“You haven’t told me where your mother lives,” he reminded her, after making several detours, in case the soldiers managed to discover where they had entered the woods.
“She lives in Jackson, Wyoming. I was headed there when we met,” she replied, with a deep sigh.
“We’ll get there, eventually. For now, we’ll have to make a big detour. In the meanwhile, they might lose interest in you.”
She snorted. “I’m starting to think I was too optimistic.”
They walked in silence through the woods, heading northwest. “Do you have any cash with you? Not cards, real cash,” he asked, after a while.
“No, it’s very hard to get cash these days. Why do you ask?”
“We’ll need food. I guess we’ll have to hunt it,” he explained.
“Oh, I have some food in my backpack, but that won’t last us, long. We’re still very far from my mother’s place.”
“I know, and we’ll have to walk there or steal some sort of vehicle.”
She frowned at his words. “Steal? I don’t think that’s a good idea. We would have the police after us in a blink of an eye.”
“It depends on what we steal and from whom,” he said, shrugging.
“I rather walk than end the rest of my days behind bars,” she protested.
“That won’t happen as long as you’re with me,” he assured her.
She snorted. “You’re the reason I’ll end up behind bars,” she grumbled, in a sarcastic tone.
“Have a bit more faith in me,” he asked, scowling.
“I don’t know you well enough.”
They had been walking for a few hours when Breton considered it was safe to make a pause.
“I have been thinking, if they really find my car and they use dogs to look for us, they will find us way too easily,” she said, shaking her head. “I don’t think we should stop at all.”
“Don’t worry. Cyborgs can’t be tracked by animals. We ooze a pheromone that confuses them, and since you’re with me, they won’t be able to pick up your scent either,” he explained.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, besides, we’ve been walking along with the wind, that helps a lot,” he added. “Besides, you must be tired.”
She nodded. “I am. I just don’t like the idea of being caught.”
“Don’t worry, they won’t get us,” he assured her.
She took a seat on a rock and sighed, pulling her red hair, out of her face, and tying it with a knot on her nape. “We have to find a better way to travel,” she grumbled.
Breton looked at her from the ground where he had chosen to sit and stifled the moan of pleasure struggling to come out. She was gorgeous. He had never seen a woman with that hair color, and he was fascinated by it. In fact, everything in her fascinated him.
“You haven’t told me your name,” she said, breaking the silence between them.
“They don’t give us names, just a serial number, but with time, we all chose a name,” he replied, with a scowl.
“And what’s yours?”
“My name is Bretdon.”
“It’s nice, do you mind if I call you Bret? Bretdon is kind of long.”
“Sure, whatever you want. Yours is Ophelia, right?”
She sighed. “Yes. I hate it. I keep telling my mother I’ll change it legally, but I would never do it. She fell in love with Shakespeare’s character back when she was in college and always dreamed of having a daughter called Ophelia,” she explained.
Bretdon accessed his database looking for information on Shakespeare, and in a few seconds, he was able to understand her references. “I think it’s a lovely name too.”
She snorted and grabbed the backpack he had put on the ground between them and took a couple of energy bars from it. “Want one? We should eat something while we’re here.”
He shook his head. “I can go without food a lot longer than you. You better save it for later.”
“You must be hungry if you’ve been escaping for a while,” she insisted.
“I’m fine, I assure you. Eat yours so that we can leave.”
She did as told, and a few minutes later they were walking again. It was night time, and a cold breeze was blowing from the mountains.
“We need to find a place to spend the night,” he announced, at some point.
He was tired, but she was even exhausted. “I can continue for a while longer.”
“No, you can’t. We need to get some rest.” He started scanning the area around them, but there was no suitable place. “But we’ll have to walk a bit more, there’s nothing here.”
“I can do it,” she assured him, with resolution. She was tired, of course, since she wasn’t used to going hiking and her job was mainly to spend the whole day in front of a computer, but she guessed the adrenalin of the day’s events kept her going.
They walked for another hour before he made another announcement. “There’s a small village not far from here.”
“Do you think it’s safe to go there?”
“I can’t sense any strange activity,”
“In most of these mountain villages, you can find empty houses, from people that moved to bigger cities, others that joined the army to fight the aliens. We could spend the night in one of those,” she suggested, starting to feel exhaustion set in.
“How will we know which houses are abandoned?” he asked, not convinced.
“It’s easy to tell, believe me. It’s very dark, and it’s cold. I’m sure we can sneak into the village and find a place. We can even find some food, I’m sure you’re hungry by now,” she tempted him, with an alluring smile.
“I guess we can try. But we’ll leave as soon as I find any sign of danger.”
“Of course. I didn’t come all the way here to be caught,” she assured him.
He chuckled and nodded.
It took them half an hour to get to the outskirts of the small village, and without going any further, Ophelia signaled him a small house that looked abandoned.
“I think we have the one,” she whispered. “Just for safety, I’ll go first and knock at the door. If there’s someone, I’ll just ask for directions, and we’ll move along,” she suggested.
“There’s no need. I can scan the place for people,” he informed her, while he started the scan. As she had assumed, there were no signs of human life inside the ruinous construction. “It’s empty. Let’s get inside.”
She nodded, and after he tampered with the lock on the main door, they entered the small house. It was obvious the place had been abandoned for a few years, judging for the layer of dust on everything.
Ophelia walked straight to the kitchen and tried the faucets. There was running water, and she sighed. She needed a shower urgently, even if it was a cold one. “There’s water.” She announced happily.
He turned on the lights and incredibly, there was energy as well. The place probably had a solar energy system.
“Do you think it’s safe to turn the lights on?” she asked, with a slight frown.
“I can’t sense any neighbors, and the place has all its windows closed with wooden planks,” he explained.
She hadn't noticed it. She let out a sigh, relieved. “Why don’t you try to find some food? I’ll look for a bathroom and take a shower. I really need it,” she suggested, picking up her backpack. She needed clean clothes.
“A shower? Really?” he teased her.
“I’m a city girl, camping and hiking is not my thing, believe me. I much rather the comfort of a hotel,” she replied with a scowl, as she left him in the kitchen.
Though she had been expecting to find a total disaster in the bathroom, the place wasn’t that bad. She washed the shower stall a bit and tried the hot water. If there was light, there was a good chance there was hot water. To her delight, there was.
Happy, she took off her clothes and entered the shower, relishing in its warmth on her tired body. It felt amazing.
Though she would have wished to stay there forever, she knew Bret needed a shower too. He also needed to have his wound looked at, come to think of it.
She finished washing, and after getting on some clean clothes, she returned to the kitchen. He had found a few cans of food and had them on the kitchen table.
“I believe we can prepare something with this,” he said when she entered the room.
“I’m sure of it. I’ll do it, while you take a bath. You should take a look at that wound on your armpit,” she suggested as she checked the cans. There were soups, beans, meat and even fruit salad.
“The wound is fine. My nanocybots are taking care of it.”
She looked at him as if he had mentioned he was a god. “Nanocybots? Are they real? Are you sure?” there was so much excitement in her voice he frowned.
“Of course, I’m sure and yes, they are real,” he replied, with suspicion.
“We heard about the existence of nanocybots when we were in college, but none of us really believed they existed,” she explained, clearly amazed. “Are you telling me you have nanocybots inside you?”
“Yes, I am. They are injected into us when we’re conceived and throughout our time in the artificial wombs. They are the ones in charge of making all the changes in our DNA that turn us into cyborgs. They also keep us healthy and heal our wounds,” he explained, patiently.
“God, what I wouldn’t give to have a microscope here,” she said, still sounding excited. “You have them in your bloodstream only?”
“No, they are present in all fluids in my body.”
“All of them? Even your sweat?” she asked, surprised.
“We don’t sweat,” he replied, with a naughty grin.
“Oh, I see,”
“I’ll go take that shower, anyway.”