Lucifer's Hammer - Larry Niven [148]
Tim went out to her, walking gingerly, afraid the rest of the bridge would collapse. He looked where she was pointing. There was a gravel road, barely a car's width wide, carved out of the side of the gorge and switchbacking down into the canyon. "Must be the old road," Eileen said. "I thought there might be one."
It didn't look adequate at all. Not even to walk on, but Eileen went back and started the engine.
"Shouldn't we wait for more light?" Tim asked.
"Probably, but I don't want to," she said.
"Okay. But let me drive. You get out and walk."
There was just light enough to see her face. She leaned over and kissed him, lightly, on the cheek. "You're sweet. But I'm a better driver than you. And you'll walk, because somebody has to go ahead and be sure I can drive down the trail."
"No. We'll do it together." He knew he wasn't making much sense, and he wondered if he would have said that if he hadn't known she would make him get out and walk.
"We both have a better chance if you scout," she said. ''Now get to it."
The old road was a nightmare. Sometimes it tilted horribly toward the canyon below. At least, Tim thought, we're out of sight of the burning car. He could still see some light from the dying blaze.
At the switchbacks she had to go around in short segments, backing up and turning, again and again, with the wheels only inches from the edge. Tim felt terror at every turn. She had only to make one mistake: The wrong gear, or too much pressure on the accelerator, and she would be down there, burning alive, and Tim would be alone. He was barely able to walk when they reached the bottom.
"How deep is it?" Eileen asked.
"I … " Tim came back to the car and got in. "I'll find out in a minute." He reached for her, desperately.
She pushed him away. "Sweetheart, look." She pointed to her left.
There was just enough light to see. Beyond the ruins of the burned car rose a massive concrete wall, rising high above them. A dam. Tim shuddered. Then he got out and waded into the stream, fighting the current. It was only up to his knees, and he staggered across, then beckoned for her to follow.
The Landlord
Ownership is not only a right, if is a duty. Ownership obligates. Use your property as if it had been entrusted to you by the people.
Oswald Spengler, Thoughts
At noon Tim and Eileen reached the top of the gorge. When they were a third of the way up, another car had come to the other side and begun working its way down. It was an ordinary car without four-wheel drive, and Tim did not understand how they had got that far up the canyon. The other car held two men, a woman and many children. It was still clinging to the side of the gorge when Tim and Eileen reached the top on the other side. They drove away, leaving the others perched on the side of the cliff, wondering if they should have spoken to them, but not knowing what they could have done to help.
Tim felt more helpless than ever. He was prepared for the end of civilization: to be nearly alone, to find human beings few and far between. He was not prepared to watch it die, and he wondered what he should do about that, but he could think of nothing.
The next bridge was mercifully intact, and the one after that. They were only a few miles from the observatory.
They rounded a bend, to find four cars in the road. There were a lot of people standing there. These were the first people Tim and Eileen had seen since they left the gorge.
The road ran through a tunnel here, and the tunnel had collapsed. The cars were parked while men with shovels worked to prepare a way over the top of the rocky spur the tunnel had pierced. They had dug out part of a road, and were taking turns, since there were more men than shovels.
Six women and many children were gathered around the cars. Eileen looked hesitantly at the group, then drove up to them.
The children stared