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  “I feel the same,” I said softly. “Even if we weren’t the last humans around, I am attracted to you.”

  “Good,” Will said, taking me into his arms. “I’ve been meaning to do this for days, but didn’t want to take advantage of you being asleep.” He kissed me hard, pressing against me with his body. He kissed my eyes, my cheeks, my neck, and then my lips. “You’re so beautiful from head to toe, Evie. You are the perfect creation of a woman. You are what every man dreamed about, Evie. Every time I get near you, I want to touch you, to hold you, and kiss you.”

  I was kissing him back, moaning with desire for him, entwining my fingers through his thick blond hair pulling him closer to me, as he climbed into bed nearly on top of me when we heard knocking on the door.

  Will pulled up first. His face full of surprise. And I quickly wrapped the robe tight around me.

  He walked briskly to the front door, carrying an old-fashioned gun, the kind police officers would use in the old Vintage Earth television shows. And he got ready to use it as he opened the door.

  I had followed him into the living room, with my own laser guns in both hands.

  He opened the door, and I was surprised with what I saw.

  Standing in front of the door, in a dirty silver suit and helmet, was Mary.

  NINE

  I ran over to Mary, pulling her inside the house pass a bewildered Will. “Mary!” I said. “How did you find me?”

  Mary looked over at Will and back at me, “I had my tracking device on in case I lose you.”

  The last time Mary was on, she was near the Shelter, fixing the pipeline before the Monsters attacked her.

  She didn’t even know I had gone Above Ground, carried her for miles, and ended up at Will’s. She didn’t even know who Will was.

  I looked Mary over and saw she seemed fine.

  “Will,” I said, “this is Mary, my 13-year-old sister,” I said.

  Will’s mouth nearly dropped. “Sister?”

  I laughed. “She was supposed to be like a sister for me when I was 13. Mom customized her. She’s actually a…” I moved over to Will and whispered into his ear, “robot.”

  His face relaxed, and he smiled. “That explained how you would be able to withstand the loneliness.”

  “Evie,” Mary said, looking from me to Will. “Who is this?”

  “This is Will,” I said, “He saved me when I fell down towards the river. He is a friend.”

  Will looked over at me and said, “Hopefully more than a friend.”

  Mary looked him up and down and said, “He’s handsome. Almost too pretty to be a man.”

  I took Mary aside and said, “He can hear everything you’re saying. Sometimes, it’s good to just tell me what you think of someone instead of talking about them in front of them.”

  Mary nodded. “Oh, I understand. It is so humans do not embarrassed other humans.”

  “Right,” I said.

  “Evie,” Will said coming close to me. “You’re walking without hobbling. I noticed that when you walked over to Mary.”

  I looked down at my foot and said, “You’re right.” I went over to Will and said, “Am I healed now, Doctor?”

  Will smiled and kissed my lips. “Yes, but only on your ankles.”

  “This is a cause for celebration,” I said. “My ankles’ healed, and I have Mary back.”

  I kissed Will back and said, “And Will… well, he’s more than a friend now. He’s my boyfriend. He’s a man I want to get closer to,” I looked over at Mary to explain what ‘boyfriend’ meant to a human.

  Mary nodded. “Not just a friend,” she said.

  She made a hand gesture that wasn’t so ladylike, and I said, “Where did you learn that?”

  “From watching some of the old television shows from Vintage Earth,” Mary said.

  Will burst out laughing. Then he said, “I’m glad you explained what I was to you. I get the feeling she was programmed to protect you from anyone.”

  “She was,” I said.

  “What do you want me to make for dinner?” Mary asked, going to the kitchen.

  Will looked at me. “She can cook too?”

  I nodded. “What would you like for dinner?”

  “I think I have some frozen chicken in the freezer. She can find some freshly picked vegetables in the basket near the sink, and…”

  “I will make Chicken Pot Pies,” Mary said. “I scanned your pantry, refrigerator, and kitchen for all your ingredients. You have enough to make 10 Chicken Pot Pies just from the kitchen. That will be enough servings for 4 days.”

  “Mary,” I said. “We only need to make 2 for tonight. One for Will and One for Me.”

  “I will make 2 Chicken Pot Pies then. While baking, we want to use all the oven space. What dessert do you want me to make with the pies?”

  “How about Carrot Cake?” I asked. I still couldn’t get enough of the root vegetables Will’s Farm was capable of producing.

  “Carrots?” Mary asked. “They have carrots here?”

  “Yes, and animals, and trees…” I turned to Will. “You don’t know how amazing this place is to Mary and I.”

  Will beamed and said, “That’s what I was hoping you’ll say.” He took my hand and said, “I want you to love this place as much as I love it. I’m hoping you’ll live with me. That we’ll be together. I might be getting ahead of myself, but if you feel the same…if you believe that we’re meant to be…that we were meant to find each other to keep humankind alive, then be with me, Evie. Don’t take off now that you’ve found Mary to return back to where you came from.”

  I wanted to trust Will with everything. I wanted to think we two can start the human colony once again on New Earth. Rebuild. But I knew I couldn’t just stay at Will’s place forever and just let him take care of me…to get together with him and just have babies, although I knew I would like to have a family one day. I had to leave. I had to find my mother, fulfill my promises to her.

  “You’re hesitant,” Will said. “I understand why. You don’t know if you can trust me still. After me saving you from outside, taking care of you, trying to heal you…and even confessing how I feel about you…you still don’t trust me?”

  “I’m sorry,” I said.

  “What would it take for you to trust me?” Will asked.

  “How were you able to survive so long without anyone else or any technology?” I asked.

  “Who said I didn’t have technology?” Will said.

  “You do?” I asked.

  “An entire barn full of it,” Will said.

  “But that’s for your animals,” I said.

  “On the front, Above Ground,” Will said. “Below Ground…let me show you.”

  “Mary,” I called out to the kitchen. “Will and I are going to the barn. When we’re done, we’ll be back for dinner. We’re eating at the dining table.”

  “Okay, Evie,” Mary said. “If your boyfriend gets fresh with you, you know what to do.”

  “I do,” I said to Mary. I had watched too many 1950s television shows with her, that she was using old old Vintage Earth’s old-fashioned language such as ‘fresh’. Mom had programmed Mary to protect me, even acting like a parent when she had to.

  I turned to Will and headed out the door with him to the Barn. I had never been to the barn, and what I saw made me love the place even more. There were cows with their calves, chickens, and sheep, kept in a fenced off area with grass. They looked happy as they roamed the fenced off area happily and without any stress.

  The barn on the outside had feed, seeds, and more supplies for farming. We walked around, and he went to a corner of the barn, pulled up a rug resembling dirt to reveal a hidden steel door.

  He opened the door after keying in some codes and we went down a staircase.

  Like the Shelter, but with only one floor underground, and only large enough for maybe 50 people and equipment.

  It was warehouse-like, and I could see there were solar panels, there we
re tools… computers, and even…vehicles.

  “You have vehicles?” I asked.

  “Yes,” Will said. “I haven’t been able to use them much, but I have tried them out.”

  They looked like jeeps but had larger and wider wheels that looked like it could climb anything.

  In the corner, there was a row of laser guns and weapons stronger than laser guns.

  “Where did you get all of this?” I asked. “A pastor and farming family wouldn’t have access to these. How were you able to get a hold of this?”

  Will shrugged and said, “Evie don’t hate me, but after the creatures attacked, some people escaped. They were scattered everywhere, and well…some people were able to have nice places like this. Others were not so they started stealing everything, and killing other people for things.”

  My mouth dropped open. There were other people left on New Earth after the Monsters attacked?

  “Dad and Mom protected this Farm from Raiders. They had to use weapons to hold them off. If not, the Raiders, as we called the people who were killing people and looting their things, would have burned this place down.”

  Why didn’t I see any signs of these people on the Satellite feed? Why didn’t it capture other life on New Earth?

  Why didn’t Mom know about the other humans? Did she know but didn’t want them at the Shelter because those Raiders would have killed us and destroyed the valuable data sources?

  That was reason enough.

  “Come on,” Will said, taking my arm. “Mary must be waiting for us for dinner. Remember, tonight’s a night for celebration not for worrying.” We walked outside the barn after he secured the hidden door. He turned to me outside, put his arm around me, pulling me close, and said, “Can you trust me now? Or do you want to know more about me?”

  He kissed me softly at first and then more hungrily. “Evie,” he whispered. “I can’t stop wanting you.”

  I kissed him back, but my mind was running through everything I’ve seen. For a family just defending the Farm from Raiders, they had military-level weapons. They even had a helicopter. A vintage one, but it was a helicopter.

  What else did I want to know about Will before I commit to him?

  We walked back to the kitchen, and Mary was standing with her back to the pantry.

  “Chicken pot pies,” Will exclaimed. “I don’t know when I had some. I think I never did. So this is the first.”

  He dug into his chicken pot pie, and I dug into mine. It was one of Mary’s best dishes, although it was the first time she had ever made it.

  “Um, Mary. This is the best chicken pot pie I have ever had. The carrot cake is delicious too,” I said, praising Mary.

  She beamed. “I can’t taste it, Evie, so you telling me it is delicious brings a smile to my face.” She smiled wider. “See? Happy? I am expressing a Happy human emotion.”

  “That’s very good,” I said.

  Will burst out laughing again. “A robot who looked so human and act almost human. Well…an awkward human. I haven’t seen that before.”

  After dinner, I took Mary back to my bedroom and examined her. All her flesh parts had healed. And the solar panels I had placed under her skin had generated enough electricity for her to charge her back to full capacity. At full capacity, she was able to heal herself.

  “Whoever manufactured you,” I said. “Did an excellent job…but with that extra touch of the solar panels within your skin…well…”

  “You are an amazing genius to think of that,” Mary said. “I like being able to regenerate myself.”

  I shook my head. “Why didn’t I think about that? You had solar panels built within…but I had forgotten and thought I had to bring you back to the Shelter to plug you in. What was I thinking, Mary?”

  Mary smiled. “You forgot I was not human? You love me like a little sister, your human emotion of worrying made you act out on your first instinct, which was to protect me?”

  I smiled. “You are like a little sister to me, in a sense.” I ruffled her hair, and asked, “What else do you like about my new designs?”

  “I like how I am able to have feelings,” Mary said. “I didn’t before, but now I can feel things, it makes my job protecting you and following your orders easier for me.”

  “That’s good,” I said.

  “But what didn’t you like?”

  Mary hesitated and said, “I did not like feeling fear. I did not like having those terrifying images flow through my brain. My heart could not take the increase level of circuitry. I have never seen or felt more fear than when those disembodied beings showed up.”

  “Disembodied beings?” I asked.

  “Yes, those dark mass of matter floating in the air. They had terrifying horrible faces. They are made of some matter with electrical currents. Like eels and other animals that run on electricity. But they are not natural. Not like animals. They are supernatural. They feed on waves…brain waves. Human brain waves. It is conceptually difficult to capture the emotions of love, surprise, or sadness through human brainwaves.”

  I was beginning to understand what Mary was saying.

  “Fear has always been the greatest human mass motivator,” I said walking around the room. I thought of all the wars people fought on Vintage Earth. I thought of the way dictators had used fear to control the masses. It was the one emotion people consistently would act on.

  “The Monsters,” I said. “They know humans better than humans understand humans. They want to control us. They want to make us weak by terrifying us.”

  “You said you saw the terrifying faces, too?” Mary asked. “When you looked into the images of my brain, you saw them too?”

  I nodded.

  “But it didn’t affect you to the point you would die,” Mary said. “Why? Didn’t all humans die when they are attacked by the Monsters?”

  “I didn’t have direct contact with them,” I said when I saw the images. But it was powerful enough for me to get thrown back physically without even having direct contact with them. Just seeing them affect you was enough for me to feel the fear too.”

  “But then you were able to travel all the way to Will’s place without being attacked by the Monsters?” Mary asked.

  “No, I was attacked twice, and I was chased by them.”

  “You were able to outrun them, and survive two direct attacks?” Mary asked.

  I nodded. “Guess I did.”

  “It means, Evie,” Mary said. “The Monsters could be defeated. They are not as strong as everyone feared.”

  “Strong enough to take over Vintage Earth,” I said.

  “I heard their screams,” Mary said. “That was more terrifying than the horrible faces. The screams of the victims.”

  “You were able to analyze them?” I asked.

  “While being surrounded and attacked by them, I absorbed their data and tried to analyze what they were made of.”

  “What are they made up of?” I asked.

  Mary looked directly at me and said, “Do not be shocked by this, Evie, their composition is made out of plasm. As I said, they are not of the natural world, but that of the supernatural.”

  “Ghosts?” I asked.

  “I don’t know what you would call them,” Mary said. “But they had horrible terrifying faces.” Mary visibly gasped, as though she was remembering everything again. “Even worse, Evie, were the screams of pain and torture within the mass…They are of humans. Human screams.”

  I had to let this information sink in because what Mary had just told me would change everything we knew about the Monsters.

  All this time, Mom and I thought they were from another planet, that the Monsters were some kind of alien beings.

  “So, it didn’t matter where we are…Old Earth or New Earth,” I said. “Where humans are…they too will be."

  TEN

  “I have to tell you the truth,” Will said to me the next morning. “I could see something was still bothering you.”

  “Wha
t?” I asked.

  “You are probably wondering where did I get all those military-grade equipment and weapons.”