Rok stopped. “What is that?”
“It’s a city about forty miles from here.” The sun shone directly overhead. “It’s about noon. We could be there by dinnertime.”
“We? Does that mean you’ll come with me?”
Royal “we” or Freudian slip? Had she unconsciously decided to accompany him? To help him because she worried about him? Felt bad for him?
If she didn’t go, what would she do instead? Stay in this tiny town in the middle of nowhere with only a dog for company? She could try to find her mom’s friend’s house, but why? What then? She couldn’t stand to be alone for the rest of her life. She had to connect with other people, or she’d go crazy. It was already happening. It testified to how starved she’d become for companionship that she was hanging out with a Progg.
Springfieldhadbeen on her destination list as a place to search for other survivors. While Rok searched for his brother, she could look for other people.
There were still aliens who hadn’t gotten the ceasefire memo. Rok would keep her safe; however, she doubted she could protect him from her people. If armed, they’d shoot him on sight. Her, too. They’d mistake her for a colluder.
With him, I’m safer from the Progg, but more in danger from humans.
Unless I approach them first? Explain the situation. Wave a white flag.
I wanted to go to Springfield anyway.
His shoulders slumped. His silver skin had grayed a little.
“Yes, I’ll go with you,” she said, and watched him literallybrighten.
Her mood lightened then dipped when guilt stabbed her.I shouldn’t be helping him, shouldn’t feel happy that I am. What’s wrong with me?
“Let’s go to the grocery store,” she said tersely and pushed off.
Chapter Fifteen
I hate mice.Rok burst out of the supermarket and sucked in clean, fresh air, trying to clear out his nasal passages. When Chloe said the rodents shit all over everything, she’d understated the case.
She had had a different reaction. “There aren’t many mice at all,” she’d said, as she strolled down the aisles. “But we’ll skip boxes and packages and stick to cans. We don’t need much since Springfield will have grocery stores.”
Would they be mouse-free?
Kevin had loved the loathsome rodents, running around the store chasing them, killing several.
“It stinks in here,” Rok had said.
“It’s the spoiled food.”
“And the mice.” He could smell the feces and urine.
Chloe stowed their acquisitions in his bike trailer. They hadn’t collected much, just some bottled water, acouple of cans of food for them, some for Kevin, and an opener. “Did you have fun?” she asked the dog.
He looked like he had. His tail wagged so hard, his entire rear end danced.
She opened a water bottle and half-filled a dish for the dog. He drank noisily. They had water bottles attached to their bike frames, and she filled those. After settling Kevin in the trailer, they set out.
Once they left the town proper, the road to the main highway was mostly clear, so they biked side by side. He preferred that to single file, although she seemed lost in thought, disinclined to converse. He contented himself with surreptitiously studying her.
Knee-length tight blue pants hugged muscular thighs and showed off her shapely calves. Arms were bare. The small mounds noticeable beneath her top answered the question Knife’s body drawing had raised—not all Earth women had huge mammary glands. Chloe’s were modest. Nicer. He much preferred her curves.
Her soft, unruly hair fascinated him—there was so much of it. Progg women’s hair was even shorter and bristlier than males. Today, she had clipped her hair atop her head. Stray tendrils framed her golden-brown face.
“You’re staring at me,” she said.
“Your face and arms are browner than your legs.”
