James Axler – Bitter Fruit

“Yeah, it is,” Krysty agreed.

“Where’s everybody else?” Ryan pushed himself up from the floor, hurting in almost every muscle and joint. The battle yesterday and the hike in the cold all night had taken its toll.

“Jak’s hunting,” Krysty said as she lifted a small coffeepot from the camp fire. She’d packed it at the redoubt, and no one had grumbled about the extra weight or the coffee bag. The coffee sub came in premeasured bags, but even running them through again as drip, they weren’t going to last as long as everyone would have wished. “Mildred went with him. More to stretch her legs than anything. I can’t see her being an asset to Jak’s hunting.”

Ryan grunted his agreement and took the cup of coffee sub Krysty offered.

“Jak thought he saw some deer tracks during his rounds this morning.”

“Fresh meat would be good,” Ryan said. “If we have the time.” He raised his eyebrow when he looked at her.

“J.B. stood last watch this morning,” Krysty said. “He didn’t see anything.”

“He and Doc?”

“Trying to get their bearings. J.B.’s got his sextant and Doc’s looking for signposts.”

“Come up with anything?”

“J.B. says England, or at least Western Europe.”

Ryan nodded. “What time is it?”

“A half hour after dawn. Mebbe a little more. Why? There something you need to do?”

“Just look things over a little. See what needs doing.” Ryan set his chron, guessing dawn to be around six o’clock in the spring no matter where they were.

“Think mebbe it can wait awhile?” Krysty asked with a smile. “I haven’t told you about my surprise yet.”

KRYSTY TOOK THE LEAD through the fissure at the back of the cave. “I kept feeling like there was more moisture inside the cave than there should have been. Even taking the frost and wet weather into account. So I took a peek through here.”

Ryan followed her, trailing a free hand along the rough sides of the fissure. It was a tight fit with his broad shoulders. There was a gradual downgrade.

Krysty carried a torch, and the flickering flame nibbled at the fissure sides above them. Ryan couldn’t tell how far up it went. He lost sight of it in the encroaching darkness.

Less than twenty yards farther in, Krysty suddenly had room to step aside. “What do you think?”

The cavern was close to thirty feet across and almost circular. A hole in the roof forty feet up let in a weak cone of light that mostly stayed on one of the limestone walls and showed the various strata that indicated erosion. In its center was a natural cistern filled with the bluest water that Ryan had seen in a long time. It was still and placid, looking like a jewel’s planed surface.

“It’s heated, too,” Krysty said. “It must be linked to an underground stream somewhere.”

“How deep?” Ryan had noticed that her hair was soaking wet.

“I couldn’t find the bottom,” Krysty replied. “You want to try?”

Ryan grinned, indicating his bloodstained clothing. “Yeah. Mebbe do a little laundry at the same time. Have you told the others?”

“Not yet. Felt kind of bad about it, too, but they’re busy doing their thing. Figured we’d have time for all of us. Somebody has to go first. To test the water, so to speak.”

“All right.” Ryan made a neat pile of his clothing at the edge of the pool and stuck his blaster out of sight between the folds. He put a foot in the water, surprised to find it pleasantly warm.

“Didn’t want to get out once I got in,” Krysty said. “Had to make myself. Shamed myself for being selfish.”

Ryan eased his body into the water and let it close over him. “Easy to see why you’d have problems getting out.” He let go of the side and swam, exalting in the feel of the water against his body. He dived under for a moment, following the stray beams of sunlight bouncing off the limestone wall and streaking down into the pool until he couldn’t see them anymore. By then his lungs were near to bursting.

By the time he reached the surface again, black spots were whirling in his vision. He floated on his back.