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Trevor made eggs for breakfast, collected fresh from the chickens roosting in the kiddie rides. There was no milk or orange juice, just water. I had a feeling milk and juice were now rare luxury items as likely to be acquired as a private jet. On the bright side, there was some turkey bacon that had survived in the deep freezer.
“Are you cutting back the kudzu coming our way?” I asked when we sat down in the kitchen to eat. The vines were the most pressing thought on my mind.
Trevor gave me an odd look. “I thought you lost your memory.”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“You were a botanist... before.”Before the world went away.“When we first got here, the kudzu problem was your first concern.”
And it still was, apparently.
“Well? Are you? You have to cut that back. Some of those vines are heading right for the castle and could climb over the wall. If they grow strongly enough to the top, they could cover the solar panels. Then we’re fucked even worse.”
“I’ll take care of it.”
“You’d better do it fast. That stuff grows a foot a day. In less than a week it’ll reach the base of the castle. We need the freezers to keep working. Speaking of which, how long will this stuff in the freezer last?”
“Maybe another six to eight months if we’re lucky. Though I’ve started hunting and freezing local game already, so once this stuff starts going off, we can just start eating what I’m storing up.”
I didn’t want to think about being here with him another six to eight months. I didn’t want to think about living here for another six to eight days. Even six to eight hours felt awful, like arriving at a menial job you hated, knowing you were trapped for an untenable block of time.
“A-and the canned goods?”
“Those have about another year on them. The challenge is going to be getting fruits and vegetables when that runs out. We may have to survive mainly on meat and eggs. Maybe some berries. At least you still seem to have your botany knowledge. It’ll keep us from eating the wrong berries.”
I had the strange feeling that he was happy some of my knowledge survived primarily because he didn’t want my amnesia cutting into his berry foraging. What a prince.
“We don’t have running water, right?” I asked.
“That’s right.”
“So where do we... you know?”
Trevor chuckled almost as if he were enjoying this. God, was he that petty that he was still holding some asinine grudge over whatever we’d been fighting about before I fell and lost my memory?
“We go outside, princess.”
“Like a bear?”
“Yep.”
That sounded fucking terrible. Of all the shitty things so far, this wholegoing to the bathroom outdoorssounded the absolute worst.
“You’ll get used to it.”
Sure I would. Just like I’d get used to his charming company.
I laughed suddenly at the utter bizarreness of being a plant specialist but being freaked out by too much of the great outdoors.
“What’s funny?”
“Nothing.” If I told him, I was sure he’d piss all over my tiny inch of mirth. I was convinced I would have to carefully guard any bit of joy I could find, or Trevor might overtake it like the kudzu outside.
After breakfast, Trevor washed the dishes then lowered the drawbridge so I could get out of the castle. He didn’t follow me. After I took care ofbear business, I wandered the park.
Kudzu crept over everything. Statuary was broken with a stone limb here, a random nose there. Strong storms had come through, I could tell from the slant of things, the uprooted bushes and smaller trees, and the way they leaned. I took a closer look at the trees. With the Kudzu and humidity, definitely the south. But there were a few palms as well.
I bent to take a handful of dirt in a spot where the sidewalk had broken apart. The texture was a bit sandy. Could we be near an ocean? Not near enough to smell the salt, but hurricanes definitely could have blown through.
