aken me back with them."

"Where're you from? What are you doing out here?"

For a moment he thought she had not heard him. She was busy eating,
apparently having classified him as a friend. Finally, she said, "My
folks were out here. They were farmers for a while. I was born out
here and we moved around a lot until my daddy got tired of moving. So
we built a farm. He built it in a place in a valley off there"--She
vaguely indicated south--"And they planted some grain and potatoes and
tried to round up some kind of livestock. We had mostly goats. But the
patrol found us."

Nelson nodded, bitterly, he knew what had happened. Her father had
gone on as long as he could until at last, broken and uncaring he had
made one last ditch stand. More than likely he had half wanted to give
up anyway, and had not only because of the conflict of his family and
saving face. "You were the only one who got away?" he asked.

"Uh-huh. They took the others." She spoke without emotion, peering
into her food can to see if there was any left. "I was out in the
field but I saw them coming. I hid down low behind some tall grain and
got to the forest before they could find me." She examined the can
again, then decided it was empty and put it down.

"Do you know what they do to people they take?" Nelson asked.

"Yes."

"Your daddy tell you? What did he say?"

"He said they take you back to the Mausoleum and put you to sleep in a
coffin." She looked up at him, her face open, as if that was all there
was to it. Nelson decided that she was as guileless as he had expected
her to be, and reflected absently on that factor for a moment.

A light breeze was up and the air was full of the scents of the
forest. Nelson liked the pungent smell of the pines and rich odor of
chokeberries and bushes; and the mustiness that could be found in
thickly overgrown places where the ground had become covered with a
brown carpet of fallen pine needles. Some days he would search places
in the forest until he found one or another brush or tree whose leaves
or berries he would crush in his fingers simply so that he could savor
the fragrance of them. But not this morning.

He rose to his feet and reached over to pick up Glynnis' discarded
food container. She drew away from him, bracing herself as if to leap
and run. He stopped himself and froze where he stood for a moment,
then drew back.

"I didn't mean to scare you," he said. "We can't stay here, because if
y