"If either of you takes one more step, your brains will be all over the floor!"

The girl had long messy red hair, and a wild and fierce look in her eyes. She couldn't have been older than thirteen or fourteen.

"Who are you?" she demanded in a hard, determined voice. She was wearing worn scraggly jeans and a shirt that might once have been red but was now just a splotched pinkish. Her gun was still trained right at Calvin's chest. Calvin thought he could see a shadow of a tremble in her hands as she held the rifle, but it was so slight that he wasn't sure it was even there at all. He found himself, entirely against his will, being impressed.

"Take it easy, kid," he said. "We're not here to-"

"Who—"

She took a step closer—

"—are—"

Another step. The rifle was now a few inches away from Calvin, enough so that he got just a touch more nervous—

"—you?"

Calvin took a deep breath. "I'm Calvin. And that," he made the tiniest of motions to his partner, afraid that anything too sudden would set off the girl's trigger finger, "is Hobbes."

Hobbes put on a nervous smile. "Um. Charmed to meet you."

The girl was obviously not satisfied with their answers. "What are you doing here?"

"We're nomads," Calvin said, as calmly and evenly as he could. "We were going through the forest to get to the Toksha settlement, but our supplies were dwindling. We saw the smoke from your cabin, so we came over, hoping to work out some sort of exchange with whoever was here. It's been weeks since we've met anyone."

The girl stared at them through eyes sharpened with suspicion. "How do I know that you're telling the truth? How do I know that you're not here to steal from me? Or hurt me?"

Calvin was starting to get a little exasperated. "Look, kid, would I have called out and let you know we were coming if I wanted to get the drop on you? We don't want to hurt anyone or steal anything! Now will you point that gun somewhere else?"

Hobbes cleared his throat. "Calvin, she's just a kid." He looked back at the girl. "I understand being scared, but we really don't want to hurt you. I think you'll see that soon. What's your name?"

The girl stared back at them for a moment, eyes hard, lips curled inward, making her mouth a thin line. Finally, she said, "Evelyn. I'm Evelyn." Then she nodded towards Calvin. "And I'll take my gun off of you, if you throw yours away first." She nodded down at Calvin's hand, which had stopped near the inside of his jacket.

Calvin scowled. "That's not fair, why should I lose my gun if you keep yours?"

"Because," the girl said, "if you don't, I'll shoot you anyway. Your gun's no use if the bullet reaches you before you reach it. You have nothing to lose. Do it."

Hobbes gulped. "Uh, I see her logic, Calvin. I suggest you do as she says …for both our sakes."

Calvin, still frowning, slowly reached down to grasp his gun. He removed it from the holster, slowly, carefully. And with a grimace, he bent over and placed it onto the wooden floor.

When he stood back up, Evelyn said, "Good." And, slowly, she lowered her rifle towards the floor, while still clutching it with both hands.

"There," muttered Calvin, sulkily.

Hobbes spoke up. "Do you just live here by yourself?"

"Yes," said Evelyn, her tone neutral.

"What happened to your parents?"

She frowned again. "It's none of your business. You two might as well just go ahead and go. I have nothing worth trading, and if I did I wouldn't want to trade it."

Calvin, disgruntled and in a foul mood at having been caught off his guard, felt like doing just that, and glanced back at the door. But Hobbes seemed more concerned with the kid. The striped mutant took a step forward and asked, "How do you survive out here by yourself? Do you ever meet anybody else?"

Evelyn shrugged. "You two are the first ones I've seen out here. I eat from the cans, drink from the well. If I want meat I set some traps in the woods."

"Hobbes?" Calvin snapped. "A word?" He gestured over to the corner of the room. He and Hobbes went over and exchanged some harsh words, still under the suspicious eye of Evelyn.

"Hobbes," Calvin whispered, "it seems to me like you're expressing an unwarranted amount of concern over this kid. What's the deal?"

"I'm just worried," Hobbes replied. "She's all alone out here. You know there's nobody else around, we haven't seen anybody the entire time we've been driving through."

"So? She seems like she's doing just fine to me. None of our business. I say we do as she suggests and get on our way."

Hobbes frowned. "Are you honestly telling me," he said, "that you would have no qualms about going out and driving away right now, and just leaving this little girl out here to keep fending for herself? All alone?"

"Absolutely," said Calvin.

Hobbes raised his eyebrows and stared hard into Calvin's eyes.

Calvin twitched uncomfortably. "Well… probably."

Hobbes kept staring.

"Look, it wouldn't matter anyway, she obviously wants us gone."

Hobbes kept staring.

Calvin was starting to sweat a little. "I-I know what you're trying to do, and it won't work!"

Hobbes kept staring.

Finally, Calvin sighed. "Okay, fine. Maybe I'd feel a little better if we cleared some things up first."

Hobbes smiled and nodded. He knew his human friend quite well. "Let's just try and get a little more out of her. Only to get a better view on the situation."

Calvin mumbled a reluctant agreement. There was a moment of silence, before Evelyn said, "So are you two done?"

They both turned back to her, Calvin's mouth pinched into a grimace of anger, and he was about to retort when Hobbes spoke first. "Are there raiders around here?"

Evelyn's brow wrinkled, this time in a confused way. "Raiders?"

"They drive around, looting and razing, things like that. Are they the ones who…" he paused, looking uncertain, before continuing "…took your parents?"

"No," said Evelyn, her face still hard. But after a second, Calvin and Hobbes could both see the glistening in her eyes. No tears actually ran down her face, but her eyes just kept getting shinier and shinier.

"What are you looking at?" she demanded, in a strained voice. Hobbes stepped forward, slowly and softly, and said "Nobody's going to hurt you. But we can help you."

Evelyn didn't respond, but was breathing heavily now. Hobbes glanced back at Calvin and saw that there was no animosity in his face anymore, just a mildly empathetic discomfort.

"So," said Hobbes, back to Evelyn, in that same reassuring tone, "was it raiders?"

She shook her head. "No. It was the ones… Dad always called them, 'Collectors'. They came and they," she paused, visibly swallowing, before continuing, "killed Mom and Dad. They didn't find me, Mom hid me and told me to…"

She paused again, then finished. "...they killed Mom and Dad. After the Collectors were gone, I came out and… found them." Incredibly, she still held her harsh poker face, even as she spoke of finding the corpses of her parents.

"Oh," said Hobbes, his voice full of horror and pity. "I'm sorry."

Calvin looked away from them, keeping his face neutral. Evelyn held Hobbes's gaze, and didn't say anything.

Hobbes took a breath and said, "Evelyn, we're going to help you. We promise. We'll make sure you're safe."

"I don't need…" Evelyn said, but she trailed off. Looking down at her feet, she laid down the rifle and sat down on the floor, just sitting and staring at her knees.

Hobbes got down beside her. In one of his rare overtly cat-like moments, lay down and showed his belly, making deep purring sounds. Evelyn looked over at him, her eyes unsure. After a moment, she reached over and began to tentatively rub his tummy. Hobbes stretched his legs contentedly.

A minute later, Calvin came and sat down beside them, and started petting Hobbes himself. And there they were, for a while, sitting and petting and purring and looking at their own feet.


After a while, Calvin cleared his throat and stood up. "Okay, okay. We gotta get moving."

As Hobbes began to get up too, Evelyn looked at Calvin. He was half-expecting her to argue, or say something snippy, or threaten him with some other weapons that she had concealed somewhere on her person. But all she did was say, "Where?"

Calvin shrugged. "Anywhere that isn't here."

"But," said Hobbes, "won't a house probably be safer than any other shelter we might find?"

Calvin looked out the open door to the clearing and trees beyond, and frowned. "I dunno. I just don't feel completely comfortable in an area where raiders, or whatever they were, are known to frequent."

"But this is her home," said Hobbes. He looked down at Evelyn. Evelyn had her eyes closed, seeming to be thinking hard. Then she opened her eyes and said "Let's go."

She said it so decisively that even Calvin was surprised. Hobbes put a paw on her shoulder. "Are you sure? You might not ever be able to come back."

Evelyn took a look around her large, empty home. "I'm sure. Nothing left here, anyway." She shrugged. "And the pantry was getting low on food."

"Okay then," Calvin said. He hesitated for another moment, then muttered "…so can I have my gun back?"

Evelyn made a face, thought this over for a bit, and then nodded. Calvin cautiously went over and picked his revolver up off the ground, casting Evelyn a sour look before putting it back under his jacket.

Evelyn, not seeming to notice Calvin's glare, got up from the floor and dusted off her jeans legs with her non-gun-holding hand. Such a small thing, but the lack of self-consciousness about it was a reminder that she was, in fact, a child. This was something that, despite her size, was still easy to forget when she was pointing a rifle at you.

Calvin headed towards the door. "The jeep's this way. If you want to take anything else, kid, grab it now. I'll get us powered up, and then we're out of here."

He walked out onto the porch and went down the front steps. Glancing back, he saw Hobbes following, with Evelyn close behind. The kid must have been fine with just her rifle and the clothes on her back. Oh well, suit herself. Calvin was not buying her any other clothes though. Not even if they found the last Macy's left on the planet.

He got into the jeep and started it as Hobbes and Evelyn approached. "I get shotgun," said Hobbes hurriedly. Evelyn gave him a funny look, then glanced down at her rifle.

"Well, you know," said Hobbes, gesturing at the front seat. "Shotgun. You call shotgun, you get the front seat. Not like your weapon, or anything like that. You know…" he trailed off awkwardly, before waving his paw. "Eh, I was just trying to be funny. Sit wherever you want, kid."

Evelyn shrugged and got in the back. Hobbes gently took her gun and put it with the other supplies; Evelyn was reluctant to give it up at first, but let go quietly after a moment. Then Hobbes climbed in next to Calvin. "Are we ready?" said Calvin, looking around at the other two. They both nodded.

Calvin began to turn the jeep around so they could drive back the way they came. As they pulled out of the clearing, Hobbes said "So, Evelyn… know any road trip songs?"

"No."

Hobbes thought for a second, then grinned. "I know one. Calvin really, really hates it."

Calvin gritted his teeth. "Please, no." But Hobbes gleefully began singing as the jeep rolled on between the trees, and Evelyn finally half-cracked a smile as she bumped around in the back.


Atop a nearby hill, a figure watched the Jeep drive off through the corpse-trees through a dusty pair of binoculars. After a few more seconds, he lowered them and turned to the band of armed men waiting impatiently behind him.

"So, boss?" The foremost rogue asked. "Didja see her?"

"Yeah," the leader of the band revealed, his voice deep and gravelly. "I saw her." At that statement, several men cheered.

"She's outta the house, but just drove off with the two new survivors," the leader continued. "A kid 'an a mutant."

"So… what do we do, boss?" an aging individual near the back of the group asked. The leader fell silent, putting a beefy hand to his chin.

Finally he answered, "Search the house. If the chip ain't there… then we hunt the girl and her new friends down."


:D