Quest for the Well of Souls - Jack L. Chalker [39]
On the ninth day their food supplies were running low. It concerned them both.
"How much farther to this Wuckl border or whatever?"
"Shouldn't be far," Mavra replied. "We've been making damned good time." Particularly since seeing that Ecundan roundup, she added silently.
And they had made good time. The interior valley was mostly flat, there were few obstructions, bunda trails were everywhere, and they had had the sun at some point every day to keep their bearings. The flat land and trail had allowed them to trot; they were making forty to fifty kilometers a day, by Mavra's figuring. If they'd been keeping to the correct direction, the border should be close by. She told Joshi so.
"It better be," he replied. "Damn! What do they eat in Wuckl, anyway?"
"Pretty much what we do," she replied. "A lot less meat, though. They are a really funny people, as I recall. You'll have to see one to believe it—I won't even try to describe it. Mostly vegetarians by choice, they do some fresh-water fishing in interior lakes. They're high-tech, but slow breeders with a small population. And if the Trader's information is accurate, they have a lot of parks and game preserves just for enjoyment."
He nodded. "But won't it be risky asking for food?" he wondered. "After all, a high-tech hex. The people who want us are bound to look there, too."
"We won't ask unless we have to," she told him. "There's a lot of wild fruit and vegetable stuff growing in those parks and lake areas, and I don't think we'll have to hustle long."
She was right. They made the border near dusk.
It was a forest, but not a dense one, just a parklike wood, complete with pebble-filled trails. The place was beautiful—they could see wild berry bushes and even several citrus trees bursting with fruit. It looked like the land of milk and honey, and the Wuckl were neither antisocial nor deadly.
But there was a hitch.
"Look at that," Joshi grumped. Four strands of coppery barbed wire about two meters high, the fence was attached to metal poles every four meters or so as far as the eye could see.
"To keep the Ecundans out?" Joshi wondered.
She shook her head. "To discourage a bunda invasion of the Wuckl parks and an attack on their goodies, I'd say. Probably put up by both countries in their mutual interest."
"That top line of barbs looks kind of nasty. How are we gonna get over it?"
"We're not," replied Mavra Chang. "We're going under it. There's a good fifty centimeters clearance, and I think I can stand a barb or so to get through. Game?"
Joshi looked at the little barbs, which didn't seem all that sharp, then thought about the Ecundans chopping up bundas. "Who's first?" he asked.
"I'll go. With any luck I might just wriggle right under it. Then I can help you through."
He nodded and she approached the fence. "Funny," she said thoughtfully. "A little humming sound. Vibration?"
He heard it but shrugged. "Who knows?"
"Here I go!" she announced, and crouched down as low as she could. The exercise was painful, and she started regretting that extra fat she'd laid on over the years.
She still made it about halfway under when her hips touched the bottom wire.
She screamed and Joshi heard a loud buzz as activators were tripped; she yelled and jerked spasmodically.
"Mavra!" Joshi cried in panic as he rushed to her aid. As soon as he grabbed at her twitching hind leg with his mouth he felt the shock, too.
Ecundo was a semitech hex, but, unfortunately, Wuckl was a high-tech hex, and the fence was one meter inside Wuckl.
And it was electrified.
Hookl
The skies had cleared, the weather was warming, and all was right with the world for the crew of the Toorine Trader. Seas were under two meters, and she was under a full head of steam heading north-northwest, great clouds of gray-white steam leaving a kilometer-long