Carn paced back and forth, keenly aware of the three guards standing near the door. More importantly, she could feel the caras pointed at her, and she knew the dangers they represented. After all, it had only been a day since she’d felt the bite of Seattle’s war machinery.
Upon reaching the city, she and her companions had been so relieved. At last, they’d reached civilization, and not a mont too soon. Their water reserves had run out the day before, and they’d exhausted the majority of the dicinal flesh of the cacti that Theresa had gathered. Without them, they would have long since succumbed to the bites from the huge lizards that seed so common in the desert.
In short, they were on their last legs, and if they hadn’t spotted the enormous sa in the distance, the weaker mbers of the group – including Miguel – would have fallen. So, they’d approached the city with no small degree of relief, only to be accosted by a group of hunters. The n and won had seen them as easy prey – not the battle-hardened survivors the refugees had beco – and they’d quickly shown the hunters the error of their ways.
Even with their thirst-induced weakness, the survivors had managed to fight the bandits to a standstill that was only broken up by a swarm of weaponized drones swooping in and firing a barrage of stunning nets upon the combatants. Carn had fought free, but that only brought more attention from the flying naces. And eventually, she’d been captured, just like all the rest.
That should have been the end of it. If there was any justice in the world, at least. But as it turned out, it was her word against that of the attackers, and, on top of that, there were so sort of politics at play. So, it was far more complicated than it should have been, and even though they’d been the victims, Carn and her companions had been detained.
That’s when Lucy had co into the picture.
She barely knew the woman, except from Alyssa’s stories of her childhood. However, Lucy sohow knew Carn, and, after a brief eting, she’d been working on the group’s behalf.
That was probably the only reason they hadn’t been executed.
Carn knew that. It would have been much easier for the city’s leadership to simply rid themselves of the problem. And in a lot of ways, Carn wished they would get on with it. She was tired. Exhausted, really. And she was fed up with living minute-to-minute, assailed by one horror after another, with no solace on the horizon. So, she preferred for sothing to happen, rather than waiting, stuck in limbo while the powers-that-be figured out what to do.
Of course, on the heels of that ca guilt. She knew that desire was false. She would keep going through however many hardships she was forced to endure, so long as her son survived.
She’d already tried to talk her way free, but that hadn’t worked. So, she had no other option but to wait. And she’d never been great at that. So, when the door finally opened, Carn’s mood had long since soured.
But it all disappeared the mont she saw the person in the doorway.
“Elijah?”
He looked different. The last ti Carn had seen her brother-in-law, he’d been knocking on death’s door as he battled terminal cancer. It was only a video call on Alyssa’s laptop, but even then, he’d been a shadow of his forr self. Now, he looked like he was on the complete opposite end of the spectrum. He wasn’t just healthy. He was strong, with an aura of vitality and ethera wafting off of him with every breath.
It was like standing in the presence of a natural treasure, and his re presence took her breath away.
As Carn took a deep breath, she catalogued his other features. He hadn’t shaved in months, and his blonde beard was both bushy and unkempt, like he’d spent all that ti in the wilderness. His curly hair wasn’t all that better, though it looked like he’d at least run a comb through it soti in the past week or two.
He wore oddly-cut clothing that reminded Carn of a Renaissance faire, though her experience with crafting told her that they were at least Crude-Grade. Maybe even better. His other equipnt – a red sash around his waist, a couple of rings on his fingers, an iron-shod staff, and even the purse at his waist – glowed with far more power. He was as well-geared as anyone she had ever seen.
But that was probably appropriate, given his placent on the power rankings. Being in the top three obviously ca with many opportunities for loot.
Then there were the scars.
The most obvious were located on his hand, and those looked like the result of severe burns. They were a little faded, but still extrely obvious. Carn only saw hints of other scars – like a pair that peeked out from beneath his tunic or a few that were visible below the mid-calf hem of his pants – but they all coalesced to suggest that her hardships were not unique. In fact, it was obvious that Elijah had endured plenty of his own.
“Can,” he said, his voice cracking with emotion. He stepped forward – notably, the guards didn’t even try to stop him – and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. “You have no idea how long I’ve been looking for you.”
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For her part, Carn couldn’t stop the tears from falling down her cheeks as she buried her face in his shoulder. Part of it was simple relief. She’d never fancied herself a damsel in distress, but Elijah’s sudden presence felt like a rescue, and in all the best ways.
After a long embrace, Elijah pulled away, and he asked the obvious question, “Where’s Alyssa? And Miguel?”
“It’s…it’s a long story,” Carn said, noticing that Elijah had shed a few tears of his own. She glanced at the guards, then at the cara, saying, “And not one I’m going to tell here.”
“I understand,” he said. After that, he turned to the guards and stated, “I’m leaving. Don’t try to stop .”
“And we’re taking the others with us,” Carn said. She and the rest of the refugees had been separated and placed in different cells. Carn didn’t even know where the others were being held. She then explained as much to Elijah.
He reacted predictably, telling the guards, “Get her friends. Now.”
“But –”
“Do it,” ca a voice over an unseen intercom system. “Give him what he wants. Except the swordsman. He stays.”
That was just as predictable as Elijah’s reaction. Colt had killed three n, and in full view of the drones. Clearly, that ca with consequences. Carn didn’t intend to abandon her friend, but she could read the room well enough to recognize that arguing would do nothing to help Colt. Instead, she wanted to get Miguel to safety before she worried about Colt’s situation.
He would do the sa thing if their situations were reversed.
So, over the next few minutes, Carn and Elijah waited as one of the guards went to fetch the others. When the remaining refugees – including Miguel – arrived, Can was happy to see that they were in decent condition, but she couldn’t stop herself from ensuring that Miguel was unhurt. They’d been fed and watered, at least. That was as good of treatnt as she could have expected.
Upon seeing Miguel, Elijah smiled wryly and said, “Last ti I saw you, you were only this tall.” To accentuate his point, he held his hand at about waist height. “Are you okay?”
Miguel gave him a firm nod, but refrained from speaking. It wasn’t the ti for a family reunion, after all, and Miguel was aware enough to recognize that.
After that, the guards escorted them out of the building, which turned out to be so sort of law enforcent hub. Along the way, she saw plenty of black-clad guards, each one looking overworked and more than a little fed up with their situations. Keeping the peace in a city populated by people with superhuman powers had to be a thankless proposition.
Regardless, no one stopped them as they were shown to the door and freed. Elijah told the guard, “Inform your boss that we’re not done. I appreciate him accommodating , but I intend to see the other one freed as well. So, after I get these people settled, Isaiah and I are going to have a long conversation.”
“I understand,” ca a male voice from overhead. Carn looked up to see a drone hovering silently above them.
Other than a simple nod, Elijah didn’t acknowledge the statent. Instead, he turned and led Carn and the others through the city. Her first trip into the city had been short – the building where they’d been housed was right next to the wall – so Carn hadn’t had the chance to see much of Seattle. Because of that, she was more than a little surprised at the state of the city. It looked nothing like Easton. Roman’s city was clean, with mostly new buildings that were laid out in a perfectly organized grid. Seattle, on the other hand, was haphazard, and many of the buildings had clearly been constructed from the remnants of the old city. So of the landmarks remained, but for the most part, it looked as if the city was in the midst of a post-war rebuild.
The people were an odd collection of old and new, with various ethera-fueled electronics right alongside swords, staves, and axes. Most of the people wore modern clothing in various states of degradation, but there were plenty of residents wearing armor and robes. It made for a unique atmosphere that wasn’t present sowhere like Easton, where people had fully embraced the differences that had co with Earth’s transformation.
Carn wasn’t certain which way was better. On the one hand, Easton was clearly more advanced in terms of quality of life. However, Seattle’s use of electronics seed like a worthy route to integrating Earth’s past into its future.
Regardless, that wasn’t really what occupied most of Carn’s thoughts. Instead, she was almost entirely focused on how she was going to tell Elijah that his sister was gone. It wasn’t an easy conversation, made even more difficult by the circumstances surrounding Alyssa’s death. And Carn knew that if she told Elijah everything at once, he would tear off across the world and kill Roman.
Because that’s what she wanted to do. If it was just her, she’d have done as much the mont she’d discovered the truth. Certainly, she would have failed. She couldn’t stand up to Roman and the institutions of power with which he’d surrounded himself. She would have thrown her life away, and, at the ti, she would have been fine with that.
However, she’d reined herself in because she didn’t only have her own life to protect. Miguel depended on her. So did Colt. And the other refugees. Due to that, she couldn’t afford to act selfishly.
And Elijah was in the sa situation.
Perhaps he had a better chance of success. Carn had no idea how much power he held. Yet, she needed him. So did Miguel. He obviously held sway with the Seattle governnt, and more, he knew how to survive. If her exile had taught her anything, it was that that was the most important thing in the new world. She and the others wouldn’t make it much longer on their own.
Finally, with those thoughts dancing in her mind, Carn and the others followed Elijah to a huge, glass building. They didn’t go inside, though. Instead, they found their way to a nearby structure that had once been a small apartnt building. There were n in leather armor standing outside, but Elijah paid them no mind as he entered.
That’s when Carn saw Lucy. The leggy and bespectacled blonde welcod them to her ho, and another woman escorted the others further inside, presumably so they could get cleaned up, fed, and settled in to sleep. anwhile, Lucy herself led Elijah, Carn, and Miguel to the second floor, which had been set up as an enormous suite that was clearly Lucy’s private residence.
“Nice place,” Carn said, impressed as she looked around. Like the rest of the city, it was a mix of old and new, though the place had all the anities of a stylish modern apartnt.
Lucy thanked her for the complint, then offered them food and drink. Elijah accepted the offer, so Carn and Miguel did the sa. Soon enough, they each had plates of fresh fruit and vegetables along with huge bottles of water.
Finally, once they were settled and Lucy had left them alone “to get reacquainted”, Elijah said, “I think it’s ti for that long story.”
Carn shook her head. “It’s not a good one,” she warned.
“I figured that out. Where’s my sister?”
“She’s…she’s gone,” Carn said. “She died more than two years ago.”
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