Standing, Sam plopped down on her knees beside him. Surprisingly, she hugged
him tightly. Her NVM enhanced body was feverishly hot, and the warmth radiated into him, taking some of the chill from his bones. Despite her unwashed smell, he found the embrace oddly comforting. Strange fantasies of a weirdly non-sexual nature began to wander through his thoughts. Living together in Chicago, having children, that sort of thing. He almost jerked away from her, startled. Normally his thoughts about women were how fast he could get their clothes off and have his way with them.
“You looked like you needed a hug,” Sam said to him. “Maybe if you’d just
accept your past as part of who you are, like I did, you wouldn’t hafta hide behind stupid stories like coming from a different world.”
“Why is that so hard for you to believe,” Gabriel cried as Sam returned to tending the meat.
“Because stuff like that doesn’t even happen in stories,” Sam asked with a dumb expression on her face.
“I’ll have you know that Doctor Who does it all the time!”
“Who?”
“Exactly! I died, and I ended up here. This must be Purgatory. Or this is all just a coma dream.”
Examining him closely, Sam gestured to the sky. “I don’t think anyone could
hallucinate that. Not when you’re from a world with a sky as boring as you describe.”
“I don’t know, I’ve never been splattered by a bus before. Have you?”
“I don’t even know what a bus is. The Celestial Mother take me, are you on the rag or something today? You’re sure acting like it. Maybe I should start calling you Gabrielle.”
Sighing, Gabriel knew it was pointless to argue, and she’d hit a very deeply
buried nerd nerve. Gabrielle was what the bullies in school called him, and he’d never really gotten over it. Being bullied before and after his father staggered drunkenly out of his life had become part of his desire to become a lawyer in the first place.
Sending all the people that had hurt him to jail was one of his early fantasies.
Years later he’d represented one of those bullies in court for the rape and murder of a hooker. Laying his grudge aside, Gabriel had gotten a not guilty verdict, though it took some doing.
While meeting with his client in jail, a hundred slipped to the guard bought him twenty unsupervised minutes to take out all his childhood anger on him. He’d been a small child, but he’d grown into a big enough man to lay some serious hurt down when he had a mind to. He’d split his knuckles bashing the bully’s face with his fist. He still had the scars, even now after being resurrected on this hellish nuclear wasteland. He wore them like badges of honor, and proof that what goes around eventually comes around.
“I guess you’re too stupid to have grown up on this world,” Sam broke the
awkward silence between them. “Maybe if you had some sorta proof it’d be easier to believe you.”
Shaking his head, Gabriel sighed, wishing she’d come put her arms around him
again. He wanted her warmth against him, and the feelings that her embrace invoked inside. They reminded him that he was still alive, and right now, that was something he needed very badly.
Losing himself in her golden eyes, for a moment they seemed to see into each
other’s souls, connecting on a level few people ever did. Despite the fact she was over a decade his junior, Gabriel found himself drawn to her, like a moth to the flame. Though she bore many vices, she seemed to complete a part of him he’d never realized was missing. But it could never be. He didn’t belong here, and she didn’t belong on Earth.
He couldn’t stay, and she couldn’t come with him when he finally found his way back.
Nothing could ever come of a relationship between them, except the pain of parting forever.
“I went to University too,” Mister Mittens said with a yawn, ruining the mood. “I have several degrees in various fields of study.”
Eyeing the cat, Gabriel could not stop the laugh that escaped his throat. He could imagine a cat sitting on a desk and taking notes in a lecture hall, and it was about the most hilarious mental image he’d ever had.
“What’s so funny,” the cat asked as Sam joined in.
Her laughter was carefree and musical. After hearing the story of her young life, Gabriel found it amazing that she could even laugh at all.
“Here,” Sam offered Gabriel a few chunks of charred green meat on a stick, “it’s done, eat up, and try to get some sleep during half night. We’ll never reach the Spires of Infinity if we keep having to stop early for you to sleep during daylight hours.”
Sniffing the meat, Gabriel gagged on the scent of rotten eggs. Nibbling a piece off the edge, he prayed to god that it tasted like chicken. It was overly chewy, and took a few seconds for the flavor to set in. It did not taste like chicken. Gagging it down despite himself, he took another bite. The taste was better than hunger, if only just.
“See? Not so bad.”
“It tastes like despair.”
“Really? That’s a step up from the moldy sewage it normally tastes like.”
Eating in silence, Gabriel thought that he might start retching if he had to talk.
Blocking out everything but the sting of pepper made it more edible, though the aftertaste was almost worse than the actual flavor of the meat. Feeling mildly sick to his stomach, Gabriel wondered if eating a handful of dirt to wash the taste away would kill him or not.
“What’s that,” he said, noticing dust on the horizon.
“Trouble,” Sam jumped to her feet, gathering her belongings.
“What kind of trouble?”
“Out here it’s either bandits or mutants. Whichever one rapes you, you’re still raped at the end of the day. And don’t think they won’t rape you because you’re a guy.”
“Lovely,” Gabriel sighed, getting to his feet. “There’s nowhere to hide. If they haven’t already seen us, they will when we start moving.”
“Yeah, but why stand in their path? They might pass us by if we’re far enough away.”
“Is that a banner,” Gabriel squinted at the incoming dust cloud.
“I think it’s the Imperial Standard,” Sam said, shielding her eyes with a hand.
Eyeing her, Gabriel waited for an explanation.
“What? Really! You don’t know what the Imperial Flag means?”
Gabriel shook his head.
“It means they’re soldiers or Lawmen.”
“What are soldiers doing out here?”
“Probably hunting down the Children of the Chosen, or something like that. You got your Lawman badge? They might need it as proof that we’re not bandits.”
“For the last time, I’m not a Lawman. How many times does something have to bash against that thick skull of yours to finally get through?”
Rolling her eyes, Sam reached into his coat, pulling out a metal plaque he hadn’t realized was there. Holding it up for him to see, she gave him a skeptical look.
“Oh really? What’s this? Looks a lot like a badge to me.”
“Is that what that is?”
Shoving the badge back at him, Sam made a frustrated noise deep in her throat.
“You’re useless! Let me do all the talking. Might as well unpack your bedding for half night.”
Despite only a half-hour to half night, Gabriel felt completely awake. He’d never been one for napping, though he might be able to force himself to sleep if he laid down with his eyes closed for long enough.
Four columns of men on cathorback rode side by side in straight lines. Lone men darted up and down the line, likely officers checking the progress of their troops.