George
looked around. They were on a sandy hill in the middle of nowhere.
The low outcropping of rocks on the middle of the hill might provide
some shelter. There were stunted bushes attempting to grow at the
base of the rocks.
"What
do we do now?" George asked, "Do we get out?"
Tricia
shook her head. "We must always be careful out here."
George
noticed that Tricia had left the engine running. Ready to run, he
assumed.
"She'll
meet with us," Mabel in the back seat said, "Meanwhile,
keep your eyes out."
George
looked out again. The only detail he found of interest was the
scattered bones near the pickup's front wheel. The bones looked like
they were freshly picked. The remains of Iona's dinner, perhaps?
It did
not look like there had been a camp fire in the area. George always
imagined that fire was a prerequisite for camping in the wilderness.
At least, that was what network television taught him.
George
turned to face the front of the vehicle.
"Hey,
it's Squirt!"
The boy
in the passenger seat squeaked with surprise. Close to the windscreen
of the vehicle was the face of a girl wearing a helmet of purple fur
and bone plates, crafted in the likeness of a cat's head. It was
Iona. She was crouching on the hood of the vehicle.
The girl
wore a cloak of purple fur, which had dark-brown bone plates
attached. She had a breastplate of similar bone, along with brown
leather clothing. In addition, she had purple gloves shaped like the
paws of a cat and matching fur boots. Iona did not need a breathing
mask for the wasteland's arid air.
"Is
the area safe?" Tricia asked.
"Yeah,
it's safe," Iona replied, "for us, that is." She
climbed up to sit on the roll bar above the pickup's windscreen.
Tricia
backed the vehicle close to a rock and turned off the engine.
Mabel
jumped out of her seat at the back with a rifle in her hand.
"Anywhere we can eat?" she asked, "I'm famished."
George
got out of the pickup too, grateful for the chance to stretch.
Iona
pointed towards the rocks. "There's a small cave with clean air.
Unless you want to put up a tent."
"Too
much work," Mabel decided, "Let's see the cave." She
took a backpack out of the one of the lockers in the back of the
pickup before she followed after Iona.
Tricia
removed another backpack from another of the lockers. "Just let
me set the traps..." She stretched a wire across the cargo and
pushed something under the steering wheel. She checked her sword and
sidearm pistol, then slung an assault rifle over her shoulder.
"Right, let's go."
George
followed Tricia as they went after the other two Vixens.
The cave
that Iona showed them was a small crack in the rocks with no space
for them to stand. It was dark within. Mabel lit a small LED lamp.
Iona
stayed outside to keep watch.
George
took off his mask. The air in the cave was cool and gentle on his
nose. Iona had found a good place.
"You
should rest up and eat even if you're not hungry," Tricia
advised, "There's not many places where you can take off your
mask to eat."
"But
we've a tent if necessary, right?" George asked.
"If
desperate, we can put up a tent," Tricia said, "Setting it
up is easy with it's 'quick deploy' function. It's the packing after
that is tedious."
"That's
because we were too cheap to spring for a tent that's quick to set up
and collapse!" Mabel added.
That was
not something to be proud of.
"Say,
why hasn't Laura made such a tent for us?" Tricia pondered
aloud.
"That's
a good question," Mabel replied. She tore open a nutrition bar
and took a bite.
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