"Gardner Dozois - Morning Child" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dozois Gardner)

Sighing, Williams took his hand away. The sun was getting high, and theyтАЩd better be heading back to
camp if they wanted to be there at the right time for the heavier chores. Slowly, Williams bent over and
picked up the foraging bags, grunting a little at their weight as he settled them across his shoulder-they
had done very well for themselves this morning.

тАЬCome on now, John,тАЭ Williams said, тАЬtime to go,тАЭ and started off, limping a bit more than usual under
the extra weight. John, trotting alongside, his short legs pumping, seemed to notice. тАЬCan I help you carry
the bags?тАЭ John said eagerly. тАЬCan I? IтАЩm big enough!тАЭ Williams smiled at him and shook his head. тАЬNot
yet, John,тАЭ he said. тАЬA little bit later, maybe.тАЭ

They passed out of the cool shadow of the ruined house and began to hike back to camp along the
deserted highway.

The sun was baking down now from out of a cloudless sky, and heat-bugs began to chirrup somewhere,
producing a harsh and metallicstridulation that sounded amazingly like a buzz saw. There were no other
sounds besides the soughing of wind through tall grass and wild wheat, the tossing and whispering of
trees, and the shrill piping of JohnтАЩs voice. Weeds had thrust up through the macadam-tiny, green fin-gers
that had cracked and buckled the roadтАЩs surface, chopped it up into lopsided blocks. Another few years
and there would be no road here, only a faint track in the undergrowth-and then not even that. Time
would erase everything, burying it beneath new trees, gradually building new hills, laying down a fresh
landscape to cover the old. Already grass and vetch had nibbled away the corners of the sharper curves,
and the wind had drifted topsoil onto the road. There were saplings now in some places, growing green
and shivering in the middle of the highway, negating the faded signs that pointed to distances and towns.

John ran ahead, found a rock to throw,ran back, circling around Williams as though on an invisible
tether. They walked in the middle of the road, John pretending that the faded white line was a tightrope,
waving his arms for balance, shouting warnings to himself about the abyss creatures who would gobble
him up if he should misstep and fall.

Williams maintained a steady pace, not hurrying: the epit-ome of the ramrod-straight old man, his
snow-white hair gleaming in the sunlight, a bush knife at his belt, an old Winchester 30.30 slung across his
back-although he no longer believed that theyтАЩd need it. They werenтАЩt the only people left in the world,
he knew-however much it felt like it sometimes-but this region had been emptied of its popula-tion years
ago, and since he and John had returned this way on their long journey up from the south, they had seen
no one else at all. No one would find them here.

There were traces of buildings along the way now, all that was left of a small country town: the burnt-out
spine of a roof ridge meshed with weeds; gaping stone foundations like bat-tlements for dwarfs; a ruined
water faucet clogged withspi-derwebs ; a shattered gas pump inhabited by birds and rodents. They
turned off onto a gravel secondary road, past the burnt-out shell of another filling station and a
dilapidated roadside stand full of windblown trash. Overhead a rusty traffic light swayed on a sagging
wire. Someone had tied a big orange-and-black hex sign to one side of the light, and on the other side,
the side facing away from town and out into the hostile world, was the evil eye, painted against a white
background in vivid, shocking red. Things had gotten very strange during the Last Days.

Williams was having trouble now keeping up with JohnтАЩs ever-lengthening stride, and he decided that it
was time to let him carry the bags. John hefted the bags easily, flashing his strong white teeth at Williams
in a grin, and set off up the last long slope to camp, his long legs carrying him up the hill at a pace
Williams couldnтАЩt hope to match. Williams swore good-naturedly, and John laughed and stopped to wait
for him at the top of the rise.