creature let loose a big dump, clumps of brown and yellowish stuff
plopping onto the ground under its tail. It never even lifted its head
from its grazing. Poot and eat at the same time.
Yuk.
'Puuwee!' Nadine said.
Before it had smelled kind of rank, but now it really stunk.
'Yeah, well, I'm impressed. No wonder they wiped them out. Come on,
let's get upwind,' he said.
Behind them, the thirty-foot-long RV Tyrone's dad had borrowed from an
admiral he knew was parked at the gas pumps, sucking up fuel. The
thing would hold like fifty or sixty gallons in the tank, and it needed
it, because it got only eight or ten miles to the gallon. On a round
trip that was probably going to run almost six thousand miles, the RV
was going to drink a lot of gasoline. Even with the new clean-burn
technology and the solar-assist panels, the RV was a big old tank, big
as a bus, and it lumbered along like a dinosaur. Of course, it was
huge on the inside. There was a bedroom in the back with a queen-sized
bed, where his mom and dad slept. A bathroom with a shower and toilet
and sink, lots of closet space, and even a tiny bedroom up front that
pulled out from one side of the main body like a drawer when they were
stopped. Nadine slept in that little room behind one of those plastic
accordion doors. Plus there was a dining area with a table, a kitchen
with a stove, fridge, sink, microwave oven, and a pretty good-sized TV
set and computer, with an automatic track-and-lock sat dish on the roof
that caught narrow cast audio-vid, and tele com signals. You could sit
there and eat a bowl of Haagen-Dazs pineapple-coconut ice cream and
watch entcom stuff, or log onto the net, all while your dad was driving
down the interstate at sixty. Pretty amazing.
A lot more fun than being cooped up in the back of the family Dodge.
Although being cooped up hip-to-hip with Nadine wouldn't be so bad. She
wasn't gorgeous, but she was smart, athletic, and definitely female.
There was a couch behind the passenger seat that pulled out into a bed,
and that was where Tyrone slept. He'd gotten used to it after the days
on the road, and it was almost as comfortable as his bed at home. His
dad had said it ought to be, since the RV had cost the admiral as much
as they'd paid for their house.
He saw his mom and dad coming back from the direction of the truck
stop. They had a couple of big paper bags and a cardboard carrier of
soft drinks. This was a treat, since Mom usually cooked in the RV.
'There's a place to park around the side of the buffalo pen,' his dad
said.
'We can eat and watch the buffalo roam.' He rattled the bags.
'Flawless,' Tyrone said.
'As long as it's not downwind.'
The fries were good, the onion rings really good, and the burgers had a
kind of smoky, odd flavor. Not bad, but different. Tyrone swallowed a
bite of the burger and said, 'They cook burgers kinda differently out
here.'
His father smiled.
