Or maybe:
And repeatedly:
If he only had a brain. Taking a drink from her waterbag, Amy noted it would need to be filled. Not so easy this far from the Solomon, where creeks were few and dry.
Deciding to pee, she got up and walked around behind the metal man, going a good ways into the wheat. Sure, he was just a machine that saw and talked, but it made her feel better. Pulling down her scarecrow pants, she squatted in the wheat, wondering what to do next.
Nothing came to mind. As Amy finished, and pulled up her pants, she was blindsided by a tawny blur that shot out of the wheat stalks, knocking her off her feet.
Clawed hands seized her, one covering her mouth, the other pressing her into the wheat. Something heavy and hairy had landed on top of her, holding her down and hissing in her ear, “Stop thrashing and squealing. You’re going to give us away.”
Us? What did this beast mean? Though it had hands and fingers, the thing holding her most resembled a man-sized panther, with tan fur and a slight lisp. He whispered, “Promise not to scream, and I will take my hand away.”
She nodded vigorously, and his hand relaxed. Amy breathed out, then turned to look at her attacker. Seeing a tawny, yellow-eyed cat face, with white saber-like canines inches from her throat, Amy shrieked.
His hand cut off her cry. “You promised,” he hissed. “Screaming will just bring Bushwhackers.” Neither of them wanted that. Amy nodded again, and he relaxed his grip. She asked, “Who are you?”
“Call me Leo,” the big cat suggested, “a lot of humans do.”
“What are you?”
“Never seen a SuperCat?” Leo sounded sorry for her. “We’re a genetic improvement on humanity, faster, stronger, smarter, and fiercer, created centuries back from human and big cat DNA, to tackle superhuman tasks.”
So far, all Leo had tackled was her, but he was rigged for trouble, wearing battle-armor, and a string of gas grenades that dug into Amy’s side. She was also getting her first close-up look at the butt of a military-style stinger, tucked into the SuperCat’s furry armpit. Leo’s sly saber-toothed smile widened.
“My current task is simple. Have you seen a small dark-haired female in a blue dress? I fear she is in distress.”
“Maybe.” Leo was no Bushwhacker. Or Wheeler. This heavily armed, gene-spliced catman fairly screamed “off-world.” Animals in Cloud County usually knew their place. Only parrots talked, and even the worst chicken-thief coyotes stole about unarmed.
“My orders are to rescue her,” Leo explained. “She is Peace Corps, assigned to this world.” Peace Corps. Another word adults only whispered. Besides runaway girls, Bushwhackers were on the lookout for Peace Corps spies, who were the worst sort of Jayhawkers, fiends that came in the night to steal naughty girls like Amy. What they did with them, heaven only knew. Dorothy hardly fit the image. Smiling slyly, the SuperCat cocked an eye at her. “Tell me you never heard of the Peace Corps?”
“I have heard of them.” She just did not know who they were.
“Good.” Leo got up, setting Amy back on her feet. “’Cause they are the only folks within a billion light-years who give a hoot about your naked-monkey ass. So you need to help me.” Amy finished pulling up her pants, telling her attacker, “You didn’t have to jump me while I was peeing.” Leo laughed, standing up on his hind legs. “Second best time to hit an awake human. I didn’t want to tackle your robot too. That was the only time you parted from him.”
“Right.” Good thing she had already peed. It was nice to know that he feared the robot, which was programmed to defend humans from animal attack.
Her captor patted chaff off her pants, asking, “So have you seen Dorothy?”
“Wheelers took her.” Amy pointed back toward the yellow brick road. “Heading west.”
“Probably taking her back to Wheeler,” Leo decided.
“What will happen to her?” By now she was horribly worried for Dorothy. Wheeler sounded worse than the Concordia Academy for Reluctant Virgins.
Furry shoulders shrugged. “Do I look like a Wheeler?”
Not a lot. “So what will you do?”
“Report that she did not make pickup.”
Leo was beginning to sound like the robot. Amy scooped up her hat, saying, “I’m going to find her.”
“In Wheeler?” Leo laughed aloud.
Wherever. Two days away from home, with nothing but her scarecrow clothes, and a next to useless robot, Amy knew what to do. Dorothy needed to be saved. Her whole life turned on that wish-upon-a-star. Going back now would be as good as suicide.
“This is nonsense,” Leo declared, as she stalked over to the tin man, telling him to pick her up. The robot hoisted her onto its shoulder.
“What will you do for me?” Amy asked. “If I give up on Dorothy, what do I get?” Leo shrugged again. “Nothing.”
Exactly. Leo meant to abandon her, as soon as she ceased to be useful. Dorothy deserved better than that. Amy told the robot to take her to the yellow brick road, and head west. Rolling his eyes, Leo trotted after her, saying, “You’re going the wrong way.” Amy shot back. “Why do you care?”
“I don’t,” Leo assured her. “But I cannot allow you to get caught. You know too much.” Of course. So long as it was just Dorothy, he didn’t care. But she had seen Leo, and the SuperCat could not afford to let Bushwhackers beat the truth out of her—then come looking for him. Hardly caring about humans, Leo was very careful with his own furry skin.
Leo told her, “Wheelers have to use the yellow brick road, going west to Wheeler. That’s the long way around the torus. We can go the short way, through the Kickapoos to Cheyenne country, getting to Wheeler before they arrive.”
Head the wrong way and get there first. Why was she the only one who thought that sounded wrong?
“And you’re coming with me?”
“Reluctantly,” Leo admitted. He could not coerce her so long as she sat atop her tin-plated protector. So they turned about, heading for Kickapoo Country, bypassing Jewel City, Kackley, Norway, and Agenda. When the yellow brick road ended, Leo led her through the badlands in broad daylight, without so much as seeing a Kickapoo. Leo was not lying about his SuperCat abilities. Only the tireless tin man let Amy keep up.
In a few hours they had come back around, and were in Cheyenne County, crossing the south fork of the Republican, which should have been miles behind them. On the far bank, Amy saw the yellow brick road rising out of the stream. She had found the west end of the road by heading east, making her world very much smaller than she ever imagined.
Leo led her past Wheeler, to a lonely stretch of the yellow brick road west of Bird City, so close Amy glimpsed the half-mile tall aviary tower. She would have liked to get a closer look, but feared being spotted by Birdmen, who were little better than flying Bushwhackers. By now she was a posted runaway bride, with a generous reward for her capture, payable in Concordia. At a shady spot out of sight of the tower, she and Leo settled down to watch the road. Curious about the wider universe, Amy asked the SuperCat, “Where do you come from?”
“From a world far, far away,” Leo replied airily.