nine

As usual, Romero woke up before Sana. He seldom required more than four hours of sleep. Sometimes, three hours was all he needed. So, he often just held her and watched her as she slept. He had read about different religions. He had no idea if there was a supreme creator or if this creator existed, would said creator welcome him. But when he watched Sana sleep, he was sure she was an angel. She accepted him. She loved him, and that meant more to him than anything else in the world. Her tummy was beginning to protrude from the growth of their unborn child. He put his large competent hand over it. He knew it was too soon for him to feel it move. Her womb simply felt hard to him, but he knew she had felt it fluttering. She had been very excited. So there he sat holding her, watching her sleep, feeling her tummy until she began to wake up.

They found toothpaste and a couple of tooth brushes still in their packages and deodorant. They washed up in the tiny bathroom. There was a small shower, but they didn't have fresh clothes to put on. And none of the clothes that had been left behind would fit either of them Sana was too short while Romero was too tall. Romero warmed them up some soup for breakfast and they ate. They put a few towels, a couple of sheets and blankets in the duffle bag along with some other things they thought they might need. Romero put the backpack full of can goods and water on. Sana threw the duffle bag over her shoulder. Occasionally, as they walked the dim dirty corridors they asked a robot the way out and the robot would point.

They had been walking for well over an hour, when Sana told Romero, "I smell water."

"I smell it too," responded Romero. "There's another robot. Let's see if it can help us."

"Excuse me," Romero told the robot, "we're lost. We're trying to find our way out. Can you help us?"

The robot nodded and motioned for them to follow it. It leads them through a boiler room. The robot opened a door and then they were standing on a concrete deck and were looking out over a large underground cavern with water as far as the eye could see. The deck had concrete steps that led down into the water. The robot pointed at a bright light off in the distance.

"Is that daylight," asked Sana.

The robot nodded.

"Looks like we have to wade through the water to get to it," said Romero.

The robot nodded again.

"Thank you," Romero told the robot. The robot made a slight bow to him and Sana. Then it rolled back through the door leaving Sana and Romero to their fate.

"Thank goodness we both know how to swim," Sana said to Romero, "I guess we should take our shoes and socks off and put them in the duffle bag."

"No," Romero told her, "We don't know what's in the water. There could be broken glass on the bottom or sharp rocks. We'll leave them on."

Sana nodded her agreement. On paper she might be a genius, but she hadn't thought about that. She had taken some basic self-defense classes for the exercise, but she had never been camping. She had no idea how to survive without modern conveniences.

Romero started down the steps first. He held Sana's hand as she came down the steps behind him. The water came up to his knees, but was about mid-thigh on Sana. And as Romero expected, the water began to get deeper before they reached where the light was coming in.

Sana shivered, "It's kind of cold."

"I think we're a good ways underground," Romero told her as they made their way toward the light. "It looks like it started as an underground military base. It was probably fully manned at one time. I think they built the mall on top of it."

"If that thing about there being a significant drop in population is true," Sana speculated, "The military is probably having a hard time keeping many of its installations fully staffed. On the bright side, there is nearly zero unemployment."

"That explains why we saw nothing but robots after a certain point," said Romero, "And those guards that chased us probably didn't know their way around any better than us. They probably had to head back to keep from getting lost, or made a different turn than us and got lost in a different section."

The water got deeper. It got up to Sana's neck and she had to carry the duffle bag on her head. Romero worried about a sudden drop-off. The backpack full of canned goods and bottled water would drag him straight to the bottom. And when the water got to Sana's chin, he put the duffle bag on his head and carried Sana. Sana got worried when the water got up to Romero's neck. But the water did start to go back down again.

When they got to the rock wall on the other side, the water was mid-chest on Romero. The opening where daylight was coming through was several meters above their heads. But luckily, there were ladder rungs sticking out of the wall. Romero had to give Sana a boost on to the rungs. She reached back and took the duffle bag from him. Then he pulled himself up.

When Sana reached the opening, there were hand rails on each side inside the opening. The shaft that went up was at about a fourty-five degree angle. Sana blinked as the sunlight hit her face. She couldn't tell how long it was before it reached the surface. She simply began to make her way to the surface with Romero right behind her. All Sana knew was the closer they got to the surface the warmer it got in the shaft.

Sana finally found herself coming out onto an out cropping of rocks. The rocks were burning hot so she quickly got to her feet. Romero was standing beside her a moment later, and they stood there together surveying their surroundings.

To Sana's eyes, there seemed to be nothing but sand as far as the eye could see. She said to Romero, "Did the tunnel really lead us that far away from the mall?"

"It seems we did make it quite a ways from the mall," Romero told her, "I can see it from here, but I don't think we should attempt to go back that way. I see several military vehicles patrolling the area. One is headed in our direction."

"Where," asked Sana.

Romero pointed, "There..."

Sana looked in the direction of Romero's pointing finger. Yet she didn't see anything except some dirt kicking up in the distance. But that dirt and sand could be being kicked up by the wind. Still, she trusted Romero so she asked as she stood out there squinting in the midday sun, "What should we do? Should we go back down and wait for a bit?"

"I'm sure they've dug out the old schematics for the original facility by now," Romero told her. "They've probably been sent to check this exit route. It's probably an emergency exit... When they begin to get close, I want you to go over this rise and wait for me. It'll either be good news or bad."

"But Romero, they'll have guns," Sana was very concerned.

"I'll be fine," he assured her. "In the meantime, I want you to pull one of the flat sheets out of the duffle bag and drape it over yourself. We don't have any sunscreen and I don't want you to get sunburn." He left out sun-poisoning as another possibility.

Sana did as he said, "What about you?"

"I won't sunburn as easily as you," he told her. "At the moment I'm getting enough sun that I won't need to eat for the rest of the day."

Sana didn't usually sunburn easily because like Romero she was naturally tan, but this wasn't a beach. She wondered if plant and animal DNA had been spliced with human DNA or if the human DNA had been modified using some new method she was unaware of. She had excellent vision. She was 20/20 in her left and 20/15 in her right, but she couldn't see the mall.

Romero pulled the sheet she got out over her head and made sure her face was well shaded. Then he watched the approaching vehicle.

"Okay," Romero finally told her, "Go to the other side of the rise and wait for me." He saw the worried look in Sana eyes. He kissed her reassuringly and told her, "Everything's going to be fine."

Sana nodded her agreement. She could finally see the green jeep getting closer. She hurried over the rise with the duffle bag. Once on the other side, she sat on the duffle bag to wait. After a couple of minutes, she heard the engine of the approaching jeep. She tried not to worry. She believed in Romero. He didn't look like he could carry a sofa by himself, but she'd seen him do it more than once. He didn't look like he was cheetah fast, but he'd lost those guards in the tunnels lightening quick while carrying her.

Sana heard the jeep come to a stop and idle. Then she heard voices, but she couldn't hear them clearly enough to hear what was being said.

"We only need the woman, Sana Coles," the male soldier told Romero, "As far as Dr. Goldmen is concerned, you're free to go."

"I'm sorry," Romero politely apologized to the two soldiers, "But Sana doesn't wish to return to the mall."

"This Coles woman must be some piece of ass," commented the female soldier.

Romero's head tilted curiously, "I'm sorry, I don't know what you mean by that."

Sana nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard a shot fired behind her. Then she heard a second shot.

"Romero," Sana shouted as she scampered back over the rise terrified Romero had been shot. But she found him unharmed standing over the two soldiers holding a gun in each hand.

"Are they dead," asked Sana wide eyed.

"No," answered Romero, "just unconscious."

"Are you alright," Sana asked running her small hands over his body, "I heard two shots."

Romero kissed her deeply, "I'm unharmed."

Sana looked down at the two unconscious soldiers as she held tightly to Romero, "What happened?"

"They asked for you," Romero summarized, "I told them they couldn't have you. The woman said something about your ass being great that I didn't understand. Then they tried to overpower me, which wasn't happening. The woman pulled her weapon and attempted to fire at me so I knocked her out. Then he tried to shoot me next so I knocked him out too."

"So what do we do now," asked Sana.

Romero shrugged, "I guess, we see if they have anything we can use." He handed her a gun and tucked the other in his waist band. Then he searched the two unconscious guards. He took all their weapons from them, and pulled them into the shade of the rock outcropping. Then he began to search the jeep.

"GPS is off line," he informed Sana.

"GPS systems are disabled once you get within a certain radius of the mall," Sana reminded him.

"Even their own apparently," said Romero, "which means we can borrow this vehicle and they can't track it... and here's a map."

Romero spread the map out on the hood of the jeep. "Here's the mall," he pointed out to Sana, "and here's where we are now... The mountains are there, a river here... and a native tribe inhabits the area there."

"We have native blood in my family's ancestry," Sana shared with Romero, "They finally stopped confining them to reservations a couple of centuries ago. Now the tribes are allowed to live free. Schools are provided and an urgent care center; but other than that, the government does its best to leave them be."

"I've read the history," shared Romero, "First they were used and abused by European immigrants, the government broke treaty after treaty... They weren't treated with the dignity and respect they deserved... But from what I understand, most tribes are pretty friendly and welcome visitors."

"That's true," confirmed Sana, "And sometimes, people give up their modern lives to live with native tribes."

"I think this is where we're headed," Romero smiled optimistically.

He walked around to the passenger side of the jeep and motioned graciously for her to get in. Sana walked around to the passenger side of the jeep and remembered, "I forgot the duffle bag."

Romero assisted her into the jeep, "We'll grab it in a minute." Then he walked around to the driver's side, shrugged off the backpack, placed it behind the driver's seat and climbed in behind the steering wheel. He put his hands on the steering wheel and just sat there for a moment.

"Do you want me to drive," asked Sana.

"No," Romero putting his right foot on the break peddle and putting the jeep in drive. "I've done simulations, and I've driven an electric cart. This is just my first time to drive a real vehicle. It has a gas powered engine. Gas powered engines aren't available to the public anymore."

He pulled over the rise smoothly, pulled alongside the duffle bag, put the jeep in park long enough to reach out and grabbed the bag. He put it behind them in the jeep, put the jeep back in drive and started driving towards the mountains, the river and the native tribe that lived in that area. They drove along smoothly for more than an hour. Then the engine over heated.