“Makes me nervous, Doc,” the woman said. “Going into this strange-looking room and closing the door to wake up somewhere else. Makes me claustrophobic.”
Doc watched himself give the woman his most reassuring smile. “Nonsense, my dear,” he told her. “As long as I am at your side, no harm shall come to you.”
He had turned to look down at the attractive woman standing outside of the mat-trans chamber next to him, one of her hands curled tightly in his own. She was around average height, five foot six or so with the lean build of a woman used to moving. Her golden shoulder-length hair was streaked with the first tints of the eventual waterfall of gray to come. Against the blond hair, her deeply tanned face and neck looked even darker than they truly were, but the sun had been kind and her face remained relatively wrinkle-free, despite her age of forty-three and continual exposure to the elements.
Another blonde. Doc hadn’t felt an attraction to any woman since Lori Quint’s untimely demise, but this one was different. Where Lori had been headstrong and pumped with the self-aggrandizement of youth, this woman was mature and cautious. Doc liked that, liked the white flash of her smile and the calm assessment in her dark eyes.
Susan “Sukie” Smith, originally from Rice Falls,
Wisconsin, had a past as tragic as his own, maybe even more so in terms of loss and heartache. Now, she was on her way out west seeking her sister in hopes of reclaiming the last remnants of her scattered and mostly dead family.
She wore a divided blue skirt with a few patches over well-worn riding boots, along with a dingy white blouse and a jacket that matched the blue in the skirt. A necklace of rough-cut turquoise and pewter around her long slender neck completed the ensemble.
When they’d first met, she had the advantage on Doc with an autopistol and a hankering to fire, only to come forward after they’d talked to collapse before him in a tumble of unconscious limbs and bright red blood. He later learned the wound had been given to her by a man who she hired as a guide. In return for her injury, she’d chilled the man with his own blade, and had been going it alone until encountering Doc.
The spark of attraction had been there between the two, and Doc had delighted in engaging in a sprawl of days of consensual lovemaking and leisurely travel in some of the most beautiful country he’d ever seen. Now, Sukie was at his side in front of the mat-trans chamber, along with all the other members of Ryan Cawdor’s group of survivalists. There had been no hesitation in letting her accompany them- if the woman was good enough for Doc, there would be no disputing her place in the group of friends. Although hardened by the harshness of her life, she was friendly enough, although still sticking close to Doc.
Like most people at first, she was attempting to grasp the complexities of the matter-transfer process. Doc had explained the process to her as best as he could, promising her that he’d spent more time than he cared to tell within the various six-sided armaglass chambers jumping to and fro and he was still in one piece.
So, she’d agreed, and entered with the rest of them, Krysty, Jak, Dean, J.B., Mildred, the Trader and Abe-both of whom were traveling with the companions at the time-and Doc himself, who felt slightly guilty since none of them actually liked jumping, and he was the one who usually came out on the other end suffering the most. Yet he still had to put on a brave face for his lady. Outside in the ruin of the anteroom next to the chamber, Ryan had waited until all were safe and seated inside before stepping into the booth himself and closing the door.
Once closed, the door triggered the auto mechanism of the mat-trans and the incredible process, so familiar to everyone, began once more.
Familiar to all but Sukie Smith, who sat stiffly next to Doc, her face a twist of worry as the metal disks began to hum like a thousand stirred bees and the swirling mists fell around their shoulders like a gentle cloak, gray-white mists that started high before falling to the floor and wrapping around each form inside the chamber.