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a way
down the hill.
    "Let's explore it on foot first," he said, and she
nodded in agreement. Leading the way, Garret started down the path.
It was just barely wide enough for the van and not too steep. Now
if only it led back to the road.
    "Look at this plant, Garret," Evie called from
behind him, "I've never seen one like this, have you?"
    "Come on hon; we'll do that later, on the way
back."
    "You really do have a one track mind, don't you?" she
said when she caught up to him. He took her hand and helped her
over some rocks in the path.
    "Do you think we can get these out of the way?" he
wondered.
    Evie held up her arm and pumped up her bicep.
"Anything is possible," she said, and was rewarded by his chuckle
and a flash of white teeth in his strong face. She was actually
quite strong and he knew it. They often worked out together, and,
while he could lift more weight, she had more endurance.
    The landscape before them was bleak and
uncompromising, stark lines of rocky outcrops, long stretches of
near desert. The soil was so eroded that the bare bones of the
earth were clearly visible in every direction. But there were
trees, and other plants, growing in between the rocks where the
soil had been trapped, and to Evie and Garret, it was the most
beautiful sight they'd ever seen.
    They stood high above a valley, which stretched off
into the distance, and below them, they could see a small forest of
scrub pine and a sparkling river. Even though they knew that the
water was probably poisoned, they longed to go closer, to hear it
and see it and touch it.
    "I know," Evie said, "on the way back ... "
    They ascended the slope and got back onto the road.
Knowing they'd have no real trouble circumventing the obstruction,
they walked back toward their vehicle holding hands and enjoying
themselves immensely.
    The voices they heard from around the bend were as
unexpected as a tidal wave or fish falling from the sky. Voices.
Voices out here, where no one could live. People talking. Who?
Maybe Southeast had sent someone to meet them. No, that didn't make
any sense. Cautiously, they peered around the turn in the road,
stopped in their tracks, and quietly stepped backward. Screened by
the hill, they stood silently and considered their options, as
unexpected quantities of adrenaline poured into their veins.

CHAPTER 5
     
    East USA: 2128
     
    The man was like a huge upright lion, sporting a mane
of shaggy hair that started at his head and continued on down his
back. He was pulling at the door of the van, all the while talking
with his two companions. The smallest of the men, dark and slender,
climbed onto the roof of the vehicle, while the third, as drab in
appearance as the other two were interesting, went around to the
back.
    Evie, aghast, clutched at Garret, whose own
trepidation seemed to freeze his blood. She knew he had reviewed
their options in the same split second that she had, and she knew
that they had arrived at the same conclusion. While her heart raced
with fear at these wholly unexpected events, her mind was
satisfied, and elated, to find that the supposition on which they’d
based the last year's work, had been correct.
    There were people who had been able to survive the
plagues and pollution. Even in terror for her life, she couldn't
quiet her scientific curiosity. How had they survived? What was
different about them? How would this affect their research?
    "Should we face them now, or wait until they're more
vulnerable?" Garret whispered.
    She smiled. "We'll have to just walk over there and
see what happens."
    "I knew you'd say that," he smiled, hoping his feeble
attempt at humor would bolster her. Actually, Evie was okay. If
anyone was having trouble with the circumstances, it was Garret.
Evie was able to suspend her fear in intellectual wonder, but
Garret was not.
    Reaching for each other's hands, the two scientists
stepped forward and into the visual field of the lion man, who was
just about to thrust a small boulder