DISCONTINUED

Chapter 68

Luna let out a low whistle. "Big, ugly bastard isn't it?" she said, her eyes scanning the fence that now appeared in front of them extending left and right as far as she could see in both directions. She'd never seen it up close like this before, not in person, and she had to admit that it was pretty impressive in a really awful "we're all screwed" sort of way.

They'd stopped just before the clear cut that ran along the fence's perimeter on the edge of a forest where they now sat in the shadows, the old car idling noisily, impatiently, while Luna tried to calm her nerves.

It had taken a lot longer for them to get here than she'd hoped it would. First they'd had to mess around some just to get the car going. Then she'd almost run them off the road several times before she'd sort of gotten the hang of driving again. Of course, in her defense, the only driving she'd ever done previously was that day in the farmer's field with Bo and her Dad. And actually having to keep the car on a road proved more difficult than she had anticipated, particularly going around corners when the back end seemed to want to slide sideways on the loose gravel like it was marbles. They'd kept to backroads for fear of being caught before they even reached the border, and in doing so they'd gotten turned around a couple of times along the way, but they'd finally made it.

"Wwwhat? Oh... yea. Yea. It's big..."

Luna looked over at Bo who was curled up in the passenger seat. His eyes were closed and he was shaking, his breathing labored. "Well, good thing we don't need to go over it" she said with a forced grin as she reached over and pulled the blanket they'd taken from the farmhouse up over his shoulders.

She was worried about him. He'd already been in pretty rough shape by the time they'd left, and he'd gotten noticeably worse on the drive here.

She glanced down at her watch. Shoot! It was already after 6 and she didn't really know how far they'd have to go to get beyond the boundary before... She turned to look at Bo again as she bit her lip and nervously tapped the steering wheel with her fingers. She held her face in her hands, forcing herself to take a few deep breaths.

"Ok, ok, ok. You can do this!" she said as she rubbed her hands together and nodded her head back and forth emphatically, trying her best to pump herself up.

"Here, make yourself useful Bo. Against my better judgement I'm trusting you with Winston." She took the stuffed penguin that sat on the seat beside her and shoved it under his blanket. It was the only thing she'd brought with her. I mean, what the hell would she want to take from a place that had taken almost everything from her?

"I'm thinking maybe seat belts are a good idea, you know... just in case. So buckle up." She fastened her own belt then reached over to help Bo with his when she noticed him struggling with it. She steadied his hand and helped him click it closed. As she went to pull away, he gently, weakly held onto her arm. She turned to look at him and they sat for a moment just silently staring at each other.

"Thank you, Lu. For everything." he said quietly.

"Don't worry about it. You'd have done the same for me. Well, you'd have tried anyway" she added with a grin, trying to lighten the moment, "but I wouldn't have let you of course."

Bo continued to stare at her, and continued to hold onto her hand, as if he hadn't even heard what she'd said. Finding herself unable to look away, she shifted a bit in her seat as she swallowed hard and wiped the suddenly sweaty palm of her free hand on her pants. She saw his lips move but it seemed to take several seconds before she heard the words they formed.

"I love you Lu."

She slowly pulled her hand back and turned her head away from him to look out the side window, quickly wiping her eyes as inconspicuously as she could. "Wow. Those sure are great drugs they're pumping into you, aren't they?" she said, avoiding eye contact.

She gripped the wheel tightly with both hands as she stared up the long straight stretch of road that led to the border, and beyond that - if they were lucky - to freedom. She ran her tongue along the back of her teeth and revved the engine, taking one last deep breath as she looked down and shifted the car into "Drive". She glanced over at Bo who was still staring at her and a grin slowly spread over her face as she shoved her foot to the floor.