Chapter 7
“It’s pretty good, isn’t it?” Vella asks, craning her neck to peer down at her healing gunshot wound as I clean and rewrap it.
“Yes. It’s not infected. It won’t take long until it’s better. Good thing it was such a shallow graze.”
“That’s the truth. I’m still pissed one of those bastards managed to hit me at all.”
“Lucky shot.”
“They didn’t deserve that kind of luck.”
“They never do.” I finish wrapping up the wound and sit back so I’m not crowding her. Vella’s always liked her space.
“Where’s your other half this morning?” she asks, peering around the courtyard next to the main building of the outpost.
There’s been no further military response in the four days since they sent out the two combat trucks. Word has spread through the underground network that we’re occupying the outpost, and we’ve doubled the size of our original force as others have trickled in to join us.
There are no hard feelings toward the skeptical who waited until it was secure to come along.
Everyone has to make the best decisions they can in these matters for the safety of themselves and their loved ones.
But there are far too many of us now to camp in the building, so we’ve spilled outside into tents and makeshift shelters.
Since it’s a chilly morning, a couple of the early risers made a large fire, and Vella and I are sitting near it to keep warm.
Answering her question about Ben, I say, “I sent him and Ryan to the Capitol before dawn to put some feelers out. Maybe we can get some information on what they’re planning to do about us.”
“Oh, good idea. Ryan still has some administrative connections, doesn’t he?”
“Yes. It just depends on whether they’re in the know or not. But it’s worth a try.”
“Will they be back today?”
“I hope so, but I told them to stay the night if they need tomorrow too.”
“Hopefully they can get news quick. Doesn’t seem right around here without Ben lurking in the shadows.”
He’s been gone no more than two hours, but I feel the same. I’ve always hated not having him around.
When someone sits down nearby, I glance over to see Troy, a freckled young man who left home the day he turned twenty-one (the age of majority in the Central Cities) and traveled from one border to another until he found us last year.
“Good morning, Troy,” I say with a smile.
“Morning.” His eyes dart from me to the ground and back to me as his face flushes red.
Vella stifles a snicker, which I ignore.
Everyone knows and has always known that Troy has the world’s largest crush on me.
It doesn’t bother me. I like him. He’s always willing to take the worst jobs, the ones no one else wants, without a word of complaint.
And once he grows up some more, a lot of women will be interested.
Anyway, plenty of men decades older than Troy have acted a lot more foolish around me. Ben has had to drag multiple men away by force who wouldn’t take no for an answer.
It’s not because I’m uniquely desirable, although I’ve always recognized that a lot of people like the way I look. It’s something about the contrast between my appearance and my role here.
“I have… I mean, I’ve got something to…” Troy can’t get all the words out.
Sympathetic, I smile at him. “Do you have something to tell me?”
“Yeah. Sorry, yeah. I do. I mean, my cousin, Jasper, has this friend who runs with Robin. And he said… I mean, I guess Robin wants a sit-down with you.”
My eyebrows arch high, and my spine stiffens.
Robin and his crew have been working the Central Cities for a few years now, hitting trade routes and generally causing chaos in a hit-and-run fashion.
As far as I can tell from following their strategy, they have no larger purpose or mission.
It seems more like a combination of random guerrilla warfare and plain old theft.
I suspect—and I’m not alone in it—that he named himself Robin after the old story from before the Fall. Our Robin definitely steals from the rich, but I have no proof yet that he actually gives away his takings to the poor.
“He wants to meet with me?”
“That’s what my cousin said. Jasper. He came with that group yesterday afternoon. I think you met him.”
“I did.” I have only a vague recollection of the motley collection of new recruits that arrived yesterday, but I do recall one of them being named Jasper. “Can you go get him now so I can ask him some questions and learn more information?”
Troy brightens and jumps to his feet. “Sure thing! I’ll get him now.”
Vella and I smile at each other as he runs off.
“He’s a cutie,” Vella says. “But what a coup it would be to get Robin and his crew on board.”
“I know. Seems almost too good to be true since he’s never been interested before. But we did have a major success. Makes sense it got his attention.”
“Yeah. I think so too. Robin. Wow.” Vella gives me a teasing wink. “I hear the man is hot.”
That just makes me laugh.
Through Jasper, we’re able to make the arrangements. Robin wants to meet at dawn the next morning at the ruins of a pre-Fall warehouse only a few miles from the outpost.
Ben and Ryan don’t return that evening, so I charge Vella with putting a team together for backup and protection.
This is too good an opportunity to ignore, but I don’t trust anyone I don’t know personally. So if I’m going to take this meeting, I’ll have my people stationed at every vantage point surrounding the location.
I’d feel better if Ben was here, but I can’t always have what I want.
At just before dawn, I’m walking into a clearing near the warehouse, flanked by Vella and Roderick and with Troy and Jasper trailing behind.
I know something is wrong immediately because no one else is in sight.
If Robin were here for a sit-down, he’d be approaching just as I am now.
But there’s no one. No one at all. Before I get more than twenty steps out of the trees, I stop abruptly, my gut tightening and my heart jumping into a gallop.
“This isn’t right,” Roderick grumbles, raising his rifle to his shoulder in preparation to shoot.
Vella has already done the same. “What do we do, boss?”
“Back to the trees,” I bite out, making the decision in about three seconds. “Now. Now!”
“Wait!” Jasper says, too stretched and high-pitched. He’s trying to block our retreat. “Wait! Robin wants to—”
Since he won’t get out of our way, Roderick knocks the boy clean off his feet with a no-nonsense sideswipe.
A glance behind me reveals flashes of the gray uniforms of Central Cities guards. The reality barely processes before the shooting begins.
Roderick dives for the shelter of the trees, taking me with him.
Vella has whirled around to return fire, running backward to give us cover as we half scramble and half crawl into the wooded area that surrounds the clearing, the trees right now our only hope of surviving this encounter.
I’ve got people scattered around the area, hidden at carefully chosen points in the woods, but right now that’s not going to save us from a unit of guards all shooting directly at us.
Jasper must have gotten back to his feet because he’s fleeing the gunfire, leaving the rest of us behind.
And Troy…
“I’m so sorry,” he tells me, his face twisting with fear and grief as he starts shooting back at the guards. “I didn’t know—”
He doesn’t finish. Because he’s standing still, he’s an easy target. He’s shot. Once and then again. He collapses to the ground.
We’ve crawled into the shelter of the trees now. Roderick hauls me back to my feet, shooting steadily with his free hand to help Vella with cover. “Run,” he says. “Run now!”
I do. Not because any part of me wants to leave my friends behind to get killed in an ambush but because I know far too well that my presence will put them in even more danger.
They’d sacrifice their own safety to save me.
I sprint clumsily through the trees until I reach Heidi and Jon, who have been waiting in case of a situation exactly like this. Together, we run for an old root cellar next to a collapsed, ancient cabin we’d already identified as a good hiding spot for emergencies.
We’re in the emergency now.
I huddle there in the dim, underground space, stunned and winded but uninjured. A few of the others who were positioned nearby join us one by one.
Until finally there’s another knock. Heidi opens up to reveal Vella’s damp, dirty face.
I exhale hoarsely in relief as she climbs down silently to join us. Then she turns and helps a bleeding Roderick climb down too.
“Troy?” I mouth in the dim light of a battery-operated lantern. It’s a small space, and there are a lot of us huddled here now.
Vella shakes her head.
“Fuck every one of those bastards,” Roderick breathes out. “Fuck them and all their kin.”
Jasper was Troy’s kin, and he still manipulated him, used him to betray us, no doubt tempted by promises of a government reward.
“Yeah,” Vella agrees in a murmur. We can’t make much noise because our safety relies on no one discovering our hiding spot. “Fuck them all.”
I agree with the sentiment, but it’s not at the top of my mind.
My strongest feeling is that I wish Ben was here right now.