Free Never Too Far by Thomas Christopher

take the wrong way, so he refrained from that small gesture. He still couldn’t believe they’d had an actual conversation, an actual back and forth. He wanted to find out even more about her now. Why she thought she should be punished? How she got that baby? Where she came from? Who she was? But once again he didn’t feel right asking something like that. Besides, she wouldn’t tell him anyway. At least not yet. So he thought he would try to find out what her actual name was again.
    “I know I’ve been calling you Mary,” he said. “But I know it’s not your real name, and I’d really like to call you by your proper name, the one you were born with, you know?”
    “Mary,” she said, quickly.
    “Mary? Really?” He was skeptical. “I just made that up.”
    “It’s Mary,” she said again.
    “I don’t believe you”
    “It’s Mary now.”
    “So that’s not your real name, the one your mom and dad gave you?”
    “That name is gone.”
    “But what was it?”
    “It’s gone. I’m Mary now.”
    “You don’t want your other name anymore? Is that it?”
    She nodded her head.
    When Joe spoke again, he chose his words carefully, which he didn’t always do, but now he wanted to make sure he understood her reasons for wanting her new name over her old one.
    “Because of bad memories?” he said. “Because you don’t want to think about that person? You’re a different person now. Is that it?”
    “I’m a new person now,” she said.
    “That’s right,” Joe said. He paused a moment. He was starting to understand her more. “You can rest against me,” he said. “It’s okay.”
    She hesitated at first. Then she gently leaned her head against his shoulder. The contact was so light that Joe barely noticed it, yet its effect was more than noticeable. The touch of her head felt wonderfully soothing, as if she was trying to comfort him instead of the other way around. Mary , he said to himself. The fact that she didn’t want her old name anymore, but wanted the name he gave her instead, said a lot about what her old life must’ve been like and how much being with Joe represented something better. It was hard to believe that being robbed, shot at, and killing a man was better, but maybe that was beside the point. Maybe what mattered more was someone being good to her.

 
     
    Chapter 15
     
     
     
    The following evening they camped a few miles outside of the forest. They had enough daylight to make it in and camp there, but Joe didn’t want their first experience in the forest to be at night. Traveling during the day would be much better. That way they could get used to it and know what to expect. It seemed like the smart thing to do. He remembered what Frank said: “Don’t be a hero. Play it safe. Listen to your gut. If you feel afraid, then be afraid.”
    They didn’t make a fire because Joe didn’t want to attract any attention. No one was around in the immediate area—no camps, no fires, no shacks, no shantytowns. The only thing that concerned him was far to the north where he saw white specks of light and glowing green capsules. The lights were from a biofuel refinery and the green capsules were giant tubes of algae used to make fuel and plastics. Of course, Joe didn’t know that. He also didn’t know they belonged to the city of Chikowa, or that the refinery and surrounding fields were heavily fortified with high fences, guard towers, and constant armed patrols.
    Frank never told him why going north was the best way to get into the city. He only said that few people used it. Only the Hickabas from the cold regions far up north came stampeding across this barren landscape to raid forest dwellers and harass Chikowa’s military. He wondered if the lights and green capsules were coming from one of the Hickabas’ cities. It was probably why no one lived here. Whatever homestead was established would be razed by the Hickabas in short order. 
    They drank the last of the water they had and