Hope exhorted Undead Elvis to hurry. She had a sense that something bad was approaching, and they needed to leave the desert oasis before it arrived to devour them. Carrying water would be more difficult. Besides the gallon jug Gabe had carried in The Way, Hope found no other containers. She drank her fill, then topped off the jug. "I hope we find more." "Let's hope, Hope," said Undead Elvis with a smile. "Too much to hope for a car with air conditioning." "It wouldn't be much good with that broken window, Li'l lady." "True." They looked at the pile of fruit in the bed of the car. It didn't seem like much at all. Hope wondered how long it would last. Then on the heels of that thought, she wondered how she would manage to eat enough of the right foods to grow a baby. She knew nothing about motherhood or pregnancy except that she'd planned to avoid it at all costs. So much for that. In spite of the hot sun, she shivered. "I wish Gabe was still with us." Undead Elvis touched her breastbone in an intimate but nonsexual way, the touch of a friend.
