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up crushed against the post, suffocated by the
ballooning body.
And then there were the dark, broad-winged birds with long hooked
beaks. Several had gathered on the branches of the nearby trees and
the bolder ones had fluttered down to take a closer look at the strange
half-dead beast that had fallen to its knees in the middle of the
clearing. Steve had driven them away with harsh animal-like screams a
product of his fear and his stiff, swollen jaw. The birds had turned
their attention to the remains of the other, older corpse that had been
unceremoniously dumped back in its shallow grave but left uncovered.
Steve knew that when it had been picked clean, they would wait
patiently for his voice and his body to weaken. And then...
The horrific images of what would happen if he did not escape released
new reserves of strength. His initial panic had subsided. What he had
to do now was to make the maximum use of his remaining energy.
Throughout the night, with dogged determination, he worked his body
back and forth and from side to side. The pain in his legs had
expanded to fill his whole body and was now so intense his brain had
become semi-anaesthetised. He had reached the point at which the
overloaded nervous system translates suffering into a kind of perverse
pleasure.
While Steve fought for his life, Commander-General Karlstrom lay back
in a well-upholstered armchair in a small viewing room. Around him
were other high-ranking members of the First Family. The film that was
being shown that night was one of Karlstrom's favourites - a thousand
year-old gem called 'Sands of IwoJima' starring the legendary John
Wayne.
Wayne, who had died several decades before the Holocaust, had been the
guiding light of the Founding Father - George Washington Jefferson the
1st. Ordinary Trackers knew nothing of actors or the pre-Holocaust
film industry. The Federation neither possessed nor produced any art,
drama or literature. There were no musicians or instrumentalists. All
music was produced electronically; the only singers, blue-sky
balladeers fronting vocal ensembles from the various bases. The video
network provided by COLUMBUS was the sole source of information and
entertainment which, in the Federation, consisted of inspirationals and
video-games.
The First Family, however - like all elites - had access to a veritable
treasure house of pre-Holocaust material stored in the air-conditioned
vaults at Cloudlands. The most highly prized items were the videotapes
of Wayne's feature films and there was a large team of expert
technicians whose sole task was to maintain them in a perfect state of
preservation. In the best of his films, Wayne enshrined all the
noblest qualities of Trackerdom and it was from this body of work that
succeeding generations of Family leaders had drawn their strength and
inspiration.
Karlstrom watched Wayne die as he had countless times before, the
letter in his breast pocket was discovered and read out, the Stars and
Stripes was raised on the summit of Mount Surabachi. For Karlstrom,
the letter sequence was embarrassingly sentimental but the overall
message of the film rang true. The defeat of the now-vanished nation
of Japan was a direct parallel to the present struggle for control of
the overground. When the final battle had been won, Old Glory would
fly side by side with the flag of the Federation on all the peaks of
North America. The blue-sky world would have been regained through the
sacrifices of men and women with the same indomitable courage and
dedication.
When the film ended, Karlstrom took leave of the others and retired to
his personal quarters. The video-screen by his bed displayed a
flashing logo indicating that two messages were waiting in his
electronic mail-box. Karlstrom tapped out the command which brought
the first message up on the screen. It was a coded signal consisting
of several alphanumeric sequences. Inserting his private key-card he
entered a five-digit personal ID number then pressed the 'DECODE'
button. The jumble of letters and numbers rearranged themselves into