“We’re almost at the snowline, Diann. We made it.” Randolph Withers adjusted his backpack and his rifle’s sling, took his young companion by the hand, and then they both strode toward their goal with renewed hope.

“Do you think the outpost will still be there?” She glanced up at the man who stood barely half a head taller than her, though he was over six feet in height.

“It’s our only chance. It will provide basic shelter, and we’ve seen signs of abundant game as we approached the mountains, so we’ll have food. Now if I can get the radio equipment working again, we’ll be in business.”

“What about the Seltin Beasts? You said you thought it was your radio experiments that brought them down on your people…our people from their lair in the high peaks.”

“It’s a chance we’ll have to take.” He patted the Colt .45 resting in its holster for reassurance.

“But they killed all of the others in your party, almost killed you.”

“We got a few of them before we went down, I think I even wounded one, though I had to escape and couldn’t search for it. And what about you, my love? One of our stray shots must have wounded you.” He looked at her glistening and smudged face with affection, nearly snow-white locks scattered haphazardly across her forehead and cheeks. “I still don’t understand why you were hiking the foothills alone below our lab, and what happened to your clothes? You should never have been in such dangerous country. Not a human habitat for fifty miles.”

“Now further than that thanks to the Mukrimeto Effect.”

Continue reading at Powered by Robots