305

For the next hour you wind your way through the ruined city, crawling over the rubble and sprinting across every open area to minimize the risk of being seen. At length you reach a place that overlooks the southern perimeter wall. There you stop to settle your nerves and catch your breath. In a hushed voice, you tell Kate the whereabouts of your roadster, just in case you do not make it out of San Angelo.

‘Don’t talk like that, Cal,’ she says, gripping your hand as if her life depended on it. ‘It scares me.’

You tell her as much as you can about your planned rendezvous with the colony; how in six days from now you are to meet at Kent. There is so much you want to tell her, but the sudden arrival of four clansmen in an open-topped jeep puts an abrupt end to your conversation. The vehicle screeches to a halt and the four grim-faced men leap out, brandishing machine pistols. The driver grunts something and they fan out and start searching the ruins.

Beyond the wall there is fifty yards of cleared ground separating the stronghold from the ruins of the southern suburbs. To reach your roadster, you will somehow have to cross this killing zone.

If you wish to climb over the wall and make a run for it before the clansmen get any nearer, turn to 64.

If you wish to stay hidden until they pass and then attempt to steal their jeep and drive across the cleared ground, turn to 128.