Banished To Earth Book Two, Savaged Earth (38)

    The wrecked cars should at least give them a clue. They did look quite old and rusty, not a good sign. That and the thick green overgrowth strongly suggested much more time had passed than they first thought.

   The sun would be setting soon, but that was no problem for them. And this entire area was nothing but a lifeless junkyard, grim but harmless.  

     Being Hunter meant shelter and food were not a problem for them. Still, they already missed Trudy’s four walls, her tasty meals, and ached for Nikki’s hugs and Beth’s sweet smiles.

     “She kissed me.” Said Tucker when Pry turned toward him and forced a smile.

    “What!” Silhouette exclaimed, “I, I mean, great. That’s great. Good, good for you. Both.”

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 Tucker blinked and was about to say something when Pry leapt at him, like a playful puppy, and hugged his neck, almost knocking him down. “That makes me very happy. She loves you, Tucker.” Pry just blurted it out, not the first time. She glanced back at Silhouette, who wore a weak smile that looked as if it would fall off her face at any moment.

     Tucker buried his eyes in Pry’s fur-cushioned shoulder.  Silhouette’s smile dropped. Turning away from them, she hid her disappointment and slapped her eyes dry. Trudy deserved Tucker. They would be good together. And that was that. Why would she ever want anything else?

   Her gaze fell on the rusty vine -encrusted cars. She would focus her attention on them. Not as good as a shot of whiskey, but she knew that productive distraction was a far better sedative than drunkenness, just not as much fun. As luck would have it, she hooked up with a bunch of ‘dry’ goody two-shoes.

   No booze at Trudy’s house, just far more sobriety than she ever thought she could endure

    Maybe somewhere out there she’d find a liquor store not buried in Godzilla crap. For some reason she suddenly wanted to get roaring drunk, a truly stupid thing to want, considering where and who knows when, they were.

 But first the cars…

  

131

      Not looking back, she eased her way over the thick unpredictable carpet of vines and mushy moss. Feet sinking, ankles twisting, she stumbled and kicked her way through until she finally fell face-first on the nearest vehicle, hitting her head against the side of a white SUV. It lay at a forty-five-degree angle, leaning toward her and blocking the driver's door.

     It was not actually white anymore.  A slick sheet of green slime and moss completely encased it, robbing her of traction and leverage.

   “Guys!” She yelled, “Help me get this thing open.”

   They shifted to her side in an eye blink. “Oh, took the easy way, huh?”

  “You didn’t?” Tucker asked.

   “Felt like walking. Okay.”

    “Sure, why not. Maybe the going will get easier further from here.”

    Now they were struggling through the springy clingy mess. Plucking their feet up only to have them swallowed again, they slowly made their way to the other side of the SUV.

   “What you thinking Sil?”  Tucker asked.

   She looked up at the rusty vehicle’s underside. “There might be people- well, remains inside. Their condition should give us a better idea of just how much time has passed. Or we could just sit and wait for,” she started to say wait for Davin to come back but caught herself.

   “It is fine” Pry said. “We should stay here. But we should also examine these machines. They carried people. That makes them valuable, worthy of study.” She glanced up, leapt to the passenger side door, whipped out her claws, and ripped into the metal. It screeched as if in agony. She snatched the door off and tossed it aside, feather-light cardboard in her claws.  

    “Very nice,” said Silhouette, “and you didn’t even slide off.”

 Pry tilted her head down. Claws had sprung from her toes and bit deep into the metal.

    “You know there are some cars, not too far away.’ Said Tucker. “We could have just looked inside.

   “This one was the most intact and the closest, and their windshields are probably just as caked with green as this,” Sil said as she hopped up beside Pry and took her hand to keep from sliding off.

    He shrugged and let it go, seeing tension and pain in her eyes.

132

  “Let me go first, uh, Cindy. You can help me in and out, since I don’t come fully equipped with my own set of can openers.

    “Of course.” With that, she pulled Silhouette up to the opening and eased her inside.

   “Oh, God.” They heard her groan. “It’s a family. Four. Two big. Two little. Bones, rags, brittle.” She coughed. “The big one’s just crumbling bone. I touched it and it, uh, he, just fell apart. Get me out of here. Now!”

    Pry snatched her up with no effort at all. Silhouette’s face was white. Tucker reached up and helped her down.

   “I could have jumped down, but thanks.”

   “It should have been me.” He said when she pulled away. “You didn’t need to see that.”

   “And you did, cause you’re a man and all.”

   “No, Sil, you've been through enough.”

   She glared at him. “Stop being so friggin’ nice!”

     Pry’s features clouded with confusion just before she jumped down and joined Sil. “Silhouette, what is wrong?”

   “Oh, I don’t know. Looks like we might be, who knows, decades, centuries into the future, and I just saw the most sobering thing I ever saw. And I want to be blind drunk, so drunk I can’t see. This!…” She looked back at the empty ground that should be Trudy’s house. “That I want to see. But that’s gone. Sorry, Tucker, but you’re never going to see her again…”

    Pry took her in her arms. Silhouette wept and cursed. They listened. Helpless. But there.

  After a long while, she finally released Pry, wiped her eyes and looked up at Tucker, her face slick and red. “I, I shouldn’t have said,” she paused, “all that…” She tossed him a sheepish smile.

   He smiled back at her and said, “You’re more of a girl than I am.”

   “Glad you finally noticed.”