Page 34 of Hunter’s Harvest

Marisol looked a billion times better than the last time I saw her, and she was sitting up.

“Nellie!”

I ran over to give her a hug. “Mari! You’re okay.”

“Just ravenous.” The moment I released her, she grabbed one of the handpies and started chowing down. “I had the strangest dream of a hunter with purple-blue skin.”

I raised a brow. “Did you?”

“Yup. We were in the shuttle, but like, also a cave. Very trippy.”

“Huh. I see. Do you remember anything after the crash?”

She swallowed her bite. “Nope. Not at all. I just remember falling out of the sky. And then I woke up here. Kind of a miracle if you ask me.”

“I’d say.” I spared a glance over to Vince, wondering if he’d already told her about Charles.

He gave me a tight-lipped nod as if reading my mind. “They’re heading out again at first light to retrieve whatever they can from the front end, and pick up your hunter.”

Mari paused mid-bite. “Your hunter?”

“I might have gotten mated during the rescue.”

She gasped. “You lucky bitch!”

I laughed nervously. “If he’s still alive.”

“Of course he is!” Vince snorted. “Have you seen these guys fight? Those NEM bastards didn’t stand a chance.”

“See, I told you.” Kim tossed me a pie. “Everything is going to be fine.”

Chapter 14: Nellie

Everything was not fine.

Mal’k and Meghan had returned with everything they could salvage from the front of the wreck, which included a lot more oranges than I’d thought possible, and even several intact barrels of sugar. But no Var’n.

Vince, Mari, and I sat in front of a large screen as it played the memorial being held back home for Charles. He was well-loved in the group, and Vince wasn’t the first kid he’d taught how to fly. They might not have been his kids biologically, but they were in their hearts. I focused on paying the older man my respect instead of focusing on my personal stresses.

No one else seemed worried about Var’n. Mal’k believed he and Hess’n were chasing the NEM off. And Meghan was sure they were gathering more friends to join New Franklin.

So I kept my worries contained and let it gnaw on my insides.

But no. Everything was not fine.

The service ended, and Vince turned to me. Even though he showed a stoic face, I knew he was hurting. They’d spent a lot of time together.

“I’m not sure I can fly the shuttle back on my own,” he admitted.

“You can do it. And you have time to practice on the simulator on the mothership while they rebuild it.”

He nodded.

There was a knock at the door, and we turned to see Kim and Meghan dressed up in their costumes. Kim was… a can of sardines. That had not been what I’d imagined when I’d told her to find something nautical to match my mermaid costume.

They’d gone to the rear of the shuttle too and had managed to save my costume. There’d been a tarp on it, and it had been protected from the scourge splatters. Seeing it again had immediately made me think of Var’n and how he told me he’d hunted fish from the ocean. At least where he lived, he meant the Atlantic, not the Pacific, so that wasn’t too far-fetched.

I never did get details about his shark encounters except that they didn’t eat hunters.