AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She nodded. “Right. Okay. I had taken my sister to the private school where she had completed her high school education, and it was a reunion for their tenth anniversary. Lily was there to celebrate, and I was there as her plus one for the evening event. That got Lily a lot of teasing, but she was fine with it. She’s tough.”
She sighed. “We were packing to leave when the world broke. I got alerts on my phone. Lily and I looked at each other and started making plans to head to higher ground. I knew of a few homes with solar power, and they would suit us fine. That is when Madame looked at us and asked what we were going to do. I told her we were figuring it out.” She sighed. “She begged for my help, so I helped.”
“I organized rationing as the sky darkened with the thick clouds. We took inventory and got the generators organized. I quickly drove into town and got as much fuel as I could, then returned to the school and started to organize the food for the animals. Then came the hard part. Most of the animals were riding animals and were not practical. So, they had to go.
“I couldn’t kill them, so I took them to the fence and let all of them out, but one small pony kept coming back, so I let him back in and fed him. I kept the food going at the house. A lot of the girls left to return to family or husbands. I have no idea if they made it. We passed each day in low-energy exercises so that no one burned too many calories. There was a cellar, and I did kill and butcher some wild meat. I just can’t eat something that comes when you call it.”
She tangled her fingers as dinner was delivered. “We went along, not in the greatest health, but better off than most. I watched the skies and finally saw the ship that landed one valley over. I wanted Lily to come with me, but Madame said she couldn’t, that if Lily came along, I might not come back for them. She probably wasn’t wrong. It was a rough year and a bit.
“Well, I got on the pony that wouldn’t go. Piled up as much food for it as I could and then headed for the hills and the pass that would close with snow if I hesitated. The pony was happy. His name was Alfred. When we got to the extraction point, he was happy, and they were ecstatic. There were few, if any, large animals on the land. He was taken for processing, and then they remembered I was there. I gave them as much information on his food and watering habits, as well as his digestive remains.”
She smiled and looked at him. “Afterthat,they processed me, and I told them about the others. I had been gone three weeks or more, so they did the intake for me and got me cleaned up and fed, and then a hopper shuttle came along, and I took the shuttle pilot over to the school. He took batches to the extraction pointand then came back. I waited with Lily, and we didn’t fit on the second run. I shrugged and looked at Lily, offering to help her walk there, but the snow had started. The pass was closed. The pilot said he would be back that day, but he wasn’t. He came back two days later, apologizing. Madame had faked a medical issue, and in the confusion, she wrecked wiring in his shuttle.”
Yavor tensed.
Iris continued. “But he fixed his ship and came to get us. We owe him our lives. I don’t think we had enough to get us through until the next hopper arrived.”
She shrugged. “From there, we got into the extraction shuttle, and then it was up to the education station.”
“When did you lose your hair?”
“Ah, it was actually sliced off while I was in the dorms, and shaving it off improved the appearance. The educators freaked out and dumped me into the batch with the school survivors.” She smiled. “And then you saw what you saw in the file and ordered all of us, so here we are.”
He sighed, his shoulders shaking. “It always astonishes me that folks can survive that kind of destruction without going mad.”
“It was a near thing. May I eat?”
He blinked. “Oh, of course.”
She dove into the plate of stew, bread, vegetables, and the cup of juice. It was alien and familiar at the same time, but she was hungry. Talking about that time made her feel like she was starving again.
She sat back when it was done, and Yavor rubbed her back. She smiled and sighed. His plate was empty as well.
He scooped her up and cuddled her on his lap. “The memories are bad?”
“Not all but most. Constantly doing the math on supplies and making sure that we got what we needed. Creating high protein snacks to keep the nibblers happy.”
“Nibblers?”
“The ladies who are constantly grazing instead of having larger meals.”
He chuckled and kept smoothing his hands over her body.
The server came in and removed the plates and utensils. He refilled Iris’s cup and put it closer, so she could reach it.
“Thank you.”
He smiled, and his third eye crinkled with his smile. She leaned against Yavor as the server left and said, “Any other questions?”
He nodded. “What is adancer? Tribal? Celebratory? Formal?”
“Uh... pole. I was a stripper. I removed my clothing for money and danced to music while I did it.”
She glanced at him, and his eyes were gleaming. “What?”
“I would like to see that.”
Iris grinned. “I am retired, and I only did it because it paid well.”
