Dark Rivers of the Heart

upside down: Blue heavens had become the place where demons lived.
        Valerie shouted: "Yeah, they're looking. And for sure, it won't be much longer till we're spotted, considering we're the only moving thing, other than snakes and jackrabbits, for at least five miles in any direction."
        The Rover roared off the shale onto softer soil, and the sudden diminution of noise was such a relief that the usual tumult, which had earlier been so annoying, now seemed by comparison like the music of a string quartet.
        Valerie said, "Damn! I only up-linked to confirm that it was clear. I didn't really think they'd still be there, still tying up a satellite for a third day. And I sure as hell didn't think they'd be locking on incoming signals."
        "Three days?"
        "Yeah, they probably started surveillance before dawn Saturday, as soon as the storm passed and the sky cleared. Oh, man, they must want us even worse than I thought."
        "What day is this?" he asked uneasily.
        "Monday."
        "I was sure this was Sunday."
        "You were dead to the world a lot longer than you think. Since sometime Friday afternoon."
        Even if unconsciousness had healed into ordinary sleep sometime during the previous night, he had been pretty much out of his head for forty eight to sixty hours. Because he valued self-control so highly, the contemplation of such a lengthy delirium made him queasy.
        He remembered some of what he'd said when he'd been out of his head. He wondered what else he had told her that he couldn't recall.
        Looking at the sky again, Valerie said, "I hate these bastards!"
        "Who are they?" he asked, not for the first time.
        "You don't want to know," she said, as before. "As soon as you know, you're a dead man."
        "Looks like there's a good chance I'm already a dead man. And I sure wouldn't want them to whack me and never know who they were."
        She mulled that over as she accelerated up another hill, a long one this time. "Okay. You've got a point. But later. Right now, I've got to concentrate on getting us out of this mess."
        "There's a way out?"
        "Between slim and none-but a way."
        "I thought, with that satellite, they were going to spot us any second now."
        "They will. But the nearest place the bastards have any men is probably back in Vegas, a hundred and ten miles from here, maybe even a hundred twenty. That's how far I got Friday night, before I decided that staying on the move was making you worse. By the time they get a hit squad together and fly in here after us, we've got two hours minimum, two and a half max."
        "To do what?"
        "To lose them again," she said somewhat impatiently.
        "How do we lose them if they're watching us from outer space, for God's sake?" he demanded.
        "Boy, does that sound paranoid," she said.
        "It's not paranoid, it's what they're doing."
        "I know, I know. But it sure sounds crazy, doesn't it?" She adopted a voice not dissimilar from that of Goofy, the Disney cartoon character.
        "Watching us from outer space, funny little men in pointy hats, with ray guns, gonna steal our women, destroy the world."
        Behind them, Rocky woofed softly, intrigued by the Goofy voice.
        She dropped the funny voice. "Are we living in screwed-up times or what? God in heaven, are we ever."
        As they crested the top of the long hill, giving the springs another hard workout, Spencer said, "One minute I think I know you, and the next minute I don't know you at all."
        "Good. Keeps you alert. We need to be alert."
        "You suddenly seem to think this is funny."
        "Oh, sometimes I can't feel the humor any more than you're able to right now. But we live in God's amusement park. Take it too seriously, you'll go nuts. On some level, everything's funny, even the blood and the dying. Don't you think so?"
        "No. No, I don't."
        "Then how do you ever get along?" she asked, but not in the least flippantly, with total seriousness now.
        "It hasn't been easy."
        The broad, flat top of the hill featured more brush than they had yet encountered. Valerie didn't let up on the accelerator, and the Rover smashed through everything in its way.
        Spencer persisted: "How will we lose them if they're watching us from outer space?"
        "Trick 'em."
        "How?"
        "With some