Rings of Ice by Piers Anthony

Author:Piers Anthony
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science Fiction, American, General, Fantasy, Fiction
ISBN: 9780380000364
Publisher: Avon
Published: 1974-01-01T08:00:00+00:00

Chapter 5: Rape

"We have enough to get us back where we were," Gordon said. "After that, we're stationary."

"We'll be better off in the forest," Gus said glumly.

The trip that had taken three days down took only hours back, for they knew the route and had no further need for caution. Their laborious road-building paid off in need, in speed. But it also blazed a trail for the city men to follow, later.

They passed their prior stop and went on. The meter for the gasoline read empty, and the last of their reserve gallons was in the tank.

Now they had to slow, for they had no pieced-together road here, and wanted none. Gordon turned off the motor whenever they stopped for construction, and coasted wherever he could. Sometimes they used the pulleys, so that the bus could traverse seemingly impassable terrain with minimum disturbance. If they were lucky, it would fool the pursuit.

"Trees!" Floy cried happily.

The forest began—tightly meshed pine trees. Gordon pulled into the forest as far as possible, found a sheltered, level place, and stopped. "We made it!" he said. "And we still have a few drops left for an emergency."

Just in time, for it was dusk. They had spent all night and all day without noticing it, getting away from the city and into the high wilderness. Zena's hands were ingrained with dirt, and she had several painful blisters.

Page 71

"Okay," Gus said. "We'll sleep here tonight and take stock in the morning. Floy stands guard until midnight, then Glory."

"I'll do it," Zena said. "Gordon needs some rest."

"Sure he does—but you can't do it!" Gus snapped. "You have a bad hand and foot and you've been working your ass off and you lose your head in a crisis. You've got to take care of yourself."

So that she could be a breeder, she thought bitterly. Gus didn't care about her welfare; he was thinking of posterity. He was taking care of her the same way he would a ten-gallon drum of gasoline: needed for future use.

Karen fixed supper and they all ate, sparingly. Then Floy went out with her cat, Gordon rolled into his bunk, and Gus took Karen to the back room.

Zena lay on her dinette-bed, wide awake. Why had she done it? How could she have blundered so? In retrospect it was obvious that she should have stopped firing the machine gun the moment the two men following Thatch went down. Instead she had hysterically blasted the tank and precipitated the conflagration.

She had lost her head. And she had murdered several men.

"Zena?" Thatch said from the floor.

"Oh, Thatch—I'm sorry!" she said miserably.

He sat up. "I just wanted to say—I thought we were finished when those men ambushed us. They had knives, and they were going to use them to make us tell where the bus was. The idea of torture—it terrifies me. When you took over the machine gun—"

"I ruined everything!" she finished.

Gordon dropped down from his bed. "You saved our lives!" he said. "Nothing less would have made those bastards stop.

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