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I nod, seeing the intensity in his eyes. I take his hand, squeezing it tight. “I’m right here, at your side, every step of the way.”
The baby cries louder and we run toward it – hands held.
We stumble through a clearing and find ourselves in the middle of a camp.
What in the world? There’s a hut, a fire with meat cooking over a pit. A cave with a large stone rolled to the side.
But more importantly, there are people.
Humans.
A man and a woman, with a baby in her arms.
“Oh my God,” the woman says, her eyes wide, taking us in.
The man – with wild hair, in a loincloth – raises a spear, protecting his family.
But Rock shocks me most. “Holy fucking shit. Stone?”
The man with the spear lowers his arm. “Rock? Is that you?”
They step toward one another, and these burly, beastly men give one another big hugs, slaps on the back, grunting words of joy.
“You’ve been here this whole time?” Rock asks.
Stone nods. “Yeah, I woke up in that cave, in the tunnel where the blast happened. What about you?”
Rock shakes his head. “No, I crawled through some sort of portal. It closed up behind me, but it was a week’s walk to get here.”
“All this time… you’ve been in the Twilight Zone, same as me.” Stone shakes his head, then looks at me. “Have you been here long?”
I shake my head. “Just over a week.”
“I’m Skylar,” the woman says, walking toward us, smiling. The baby in her arms coos happily. “And this is Bam-Bam.”
I smile. “Did you have him here?”
She nods. “I time travelled a year ago. I was exploring the caves.”
“I was on a group tour,” I tell her. “And you just happened to find Stone?”
She smiles. “I ran right into him, thinking W.M. was about to kill me.”
“W.M.?” I ask.
She grins, and Stone wraps an arm around her shoulder. “Our woolly mammoth.”
Just then, a barking wolf comes out of the cave. “No bark, Otis.” Stone shrugs. “Sorry, still trying to train our pup.”
Rock laughs. “Hell, look at you, a modern Stone Age family.”
Stone grins. “This woman right here pretty much saved my ass. I was going crazy alone.”
Rock nods, still holding my hand. “Same. Rosalie finding me was fate.”
“Are you guys hungry, tired?” Skylar exhales. “Sorry, we haven’t ever had company.”
“Why did you set out on foot, anyways?” Stone asks us.
I take off the backpack and tighten the knot on my shoulder where my fur dress is held together.
“A pack of saber-tooths were getting too comfortable. I killed three in twenty-four hours and knew it was just gonna get worse. We needed a safer area.”
“We were headed to the beach,” I add.
Skylar pours something from an empty coconut into two small stainless-steel mugs. “Coconut and grapefruit juice. It’s my favorite.”
She offers Rock and I each a mug. “Wow, this is fancy. A real cup.” Rock takes a long drink.
“We got lucky,” Stone says. “Sky was out on a backpacking trip so she had a ton of gear with her.”
Skylar smiles. “Well, the beach is nice but it’s not good for shelter. The caves are really best for that. There are a lot around here,” she adds. “You could… well, I know we just met, but… strength in numbers, right?”
Stone nods vigorously. “Of course there is. These two aren’t leaving us. The beach is fun for a day trip, but the bugs out there are vicious.”
Rock looks over at me, as if wanting me to approve of the plans they’ve just made for us.
“Of course I’d rather stay,” I say laughing. “You’re fun and all, Rock,” I joke, “but it seems better to have a few more people to talk to, plus we can combine our efforts and make it easier for all of us.”
“This is surreal,” Stone says, laughing, taking his baby from Skylar’s arms. “I did not think this was how the day was going to go.”
Remembering the tee shirt I found, I pull it from the backpack at my feet. “Is this yours?” I ask Skylar. “I found it in the woods not too far from here.”
She takes it from me, looking it over. “Never seen it in my life. I was in hiking clothes when I time travelled.”
“Better than me, I was in a wetsuit,” I say, laughing, showing her the water shoes on my feet. “Wasn’t even wearing boots.”
“Well, this isn’t mine, which means…” She looks over at the men. “I guess there are more of us out there.”
“I hope she’s okay,” Rock says, running a hand over his beard. “I wonder if Carnage, Flint and Storm are out there together, or surviving alone?”
Bam-Bam starts fussing and he’s passed back to his mama. Skylar begins to discreetly nurse her son and I ask what it was like to give birth out here.
“It was scary, but Stone was trained as a paramedic, so he helped keep me calm. And while the cave isn’t the coziest home, it does keep us safe from predators.”
