alutan2048

@@@@@?What if Healer Fords were still in Chicago? What if my path hadn't taken us so close to them?? It was that urgency, that lure?the thought that Jared and Jamie might beright here, somewhere in this empty place?that had made it impossible to resist this senseless plan I'm not sure,Melanie admitted think I might still have tried, but I was afraid while the other souls were nearTrusting you could kill them both We flinched together at the thought But being here, so close? It seemed like Ihadto tryPlease ?and suddenly she was pleading with me, begging me, no trace of resentment in her thoughts?please don't use this to hurt them I don't know if Ican hurt themI'd rather?? What? Die myself? Than give a few stray humans up to the Seekers? Again we flinched at the thought, but my revulsion at the idea comforted herAnd it frightened me more than it soothed her When the wash started angling too far toward the north, Melanie suggested that we forget the flat, ashen path and take the direct line to the third landmark, the eastern spur of rock that seemed to point, fingerlike, toward the cloudless sky I didn't like leaving the wash, just as I'd resisted leaving the carI could follow this wash all the way back to the road, and the road back to the highwayIt was miles and miles, and it would take me days to traverse, but once I stepped off this wash I was officially adrift Have faith, WandererWe'll find Uncle Jeb, or he'll find us If he's still alive,I added, sighing and loping off my simple path into the brush that was identical in every directionaith isn't a familiar concept for meI don't know that I buy into it Trust, then? In who? You?I laughedThe hot air baked my throat when I inhaled Just think,she said, changing the subject,maybe we'll see them by tonight The yearning belonged to us both; the image of their faces, one man, one child, came from both memoriesWhen I walked faster, I wasn't sure that I was completely in command of the motion It did get hotter?and then hotter, and then hotter s