Read Online Chains of Freedom by Selina Rosen - Free Book Online

illogically." RJ finished with a shrug.
     
    David laughed."You're twisted."
     
    She took it as a compliment.
     
     
     
    Towards nightfall, the fuel gauge cranked over to empty, and RJ pulled into a Reliance fuel station. David thought he would die, but RJ acted as if she belonged there. The attendant filled the truck while she went inside and got a couple of sandwiches and some bottled soft drinks. David didn't dare breathe till they were three miles down the road.
     
    "Are you crazy?" David breathed at last.
     
    "Where did you think we were going to get the alcohol to run this thing, David? Squeeze it from a tree maybe?" RJ asked sarcastically.
     
    "I thought we'd steal it late at night when no one was around. I had no idea that you would be blatant enough to pull into the damned Reliance fuel station in broad daylight! You even went inside to get sandwiches, for God's sake!" David screamed.
     
    RJ just grinned.
     
    "It's not funny, RJ."
     
    "I guess you'll never understand, will you? Those people who run that station are just class-two work units. Only authorized Reliance personnel drive vehicles. Therefore, if a vehicle pulls in, it must be Reliance. Right?"
     
    "OK. But the way you're dressed . . . ."
     
    "They wouldn't care if I were buck naked and had 'The Reliance Sucks' painted in bright red letters across my butt. Don't you see? They service the vehicle, not who's driving it. All they do is fill the cars and trucks, and give you a sack lunch if you need it. They're not expected to think, so they don't."
     
    "But what if another Reliance truck had pulled in while we were there?" David asked.
     
    RJ started to say something.
     
    "No, wait, don't tell me. Let me guess. We kill them, right?"
     
    "You're getting better," RJ cooed.
     
    "You're sick, you know that, RJ? Real sick."
     
    "Hand me a sandwich," RJ said, pointing at the sack.
     
    He did.
     
    "That's your answer to everything, isn't it? Just kill it!" David said hotly.
     
    "Hand me my drink," she said, through a mouth full of sandwich.
     
    He handed it to her after opening it.
     
    "What happens when you don't kill someone? What happens when they kill you?"
     
    "You quit worrying about it," RJ grinned crookedly.
     
    David shook his head in disbelief. Not a damned bit of sense arguing with her about it, she wasn't about to change her mind.
     
    They drove for another hour then pulled off the road and parked. RJ pushed a button on the dash and almost gave David a heart attack when the seat flipped out of its own accord to make a bed. He and RJ marched in separate directions to relieve themselves, and returned almost simultaneously.
     
    RJ took off her chain and boots and lay them in the floorboards. Then came the blaster.
     
    David just sat there.
     
    "What's with you?" RJ asked, wondering if he was still mad over the fuel station thing.
     
    "I thought I'd take first watch," he said with a smile."After all, you did all the driving."
     
    "No one needs to take watch, David. No one's going to find us." She took off her shirt and hung it on the steering wheel.
     
    It was a strange thing to notice, made even stranger by the fact that he hadn't noticed till now. The golden-brown color of her skin, which he had attributed to time spent in the sun, wasn't a suntan at all. There were no tan lines on RJ's body. Her color was natural, and he had never knowingly seen anyone naturally colored this way.
     
    "Is that your natural color?" he asked, thinking perhaps it was a side effect of being exposed to something on some alien world.
     
    "My hair?"
     
    "No, your skin." To his surprise, RJ looked nervous.
     
    "Why?" There was a suspicious tone to her voice.
     
    "I've just never seen anyone colored like that. I thought it was a tan, but it's everywhere." He blushed as he said it.
     
    RJ sighed with relief. Just farm boy curiosity, nothing more than that. "Where I come from a lot of people are colored this way." She turned off the lights and lay