Jason Frost - Warlord 05 - Terminal Island (28 page)

Eric hefted the pack on his back and slung the crossbow on his shoulders. D.B. turned and ran into the trailer where Madonna now lived. When she came out again, she had her backpack on.

“I’ve been packed since yesterday.” She looked at Eric. “No arguments?”

“None.”

Eric and Wendy didn’t kiss. They didn’t shake. He hugged her close and she hugged him back and for that time they seemed closer than if they’d been making love.

As she let them out the front gate, Wendy hooked a thumb over her shoulder toward the room where the family kept watch of the wounded boy. “Paradise will never be the same with people in it.”

“Then it isn’t paradise.”

They left, Eric leading the way. D.B. waved back at Wendy and Madonna for nearly ten minutes as they hiked away from the zoo.

Four hours later Eric and D.B. were eating a cooked rabbit and sipping catnip tea.

“I may go back there someday,” D.B. said. “I mean to live.”

“I may too,” Eric said.

“Yeah? That paradise stuff is catching, huh?”

Eric cut a piece of rabbit off and handed it to her. “Right now this is all you need to know of paradise.”

“And all I want to know,” D.B. said, sinking her teeth into the meat.

Scanned and proofed. TK Jul 2013 (v1.0)(html)