her the last time they’d crashed around together on the side of a mountain. Everything—hiking, staying quiet and avoiding capture by the squads of men out searching for them—was harder in the dark. Which was why Thomas had planned to leave just before dawn, where they’d have an hour or so of creeping through the darkness before being able to hit their stride and maintain some speed further down the mountain, after they’d moved away from the various camps of hostiles. Instead, they were doing the exact opposite.
“Moon’s almost full tonight,” he told her, trying to reassure them both. “I’m hoping for clear skies.” The downside of that was clear skies usually meant bitter cold. He hated not having access to a weather report, but they were solidly in the realm of his having to choose the least-worst option.
He held out the bright orange raincoat as Tasha came out of the bathroom, pulling her hair up into a pony tail to keep her curls out of her face. “Wear this as an inner layer,” he told her, “under your jacket.” It was too bright to put on top. “You might be a little warm in the tunnel, but you’ll want it when we get outside.”
“Ooh, the pants fit!” Her face brightened as she saw that he’d put them on as outerwear, over his usual red plaid.
“They do, they’re great,” he told her, lifting his sweatshirt to show her the belt he’d made by threading a long strip of fleece, cut from a blanket, through small cuts in the tightly knit fabric. “Thank you.”
“That belt is perfect,” she noted as he helped her tuck other pieces of fleece inside of her jacket and around her head and neck for even more warmth. But then she rapidly switched gears. “Do we expect an ambush?” She’d even cut mitten-size pieces for their hands as part of her prep, which was brilliant. She stuffed as many as she could fit into both of their pockets now as she clarified unnecessarily, “At the end of the escape tunnel?”
No, but he didn’t want to make any promises, so he said, “We’ll be ready for anything.” He handed her a flashlight and one of the larger candles before grabbing the rifle, the day pack, and a soft bundle of other supplies that he’d wrapped and secured. He led the way to the utility room. “But I’m hoping that the hostiles got hold of info about the power lines without accessing the full design plans for the shelter. It’s a good bet that’s gonna take them longer to find, especially since it was likely intentionally kept from public records.”
He stepped back to let Tasha go first through the little cast iron door to freedom, then humped the pack and the bundle into the little nuclear fallout “mudroom,” too.
“Is this...? Whoa, it is. It’s your bathrobe.” She moved both the bundle and the daypack out of the way, giving him space to climb through the door, too.
“Yup.”
“Goodbye, sex-pod,” she said as he swung the door closed behind him. “We’ll remember you fondly, particularly your heat and your bathroom. Although this—” she picked up the bundle “—is a nice souvenir.”
“Your robe is in the bundle, too. In case we need more layers.”
She laughed softly at that. “In case. Maybe I should just wear both of them right now, and you can just roll me down the mountainside.”
“Blow out the candle and...” Thomas put his finger to his lips in a clear shhh message as he prepared to open the bigger door that led into the tunnel.
But as darkness enveloped them completely, Tasha breathed, “Wait! Please?”
He heard her move, felt her reach out to touch him, her hand warm against his back. “I didn’t get to say thank you—I didn’t get to say anything because I cleverly fell asleep,” she whispered. “Before. On the sofa. It was... I was... Thomas, my heart is...”
He turned and kissed her—she tasted minty fresh—and he had to smile. She’d brushed her teeth while she was in the bathroom—of course she had—and his not being surprised in the least about that made him happy in a way he’d never felt before. Happy—and determined. He finally knew what he wanted—a life with Tasha by his side—and damn it, he was going to fight for it.
“We’re gonna get through this,” he told her softly. “But right now we need to be quiet, okay? As I open the door. In an overabundance of caution.”