Page 10 of House Divided
While she had crouched there, stunned, Enoch had pulled his pack onto his back and adjusted the straps carefully. “Pack on, Maddie,” he said. “I’ll help you adjust it.”
“I don’t need any help,” she retorted angrily. “And don’t call me Maddie.”
A small smile twisted the corners of his lips. “As you say, Miss Marx. Whenever you’re ready.”
She pulled her pack on, taking a step to balance herself. It was as heavy as she had thought, and she could feel it weighing heavily on her shoulders. There was no way in hell that she was going to ask for a lighter load though;not with this jackass grinning at me,she thought.
“Good to go,” she said, a shade defiantly. Enoch nodded and opened the access hatch. They stepped out to get a sense of where they were.
There were red grasslands as far as the eye could see, stretching east, west, and south. To the north lay a range of foothills leading up into taller mountains. The grassy plains were dotted with the occasional individual tree, thick trunks rising into wide canopies of gray-yellow leaves. There were two suns in the sky, roughly parallel to each other, and at the moment, they lay about forty-five degrees up from the horizon.
“Could be late morning, could be early afternoon,” guessed Enoch. “We’ll head for the mountains to the north.”
“Why?” asked Madeline, feeling a spasm of irritation. She didn’t have any particular objection to going north, but she did feel that she should have been consulted.
“Because we can’t see anything but plains in any other direction,” replied Enoch. “If there’s any settlements to be found, we need to be up high enough to find them.” With that, he walked off, setting a vigorous pace.
“I guess we’re going north, then,” muttered Madeline under her breath and followed.
***
After about an hour, Enoch checked the chronometer on his wrist. “Five-minute break,” he said. “Get some water in you.”
Madeline let the pack slide off her shoulders with relief. She sat down next to the pack, wincing at the pain in her bottom. She opened a canteen and drank some fresh water, and could not recall a time when water had tasted so good.
Her shoulders were aching though. She was worried. If they hurt this much after an hour, that was not a good sign. Madeline looked up at Enoch. He hadn’t even taken his pack off, nor had he broken a sweat.
Prick,she thought to herself.
Far too brief a time later, he announced, “Okay. Time to move.”
Madeline pulled on her pack, grimacing as the straps dug into her shoulders.
Enoch looked at her expression and offered, “I can make that easier for you, if you want.”
“Oh, would you?” replied Madeline sarcastically.
Enoch raised an eyebrow and said nothing.
Her shoulders hurt. Madeline said, “Sorry. Could you please help me?”
“Sure. Before you do anything else, you need to secure this strap around your hips.” Enoch worked quickly and surely. Madeline tried to ignore the way her heart fluttered when his hands grazed her waist.
There was aclick, and suddenly the pressure was blessedly off her shoulders. “This way, the weight is distributed across your whole body, not just pulling on your shoulders,” he explained. “Now we can adjust your shoulder straps properly.”
He tightened the straps, his hand brushing lightly against her breast as he did so. Madeline tried to ignore the way her nipples stiffened. Enoch appeared not to notice.
Madeline moved around experimentally. The difference in her load was night and day. She tried to forget the hour of shoulder pain her own pride had cost her.
“This way,” said Enoch and set off once more.
“Yes, your lordship,” muttered Madeline, low enough that he could not hear.
Their hike seemed like something out of a fairy tale. They walked through beautiful grassland, but the colors were all off, and the effect became vaguely disturbing after a time. Madeline noticed that she had started to feel light-headed.Must be the lower oxygen levels,she thought.
She also had ample opportunity to examine the man marching steadily in front of her.How old is this guy?she wondered. Enoch Immanuel seemed to be in incredible shape and had a powerful frame that would be the envy of any man.He doesn’t look too bad from behind, either,thought Madeline appreciatively.I’ve had worse views.
The man seemed almost distressingly self-contained. He had no need to engage Madeline in small talk and appeared quite capable of marching for hours with no other company than his own thoughts. For Madeline, however, the silence was becoming oppressive. She was used to being surrounded by the buzz of activity all day, every day, knowing that things werehappening.
