Chapter 14: Zacar Warrior

He was back to silent staring. She sighed again and went to the tunnel leading to the storage cave. Her teeth chattered from the cold wind blowing in. She quickly lowered the red canvas her father had helped her attach over the back entrance. Last night she'd been too tired and frightened to even think about it. She retrieved a tin of meat from the storage cave and returned to the main cave.

She'd bought tinned goods in bulk relatively cheap when the grocer in town went out of business. The synthetic meat and vegetables were supposed to last twenty years. The best feature was the way it instantly heated when opened. The lid made a small scraping sound when she pulled it back, the heat heavenly to her cold hands. He looked like a meat eater. She could sacrifice a few tins of meat until the TC came online again. Then she would hand him over with gratitude to whatever authority had a working hovercraft to collect him.