dark belly of the Chinook.
“Answer is that we got to go all the way.” She smiled as she received a satisfying burst of sycophantic laughter. “Navigator tells me that we’re only an hour or so flying time from where we need to be. With luck, we’ll have the flies swatted and be on our way home shortly after dawn.”
Her gung ho words were greeted with a ragged cheer.
“SEEMS LIKE the weather changes every five minutes.” Nanci had pulled off onto what had once been a picnic area overlooking a maze of shallow canyons. The warning light had come on to indicate the threat of overheating, and she had felt it safer to take a break.
The sun had broken through less than a quarter of an hour earlier, but now it had become colder and a brisk easterly wind was driving flurries of fresh snow across the scarred land.
Jim walked with Carrie and Heather to the damp-stained concrete building that had housed a small visitors’ center, as well as rest rooms.
The girl went inside, through the door with the small silhouette of a woman on the outside. She came out again with startling speed. “There’s two bodies there,” she said, face pale, eyes wide with the shock.
“Old or new?” asked her father.
“Old. Like Egyptian mummies. I didn’t stop too long, but I think it was a suicide pact. One, the woman, looked like she’d been shot through the forehead. Other one, sitting by her, had a gun in his hand.”
“Strange place to pick to do it.” Carrie stared around her at the damp, dark mausoleum. “Think I’ll go and take a leak in the cold outdoors.”
Heather followed her. Jim paused at a peeling notice pinned to the main public information notice board.
Owing to the present incidence of the plant virus, known by the popular name of Earthblood, in this region, the hourly nature walks and lectures have been temporarily canceled. They will be resumed as soon as possible.
“Yeah,” said Jim, allowing the glass doors to swing silently closed behind him.
Chapter Thirty-Two
In the fading light of evening, Jim Hilton stated despondently at the vanished blacktop a hundred yards ahead of them. “Probably a quake brought it down. We’ll have to backtrack and then cut farther inland.” He bit his lip. “Could’ve done without this sort of delay.”
ZELIG’S lead driver called him forward just as dusk was beginning to fall around the convoy.
“Something like a stream has been paralleling our left for some time, General,” he said.
“I see it. Looks like it’s getting bigger. Overflowing. Think it might be a storm drain. I suppose it hasn’t been cleared out since Earthblood and it’s not coping.”
“That’s my worry.” The driver broke off the conversation, tugging at the controls as the front end slithered briefly away from him on a steep-cambered bend. “Bastard! That’s why I think we should stop now, General.”
“I concur with that. Find a good place to pull off as soon as you can. We’ll move on again toward the settlement of Rilkeville first thing.” He paused. “Though I don’t have too great an expectation as to what we might find there.”
JIM HAD RULED OUT lighting a fire. “Use one of the little camping stoves inside the horse trailer to heat up some cans, and keep the rear doors partly open for ventilation. I know it’s gotten colder again, but we can’t take any chances now. I guess things are getting closer to an ending.”
He sat with Heather, Carrie, Sly and Nanci, picking away at some sliced peaches in a thick syrup. The pan that held the crusted remains of the beef stew was by the open door, ready to be cleaned out. A few flakes of fresh snow occasionally drifted inside the trailer.