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Ice swallowed his panic, forced his mind to go through a checklist of tasks that would get them to that plane.
He glanced into the car to see if they’d left anything. Checked that his duffel was secured to his body. He’d already wiped down the steering wheel and the door handles. Cameras were still pointing off to the sides, leaving a wide section of fence in a safe blind-spot.
Everything checked out, and now Ice was running to the fence with Indy in his arms, that urgency spurring him on, the drug still boiling his blood, racking his reason. It was only when he got to the fence and carefully set her down on a clean patch of scrubgrass that Ice looked up at the looming fence and realized there was no way he was climbing over with Indy in his arms.
“Shit,” he muttered, rubbing the back of his neck furiously. He could shimmy himself all the way up using momentum, grab the top of the fence with both hands, haul himself over without a problem.
But Indy’s catatonic state posed a big fucking problem.
He couldn’t toss her over without risking her neck.
He didn’t have the tools to cut through the thick steel mesh.
Shit, had they come this far just to be stopped by a fence?
Now a flash of movement caught Ice’s attention. He whipped his head to the left, ready to protect, ready to defend, ready to pounce.
But instead Ice himself was pounced upon.
It was one of the stray dogs, mouth open wide, pink tongue lolling out.
And tail wagging ten times a second.
Ice chuckled as the tan-colored dog scampered up to them and did a little welcome dance. The city was overrun by stray dogs, but the creatures lived side-by-side with millions of humans, and they were friendly like house-pets. Ice supposed that dogs who didn’t play nice with humans were quickly weeded out of the canine population.
Urban evolution.
Survival of the friendliest.
And this friendly furball went right past Ice to Indy, nuzzling against her neck as she lay by his side.
Ice tried to pull the critter away.
Then Ice pulled his hand away instead.
Because Indy’s eyes suddenly lit up, snapped into focus, shone with a light that gave Ice hope that she wasn’t lost yet, that there was still someone in there who could recognize, react, respond.
Respond to love.
Unconditional love, Ice thought when he saw Indy’s fingers ruffle the dog’s furry neck as the animal crooned in delight, rolling over onto its back, turning its head towards Indy’s face, staring into her eyes with the unassuming innocence of a creature that lived completely in the flow of the physical, focused entirely in its body, just like every animal other than the human beast.
The human beast which was cursed with the burden of abstract thought, a brain that could spin itself stories of the future and the past, a mind which could lose itself in trickery and trauma.
And maybe the only way back for Indy’s traumatized mind was through the flesh, through the physical, through the warmth of touch, the safety of unconditional love, affection which gave of itself freely, understanding that love was a strange form of treasure where the more you gave away the more you got back.
So Ice sat back and watched in silence as Indy petted the creature almost absentmindedly, like her body was reacting to the furry physicality of the dog even though her mind was still locked behind some wall erected to protect itself from memories that couldn’t be processed by the brain, could only be worked through by the body.
Indy giggled now as the dog licked her nose. She seemed oblivious to her surroundings other than the warm friendliness of the animal. Ice glanced at his watch, then swept his gaze along the fence to make sure they hadn’t been spotted. It looked clear on both sides of the steel mesh, but it still wasn’t clear how Ice was going to get Indy to that other side.
“Can you stand?” Ice placed his hand on her arm, then quickly pulled it back when Indy flinched again like she’d been burned. She whipped her head towards him, her eyes going wide like she’d forgotten who he was, like maybe that part of her brain wasn’t accessible right now.
Ice swallowed hard, the urgency constricting his throat. Right now the baggage-cart parking lot was empty, but sooner or later someone was bound to show up here. They had a window of opportunity right now, but it wouldn’t stay open long.
“We need to move, Indy.” Ice tried to keep his voice calm, but the urgency tightened his tone. “Indy?”
No response.
Ice forced a smile, stayed crouched by her side, watching Indy play with the dog as she lay on her back on the scrubgrass. Clearly this was therapeutic for her, the friendly animal comforting her in a physical way that didn’t require her brain to do any thinking work.
