At first Dean could say nothing. He was too shocked by what Sharona had said. The companions were his life and now that his mother was back, he wanted her to be part of that, so he could have that sense of family that he had spent his time on Pilatu yearning for. Why didn’t she want that?
Sharona looked at him with a sad smile, as though she had read his mind. “They’re your people, not mine,” she whispered. “I don’t know them and I don’t see how I can fit in.”
“But they’re really good—been really good to me. I mean. I know Doc’s a bit crazy, but he’s got courage. Jak takes a long time to know, but he’s the best hunter you’ll ever see, and an amazing fighter. I’ve learned so much from him. Mildred is great, and J.B.’s so cool with all the shit he knows, and Krysty has been like a mom to me, and then there’s Dad…” Dean suddenly trailed off, as it began to make more sense to him. Something clicked in his head.
“Yeah, exactly,” Sharona answered. “Your dad is really thrown by me turning up. I can tell because he’s said nothing to me about it since that night when I tried to explain it all. And Krysty can’t be too happy about me being here, either. Can’t say that I blame her. So it’ll be hard for us all to get along. But why do we have to?”
“I don’t follow,” Dean said, although he had the nastiest feeling that he knew what was coming.
Sharona grabbed him by the shoulders and her deep-set eyes lit up as she said, “Why don’t we just go off by ourselves? Mebbe we could try to find Nyland’s convoy again, or find a ville where we could settle and make a life for ourselves. Somewhere that we won’t have to face shitloads of danger every day, where we can just live in peace and get back the time we’ve lost.”
“Why do we have to do that?”
Tears filled her eyes, trickling down her cheeks. “Because I don’t want to share you with anyone. Why should I? I’ve lost so much time with you. I sent you away thinking I was about to buy the farm! I can’t see myself sharing you and risking you every day in some insane search for…for what?”
Dean shook his head. “I don’t know. I don’t know if I can leave them all behind. Please don’t make me.”
Sharona could see the real hurt in his face and she looked away.
“I truly don’t know if I can do that, Dean. But I’ll think about it. It’s all I can promise you.”
Chapter Fifteen
The Pilatan caravan traveled across the new lands for several days, covering a rapidly changing terrain. Some sections were arid, the land scorched and barren, where others were lushly vegetated with overhanging woodlands that provided cover for the shrubs and grasses to propagate. There was little wildlife to bother the caravan. Most of the mammals were small and the birds weren’t of a predatory variety.
There was, however, one moment when the Pilatans came face-to-face with a facet of mainland life with which the companions were all too familiar.
It was on the third day, as they crossed a stretch of land that was so sunblasted and rad damaged that little could grow. The only thing that linked this to any of the other areas they had passed was the ubiquitous two-lane blacktop that still wove its broken-backed way across the land. A scout party reported that they had located a source of water. The Pilatans were plentifully supplied with food as Jak had taught them supplementary hunting skills that they had practiced with great aplomb on the small mammals and birds. But water was always a problem. They only had a certain amount of water that they could store as they journeyed, so the search for water was always of paramount importance.
The scouting party had reported that they had found a spring about three miles to the northeast. Markos led the caravan in that direction. It was on the way that Krysty turned to Ryan.