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He reaches up to run his hand over my cheek, back into my hair. “You saved my life.”
“Don’t get mushy on me. Get up.”
He pulls my face down farther and kisses me soundly on the mouth. I don’t fight it because it’s warm, it’s him and he’s alive. I can’t stop to think about how happy I am that he didn’t die out there. I can’t think about what would happen to me if I lost him. Where my heartbeats would go without his to follow.
I pull away. “Move. Now.”
“So bossy,” he grumbles, but he gets up.
We’ve come ashore in an old industrial area. This is good and bad. Good because it’s probably abandoned. Bad because there won’t be much to make a fire with and we absolutely have to have a fire.
“Where do you think we are?” I ask quietly as we slowly make our way through the rusted rubble.
“Judging by the light in that direction,” Trent says, pointing to our left, “I’d say we’re just south of the stadiums.”
“Perfect. So we have to get by the Colonies to get home.”
“We have to go through the valley,” Ryan says.
“The what?”
“On Crenshaw’s map. Remember the valley between the stadiums and the dark shadowy area. He said the space between was the Valley of the Shadow of Death.”
“And the black area was the portal to Hell,” I say, remembering it suddenly.
Ryan cocks an eyebrow at me. “He told us not to go there.”
“He also told us not to go to The Hive.”
“My point exactly.”
“We can’t avoid it,” I protest, feeling frustrated.
Trent stops short suddenly, looking around with his wicked hawk eyes. “We’ll make camp here.”
“Okay, why here?”
“Because over there,” he says, pointing ahead and to the left of us, “are the Colonies, just two blocks away. And over there,” he points to our right, “another two blocks away are the ca
“Are you kidding me?” I hiss, immediately going tense. “We’re near the ca
He frowns at me like I’m stupid. “Because I’ve seen them.”
“Of course you have. We can’t stay here.”
“We can’t go back either and we definitely don’t want to go any farther forward. Not at night.”
“Why not at night? The Colonists won’t be able to see us as well.”
“I’m not worried about the Colonists. At night, you have to worry about the ca
“Oh man,” I moan, wrapping my arms around myself. “So right now not only do we have to worry about zombies and pneumonia, we have to worry about being kidnapped by Colonists and being eaten alive by ca
“There are also a lot of mosquitos this close to the water.”
“Oh my God,” I mutter.
“We’ll be alright,” Ryan tells me. “Let’s start a fire and—“
“A fire? Are you crazy? It’ll call them all right to us.”
Ryan shakes his head. “We have to have a fire, Joss. We need to dry off, to warm up. It can’t be helped.”
“We’ll go over there inside that shack,” Trent says, pointing to an old security building at the entrance of the parking lot we’re standing in. “We’ll bust out the windows if they’re not already gone to let the smoke out, but the building should block most of the light from the fire.”
“Fine,” I say reluctantly, knowing they’re right. “But when we die, I want you both to remember I told you so.”
“Noted,” Ryan agrees.
Luckily the shack is a complete mess. Complete mess means things to burn. Things that have been inside and kept from most of the elements, most importantly moisture. Only one window is broken. Trent wastes no time breaking two more while Ryan and I get to work building our fire inside an old metal trash can. It’s easier than you’d think, but then again, we’ve had practice. Lots and lots of practice.
Once it’s burning in the center of the room, we huddle around it. I drape my torn, wet coat over a chair to let it dry faster. I’m shivering from head to toe so when Ryan wraps his arm around me and pulls me in close to his body, I don’t fight it. I tense and my breathing gets tight, but I try to hide it. I don’t want to hate this. I want to like it, and a big part of me really, really does but a little part of me is still afraid. Maybe it always will be.
“Why didn’t they search us for weapons when we went to see Marlow?” I ask, suddenly remembering I had meant to ask Ryan before.
He nods thoughtfully. “I wondered that too. Every time I’ve been in to see him, my weapons were taken.”
“Did they just forget?”
Ryan chuckles. “You don’t forget something like that. Not working for Marlow.”
“Not if you want to live,” Trent agrees.
“So I’m not crazy? It was weird.”
“Yeah, it was.”
“He’s going to be mad about his boat.”
“No, he won’t be, not really, but he’ll act mad,” Ryan says darkly. “He’ll use it as a way to get something from us.”
“He never meant for us to make it back alive did he?”
“I don’t know.”
“Oh come on. He sent us there in the U.S.S. Sold You Out. It couldn’t have been more obvious we were associated with The Hive and the Vashons obviously don’t like them.”
“Yeah, but why?” Ryan insists. “Why send us there to have them kill us? I think he wanted to see if it would work.”
“He wanted us to draw them out,” Trent says. “Probably take a few of their people prisoner to barter for something.”
“What though? Land? Turnips?” I ask.
“Probably guns.”
I shiver involuntarily as I remember the black barrel of Ali’s gun pointed at my face.
“Do you think that gun was loaded?” I ask quietly.
“It was,” Ryan replies softly, his grip on my upper arm tightening.
I nod, knowing he’s right. I knew it when I looked at her face. She was ready, willing and fully able to kill me on the spot. But I don’t hate her for it. I don’t blame her at all. She didn’t do it to protect her soft bed or a fluffy pillow. It wasn’t for the sake of central air or a good hot meal at the end of the day. It was for her family. For her daughter and her husband. For the people she loves.
Sitting beside this fire with Ryan’s arm around my shoulder, I can easily understand that.
“So Marlow will be mad when we get back that we lost his boat and didn’t bring him his bounty,” I surmise, “and Crenshaw will be mad that we went to The Hive first and pissed off the Vashons. The Vashons are mad at us, probably all of them want us dead because they think we brought the Colonies to their door in an ambush.”
“By now word has gotten out about what Trent and I have been up to, my fight in The Hive not sanctioned by the Hyperion, going behind the backs of our brothers. We’ll be thrown out of the gang.”
“Will they hurt you?” I ask.
Trent grins, his face lit in a macabre mask by the firelight. “They’re welcome to try.”
“I’m so sorry,” I whisper, feeling like an asshole. I drug them into this and now their lives are ruined. “You’re both obviously welcome to come live with me in the loft.”
“Don’t worry about it, we’ll figure something out,” Ryan tells me, sounding unconcerned. It’s both a relief and a little bit painful that he doesn’t take me up on the offer.
“You two should get some sleep,” Trent says. “I’ll stay up and take first watch.”
“Are you sure, man?”
“Yeah, I got it. I’m not tired.”
“Good, cause I’m exhausted. Wake me up in a couple hours. I’ll take next shift.”
“You got it.”
“I’m not tired,” I tell them, staring into the fire. “I’ll stay up too.”
Ryan frowns at me. “Are you sure?”
I smile weakly, nodding. “Yeah, I’m sure. I need to relax a little. Come down from what’s happened tonight. You sleep, though. You have to be tired from…”
He grins. “Nearly dying.”
My smile fades. “Don’t do that again.”
“I don’t plan on it.”
“Good.”
“Thanks, by the way. To both of you.” He looks at Trent, his mouth going tight. “I’d be dead if it weren’t for you guys.”