Black hair cut short, unreadable dark eyes. Maybe five feet, four inches tall. Jeans that fit her very snugly and a man's shirt that was too large for her. Boots that had seen better days.

Ben guessed her age at about thirty.

"You a Rebel?" the woman asked.

"Yes."

"Aren't you kinda old for a Rebel?"

Ben laughed and the woman's eyes narrowed. "There are those in my command who would certainly agree with you, lady. You have a name?"

"Judy."

"I'm Ben Raines."

"You're a liar, mister! Ben Raines runs a whole country down south.

Probably lives in a big mansion with servants and all that."

Ben chuckled. "Actually, my house is rather average. And I have no servants. Just a person who comes in once 103.

103.

a week and cleans up-when I'm home, that is, which isn't often."

"You got some I.D.?" She moved closer.

"I sure do. Dog tags around my neck."

"Take them off and toss them to me."

Ben slipped the tags off his neck and tossed them on the floor about two feet in front of the woman. When she bent down to retrieve the tags, Ben jerked the rifle out of her hands and shoved her backward. She landed on her butt on the floor, spitting like a cat."Now just calm down," Ben told her, grabbing up his dog tags and slipping them around his neck. He moved back a comfortable distance and sat down on an old wooden box. "My name really is Ben Raines. The punks hit us with a surprise attack yesterday. I got cut off from my team and pinned down in a building. Knocked out. I came to about 1800 hours last evening and have been dodging punks even since." He smiled. "And killing a few whenever possible."

The woman slowly nodded. She pulled herself up to a sitting position, her back against what was left of a counter showcase. "How'd you get through the Uglies south of here?"

"The Uglies?"

"Most people outside of the zone call them Night People."

"Manhattan is the zone, I presume?"

"Yes."

"I walked through the creeps' territory. But did so very cautiously when I started smelling the bastards."

She smiled, and her teeth were startlingly white against her face. "They do stink, don't they?"

"You have a last name?"

"Miller. When my husband got killed several years ago, I went back to my maiden name."

104.

Ben held up the M-16, hesitated for a few seconds, then tossed the weapon to her.

She caught it deftly. "Thanks. You really are Ben Raines?"

"In person. And wondering how the hell to get off this piece of real estate."

She laughed softly. "Forget it, General Raines. As soon as the punks launched their attack on you people 'way south of here, they began shifting people around. There are patrols everywhere. I couldn't get back to my people because of the patrols."

"Your people?"

"Yes. We hold Central Park and a few blocks all around the area. We have just under two hundred people... men, women, and children."

Ben dug in his pack for one of the hi-energy bars and tossed it to her.

"They don't taste very good, but they're packed with all sorts of stuff the doctors say we need to stay alive."

Judy tore off the wrapper and took a bite. "Not bad," she said. "You ever eaten rat, general?"

"Call me Ben. No, I've been spared that.""We have. Gulls, pigeons, you name it We won't eat dogs or cats. We draw the line at that. But compared to some of the things we had to eat when we first banded together, this is great."

"How have you managed to keep the punks and the creepies out of your area?"

"We booby-trapped it. We had an ex-army man with us for several years who was some sort of guerrilla fighter. He showed us all about man-trapping and so forth."

"What happened to him?"

"He was killed by the punks just about a year ago. He went out on patrol with a couple of others and the punks 106.

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ambushed them. Only one made it back and he died the next day."

"You going to invite me to your fort?" Ben asked with a smile.

She looked at him for a moment, then nodded. "Sure. But we can't go during the day, it's too risky. It's jumping with punks out there."

"I'm sure you know best."

"You people have radios?"

"Oh, yes. CBs."

"That'll work. I've got to get in touch with my people and tell them to hold off shelling the city until we can get you and your bunch out of here."

"We've wanted to make a run for it for some time. Head down south to the SUSA." She sighed. "But that's such a long way. And we've got some elderly with us that... well, I don't know if they could stand the trip."

"We'll get you out of these ruins, Judy. Are there any more groups like yours?"

She shook her head. "No. There used to be dozens of little groups of survivors scattered about. Some made it out, most were killed by the punks or the uglies."

"You're sure? For when I turn my people loose, it's going to get real grim in a hurry."

"Yes. I'm sure."

"How about boats, Judy?"

She smiled and shook her head. "Not a chance, general ... I mean, Ben.

And believe me, we've looked."

' 'You people must have moved into the ruins just after we pulled out, several years ago?"

She shrugged. "I suppose so. We're from all over. We've just got onething in common."

"Oh?"

"Yes. Staying alive."

107 Ten Several times that day, punk patrols walked past the building where Ben and Judy were hiding. Once a man stuck his head inside, looked around for a few seconds, then left.

"How many punks on this rock?" Ben asked.

"Thousands. We estimated five or six thousand up until about six months ago. Then they really started pouring in."

"That's our fault, Judy. We put them on the run and began herding them in this direction."

"And you're going to wipe them out?"

"Right now to the last person, if they don't surrender."

"And you'll let us become a part of the SUSA?"

"Sure. Once we're off this rock, I'll call in for transports and fly you and your people down south." He smiled. "What'd you do before the Great War?"

"I was just out of college. A teacher. One morning I 108.

woke up and... everything was topsy-turvy. You know what I mean?"

"Yes. I know exactly what you mean."

"My dad used to read your Western books, Ben. He had a whole collection of them."

Ben chuckled. "Where was home?"

"Really not that far from here. Massachusetts. Litde town on the Cape.

Real pretty place."

"No desire to go back and live there?"

"Not really." She laughed softly. "I was a real go-getter activist before die Great War. What you used to call in your books a hanky-stomping liberal. I'm afraid I could never fit in again back in that litde town."

"It's amazing how many converts I've run into since everything collapsed."

She smiled. "I'm sure about that. Oh, I sobbed for the poor criminals in prison because of abusive childhoods. I wept for die poor misunderstood wretches imprisoned because of a racist society. I don't diink you would have liked me very much back dien, Ben.""Oh, I probably would have just laughed at you."

Her smile faded. "Not too much to laugh about now, diough, is diere?"

"Not in this part of die country."

"Down in the SUSA?"

"Last report I got said we were getting back to normal. At least as normal as diings can get at diis time."

"There is nodiing normal around here."

Judy and Ben talked of many diings during the long afternoon. Ben noticed that she talked very little of her past, and evaded mosts questions he posed about it.

She was educated, Ben knew that after speaking widi her for only a few minutes. She had come from an upper middle class family where bodi parents worked. She had a brodier and a sister, but had no idea what had happened 109.

109.

to them. And that was it. Whenever Ben tried to shift the conversation back to her, she skillfully moved it right back to the SUSA, the Rebels, Ben's writing career, his travels, or any one of a dozen other areas.

He did not believe the woman was lying to him, pretending to be what she was not, but her past was private, and she was determined to keep it that way.

Perhaps, Ben concluded, events had been so traumatic she had blocked out the terrible memories. Ben had known of people who had done that Jersey had practically no memory of her past as a child.

When the afternoon began casting long shadows among the ruins, Ben got to his feet and stretched some of the stiffness out of his muscles and joints. His head had stopped its throbbing, and considering the situation, he felt pretty good.

"You ready to travel, Judy?"

She stood up and stretched. "I guess so. But this is the part I hate."

"Why so?"

' 'We seldom lose people going out of our area. It's always coming back."

"They get careless and anxious. We won't do either." Her words had triggered a silent alarm bell in Ben's head. And the bell rang out one word: informant. The punks or the creeps, probably the former, had a plant among Judy's people. As she was gadiering her meager possessions, Ben asked, "How long has this been going on?"

"What do you mean?"

"Your losing people on the way back in.""Oh ... about a year. Why?"

"Just curious, that's all. You ready?"