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reality. A twinge of guilt as he remembered that hare, prayed that it was dead
by now.
The thaw came in late February, the first hint of spring towards the middle of
March, warm winds that brought with them the stench of rotting corpses in the
hills. The corvines and their fellow predators were busy justifying their role
in Nature's plans, the big cleaning-up operation.
Jackie had not regained consciousness for a week, and for a fortnight after
that Jon fed her with fresh warm goats' milk. Gradually her strength returned
and then began the makings of a new relationship which both realised that they
would have to work at, developing their own means of understanding and
communication. Adaptation. It wasn't easy but, as Jon reminded himself, they
had to stick together because they might never see another human being again,
civilised or throwback.
Spring eased its way into summer and with it came the knowledge that Jackie
was pregnant. And something else . . .
He had not been feeling well for a day or two, nothing which he could be
absolutely positive about, more a kind of lethargy, having to exert his will
power to complete even the simplest chore. His reasoning was dulled, a simple
lifestyle suddenly taking on complications. And throughout it all Jackie
seemed closer, their understanding so much easier.
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A casual glance in the mirror brought on that same sensation of shock that he
had experienced the day he had looked down upon Jackie's features on those
snowy slopes, his flesh goosepimpling, his brain reeling. Staring into the
cracked and dirt-streaked mirror over the kitchen sink, seeing a reflection
that he barely recognised as his own.
The skin was coarser, seemed to be afflicted with some kind of allergy rash;
eyes sunken and red-rimmed, a beard that was coarse and straggling. Lips
thicker, nose squashed as though at some time it had been pushed back, broken
by a heavy blow. Changed . . .
Wrestling with realisation, giving up. Accepting it. He went outside into the
yard. The hillsides were starting to green over again with the lush surge of a
new growth. A new beginning to a new world.
He breathed deeply, no longer smelled the odour of putrefaction. He sensed
Jackie by his side, both of them standing there looking up towards the forest
on the skyline. A wilderness, just the two of them left in it.
Suddenly this was how it had always been, how it would go on. Nothing would
change, they did not want it to.
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