I get out of the tub and wrap myself in a fresh towel. It smells amazing. Do they also have a washing machine? No, that would be crazy.
I open the hatch and find the clothes. There is a large red hoodie, black sweatpants, and clean boxer briefs. Everything is in amazing condition.
And everything is also too big for me. I have to tie the pants at the waist.
“Are those Griffin’s clothes?” I ask.
“Who else?” she retorts. “There is only Griffin. I have no need for clothes.”
“You never have any guests or crew members?”
“No. You’re the first. And I’m still trying to figure out why,” she says.
I’m the first he ever invited on theBeetle?
“Why what?” I ask.
“Why you. You’re not the first stray we’ve met on our travels. Many tried to force their way in or beg. How did you convince him to take you in?”
I wave my eyebrows subjectively. “It might just be my charm.”
She scoffs.
Why did her creators even put that sound in her repertoire? But I guess AIs can just reinvent themselves at some point, anyway.
It feels amazing to be clean and wear clothes that smell like soap. I often wash my own clothes in rivers, and they end up feeling rough on my skin.
Exiting the bathroom, I take a tour of theBeetle. I find two rooms with bunk beds that look like they’ve never been slept in. Beet was telling the truth. One doubles up as storage, it seems. There is also, incredibly, a small greenhouse at the top of theBeetle, with a glass roof to let in natural sunlight during the day. There are also UV lights to help the plants if the sun is not enough. I know now where he got the cucumbers and the strawberries. I stare at the plants for an unhealthy amount of time. Those plants require a lot of water and are usually not on the priority list of things to grow in settlements. They might still grow them in the North, where it rains more often.
There are only two doors that are closed. Beet informs me that they are the engine room and Griffin’s room.
“Is he locked inside his bedroom?” I ask her after a while.
I find it strange that he agreed to take me in, only to hide from me.
“Oh, no,” she says. “He’s on my back.”
“Your back?”
As it turns out, she means the roof of theBeetle. She leads me to a special hatch with a ladder that goes up through an even narrower passage.
Griffin watches me without a word as I emerge from the top hatch and into the cold night. Above us spans the Milky Way. There are no clouds tonight.
“What are you doing?” I ask him.
Because it’s about time we got to know each other.
He opens his arms and gestures to the view as an answer. TheBeetleis perched on a small mountainside at a dangerous incline. I’m sure no one will cause us trouble here. I try not to get too close to the edge of theBeetle’souter shell. Below us, the lake is a dark, flat surface. I do a double take when I realize there is something huge moving along the shore.
“What is it?” I ask, pointing. Although I have a feeling that I know already.
“Anou,” he simply says.
Anou, a god of earth. I’ve seen pictures. She’s an eight-legged creature with a gigantic shell that looks like a rock formation. She might have been hiding in the hills around the lake, and I had no idea.
“I thought you said we were safe earlier.”
“We were,” he says. “She only comes out at night. And her presence is the reason it’s so peaceful. Humans don’t come here. We’re safe.”
