Twisted Metal Heart - Eve Langlais Page 0,64
that take? And exactly where do you think we can go? There is nowhere that will ever truly be safe for her while the queen lives.”
“Her?” he queried.
“Yes, her. I’ve decided it feels like a girl.” She cupped her belly.
“Feel?”
“Call it a mother’s intuition.”
He drawled. “Guess I can’t be arguing with that.”
“I’m surprised you’re not insisting it’s a son.”
“It doesn’t matter what comes out of you. I’m the father.”
He said that now, but what if… “What if she has a tail?”
“I’ve heard you can teach them to toss knives with it.”
The fact he even had an answer stymied her. “You’ll teach her to fight?”
“Well, yeah. She’ll have to know how to defend herself.”
“I’d rather not live somewhere she has to.”
That had him shaking his head. “Now you’re living in a dream world. New Earth is a rough place. It needs tough people. Like you and me. Folks who know how to survive.”
“Since when are you an optimist?”
His mouth opened then pulled into a wide smile. “Since I stopped being a whine bag. I got caught up in missing the things I’d lost and didn’t recognize the things I’d gotten in their stead. Like these radioactive limbs.” He flexed his bionic arm. “And then there’s you and the baby. I gotta stick around and make sure everything goes all right.”
The sense of hope he was tossing around proved contagious. “You talk as if you’ll be around a long time.”
“I plan to live a goodly number of years yet. Maybe long enough to make a second daughter.”
“You would want another kid?” She wasn’t really having this conversation.
“I’d like a bunch, but that’s kind of up to you, I guess.” No declaration of love, and yet the lightness of his words made her heart stop and start all at once.
He halted his steps by their ride and forced her to a standstill too. He stared at her across the bike. Waiting for something. But she wasn’t ready.
Rather than make her own declaration, she mumbled, “Give me a second while I pee.”
Which she did far enough away he couldn’t hear her. When she returned, she ate a bird-like creature Alfred caught and Titan flamed over the wand torch he found in the bike’s tool kit. The man was handy. Almost as handy as her.
While they ate, Alfred perched on the vehicle and reported. “There is nothing to see.”
She gnawed on a crispy wing. “How can there be nothing? This isn’t nothing?” She waved the meat.
“I saw a bird. I brought it to you. I didn’t realize we now reported on insignificant wildlife.” Alfred’s sarcasm had survived his transition from body to body. Funny how she didn’t remember her father being this acerbic in real life. Or perhaps as a child she’d never noticed.
“Any humans? Signs of recent passage?” she asked.
“If there were, I’d have something to report. Doesn’t look like there’s much traffic this far north anymore,” Alfred said.
She didn’t trust it. It seemed too easy. The woods too quiet. It felt wrong she’d not had to fight off something by now.
A bit of water shared from their recently filled flask and they were off again. The grumbly motor of their vehicle made it impossible to hear anything around them.
They came across a path and followed it, only to be disappointed when it entered a small abandoned village.
Since she was driving, so Titan could nap, she had to make the decision. Stop and investigate, or keep going? Given the forlorn appearance of the place, and Titan’s heavy weight at her back, she chose to ignore it. Whatever had happened here didn’t concern her. She’d rather have Titan rested before the next attack.
Because they would have to fight at some point.
The hours passed, and she kept an eye out as the dappled sunlight dipped through the trees and made it hard to see due to moving shadows. Despite spending the ride tense and on edge, nothing occurred.
Alfred zipped ahead and burst from the edge of the trees with a mighty yell. “Aaaaahhhh!” He liked his new body. Genuinely liked. A robot who cared. Artificial intelligence at its finest.
Only as she edged past the tree line did she slow the vehicle.
Titan mumbled, “What’s wrong?”
“Take a look at your first ocean.”
The vista before them stretched, a span of water that went on and on.
Titan gasped. “Fuck me, it’s so goddamned big and light blue.”
She understood his surprise. On the eastern side of the continent, some of the seas ran red. “Apparently, if you keep sailing, you’ll fall