Page 20 of Sanctuary
"Did he know where to get the bus?" Ori asked.
"Yeah, it's not far." How did he book the bus online? Maybe they should just go right up and buy their tickets. He'd learned about apps, back in the enclave, though he’d never been able to afford one that cost money. Patton looked up at the human. "Can you help me find the app?" He held out his phone helplessly and it was only after he'd already handed it over that the worry that the human might not give it back hit him. Luckily, the guy just tapped the screen several times, then grunted. "You out of data or got it turned off?"
Patton just barely bit back his instinctive "Data?" He didn’t want to use it up when he’d need it later for finding their way, and data was a precious thing in the enclave. "Out."
The human made a face. "I'm gonna see if I can pick up the wifi from the coffee place next door. Sometimes the signal's strong enough to grab it." He moved to the back of the store, and Patton drifted after him, pretending interest to hide his fear.
Ori put a couple of bottles of water on the counter. "I'm going to go to the bathroom." He wandered off again, avoiding the display of chocolate bars, and disappeared into a hallway at the back.
The guy handed him back the phone with two tickets to Memphis pulled up on the screen for him. Black dots swirled in Patton’s vision for a moment when he saw the total. He knew that pack credits weren’t the same as dollars, but he’d had all the same math classes as the alphas. He could tell that the number on the screen was a lot higher than the number in his pocket. “Thank you,” he remembered to say, then wandered off to find Ori and see if he had any ideas.
“It’s that much?” Ori whispered when Patton showed him the screen. “That’s… a lot.”
“I was thinking we might be able to send you at least part of the way.”
“I’m not going anywhere without you,” Ori snapped back. “Where you go, I go. We’ll just have to walk. There must be someplace cheaper to buy food. Keith said once that the gas stations charged you through the nose for food.”
“You sure? It would get you farther away faster.” As much as Patton hated the idea of letting Ori out of his sight, it would be better to get Ori away from Perseguir as fast as possible. “And I could lay a false trail. Maybe toward Los Padres.”
“If you so much as think about that again, I’m going to smack you,” Ori muttered, and dragged him up to the counter. “Thank you for helping, but we need to go. Is there any place I can get some fresh fruit or things like that?”
The guy nodded. “We have some here.” He looked doubtful for a moment, then shrugged. “I’m not supposed to send people to other places, but it’d be cheaper to go to the grocery store four blocks north. It’s on your way anyhow.”
Ori nodded and smiled. “Thank you.” He picked up the bottles of water. “I’m going to go put these in our bags. You’re paying?”
Patton nodded and watched him go, then picked two chocolate bars at random and put them recklessly on the counter. "How much do I owe you?"
C H A P T E R N I N E T E E N
O ri was glad to see the grin on Patton’s face when he came out of the store. It can’t have been that expensive. Then he saw what Patton was holding in his hand. “Did you buy chocolate?” he demanded, half angry, half laughing as he accepted one of them. "I can't believe you spent money on chocolate bars." But he cackled with delight as he peeled off the plastic wrapper and jammed the end in his mouth. "Oh, this is so good." He closed his eyes in bliss as he chewed, and heard Patton laugh beside him. Good. He’s been too stressed. This isn’t all bad. I won’t let it be.
"I figured we'd better buy something just in case. He was watching you pretty close."
"There's so much stuff in there!" Ori said, then glanced around to see if anyone was near enough to listen. "I could spend hours just looking at everything!"
“We should stop and get some food,” Patton told him. “Are you sure you don’t want to take the bus?”
“Absolutely.” Ori spun in a slow circle as they walked, trying to memorize everything while he had the chance. Who knew if he’d ever be outside walls again, right? “You know, I never thought I’d get to see places like this. I thought Perseguir, or whatever enclave I ended up in, would be my world until the day I died.”
Patton stumbled, then caught up while Ori laughed at him. “I never thought of that.” He did that thing where his jaw squared up even more than it already was and it sent a thrill down Ori’s spine. Maybe his heat wasn’t quite as over as he’d thought. Or maybe it was just Patton.
He had to quash the urge to put his hand over his lower belly again like he had been since that first night when he’d nervously seduced Patton. He couldn’t be sure he was having a baby, not yet. Not until the next heat of his cycle didn’t arrive, but it was promising that the first one had faded so quickly. Then he noticed Patton watching him and Ori blushed and paused to peer in the window of a shop displaying used clothing. “I wonder if we should get some more clothing. I only have the two pairs of jeans and a couple of shirts. And my sweatshirt.” He chewed on the edge of one fingernail, then grimaced and took his hand out of his mouth. “Maybe we should hang onto the money for food, though. How long will it take us to walk there?” He caught himself bringing his fingers up to his mouth again and shoved his hand in his pocket. When had that bad old habit started again?
When Keith and his Da had arrived.
Ori made another face and started to walk past the clothing shop.
“You’re probably right,” Patton said behind him, and Ori turned to see Patton still standing in front of the store. “About the clothes, not the food.” He dropped his voice to not much louder than a whisper and said, “I can hunt for us on the road.” He pulled out the phone and grinned. “There’s wifi here too. Why don’t you outfit us for a long walk and I’ll look up how long it will take?”
“Okay,” Ori said, but he couldn’t stop the crazy grin spreading across his face. He’d seen movies where the humans went on vacation, a word that didn’t have much meaning in the packs. This could be like a vacation, for him and Patton. Or… a honeymoon. He shivered in delight, then followed Patton inside the store.
What might they need if they were going to walk so far? Shoes? Maybe. More clothing—they could layer it on for when the nights were cold. Ori went through the racks like he’d been training for it, picking out a few shirts for each of them, jeans, then discovered a rack full of backpacks.
Oh. That would be a good idea. He checked the prices and tentatively added a couple to the tally he was keeping in his head. It pinched a little, but he couldn’t imagine carrying all their supplies in those sacks for however long it took. And he suspected it would be a long walk.
He pulled down two of them, tested the straps, tried them on, and then tracked down Patton. “Here, try this, see what it feels like.”
Patton stared at the backpack for a moment in confusion, then nodded. “Where did you find these?”
