Gwen awoke to Tomás shaking her shoulder. “Gwen,” he said softly, “wake up!” Gwen’s eyes fluttered open. “I thought we’d stop for breakfast,” Tomás told her. “How do pancakes sound?” Gwen stretched, her pink lips forming an ‘O’ as she yawned. “Is there coffee?” she groaned. “There will be many cups of coffee,” Tomás laughed. “Come on. Let’s get this show on the road.” He got out of the car and walked around to Gwen’s side, opening the door for her. She stepped out of the car, and Tomás reached for her hand. Gwen jerked back slightly, and Tomás reminded her, “Our covers are a couple, remember? This is your time to act. I’d apologize for your having to do this, but I personally don’t see being a couple with you as a bad thing.” Tomás smirked. “Are you ready, Emilia?” He held out his hand. “No funny business. You better warn me before anything.” She said seriously. “Of course.” Tomás was chivalrous as he took Gwen’s hand. This time, when she didn’t pull away, he smiled. Then the two walked in to the little restaurant.
“What would you two like today?” a young waitress –Amanda by her nametag – asked them as she pulled out her notepad from the apron tied around her clearly not pregnant belly. “We’ll take two coffees, cream and sugar for both, and 2 stacks of strawberry pancakes, please.” Tomás spoke for both himself and Gwen. “That all?” Amanda questioned as she jotted down their order. Tomás looked at Gwen, then verified. “Yes.” Amanda poured their coffee and set the cream and sugar on the table. “You’re the only ones here, obviously, so your meal should be coming right up!” She smiled cheerily and then left to put in the order. Tomás turned toward Gwen.
“So,” he mused, “is your fear just of the Tornado or of Amusement Parks themselves?” Gwen glared at him. “I’m not afraid. I just…prefer not to visit Amusement Parks.” “So you are scared. See, the cause of you not wanting to go is the Tornado; therefore you are scared of the Tornado.” “No,” Gwen objected, “I just don’t find Amusement parks amusing.” “Really,” Tomás was unconvinced. “What do you find amusing?”
Just then Amanda the waitress returned with their pancakes, and Gwen went about stuffing her face to avoid the question. Really, the only thing that had ever truly amused her was Tomás. There was something about him that just made her want to smile. No, she must be imagining it. Or else it was just her lack of lust-management, which had the side effect of dulling her emotions. That was probably why she was feeling so many things now. Without the pills, her emotions were coming back strong. It was strange to feel things again. Maybe it was partly Tomás, too, for making her feel obligated to supply a story. After he told her about Agustín, Tomás seemed to need a distraction. Gwen knew pain when she saw it, but was no good at comforting. And really, Tomás didn’t seem to want comfort. So instead she decided to distract him, as she would want. Gwen didn’t want to lead Tomás in to thinking that they would have a chance at anything more than the strange sort of friendship that they already had, but he was right about one thing. This mission would be much easier if they knew each other well enough to act as a couple. Then again, to truly act like a couple, it would be easiest to simply be one. But Gwen didn’t want that. Tomás acted as though he might want that, but Gwen couldn’t allow herself to reciprocate that feeling. She would just have to make the boundary clear.
“You’re very quiet,” Tomás interrupted her thoughts. “What are you thinking about?” Gwen shook her head. “Nothing you should worry about.” She needed to move his thoughts to something else. “Do you like being a Tracker?” was the first thing that popped into her mind, and flooded out of her mouth. “No,” Tomás answered immediately. “Well,” he amended, “It’s not that I don’t like being a Tracker. I just don’t like some of the things we have to do. That I have to do, really. Most of the time that I don’t have an Assignment I’m…helping with breeding quotas. All the males are required to help the Populators meet their quotas. A lot of the time, breeding is used as payment for goods.” Tomás spoke disgustedly, then his voice reflected heated passion. “It’s wrong. There must be a better alternative than this. I just can’t imagine that the only way to bring the population levels up is as sick as this.” Tomás looked at Gwen. “You and I will have to breed too, you know. They’ll force us for the Assignment. And as beautiful as you are, I don’t want that. I don’t want to breed without caring.” Gwen was startled by this answer, but some small part of her understood what he was saying. On the other hand, he was questioning the Council of Countries’ decisions. He was questioning the way that the world had been run for years.
“Tomás, that’s how it works,” she said. “The best way is to keep the Populators breeding. As a man, it’s your job to help with that. Our world is dying so quickly, and losing the human race would be devastating.” Tomás grumbled. “Maybe the human race would be better off gone.” Gwen stared at him in shock. She opened her mouth to speak just as their waitress returned to the table. “Here’s your receipt,” she smiled and set it on the table. “You two have a wonderful day!”
Gwen stood and quickly walked to the truck, letting Tomás fall behind. She got in the driver’s side and started the engine. When Tomás wasn’t there after 15 minutes, Gwen grew concerned. She walked in to the restaurant to find Tomás gone. She went to look for him, when she ran in to the chef. “Ah,” the man said, “Looking for your boyfriend?” “Yes,” Gwen answered, taking the slightest step back. “Have you seen him?” she asked in a thick Spanish accent, remembering her cover. “Seen him?” the chef cackled. “Yes I saw him. He’s in the back with Amanda. Breeding, I’d guess.” He saw the look on her face. “Amanda doesn’t need a cash tip right now,” he spoke more gently. “And he was willing to tip her what she needed.” “Just tell him I’m in the truck waiting,” Gwen said quietly, then ran outside.
Five minutes later, Tomás opened the passenger door and got in. “I’m sorry,” he said ashamedly, “She demanded a tip, and we didn’t have any more American currency.” Gwen could tell he was angry, but before she had a chance to speak, Tomás continued. “God, this is such a sick world. It’s sick that we are expected to not care. We’re expected to breed like it’s nothing. And I just screwed a waitress whose name I only know from the nametag on her shirt.” His body was shaking, angry tears sliding down his cheeks. “You may think you know what’s going to happen, but you have no idea. Breeding is just the beginning, Gwen. You don’t know what they have planned for us. You have no clue. You trust them, and you’re too stupid know better. Your whole little world you have in your head is going to crash once they ruin you too.”
Gwen just stared at him. “What do you know?” she demanded. When Tomás didn’t answer, she took a breath to speak. “Tomás, if you know something, you’d better speak now.” Tomás remained silent, even when Gwen’s hand slapped him hard enough to rattle his jaw. He flexed the muscles in his face, then looked down at her. “You’ll find out soon enough. Just drive.” He turned to face the window, and silently stared at the cars passing by.
