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  “I’m sorry, Maggie, but that is too perfect, especially with everything else you’ve said.”

  I ignored him and continued. “Yeah, well I’m not going to be there long. I never would have gone if it wasn’t for Gregg...”

  “Oh yeah, I almost forgot about Gregg.”

  Darrios said his name like it left a bad taste in his mouth.

  I swallowed hard. I did not want to discuss him with Darrios. For one thing, I was so angry with Gregg, I didn’t like being put in a position where I had to defend him, especially when all I wanted to do was strangle him.

  “So, besides being a selfish tool, what’s this guy like?”

  “He’s a pharmaceutical salesman. He’s tall, not as tall as you, but still tall. He grew up in St. Louis, but then he got this job offer...”

  Darrios stopped walking and stared at me.

  “What?” I asked, a bit put out.

  “Can you hear yourself? I asked you to tell me about your boyfriend and you gave me his job description and his relative height.”

  I glared at Darrios, becoming increasingly annoyed by his criticism.

  “Normally, I’d say things must not be too serious, but you moved across the state with this guy. I’m a little confused,” he said in a rather condescending tone, I thought.

  “Well, you don’t need to concern yourself with it,” I snapped.

  “Don’t worry, I’m not. Just making conversation to try to pass the time.”

  He turned abruptly and began walking again. From over his shoulder, he asked, “How would Gregg describe you?”

  I thought about it for a moment and quickly decided to decline answering that question. I recalled the last time Gregg had called and asked me to come meet him for cocktails after work.

  By the time I’d arrived it became painfully clear he’d been there awhile. When he’d introduced me to a couple of his friends, he said, “See, didn’t I tell you she was hot? And look at these great tits.”

  I cringed at the memory and mumbled, “I...I don’t know.”

  Darrios chuckled. That was it. Even though it passed the time and made walking easier, not to mention less worrisome, I was done talking to him about anything personal.

  He started to ask me a question and I interrupted him by asking him how long we’d been walking. He told me a couple of hours and handed me some sort of flask of water.

  I gulped down a couple of big swallows, not realizing how thirsty I’d been. I recapped the flask, handed it back to Darrios, and thanked him. I asked him how long it would take to get to the Inland.

  “It’s not the Inland, just Inland. The Outer Rim, Midland, and Inland together make up Celio. That’s the name of this place, Celio.”

  I nodded, allowing him to go on.

  “We’ll walk the rest of today, at least half the day tomorrow, and then we should be there. Then we’ll be safe.”

  I was quiet for a few minutes. “What’s it like...Inland?”

  He got a faraway look in his eyes and smiled warmly. Clearly the place had some happy memory tied to it.

  “It’s the most beautiful place you’ll ever see. There are mountains and rolling hills. I’ve never seen so much green anywhere. The flowers are fragrant and sweet, and the colors? You won’t believe it. The streams and brooks flow freely with crisp, cool water and they’re loaded with fish just for the taking.”

  “Sooo...completely different from here,” I said.

  “Oh yeah, everything is plentiful Inland. The crops are exceptional, without disease, and more than anyone could want. And the people? They’re happy. There’s no illness or crime. Nobody wants for anything and everyone gets what they need. It really is a paradise.”

  “Sounds too good to be true,” I muttered.

  Darrios smirked. “You’ll see.”

  “If it’s so wonderful, why don’t you live there?”

  He furrowed his brow and his smile faded. “Inland isn’t the kind of place where you want to live alone. It’s the kind of place you want to share with someone. And besides, that’s not my destiny. I’m needed in the Outer Rim.”

  Glancing at him out of the corner of my eye, I could see the pain that suddenly seemed to wash over him. So I let it go.

  ****

  The effects from walking all afternoon started to nag at me. My muscles burned and my stomach rumbled hungrily. Darrios heard it, much to my embarrassment. He assured me it wouldn’t be too much longer.

  “We’ll stay in a safe house tonight,” he said. “They’re located randomly within Midland for travelers like us. The monsters can’t get in. The houses are secure, locked by combination.”

  I asked him how he would get the combination. He smiled again. I couldn’t help but notice he had a really nice smile, friendly and warm. It softened his features and made his blue eyes sparkle. Tapping the side of his head with two fingers, he said, “Photographic memory. It’s a blessing and a curse.”

  I shrugged and shook my head. “I’m lucky if I remember what I’m doing from task to task or why I even walked into a room half the time. A photographic memory is something of a foreign concept to me. As foreign as Celio, I suppose.”

  ****

  About an hour later we came upon a small square building. I didn’t remember passing any others like it. Darrios told me it was a safe house. I wouldn’t have described it as drab, exactly, just plain.

  It didn’t appear to have been neglected, but nobody seemed to have paid much attention to it either. The walls were made up of some sort of concrete-type material and it had a flat, angled roof.

  The barred windows screamed “stay out” and the thick metal door clearly met the demands of safe house protection. There was no lawn to speak of, just dirt dotted with a few patches of overgrown weeds.

  Darrios stepped onto the tiny, stone porch, which was nearly level to the ground. He looked around and then turned the combination on the door. Swinging the door open, he motioned for me to go in first. I smiled, hurrying past him.

  The simple furnishings gave the place less of a stark feeling but didn’t exactly make it seem homey. A small wooden table and two chairs stood next to a counter of sorts, with a sink and a hand pump. Over it, a couple of shelves containing some very unfamiliar canned and packaged goods hung on the wall.

  Across the room sat one double bed. Fabulous. I had no intention of sharing a bed with a stinky caveman, although, after walking through the dusty terrain of the Outer Rim and Midland all day, I probably didn’t smell my best either. I did a quick sniff test, trying not to be obvious.

  Darrios pointed to a narrow door next to the bed. “That’s the bathroom,” he said. “You can take care of...whatever you need to, in there. You can wash up some, but we won’t be able to actually get a shower until we get to Inland.”

  I tried to fight the thought fleeting through my head that it had been awhile since Darrios had been to Inland.

  I went into the washroom, pleased to find it was pretty standard. There was another sink with a hand pump, a warped mirror, and thankfully, a toilet. I discovered the pull chain hanging off it served as a makeshift flush handle. I didn’t need luxury. I needed functional. Apparently, things like modern plumbing and electricity hadn’t been utilized yet in Celio.

  I cleaned up as best I could and gave Darrios his turn. He took off his big fur covering and draped it over one of the chairs. I noticed he had regular clothes on. I don’t know what I’d expected, but seeing him in jeans and a T-shirt without an animal carcass hanging off of him gave me the shred of normalcy I needed.

  When he came out of the bathroom, he had no shirt on. I was happily surprised to find he smelled considerably fresher than when he’d gone in, but rattled by the sight of his perfect bare skin. He had a few scars but they didn’t detract from the perfectness of his chest. In fact, they added to it. I mentally slapped myself for my thoughts.

  Sitting down stiffly in the chair not occupied by a smelly fur, I stared at the bed while Darrios rummaged thro
ugh the items on the shelves. He pulled a couple of things off and hollered to me, “You hungry?”

  I jumped, startled by the volume of his voice in the little room. I stood up quickly, nodding.

  “It isn’t much, but it’ll fill us up.”

  I didn’t ask what it was. I knew I’d probably never heard of it anyway. Darrios opened two packages, poured them in a bowl, then added some water while I watched. He stirred it, grabbed two saucers and two spoons off the shelf, and handed me the dish. It looked like refried beans. I smelled it, warily. To my surprise, it smelled good.

  It tasted kind of like a cross between beans and corn, but sweeter. Darrios told me what it was and, as I suspected, it was nothing I’d ever heard of. It didn’t matter. I was so hungry I’d have eaten it no matter what.

  As soon as I finished eating I went to the sink and tried to pump some water into my hand to drink, but the pump handle stuck. Despite my best effort, that stubborn handle refused to budge. Darrios noticed and came over to help me. I don’t know what my problem was. Maybe I just felt like I had to control something. Shouldering him out of the way, I snapped, “I got it!”

  Holding his hands up in surrender, he stepped back, smirking. I struggled with that damn thing for maybe five minutes, ignoring Darrios snickering behind me, and finally, I got it to work. Satisfied, I pumped some water into my hand and drank it. I looked over at Darrios, still smirking.

  “What?”

  He shook his head. “Nothing, I’m just impressed at your determination.”

  I rolled my eyes and looked over at the bed. The exhaustion had really started to set in. My body screamed for sleep. I could barely hold my eyes open.

  “Maggie, go ahead and lie down. You look like you’re about to keel over right where you stand.”

  I glanced at him then back at the bed, nervously.

  “Don’t worry,” he said gently. “You’ll have it to yourself. I’ll just camp out on the floor.”

  I stared down at the hard, uneven floor. Guilt washed over me. He had already done so much for me. I knew he had to be as tired as I was. How could I ask him to sleep on a cold, cracked, cement floor? Maybe if we kept our clothes on and stayed on our own sides...

  “I can’t let you do that, especially after we’ve come so far and we still have so far to go. You need to sleep too,”

  “I don’t want to make you uncomfortable,” Darrios said.

  I smiled, trying to exude confidence. “You’re not. We’re both adults. We’re dressed.” Well, at least I was. “It’s no big deal.”

  “You should get under the covers,” he suggested. “It cools right down at night.”

  I pulled back the thin blanket and climbed into bed. Darrios grabbed his fur and lay down on top of the blanket. I said goodnight and turned onto my side away from him. I don’t remember lying awake or having any particular thoughts, although you’d think I would have, considering the day I’d had. I fell asleep within minutes.

  ****

  I don’t know if I woke up to the sound of my own teeth chattering or to Darrios’ voice, but suddenly, I was awake...and freezing.

  “Maggie, wake up. It’s me. Listen, don’t go crazy on me. I’m not trying anything. I’m just putting my arm around you so you’ll be warm. You’re shivering with cold.”

  At that moment, it wouldn’t have mattered if he was trying something. I was so cold that I would have done almost anything to get warm. I nodded, trying to get the clackety-clack of my jaw to stop.

  Darrios wrapped me in his fur and pulled me against him. I snuggled right in, deciding I didn’t hate the smell of that fur after all. In fact, right at that moment, I loved it. Darrios’ body heat enveloped me and his fur wrap sealed the warm in oh-so-toastily.

  In no time I was back to sleep, nice and cozy, cuddled up against a man who was not my boyfriend, and right then, I was fine with it.

  I woke up in the morning nestled against Darrios’ neck. The sensation was pleasant, his stubble, his scent. Suddenly, I remembered where I’d slept and I tried to jump up. He laughed when I fell right out of bed onto the floor. Regaining control of my limbs, I managed to stand.

  “I’m sorry,” Darrios said, clearly not meaning it.

  “You just looked so cute all bundled up like that. I didn’t have the heart to wake you.”

  “You were awake?” I shrieked. “Watching me?”

  “Well it was kind of hard to watch you with you draped all over me like that.”

  I felt my face change colors. How embarrassing.

  “Actually,” he continued, “I was listening to you breathe. It was kind of nice.”

  I rolled my eyes. I seemed to be doing that more frequently. Darrios got up and started rummaging around the shelves again. I slipped into the washroom to freshen up. Without much success, I tried to smooth my hair out as much as I could before rejoining Darrios.

  He’d prepared our breakfast, the same thing we’d eaten for dinner. I wasn’t complaining. It hit the spot and I was anxious to get moving. He headed into the bathroom, telling me to get ready to go as he pushed the door shut.

  I made the bed and put my shoes on since there really wasn’t anything else to do. He came out, wrapped up some sort of baked goods in a towel, put them in his pack along with fresh flasks of water, and we left.

  ****

  We walked for over an hour without incident. It was almost too quiet, no birds, no bugs. Weird. I wondered when we would reach some sort of civilization with hopefully a more modern mode of transportation, but I kept my thoughts to myself.

  We had just reached the bottom of a hill, walking through a particularly shrubby area, when a terrible shrieking noise scraped at the inside of my head. The sound gave me that “chills up your spine” feeling, like when someone rakes their fingernails over a chalkboard or bites down on a fork, only amplified by about fifty. Something had to be in excruciating pain to make that noise. Turns out I was wrong. Darrios pushed me behind him and pulled from I don’t know where—an enormous, very sharp-looking knife.

  “They’re coming,” he hissed. “Stay behind me.”

  Two matted, fur-covered creatures, with long, thin noses and what looked like three rows of teeth descended upon us. I couldn’t breathe as I frantically searched the ground for anything I could use as a weapon, a rock or a stick, something. I found nothing, only sand. The branches on the trees and bushes were all too small to be of any use and the rocks were too large to lift.

  All of a sudden, like in some superhero-ninja movie, Darrios started swinging that huge knife, yelling some unintelligible phrases as well as several choice curse words.

  With what seemed like one swift move, he swung the knife, decapitating one of the creatures and fatally wounding the other. Seemingly unfazed, Darrios wiped the bloody blade on the creature’s fur, resheathed his knife, and grabbed my hand.

  “We have to move faster,” he whispered anxiously.

  I gawked at him with my mouth hanging open.

  He shook me. “Maggie,” he urged, “let’s go...faster!”

  I nodded weakly, still not sure of what the hell had just happened. We walked very quickly, or rather more like Darrios dragged me along in a high-speed fashion. Finally, I snapped out of it and moved on my own, nearly running for a little while. My adrenaline was still pumping and I could’ve kept going, but he slowed down.

  “We can go back to walking. I think we’re far enough ahead. Besides, the bodies we left behind will serve as a warning to the others.”

  Bodies? Eeyuck. I shivered, glancing around nervously, reminded just how strange this place was to me.

  “This is the longest dream I’ve ever had,” I muttered to myself.

  Darrios stopped. “Maggie, please tell me you’re not still clinging to that theory. It will make you reckless. You need to acknowledge that this is real. Say it.”

  I stared at him again.

  “Say it!” he ordered.

  “Okay...okay...this is real,” I said, half
heartedly.

  He glared at me. I acknowledged the look he was giving me. Was he kidding? After all we’d been through, I definitely believed it.

  “It’s real,” I said, more convincingly.

  Nodding, he turned and we started walking again.

  “So, Darrios, how do I get back home? I mean, it seems like we’re walking farther and farther away from where I came in.”

  “We are.”

  “Why?”

  “The portal...or door is gone. Another won’t appear there. And it doesn’t matter anyway. You can only come in through the doors. You can’t get back through them.”

  I started feeling anxious. “Then how do I get home?”

  He sighed then stopped. He put his hands on his hips. Without looking back at me, he answered, “In order to get you home...the only way I know...is for you to get to Avascon first.”

  “Will you help me get there?”

  Darrios’ head snapped up and he whirled to face me, looking stricken.

  “I...I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked. You’ve already done so much for me,” I rambled.

  “No, it’s not that. I’m just...a little surprised, that’s all. Um, yeah, sure, I’ll help you.”

  “Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s do it.”

  “Whoa, whoa, slow down. Jeez, first you push me away entirely, and then you want me to take you right now. We need to get to Inland before we can even think about Avascon.”

  “Why?”

  “Trust me. It’s going to be far more likely for me to get you to Avascon after we get to Inland. There will be far less stress. Nothing will be trying to kill us. We can both clean up first...”

  “But once we get to Inland, you won’t make me wait, right?”

  Darrios furrowed his eyebrows, let out a breath, and shook his head. “No, Maggie, I won’t make you wait.”

  I smiled warmly at him and thanked him. He smiled back. First he saved my life, then he kept me out of harm’s way, now he was taking me somewhere where I would be safe, and then on top of that, onto the place I needed to get to so I could go home. And he hadn’t asked for a single thing in return. He was a good man. I just wished I had some way to repay him for his kindness.