Ep. 1 - The House of Stone and Light - Closed - Finis

[Dart]

It was like someone tossed a firecracker smack dab into a herd of deer.

Dart had shifted her weight, ducked her shoulder, dug her leading foot into the dirt. He was heavier than her, and she didn't want them to both slip and go tumbling. Far more dangerous than if he-

Immediately as he tucked and rolled, she was desperately scrambling to throw herself back up the hill. Rocks clattered and spilled, she slid sideways farther down below him. Mistake, she'd made a mistake, and she knew it. Pure panic lit her eyes; she grabbed and lost purchase, and flailed; her hands scraped across rough stone- if she'd been truly human it would have torn the skin right off.

No purchase, no grip. He was going to shoot her; all she read in one surge was that gesture, reaching over his shoulder. Go. Move move move get back up, get away--

The girl's avatar flickered and then popped. She was two feet to the side a second later, and for a moment, it didn't seem to find the form it had taken the first time. It almost looked like something else as it heaved itself up in a flurry of dust and stone; black and dusty, rough coated and near-starving lean. It never quite solidified though as it scattered upwards; abruptly it snapped back into place and regained form.

The young woman heaved herself up onto the security of a ledge. She whirled defensively, back pressed against the rock behind her.

"Yes!" the courier panted, scrabbling with the worn treads of her sneakers, pushing soil back as if she was trying to shove herself into the landscape. "I mean, no! I mean, no no no, don't shoot, please don't shoot."

Her left foot came up in a defensive, fearful gesture as he started towards her. A noise curled out of her throat. She caught herself, and stumbled for words, any words that would not end her up as that second body down in the river. "No. I mean no. No. Yes. Yes you did, I'm sorry, I just - I thought you were going to fall and I just went to catch you, because if you don't get out of here I know I'm not going to either, sir, it's just-"

They sent me in to track you. Air. They couldn't track you from the air..."

"I messed up," she admitted suddenly. "I just- I messed up, sir."

[Deleted]

It was the dark thing that guttered in the dirt that checked the man's furious advance. He swore and reared back from it, his eyes wide.

And then it was gone, and the girl was back. He turned wildly, looking for the beast, then stared at her as she shrank back against the rock. She was scrawny and nervous again, a coltish thing with bandaged knees, and her fear was plain to be seen. She thought he was going to kill her.

At a loss, the man hung back. His hands opened and closed into fists at his sides. A moment of silence stretched between them, broken only by the rushing water of the river below. Gnats buzzed in the sunlight, disturbed from the brush.

Finally, he licked his lips.

"Yes, you did," he spat. He straightened, shaking the tension from his hands. "Don't do it again. Consider this your last warning. You're a tracker? That's it? They sent you to find me on foot so they could... what, plan an assault on my position?"

[Dart]

Blue eyes just stared up at him from under the scruff of bangs. There was a tiny nod. The girl was scrunching back against the rock. She brought up her hand again, between him and the center of her chest, and a little wince curled her lips.

He was fast. That's the thing Dart simply had not been expecting; when he'd shot into motion it had been explosive, quick. No wasted moves; he was down and he'd been going to protect himself. It was not the kind of reaction she expected from most mechs. There was always a sense of... deliberate moves, somehow. This was just instinct. Speed and pure power. If he'd had a gun, it would have been the end of her. It was the sheer grace of it he did not and...

Dart breathed out, slowly. That's something this avatar could imitate, as she tried to calm herself. Then- then came a little thought that registered slowly, and she tipped her chin. Realization. For something so reactive, he had been... utterly restrained. He had not shot; he had leapt backwards, he'd repositioned himself, he'd protected himself. His first reaction had not been aggressive, it was defensive.

Well, not any more, now he was aggressive, but it was- something different now. His hands closed; there, no longer open fingers - and surprisingly that was even less angry. Once he shook, she knew was regaining himself, and with that body language, so did she.

"I won't, and I will. Consider it my last warning," Dart replied quietly, slumping back against the rock. She turned her jaw slightly, offering up a flash of pale neck; and did not make eye contact.

"Yes sir, that's it," she replied after a moment. "They did."

[Deleted]

The man glared at her. He lifted his hand to his forehead and rubbed it, hiding his eyes from the sun. His mouth was a thin white line.

For a moment he said nothing, leaning on one leg. Dust caked his clothes, the unbuttoned top of his shirt, his unshaven face. The bloodstain was back on his shirt again, dark against the faded plaid fabric. It had trickled further downwards since its last appearance, seeping towards the left side of his ribcage. He did not seem aware of it.

Finally he lowered his hand and made a sharp gesture at the top of the scramble.

"Well, I'll at least give them credit for trying something other than a head-on attack," he growled. "A tracker. A message-runner. Primus. Well - get climbing. Go on! Just - get to the top of this damn thing and scout the other side. See what we're up against once we clear it."

After one last steep haul over broken rock, the scramble flattened out into a narrow uneven plateau of dirt. It stood roughly fifty feet above the river and offered a view over the rapids downstream. The water rushed through them, tossing and swirling through a gauntlet of submerged rocks before spilling out into a wide stream of calm water. There, the red walls of the canyon reflected crisply on the river's surface, rippling in the current.

The other side of the scramble revealed itself to be a steep gradient of crushed silt that descended straight into the shoals of the river. There, the water eddied over a stone bed that extended all the way downriver before it curved around a bend in the canyon. The water was clear and shallow at least, perhaps knee-deep at most. It did not look difficult to wade through.

That wasn't all Dart would see.

Though the distant river was hidden from sight around the bend, a line of wispy grey smoke drifted over the water.

[Dart]

That motion had cost him... no, that surge of energy had. Dart automatically leaned forward, to catch a whiff, trying to discern how bad he was injured, how much blood-- and once again that lack of scent disorientated her. All right, then it was all vision, and what it was warning her was that she had to find something soon, someone soon.

Part of her wanted to ask something, but he was so defensive she didn't dare, best to let the silence settle between them and just simply do her job. Her job right now was to get them to somewhere he could make contact with his fellow Autobots.

And then what, Dart...?

She had to hope. To hope he'd just let her go and give her the chance to back off. No, she could also hope that Starscream and the Vehicons wouldn't immediately leap to the attack on those that came to rescue him. That it didn't turn into a vicious free for all before she could get out of there, and that he just didn't decide to hold onto her and use her to bargain his safety, because...

Yeah. Because.

She straightened her shoulders.

He held all the cards right now, and Dart was a lousy poker player. She was excellent at solitare, though, and she wasn't bad at Uno.

A salute, and Dart heaved herself to her feet. She trotted forward, and at first her stride was choppy, unsure, she made a few mistakes on the terrain that she had not made before, including once where she set her foot down in places where the sand shifted out from under her and sent her to her knees. She did not flail or panic though, she merely let her weight drive her into the soft soil and slid a few feet before she pushed back up.

Back on point now, and they moved on. The heat of the sun blazed down on them; there was no shade. The sandstone outcrop was so hot it was shimmering. The courier concentrated on picking an incredibly careful path one step at a time for him to follow. When he paused, she paused and let him catch his strength, but her nose was always tipped into the sullen breeze drifting up the canyon.

Up on the top, she waited for the Autobot. Her toe pawed restlessly at the dirt as she surveyed the situation. Well, that wasn't so bad. The path to the river seemed at least easier than the climb they'd just done. The river foamed and frothed below; there was the feel of cool spray in the air.

When he finally arrived, she sidestepped to keep distance between them and then she inclined her head and pointed. "Smoke, sir," she said. "Maybe a campfire? People on rafts? Maybe one of them has a working cell-phone? I just don't know if it will get signal down here if they do. But..."

"If nothing else, maybe they can tell us where a ranger station is."

[Deleted]

The climb up the last pitch of the scramble had plainly cost the man. For a moment he stood at the top and said nothing, his hands on his hips. He closed his eyes, letting the sun beat against his face and shoulders. It was doubtful he could feel the warmth, though perhaps the brightness was itself a balm of sorts.

Only when a little of his energy had crept back did he open them again.

"Let me see," he said.

He stepped up beside her, his footsteps crunching on the dirt. With a frown he looked out over the water, his eyes tracing the path of the smoke. It was thin and grey, the smoke you got from burning wood or charcoal. Nothing seemed ominous about it. It promised cheerful flames and a friendly heat, ringed in a pit of rocks and logs for sitting.

"I guess that's a campfire," said the man. "I wouldn't know it to see it. Let's go see who made it. Maybe they're friendly."

He took a step forward, then seemed to remember himself. Warily, he turned and motioned for her to take the lead. His grey eyes were cold.

"You first," he grunted. "You've got the friendlier face."

The climb down the other side of the scramble would prove less arduous. Though the incline was steep, it was a simple matter to slide down through the silt and splash into the shallow water at the bottom. The stone river bed was smooth and easy to walk on as well, save for slippery patches where algae grew thick and green on the worn rocks. Fish swam against the current, their sleek bodies glinting where the sunlight shone down through the water in rippling beams.

Around the bend in the river was another flat, crescent-shaped sandy beach. It was ringed in red boulders and yellow-speckled creosote bush, and vibrant green and red paintbrush bloom. Above it the canyon walls rose high, throwing a pleasant corner of shade over part of the hot sand.

Pulled up on the beach was a worn yellow raft. Packs of gear and life jackets were strapped at the stern, the paddles leaned up against the bow. Someone's floppy hat hung over the end of one paddle.

A small firepit had been dug in the sand nearby. Smoke drifted from it. Sitting on a piece of driftwood beside it was a young man and a woman. They were passing a cell phone back and forth between them and laughing. Another girl crouched nearby, rummaging through a small pack.

[Dart]

"It's a campfire," Dart told him with certainty. "Wood fire, I think, sir... Certainly not a mechanical one or a scrub fire- the smoke would be far darker and you'd see more of it."

She rocked back on her heels and then nodded. "Right," she agreed with him. Her avatar was a lot less- well, disconcerting right now. Also a whole lot less glowery. Was glowery a word? Sure, for today it was, why not. "You- you might want to... uh..."

Dart gestured to his chest again. "It's showing through again," she said quietly. "Just so you know, sir... and you're not surprised if they get a bit upset about it. Leave it though. People - people will help us quicker, I think. They're good about that, in the backcountry like this."

Then she turned and picked her way down that path, splashing through the water when they got to the bottom. She continued to lead him forward, but she kept an eye on him now as he trudged under the burden of his pack.

"Oh..." she murmured as they rounded the bend. Humans, three of them, two girls and a young man. Dart shifted her weight, almost prancing in place as she cast a grateful eye on the scene that opened up in front of them.

"Yeah, look, they are rafters. Whitewater folks, I think, so... let's hope they have a- oh they do they have a phone!"

She pranced a little sidestep in her excitement of the discovery, like a reined in horse, then glanced over her shoulder at him. "Stay close, sir," she said. "I think I can maybe get them to let us borrow it. Let's hope."

With that, she took a few steps forward, and waved her hand suddenly over her head. Her body language had changed; shoulders forward, and she frantically ran a few strides forward before she quickly spun back to the Autobot behind her, as if she was afraid to leave him behind.

"Hey!" she called out, cupping her hands around her mouth to have the sound carry farther down the river. "Hey, guys! Guys! We- we need some help!"

[Deleted]

The man trudged silently behind Dart as she splashed ahead. One hand was pressed to his chest. The dust on his jeans left a cloudy trail in the water behind him.

Meanwhile, on the beach, the rafters looked up in surprise at the call.

"Huh?" said the girl with the pack.

The boy and girl on the log stood up slowly. They looked to be around the courier's age - at least, the age of her avatar. The girl was tall and fit, with long dark hair and an aquiline nose. She wore khaki shorts and a blue New York Mets t-shirt. The boy was even taller, with a wiry athletic build, a scruffy red beard and close-cropped hair. He was dressed in cargo shorts and sandals, and red-plaid work shirt with the sleeves rolled up. The cell phone was in his hand.

They stared as Dart came splashing down the river. The expressions on their faces was a mixture of wariness and concern.

"Are you okay?" called the dark-haired girl. She took a tentative step away from the fire to greet the courier. She waved a little of the smoke away from her face. "What's wrong?"

The boy looked perplexed. "Did something happen?"

[Dart]

They- they believed it.

With that split second of recognition, Dart simply forgot where she was. What she was doing here. That there was a terribly injured Autobot holomatter avatar trailing her up the river while he held an unwavering gun on her back in some cave miles and miles away. She stood in the shallows of the river and the current pressed against her legs, ruffling the cuffs of her boot-cut jeans, and her her hands dropped to her sides, her fingers nervously starting to slip to the small of her back...

People. They were rafters. Ordinary humans on an ordinary trip, going about their day, and they saw her as one of them.

Dart had practiced with this holomatter avatar. It was just little moments though, sitting on the hood of her alt-mode. Up in the mountains with no one around to see her, to point out her mistakes. It had never been meant for her systems, she had not been built with it. He had never expected her to need it; no, maybe it was something deeper, that she should laugh at it and never need it. Not her function, not what she was. Dart did not belong near them, around them; she was not part of this world. A thing like her belonged to a planet far away that smelled like rust and death.

The generator was glitchy, it didn't mesh right. It had been cobbled into her with bailing wire, some mismatched bolts, and yes, even a paperclip or two. It was a power sink sometimes on her already over-drawn systems, and yet-

It was the most amazing gift she'd been given in a long, long time.

I can- I can do this. It works. It really, really works. I can go to Downtown Portland. I can- I can go to the bookstore. I can go to the zoo, or a street concert, and oh wow, I can go to Starbucks. I can scrape up the money somehow, buy a book and then go to Starbucks to read my book- wait, I can buy a latte!

Er, what do I do with it after that...?

Doesn't matter, no one else reading books at Starbucks really drinks coffee, they just have it there to look hip. So hip they can't see over their own pelvis, haha-

It was the body language of the hikers that snapped her back- concern and wary regard. Dart realized in a split second that they were unsure, as unsure as she was. She eyed their clothes, their bearing, and she realized where her hands had automatically started to fall and caught herself. Then she splashed forward in the water, throwing up drops that glittered in the blazing sun.

"Yes - I mean, yeah," she called back and then threw a glance over her shoulder. "I'm- I'm okay, I'm all right, honest - but Professor--"

Yeah, that's what she forgot to ask. No, she'd just figured if he'd wanted her to have it, he would have given it to her. A name. A name, come on, come up with his name.

"Professor Freeman isn't," she told them, gesturing behind her at the man she was leading. "We- we were doing a boundry marker study, for USGS. Hillside shifted, we had a rockfall. Bad one. We were lucky, but our camp wasn't, our stuff isn't and he- he's pretty hurt. Lost our gear and our radio and he broke his phone. Mine- mine's not getting a signal."

She spread her fingers, shifting her weight. Dart didn't have to fake this look of concern and desperation, not one bit.

"Do- do you have a working phone we can borrow, or- is there a ranger station close, do you know?"

[Deleted]

The guarded manner slipped from the rafters as they listened to Dart's explanation. They hastily ran down the beach to greet her at the waterside.

"Holy cow," said the dark-haired girl. She was looking past the courier now, at the man, who limped through the shallows a little ways to the rear.

The boy grimaced.

"Oh man, uh, I hate to say it," he said. He held up the little black Android cell phone and waggled it. "But we've got no reception out here either. We've just been using this to take pictures."

"Oh, I'm so sorry," said the girl. She held her hands to her mouth, her eyes wide. "Oh - here. Come on up by our campfire! It's warm there. Come on, come sit down. Oh, you look so bad. How bad does it hurt?"

The man stiffly waded from the river onto the shore. He stood for a moment, water draining from his hiking boots and the cuffs of his jeans. He kept his hand pressed to the bloodstain over his chest and eyed her when she motioned to his arm, as if to touch it.

"Not so much now," he said gruffly.

"Yeah, come on over," said the boy. "We were just packing up, but we've still got lots of food and we can cook you something if you're hungry. Maybe we could help you get to the next ranger station. I'm Mark, and this is Sarah. That's Veronica over there by the fire."

"We've got a first aid kit too!" said Sarah. "The rangers wouldn't let us go onto the river without one. Seriously, come on over and sit down."

She kindly took the man by the elbow. Though his stoic expression did not falter, the Professor nonetheless shot Dart a look as he silently allowed himself to be led up the beach and steered towards the piece of driftwood they had dragged in front of the fire.

[Dart]

"Thank you," Dart said. "Oh thank you so much."

As the young man held up his phone, the courier felt a bit stupid. Of course their phones weren't going to get signal. "Verizon, you lie," she said. "You do not cover all of America, all the time."

She glanced down at the rocks underfoot in the river, then back at them. Well, so much for that hope that it was going to be that easy, but...

A raft. They had a raft. Faster than on foot, and it had been a long time since she said that, that was for sure.

"Mark. Sarah," she repeated, and nodded. "Veronica, thank you, thank you. I'm-"

She peered back over her shoulder at the Autobot. Already the dark haired young woman had gone past her and was focusing on the man behind her. When he glanced at her, Dart simply offered one quick nod of reassurance, a slight tip of her head. There was a worried look from again as the girl took his arm, but... he seemed to be all right with it. He tensed up but he didn't push her away.

Once she had made sure the mech's avatar was still following (and upright) Dart sloshed out of the river. She left a trail of wet prints behind her on the sand as she headed on up to the campfire.

Totally distracted for a second, the courier missed a rock. Which was unlike her. She stubbed the toe of her sneaker into it and stumbled ungracefully for a few strides, nearly going down in the sand and stone. When she caught herself, she laughed in embarrassment, and looked down at her hands.

"Rachel," she said, and blinked over at Mark, realizing she'd stopped in mid-introduction. She padded her way to the end of the log and slumped tiredly down on it, and then reached up to brush her bangs out of her eyes. "Rachel Decker. Sorry. Just- just been a rough day, my thoughts are all over the place right now."

Dart watched as the mech made his way towards the log as well. The fire cheerfully cracked and popped.

She looked up. "You- you said there was a ranger station? How far, do you know?"

[Deleted]

Mark hovered at her elbow as she made her way to the log. He nearly caught her when she stumbled, then grinned at her when she laughed to cover it.

The camp site at the top of the beach was small, little more than a rocky firepit, inside of which burned a heap of red coals and some ash-plated sticks of driftwood. A few towels lay in the sand around it, across from the gnarled log. A small cooler sat nearby, along with a small pack for cooking supplies. The second girl, Veronica, stood next to it and watched with unabashed curiosity as they all trooped up the beach. She was shorter than the other two, with glasses and curly red hair cut in a bob.

When Dart sat down on the end of the log the young man veered towards the small cooking pack next to the fire.

"It'd be a long hike," said Mark as he crouched beside it. "Do you know Phantom Ranch? It's west of here, in the Canyon itself. I think that's where the nearest ranger station is, anyway. If not, I mean - the Ranch is like a hotel. They've got dormitories and a restaurant there. They would definitely have a phone or something there you could use."

He rummaged through the pack. "Man, do you want a juice box or something to eat? Can I get you a bottle of water? You look pretty shaky. Did you get hurt like the prof did?"

"Are you sure you don't want the first aid kit?" said Sarah dubiously. She sat on the other end of the log, next to the man. "That's a nasty looking bloodstain on your shirt. Are you still bleeding?"

The man shook his head. He sat upright, his shoulders stiff, and avoided her gaze.

"Patched it up already," he said. "It'll hold for now. It's fine."

"You're sure? I've got some first aid training. I could look at it for you, if you need it."

"No. Thanks. It's fine."

[Dart]

"No no... I'm all right," Dart replied as she eyed the campsite. They looked like day rafters, not long term campers, going down this section of the river. An automatic sniff escaped her, even though she couldn't tell what the heck they had been cooking at all. She looked back down at Mark and smiled gratefully. "Er, no, actually, I take that back, I'd love a juice box."

"He yelled out a warning right before it went," Dart offered, gesturing over at the Autobot. "I mean, he saw it before I did. We just - wow. Wasn't expecting that, we both thought it was totally stable. I- I sort of bolted off to the side, but he got caught."

She swallowed. "Glad we weren't buried, that's all. What a mess."

As Sarah sat down, Dart watched them. The mech's avatar drew back, she saw his shoulders tighten with tension, and he was defensive again. "Sorry, sorry," she apologized to the other young woman, looking over at her. "We're just pretty shaken up. He had a little kit in his pack too, though, we used that. It- it's nasty. Mostly lacerations, some scrapes, he got smashed into a boulder, but it's what kept him from being buried, ugh..."

Dart shuddered and rested her hands on her thighs, staring down at the sand under her feet. "Slides, they- they're like water. Solid water. So, so dangerous."

The courier took a few deep pretend gulps of breath and then lifted her head to glance at the mech again. He was uncomfortable, she could read it in him. This was stressing him out as much if not more as their hike up the canyon in some respects.

"No- hey, no, I'm afraid I don't know Phantom Ranch. How - how far is it from here, do you know - oh wait - the Canyon itself? Oh wow. I'm so glad you guys were here, then."

[Deleted]

Mark stood up. He scratched his head.

"The Phantom Ranch is, what - maybe twenty miles from here, Sarah?" he said.

"Yeah, I think so," she said. She glanced up at him. "Twenty, twenty-two miles?"

"It'd be a long hike on foot," said Mark. He picked his way around the fire, shuffling around the sandy towels. He held out a juice box to Dart and grinned. "Sorry, we just have grape left. Hope that's okay."

"Drink it!" said Sarah. She smiled at the courier. "Even if you didn't get hurt you could still be kind of shocky, you know? You look kind of pale."

Veronica meanwhile sat on the cooler and stuck out her legs, resting her heels in the sand. She studied the courier without speaking, a thoughtful look on her face.

Mark squatted next to the fire. He rested his elbows on his knees. "We were gonna head up to the Ranch and pull the raft out of the water there," he said. "That's where Sarah's truck is. We've got extra room on the raft, though. We could give you a lift that way. The only thing is, I dunno if we could make it there before dark. It's, what-"

He checked his wrist. He wore a scratched-up waterproof sports watch, half-hidden by a mess of colourful rope and bead bands.

"Uh, just after five o'clock now? We might have to spend on the night on the river. I dunno if that's going to be okay for you and Mr Freeman though, especially if he needs a doctor."

"I'll be fine," said the man.

"Maybe we'll get cell phone reception again once we get closer to the Ranch," said Sarah. She leaned forward a little to get a better look at his face when he only stared into the fire, his hand pressed to his side. "We could call up the rangers and tell them we have a medical emergency then, Mr Freeman."

"No. No need. I'm fine."

The man paused, his brow furrowed. Then he reluctantly added, "Max. Just... call me Max."

[Dart]

"Grape is absolutely awesome," Dart replied. She leaned back on her hands on the log as if to stretch, and then reached for the offered box with a grateful smile. "Thank you."

Concentrate, okay, concentrate...

The bottle of water would be heavier. Less forgiving if she couldn't hold onto it. She hoped she could hold onto it. So far, she'd found that When she wasn't thinking about it, it seemed to work better than when she was trying to do something with it. Even then it seemed sort of random; sometimes it just held together, solid and sturdy; and then there were those times where she looked down and her arm had phased itself through the side of her driver's door.

She closed her fingers around it, and said a silent little prayer to whatever happened to be listening.

It worked. Dart held tight to it and for a moment all she wanted to do was jump up and caper stupidly on the sand. A juice box, she was holding a real, live juice box - okay it wasn't alive but it was a juice box. Oh, wow, a juice box. The courier turned her head towards the Autobot and flashed that lopsided grin to him, because hey, look, look at them, they were totally here and the humans gave her a juice box--

Then she realized that to him she was probably a total idiot right now. What, she wasn't before? Well, add it to the pile, why not.

Then she just had to laugh at herself a little and shake her head. She peered at Mark and Sarah from under her bangs and then fumbled for the straw glued to the back. "Oh geeze," she admitted to them. "I never thought I'd be this head over heels for a juice box. It's not even like it's Ryan Reynold's juice box, right?"

Her hands wouldn't quit shaking as she peeled it carefully off. It took her a few tries to align the straw with the hole and poke it through. She brought it up; absentmindedly sniffing at the container before she- well, she pretended to drink out of the straw. She sat there like that for a long, long moment, shoulders curled, eyes half closed as if in total bliss before she looked up again. The red-headed girl was looking at her, and she couldn't help but look a little sheepish again as she set the box down on the log beside her.

"Twenty miles," she pondered. "Oh gosh, yes, please, thank you, thank you, even if we have to stay the night, that's going to be the safest way, because there's no way, Max..."

Max. Heh, this went back to that whole dog thing she'd been thinking about earlier. At least he hadn't called himself Bonecrusher or Fluffy, whew. That would have been tough to explain. Especially the second one.

For some reason, it fit this avatar. It was simple and straightforward and it was easy to remember. "I mean, Max, sir..."

Dart caught herself and shook her head, looking over at him with a wry grin. "I can't do it, sir. Can't call you Max, Professor Freeman. Well, not until I finish my thesis, anyway. Er, Maybe not even then."

She leaned back on the log, hands behind her to brace herself, and looked at him. Her gaze became serious and worried once more. "I honestly don't think you're in any shape to walk much farther," she said. "I can't believe we made it this far. I'm just worried you might have broken ribs. Maybe the cell phone will kick in closer."

Stay the night. It was logical, it made total sense under the circumstances they were faking-- but how would they do that? It was one thing to fake a juice box. Another to fake-- oh, everything else. She had no idea if he could. Actually she didn't know if she could.

However, there was no way they could refuse. None and not throw everything into utter confusion and suspicion. Right now the humans believed, and she just wanted to keep it like that. There was still the matter of the whole Vehicons up on that ridge and would they come looking, would anyone else be sent in after she was gone all this time?

Answer was...

Probably no. They didn't know how long it would take her. Or they would wait a few days and wander on down to see the bodies and poke at them with a long stick.

Her hands went down to pick at the knot in her sweatshirt, and she adjusted it over her hips before she looked up at the two humans closer to them. "I've not rafted in years," she admitted. Well, hey, it was the truth. She just left out the fact it had been clinging to a log like a drowned retro-rat up in Alaska and hoping that it stayed afloat with her weight. "Is it safe to add extra weight on one in a river like this?"