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Love, lies, and the apocalypse
Date: 9/27/2015, Categories: Love Stories, Author: Alexandra_A, Rating: 9, Source: LushStories
the sliver-barked trees grew stunningly green; the wheat in the distant fields shone garishly yellow. It was like regaining my sight. I walked for hours, drinking it in, luxuriating in the welcoming warmth of the waning sun. The tender breeze was beautifully benign and carried myriad mingled scents. Insects buzzed and flew. Hovering birds sang. Cows mooed and distant dogs barked. Weighed down by a mass of sensory information, I sank to my knees beside a sandstone stile, my eyes closed, my ears covered, till I regained a semblance of control. At that moment, I thought of Mia, my darling Mia, trapped on the slowly-flowing ice amid a total white-out, a blasting, withering blizzard, with only the relatively flimsy shelter of the station to keep body and soul together, and I panicked. I had to get back. I had to get back to protect her. * 'So soon?' I shrugged. 'Yes, I'm afraid so. The work is complex. They apparently can't cope without me.' The woman's heavily-painted features darkened. From out of nowhere, a storm was brewing. 'I know.' I pulled my best confused face. 'Know what?' 'The woman you saved?' 'Woman?' Exasperation took over from anger and shook her weary head. 'Yes. The woman whose life you saved. You know? The one you've never even mentioned.' A slippery droplet of truth oiled the wheels of deception. 'There was a rescue, yes, but it wasn't just me. I was in the search party, but it wasn't just...' More silent tears. How ...