The Time of The Cat 56

ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS

We waved at Rudy as he turned towards Highway 66. After he’d gone, I finished backing the truck out, and we headed out of town back to Estes Park.

“What do you have in mind?” Liz asked, although she already mostly knew.

Mental rapport was new to us, and, unsurprisingly, it still felt like we should be talking to communicate.

“I think we should go over the top of Rocky Mountain Park and into the North Park area. Perhaps we’ll find somewhere to hole up near Grand Lake,” I told her.

I’d been thinking about it. It seemed to me that living in the mountains would be about as secure as we could get. The altitude and terrain would provide a natural barrier against refugees and the gangs that were sure to form. They’d surely take an easier direction where the climate was better, and walking was easier.

I knew that we’d have some years before we had to worry about the aliens returning. We’d destroyed the link to Earth, and they could only install another one by bringing the equipment on a spacecraft. If they were limited in their travel velocity to something similar to our rockets, it would be a long time before they’d show up again. It took our Cassini probe about seven years to reach Saturn.

I hoped that we wouldn’t have to worry about them for at least five years. In so doing, I was optimistically assuming that the ones already on Earth wouldn’t survive.

We drove up the road towards Estes Park as the new day broke. The old pickup was willing, but it wasn’t very fast. The seats had been redone, however, so it was fairly comfortable. Jefferson made good use of the center of the bench seat and gave us an example of exactly how to relax. If only humans could get into as many totally relaxing postures as cats, there would be no need for psychiatrists.

When we got back into Estes Park, there were a few leftover Pug-bears prowling around, but I was able to fend them off with my mind, luring them to another location with visions of food. Their appearances gave Liz a chance to shadow me mentally and learn how I did it.

It was a good thing she was a fast learner. As we reached the middle of town, we were faced with a whole group of the things, and I found that there was a limit to my ability. The large group proved to be more than I could deal with all at once.

I could feel Liz split from my consciousness as I tried to decoy the aliens away from our path. In a second, I could sense that the rest of them were moving off, and I glanced at her. She was deep in concentration with her eyes closed as she successfully diverted the ones I hadn’t been able to influence. I’d reached the point of being able to more or less carry on physically while I did my mental gymnastics, but she still needed to shut her eyes to concentrate.

As we reached the edge of town, a lone Pug came out of a house and looked at us. He didn’t have any weapons, and he didn’t seem aggressive. Without the Masters influence, he simply seemed forlorn and lost. I reached out and lightly touched his mind. It was bleak: “The Masters have terminated the gates for some reason and have reverted to their primitive state. My life will be over soon. My reserve breathing system is nearly ready to fail, and I’ll die with no glory on this miserable planet with its nasty air.”

I could read a fatalistic attitude in his mind, and it was echoed in his posture. I reasoned that if he were representative of their species, none of the Pugs were likely to be much of a problem for humanity in a week or so.

We drove on out of Estes and started up the mountain road. The old pickup made a valiant effort to climb the steep grade, but I had to keep it mostly in first or second gear as we drove slowly around the turns, winding our way gradually up above timberline. It was a clear day and this time, we enjoyed the drive up to the top of the park. The views were superb.

The wind was chill, and there was a lot of snow covering the ground. As the sun gradually warmed things up, the snow melted, creating rivulets that drained down the rocks with a cheery, tinkling sound. Looking over the beautiful scenery, the events of the past few days seemed like a bad dream.

It’s funny how the human mind works. There might be tragedy everywhere, but if the sun is shining and you can only see beautiful things, you can forget about the problems of the world.

After a while, we crested the top of the pass and drove on past the park buildings and rest area. The place appeared to be deserted, and we saw no one as we started our winding descent into the North Park region.