” She jumped from the bench as I was standing up and threw herself into my arms. I hadn’t fully gotten to my feet yet and lost by balance fallin... backwards into the cold water with Kris falling on top of me. “Are you okay?“ Kris asked with a little giggle. I smiled, wrapped my wet arms around her, and pulled us closer for a kiss. We embraced as the Lake Michigan waves broke over our two bodies. On March first of the following year we exchanged vows in a quaint, little Illinois village church. We also discovered that filling our stomachs with warm water also helped to reduce our pangs of hunger, so we drank considerable quantities of tea so that we didn’t want to eat quite as badly as we otherwise would.We were putting ourselves through that purgatory for a worthwhile cause though. That cause was our freedom to be together, away from Mistress’ army and any of my surviving associates within the resistance; assuming that any were still alive and would recognize me any longer. . It's reputed that these are one of those rare breeds of dogs which do not bark.The Alpha-male of the pack suddenly lifted his brownish-yellow head and sniffed the air as something caught his attention. There was something familiar that his keen sense of smell had picked up. Something his pack hadn't found in many months, not since the last female of the pack was killed by a passing truck.He quickly bolted in search of this scent, his pack following their leader. They ran and ran, stopping only. It seems there had been a 'computer glitch' – what else would there be with Io involved? – and all his records were gone, along with records of some other 2,348 people. Strange, but it seemed that the other 2,348 people found other ways to reconstruct their records, when they needed it. Who could follow up on that many stories and 'accidentally' find records in insurance company records or doctors' offices? Io, that's who.Anyway, 'Alex' didn't have any records showing his medical history..