Page 37 of Sanctuary
O ri did his best. He worked hard at not limping and paid extra attention whenever Patton spoke, but by afternoon he was beginning to find it difficult to focus on anything except the pain in his leg and the sick, heated feeling in the rest of his body. He was terribly thirsty, too, but didn’t dare drink too much, because they still had who knew how far to go. As they walked, he tried to distract himself by imagining what it would be like at Mercy Hills, creating it in the image of what he most wanted in a home. It distracted him from his discomfort, but also from his road and after his fourth time tripping over his own feet or some unevenness in the ground, he gave up on the fantasy and watched where he was going.
Mostly he just didn’t want to worry Patton, so he made sure to be extra alert every time Patton turned toward him, smiling brightly and taking solid, healthy-looking steps so Patton wouldn’t guess how crappy he felt.
He was doing a pretty decent job of it, he thought, but he hadn't counted on how closely Patton was watching him.
They were walking down a slope and Ori was having waking nightmares of falling and rolling down to the bottom when Patton stopped suddenly. "You're really sick, aren't you?" he asked.
"I'm not a hundred percent, but I'll make it," Ori said stubbornly. "Don't worry. You're my guide here. Get us to a town." Not like he had a choice— there was nothing around them for, as far as he could tell, miles.
The world wavered around him, then steadied and he looked up at Patton with a cheerful smile. "Maybe it'll rain again before we get there." There were still a few clouds hanging around in the sky, teasing them with the possibility of more wonderful rain. That rush of water would feel good against his skin, cooling the furnace burning inside him. For a moment, he missed his Maw with an intensity that made tears sting his eyes and he had to turn away and pretend to brush dirt off his pants to hide them from Patton. When he’d gotten his face under control again, he straightened up and tidied his shirt and his hoodie to give his head time to stop swimming. “Ready to go?”
Patton's jaw worked, something Ori had only seen a couple of times before. It usually meant that Patton was contemplating something that wasn't going to make either of them happy, but it would be something he felt was necessary. "What are you thinking, Pat?" Ori asked cautiously.
"I'm thinking I need to steal a phone so we can find our way out of this damn desert. That, or a car." Patton slipped in under Ori's arm and started helping him along.
It did make walking easier, but it was slowing them down too. Memories came swimming up from the back of his mind, of sneaking into the community building with the other omegas to watch movies that they weren't supposed to be shown. The decree had been for their own good supposedly, because they were too delicate, or too weak to see things like that. But they hadn't been delicate or weak when they'd figured out how to get in through the eaves of the building and hide in the rafters. Thinking about it made Ori smile, and not only because the fragile omegas had outsmarted the rest of the pack.
In one of those movies, someone had stood by the side of the road and had been picked up by a stranger driving by, a stranger who took them where they wanted to go.
They needed a stranger. "There's a road nearby, right?"
Patton nodded. "Just east. Why?" He frowned, and Ori thought he already suspected the plan that was spinning itself up out of nothing in Ori's brain.
"I want to try hitchhiking. We'll get there faster, and the walking will be easier alongside the road anyway."
"Are you crazy?" Patton dropped Ori's arm and turned to face him with his arms crossed on his chest. "And if they figure out we're pack?"
"They won't," Ori promised and closed his eyes briefly to take a deep breath and stave off the wave of weakness that flowed over him. "We'll make up a story, get the details right. They probably won't ask too many questions anyway, as long as we sound convincing."
"And if we don't get it right?"
Ori opened his eyes and stared up at Patton's face. It blurred in front of him and he wasn't sure if it was Patton wobbling in front of him, or if it was Ori himself swaying in place. "I might have to go to a pack anyway." He swallowed hard and looked away. “I think some random stranger is probably less likely to recognize a shifter anyway. I mean, how many of us have you seen around when you went to town? We don’t look that different. Do you think a lot of people saw my picture?” That was the one thing that could blow their disguise, was someone recognizing him as the shifter that Perseguir was looking for.
"I dunno. Maybe not, it was kind of in behind with a bunch of stuff. I only noticed it because it looked so much like you, and then I realized it was you," he heard Patton say after a moment. "I’m sorry. I guess I’m just a bit worked up. Don’t like it when you’re not feeling good. Come on. I think there's an easier way toward the road than what we're walking anyway." His voice was gentle, but the arm he put around Ori's waist was as strong as ever. "Let me take this." He slipped the sack out of Ori's hand before Ori could even think to protest and slung it over his shoulder. "Let me know if you need a break, okay?"
“I will.” Ori squinted ahead of them and tugged on the hoodie of his sweatshirt, blocking a bit more of the sun from his eyes.
Patton took his hat off and dropped it on Ori’s head. “Keep the sun off you better than that hood. And make it harder to recognize you if they did see the picture. Just don’t sit on it later, okay?”
Ori laughed and, for a moment, his troubles faded into the background. “I promise.”
C H A P T E R T H I R T Y - S I X
O ver the course of the afternoon, Patton gradually took over more and more of Ori’s weight. They were going slower now, but the faded gray of a human road had appeared in the distance about twenty minutes ago and it wasn’t very far now to reach it. He’d get them there and then they’d sit down, because not only was Ori tired, but Patton was pretty near the end of his rope.
There wasn’t much shelter around it, no boulders for seats or shrubs for shelter. Patton let Ori gently down onto the ground and piled their backpacks up behind him so he could lean against them. He didn’t like the unhealthy flush in Ori’s cheeks or the dull, unfocused look in his eyes, but what could he do except offer him water?
“Here,” he said, unscrewing the cap of one of the small bottles and nudging Ori’s shoulder. “Drink this. All of it.”
“We can’t waste it,” Ori complained in a hoarse voice, but he took the bottle anyway. “Thank you.”
“It’s not wasting it,” Patton reminded him. “It’s there to be drunk, and you need it.” He checked Ori’s forehead, still hot and, thankfully, damp with sweat. Not as sweaty as Patton’s forehead, but Ori never did sweat as much as Patton did, so it was hard to say if this was normal or not. “Drink,” he said again, more sternly, and watched while Ori tipped the bottle up to his mouth. “I’m going to see if I can spot anything up the road, someplace to camp for the night.” He plucked his hat off Ori’s head to kiss the soggy curls, plopped it back on and turned up the road when Ori smiled and shooed him along.
He figured to just go ten minutes or so along then come back. If he found a good place, then they’d move now. Otherwise, he thought he’d let Ori rest a bit longer and bank on a car coming along, though looking at the road, he didn’t think there was a lot of traffic along here. But if he found someplace, even just a cluster of large rocks they could use to shelter behind, he’d like to get Ori settled and let him have a good long rest while Patton hunted firewood and maybe some food.
As he’d planned, he was back in twenty minutes, only without a place to hole up for the night. Which, apparently, they weren’t going to need, because Ori was leaning against the front of a car talking to a young woman inside and she was smiling.
Should have guessed. That omega charm. But she doesn’t seem to suspect what we are. Patton walked up to them, unhappy to note that Ori was holding the infected foot off the ground like it hurt too much to even put weight on it. “Hey, what’s up?”
