Chapter 6
Stepping out into the bright light of the midday sun, Ruby surveyed their surroundings. Bruce hadn't exaggerated when he said they were in the mountains. The cave they had taken shelter in was high on a steep slope covered in loose shale. For as far as she could see, they were completely surrounded by other mountains, with no hint of human activity.
"Well, biscuits."
"What are you, twelve?" Bruce asked as he emerged from the cave to stand beside her.
"No," she blushed, trying not to look at him. It's not like she'd never seen a man naked before. She wasn't a virgin after all. She hadn't been since she was seventeen and had given in to Cliff, her boyfriend at the time. It had been an awkward and painful experience and she had been terrified for weeks afterwards that she was pregnant because they hadn't used protection. Since then, she had only been with one other guy, a grad student in what had been a one-night stand after a party where she drank a little too much. She had woken up the next morning with a terrible hangover and no idea where she was. After that, she had focused on her academics and avoided parties.
"Why do people always make fun of those of us that don't curse?"
"Well, for one, you are cursing, you're just not using the same words that everyone else uses. The only reason that those words are 'bad'," he made invisible quotes in the air with his fingers, "is that people use them for cursing. If everyone used biscuits instead, that would soon be considered a 'bad'," again with the fingers, "and everyone from the south would have to find a new word for biscuits."
He stopped and looked at her triumphantly, like he just won a match against her. Which he kind of did. What he said made complete sense once she thought about it.
"You don't have to look so smug. You're the one standing their all naked for the world to see," she huffed.
"Nobody likes a sore loser, Ruby. Now, let's see about getting down from here."
He started to look for a safe way down the slope, but something in the distance caught her eye.
"Bruce, wait," she turned to look for him, but he was leaning over a boulder, looking at something below it.
My heavens, she thought, he has a nice butt.
"Bruce!"
"What?"
"Can you see that?" she pointed at the object in the sky she had spotted.
Bruce squinted at it, "looks like a helicopter."
Ruby bounced just a little, careful not to jar her head too much, and clapped her hands, "fantastic! We can get out of here."
She proceeded to wave wildly at the approaching helicopter, which was now readily identifiable in the clear sky above the mountains. Bruce hastened over to her side and grabbed one of her arms.
"Hold on," he didn't take his eyes off the craft. "I'm not sure that's one of ours."
"How can you tell at this distance?"
"Just a bad feeling."
Ruby twisted in his grasp to face him and put her other hand on her hip. "Really? One of smartest men on the planet, and you're going with a feeling? That's not a very scientific approach. Where's the evidence to support this feeling?"
"Um, how about the missile they just fired at us?"
Ruby's head jerked towards the helicopter and, sure enough, there was a missile coming at them. Fast.
Bruce was already moving, dragging her along with him, "run!"
Together, they dashed to the lip of the ledge that ran in front of their cave and scrambled down the slope, slipping and sliding on the loose shale as they careened downwards. Ruby lost her footing almost immediately, landing hard on her tailbone and sliding several yards before she could stop herself. Bruce fared little better as he wind-milled his arms wildly to keep his balance.
From her vantage, Ruby watched as the missile whistled by over her head and struck the side of the mountain above them. The explosions jarred the shale lose under her and she started sliding again as chunks of rock and dirt rained down. Her ears rang painfully as she managed to get back to her feet and continue her unsteady descent. The dust blown into the air by the missile made it hard to see, but also hid them from the people in the helicopter that were obviously trying to kill them now. She caught a faint glimpse of the tree line and angled towards it.
Bruce was waiting for her under the cover of the evergreens.
"Are you okay?"
She nodded and fell into step beside him as they hurried deeper into the cover of the trees, "yeah. Why are they trying to kill us? We didn't do anything to them."
"You mean other than crashing their jet?"
"That wasn't me. That was you. I mean, the Hulk. Whatever. You know what I mean," she huffed as she half jogged to keep up with him. "And that was in self-defense. That doesn't count."
"I don't think they agree with that assessment." He grabbed her and ducked under a dense, low-hanging bow as the helicopter passed close overhead. With his arm wrapped around her waist, holding her close against him as they crouched, she was acutely aware of his naked body pressed against the bare skin of her back. It took her mind off the danger they were in momentarily, but in a very disconcerting way.
"Okay, let's go," he said softly in her ear, his breath raising goosebumps on her skin.
She hurriedly crawled away and stood up, "where now?"
His brow furrowed as he thought, "the logical option would be downhill and then follow whatever water we find down there. But they would anticipate that move and could easily track us." He paused, "I think our best bet is to go parallel and stay up here in the trees. It would give us the high ground if anyone was trying to track us down below."
It made sense, she thought, "which way then? Right or left?"
"Can you remember which way the sun was from the cave?"
"I think it was behind the mountain because I don't remember seeing it."
"So behind us is south-ish," he aligned his body to face what they could assume was north. "If we are in Colorado, the mountains are all in the western part of the state, so we should go east. If I remember correctly, there's a free way that runs along the eastern edge of the mountains from Denver south to New Mexico." He turned left and set out again.
"It should be fun flagging down a ride with you naked," she muttered.
"I heard that," he snapped. "And we have to get there in one piece first."
