It suddenly occurred to Dimitri that maybe safety on this island wasn't about being invisible. Maybe it was about building connections, finding allies in unexpected places, and creating bonds that transcended the usual hierarchies of power and fear.
Dave was powerful. Dave was lonely. And Dave, it seemed, wanted to be friends with Mattie and perhaps Dimitri as well.
19
MATTIE
With eight enhanced soldiers carrying furniture through the street like the world's most intimidating moving crew, the procession back to the lab was even more surreal than the walk to the debris pile had been.
It wasn't that the items were heavy and required enhanced strength to carry, but extra hands were needed.
Number One had the carved headboard balanced on his shoulder, Two and Three carried a dresser between them, and the remaining five had distributed the other pieces Mattie had selected: a nightstand with a cracked top, a writing desk with broken legs, two wrought-iron lamps without shades, and a gilded frame mirror with missing corners.
It was more than she'd intended to take, but she couldn't bring herself to leave behind all that she'd found to be either thrown away or taken by other scavengers.
By the time they reached the lab building, Mattie's problematic leg was protesting, but she paid it no attention. She was happy and excited and couldn't wait to arrange the pieces in her and Dimitri's room.
Most of all, though, she was grateful to the Eight who had made the trip to the pile of treasures possible and were now carrying her loot and keeping her safe.
Life was indeed stranger than fiction.
When Dimitri opened the door and they entered the lab, Petrov looked up, his eyebrows climbing toward his hairline as the enhanced soldiers walked in with her stuff.
"What is all this?" He set down the beaker he'd been holding and stared at the parade of furniture.
"I thought you were planning to go to the bar," Dimitri said.
"I still am, but I had to finish this first." He pointed at the beaker. "What are you going to do with all that junk? Are you planning to turn into a carpenter now? Open a furniture restoration business?"
Mattie didn't appreciate him referring to her treasures as junk, and she was perfectly capable of fixing the items herself, provided that she could get the proper tools and materials.
"I'm going to do the restoration myself," she said.
It had been on the tip of her tongue to say that she didn't have much to do in the lab anyway, but Dave was standing right there, all eight of him, and he was supposed to believe that her work was essential to the lab's operations.
"It's not like I have anything to do or anywhere to go after my workday is done," she added. "Might as well have a project."
The eight bodies turned to look at her in unison, a synchronized movement that still made her skin prickle with unease.
"You have no friends other than these two scientists?" Number One asked.
Mattie hesitated. It was a strangely personal question, the kind she wouldn't have expected from Dave. But then again, the Eight had been full of surprises lately.
"I have friends in the hotel," she said. "My former roommates. But I don't..." She caught herself before she could finish the sentence.
She couldn't tell him that she didn't feel safe leaving the lab because she was afraid of running into Tarik and his friends.
"You don't what?" Number One prompted.
"I'm afraid to leave the lab," she admitted.
"Why are you afraid?"
The question hung in the air, simple and direct.
Did Dave even understand fear the way humans did? Or the way regular immortals did?
She didn't know much about the eight remaining enhanced soldiers other than that they had formed a unified consciousness and needed carefully calibrated drugs to keep from going insane.
