by Stasia Black
Should have known he was in for one as soon as he saw he was teamed up with Jeffries on the Scraper team today. The Security rotation—now that one Nix himself scheduled. And he conveniently gave Jeffries opposite shifts to himself. The fact that these were mostly night shifts was just a tiny little added bonus.
He smirked, thinking how tired Jeffries had looked coming in this morning off a shift. And hey, at least finding the woman meant they could head back early.
Nix glanced over his shoulder again at the woman. Now that they were out of the range of fire, Finn had settled her in the narrow jump seat opposite his. Her head was tipped back, mouth slack. Her shocking red hair was tangled all to hell and dirt streaked her face, but goddamn she was beautiful. It struck him all over again. Those soft apple cheeks, her plump, inviting lips…
Fuck. His jeans were starting to get tight again. He jerked back around front and ground his teeth. She was nothing to him.
As soon as he got her back to town, he’d barely ever see her again. And that was the way it was meant to fuckin’ be.
Chapter 4
AUDREY
Her mouth was dry.
That was Audrey’s first thought when she tried to blink her heavy eyes open. Her mouth was so dry it felt like she hadn’t drunk anything in days. Her tongue felt swollen.
She squinted and looked around.
Walls. A ceiling.
“Water,” she squawked, hand reaching for her throat. “Please.”
“Here you go, honey.”
Her head jerked at that.
It was a woman’s voice.
Okay, so this had to be a dream. Audrey hadn’t heard another woman’s voice in person in over eight years.
The cool glass cup that was pressed against Audrey’s lips felt real enough, though. So did the water that dribbled over her lips and down her throat. She choked on it at first, and then wanted to cry, because no! It was spilling out of her mouth. She was wasting it!
The woman, whoever she was, seemed to sense her anxiety because a light touch landed on her shoulder. “Shh, it’s okay, just slow down. There’s plenty. You don’t have to rush.”
Plenty? Of water?
Now she knew it was a dream.
But it was such a lovely dream. She let her eyes drift closed as she reached up and took the cup, drinking swallow after swallow of the most sinfully delicious water she’d ever drunk. It didn’t even have the sharp aftertaste of bleach or that mud taste from the homemade filtration system Uncle Dale used.
Fresh like from a spring.
A spring.
Oh God.
Charlie.
She dropped the cup and her eyes shot open.
A young woman who looked barely older than a teenager was sitting on the bed beside her. A bed. In a strange room. Strange woman in a strange room.
The woman held out her hands. “It’s okay. You’re safe here.”
“Back up, Sophia,” said another woman from the doorway of—what the hell? Had Audrey entered the Twilight zone or something? “Let her catch her breath for a second.”
Audrey looked left and right, but the bedroom covered head to toe in pink girly crap like the last apocalyptic decade had never happened was still there.
God, it could have been Audrey’s room when she was a kid. Before the bombs. Before Xterminate. Even before Mom got cancer—back when the most stressful thing Audrey had to worry about was whether Jimmy Redmond in her fourth-grade class liked her back. Check the box, yes or no.
And then she remembered again. Charlie.
“Where am I?” She jumped to her feet. “What did you do with my brother—” She grabbed her head as she stumbled forward on jelly legs.
“Whoa there.” The woman by the door jumped forward and caught Audrey right before she faceplanted.
“Let’s take it easy, how about that?”
Audrey blinked in confusion as the woman helped her back to the bed.
Audrey rubbed her temples. Everything was so fuzzy. Nothing made sense. She and Charlie found the spring. They’d been so happy. Then he was yelling for her to run and there’d been those terrible men…
She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to remember what happened after that.
“The other men!” she shouted, eyes popping back open. Her hand shot to her ass. “They shot me.”
Both women winced.
“I can’t believe they used a tranq on you,” Sophia said, blue eyes wide. “That’s not what we’re like here. The situation must have been extremely dangerous. It was for your own safety. I promise you,” she shook her head emphatically. “women are safe here. It’s not like other places.”
Sophia spoke so passionately, Audrey wasn’t sure if she was naïve or just really young. But Audrey wasn’t about to start drinking the cool aid. They’d freaking tranqued her. Then kidnapped her.
“What exactly is this place?” she asked carefully. These women were being nice to her right now. Okay. She could play along. Until she could find a way to get the hell out of here.
Sophia smiled wide. “Let me be the first to welcome you to Central Texas South.”
“Specifically, this is Jacob’s Well Township,” the brown-haired woman added. “It’s the regional seat.”
“One of the first townships to be formed after D-Day. And we’ve been going strong ever since.” Sophia beamed with pride.
Central Texas South? Audrey wanted to drop her face into her hands. That was a day’s walk backwards. Uncle Dale had said this territory was rumored to be safer than where she and Charlie had been heading next, but they’d been aiming for the coast.
What did any of it matter now?
Charlie was gone.
“My dad’s the Commander here,” Sophia said, smile still wide, eyes bright.
Aha. Well, that answered that question. No surprise that daddy’s little girl had such a rosy outlook on the place.
“I’m Camila, by the way,” said the brown-haired woman. “Good to meet you.”
Audrey hesitated for a second in holding out her hand, but then she remembered—play nice. “Audrey.”
Camila nodded. “Like I said. Nice to meet you.”
“You too.”
The woman’s smile went wry, like she could tell Audrey was bullshitting her.
“Me and Sophia will give you a little space. And go get you some food. See if we can take care of those sea legs of yours.” She gave a head nod and then headed for the door.
Sophia looked reluctant to go but eventually followed. She paused at the doorway, all but bouncing on her feet. “It’s so exciting to have a new girl. We haven’t had anyone new for ages. I can’t wait for you to get to meet everyone.” Her smile widened even further, though Audrey didn’t know how that was possible. “I know they’re all so excited to get to meet you.”
Why did that sound ominous as hell?
“Sophia,” came Camila’s voice in a sharp, warning tone.
Sophia closed the door before Audrey could ask any questions. Alrighty then.
Fuck.
This.
Shit.
Audrey wasn’t about to wait around to see whatever the hell these people had planned for her. There was a reason Uncle Dale, Charlie, and she had agreed there was only one place that was safe for her—there was an all-woman colony in south Texas somewhere near the coast called Nomansland. Get it? NoMan… It wasn’t an open secret, either. Uncle Dale only knew because he’d been part of the dark web conspiracy community forever. Even he didn’t know exactly where it was. She and Charlie only had coordinates for a rendezvous spot to meet with a representative. Like an interview for both of them to feel each other out so they could see they were the real deal. Then they’d take her in to their colony.
Audrey scrubbed her hand down her face. But now she had to get there on her own.
But could she? Make it all the way to the coast? By herself?
Oh Charlie, Charlie, Charlie.
Her chest squeezed so tight, she coul
d barely breathe.
No. No thinking about him right now. If she did, she’d curl up into a ball right here and maybe never get up again. She’d quit.
And she was a lot of things, but Dad hadn’t raised a quitter.
She took a deep breath in and forced thoughts of Charlie deep down with it. She squared her jaw, put one hand on the nightstand table, the other on the bedframe, and hauled herself to her feet.
Her fingers went white knuckled on the bedframe because goddammit, she was so dizzy for a moment she was sure she was gonna throw up again. But she closed her eyes, breathed in slowly, and after a couple minutes, it passed.
She started walking, one hand to the wall to steady herself. She reached for the doorknob. “All right, let’s see just how friendly this place really is.”
As she’d suspected, the knob didn’t turn. She was locked in.
“Safe place my ass,” she whispered under her breath.
She blinked and shook her head against the lingering fog in her brain. One of the many lessons she’d mastered early on in her years in the bunker was picking locks.
She pulled a bobby pin out of the side of her worn sneakers.
This one was almost laughably easy. It was a simple flip lock on a hollow bedroom door. She could have easily kicked the thing down if she wanted. Okay, she was a little weak at the moment, but she probably still could have done it.
Either way, the lock clicked and the next second, she had the door open. She slipped out into a hallway.
It was still startling to see sunlight after being underground for years. It made her breath catch. That and just how normal everything looked.
She could be standing in any pre-D-day house, anywhere in a US suburb. It was an upstairs hallway and light poured in from huge arched windows by the staircase.
Staircase. Bingo.
She glanced left and right and then hurried toward the stairway. She felt a little sturdier with every step—shit. She barely managed to recover from stumbling face first down the stairs by grabbing the rail at the last second.
Really fucking genius, Aud. Cause you tumbling head over ass won’t attract any attention whatsoever. Or end with a broken neck.
She bit her cheek to try to help her focus putting one foot in front of the other as she headed down stairs. And she kept a death-grip on the rail.
Her vision started going topsy-turvy but she managed to make it to the bottom.
Which was when she heard voices. Female voices.
God, that was still trippy.
She still had her bobby pin clutched in hand as she padded to the front door, but it opened without problem. It must have recently been oiled too because it swung in without so much as a squeak. Thank you, Jesus.
And right there on a rack right by the door—hello—a baseball cap. She snatched it and slipped out the door. She even mostly managed not to trip as she ran down the front stairs and onto the perfectly manicured lawn. She didn’t stop moving until she got to the side bushes. But there she let herself fall to her knees and look around because. What. The. Fuck.
It wasn’t Maybury exactly. The houses weren’t cookie cutter. But it was a neighborhood that didn’t look like it had suffered the same Apocalypse everywhere else had. Sure, she and Charlie had stuck to the map Uncle Dale gave them of areas that would be less inhabited, but they’d still seen plenty.
Neighborhoods that were burnt to shit. Every store no matter where it was had broken windows and was looted all to hell. Cars overturned.
Bodies. Some were years old, some were new. Women, so many women. But men too. Old, young, it didn’t matter. People just stopped caring enough to bury them.
But here—Audrey shook her head. It was like none of it ever happened. It didn’t make any sense.
She swallowed hard and wished she’d had the sense to look for more water before she’d fled. Oh well. This place was so perfect it was fucking creepy.
Any situation that seemed too good to be true usually was—God, even Uncle Dale’s in the end.
Audrey looked up. The sun was setting. She turned around and oriented herself. Okay, so that way was south. She glanced down the road and felt her belly go tight. Maybe she should have waited around for them to feed her first after all.
So they could drug you again? Great plan, dumbass.
Right. No time like the present.
She rolled her hair into a bun on the top of her head, pinned it using her escape bobby pin, and shoved the hat on her head. Then she hurried low to the ground to the next house over. She slipped around to the back and hopped the fence, then the next, and the next.
Pulling herself up and over the fifth fence was grueling and she basically tumbled over the other side. All right, that was putting it nice. She fell. She fell over the other side of the fence.
Oof. Her breath was knocked out of her and she struggled to gasp for air and sit up. It didn’t work. She fell back and let out a small whimper.
Keep moving. Keep fucking moving.
But all she could do was gasp for air that wouldn’t come.
Is this what Charlie died for? So you could give up after making the most lame ass escape attempt in fucking history?
She clenched her teeth and sat up in spite of the searing pain in her lungs. She gulped and forced air in.
And she dragged herself back to her feet. So what if she stumbled? She was moving. One foot in front of the other.
“Just one foot in front of the other,” she wheezed to herself. She only had to take one more step. And then another. Then one more.
She seemed to have made it to the front of the neighborhood because the last backyard opened up to a sidewalk. She looked behind her but there wasn’t anyone chasing her. Camila and Cultist Barbie hadn’t sounded the alarm. Yet.
Then she heard noise up ahead. Like voices. A lot of voices. Maybe even a crowd.
And for the first time since she’d woken up and remembered Charlie was gone, she felt—not hope, she wasn’t sure she’d ever feel that again—but maybe a little less active despair.
Because she could just disappear into the crowd. She could blend. Her breasts were still bound and with the hat, Charlie said she totally passed as a boy.
She’d just slip into the crowd and discretely find her way out of this happy little ‘township.’
She headed toward the noise. The closer she got, the more casually she walked. She’d studied Charlie’s gait and put everything she had into the performance now. An easy, confident stride, feet turned slightly out. Basically, the trick was to pretend you were a guy was to lead with your dick—even if you didn’t have one.
And it worked. Audrey’s heart pounded a thousand beats per minute as she crossed a little cobbled bridge onto main street. If she stopped and stared a little longer than necessary at the clean, fresh looking river water rushing underneath the bridge, well, maybe that wasn’t too odd.
She wasn’t the only one walking toward the town center. Other men passed her without giving her a second look. Ahead there appeared to be a mass of people—okay, a mass of men—gathered around a town square that was so quaint it looked like something out of a Norman Rockwell painting. With a courthouse in the center and everything.
It was the sort of place Audrey’s grandma would love to drag her along to go antiquing when she was a kid. Quaint wooden facades to buildings that advertised names like, Pete’s Hardware and Scents and Soaps.
If there were women other than Sophia and Camila anywhere in town, Audrey wasn’t seeing them. Just men, men, and more men.
So many men the street was packed and Audrey was getting pressed in from all sides. So maybe this hadn’t been her best plan ever…
If any one of these guys realized she was a woman. Shit. It would be a riot. And she’d be ripped apart.
Okaaaaaaaaaay. Time to exit stage left. Right now. She’d just slip out the other side of the square and keep moving south. No harm no foul.
“All right, all right, settle down,” came a
voice over a bullhorn.
Everyone’s faces turned up and to the right/ Audrey followed their gaze even as she tried to move to the edge of the crowd. She didn’t dare say anything or try to excuse herself. Even if she deepened her voice, it was far too risky.
“If you’re here then you’ve qualified for one of the lottery pools,” the booming voice continued.
Audrey finally saw who they were all looking at. In the center of the square a man in army fatigues stood on a second-floor balcony, bullhorn to his mouth. A tall man stood beside him holding a large box.
“Thank you for your hard work and dedication to the Jacob’s Well Township. All right, enough with the bullshit. Let’s get to the reason you’re all here.”
Shouts and hoots went through the crowd, along with several ear-piercing whistles. For a second, Audrey could only stare.
“And the first to become one of the new woman’s five husband’s is…” The man beside him reached blindly into a cardboard box but Audrey had already taken several stumbling steps back.
Five?
Husbands!
Holy shit. She had to get the fuck out of here. Now.
“Phoenix Dunn.”
The crowd roared as the name was announced and Audrey couldn’t help looking the same way everyone else did even as she kept moving backwards, trying to maneuver her way to the edge of the crowd.
That was when her eyes landed on him. The one everyone was looking at.
Phoenix.
Scarface.
And he was looking right back at her, recognition and fury clear on his face.
Chapter 5
NIX
What the fucking fuck was she doing here?
Nix shoved man after man out of his way as he headed her direction. When he’d dropped her off with the Commander earlier, he’d been trusting the bastard to take care of her. Not to fucking drop the goddamned ball and let her loose to wander out in this pack of wild fucking dogs.
Any second these cunt-starved fuckheads were going to realize exactly what she was, but he swore, if any of them so much as fucking laid a finger on her, he’d—
“Out of my fucking way,” he snarled, pushing another dumb asshole aside.