James Axler – Deathlands

Krysty finished next, followed by Jak.

“How about risking a bath?” Mildred asked as she knelt by the side of the pool. “Something that tastes this good has just got to be safe.”

“A typically female piece of logical thinking,” Doc commented, dabbing at his mouth with his blue kerchief. “Or should I rather say illogical thinking?”

Mildred looked ready to rise to his baiting, then she changed her mind. “Doc, it’s just too hot to bother with your teasing. And unless anyone has some serious objections, I’m going to peel off some layers and have a swim.”

“I’m still kind of worried by those natives we saw,” Ryan said. “And this sacrifice stuff. There’s a mess of things here that we don’t begin to understand.”

“How about a swim?” Mildred repeated. “If I smell like the rest of you, then my armpits sure aren’t charmpits. Being funky’s all very well, but” She allowed the sentence to trail away into the green stillness.

“All right.” Ryan looked around. “But we do this careful and safe.”

“I don’t mind if we do this swinging from a flying trapeze, Ryan, just as long as I can get cleaned up.”

“I’ll vote for that,” Krysty added, lowering her voice as she stood close by Ryan. “Got my monthly, lover. A good wash’d be the best ace on the line.”

“Right. Ladies go first, with Dean and Jak. Doc and J.B. and me’ll stand watch. Then we change over.”

“Sounds good,” Mildred whooped, dropping her denim jacket in the grass and sitting down to unlace her boots.

Krysty was already out of her Western boots and was unholstering her blaster. Off came the pants and the white shirt, which left her in only her bra and panties, standing poised at the side of the lake like a carved goddess.

“Diana refreshing herself after a day’s hunting in the forest,” Doc said softly.

“Watch the woods,” Ryan warned.

He turned his back on the pool to look around the open space, checking the flower-covered trees.

“A pleasure,” the old man replied. “Truly this is a vista encantadora . A most enchanted place.”

As Ryan surveyed the area, he saw the four swimmers, and he became doubly conscious of how sweat crusted and sticky he felt, literally itching for the chance to get in the cool clear water himself.

Mildred floated on her face, wearing bra and panties like Krysty, her muscular shoulders exposed to the sunlight. Dean was ducking and diving with a sinuous ease, his dark body vanishing into the depths of the pool, then propelling himself upward, shaking his head amid a crown of scattered diamonds, laughing in sheer delight for the pleasure of it.

Krysty swam very slowly, her fiery hair burning on the surface of the pool. She waved to the watching Ryan with a negligent hand.

Ryan was looking at Jak, the youth’s white body burning like a column of ice, his red eyes glowing like fire at the center of the mane of tumbling hair, when he heard J.B.’s quiet whisper. “Company. Two. Nine o’clock from where you’re looking.”

Since the Armorer hadn’t opened fire with his Uzi, Ryan figured there was no immediate danger. He turned slowly, ninety degrees to his left, looking casually where J.B. had indicated. He saw them immediately. Though the first glimpse had been very quick, Ryan thought he recognized the two as the natives they’d seen a little earlier. Only their faces were visible, but they didn’t look threatening, more like curious.

At first Ryan guessed that they were probably fascinated by the seminaked bodies of the two women, but he noticed straightaway that their dark eyes were fixed on the languid body of Jak Lauren, who was floating on his back, spitting up a stream of water like a broaching dolphin.

“Want me to take them both out?” J.B. asked in a calm, conversational voice, as though he were asking Ryan whether he thought the meat needed a touch more salt.

“No. Not unless we have no choice about chilling them. Best to arrive someplace else and not start butchering the locals. Just watch them double careful.”

“Watch who?” Doc boomed. “Whom should we be watching, Ryan, my dear fellow?”