"Feeling better?" he asked.
Her eyes widened as she looked up at him. "Yes. Any news about Faye?"
He frowned. He'd forgotten to ask Seraphine, he'd been so caught up in his own consequences. "No," he lied and inwardly scolded himself for it. "Not yet."
Amelia hung her head in disappointment. "Where are you headed, then?"
He hesitated. "I need to find Lucy and Cheyenne. They…took care of a few things for me while we were traveling to get here."
"Are they here?" She looked down the hallway.
"Not exactly. It'll be a little bit of an adventure. Want to come?"
"I'm not going to be able to sleep." She looked at the room behind her.
"It'll get us out of The Compound."
Amelia's head swiveled to look at him again. "Away from here?"
"Yes," he replied. "Lucy's infamous for sneaking out."
"Sneaking out where?"
"Isn't it obvious? Las Vegas."
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
She followed Ben down the white hallway, feeling unsettled. He'd exited the room looking agitated and uncomfortable, softening for a moment once he'd seen her. Something had happened after he'd left her room.
He talked to her, but she barely listened. She was more interested in looking down the halls, trying to find the double doors where Faye was. Just a quick peek wouldn't hurt anyone, she thought. Except she was disoriented in this place, unsure of which way was which.
Ben walked quickly, shouting things over his shoulder about Lucy and Cheyenne and Esau. His team. She couldn't quite get a good read on how he thought about those people, if he thought about them at all. They weren't friends. They weren't family, he had made that clear. She knew she couldn't understand the hardships the Migrators endured, but surely all of these humans had not lost their humanity? Surely these people still needed human connection?
Before she knew it, they had reached end of the hall. "This way." Ben was stern. He looked maniacal almost, his eyes focused, concentrated on her. She wasn't sure he'd slept since the hotel.
He led her back into the room with the light. The trip upwards was short, bright, and uncomfortable, but more familiar than it had been before. At least this time Amelia knew what to expect. The wall slid up, and the control room came into view. Ben wasted no time walking through the room towards the door to the garage.
It was cold and somehow larger than she remembered it being a few hours ago when they had entered The Compound. The shelves rose high above her head, home to breathtaking contraptions the world she knew of could only dream of imagining.
Ben crossed the room quickly, not bothering to wait for her. With the large place empty now, his footsteps echoed against the high ceilings. She scurried to keep up with his large strides. He made his way towards the large, ugly RV they'd driven into this place. Someone had parked it so it stood neatly in line with the others. Amelia surprisingly found herself disappointed, wanting to explore the vehicles. "Can't we take something cooler than that RV?" she asked, quickening her pace to fall in stride beside him.
He laughed. "We're not taking that monstrosity."
"We're not?" Her spirits lightened considerably.
Ben looked over his shoulder at her. "No."
On the side of the shelves, Amelia saw Ben scan his Omnis, and the cars maneuvered like a Rubix cube. The RV disappeared, replaced by a black Mercedes. Ben put his hand out to indicate she should get inside the passenger's seat, and they both climbed inside. The car smelled new, the leather slippery to the touch. There was a generic GPS system built in, along with a radio. Nothing fancy here. Just a regular car Amelia might have found anywhere.
Beside her, Ben reached up into the sun visor to fish out the keys.
"Aren't you all worried someone might steal the cars?" she thought out loud as he brought the engine to life.
He smiled as he looked at her—endearingly, she supposed. "Keys are a thing of the past in about fifty years from now, so no. You need an Omnis to even get into half of these things," he said, waving out the window. "Plus, nobody's looking for the Compound except for us."
"I guess that makes sense. This place is incredible."
"Is it?" He raised an eyebrow.
She looked at him, mouth wide. "There's hundreds of years' worth of technology in here, right in this very room." She was in awe, unable to look away even as he pulled out from the spot into the garage. "It's unreal."
"Mmhmm." Ben seemed entirely uninterested.
"Come on." Amelia laughed. "Even you have to admit that's impressive."
With a small smile, he tapped against the gas, the wheels moving smoothly against the concrete. They stopped before a solid white wall. As they approached, it disappeared, revealing the vast desert landscape beyond them. Ben drove forward into the night, and Amelia instinctively grabbed her seatbelt from her shoulder to buckle herself into the seat. Curious, she looked over her shoulder, but the building from which they'd exited, was gone.
"So, The Compound," Amelia said, turning back towards Ben who was focused on driving. "It just….disappears?"
Ben glanced at her. "No. It's still there. It'll always be there. No matter what time you're in, future, or past. It's a constant."
"A constant?"
"Yes. It's a place that's always here, in the same location. Never moves. You just have to know what you're looking for." He swerved the car to the left, causing Amelia to shift in her seat.
"You said that where you live in your time, it's on top of the place you need to be looking for?" she said, trying to make sense of it all.
"That's right."
"So what's on the ground?" Amelia asked. "If it isn't livable - there's just nothing there?"
"Right. Whatever was left down there is dead now—the land, the grass, the trees, the air." He looked over at her for a moment, then back at the scenery in front of him. "The people."
"So how do you survive?" she asked. "No natural resources, no water? Oxygen?"
"We have those things."
"How?" Amelia asked, perplexed. "How is that possible if everything below is dead?"
He glared at her. "You have a lot of questions."
"And you don't seem to have a lot of answers." She didn't skip a beat. He looked back out over the steering wheel.
"I have many answers, Amelia." His voice was somber and steady. "You just don't need to hear all of them.
"Is it really so bad?"
He frowned. "It's not as interesting as you might hope it would be."
"Fine." She sighed. "Then how did it go with Seraphine?"
His face changed slightly—jaw tightened, cheeks flushed. "She's upset," he said. "Understandably."
"Did you tell her it was an accident?" she asked. Seraphine was intense, but she didn't seem unreasonable.
His hands clenched tighter around the steering wheel and Amelia suddenly regretted the question. "Of course I told her," he said. "But none of that matters, Amelia. What's done is done. I can only focus on what I can fix right now. What matters is what happens to your sister." He turned towards her, his eyes shining from the glare of the GPS. "And what happens to you."
They found the road. The car jumped up onto the paved gravel, picking up the smooth road beneath, and Ben turned to guide them steadily towards a destination he seemed to know by heart. She sensed there was something he wasn't telling her, something else she should pry for. But his body language told her to quit while she was ahead.
"Does she think that Faye will be okay?" She bit her thumbnail.
"She knows Johan will do what he can. And he will. He comes from an extremely skilled family of doctors, all specializing in migrating related activities. He knows it all."
"I sure hope so," Amelia said. "I wouldn't know what to do without her."
Ben chuckled, but as he looked at Amelia, he stopped mid-laugh. "Of course you would."
Amelia shook her head and looked down at her lap. "Faye's all I got. I can't live without her."<
br />
"Don't be stupid. Of course you can. If she does, that doesn't mean you will, too. Even I know that's not how your world works."
"I was alone for so long. As a kid, you know? Once you find someone who's like your family…like me and Faye. You don't ever want to go back."
"Being alone is better."
It was her turn to laugh. "What do you mean?" Her curiosity was still getting the best of her. "You're never alone, are you? An entire team around you?"
Ben bit his lip. "My team is just that. A team. They're not family. We don't have those feelings for each other. They're wasteful."
"Again with this 'love is wasteful' thing," she exclaimed, throwing her hands up in exasperation.
"Well, it's true. Wraps you up in messes you don't need to be in. So does hate. Fear. Worry." He straightened his back in his seat. "It's dangerous."
"Dangerous to feel something?"
"To feel at all. I have one task at hand, that I should be focused on. Feelings about my surroundings aren't important. They're a waste of time."
"People can't just not feel, Ben. It's human nature. You can't possibly tell me you don't feel things?"
"No. I don't."
"Well then," she said with a frown. "Do I feel sorry for you."
She watched him, trying to catch his eye, but he was caught up in his own thoughts, driving the car towards the bright city that popped up in the distance.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Ben was tired of conversation, but he needed to get his apology out of the way and Lucy and Cheyenne back to The Compound. Seraphine would have already realized they were missing, and he didn't need her any more furious than she already was. They had work to do.
The car he drove felt clunky and overweight, but was a sure improvement from the massive vehicle they'd driven on the way here. That was the least of his concerns right now. He knew how temperamental Lucy would be, and he knew she'd use his mistake to her advantage. He could hear her voice. The perfect Migrator had messed up royally. He gritted his teeth just thinking about it. Not to mention the slew of questions Amelia felt like slinging at him on this trip. He might never get his thoughts straight. All he wanted to do was focus.
"So Lucy and Cheyenne," Amelia said inquisitively, "they sneak out like this all the time?"
"Lucy, yes," Ben answered, concentrating on the shimmer of lights that exuded from the city in the distance. "She's not a fan of the Compound."
"And Cheyenne?"
"Cheyenne's loyal to Lucy. She saved her from an unfortunate fate a while back. Seraphine brought her in as a refugee. But she's been through worse trauma than the rest of us. She doesn't speak."
Amelia nodded, and silence settled between them for a few moments. "It seems strange that you all wouldn't be able to just do what you want. Being a Migrator and all seems important, like you should have some privileges."
"We have many privileges," Ben retorted. "Migrating is a privilege."
"I just mean—"
"Seraphine sets these rules to keep us safe. Lucy knows that, but she's had a hard time since…" He paused. He was revealing too much.
"Since what?"
He shook his head, pulling his lips into a straight line. "Seraphine will want to know that I tried to bring them back. Being out like this is dangerous. Lucy thinks because she has Seer abilities that she can take these chances, but too much time in the outside world could affect the timeline. And we do not need that."
"So," she said carefully, "why doesn't any of this fall on Lucy? Or Esau?"
He kept forgetting she didn't know the dynamics of his team. It wasn't often he had a newcomer in his life, at least one where he had to explain simple things. She questioned everything. "Because Seraphine trusts me. Trusted me." His own correction sliced at his pride.
"So that's why they came to find you," she said, like she was putting together a puzzle. "Why Seraphine sent Esau to come and get you. You're valued, even if you say you're not."
He scoffed. "I told you before, I can be easily replaced."
"You can't," she observed with a shake of her head, watching him. "And you shouldn't talk about yourself that way."
He frowned. "Amelia," he said sternly, turning to glance at her. Her eyes were locked in on him, like she was trying to get to know him or something. He wasn't sure he'd seen someone look at him that way before. "I've told you before, I don't matter. My job as a Migrator does. Everything else is…"
"I don't believe that," she said, cutting him off. "I don't believe it for a minute."
"Believe what?" The girl was infuriating.
"That that's it. Your job is it. There's nothing beyond it. Nothing to you as a person. From what I've seen…" She paused, finally looking away from him and back down at her lap. "You're needed. Esau looks up to you. It feels like Seraphine needs you."
"Seraphine doesn't need anyone."
Amelia opened her mouth, like she was looking to say something, but closed it just as quickly.
Something else bobbed to the surface of his emotions. A new one. "What?"
"Nothing," she said.
He was slightly more furious now. "What?" he asked again.
"Everyone needs someone," was all she said, turning to the window.
Las Vegas from this time was different—still just as filthy, yet strangely extravagant. Still the same city he'd seen from times before, just more primitive. This city had always been a world of its own, filled with creatures of the night, the peculiar, the ones who pushed the boundaries. Until it wasn't anymore.
As the great wars raged, cities had crumbled one by one. He had watched them. The Migrators always returned for many of the big events, sometimes multiple times, over the course of different years. They couldn't change the course of the actual event itself, but timeline adjustments were always needed at big moments. At first it was painful, watching the events they knew were inevitable happen. But they learned not to mind it after a while. Their focus remained on what the mended timeline would bring them.
Paradise.
Still, the city was right in their backyard. To see it bright and thriving again was a treat, knowing what it looked like in his time. Their last migration had been to the collapse of the West, including watching what was left of Las Vegas fall. It had been a peculiar journey. They'd hadn't all returned in one piece, but it was the night Lucy had brought back an Affected Predecessor.
There was much Ben hadn't understood about that night. He hadn't wanted to. Seraphine and Johan had taken care of the problem, and Ben had let them do their jobs. He wasn't about to interfere. He hadn't been invested, so he hadn't cared. Later, he found out the man had died.
Lucy should have let it stay in the past, but instead she had become more rebellious. The event changed her. Not all at once, but ever since, Lucy hadn't been the same. It was worrying, especially to Seraphine. Ben had never been able to wrap his head around Lucy's behavior, always fighting tooth and nail to do the opposite of what she was told. But now, ever since that night, things had gotten so much worse.
They drove into town, busy streets bustling with bodies. Ben navigated the car down the strip, ignoring the bright lights and the sideshow people who wandered the streets. Lucy would have no interest in all of this. He knew exactly where she was.
He turned, navigating down a side street. The lights dulled, and the people thinned as they approached an alleyway. Ben pulled up to the curb and turned off the engine.
"We're here," he said, turning to Amelia.
She looked out the window. "We're where?" she asked with a nervous laugh.
"Here," he said, pointing towards the street behind them. Then, without another word, he opened his door and stepped out onto the street. "Come on."
Amelia climbed out of the car apprehensively, glancing up and down the street. "Where the hell are we?" She closed the car door behind her.
"Oh, relax." Ben came around the side of the car and grabbed her by the arm to head towards the alleyway.
/> The streetlight only illuminated the street corner, leaving the rest of the alley pitch black. It was narrow, with a low curb on the side where they walked. Ben held onto her arm tightly to drag her with him, growing more impatient by the minute. He hated chasing after Lucy. But Seraphine wanted him to apologize, so apologize he would.
At the end of the dark alley, Ben fumbled for the door handle he knew was there. The door swung towards them easily, illuminating the sidewalk outside with low blue lighting.
The small space smelled like stale beer and fried chicken. He never understood what Lucy saw about this place, but this was where she always came. Even after the fall.
A long, empty bar filled the far end of the room, and a bartender stood behind it, not paying attention to the newcomers. Between the door and the bar were two pool tables. In the middle of the room stood Lucy, with her unnaturally milky white skin, fire red hair, and wide eyes. The girl had distracting features, Seraphine had once commented. They'd tried to dye Lucy's hair a pale blonde, to keep it at bay. The next day it was bright red and curlier than Ben had remembered it. She wasn't interested in fitting in.
She busied herself chalking a pool stick. Her eyes flickered towards them, and she smirked at Ben, then turned toward the woman who stood behind her. Short, wide hips and frizzy dark hair, Cheyenne was everything Lucy was not, though, Ben thought, had much more potential as a Migrator. Someone who never spoke could never reveal secrets.
Amelia tugged at his arm, and he released his grip on her. "Sorry," he managed to mutter before walking up towards the pool table. Lucy turned on her heel, pool stick in her hand, and brought it up to the cue ball. The stick cracked, sending the white ball pummeling into the rest. A red one found a corner pocket and sunk.
"Lucy," Ben said sternly, placing his hands on the edge of the table.
Her eyes stayed focused on the table where she found the cue ball again. She positioned herself against the table at the right angle to hit another solid ball into a middle pocket. "Ben."
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