Eva said nothing as she followed him through the undergrowth. I’ve never really been sick before, she thought. I didn’t know an illness could be so deadly.

“So what about you?” Rovender paused, looking at Eva over his shoulder. “If the robot is not your mother, what became of her?”

Eva answered, her voice like a lone tinkling bell in an orchestra of nighttime noise, “I never knew my mother or my father. I’ve only known Muthr.” She remembered the robot pushing Eva up the exhaust shaft in the kitchen just the night before.

Rovender studied Eva in the moonlight. “Let’s get back to her, then, okay?”

Eva nodded in agreement.

They continued on in silence for some time, winding their way deeper and deeper into the forest. At last Rovender stopped. “I believe your home lies just ahead, Eva Nine.”

A humming sound drifted down from the night sky. The shadow of a large bird zoomed overhead.

“Sheesa!” Rovender hissed, pushing Eva into the shadows of a wandering tree. “I knew it!”

“What? What is it?” Eva’s eyes went wide as she looked up through the canopy.

“It’s Besteel.” Rovender spit. “I should have sabotaged his glider when I had the chance. Now he is searching for us from above.”

Eva could hear the hum of the glider. It was very low and distant, then it grew louder.

“He is circling,” Rovender said. He craned his neck, catching a glimpse of the glider as it soared over them. “We shall let him go by again. Then we will run for it. Okay?”

“Won’t he see us?” Eva rotated her sore foot, readying it.

“He can sense heat, but it is cool tonight. So if we can get underground in time, he may not detect us,” Rovender answered, keeping his eyes on the dark sky. The thin moon went back to sleep behind the clouds. The sound of the glider diminished, then began to increase. “He’s coming back,” Rovender said, crouching in the shadow of the tree. “Get ready.”

The glider whooshed by.

“Go! Now!” The two hop-dashed across a small clearing toward the entryway of Eva’s Sanctuary. As they neared, Eva tripped over the heavy ply-steel entrance door lying on the ground. Rovender yanked her inside. The two nearly toppled down the staircase that led down to Eva’s home.

While she caught her breath, Eva watched Rovender inspect the sky from the cover of the battered entryway. “Besteel is circling over once more,” he reported. “Ah, good. Now he’s moving on.” Eva could hear the eerie hum of Besteel’s glider fade away.

“We are safe for the moment,” Rovender cautioned. “So we should hurry. Go, go, go.”