She dozed for a while, but woke againwhen she heard Tau enter.
She wasn’t certain how she knew it washim, but she did.
He went straight to her sister andspoke quietly. “When will she be better to move?”
Emily stared at him, confused by thesentence structure. There was barely any accent to his words, butthe usage was confusing.
“I can go now … if you’llcarry me.”
Emily shot a look at her. “You’re inno shape to go.”
“They’ll come for us …here. We need to lead them away.”
“We’ll have to move anyway….”
“Once. If I go with youthen it’ll be at least two moves.”
“I will carry you,” Tausaid to Ultima and then looked at her sister. “If you say that shewill be ok?”
Emily’s lips thinned. After a moment,though, she rushed to the boxes where she kept the meds and grabbedsome out for Ultima. She handed them to Tau. “These are for pain ifshe needs them, but they’ll make her drowsy so don’t give them toher if you think you might have to run. These are for theinfection. One three times a day—after food of some kind—withwater.”
She rushed to Ultima then and removedthe tubes from her, sniffing back tears. When she was done, shehugged Ultima tightly.
Ultima hugged her back for manymoments, enjoying the contact, trying to absorb as much of hersister into herself as she could for remembrance. “When this isover we’ll build a nice house for ourselves in a beautifulvalley.”
Emily pulled back to meet her sister’sgaze. “Yes. We’ll find a place that reminds us of home and build anew life.”
“For all of those who diedtoo soon,” the said together.
Tau was looking strangely at both whenEmily gestured for him to take Ultima.
Ultima looped her arms around his neckwhen he leaned down to scoop her up.
For a moment, he seemed disconcerted.He met her gaze with a flicker of confused emotions and finallyturned with her and headed out of the tent.
Ultima turned for a last look at hersister as they left the tent and then looked away, settling herhead on Tau’s shoulder.
Chapter Five
Forward Scout Xi located a buildingthat had collapsed in upon itself and created a cave-like shelterfor them. It made Ultima uneasy, but they all assured her thatthey’d carefully examined it and the structure wasstable.
As long as nothing landed onit.
She didn’t know whether to be glad orsorry they didn’t elaborate on their estimate of what it couldwithstand, but she decided she was just too tired and in too muchpain to waste a lot of anxiety on becoming an instantpancake.
Scout Quan located a few supplies inthe exploratory sorties he conducted along the way, the end resultbeing they had some food and the comfort of some old and not veryfragrant, but relatively whole blankets.
Xi had also located some drinkablewater and refilled the canteens they’d gathered up and filled atthe basement shelter.
Ultima couldn’t decide if she hurtworse or if she was improving.
Being carried was not all joy, of acertainty.
She needed some exercise to build herstrength up and it made her sore to be carried.
Tau refused to be persuaded to put herdown to navigate on her own steam, however.
Ultima didn’t know if he’d been sopig-headed before he’d attained self-awareness, but it wascertainly a dominate trait afterward.
