They passed a clump of enormously tall lilies, with bright orange petals and a scent that filled the shimmering air. Butterflies danced among the bushes, in every shade of the rainbow, and hummingbirds floated in the air, long beaks dipping into the pools of nectar. “Paradise,” Krysty said. “Shouldn’t say that. I know I’ve said it before, and it always seems to get drenched in blood the next moment.”
Ryan stopped in midstride and pulled Krysty against him, kissing her first on the side of the neck, then on the cheek, finally on the mouth, the tip of his tongue probing between her parted lips.
She responded and for several seconds they clung to each other until they separated, breathless.
Krysty ran her fingers down his cheek. “Need a shave, lover.”
“That put you off?”
“No. What’s that lovely old song that we heard in that frontier gaudy? Fastwood Bar? Tall blonde woman at a beat-up piano. It had a line about taking me into the tall grass and letting me do my stuff. Something like that.”
“Why not?”
They walked a yard off the trail, pushing through a shrub with a dense mass of brilliant red flowers that released a scent of fresh apples.
“Think this is safe, lover?” Krysty asked as she sat in a pool of rich green grass.
“You mean are you going to get pregnant?”
She laughed, sliding her pants down to her ankles. “You know what I mean.”
“I don’t hear anything, except the normal noises around here.” He was sitting by her, unbuckling the SIG-Sauer P-226 and placing it close to hand. “Reckon the time to worry is when you suddenly don’t hear those noises. Mean something’s coming that’s double-bad news.”
Krysty reached and held his swelling erection in her strong fingers. “Only thing coming’s this and it’s triple good, lover,” she whispered.
Ryan rolled over in the grass, kissing her, his tongue pushing again at her warm lips, his arms around her, feeling an overwhelming need for her body.
Their lovemaking was slow and gentle, both taking their time, exploring each other’s familiar bodies, smiling into each other’s eyes.
“Soon,” she whispered.
“Wait, wait, wait”
He could feel the muscles inside gripping him, beginning to flutter as she neared her own climax. Ryan was slightly slower than her as she came, but his own orgasm was powerful, making him arch his back, unable to restrain the moan of pleasure.
There was a long stillness between them, lying side by side in the crushed grass, the warmth of the sun fierce on their exposed bodies.
Something moved through the bushes behind them and Ryan pulled up his pants, reaching for the butt of the automatic. Krysty followed his lead, standing and buckling her belt.
“What is it, lover?”
“Doesn’t sound anything too big, but it’s going fast away from the east.”
“Best get on and take a look at the base.”
Ryan sniffed. “Yeah. If it hadn’t been for you and your excessive demands we could’ve been there a good half hour ago.”
She raised the middle finger of her right hand with exquisite delicacy and timing. “Below contempt is what you are,” she said, answering the smile that played on Ryan’s lips, her green eyes dancing with amusement. “Just get real, Ryan.”
THE CRATER left by the explosion of the grens was a ragged circle of scorched earth and torn grass beside the frag-shattered remnants of the defensive pillbox. Ryan peered into the hole, fifteen feet across and five or six feet deep, looking at the layer of scummy mud at its bottom.
“Lucky,” he said.
Krysty was at his side. “If it hadn’t been one of the slow timers, they’d have been picking bits of us out of the top of the trees. Look like someone had emptied a butcher’s shop all over the jungle. Yeah, we were lucky.”
They walked through the base, paying particular attention to the part of the complex where Dean had discovered the old armament. But there was nothing there, just rotting shelves and worm-eaten closets filled with rusting and burst tins, all of them without labels.
Overhead they heard the sound of a large flock of birds, flying low and fast from the east. Krysty wiped away layers of grime and looked out of a splintered window but was too slow to make them out properly.