The chopper was just settling down onto the highway about twenty meters away, its blades stropping the air slowly.

I wanted to punch that pilot's lights out. And I would-as soon as I could stand up again.

The door to the bird popped open and a trim figure in flight suit and helmet dropped out. "Are you all right?" She was running toward me with a first-aid kit.

"No!" I said. I wished I was wearing my gun.

"Where are you hurt?"

"I can't breathe!" I choked out. "I can't see! I can't hear! I can't move-" I started to get up, but she pushed me back down with a gentle tap on my chest. She touched a hypo to my arm. It buzzed softly. "What was that?"

"Preventive maintenance." She peeled back my eyelid and shined a light into my pupil. "You're okay. Stay put for a minute. Anyone else in the van?" She was already heading for it, unholstering her pistol just in case.

She disappeared into the vehicle, then reappeared with her pistol reholstered and carrying the van's log cartridge and my duffel bag. "Can you walk as far as the chopper?"

My knees were still weak, but I could manage. I felt a little dizzy. "Wait a minute!"

"Jim! Stop being an asshole." She pushed up her face plate.

"Lizard!"

"Colonel Tirelli to you!" She was angry. Her face was flushed. "You're still a commissioned officer in the United States Special Forces, remember?"

"I'm dead. I resigned."

"You can't resign. It's a lifetime job. You're being recalled to active duty-"

"Like hell I am!"

"-or a firing squad," she said. "I came to get you, one way or the other. Your case is closed. It isn't a matter for discussion. I'm not going home empty-handed."

I reached over and took my duffel from her. "Wait a minute. It's in here somewhere. Ah, there it is." I pulled out my own gun and pointed it at her belly. She didn't blink.

"Colonel, you're a beautiful woman. And sensible. So why don't you get back into your bird and fly away nice and we'll both forget this whole thing happened. Okay?"

She took a breath. She said calmly, "Cute, Jim. Very cute."

"I mean it!" I said, waving the pistol. I wondered if I really did.

"You won't get far."

"I'll take my chances!"

"I've blown up the road ahead of you and behind you. You've got maybe a quarter-mile of concrete stretched between two craters. By the way, those craters will be burning for three days."

"Then I'll walk! I'll still be in better company!" This was stupid. I shoved the gun into my belt, hefted my duffel, and started to push past her.

"Jim, you'd better hear this-"

"Not interested," I said, still walking. Both my legs hurt, but I wasn't going to let her know.

Something in the woods chirruped purple. It wasn't far. It sounded too loud.

"It's the explosions," said Lizard. "They've come to see if there are bodies."

"I thought worms didn't scavenge."

"They do now. They're demonstrating a whole new range of behaviors." She added, "I thought you'd like to know."

"No," I said stubbornly. "I wouldn't."

The thing in the woods chirruped again. It was getting closer. There was a torch in the van. I wondered if I had time.

"Better get to the chopper," she said. She wasn't moving either. She was waiting for me.

I looked at the chopper, at her, at the van, at the tower of smoke just down the road and its twin behind us. I looked at the forest. "Shit, " I said. "That's what I love about the Special Forces. All the exciting opportunities!" We ran for the chopper.

Lizard grabbed my duffel and tossed it in ahead of me; then she had to help me up the ramp. I fell into the first empty seat. Lizard didn't even wait for the door to finish closing. We popped up into the air just as the first worm slid out of the trees. She peered forward over her console to look down at it, and at the two more which came right after. They were raised up and waving their arms at us. "Just babies," she remarked, and touched a button on her board. Something went Ka-whump! and the ground beneath us turned scarlet. I didn't bother to look.

She swung the chopper around then, pointed it at the van. We hung in the air like a question mark. "Did you get everything you wanted out of that van?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I'm gonna blow it. Wanna watch?"

I staggered to my feet. "What for?"

"It's too well armed to leave sitting around." She was checking something on her board. "You don't travel light, do you? I guess we trained you a little too well." She touched the red button. The van exploded as if it had been stuffed with dynamite. Then, the secondary explosions began.

"Your armaments," Lizard noted. She swung the chopper away quickly. She pulled us up into the sky and turned into the west.

"Hey! I thought we were going to Denver!"

"We are! There's something I want to show you first. Come sit up here!" She thumped the seat beside her.

I levered myself into it. She was punching something up on the main screen. It was centered so both pilot and copilot could see it easily. "There," she said. It was a terrain map. "We're here-" She pointed. "That red mark is where we left the van. Got that? Good." She touched the bottom of the screen and the image began expanding to include the surrounding terrain. The original screen was a square of lighter color in the center. It shrank steadily as the map kept expanding. When it stopped, Lizard said, "There, that's the next four hundred klicks. You want to see how infested it is?"

"I had access to the same maps. They're on the satellite channel. "

She smiled; it wasn't a pleasant expression. "Uh-huh. Here's what the satellite told you, right?" She tapped and tiny blotches of red appeared all over the map. "Localized pockets of infestation. Do not approach. Right?"

"Uh, yeah. . . ."

"And here're the areas where they say infestation may be possible. Travel only in armed convoys." She tapped again and every red blotch took on a wide pink border. Some of them overlapped. Colorado looked like a bad case of measles.

"Now," she said, "do you want to know the truth?"

"The truth?"

"Your Uncle Sam is a chicken-hearted liar. He doesn't want to scare the civilians. Thinks it'll demoralize 'em. Here-this is what they're not telling you. This is a map of the known areas of infestation." She tapped and the red and pink blotches expanded to become red swathes across most of the western half of the state. "Oh, shit," I said.

"That's what most people say. Now, let me show you the areas where we suspect infestation. And this is probably a conservative estimate. . . ." The western half of the map went pink. The eastern half was streaked.

She pointed at the tiny square indicating where we'd left the van. "And that's where I picked you up, right in the middle of it." I started shuddering.

"It's the mountains," she said. "We can't patrol the mountains with any certainty. Wait, you'll see."

She looked at me. "My only question is this: how did you get as far as you did? You should have been eaten several hundred kilometers ago. God must be saving you for something awfully special." She turned back to her controls, adding, "Probably hanging."

I didn't answer. I was still shaking. Still staring at that bright pink map. My hands were trembling in my lap. I started to cry soundlessly. I could feel the tears rolling down my cheeks. I couldn't tell if they were tears of terror or relief.

"Oh, shit," said Lizard. "Here-" She handed me a tissue from a dashboard dispenser.

I mopped at my face with it, till it shredded in my fingers. Lizard said, "There's beer in the cooler. Want one?"

"No. Thanks anyway."

"Get one for me, will you?"

"Uh, okay." I went into the back of the ship and pulled out a can of beer for her, hesitated half a second, then pulled out one for myself. I climbed back into the copilot's seat, opened one and handed it over. I opened the second. The beer was cold. It tasted good. I'd forgotten.