Jessica led them to the echoing silence of the corridors, passed a small central section where all the corridors ran in together to form a sort of hub. Jessica paused for a minute, sighed heavily, and then moved forward. Jenny did not know what it was about that space that had caused Jessica to seem so downhearted; at that moment she didn’t have enough curiosity to ask, but she filed that away for later.
The corridor began to tilt upward. It was a steep climb. They came to another door closed with yet another of those tight airlock systems. That time, however, the door was open. Jenny stood back, her nerves tightening as Marik, Talon, and Jessica went first with their weapons drawn at the ready. They formed a new formation around those carrying the chest of supplies and crept forward and upward, every step taken slow and uncertain.
Eventually, they reached the door, but it was just a regular door. Jessica opened it, and again she, Marik, and Talon went through it with their weapons drawn and ready. Jenny’s whole body tensed, as she stood there waiting for either the heavy rattle of weapon fire or the signal that all was clear.
Soft whistles sounded. All clear then. She made her way through the door and then stood, staring and open-mouthed in wonder at the house that she stood in.
Jessica said, “It just figures that of everything that was wrecked and ruined, this monstrosity would remain.”
It was clear that the place had been looted. Some furniture remained, but it was smashed and broken. There was a smell, a rich coppery stink that made her eyes water. The railings on the staircase had been broken and the chandeliers that hung above, ancient and the source of much pride—although Jenny had no way of knowing that—had been shattered. As she looked up at that fragmented and broken thing, she had no way of knowing what had looked like before, but at that moment she thought that it was surely one of the most beautiful things that she had ever seen.
Talon said, “We need to rest, and we need to regroup.”
They ranged out into the room that they stood in, a large and rectangular space that looked like it had once been used as a sort of living room. Marik put his back against the wall and slid down it, his hands dangling limply between his knees. Jenny’s heart went out to him, and she walked over to where he sat and took a seat beside him. She said, “You were very brave today.”
He said, “So were you.”
Her laugh was incredulous. “Me? Oh no. I was just too busy trying not to die to be scared for a while there.”
His shoulder met hers. The light touch rocketed through her body. More heat flushed through her system. She slid away from him just a little bit. He said, “Courage is not being without fear; it’s doing things even though you’re afraid.”
She turned her head to survey his profile. He was tired, and it showed. The trip and the things that they had seen along the way had worn him down. Her heart ached for him. He was a good and decent being. He craved peace and joy. Life.
Nothing that she had seen on the surface of Old Earth had made her think of any of those things.
Talon began taking out refresher bottles. They were small, no more than three inches high. He passed them out one to each person. Next, he pulled out packets of a type of protein and carbohydrate bar and passed those out as well. The refresher bottles were clever. They were no taller than her thumb, but that was deceptive.
As soon as she popped the tab on its side, the refresher bottle began to expand in both length and width. The liquid inside it had been atomized and compressed. Bubbles formed and she could hear a lot of gurgling inside the bottle.
She watched, fascinated, as the clear drinkable liquid filled the entire bottle. She opened it and guzzled it down. She recapped the bottle and leaned her head against the wall. Talon came back around, taking the refresher bottles and stowing them away in his pack. Marik’s hand came out and rested on her shoulder. More heat filled her body, and her heart let out a slow pound while her brain screamed out a warning that she was not supposed to feel that way for Marik.
She was there. She was home. She was supposed to be looking for Ben, not huddling in this house next to Marik while he touched her just enough to make her body and mind and heart want to betray the man who truly loved her.
Talon said, “It’s less than three hundred yards now to the hospital. We can make it. If the Rovers didn’t take the tunnels, they would not have come this far. There are too many guards and so forth along the way. Too many people willing to keep peace and order and use weapons to do it.”
Marik braced himself against the wall and pushed himself up. His hand came out, and she looked at it then up at his face. Instead of taking his hand, she pushed herself up off the floor much in the same way that he had. She thought she saw a small flash of hurt on his face, but if it had been there, it had fled as quickly as they had come up and she could no longer see it.
Maybe she had imagined it.
They started off slowly, going out the door and to the right, and then forming up again so that the chests of precious cargo would be safe, or at least as safe as they could be. The hospital was indeed not far, and they managed to get across the distance without any other true danger.
Jenny’s heart nearly exploded with grief when she stepped into that hospital. Humans, hundreds upon hundreds of them, all in various states of injury, lay or sat on the floor. That there were not enough beds for all of the wounded was obvious. That there weren’t enough people to attend to them came home to her as a young girl, clinging to the arm of an injured woman who must’ve been her mother, began screaming for help. Tears ran down her face, and nobody went to her side.
Jenny went. She broke right out of the party that she had traveled there with and ran to the young girl. She knelt on the floor. “Let me see if I can help her.”
The girl, who could’ve only been about eight or nine years old, nodded her head. Her face wore the same shocked expression that the woman who confronted them in the alley had worn. Jenny draped an arm around her shoulders and gave her a quick hug and squeeze. “It shall be okay. I promise you, we will do all that we can.”
The little girl gave her a look that said she didn’t believe her. As soon as Jenny opened the torn sides of the tunic the woman wore, she found she didn’t believe it either.
The wound was not only terrible: it was infected. She’d probably been injured days before. She looked at the little girl, “How long has she been here?”
The little girl scrubbed her fists against her eyes. “We got here last night. But nobody’s come to help her. There are so many people here. Nobody has time for us. I think it’s because we’re from Below.”
Jenny shook her head. “No, it’s not that. It’s that there are too few healers and too many sick. Listen, what’s your name?”
The little girl’s hands dropped away from her eyes. “Melinda.”
Jenny managed a smile. “Melinda, can you possibly help me here?”
