I pulled into the large garage and shut off the engine. We got out and she looked around at all of the vehicles and equipment in the garage.

“You weren’t kidding. Whoever owns this must be rich.”

“You have no idea. This place is much more than it appears on the surface.”

“I’ll be glad to sleep in a real bed instead of the backseat of my dad’s car.”

“Ah . . . I think that you had better get cleaned up before we go to the main house.” I pointed. “There’s a bathroom over there with a shower. After you clean up you can dress in your new stuff.”

She walked over to the door that led to the bathroom and opened it, activating the lights.” She turned back to me, as if waiting for me to instruct her on what to do next.

“Give me your clothes,” I told her, gesturing.

She gave me a surprised look that quickly morphed to amusement. “Gee, I’ve never had a boy ask me that.”

I managed a weak simile. “I’m going to get rid of them. They’re too damaged to reuse.”

She entered the bathroom and closed the door halfway. After a few minutes, I saw a hand emerge from the door holding the dress and her bra and panty.”

I accepted them. “Thank you.”

I heard her bare feet slapping on the tiles as she made her way to the shower. After a few minutes, I head the water running. Why hadn’t she closed the door? Is she afraid that I might leave her? This is awkward.

I decided to throw her clothes in a waste can and wait over by the truck until she was finished. I could still hear the shower running and tried to imagine what was going on in there but though better of it.

After several minutes, I saw her emerge from the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her body. Her hair was still wet, but I could see that she was a blond. She had slicked her still moist hair back from her beautiful face.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I’ll get you your clothes.” I ran to the back of the truck and began rooting in the stack of stuff she had selected from the department store. 

She came over and put a hand on mine. “I can do that.”

Her touch startled me and I backed away. “Please do.”

She aimed a teasing smile at me before selecting a bra, panty, jeans, tee shirt and sneakers, and then she fired another teasing grin at me before going back to the bathroom. 

She eventually emerged dressed and we proceeded to the main house via the underground tunnel. The door to the main house opened as we approached, indicating that we were being monitored. Once inside, I took her to the kitchen and sat her down at a table and went to work preparing a good meal for both of us. 

A screen mounted above the table activated. “I see that you have found a friend, Jack Siefert.”

“This is Diane Hobert. She’s from Wheeling West Virginia, and she wouldn’t have survived if I hadn’t saved her from becoming a wild dog meal.”

“You did well, Jack Siefert.” 

“Thanks, but the point is that there could be others out there still alive that need help.”

“Perhaps this is a test to determine the fittest, Jack Siefert.”

“Who is conducting this test?”

“That is a good question, Jack Siefert, but I suggest that if this is an invasion, the perpetrators are the architects of the test.” 

“Too bad there isn’t a way that we could detect other survivors.”

“I am able to detect group activity but not individuals.”

“How?”

“I have access to the meteorological satellites in synchronous orbits. I have also broken the codes for access to surveillance satellites.”

“Really?”

“Yes, Jack Siefert.”

The screen darkened.

“Who is that?” Diane asked. 

“That’s George Talbot, the son of coal baron. He owns this compound. Actually, that’s his likeness. He dead.” 

She gave me a funny look. “Dead?” 

“Yes, what you’re seeing is his computer brain trying to live a virtual life.” 

“That would require quite a bit of computing power. The human brain has a hundred billion neurons and a thousand trillion synaptic connections.” 

Oh my God! I found someone who is not only beautiful she has smarts. 

“I’ve seen the computer. It takes up a huge amount of space in a cavern beneath the house.” 

“I wonder what sort of circuits it uses. EPROM’s are slow and only hold a few kilobytes of data.” 

“You seem to know a lot about computers,” I said. 

“My dad is . . . was an IBM programmer.”

“My father owned a supermarket.” I sat a plate with a steak, a baked potato and corn in front of her. 

She cut a piece of the steak and chewed it. “Is that why you know how to cook?” 

I smiled. “I learned to cook out of necessity. My mother worked at the supermarket and I often had to cook supper when I got home from school.” 

“I can’t remember when I had a steak as good as this.” 

“This place is loaded with food. We won’t starve, that’s for sure.”

She smiled. “I guess I got lucky. You not only saved me, you’ve taken me to heaven.” 

“Actually, I’ve taken you to Life After Death; that’s what the owner calls this place.” 

“He’s probably referring to the idea of achieving a virtual live after death, a life based on his memories being stored in a computer directing an android device.” 

Damn, she’s really smart. 

“That’s right. What I’m not certain of is whether he knew about this disaster and prepared for it.” 

“That would have required prior knowledge. Depending on what did this, he would have needed insider information.” 

“You sound as if you believe that this was the government’s fault.” 

“Think about it. We survived something that killed billions. This couldn’t have been an energy weapon because we would be dead too. It had to be some virulent pathogen that we are immune to.” 

“How is that possible?” We have nothing in common. Our genetics have to be different.”

“Maybe it isn’t just genetics. We could have some chemical in our blood that interfered with the pathogen, which I would assume is a virus.” 

“How would a chemical affect a virus?”

“It depends on the virus. Do you like rice?” 

I stared as her for a few minutes before replying. “Yes, I do.”

“Rice from a location in Texas has a particularly high concentration of arsenic compared to Asian sources. Maybe that is why we’re immune.” 

“I was under the impression that arsenic was more lethal to fungus.”

She sighed. “Wouldn’t that be ironic; we were attacked by some new fungi species and we survived because we like a rice product from Texas.” 

“If that were the case, there would be other survivors.” 

“You would have found them,” she said. “There has to be a better explanation.”

“I agree.”

After we finished eating, I escorted her to the room next to mine on the second level. The robots had already moved the clothing that we stole from the mall and put it in our rooms.

“Do these robots also clean the rooms?” she asked.

“I believe so. I haven’t been here that long to know exactly what they do”

She went over to the bed and ran her hand along the cover. “This is much better than I’m used to.” 

“Yeah, it is pretty nice.” I gestured. “I’m next door in case you have any problems.”

She offered a teasing grin. “I think that you might have problems, Jack Siefert.”

“I chuckled and gave her a mock salute before retiring to my room.