It is quiet in the car now that Zinnia has fallen asleep. I can hear her even breathing indicating she is sleeping. The rain has gotten worse it is nearly impossible to see ahead in the road. We won't be able to travel if the rain gets any worst. I do not want to set up camp next to the road. I want a safe location to make sure the woman will be safe. We all should have thought this whole marriage thing through. Before the woman, we slept anywhere without worrying about safety. Now we have to. People are driving around high jacking travellers lotting their belongings. They wait for the travellers to set up camp and go to sleep then they sneak up and attract when the travellers least expect it.
Zinnia is starting to wake up from the hard rain. She sits up and looks over at me, the moment her eyes land on me she is upset. She does not say one word to me just staring out the window looking at the rain. Moving my hand back to the back seat I grab a bottle of water. I hand it to her. She takes it and drinks it empty.
"Thank you." That is all that she said to me. The rain is coming down harder and stronger. It is now too dangerous to drive any further. I pick up our radio and call my brothers.
"We should pull over. It has become too dangerous to drive." They all agree and we pull over next to the road. Setting up camp in this rain will be too difficult. We all decide to just sleep in our trucks. I hate sleeping in the truck it is uncomfortable. But what choice do we have? The warriors on motorbikes have gone before us and should be safe in the city. But that leaves only the four of us behind with the woman. This is going to be a long night.
"We will be stopping here and waiting for the rain to slow down. It is impossible to drive any further in this storm. It will be getting colder very soon and most of the blankets are paced away. Here, putting my jacket on it will help." I offer my jacket to Zinnia, and she takes it from me and puts it on. She is already ice cold.
"Thank you."
I settled on the back seat of my truck. Taking her pillow and put it behind my head. Motioning for her to come to lay between my legs. She climbs over and in between my legs. Bringing her blanket with her. She sits with her back against my chest resting her head on me. We have some lunch left and I hand her a sandwich. She gladly takes it from me. As a rule of thumb, we all have water and snacks in our trucks no one travels without it. We never know what troubles we will run into. At least we have something to eat. The rain will last sometime before it will clear up.
"I am starving, thank you." She bits into her sandwich with much pleasure. Making little sounds of joy as she eats.
"I used to make sandwiches for the mayor and me. The one time I cut open bread rolls and toast them in a pan. We had leftover chicken so I made chicken and mayonnaise and put it on our rolls with gurgins. It was the best." I look at her as she tells me her memory of the mayor. He was her only family for a long time.
"Before the big winter started on Mars my mother would pack us picnic baskets full of club sandwiches and we would head out to the lake. But it started to get cold and the lake froze over and our food became scarce." I smile at the memory of my mother making us all sandwiches and cutting them into little triangles.
"Why did it get so cold on Mars?"
"It was never supposed to get this cold on Mars. We have seasons just like here on earth. It was still summer when we noticed it was starting to get cold. And every day after that it would just be getting colder and colder. We lost all our food. That is when we asked the earth to help us with food but they refused. Here is plenty but they did not want to trade with us. We set up greenhouses but the air was too cold to maintain them. Only certain veggies grow in the greenhouses. Then we started to put our farm animals in the greenhouses to make sure we will have meat and eggs but that takes longer to produce and the animals need sun. But to get back to your question, with all the gasses earth is producing it is starting to change the planets. That is why we step in to stop the earth from polluting space and to secure our food. This is why we are taking over earth little by little and stopping pollution. There are better ways of doing things but people here are greedy and don't want to spend the money to fix their problems. They are willing to sacrifice human lives for their greed." She listens intensely to what I am telling her.
"So, we are not only our own greatest enemy but also to the people in space. This is so sad. I wish people would be considered to others and not be so mean and greedy." She finished her sandwich and drinks water before she settles back against me. My sandwich was done long before hers. She eats slow.
"The mayor told me to never leave the city there are many dangers out here." She looks out the window trying to see if there is something out there. But with all this rain nobody will be out trying to cause trouble.
"The mayor is right, there are plenty of dangers out here but you don't need to worry. You are safe here with me." I put my arms around her holding her to my chest. That seems to calm her down and before long she has fallen asleep. I drift off to sleep with the feeling of her warm body against mine. Something inside of me enjoys this feeling. A feeling of having someone next to me and being alone on a dark and stormy night.
I was in a state of half-awake and sleep when I feel Zinnia stirring against me. She is starting to wake up and she is shivering. I move my hand under her t-shirt to feel her skin, she is ice-cold from the freezing weather outside. Without a word, I lift her up placing her in my lab. I turned her around so that her legs would go around me. Instantly she pulls herself closer to me. I remove her cold hands from my neck and place her arms inside my shirt. Her cold hands are touching my bare skin. She feels the warmth of my body and moves closer. I close my shirt around her pulling the blanket back over her back closing her inside a warm cocoon. Her breast is soft and full pressing against me moving with every breath she takes. Sleep is avoiding me with her pressed up against me.
I must have drifted off to sleep sometime during the night. I wake up to the sound of the radio calling me. It is Connor waking us up. It is cold and dark outside and the rain has stopped. He wants to travel on he feels it is unsafe to stay the rest of the night out here next to the dark road. We all agreed. It is one in the morning when we continue our journey to the next city.