“That’s not going to be easy with you with a broken leg,” Penny told him. “But we can at least get to the camp. Come on, let’s put him on the litter,” Penny instructed Cherry.
They loaded him onto the makeshift stretcher. Each took an end and they moved off, following the bread crumbs. They traversed the wood in this fashion for about forty minutes.
Penny was bushed by the time Cherry called a halt. Malcolm was two hundred pounds of muscle on the hoof. It didn’t seem to bother the Amazonian Cherry, but Penny wasn’t in anything like the shape she was. Under all that pulchritude was an armada of hidden muscles.
“Why are we stopping?” Penny panted.
Malcolm and Cherry pointed together by way of answer.
Penny followed their pointing fingers and saw that they’d emerged from the trees at the edge of a clearing. At the far side of the clearing was a barbed wire fence with a couple of NO TRESPASSING signs pinned to it. The fence was about seventy-five feet long on this side and there were three towers spaced out evenly along its length.
“What are those for?” Penny indicated the towers.
“They’re guard towers. The dogs are up there. Dobermans and German Shepherds. From that height they can see anybody crossing the clearing. They’re good watchdogs. Usually just their barking is enough to scare off the peepers,” Cherry enlightened Penny.
“How the hell can you hope to cross the clearing and get back through the fence then? Won’t the dogs see you?”
“That’s the problem,” Cherry admitted.
“There’s only one way,” Malcolm said slowly, obviously thinking out loud. “See the hole in the fence there?” He gestured. “That’s where we got out. Now, these dogs have been trained to respond to visual stimuli. Specifically, they respond to clothing. They’ll bark their heads off at anyone with clothes on. But they see naked people all the time inside the colony. I don’t think they’ll distinguish between nudists on one side of the fence or the other. If we’re all nude when we cross the clearing --”
“Now, just a minute!” Penny protested. “I want to help you out, but—”
“It won’t work anyway, Malcolm,” Cherry interrupted. “Clothes or no clothes, the sight of the litter would set them off. But wait a minute! I think I have an idea. It’s him”—she jerked her thumb at Penny-—“who’d start them barking. If just the two of us, naked, crossed the clearing—I mean, they know us from around the camp anyway and—”
“You’re forgetting his broken leg,” Penny reminded her.
“No she isn’t.” Malcolm stared at Cherry with love in his eyes. “Do you think you could do it?” he asked her.
“Do what?” Penny wondered.
“Carry me,” Malcolm explained.
“Don’t be ridiculous!” Penny sneered. “How could a girl carry a big man like you all that distance?”
“You don’t know Cherry,” Malcolm answered. “She can butt a volleyball seventy-five feet with her head. She’s the most athletic girl in the camp.”
“Well, I am pretty strong,” Cherry said modestly, blushing. “I think I can do it if you’ll give me a hand getting Malcolm on my back,” she added to Penny.
Penny shrugged disbelievingly. “All right. I guess there’s no harm trying.”
Between them, Cherry and Penny got Malcolm up on one foot and propped against a tree. Cherry knelt in front of Malcolm then, her back to him. Penny helped Malcolm balance and sling the broken leg over one of Cher1y’s hips. Cherry got a firm grip on it, supporting it with one arm. Then Penny supported Malcolm’s weight while he got his other leg in front of Cherry’s other hip. She hooked it with her arm and clasped her hands. Malcolm leaned forward and wrapped both his hands around her neck. Then came the hard part. Penny helped balance Malcolm as Cherry struggled to her feet.
She stood for a moment, bracing herself, wriggling into position. Then she straightened up completely. Penny backed away and studied them. Cherry had Malcolm’s legs wrapped around her waist and supported with her arms and hips. Malcolm clung to her breasts, his hands locked around them.
“We’re all right,” Cherry panted. “I can make it easy. Thanks for your help. If you want the road, just follow the bread crumbs going that way.” She pointed.
The crumbs led along the edge of the clearing, parallel to the fence. They angled with the fence, and Penny guessed the road must be on the other side of the Buffmuff compound. But before starting out, Penny couldn’t resist watching to see if Cherry would really be able to carry Malcolm the distance.
It surely looked as if she’d do it. Naked, with the naked Malcolm on her back, she started off at a slow jog. Both their bodies jiggled rhythmically as Cherry made for the fence. They were halfway there when the first dog appeared at the edge of the nearest tower.
It was a Doberman. It looked at the naked pair merged fleshily together, moving in rhythm, and scratched its head. A second dog, a German Shepherd, appeared beside the Doberman. It also studied the piggyback nudists. The Shepherd also scratched its head. Then both dogs disappeared behind the wall of the tower.
They reappeared just as the piggyback nudists reached the barbed wire fence and started for the hole in it. Penny’s jaw dropped open at what followed! It stayed that way even after it was over!
The two dogs were carrying a medium-sized kettle between them. Each of them had a side-handle between its teeth. As the nudists, Malcolm still on Cherry’s back, both still moving rhythmically, drew abreast of the tower, the dogs tilted the kettle. A stream of ice water poured down on the naked, merged lovers!
They yelped with its coldness. The dogs barked gleefully. Justice is frequently ironical . . .
Penny’s mouth finally got around to closing. There was nothing to be done. Cherry and Malcolm would have to face the consequences of their actions. The ice water may have come late, but it had been deserved. In any case, it was really no affair of Penny’s.
So Penny followed the bread crumbs. After a while they led to a wide highway. Still the trail of bread crumbs continued. Still Penny followed them.
Some time later a truck pulled up alongside the wearily trudging figure. “Hey, mac, whatcha doin?” the driver called.
“I’m following the bread crumbs,” Penny told him.
“Dat won’t work,” the driver told Penny. “After a bit da boids eat ’em an’ den ya’ll be lost.”
“I’m lost anyway,” Penny confessed.
“Where ya goin’?”
“New York City,” Penny answered on the spur of the moment. It was the first destination to come to mind. It didn’t seem like such a bad idea. If Penny was ever going to untangle the skein of he-she existence with all its complications of theft and suicide, New York-—the place where it all seemed centered—looked like the logical place to stare-—or re-start.
“Dat’s where I’m goin’. Ya want a lift?”
“Thanks.” Penny accepted.
A couple of hours later the truck driver dropped his passenger off on Canal Street. Aimlessly, still confused, Penny ambled uptown. Reaching Washington Square Park, Penny sank wearily down on a bench.
Sitting there resting, it was a while before Penny noticed the policeman. The cop’s brow was furrowed and he stared at Penny as if trying to tie in the visage with some mug shot he’d seen posted in the precinct house. Perhaps it was only Penny’s imagination. But it spurred the fugitive to hurry from the park and down Fourth Street to Bleecker in search of some less public spot to rest. A sign pointed the arrow to just such a spot.
FREE! PSYCHODRAMA! FREE! AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION! FREE!
The sign hung over the narrow entrance to a basement. Penny, spotting a prowl car down the block, scurried inside. It was a minute before Penny’s eyes adjusted to the dimness.