Zinnia and I come out of our tent to meet the rest of my family. We decided to go and get breakfast at the gas station. Zinnia's shoes are still wet from last night, I will have to carry her to the gas station. I bent down and let her get on my back. I hooked her legs around my arms by her knees keeping her in place. She holds on to my shoulders. I walk comfortably with her on my back she weighs nothing.
Since the woman is in a better mood they decide to make our egg and bacon for breakfast. Zinnia has volunteered to cook the bacon. Riley makes the eggs and Leah makes toast. Quinn has no choice but to butter the toast. Nobody trust Quinn to cook food. She is the worst cook ever. Once she tried to make us all macaroni and chees and she burnt it all. If that was not enough she decide to make up for the burnt food and wanted to cook us soup. It was the most horrible soup I ever had. Nobody ate it. From that day on Quinn is not allowed to cook us food again. Quinn is good with other things cooking food is not one of her strong points.
After breakfast, I help Zinnia back to the camp. She and the rest of the women will stay behind with two warriors. The rest of us leave for the city.
The air is icy outside. Zinnia is starting to shiver from the cold. She goes up to the tent and gets a warm blanket and wrap it around her body. She goes back down to talk to the other girls. They are all sitting under a gazibo wrapped up in blankets. Sipping on their hot chocolate.
"Zinnia tell us why the mayor took care of you," Riley asks Zinnia to tell them more about herself. She is new to the family and they would love to learn more about her.
"My mom and dad passed on when I was fourteen in a car accident. That was five years ago. Nobody wanted to take on another responsibility with the current affairs going on. I was left alone to fend for myself when the mayor showed up. He said noting just started to pack my things and moved me into his home. His wife left him two years before that. He was the only one willing to take me in. He sat me down at the kitchen table and told me that he will never replace my family but he promised to love and take care of me. And he kept his promise to me." Zinnia told them about the mayor how he took care of her helping her through the thought time in her life.
"My mom abandoned me when I was only a few hours old. She left me at the door of a children's home. I grew up with no family. When Henry asked me to marry him I was over the moon. For the first time, I will have a family. I said yes without hesitation. Lucky for us it worked out well. The two of us stood no change we fell in love at first sight." Riley told her story smiling at the memory of Henry asking her to be his wife.
"They were just lucky. When Owen asked me to marry him I was very angry at them for taking over the earth. I thought if I marry one of them I can kill them one at a time. That plan was a good one in my head until I tried it and failed. My first attempt to kill Owen was poison in his coffee. He tasted it and he immediately knew I tried to poison him. He looked at me, wink and drank all of it. He never even got sick from it. After that, I tried a few times but always failed. Then one day I got sick from the flu. I was so sick I could not leave my bed. Owen took care of me. After everything I did to him, he still took care of me. I realise then that I loved him and stop to try and kill him." Leah smiled at Riley remembering those first days of marriage. They all thought it was fun watching her trying to kill Owen.
"I was always one for adventure. Noting could stop me from doing what I want when I wanted to. My family was concerned about me they did not know what to do with me constantly getting into some sort of trouble. The day Connor saw me I was busy fighting in the streets with some random guys. They were in my way and did not want to move so I thought I will help them move. There were three of them. I am a good fighter and I knew I could take them on. I punched the last one and watched him fall over when Connor step over him and asked me to marry him. Before I could say anything my father ran over and shook Connor's hand and said yes for me. My father marched me to the court and insist we get married right away. He was afraid Connor will back out once he gets to know me. You see my father thought Connor will be the only man to keep me safe and out of trouble. My family loves me but they wanted me to be safe and not get hurt. Connor was the perfect man for me. Soon after that, we went bungy jumping and I realizes Connor is just like me. We like to live life on the edge. We fall in love over all the crazy things we do together." Quinn laughs at the memory of the two of them always getting up to something.
"We think of each other as sisters. None of us chose this life but we are happy with our lives and husbands. They are good to us none of us would trade up this life. It is not easy travelling all the time but we make it work. You are now one of our sisters. We will love you and support you." Riley said to Zinnia and the other woman agrees to this.
"I was an only child and never had any sisters. I was always jealous of my friends who had siblings. I am blessed to get three sisters." Zinnia said to them and hugged each one of them.
Marcus and his brothers took over the city without anyone getting killed. They find the rebellion group and will send them to Mars. The rest of the city will remain the same. With each city, they take over they leave administrators behind to run the city for them.
"I must get Zinnia's clothes to where she does not fit in my clothing. She is always cold I need to buy her warmer socks. Last night her feet were freezing and she pushed it up against my legs." My brothers laugh at me.
"Welcome to married life. They are always cold and their feet never seem to warm up fast enough." Conner slabs his brother on his shoulder.
"Come we will help you to shop for her. I think we all need to shop for winter clothing since we are moving to the colder parts of earth." Henry said to his brother. They all walked into a shop and start to buy clothing for their wives.
Zinnia is a small woman it should not be too difficult to shop for her. I walked over to the onzies and take a unicorn one for her. This should help keep her warm. I will only take a few items for her. She can shop in the next town. I don't want them to come into the city with the rebels still here. One of them might try and hurt them. It will take some time to get to all the rebels.
I walked over to the underwear and looked at all of them. What should I take? I decide to just take panties with matching bras. I hope I get the correct size for her. She is small in all departments. I know she will not be a handful. My hands are much too big for her breast to fill my hands.
After our shopping, we head back to our camp. It is late in the afternoon when we arrived. The girls are not at the camp they must be over at the gas station. We drop our shopping bags in our tents. I take out Zinnia's new pyjamas with new underwear. I am sure by now she needs fresh ones. We walked over to the gas station with our toiletries in our hands.
We can hear them laughing and talking cooking food for all the men. Zinnia is busy making a sealed. She stands behind the counter helping with the foon. Quinn is the first one to notice us.
"Hello, my crazy husband. I missed you today." Quinn walks up to Connor and kisses him passionately. Zinnia looks up at me not sure what to do. I walked up to her and hands her the shopping bag.
"I picked up some essentials for you in the city." She takes the bag from me and opens it up. She looks inside the bag taking out the onzie I got her.
"Thank you. I always wanted one of these but I could never find one that I like." She smiles up at me and in that moment my heart makes a little flip.