CHAPTER SIXTEEN: SWEET TOOTH

They traveled for several more days without incident. Ian repaired the flamethrower, but wasn't certain that it wouldn't give out again when it was most needed, so he always slept with a loaded crossbow, as Justin did with his sword. On one rainy night, they took refuge beneath an elevated section of roadway, and so were able to keep dry.

The next night they wandered into a wooded campsite. Ian decided to make their camp only a few yards from a pair of sleeping humans. They wouldn't be able to make a fire, Justin argued, but Ian had something else in mind. The campers had food, and Ian reckoned it was time to do some foraging.

The humans had their food in a large knapsack, tied closed with knots that would confound any ordinary animals but presented no problem to Ian and Justin. Once it was open, they took a little bit of everything that wasn't sealed in a can or jar and deposited it into a couple of bags made from rags Ian had picked up along the highway. When the bags were full, they each grabbed one and hurried quickly and quietly back toward their own little camp.

As Justin passed by the smaller of the two sleeping bags, he caught an odor that stopped him dead in his tracks. Ian, running close behind, couldn't put on the brakes in time and slammed into him. "What is it?"

"Chocolate," Justin sniffed. "I smell chocolate."

"Well, good for you. We don't need it, so get moving."

"But I love chocolate."

Ian took the lead. "Everyone loves chocolate, but unless you want to climb over a sleeping human to get it, you're gonna have to forget it this time. Come on!"

Justin hesitated a bit, then followed Ian back to their camp. There he set down his load and said, "Ian, there's something I never told you. I have an absolute craving for chocolate. Look, I'm drooling!"

"Salivate to your heart's content, but that sugary junk isn't worth risking your life for, Justin."

"I won't be risking my life. It must be close to the opening of the sleeping bag - otherwise I wouldn't have smelled it. I bet I can get it away from him without waking him up."

Ian put his forepaws on his hips. "Justin, I've never known you not to act sensibly, but that's exactly what you're doing now. It would be foolish to … Justin, come back here! Don't be an idiot!"

Justin bounded back into the humans' camp and up to the boy's sleeping bag. The smell of chocolate was deliriously strong. He lifted up one of the bag's flaps and looked inside.

A whole unopened bar lay beneath the boy's fingers.

Ian came up beside Justin. "This is silly!"

"No, look, I could slip it right out from under his hand." Justin crawled up into the down-filled covers and started very gently to slide the flat candy bar out of the boy's loose grip.

"Be careful! You'll wake him up!" Ian ran over to the boy's head to watch for a fluttering eyelid or any other sign of awakening. Justin emerged from beneath the flap, the unwieldy chocolate bar in his forepaws.

"Got it!"

"Good!" Ian gave the boy one last glance, and found himself staring into two huge dark eyes. He stumbled back a step from the shock, then turned and sprinted for the cover of the forest. "Justin! Get the hell out of here!"

The boy sat up. In the darkness, he could just barely make out a rat fleeing into the undergrowth with his candy bar slung over its back. "Dad! A rat just stole my Nestle Crunch! Dad, wake up!"

The man was up in a second. "Rats?" He groped around for his flashlight, then shone its beam on the knapsack and saw that their food had been gone into. "Damn vermin! That's the last straw! Tomorrow morning we go home, Howie."

"Dad, they were wearing clothes! And they were talking to each other!"

"Howie," said the father, ignoring his son's last remark, "you'd better sleep in the back seat of the car tonight. Rats can bite."

"But, Dad! They were wearing clothes!"

"I'm sure they were." The father opened the back of their auto. "But even magical rats can bite. Now, in you go, Tiger!"

Ian was about to go back for Justin when, with the chocolate bar on his back, Justin broke through into their camp. "That was great, Justin, just great! I almost had a heart attack!"

"I didn't ask you to come along." Justin tore open one end of the waxy wrapper, exposing the bumpy brown candy, and breathed deeply of the aroma. "Oh, I think I'm in heaven! Smell that, Ian!"

"I've smelled chocolate before. So now that you've got it, what are you going to do with it?"

"Eat it, what else?"

"You eat that whole thing," Ian pointed at the bar, "and you'll end up with the worst stomach ache that any rat has ever had."

"Of course you're welcome to as much as you want."

"That's not the point, Justin. I really don't want any. We can't take what's left over after you finish nibbling at it tonight with us. It would melt, and we really can't carry any more anyway."

Justin looked despondently at the bar. "But we can't just leave it here tomorrow. That would be such a waste!"

"I wouldn't say that. It would eventually be finished off by some animal or other."

"Like I said - what a waste!"

Ian settled down into a sleeping position. "Have yourself a small feast now, Justin, and enjoy it while it lasts." Taking his companion's advice, Justin tucked into the candy. Ian closed his eyes and tried to drift off, but the sound of Justin's jowls working on the sweet chocolate began to take effect on him. Finally, he got up.

"On second thought, maybe I will have just a little of that."

(A/N: I can't remember how this scene struck me as I was writing it, but going back and revisiting it all these years later, I think it holds up better than most, and stands as the most flat-out fun passage from the entire novel, providing a nice break after all the heaviness of Ian's rapid aging, Jenner's reappearance and takeover of the colony, Justin's exile and the various deaths, both rat and human. A bit of levity to lighten the mood without breaking the overall tone and thrust of the story. But don't worry, there'll be more levity to come, along with wrenching drama and earthshaking conflict aplenty!)