Return to Eden by Kaitlyn O'Connor Page B

buoyancy arise from the pleasure
that seemed to ‘lift’ her. She found herself looking back at him
with amusement even as his smile faded. “They’re good. Really! Want
some?” she asked, lifting her hand to offer the last few she still
had.
    He grinned, wryly, and shook his
head.
    Anya used her finger to mark a cross on
her chest. “Cross my heart. They won’t hurt you.”
    He studied the gesture and then her
face, looking vaguely puzzled but intrigued. Shrugging, Anya popped
the last couple into her mouth and searched for more, filling the
pockets of his jacket. Sour as they were--and she couldn’t handle a
lot of that at once—they were food and she had no intention of
missing out on it when all she had to do was pick it.
    They’d been walking about an hour when
Anya realized the viewing area ahead of them was widening. About
fifteen minutes later she caught a glimpse of asphalt and then
commercial-type metal buildings. Her heart skipped several beats
with a mixture of hopefulness and anxiety.
    Well, bits and pieces.

Chapter Six
    Anya decided that they’d reached an
industrial park after surveying the area thoroughly.
    It was almost more bizarre than
anything she’d seen since the alien landing/invasion!
    There were patches of asphalt. Some
even still bore the paint stripe that indicated it had been a
parking lot. Ditto the buildings and everything else that had once
made up the industrial area. Nothing looked corroded, as if time
was the culprit for the missing pieces, and yet it still looked
rather like a ghost town, something that had stood long, long ago
and had been worn away by time and the weather until there were
only pieces left here and there.
    There were parking lots around each of
what she could see had once been massive metal buildings, but no
sign of cars or of people, no sign of bodies
either—thankfully!
    Was everyone in hiding, she wondered?
Or had the alien things …?
    She shook that thought. There were
bound to be casualties, but there had also been plenty of time to
take cover. Even the people on the interstate like she had been and
away from home had fled to safety. They were just smart enough to
hide.
    It took them over an hour to traverse
the industrial complex. By the time they had the sun was hovering
near the horizon and Anya was thinking uneasily about shelter for
the night before it got too dark to look for a place.
    “ We need to find a place
to spend the night,” she said, pointing to the sun’s
position.
    Aidan studied her when she spoke and
dutifully looked when she pointed out that they were looking at
sunset very soon and then shook his head.
    “ We’re close now. We
should be able to find the ship before dark.”
    Anya glared at him. She was
exhausted—weak with fatigue, lack of food and water. She wasn’t in
any shape to run for her life and she wasn’t in the mood to try
sign language! “Look, fucktard! It’s almost dark! There’s no
telling what will come out to eat once the sun sets!”
    Aidan glanced at his wrist
thingy and then glared at her. “Ah-na fckd
ard! No Aidan! Ned ship! Go!”
    Uneasiness slithered through Anya
despite her anger—for several reasons. First off, it seemed pretty
clear that Aidan had figured out enough of her language to know
when she was being insulting. And she didn’t think it was really
safe to insult him if he was aware of being insulted, seeing as how
he was a really big and potentially very dangerous alien! Secondly,
it seemed to her that he was suggesting that he intended to carry
her away on his ship. And while she wasn’t especially happy about
the way things were going on Earth at the moment, she damned well
wasn’t going off to alien land with chewbacka!
    Ok, so he wasn’t hairy enough to fit
that particular name, but she still wasn’t going off with
him!
    She set her jaw stubbornly. “I’m not
getting on any damned ship!” she snarled at him through gritted
teeth.
    Aidan stopped, glaring back at her.