The Fool's Run

of the music was distinctly non-classic and in some cases barely rock, but there were interludes of Pink Floyd and the Doors and REM.
    “You remember way back, when Ratface first showed up, and I did that tarot spread, the magic spread, for you and Dace?” I asked.
    “Yeah.”
    “The cards that came up were the Emperor and the Seven of Swords. I just figured it out.”
    “What’s that?”
    “The Emperor is Anshiser. The Seven of Swords is a betrayal card. I didn’t even think about it at the time.”
    “Too late now.”

    WE TALKED ABOUT the next day, setting up radio voice codes and practicing them. At 11:15, a timer turned off the light. A few minutes later, the other one shut down the radio.
    “What’s the worst thing that could happen tomorrow?” LuEllen said in the sudden silence.
    I thought about it for a minute. “If they are deeper into killing than I think, it’s just barely possible that they’ll come over the hill with a helicopter and a half dozen guys in camies and flak jackets and automatic weapons with the experience to use them. They’ll take both the hillside and the woods and sweep us right out in front of them.”
    “What do we do?”
    “Run, if we can. Fight if we can’t.”
    “What’s the best thing that can happen?”
    “Jesus, LuEllen. The best thing that can happen tomorrow is that we kill some people.”
    We sat in silence until LuEllen stood up and shivered and said, “I’m cold.” We pulled on the coveralls and lay back on the sleeping bags and looked up at the stars. We were far out in the countryside, away from the lights, and the Milky Way looked like a huge illuminated milk-bowl.
    “You know any of them? The stars?”
    “Some. Everybody who goes outdoors knows a few. The North Star, Polaris.” I pointed it out. “And there’s Cassiopeia, the W. And that’s Orion. The three bright stars are Orion’s belt. You know the good thing about them?”
    “What?”
    “The belt’s very close to the celestial equator. When the middle star hits the horizon, either coming up or down, it’ll be almost due east of west. Within a degree or two.”
    “Did you learn this stuff when you were a teenage nerd?”
    “Right,” I laughed. “That’s when I learned it.”
    We were quiet again for a while, and finally she said in a small voice, “Where’d you put the shovel?”
    “Beside the outhouse,” I said.
    We slept off and on until daylight. My watch alarm beeped, and I woke to find LuEllen watching me. She had circles beneath her eyes but she said she was okay. We ate from the cooler and drank Cokes, and we packed Cokes into our day-packs with the extra ammo. The radio handsets had pagers so we could beep each other.
    “I thought of something during the night,” I said. “There’s a good chance they’ll come in early, earlier than we should expect. Like in the next hour. Trying to catch us off-balance. But there’s also the possibility that they’ll come later than we expect, like two o’clock in the afternoon. Hoping that we’ll break cover to talk it over, or to eat, or get a drink, or pee, or whatever. When you get up there, stay put. I’ll call if we should move. Victory goes to the iron butt.”
    She waved and went off to her hiding place.
     
    MY AMBUSH SITE was a shallow depression on the edge of the ravine, behind a clump of brush and dried-out weeds. I retrieved a three-foot chunk of rotted log from the ravine and placed it on the edge of my hole, so I could brace the M16 6 on top of it. I settled in, using the sleeping bag as a cushion, and got comfortable. The camouflage coveralls were warm, and I was tired. I drank a Coke for the caffeine, and then another. A fat black-and-yellow bumblebee floated around me for a few seconds, and I started to worry that I might be on his nest. He left, and I settled back again, more awake now.
    They came neither early nor late. It was eighteen minutes after noon when I saw the motion in the trees below. It was hard to follow, and at first I was uncertain whether it was really there. Then I saw it again, and then another movement, again slow, but farther up the hill and closer to me. Two of them, at least. In camouflage. I let out the breath I was holding.
    Moving like molasses, I eased the binoculars up to my eyes and found them. They were walking unaccountably slowly, until I realized they were trying to pick their way silently through the fallen leaves. Given the choice between the woods and the open