CHAPTER SEVEN #2
“I was just wondering what sort of threat Matthew would have to have been. Would they have not liked the fact that he was exploring? I mean, this land used to belong to humans. And to animals. Regular ones, I mean. Explorers like Matthew were, and still are, just trying to understand how the world has changed.” As I said the words, angry heat flared in me.
On behalf of this man I had never met. On behalf of the others on his team who were apparently killed along with him.
“For fuck’s sake, the world has always been like this for our generation, and yet even we are still trying to make sense of things.
It’s not so bad to want to understand this world around us, is it?
To brave the unknown, for the sake of knowledge? ”
I wasn’t so sure I was talking about Matthew Hart anymore.
Kieran’s lips were still turned up in smirk, but something in his expression softened. “Don’t take this the wrong way, Maila. But you’re very naive.”
“Then tell me what I don’t understand,” I challenged.
He opened his mouth, and my chest tightened. “Keep walking. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover tonight.” With that, he grabbed my shoulders, spun me around, gave me a gentle nudge forward.
We walked the rest of the way in silence.
At first, I didn’t speak because I was frustrated with Kieran, his insults, and his evasiveness.
But after a while, I was too exhausted to have spoken if I’d wanted to.
I may have had a naturally slim frame, but a sedentary life had left me with exactly zero endurance.
The terrain was unchanging for most of the journey.
The only highlight was when we had to cross a narrow stream, which we did by leaping—did everything out here involve jumping?
—from one side to the other. I refused to be carried by Kieran again, so I gave it a shot on my own and came up short, landing in several inches of water.
Afterwards, my footsteps elicited two sounds—a wet squishing noise, closely followed by laughter from Kieran.
After what I estimated to be two hours of trudging through the underbrush, the forest began to feel less coastal. Towering palms became less frequent, and bristly pines began to make an appearance. We emerged onto a hill, looking down into a shallow valley.
I glanced between Nya and Kieran, eyes wide. “Is this your camp?”
“Yes,” Nya answered simply. “This is home.”
Sitting at the bottom of the valley was a neighborhood.
Or rather, what was left of one. Rows of houses sat in various states of decay—ceilings caved in, gaping holes where walls once stood, and some lots reduced to nothing but rubble.
Each row was separated from the next by crumbling remnants of road.
Weeds, vines, and other greenery burst through the cracks in the pavement, with some sections of concrete entirely split in half.
This had once been a peaceful suburban neighborhood, like the few that were preserved within Cyllene. And now, like so much of the world, it was a graveyard.
Without another word, we descended the hill and entered the once-neighborhood.
Upon closer inspection, there were items of all kinds strewn across the remnants of yards and scattered across the broken chunks of pavement.
A rusty skeleton of what I assumed was once a bicycle.
A blackened shape that resembled a child’s toy.
Even, I realized with awe, a crumbling mass that looked like it was once a car.
We walked straight for several blocks, then turned left.
It was immediately apparent that this street was different than the others.
First, by the barbed wire fence that we passed through.
Then, as we made our way down the road, I noticed spots that looked like they had once been giant holes were filled with carefully packed dirt.
As if to prevent a stumble or fall. The houses that lined the street were still falling apart, but there were also signs of life in them.
A front porch and walkway that, despite cracks, looked recently swept.
A clothesline tied between sections of roof.
I started as my eyes landed on a bonfire up ahead, burning in the center of a cul-de-sac. Then I caught sight of the dark shapes gathered around it. People. Dozens of them.
And one headed down the street, right for us.
“There you guys are!” a booming voice exclaimed.
The man who stopped in front of us appeared to be in his mid-thirties and was well over six-foot.
He not only towered over us all, including Nya and Kieran, but had a wide, stocky frame.
In the moonlight, I could see that he was blue-eyed and fair.
His hair fell in wild waves to his shoulders, and he had a bushy beard to match.
I expected him to address Nya and Kieran, but instead he extended a hand to me.
“Hey, there!” he said with sincere enthusiasm. “You must be Maila. I’m Cecil. As you can see, my name doesn’t really fit me, so you can call me ‘C’ if you want.”
Nya looked to the sky. “Literally not a single person ever has called you ‘C.’”
I held my hand out, and he shook it vigorously while giving a hearty laugh. “Every nickname has to start somewhere, Nyathera.”
Kieran chortled as Nya punched Cecil in the arm.
“Welcome to Ersa Estates,” Cecil continued. “That was the name of this neighborhood once, and we loved the irony.” He gestured to the ruined street around us. “So we decided to keep it. It’s not much compared to what you’re used to, but it’s somewhere to call home. For now, at least.”
“Thank you for having me.”
I suddenly felt uneasy. Why had I insisted on coming here?
On intruding in Nya’s and Kieran’s lives?
I shifted on my feet, looking past Cecil to the crackling bonfire.
I wondered if the fire was for warmth or to keep animals and other creatures at bay.
Or if it was just a way to make the dark, dying streets feel a little less lonely.
Two women approached just behind Cecil. One looked to be in her late twenties and was short and curvy, with cropped dark hair that framed her face. In contrast to the tapered edges of her hair, I could see that she had soft features, a pert nose, and wide copper eyes.
The other woman also looked to be in her mid- to late twenties. Her body had the same tone and definition as Nya’s, and her chest-length hair cascaded down in natural curls. Although her dark features were sharper than the other woman’s, the two were clearly related.
“Maila, let me introduce you to my wife, Rubi,” Cecil said affectionately, wrapping an arm around the shorter woman’s shoulder and squeezing. Their height difference was so drastic that he had to stoop just to reach her.
Rubi smiled, creating charming dimples in both cheeks that reminded me of Zander’s.
“And this,” Cecil continued, gesturing to the other woman. “Is my sister-in-law, Xiomara.”
I had heard that name before. Xiomara smiled, but unlike her sister, the smile didn’t quite reach her eyes. My attention shifted back to Cecil as he began asking about our trip, but not before I saw Xiomara’s eyes flick up and down my body.
In the same moment, something soft brushed my arm.
The fabric of Kieran’s shirt. As he and Nya filled Cecil in on our journey, he had stepped forward to idly stretch his leg, moving almost imperceptibly in front of me.
Cecil was just remarking on what good fortune we had that the skies were clear and cloudless, when something else caught my attention. I couldn’t stop myself from interrupting.
“A baby.”
The bundle in Rubi’s arms had escaped my notice somehow. Now it was all I could see.
Rubi tilted the bundle forward, allowing the blanket to slip down and reveal a small, sleeping face. “Her name is Filimena.” It was the first time Rubi had spoken, and her voice was gentle and sweet. I had also never heard a voice so full of complete and total adoration. “She’s three months old.”
As if aware that she was being talked about, Filimena flung a pudgy arm out of the blanket, revealing more of her tiny body, and let out a snuffling noise.
Everyone was quiet, mesmerized by the little sleeping person.
“Have you ever seen a baby before?” Rubi asked, gently rocking her from side to side.
“No,” I said quietly. Almost reverently.
“Surely you’ve got babies in the city.” Cecil patted the downy fluff on Filimena’s head. The baby didn’t even stir.
“We do, but—” I stopped myself.
I was about to say that maintaining our population was one of The Council’s highest priorities, so babies were kept in a special facility on the southern end of the city until they were at least a year old.
According to The Council, babies needed to be carefully monitored and protected at all costs during their most vulnerable time of life.
It was a reality that I had heard was almost unbearably difficult for the mothers, whose visits were scheduled and supervised closely by assigned caretakers. I still remembered Irene’s wistful recollection of the day she and my parents got to bring me home.
After seeing the conditions that the Strangers lived in, that this baby lived in, I couldn’t bring myself to say any of that to Cecil or Rubi.
“It’s late,” Xiomara spoke up suddenly. Where Rubi’s voice was warm spring sunshine, hers was a cool summer storm. “What’s the plan for tomorrow?”
All eyes turned to me.
I swallowed. “According to everything I read, the Leviathan tends to hover around the coast this time of year. Which I think you all already know and were hoping for. But it has never been spotted before late afternoon or after sunset. We have a short window of time if you want to lure it to shore.” I paused.
“Then again, there also aren’t many accounts of people going out on the water after dark.
I guess we can’t really say for certain that it’s not still out there at night. ”
“So…what? We go to the beach in the afternoon and wait around for it to show up?” Xiomara’s arms were crossed in front of her.
“We don’t have to wait around.” I meant for my response to be reassuring, but Xiomara’s cheek rounded as she pressed her tongue against it. Had I said something wrong? “We can summon the Leviathan to us while it’s close to shore. We just need to chum the waters, so to speak.”
“That, we can do!” Cecil clapped his hands together. “What are we hunting?”
“We need the blood of a creature that has magic.”
Nya circled behind me and grabbed Kieran’s arm, lifting it in the air. “Hunt’s over.”
Kieran sneered at Nya, then turned to me. “We just need blood, right?”
I considered. “I mean…yeah, that should be fine. The stories I read didn’t specify that entrails had to be included, and they also didn’t say that the creature had to be dead.”
“Well, sounds like you’re up, Kieran!” Cecil crowed. “We’ll lure it in, give it a sound beating and a nice de-scaling, then be on our way. Hopefully those scales are all they’re rumored to be. I’ll spread the word, and we can head out tomorrow morning.”
At the finality in his tone, everyone moved to part ways.
“Come on.” Nya motioned for me to follow her to a house on the opposite side of the fire. “I hope all those years of living alone haven’t made you territorial, because there are ten of us that share this house.”
When I saw that Kieran was headed in the opposite direction, I gave him a small wave. “Goodnight.”
“Goodnight,” he replied sweetly, waggling his fingers at me. Apparently, there was nothing I did that he didn’t find amusing.
I sighed inwardly. Then I followed Nya across the square of dirt that had once been someone’s front yard and into the house.