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“Q’on!” I shouted over the wind. “These fences are usually topped with razor wire. I don’t know about your scales, but it’s going to rip my skin apart!”
He stopped. Froze mid-climb. Just hanging from the fence, probably twenty feet up. I wondered if we’d just lost, if my revelation would stop him from getting us out of here. I also wondered if my shivering would cause him to lose his grip and drop us both to the ground.
I shouldn’t have worried. After a few seconds, Q’on nodded and shifted his grip on me, telling me to climb onto his back and hold on.
I didn’t know what I was holding on for until he got to the top of the fence, where there was indeed some nasty-looking razor wire waiting for us. Q’on actuallygrabbed the wire with his bare hands and yanked it clean off the fence!I yelped and ducked as he manually twisted the wire and bent it until we had a clearing of about three feet to crawl through. I plastered myself to his back as best as I could, hoping I made myself small enough to pass under the wire without getting snagged on the blades.
By this time, sirens blared, audible even over the roar of the wind. Either Agent Wilson had woken up, or the patrolling guards had found him and the scientist where we’d left them. Either way, the jig was up, and we had to hurry. The storm would grant us some cover, but I wasn’t going to survive for long out in this. My lungs burned with the effort it took to gasp in a few gulps of the frigid air, and I started to lose feeling in my extremities. My grip on Q’on’s back was tenuous at best as he scrambled over the top of the fence and dropped to the ground beneath.
Through some miracle—or maybe it was his alien physique—he landed on his feet in the snow. The sudden jarring stop almost made me fall off, but he managed to get me back into his arms in seconds, hugging me close as he started running again.
My face hurt. My feet and hands hurt. Everything pretty much hurt. We were in the middle of who-knows-where, smack dab in the middle of a blizzard, with no way of knowing where or when we’d find safe shelter. I wracked my brain, trying to think of where we could be given how long we’d been in the vans before arriving here. There were several mountain ranges near Lake Ontario. We could be in the Catskills or Adirondacks. Did they have things like caves out here? And if they did have caves, would they be safe for us? It was hibernating season. Did we run the risk of waking up an angry bear?
While I pondered if I’d make it through the storm, Q’on pressed on. He navigated the snow-covered woods like a pro, never once tripping on a hidden branch or root. It was nothing short of miraculous, though if he didn’t find a cave or some other shelter soon, it would be a rather sad miracle.
“Q-q’on …” My teeth chattered so hard I struggled to get his name out. “W-we’ve gotta g-get out of this storm. It’s k-k-killing me.”
He skidded to a halt, eyes wide, and scanned the area. I don’t know what he could have been looking for; the weather provided nothing in the way of visibility. Total whiteout conditions.
Before I could ask him what he was doing, he made an abrupt turn and started running again. We crashed through several yards of dead underbrush before the gusting winds suddenly stopped, and the white was replaced with pitch blackness. The howling of the wind still assaulted my burning ears, but wherever we were, it prevented the blasts of chill air from hitting me.
Q’on kept going for so long I wondered if the cave had an end. On and on he pushed, and while it felt marginally better to be out of the direct wind, the still air inside the cave wasn’t much warmer. I’d need a fire at minimum, and warmer clothing, but I had no idea where he might find something like that for me. It’s not like the AARO left us with anything handy like a lighter or even something as primitive as flint and steel. Nope. Unless Q’on had some magic alien ability to light a fire out of thin air, I was a goner.
We rounded a corner in the dark, and the sounds from outside virtually vanished. Q’on set me down against a frigid rock wall, and the next thing I knew he was wrapping me in his scrubs. He even pulled his gripper socks over my hands. It felt silly wearing socks on my hands, but anything was better than frostbite. I worried a bit for his safety without anything more than his scales to protect him from the elements, but the thin, starchy fabric still held some of his warmth, for which I was grateful.
“What do you need?” he asked as he held me close, rubbing my arms.
“Fire. Clothing. Blankets. Anything to get me warm again. I can’t survive in these temps.”
He stroked my hair and nuzzled my cheek with his. “You humans have evolved strangely. How is it that you haven’t developed natural protection from your planet’s elements?”
I let out a dry chuckle, still shivering violently despite being out of the direct wind and snow. “We’re stubborn and egotistical. We adapt our environments to suit us instead of the other way around.”
“That is poor planning. It would be more efficient to adapt yourself to a multitude of environments. Less work.”
It took me a solid minute to realize Q’on had just made a joke. I might’ve laughed, but I couldn’t stop shaking enough to manage it.
“Where can I find you clothing and blankets?”
Though it was a perfectly logical question, I thought it kind of ludicrous for him to ask that. How was I to know where to find that stuff out in the middle of nowhere? But then again, how was Q’on to know? He knew less about the area than I did, though admittedly my geography knowledge was limited as well. Without a map or an internet connection, I was just as clueless as my alien visitor.
“I don’t know. I have no clue where we are, other than a vague notion that there are mountains around the lake. I don’t know where the nearest town is or even if anyone lives out here for us to steal some stuff from.”
Q’on fell silent for several minutes. “Fine. I can provide fire. Will you be okay for a few time units while I find something to burn?”
Wait, hecanstart a fire in here? “I guess. Just be quick, please.”
He nodded and kissed me, then disappeared into the black void of the cave. I wrapped my arms around myself and rubbed them, trying to work some sensation back into my body besides thedeadly chill.
The echoing clatter of sticks landing on the ground signaled Q’on’s return to the cave. I hadn’t heard him approach in his bare feet, but if I was being honest with myself, I was starting to have trouble staying conscious. Suddenly the notion of curling into a ball and sleeping all winter seemed like a grand idea despite the nagging feeling that I wouldn’t wake back up if I tried it.
“Amber?”
“Hm?”
A sharpcrackof two rocks smacking together startled me out of a near doze, and a small flame flared to life in front of me.
Hot damn! I found myself the alien equivalent of an Eagle Scout or Army Ranger. Nice.
