Chapter Thirty-One No Flag on the Water
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
No Flag on the Water
By morning, Reservoir Three had three access points running at controlled flow.
Pump Six east.
Saint Mercy central.
Blue Vault west.
No flag flew over any of them.
This was not ideal according to everyone who liked flags.
Rhett considered it excellent.
The practical problem was guards.
Tollhouse had retreated west to evacuate its camps.
Dustline did not have enough people to protect three outlets.
Glass Road had even fewer.
Mina wanted to mark the sites on the open caravan band.
Esme called that an invitation to chaos.
Eden listened for twenty minutes before walking away.
Rhett followed.
"Running?"
"Preventing homicide."
"Yours?"
"Flexible."
They climbed the mesa above Blue Vault.
The wasteland spread in every direction.
From here, the broken roads looked almost deliberate.
Eden sat on a rock.
Rhett sat beside her.
"Do you want the reservoir?" she asked.
"What does that mean?"
"Dustline could stay."
"Maybe."
"You could build here."
He looked back at the canyon.
Some of his people would want that.
Mina had talked for years about planting something that did not ride on a truck.
Pax wanted a workshop with a floor.
The children wanted walls they could paint and expect to see next month.
Rhett had always assumed moving kept them alive.
Sometimes movement became habit after the danger that created it changed.
"I don't know," he said.
Eden nodded.
"Do you?"
"No."
"Good."
He looked at her.
She smiled.
"I've learned the value of your annoying answer."
Below, Sabra sat under guard outside the pump truck.
Her people had returned after evacuating the camps.
Not to fight.
To collect their leader.
That question waited too.
Esme wanted Sabra taken to Freewater, where three trade settlements shared a court.
Mina wanted to tie her to the worst bus seat for the trip.
Pax had suggested making her repair every damaged return valve in the region.
Sabra herself had said nothing.
Rhett rubbed his ribs.
"Eden."
"Mm?"
"What happens to you now?"
She stared at the horizon.
"Blue Vault stabilized."
"Not what I asked."
"I know."
He waited.
She hated being cornered by patience.
Finally she said, "I have Caro's route work."
Sabra still had the original film.
But Eden had copied it from memory overnight.
Lines filled three pages.
Not perfect.
Alive.
"I could finish the west survey."
"Alone."
"Maybe."
Rhett did not flinch.
Better than before.
Eden looked at him.
"What happens to you?"
"Dustline decides whether to settle or keep moving."
"You?"
"I lead if they elect me again."
"If they settle?"
"Same."
"If they don't?"
"Same."
She frowned.
"That's not an answer."
He smiled.
"I want to go west."
Her pulse changed.
"Why?"
"Because I've spent twelve years moving between the same wells."
"That's terrible navigation."
"I was waiting for a good surveyor."
Eden laughed softly.
Rhett continued.
"I don't want you to join Dustline."
"You said."
"I want to ask if I can come on the west survey."
She looked at him fully.
Not ask her to stay.
Ask to go.
The difference struck deep.
"What about your people?"
"They can survive without me."
The line cost him.
She could hear it.
"That's new."
"Painful."
Eden touched his hand.
"You don't have to become unnecessary to love them."
"I know."
"Do you?"
"Working on it."
She smiled.
Below, a horn sounded.
Mina calling.
They stood.
At camp, Sabra was waiting.
Freewater traders had answered the open radio. A neutral transport convoy would arrive in two days and take her under guard.
Sabra looked at Eden.
"You opened the reservoir."
"Yes."
"To everyone."
"To water lines."
"Same consequence."
"No."
Sabra's gaze sharpened.
"Someone will claim it."
"Probably."
Rhett almost smiled at Eden using the word.
She continued.
"Then someone else will challenge them. Roads change."
Sabra looked tired for the first time.
"You still believe maps can save people."
Eden thought about Caro.
"No."
Sabra seemed surprised.
"I believe maps can show where the ground was when you looked. People have to do the rest."
Sabra's mouth twisted.
"Very disappointing."
"Good."
Rhett groaned.
Eden looked at him.
"What?"
"That word."
She laughed.
The argument below resumed over guard schedules.
Eden joined it.
Not because she wanted to govern Reservoir Three.
Because she had found the road.
Staying long enough to mark the dangerous turn did not mean she had to own what came after.