Free Slaves of Elysium by W. S. Antony Page A

night under the lean-to, then towards dawn the air cooled, which they noticed, lightly clothed as they were. At Rebecca’s command Jeni lay behind her to protect her back from getting chilled.
    In between brief spells of restless sleep Jeni thought of Bradley Ash, desperately hoping he had survived. She liked him as a person and admired his capable nature. If he also understood her needs as she suspected then she would leave Rebecca for him. Perhaps he was the one for her. The one to whom she could submit completely.
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    Rebecca missed her morning coffee, but there was nothing to be done about that. Her masterful certainty of the previous night melted away when faced with the practical problems of the new day, so Jeni took charge.
    â€˜We’ve seen some of the beach to the north, so I think we should go south. We’ll walk until noon, and then turn back. If we don’t find anything, tomorrow we’ll try inland.
    â€˜Why not go inland now?’ Rebecca asked impatiently.
    â€˜Because we can cover more ground and see further going along the shore than through the woods. If there was a hill close by it would be different, but the ground seems pretty flat. Besides, if there’s anybody at all living around here there’s bound to be a fishing village or something not far away.’
    â€˜I suppose that makes sense,’ Rebecca admitted grudgingly.
    â€˜And you’d better drink plenty of water before we start, miss. We haven’t anything to carry it with us.’
    Before they ventured forth Jeni left a new message in the sand by the ashes of the fire – an arrow pointing south, with REBECCA + JENI scrawled beside it.
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    For two hours they walked along the fringe of the beach without seeing anything of interest. Jeni began to wonder if the local currents ran northwards along the shore, so any wreckage, or survivors, would have been carried that way. Perhaps Jeni had made landfall the furthest south of any of them.
    They found no other supply of fresh water on the way, so they walked down into the shallow waves to cool off.
    â€˜Where is this place, anyway?’ Rebecca asked, as she splashed water over her face and neck. ‘Why hasn’t anybody developed all this beachfront?’
    â€˜I thought it might be somewhere in the Azores, miss,’ Jeni said.
    Rebecca was frowning at the unspoiled sweep of the bay they were traversing. ‘I don’t think so.’
    They had turned back towards the shade of trees when Rebecca stopped so suddenly that Jeni almost walked into her. She pointed. ‘What’s that?’
    Something was gliding over the treetops along the beach from the direction they had come. For a moment Jeni thought it was a small plane, then she saw it was a metallic open-topped disk-shaped craft, four or five metres across. It banked and headed towards them, and the heads and shoulders of half a dozen figures could be seen above its angled sidewalls.
    Rebecca, who had begun to wave and shout to attract the crew’s attention, dropped her arms. ‘What kind of plane is that?’ she asked uncertainly, and despite the warmth of the day a sudden chill settled on Jeni’s spine. The disk was moving without any audible engine sound. How was it staying up in the air? As it drew closer she saw the figures riding on the disk were pointing stick-like objects over its side. No, they were not sticks...
    Jeni grabbed Rebecca’s arm. ‘They’re guns! Get to the trees, quick!’ They sprinted across the sand towards the shelter of the forest, but it was too late. The strange craft was almost upon them, moving swiftly but still in total silence.
    There came two rapid pops and hisses, like the release of compressed gas. Two projectiles flew through the air, swirling and expanding as they went, becoming nets of some fine black mesh. They dropped over Jeni and Rebecca like shrouds, clinging and coiling about their arms and legs, and snared