The Armageddon Blues | Page 3

later, when the barbarians and the mutants came howling out of the
radioactive Burns to trek the surface of the freeways among the dead
shells of the automobiles, the freeways might have giggled to
themselves. Eventually the cars were dragged from the freeways for use
in making weapons, and the freeways were left alone to contemplate
their freewayness.)
Dateline 711 A.T.F. (After the Fire).
Ralesh caught her before she had even reached the hills beyond the
forest. The little girl had fallen asleep beneath an old willow, at the
edge of the grassy meadow that led up to the foothills. Ralesh, a
woman of early years, awoke the five-year old unceremoniously, and
ran the child the kilometers back to the Clan House without comment.
She whipped the child publicly. Five lashes; she was not a severe
mother. When the punishment was over, she took her daughter back to
the Girls' House. She put her daughter to bed; kissed her on the
forehead, and said gently, "Child, the woods are dangerous for children.
There are bears and Real Indians. There is nothing at the end of the Big
Road; the stories are lies."
Her daughter stared up at the oak planks of the Girls' House. She did
not speak.
Ralesh sighed. "Daughter, understand this; I will catch you. You cannot
run so far nor so fast that I will not find you. Remember that." She left,
and left the girl alone.

When she was gone, Jalian d'Arsennette, the straight-line female
descendant of Dilann d'Arsennette, finally let the tears come. It was
strange, though; the tears were external, they tracked down her cheeks
and she could hear herself sobbing, but inside none of it mattered.
Inside she was as cold and calm as an elder Hunter. They would be
watching her now; but now was not always. Summer would come
again.
Ralesh's words stayed with her, though, like a curse that would not be
shaken.
"You cannot run so far nor so fast ... I will catch you."
Jalian's hands clenched into fists. Summer would come.
They gave Jalian few duties on the day the Hunters came back; she
finished them early, and slipped out of the Clan House when nobody
was watching her. She wandered through the village aimlessly,
stopping to play a game of strike with one of the boys. (She was only
beginning to understand that boys were not fit company; she had not
yet learned why that was so, except that in all the stories it was the boys
who caused the Fire.)
By the time the watch was preparing to change, she had reached the
clearing that separated Selvren village from the forest. She squirmed
into what cover she could find at the south end of the clearing;
brown-haired and brown-clothed, she would have been hard to see in
any case. Against the brown summer meadow grass she was next to
invisible.
The clearing was a ten-second run for Jalian, from one end to the other,
and it was in clear view of the Clan House. Out in front of the Clan
House the men were tending the fires that would be used to smoke the
catch the Hunters returned with.
Ten seconds.

The watch's replacements arrived. The women stood together,
gossiping for a few moments, before the new guards assumed their
posts.
Jalian drew her legs up under her, checked her knife to make sure the
sheath was securely tied down, peered toward the Clan House one last
time....
She ran.
Ten seconds was a long time; long enough to think of exactly what
Ralesh would do to her if she was seen, if she was caught. Run, and run,
and run.... Jalian reached the trees at the north end of the clearing,
running as fast as she had ever run before. Her foot caught in a tuft of
the long brown grass at the last instant and sent her tumbling. She did
her best to convert it into a roll as she had been taught, but still the
wind was knocked from her lungs and she had trouble breathing when
she regained her feet. Fighting silently to pull air into her emptied lungs,
Jalian squirmed up to the edge of the decent cover and peered out.
There was no unusual activity over at the long wooden Clan House,
nothing out of the ordinary for early morning in the late thaw-time ...
she had not been seen.
Jalian grinned fiercely. It would be late afternoon, now, before she was
missed, and by then she would be long gone. They would know where
she had gone, when she failed to show up to help with the preparation
of the Ceremony meal, but by then, with luck, it would be too late. If
the Hunters started out after her