fire in the distance
behind them. They were safe from the fire, but their escape was cut
off by it. It would, he knew with dull certainty, attract attention.

When he had rested as long as he dared, he said, "We'd better get
going."

"I'm not sure I can," she said.

"Well, you've got to. If we stay here, we'll be caught."

* * * * *

They did not pause to eat. It was about midday when they encountered
the robot and they walked well into the afternoon, their only purpose
being to put as much distance between them and the place where they
had shot the robot down as possible. Nelson found himself moving
numbly, blindly uncaring of anything by making progress forward. He
listened to the humming of an approaching robot for a long while
before it registered on his consciousness.

He whirled, drawing his gun, momentarily giving way to the panic that
had been threatening to engulf him all afternoon. He saw the machine,
high above the trees behind them, safely out of range, he knew.
Bitterly, he fought down the urge to fire the gun anyway. It took a
tremendous exertion of will to make his arm return the gun to its
holster.

"What can we do?" asked Glynnis, a slight quaver in her voice.

"Not a thing," said Nelson; then, almost in a rage he cried it. "Not
one damned thing!"

They both turned back the way they had been going and ran, hoping to
find some cover with which to duck the machine. Nelson converted his
rage and fear into a strength he had never known he could call upon.
He ran on, and Glynnis behind him. And he knew that she, like he, ran
despite the rawness in her throat and lungs and cramping of her legs.
The only thing he could think of was that he wanted to enter a
mausoleum not as a prisoner, but as the head of an army.

He ran blindly, hearing nothing but the machine and his own rasping
breath. Then suddenly, he was stumbling over the edge of an
embankment, flailing his arms and twisting himself around so that he
managed to land on his back. It hurt and the wind went out of him. He
was sliding and rolling. Somehow he managed to stop himself. He lay
painfully coughing and trying to get his breath. Below him he could
see the wild rushing of a river at the base of the sheer embankment.
He looked back up. Glynnis had one leg over the edge but had not
fallen. Nelson crawled his way back up the slope.

They were trapped by the river. It must be another part of the same
river