They repacked the CCA and stowed it in Gwen's Hepmobile. Gwen moved the rocket half a mile away, and then strolled back to join Rusty while the Sun set over the plains. They sat in companionable silence and watched the Sun go down. As the sky darkened, the stars bloomed into view - you could see so many of them out here! Gwen and Rusty followed the constellations as they wheeled slowly overhead. And sometime during all that wheeling and following, Gwen dozed off.
Gwen was listening to a distant, pounding heartbeat. It reminded her of something, but she couldn't think what. It seemed important for her to figure it out and that made it all the more annoying when an armored prairie dog started to poke her in the ribs with its tiny saber. She shooed it away, but it just wouldn't stop. If anything, the heartbeat was getting louder as she shoved at the tiny conquistador. It tipped its wide-brimmed helmet at her, danced a little dance, and turned into Rusty.
Oh, thought Gwen. Strange dream. Then she realized that she was still listening to the thumping of the heartbeat. Rusty pointed urgently across the moonlit prairie.
Far off along the flattened trail Gwen could see something moving: no, it looked like a whole crowd of somethings. As the whatever-they-weres pounded across the slaughtered grass they raised a cloud of fine, soft dust that obscured Gwen's view.
She and Rusty crept closer to the trail and watched the crowd approach.
It was about a hundred Big Lug robots, trampling the prairie flat with their big heavy feet. They were coming this way, Gwen sa
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