Sawyer guided everyone back through the corridor then down the stairs to the level below, where the bunker was located. This entrance wasn't hidden like the supply room was. Sawyer tended to come and go from here a lot more. The blast door was closed, but the locking mechanism wasn't engaged.
He pulled it open then stepped back so the others could enter. "This was supposed to be where everyone hid out until the invasion was over," he explained, "but only a couple of people made it all the way inside. Unfortunately, they didn't get the blast door closed before the mechs got them."
"Did you bury them outside, as well?" Roark asked.
Sawyer nodded. "I buried everyone I came across. It didn't seem right to just toss them outside." The job had been ugly, but someone had to do it. Since he'd been the only one in the facility, the duty had fallen to him.
He handed his kerosene lamp to Stefan then lit up a couple of the others he'd found in storage, lighting the place up.
"This place is amazing, Sawyer," Stefan said. "It would be great if we could get some lights on down here."
"I was thinking about trying to set up some solar panels. There are battery banks in the generator room. If I can figure out how to wire them up to the solar panels, I could get some electricity on down here," Sawyer said. "I just need to find a place to put them where people riding by can't see them."
Roark gave him a look he couldn't decipher. It seemed to be both inquisitive and cautious. "You've thought a lot about this."
That was true.
"If you weren't planning on having contact with anyone, including us, what were you going to do with all of this?"
"I don't think I've actually thought that far ahead." Sawyer grimaced as he rubbed the nape of his neck. "I've just kind of been living day to day."
"All of us have," Roark admitted.
Sawyer's stomach knotted as he glanced down at his gloved hand. "I didn't really think you'd want anything to do with me if you found out about what the mechs had done to me." It was his greatest fear right under losing Stefan.
"Hey." Stefan's arms wrapped around him. "Didn't I tell you that didn't matter?"
"But it does, Stefan, and we can't pretend it doesn't."
"I think you're looking at that all wrong, Sawyer," Roark said. "Instead of looking at what they did to you as a curse, you need to start seeing it as the gift that it is."
"Gift?" Sawyer sputtered. "This isn't a fucking gift."
"You're wrong," Roark countered. "They tried to make you into one of them, but you're stronger than that." He pointed to Sawyer's mechanical arm. "That right there proves it."
"How does that make it a gift?"
"Because that's what's going to help us win this war." Roark's grin was pure evil. "You're our new secret weapon."
Chapter Ten
Stefan kept a firm hold of Sawyer as he watched the man interact with Roark. He got it, but it was clear that Sawyer did not. "Baby, what Roark means is that we can use what they did to you against them. You've been able to pick up on things that none of us have, like the fact that they hunt mostly during the daytime hours."
Sawyer frowned as he glanced at Stefan. "How does that win us the war?"
"Well, even though we still have to be vigilant, we now know we have a better chance moving around at night than during the day. And, through your hard work, we have a base of operations to work out of."
He quickly held up a hand when Sawyer opened his mouth. He had no doubt the man was about to protest. "Even if it's just us here, it still gives us a base of operations that we didn't have before."
"I guess."
"Look, babe, you know things whether you realize it or not. I don't know how long they had you before you escaped, but—"
"I think it was about six months or so," Sawyer said. "The timeline is a little fuzzy."
"Well, you've been missing for about two years, so…"
Sawyer nodded. "Then, yeah, they had me for about six months. After I escaped, I wandered for a bit, trying to figure out what they'd done and trying to kill as many of them as I could find. I've spent the last six months fixing this place up and raiding all the cryogenic facilities I could find."
