Jake opened his eyes, the sun was blazing down and the train was still moving. "Well, shit." He muttered. He had no idea what time it was, how much time had passed, or even where they were. Sherry was asleep against his chest; she was so warm now he was surprised he hadn't woken up sooner. "Super girl." He whispered into her ear. He didn't want to move just yet but the girl had serious issues with sleeping on him when he needed to take a leak. "Hey, we've got to move," he tried again.

"Mmmm?" She mumbled her eyes opening slowly.

"Feeling ok?"

"Fine," she muttered still a little groggy.

"Here," he pulled his shirt off the rest of the way and let it drape over her. "Keep it for now."

"It's a little large," she replied stretching. "You are going to be cold."

A little? It's a freakin' dress on you. He grinned, "I'm 6'3", you are five foot nothing. I'll be fine." He stood up and moved to the side of the train. "Sorry," he said. "Nature calls." He opened the front of his pants away from her and tried peeing off the side of the train.

"Yeah, no kidding," she replied suddenly uncomfortable. "How am I supposed to answer?"

"You know they always leave that out in every good book."

"What?"

"How the heck do these guys on the run ever go to the bathroom? It's like they never go, or they have super bladders. That make much sense to you?"

Sherry laughed despite herself. "Can you imagine that? If they showed the hero, or damsel in distress taking a leak?"

"Yeah well that kind of knowledge would have been helpful for you right about now."

"I didn't know you read that much."

"I play the piano too, remember? I'm fucking cultured." He grinned.

She smiled. "Not helping me now."

"Sorry." He zipped and turned around. "Now you..."

She reddened. "I'm not peeing off the side of the train."

"Well I was going to suggest you squat over there..." He pointed to the other side of the train. "I can get us a place to clean up when we get off as soon as we figure out where we are."

She peered outside the train, "can we just jump?"

"Yeah if you feel like hitting one of those trees," he said smiling. "And bursting."

"Turn around."

"What?"

Turn around." He was not going to watch this.

"Look I've already seen you na-" Jake started.

"Oh god, would you just do it!" She started unbuckling her pants.

"Fine," he couldn't help but laugh at her discomfiture. "I was also going to mention that I have a large wad of cash in my pants pocket still. We can find a hotel to clean up in as soon as we pass a small town. We've been traveling all night should be safe for a night or two."

"It's warmer," she noted as she pulled off her pants, squatted, and peed. She was mortified. If Jake had so much as turned his head, she was considering pushing him off the train herself. She had a small paper towel in her pocket, relieved she wiped and tossed it off the train and stepped away from her mess. Putting her own pants back on, she smoothed down his shirt over her torso. It came halfway down to her knees.

"Ok, turn around now."

He did and whistled when he saw her. "You ready to jump ship now?" He asked.

"Now?"

"Well yeah, look, little more space. You're not going to hit a tree."

She glanced and saw that he was right. "Plus, it's warmer," she said smiling. "I can give you your shirt back."

"Uh, won't it be weird for us to show up with you shirtless and me fully clothed? I'm good."

She paused "Ok, when you're ready..."

Suddenly Jake stopped for a moment, he looked troubled. "Wait a minute, all business aside..."

"What is it?" She was eyeing the thinning landscape as they swept along, not really looking forward to the jump.

"I..., we were careless." He said to her. "I was careless. I didn't protect you, I knew we should have moved on and then that creature attacked us, and you were almost frozen to death." He looked down, "I should have been more alert, but I was distracted...and I don't want that to happen again."

Sherry stiffened. "Jake, I..."

"I'm sorry Sherry," he said. There was pain on his face when he said it. "I don't want you to be hurt and I got your hurt by not paying attention and I should have been better at keeping my guard up."

Sherry said nothing. She just looked out at the thinning landscape, the air whipped her short hair around her face. "You picked now to tell me you think we made a mistake?" She finally said as the forest fully gave way to open fields.

"Sherry," he started again. "That's not— "He came to stand next to her and suddenly without warning she leapt from the train. His surprise was short and he leapt after her. They both hit the ground rolling and Sherry came up to a standing position first followed by Jake about twenty feet away.

"You ok?" She said without looking at him. Her eyes watered and he realized she was close to breaking down. After the night she'd had, he couldn't blame her. He felt like an ass.

"Yeah, but Sherry," he tried again breathing hard. He had a scratch down his left arm that was rapidly closing over. He made a point of not looking at it.

"Don't." She said quickly. "Let's just do what we've got to do."

"But—"

"Just don't say it was a mistake. Just don't." She said, grimacing. She looked down the line to where the train was still rushing by them. "Let's head that way until we see some sign of civilization."

"Can we talk?" He said walking behind her.

"Talk? Look I'm sorry that you think I'm slowing you down..."

"Jesus Christ, Sherry, is that what you really think?"

"I'm sorry was there something else?" She slowed and turned to face him. He grabbed her shoulders through the shirt and yanked her to him and planted a hard kiss on her face. When he let her go again, she was breathless.

"The biggest mistake I made was waiting, even that 6 months to find you." He paused. "You don't slow me down. I'm angry at myself because I let you down. I can't lose you Sherry. Do you understand? I just can't, not after--." He stared at her face. "And then on the other hand, I'm never going to have a normal life. I'm always going to be hunted because of my Father-." He looked away. "I don't want that for you. Don't ever think that I would think less of you, for any reason." He said pulling apart.

Sherry stared at him for a moment then burst out laughing. "You idiot. Normal life? Are you kidding me? I have the G-virus, I'm never going to be able to live a "normal" life as you so eloquently put it."

He paused for a moment and scratched his head. "So, we'll just throw our fates together then huh?"

"Is that a fancy way of asking me to marry you?" Sherry snapped. She was half joking but his hand grabbed hers and he jerked to a stop.

"If we get out of this alive..." He started, "I'm getting you down that aisle."

"But—"

"Why not?"

"Well that wasn't a no," Sherry spluttered.

Sherry looked up at him realizing that he intended to stick around no matter what. She didn't say a word and started forward.

They walked in silence for a while. The train was long gone and when it finally pulled away from them, the quiet was deafening. "Where are we?" said Jake finally.

"No idea," said Sherry looking around.

"What?" said Jake, "your country right?"

"America is big, easily 100 times larger than Edonia." Sherry kept moving forward.

"Hey at least I know where I'm at when I'm there in Edonia," Jake snapped, slightly defensive. Edonia was still a touchy subject for him.

"Ha," said Sherry. "Not possible here. Hey look, a sign!" She pointed. Jake squinted at it. 10 miles to Paducah.

"Where's Paducah?"

"Middle of the country." She smiled, "Mostly rural, good place to get lost in I guess."

"Rural? Fuck." He paused. "New people don't get lost in rural, that is where you stick out the most."

"If we're lucky we'll find a barn for the night. If not, well...steer clear of the local wildlife."

"I see," said Jake taking a swift glance around, because he really did not see or know what was there. It couldn't be worse than the giant walking behemoth chasing them with no brains and more muscles than twenty men.

Avoiding the main roads, they kept walking and it was dusk before they stopped again.

They found a barn as orange streaked across the sky. It was an old tobacco barn with no tobacco and it had a second layer that oddly enough contained straw. Sherry pointed out that there was sheep in the field that they'd hopped a fence to get into.

They settled in. Jake watched the colors go more intense, even Sherry stared at the sky.

"It's so clean here," he finally said staring up at the sky. "Edonia is...well battle torn. Lots of smoke. Ashes. This... is different. Clear."

"I thought you'd been to other places...like South America? You weren't very specific."

"Jungles mostly," He replied fingering the scar on his face. Sherry wondered if he realized he was doing it. "Not much of a sunset from the ground, but I could see some color. This is beautiful." He was looking at her, watching the light play on her face, Sherry was staring up at the sky.

"Yeah...it is."

"You know what else?" He said still looking at her. "Your nightmares have stopped."

She hadn't even thought about them since they'd been in the cabin. "You're right, she said. We've found the cure for my nightmares. Apparently, it's running for our lives. Now if we could just cure the common cold, we'd be all set."

"I am sniffling." He admitted.

"It will go away soon."

"Built like a tank, remember," he said forcing a smile.

"Tanks don't get colds." She replied turning and looking at him. He was still staring at her. The sun was rapidly descending and the air was getting colder.

He's shirtless she realized, and I've got his shirt. She crawled closer to sit in front of him and raised the back of his shirt up. It was already stretched way out of proportion and would be huge on him as well whenever he got it back.

"What are you doing?" He said.

"Get in," she said, "it's going to be cold."

He smiled but didn't argue. She was afraid he might after their earlier conversation. He just wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close to him. She came just under his chin and curled up into his stomach. He smiled over her head but she couldn't see it.

"It was Devon," Her voice came out of nowhere, ruining the perfect moment for him. "1st Sargent Mac Devon."

"What was?" Jake was still trying to figure out why she'd brought the guy up.

"The Ustanak." She replied grimly. There was no doubt about it. The features were much less twisted than the last one they'd encountered. The creator seemed to have improved on the design. Gone was the twisted face half hidden under a mask. The whole face was there complete but stretched with no gaps or holes.

"Jesus," Jake whispered. "That guy already hated me. Now let's turn him stupid and give him muscles?" He paused a moment. "Is that why he froze? I mean over there with you. Did he recognize you?" Jake had been pondering the creature's behavior. It was vastly different from the previous Ustanak they had encountered. The other one never had never hesitated to kill anyone.

"I think so," she said.

"Well I'm not sorry I shot him then," Jake settled back against the straw. It wasn't the worst bed he'd ever slept in. "That guy shot me in the back .... while he was human."

"Jake! You're missing the point." Sherry shifted against him. "They did that to him, in such a short amount of time..."

"That means their facilities were close," He finished. He kissed the back of her head. "Super girl, you are a genius."

"Looks like I'm the one with an Ustanak fan club this time," she tried to shift and face him but there was only so much room in a single shirt.

Jake snorted a laugh. Maybe he was rubbing on her just a bit. How many lucky people got stuck with an Ustanak fan club after all?