The First Twenty

by Jennifer Lavoie

  The trance that held Nixie seemed to break as her eyes snapped open. The short peace they’d struck between them broke. “Just filtered water? Do you have any idea how many people don’t even have steady access to water, let alone clean water?” Her pale blue eyes narrowed until Peyton could no longer see the color. “You Settlers are all the same. You have no idea how bad it is out there. People are still suffering and you hoard everything you have without sharing. If you’d just let us have—”

  “I think Nixie needs to rest,” Dr. Easton interrupted.

  Nixie stopped her ranting and turned away, effectively shutting Peyton out.

  Peyton felt the sting of disappointment. She thought they’d made a tenuous connection, like her father would’ve done. She took the doctor’s advice and left the medical ward to give Nixie space and privacy. Outside the door she ran into Static, who skulked in the hallway.

  “What are you doing out of your cave?” she asked as he tried to peer around her shoulder beyond the doorway. Peyton blocked his view as the heavy door clicked shut.

  “Wanted to get a look at the Scavenger. Maybe talk to her.”

  “Why would you want to talk to her?”

  Static shrugged. “Find out what she’s seen out there. They usually travel a bit, right? Maybe she’s seen some of the pieces I need.”

  Peyton rolled her eyes. “You need to get out there and get the pieces for yourself. No one is going to find what you need. We don’t know what any of it looks like!”

  Static pulled a piece of wrinkled paper from his torn jeans. He looked at Peyton quickly before glancing back down at the sheet. “If you’ll just take a look at the list.”

  Peyton sighed and took the paper. She read over the items quickly to humor him. “Static, I still can’t read this.”

  “But if you could pass it on to the girl.”

  She shook her head and gave it back to him. “Look, just leave her alone. Doc says she needs to rest. I don’t want to hear from anyone that you’ve been buzzing around.” The pathetic look Static gave her reminded her of a puppy left out in the rain. It was hard to say no and turn away from something like that, but she just raised an eyebrow and walked away. She didn’t expect him to, but Static followed after her, running a hand through his spiked black-and-gray hair.

  “But the radios will work if I can just get these parts. We can get them going again and connect with other settlements farther out. Maybe start to rebuild instead of just existing. And it’ll be faster to get messages to Ox Farm and Ellington!”

  Peyton didn’t break her stride. “You said the radios have to be two-way.”

  “Well, yes. Of course. The other side has to have one.”

  “But what if they don’t?”

  “Then we get them one! But someone out there has to have a working radio. I’m sure of it. I’m just an amateur, but there are experts!”

  “I hate to burst your bubble, but billions of people died, Static. There might not be any experts left. We don’t even have Maverick anymore.”

  His lips flattened at the mention of Maverick, but he merely said, “There are always experts left. Somewhere. You just need to have faith.”

  Peyton stopped and watched as Static shuffled off to his domain of rusted parts. She’d never given his obsession much thought; no one did. But maybe he had a point. Maybe they needed to devote some time to finding these old parts before they completely disintegrated. He had a knack for turning what looked like a heap of scrap into something that worked. If there was some truth to what he said about connections, maybe she should send a guard out with him to finally help him find what he needed. At the very least it would keep him occupied for a few weeks while she dealt with their guest.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Guilt racked Nixie every time she downed a glass of water. It tasted so fresh and the doctor brought her plenty of it. Sure, they might have been hit hard by the drought, too, but clearly they still had reserves if they were letting her drink as much as she wanted. At times she felt like a glutton. And when she was given the opportunity to soak in a hot bath and scrub the filth from her body? She couldn’t even remember the last time she’d truly bathed like that. All that water, just to get clean.

  Days had passed since she’d been captured and no word from Ranger or the others. Had they gotten what they needed and Faulkner decided to give her up? It was true they’d be able to filter the water they found and make it safer for drinking, but how would they find the water without her? Worried, she brought her thumbnail to her teeth, gnawing until she had bitten down to the quick. She winced at the raw skin but couldn’t find it in her power to stop.

  A light knock on the door mercifully drew her attention away from it. The door slowly opened and Peyton poked her head inside.

  “How are you?” she asked, her eyes taking in Nixie as she reclined on a bed with a pristine white sheet over her.

  The Settler’s voice was like water in a cool, bubbling brook. As much as Nixie wanted to hate her—and did hate her for what she represented—that mellifluous voice had begun to soothe her nerves and put her at ease.

  She hated that power.

  “Better. Dr. Easton said I should be able to walk by the end of next week,” Nixie stated. Despite her kneejerk notion to bluff the guards about her injury, she’d come to realize it was pointless to hide the truth from her. The older woman would have told Peyton everything.

  From her time with the good woman, she’d learned that Peyton was the new head of security, and everything important to the Mill went through her and the other group leaders. Nixie had been intrigued by how they all seemed to cooperate with one another to get things done. It was so unlike her people. Faulkner held total control over everything. He dictated when and where people hunted, when and where they foraged, and when Nixie should search for water. She had been given free rein over the where, but that was only because of her ability, and she had no say in who would make the travels with her.

  “That’s good,” Peyton said, shutting the door behind her. She took a step farther into the room and glanced around, hesitating before taking one of the open seats.

  “If you’re looking for the doctor, she was called away.”

  “I know.”

  Oh. Now was the time for her interrogation, then. She pulled her lips back in what she hoped was a sneer. “Someone waiting outside, then? Ryan perhaps, with his shotgun?”

  “No,” Peyton responded, one eyebrow arched. “Why would he be?”

  That took the wind out of Nixie’s sails. She frowned. “Then why are you here?”

  “Checking up on you.”

  “Why?”

  Peyton leaned forward, resting her arms across her knees, and spread her hands. “You’re in our care, now. As the one who…took you in, I need to make sure you’re okay.”

  “That’s not the impression you gave that first night.”

  One shoulder shrugged and Nixie detected the trace of a blush on her face. “I guess that was…the heat of the moment.” She dragged a hand over her face, looking tired. “I was dragged out of sleep and I hadn’t exactly gotten good rest for the few days prior.”

  Nixie could sympathize with that, though she knew the cause of her sleeplessness was different from Peyton’s. Nixie had too often gone to bed without food, sometimes without even water, and she’d lain awake for hours, her stomach rumbling loudly every time she breathed, or her lips cracked from dehydration. She’d begun to wait out the early morning hours when the dew clung to leaves and she could suck the moisture from the plants.

  “So you took it out on me.”

  “What would you have done in my place? You were an intruder. It’s my job to protect these people.”

  “Before that, it was your father’s position.” Peyton looked stunned as she said the words, and Nixie appreciated being able to bring that look to her face. “Dr. Easton told me.” A pause. “I’m sorry about your father.”

  “Scavengers killed him.” She paused, lettin
g those words land like a hammer blow. “Do you know who did it?”

  Nixie looked down at the sheet covering her, picking off a piece of nonexistent debris. “No. Sorry. There are other groups out there. Perhaps it was one of them.” Why did lying to Peyton feel so wrong? She was a Settler. They didn’t give a shit about her people. They’d just as soon pick them off as kill a deer for food. So why was she having such a hard time meeting her eyes again?

  “Your parents must be worried about you. I’m sorry for that,” Peyton said after a few moments of tense silence.

  “My parents are dead.” Nixie looked over to find Peyton’s eyes wide in surprise. “I never knew my father, and my mother died when I was young.”

  “Mine, too. I mean, my birth parents,” she admitted when Nixie tilted her head, confused. “My parents came to the Mill after I was born. They were sick with the disease that killed so many people. I should have died, too, but I didn’t. I guess, by then, the strain was weakening, or we were getting stronger. I don’t know. They died and Enrique took me in. He raised me.” Peyton laughed and it was a hard, bitter sound. “I don’t know why I’m telling you this.”

  To know she had something so personal in common with the Settler unnerved Nixie. She clenched the sheet in her hands and twisted it. “Thank you for telling me,” she said when the silence grew unbearable. “I guess we’re not that different after all.”

  The sound that came from Peyton’s mouth was half laugh, half snort. “Maybe not, but that doesn’t change what you did.”

  “No, but we all have our reasons, don’t we?”

  “So what was yours?”

  And here it comes. The interrogation. Nixie straightened her spine and tore her eyes from the sheets to focus on Peyton. She wouldn’t show fear. She was strong, despite what Faulkner might think of her.

  “The health and safety of my people are my reasons. Everything I’ve done since I came of age has been to help them survive.”

  “So what are you? You can’t be a hunter. You’re too small.”

  “Size doesn’t always matter. Skill does.”

  “Sorry, but I just can’t see you killing something, even to help your people.” She said the words with the bite of scorn in her voice.

  Nixie put as much force in her voice as she said, “And why is that?”

  “Because you’re too…nice.”

  Well, that was a surprise. Nixie stared at Peyton as she processed what she said. “I’m too nice?”

  “Yeah.” Peyton waved a hand through the air, a frown tugging at her lips. “I can’t explain it, really. I mean I don’t know you, but you just seem like the kind of person who couldn’t do that. Scavengers don’t farm, so you must be a forager.”

  In a way, she was right, so she nodded. Peyton’s eyes lit up as she smiled in triumph, and Nixie’s heart skipped a beat.

  Weird.

  But the imposing guard looked completely different when she wasn’t scowling or brooding, and it wasn’t a bad look at all.

  “If you’re a forager, why were you on the raid?”

  Peyton might have skill, but she wouldn’t get Nixie to talk so easily. “We don’t have the luxury you Settlers have. There aren’t as many of us as there are of you. We all hold multiple roles in the camps. Life is much harder outside these walls.”

  “Do you think it’s easy inside them?”

  Nixie gestured to the white linens and the clothing Peyton wore. The denim might have been worn in some places, but the patches had been made by a skilled person. Her button-down shirt had matching buttons, all still attached—something Nixie never saw on her people. She’d never cared what she looked like; her appearance was secondary to her ability. But next to someone as beautiful as Peyton, she felt inferior. “What do you think?” The feeling of calm she’d had while talking to Peyton dissipated only to be replaced by the sting of something she couldn’t identify. She lay back down on the bed, closing her eyes. Peyton said something, but she couldn’t make out her words, and after several moments the door opened and clicked shut.

  She was alone once again.

  CHAPTER NINE

  “Nixie will be ready to move in a day or two. She’s healed a lot faster than I would have thought,” Dr. Easton said as she sat across the desk from Peyton in one of the folding chairs, four days after Peyton’s visit to Nixie. The chair wasn’t comfortable, Peyton knew from experience, but then visitors to the office weren’t encouraged to stay long and chat. There was always too much work to do.

  “That’s good to know. Thank you for telling me.” Peyton looked back down at the schedule she’d drawn up for the next few weeks of work details. When the doctor didn’t leave, she looked up again.

  “What are you going to do with her?”

  “What do you mean?”

  Dr. Easton sighed. “You can’t hold her here forever, Peyton. What are your plans?”

  “We need to find out what was taken and if the others will be back.”

  “Considering no one has figured it out yet, do you really think it’s necessary? Can’t you just let it go?”

  Peyton straightened in her chair, frowning. “If I let them get away with this, they’ll think they can come over here and steal from us all the time.”

  “Yes, but if you go after them, I’m going to have a bloody mess to clean up. You don’t know what life was like Before. I do. These conflicts never end well.”

  “They can’t feel free to take whatever they like from us. You must see that.”

  The doctor rubbed a hand across her forehead and sighed. She looked exhausted and Peyton wondered how her student’s training was coming. The woman needed a break.

  “I know. I see it. That’s the problem—it’s a catch. We’re damned if we do, damned if we don’t. So again I ask, what are your plans?”

  “We need to get her to trust us. If we can win her over, then she’ll feel obligated to help us.”

  “You think she’ll feel obligated to help the people who’ve been holding her prisoner?” Dr. Easton snorted. “I doubt that.”

  “You’ve nursed her back to health, haven’t you? She must trust you.”

  “To a degree, yes. But her loyalties will always lie with her people. Think about it from her perspective.”

  Peyton tried to put herself in Nixie’s place. It would be hard, if not impossible for her to trust the Scavengers, but she’d also appreciate the freedom to move. If they were to show her some trust, she might be able to trust them. “As soon as she can move, I’ll give her freedom to roam the Mill.”

  Peyton didn’t need to look at the doctor to know she raised her eyebrow in astonishment. “Freedom to roam the Mill.”

  “With a shadow, of course.”

  “Doesn’t sound like freedom to me.”

  “She won’t know she has a shadow.”

  “Who do you suggest might be that skilled?” Dr. Easton asked.

  Peyton smiled. “Graham, of course.”

  *

  Graham stared at Peyton blankly for a moment after she finished telling him her plan. She held her breath as she waited for his reply, worried he would reject her idea outright.

  “I guess that’s as good an idea as any,” he said after she felt as if she’d turn blue from waiting. “If I’m to be honest, it sounds like something Enrique would suggest.”

  She released the breath she’d been holding and it came out louder than she’d expected. It was the first time since she’d taken over that someone suggested an idea of hers bore any similarities to her father’s, and she felt the swell of emotion just before it pricked her eyes. “If anyone can get her to trust us, it’s you.”

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence, my girl. It’s good to know I still have some use in me yet.”

  Peyton narrowed her eyes. “Of course. You’re an important part of the Mill. Has someone said something to you? Ryan?”

  “Don’t be so quick, Peyton. There are just days I feel my age, is all.” He waved his hand dismissive
ly. “So what exactly are my orders?”

  “Accompany her around, talk to her. Make her feel comfortable—”

  “But watch her for any signs of flight. Got it. Where will she be staying?”

  That was something Peyton had been trying to figure out for days, but as yet, she still had no solution to that particular problem. They didn’t have a free apartment open for one person, and she couldn’t trust her to be alone even if they had.

  Graham came up with the perfect solution. “She can stay with me. I have plenty of room and I’ll be able to keep an eye on her for longer periods of time.”

  “She won’t have to know you’re security. Graham, that’s brilliant!” Peyton threw her arms around him, relieved. He returned the hug. It felt nice to have human contact. She’d never been one for it as a child, but now that Dad was gone, she regretted not going to him more often.

  “So,” Graham said as he pulled away from her, “when do I start my new duties?”

  “As soon as we get her out of there. A day or two if she doesn’t do anything stupid to wrench her knee.”

  “Then I’ll go clean the extra bedroom. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a use for it. You wouldn’t believe the mess.”

  Peyton watched him walk away. She had work to do as well. The rest of security would need to be alerted to the release of their prisoner, and she knew a few people who wouldn’t take it well.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Well, Nixie knew they weren’t going to just let her go when her knee had healed, but she hadn’t been expecting such a friendly person to be taking her in. She stared at the older man, Graham, who offered her a room—her very own, he assured her—in his home. She’d never had a room of her own, and the idea appealed to her.

  Even if it was temporary.

  Over the course of the last two days she’d realized she would have to gain their trust and make them believe she wanted to be there, to be a part of their society. Once she had freedom to come and go at will, she would sneak out at night and find Ranger and the others. It had been a week. Had they even tried to come and get her? The thought was uncomfortable and Nixie pushed it to the furthest reaches of her mind. She wouldn’t think of it now. Of course Ranger would try to get her back. There was no way Faulkner would just let her go, filtration equipment or not.