No Shelter Trilogy (Omnibus, Books 1-3)

by T. S. Welti

  “Eggs and bacon?” I say, as if he’s speaking a foreign language. “You have eggs and bacon?”

  “We have a whole frozen locker full of meat and dairy,” he replies. “Do you want some ice cream instead?”

  The tears fall from my eyes suddenly. “I’m sorry,” I say, as I wipe my face on my sleeve. “It’s just… I haven’t heard those words in so long and… you’re so nice.”

  “It’s all right,” he says, as he lights the fire under a large skillet and throws a few slices of bacon in. “I felt the same way. I’m from New York, but I traveled everywhere before I made it here. You’re from California?”

  “I’m from Massachusetts,” Elysia says proudly.

  “I’m from California,” I reply. “At least, I used to be.”

  “We all used to be something else,” Troy says, as he cracks the eggs into a large metal bowl. “But there’s nothing wrong with change.”

  I stand from the stool. “I can help you,” I offer.

  He waves me away. “Sit down. I got it.”

  Elysia and I scarf down two heaping plates of bacon and eggs as Troy looks on with pure joy as we slake our ravenous hunger. Elysia finishes her chocolate milk and lets out a soft belch.

  “Nice one,” I say and she smiles.

  “Excuse me,” she says.

  “I’ll take you to your bunks,” Troy says.

  We follow him down a long concrete corridor then we turn left onto another corridor. Halfway down this corridor he stops for us to enter a swinging door on the right. I push the door open and find Jessie, Daedric, and Eve standing next to a set of bunk beds in a small, tidy living space. Their faces are barely illuminated by the orange glow of a desk lamp on the nightstand.

  I can tell by the solemn looks on their faces that Daedric and Eve have just filled Jessie in on all the grisly details of our journey.

  “I hope you don’t mind sharing beds,” Jessie says to me. “We can put you up in separate rooms, but everyone’s big on sharing around here so…”

  “Not a problem,” I say, as I take a seat on the bottom bunk.

  The mattress isn’t as soft as the mattress at the cabin, but it’s a million times better than a sleeping bag in the snow. Daedric sits next to me as Elysia climbs onto the top bunk.

  “We’ll let you guys rest up and tomorrow we’ll introduce you to everyone,” Troy says, holding the door open for Jessie. “Good night.”

  Eve climbs into the top bunk with Elysia and Daedric turns off the desk lamp. Within minutes, I hear Elysia’s soft snore. Daedric and I lay under the thin cover staring at the underside of the top bunk. Finally he slides his hand under the cover and grabs my hand. He squeezes it gently and I know this is his way of saying everything is going to be all right.

  CHAPTER 17

  I wake to find myself wrapped around Daedric like a koala on a branch. He’s already awake and staring at me.

  “Why didn’t you wake me up?” I say, as I untangle my leg from his.

  “You looked so comfortable,” he replies. “I just want to enjoy whatever time we have left.”

  “Stop talking like that. We’re not going to die.”

  He smiles weakly before he kisses my forehead and slides out of bed. Maybe Jessie told him something last night that shattered his hope. Whatever it is, there’s a strong sense of foreboding as we prepare to meet the rest of this community.

  The four of us exit our room and Eve leads us to the cafeteria, which Jessie showed them last night. On the way, we pass an old man who’s also on his way to the cafeteria. He’s so old he can barely walk. I haven’t seen anyone this old in ages.

  We enter the cafeteria and Jessie and Troy wave at us from across the room where more than two-hundred people sit at long lunch tables. Everyone stares at us as we walk toward our new friends. When we arrive at the table, there are four trays of food waiting for us.

  “Jessie told me the kind of food you’ve been surviving on, so I figured none of you are vegetarians,” he says, as we take seats at the table.

  Daedric and Elysia take seats across the table from Eve and I. We look at each other tentatively.

  “Go ahead and eat,” Jessie says. “We’ll introduce you after.”

  We eat creamy oatmeal with plump sausages and strawberry smoothies. I’m tempted to lick my bowl clean, but I manage to control the urge with the awareness that there are dozens of eyes watching me. When we’re done, Jessie takes Elysia to the playroom to meet the other children. After a brief silence, Troy stands from the table.

  “Attention!” he calls out to the entire cafeteria. “Attention, everyone!”

  Silence falls over the cafeteria and everyone turns to Troy.

  “You may have noticed a few new faces today,” he says then he motions for the three of us to rise.

  Daedric stands next to Troy first. Eve and I stand and turn around to face everyone. The woman directly in front of me at the next table looks about my mother’s age, but she doesn’t look very pleased to meet us.

  “This is Daedric, Eve, and Nada,” Troy says, pointing at all of us as he introduces us. “Please make them feel welcome while they’re here.”

  While they’re here?

  I try to smile as everyone near us shakes our hands and introduces themselves by first and last name. After a few superficial conversations, we take our seats again and Troy’s face is serious.

  This is what Daedric meant by enjoying our last days. We can’t stay here.

  Troy follows us back to our room. I immediately collapse onto the bed, exhausted from so much food and defeat in one morning.

  “Elysia can stay,” Troy says. “Even if the Guardians want her, it’ll be easy to hide her. And if you lead them away from here, she’ll still have a chance.”

  If we lead the Guardians away… if we sacrifice ourselves then Elysia and everyone else will survive.

  I stare at the wooden slats holding the mattress above me in place. I imagine the slats cracking, splitting and the mattress crashes down on me, crushing me, burying me.

  “I should have killed Vic with my bare hands.”

  Daedric sits next to me as I realize I’ve spoken these words aloud. “What makes you think they’re not outside right now?” he says to Troy. “What if they already know about this place? When they find us, you won’t stand a chance without weapons.”

  Troy looks conflicted. He knows Daedric is right, but he has an obligation to his community.

  “You have to defend your home,” Eve says. “We can help you do that.”

  Troy sighs. “Just stay put. I’m going to talk to the others.”

  When Troy leaves, Eve begins emptying the contents of Mary’s backpack onto the tile floor. She finds a leather belt and uses Mary’s knife with the ivory handle to cut the belt into long strips. The knife reminds me of my knife with the jade handle, which I left in my backpack when we fled. Until Isaac stole my mother’s necklace back from Vic, that knife was the last piece of my mother I possessed.

  “What are you doing?” I ask Eve.

  “I’m making some bows.”

  “Bows? Like, bows and arrows?” I ask.

  “I used to watch my dad make them before he died in the first earthquake,” she replies.

  “You know how to make bows and arrows and you never made them before now?” Daedric says.

  “I never had to,” Eve replies. “Nada always did the hunting and the traps worked just fine.”

  Daedric is stunned by this revelation, but I don’t find it at all surprising. Eve has always been quiet about her past and she’s never been one to brag about the things she does well.

  “Can you shoot?” Daedric asks, unable to disguise the hope in his voice.

  Eve shrugs. “I haven’t shot an arrow in at least three years, but there has to be somewhere I can practice around here.”

  I shake my head in awe. “I love you, Eve,” I say.

  She smiles as she continues cutting strips of leather. “I love you, too,” s
he mutters.

  Troy returns to our room and orders us to follow him. We follow him down the corridor as he walks briskly toward the food warehouse.

  “What’s going on?” Daedric asks.

  “Remember how I told you that we don’t have a leader? Well, we kind of do,” Troy replies, as we pass the pallets and shelves of packaged food. “She doesn’t like to be considered a leader, she’s more like a counselor.”

  We reach the far corner of the warehouse and find a door. Troy knocks softly and a serene voice instructs him to enter. Troy opens the door slowly and we enter into a room dimly lit with a dozen or so candles. The fat ivory candles sit in glass jars atop a few surfaces in this sparsely furnished room. A woman who looks to be no more than five or six years older than I sits cross-legged on a boxy gray sofa reading a book.

  “Mina, these are the guests I spoke to you about,” Troy says, as he closes the door behind us.

  Mina smiles and her green eyes appear almost orange in the candlelight. She reaches up and pulls a stick out of her hair. Her shiny black hair tumbles over her shoulders as she scoots to one side of the sofa.

  “Please have a seat,” she says, motioning to the sofa.

  The three of us take a seat on the sofa with me right next to Mina. She smiles at me as I try not to get too close to her.

  “You must be wondering how someone so young could provide counsel,” she says. “I wish I had an answer for you. I arrived here over a year ago and once one person asks you for advice, and it turns out to be good advice, it just sort of snowballs from there. I’m not some type of guru, if that’s what you’re thinking. The people just trust me… and I trust them, which is why I asked Troy to bring you here.”

  “Are you kicking us out?” I ask. “If that’s what this is about, we should leave now instead of drawing this out.”

  Mina narrows her eyes at me as if she’s trying to figure me out. “You’re Nada,” she says. “Troy me about the complicated nature of your relationship with the Guardians.”

  “What relationship?” I reply. “They want to kill me. That’s not much different than how they feel about any of us.”

  “Isn’t one of the friends you left behind the same person who initially wanted to become a Guardian?” she responds.

  I never told Daedric about Isaac’s affiliation with the Guardians at Whitmore. Eve must have told Jessie last night while Elysia and I were feasting on bacon and eggs. I’m not angry with Eve, but I feel exposed.

  I nod and Mina shrugs. “It’s okay. We all get mixed up with the wrong people sometimes,” she says.

  Suddenly, I feel the need to defend Isaac. He was always grateful that the events I set in motion at Whitmore ripped him from the Guardians grasp. He didn’t want to be a Guardian. At least, that’s what he told me.

  “You look conflicted,” Mina continues. “Do you think I’m misunderstanding your friend’s intentions or do you believe it’s possible he could be turned against you in hopes of surviving?”

  “I don’t know,” I whisper, as I clench my fists in my lap.

  Mina reaches over and places her hand on mine. “It’s natural to want to defend a friend in their absence, but I have to be practical. I can’t allow emotions to cloud this decision,” she says. “I want to help you, but I need to know what we’re up against.”

  I heave a deep sigh and nod. “It’s possible,” I reply.

  “Okay, then we know what we have to do,” Mina says, as she stands. “We have no choice but to fight. They know what to expect when they get here, as far as you three go, so we’ll just have to try to surprise them.”

  “What kind of weapons do you have?” Daedric asks.

  “I’m sure Troy already informed you that we don’t have weapons here,” Mina responds. “In a promise to leave behind the violence we experienced before we got here, we purged our weapons a long time ago. But we have something the Guardians don’t have: manpower and electricity.”

  “They have the element of surprise,” Troy responds. “It’s hard to trump that.”

  “You can’t surprise someone who’s expecting you,” Mina responds.

  CHAPTER 18

  After four days of Eve’s target practice on bags of beans and rice while the rest of us fashion spears out of wooden sticks and steak knives, the uneasiness has reached the heights of Mt. Everest. The anticipation of Vic’s arrival has everyone on edge. The anticipation of Isaac’s arrival has me vomiting every few hours.

  What if the Guardians have turned Isaac against us?

  I rinse my mouth out in the sink of the communal restroom and stare at my reflection. The dehydration and lack of sleep are evident in the purple crescents under my eyes. I look worse than the day I arrived.

  The restroom door opens and Eve walks in without her bow and arrow—a rare occurrence these days. She closes the door behind her and leans up against it.

  “I hate them,” she says. “I hate what they did to you.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Isaac and Mary. I hate them.”

  “They didn’t do anything to me. I was just too stupid to see the truth.”

  Eve looks me up and down. “They tore you apart. You’re stronger than this.”

  I glance in the mirror again. Eve is right. I’m a ghost.

  I straighten my spine and take a deep breath. “Don’t forget that they still might be in as much danger as we are,” I say. “And don’t waste your energy hating them. Remember: Don’t let them steal any more pieces of you.”

  I take her into my arms and she holds me so tight I feel my face warm with the threat of tears. I let go and flash her a smile.

  “I’m going to get something to eat,” I say.

  I pass our room and make my way to the kitchen as quickly as I can so I don’t run into Daedric. When I get there, Troy and two young men are throwing knives at a wooden cutting board they’ve mounted on the wall. They’re having a good time until they notice me.

  “Oh… hi, Nada,” Troy says, as he tries to pretend not to notice my ragged state. “This is Dave and Jose.”

  I nod. “Nice to meet you,” I reply. “Troy, do you have some crackers or something to settle my stomach.”

  “Sure, follow me,” he says, as he takes off toward the food warehouse.

  He takes me toward the back of the warehouse and I search the stacks of food for boxes of crackers. He takes me past the food toward Mina’s door.

  “I don’t want to see Mina,” I say.

  He stops just before he reaches the door. “I’m not taking you to see Mina,” he says, his face full of concern. “You look like hell. You need more than crackers.”

  He reaches up and presses a silver button on the wall. A ladder slowly lowers from the ceiling.

  “You need sunlight,” he says, pointing at the ladder.

  We climb the ladder until we reach a steel walkway. Troy leads me along the walkway over the tops of what I assume are the tiny domiciles. We reach a steel staircase leading to a door in the ceiling. Troy opens the latch on the door and helps me onto the roof.

  The entire roof is covered with solar panels angled toward the sun. The air is bitterly cold on my skin, but it feels blissful. Until now, I didn’t realize how accustomed I had become to living outdoors.

  I close my eyes and let the fresh air fill my lungs. “Thank you,” I whisper. “Thank you.”

  I race back to our room and find Daedric alone in the room sharpening Mary’s machete: his new weapon of choice. I take the machete from his hand and slide it through the handle of the door to keep the door from swinging open.

  He stands from the bed. “What’s going on?”

  I step toward him and place my hand on his face. “Good morning.”

  Daedric and I kiss for the first time in six weeks. The room dissolves and all I see is his face. All I hear is his breath. All I know is there is nothing like the friction of Daedric’s skin against mine.

  Daedric strokes my hair as we lie facing
each other. He has always looked like a model to me, an impossibly beautiful mythical creature. But now he looks different. He looks unbelievably vulnerable… irresponsibly human.

  “I don’t know what’s going to happen,” he says. “But I want you to know that I’ve never regretted a single moment. Even that moment a minute ago when you saw my butt.”

  I smile as I grab his hand. “As far as I’m concerned—no matter how it ends—it all worked out.”

  CHAPTER 19

  The alarm blares through the speaker in our room at three in the morning.

  Daedric grabs the machete as I help Elysia down from the top bunk. I pull on my boots and grab Elysia’s hand to take her to the first-aid room, which has been converted into a safe room for all the children in the community. Before I can leave, Eve grabs Elysia’s other hand and pulls her into a bone-crushing hug. Elysia and Eve cry and the sound of their sobs makes my head pound with fear.

  Daedric plants a kiss on Elysia’s head. “I’ll see you later,” he says, before I exit our room into the crowded corridor.

  I squeeze Elysia’s hand with all my might so the panicked throng doesn’t separate us. People shove and cry for loved ones as we make our way to our posts. We push our way through into the safe room and settle Elysia on the floor against a wall. The air is charged with panic and the scent of too many people in too little space.

  “No matter what happens, Elysia, you have to stay here. You can’t leave, okay?” I say, and she nods silently as tears stream down her cheeks.

  I try not to cry as I hug her and kiss her forehead before I leave her behind.

  As I exit the safe room pandemonium erupts in the corridor as gunshots explode through the steel door where Daedric and I snared Troy on our first night here.

  “Close the door!” I shout at the crowd of people blocking the doorway to the safe room. “Close it now!”

  I race back toward the room to find Daedric. I stop when I see him and Eve and a group of young men and women armed with spears and knives charging toward me.