Fireball Read Free Page B

something.”
    â€œNot to me, it wouldn’t.” Brad was emphatic. “A planet with an atmosphere as near the same as ours as makes no difference? And flora. That’s a good old-fashioned oak tree.” He pointed. “Complete with squirrel.”
    It was sound reasoning, but did not affect the feeling of total strangeness, of dislocation from reality, which had been growing rather than diminishing since he picked himself up. Simon looked about him. A normal sky, an ordinary wood. The squirrel had halted on an upper branch of the oak and was brushing whiskers with paws. Well, one would be strange, dislocated, after getting knocked out by some weird electrical thing and physically shifted around by an even weirder typhoon. He said: “I suppose we might as well try getting back.”
    â€œYes. Back where, though? We don’t have anyidea whereabouts in the wood we are. Do you know?”
    â€œNo. But the wood’s not large. And once we’re out of it, I’ll know where I am. Even if we come out on the far side.”
    Brad nodded. “I guess that figures. So lead on. You’re the trailblazer.”
    They had originally been walking uphill, so Simon set off down; the wood covered the crest of a hill, so down had to be right, like following water. It wasn’t particularly easy going. There were places where they had to struggle through undergrowth, or skirt it. Altogether the wood was far denser than he recalled, but he didn’t know the southern part very well. And they seemed to have been travelling longer than he would have expected without coming to open country. Brad commented on that eventually.
    â€œCould we be circling, do you think?”
    It was not offered critically, but it annoyed him. He said shortly: “No.”
    â€œA small wood, you said.”
    â€œIt’s deceptive. Save your breath.”
    Brad obediently stayed silent, but Simon was starting to worry again. They should have been clear of the trees by now, in whichever direction they wereheading. He pressed on faster, with Brad slogging after him. Were the trees thinner over on the left, and was that a glimpse of open sky? He headed that way. Definitely thinner, and more sky. They pushed through the last few feet and stood in the open, the wood behind them, grassland in front. Sheep grazed in the distance.
    The only trouble was, he hadn’t the faintest notion where they were. The wood, he knew, was surrounded on three sides by built-up areas, with open country to the south. But the lie of the land was wrong for the southern outskirts, and for that matter where were Ruckton church and the village?
    â€œAnywhere you know?” Brad asked.
    An innocent question, but he resented it. He stared about him without answering. Brad went on: “If it moved us from one part of the wood to another, I suppose it could just as well have taken us further. To another wood. Another country even. You think those sheep could be Australian?”
    â€œThat’s ridiculous.”
    â€œI know. But I’m starting not to be able to tell the ridiculous from the normal.” Brad drew a deep breath. “Well, wherever we are, I guess we might aswell keep moving. We’re bound to get to some place with people if we walk far enough.”
    There was more woodland on the far side of the open land, ahead and to the left, but only occasional clumps of trees to the right. Brad set off that way, and after a brief hesitation Simon followed him. They approached sheep, which first stared at them and then moved away. They seemed to be on the small side, but had quite large black horns. The ground continued to open out. They were coming down into a valley, and he saw the distant gleam of a river. Something tugged at his memory and then was lost.
    â€œHead for the river,” Brad said.
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œWhy not?”
    What he had really meant, Simon realized, was why do as you say? What gives you the