Chapter 6 Dutch
six
Dutch
Clearwater has started to feel like mine in the way places do when you stop treating them as temporary.
I know the guard rotation. I know that Harry takes his coffee black and gets mean before he gets it.
I know that the east wall needs attention every three days because the soil underneath shifts and the posts work loose. I do it before Avery has to ask.
She notices. She doesn't say anything about it, which is more telling than if she had.
The night is calm. Evening wall check. We do this now, at the end of every day, standing side by side looking at the treeline like it'll tell us something. Mostly it's just an excuse to stand next to each other without an agenda.
Below us Jenna crosses the compound toward the medical building. Something in her walk is different than it was a week ago. Purposeful. Like she knows where she's going. She’s going to turn out great. Better than I expected.
"So, I’ve heard from Cole, they want me to join the network," I say.
Avery says nothing. She tenses.
"I'm going to tell him I want to run eastern coordination from here. If that's something you'd consider — using Clearwater as a base."
Still nothing. I glance at her. She's looking at the treeline.
"That's a significant commitment," she says finally.
"I know."
"To the settlement."
"To you." I face her. "Mostly to you. I'm not going to pretend otherwise."
The settlement sounds drift up around us. Hammer on wood. Someone calling across the compound. Ordinary, ongoing, alive.
"I was fine before you got here," she says. "I want to be clear about that."
"I know you were."
"I don't need anything."
"Avery." I wait until she looks at me. "I know you don't need me. You'd run this place perfectly well until the end of the world without me. That's not why I'm staying."
"Then why?"
"Because this is the first place since the world went to hell that's made me want to stop." I hold her gaze. "That's entirely your fault."
She looks at me for a long moment, reading me the way she reads everything, looking for the lie. She won't find one.
"Talk to Harry about the radio setup," she says. "If we're running network coordination from here we'll need more equipment."
"Is that a yes?"
"It's a yes." The corner of her mouth moves. "Don't make it weird."
I want to kiss her. We're in full view of the compound and I want to do it anyway.
I settle for covering her hand with mine on the railing. She looks down at our hands and then back at the treeline and doesn't pull away.
The call from Red River comes three days later.
Avery's already in the command center when I get there, bent over the radio with Harry. She straightens when I walk in. One look at her face tells me it's bad.
"Settlement fifty miles east," Harry says. "Raiders and directed herds. Cole's relaying info."
Directed herds. Someone is coordinating these attacks. Red River isn't the first and it won't be the last.
"I'll go," I say.
"We'll go," Avery says.
"You should stay here."
"Harry has command while I'm gone. I trained him for this." She's already pulling the map. "You know extraction. I know structure. Together we have a better shot than either of us alone." She meets my eyes. "And don't argue with me about this."
I don't argue. "Okay," I say.
She blinks, looking at me like she'd prepared for a fight and doesn't know what to do with the absence of one. "Okay?"
"You're right. Let's look at the terrain."
She leans over the map and I lean over beside her, our shoulders pressing together, and we plan.
When it’s time to leave, Jenna is waiting at the gate.
Chin up. Hands loose. Ready to argue.
"No," Avery says before she opens her mouth.
"I know the terrain east of here. Old Hawk worked that route twice. I know where they water, where they camp, how they approach."
"Jenna."
"I'm not asking to fight. I'm asking to watch." Her voice is steady. "You know what I can do."
Avery goes quiet, running the calculation. The risk against the asset. The girl's safety against the girl's need to stop being protected from everything.
"Observation only," Avery says. "You see something, you tell me. You don't move without my word."
Jenna breathes out. "Yes."
"And when we get back," Avery's voice drops slightly. "We're going to talk about your mother. About where Old Hawk was keeping her. I want everything you know."
A smile moves across Jenna's face. She's gotten good at keeping her poker face, but not that good. "Okay," she says. "Yes. Okay."
We leave within the hour.