“We've got to do something.”

“What can we do? Out here.”

“It's all right. He's stopped now.”

They saw the shaggy man scurry away into the green of the vines. The other leaned across the parapet to peer through the plastic. For a moment they saw him clearly.

“Sh! Don’t move. ''

''He’s gone now. ''

They straightened cautiously. “He was bald. Did you notice?”

“And there was something odd about him.”

“He was a hunchback, just like the people in Ruth's dreams. What do you think? A mutant species?”

“Perhaps. But there's no good letting our imaginations run wild.” The Initiator's voice was brisk. “Crystal and Karol, scout around to the right as far as you can. Olga and Bryan, go to the left. We'll wait for you back there, among the trees.”

In less than twenty minutes the four had returned. “No way past,” Olga reported. “The electric fence goes right down to the river, which has a high concrete embankment. There's a dam for the generators, but no entrance that we could see.”

“Down river it's as bad,” Crystal reported. “Beyond the concrete spillway there's a drop of twenty or thirty metres. The river comes over in a waterfall, deafening, incredible. No human being could get into the Dome from there.”

“What'll we do?”

“Hunt for the other entrance. We're tired now. It won't seem so bad when we've eaten and rested.”

As the others walked slowly back into the forest, looking for a suitable place to make camp, Ruth suddenly felt she had to get away. She ran uphill, away from the Dome and the fear that seemed to spread from it like a dark sticky cloud. She ran until she was out of breath and had a stitch in her side. Then she dropped to the ground and looked about her.

She could see across the river, to a steep slope covered with scree and a few small bushes. Beyond the slope the land dipped and she knew - though how could she know? - that there was another river. And it was down that river that she must go. This was a prison. Down that river was freedom.

Is that really the place? She got to her feet, steadying herself against the coarse bark of a pine. Down in the southeast the land dropped a way in a series of soft rolling hills. She saw another flash of river. Beyond it was the green of meadow- land. Yes! She began to run back to the others.

SHE COULDN'T make them understand, not even Luke, and that was the hardest to bear.

“It's crazy to go all the way down the valley. You can see from here it's deserted.”

“It's Ark One we came to contact. Ark One.”

Ruth wrung her hands. “Please don't. It's dangerous. I know it is.”

“At least explain.”