Chapter 19 Zoey

Interacting with Mina made all my maternal instincts flare up. Stupid annoying instincts. Didn’t they know that children weren’t in the cards for me?

And it wasn’t for lack of trying. My ex-husband and I had tried and tried, even after the diagnosis.

I took a deep breath and focused on Harb’k and his tour instead.

He showed me the rest of the upper level, which consisted mostly of offices converted into bedrooms and Heather’s clinic. Some had the door closed, but most were left open. They must trust everyone in here.

They also had a small library with a collection of books, including one shelf that was clearly labeled On Loan from Tooth. I asked about it, and Harb’k explained that New New Franklin had a squirrel mascot named Tooth who loved to chew the corners of books. There was a running joke that all the books in the compound belonged to him.

“Why is it New New Franklin?” I asked. He and Mary had called it New Franklin before.

“The town was Franklin before the scourge. The human survivors called themselves New Franklin. And when they joined forces with the hunters there, it was renamed again after some civil unrest. It is officially New New Franklin.”

There was also a room full of bins labeled with room numbers. They had dirty laundry in them. On the opposite side of the room were the same bins, presumably for clean laundry. There was a screened-off area with what looked like a B-movie stasis pod. I’d noticed one on Harb’k’s shuttle but hadn’t seen him use it.

“It’s a decontamination chamber. But the humans prefer water showers.” He gestured to the row of showers that must not have been here originally. There was a drain in the middle of the blue-tiled floor.

“They work?” I asked, my eyes wide.

“They do.”

This base wasn’t large, but they had running water! And electricity, and all the creature comforts.

Sanctuary and Vegas had electricity too, but both settlements shut the power off after curfew. And I doubted either location had enough water for showers. Sponge baths, maybe. Perhaps not even that after such a dry winter.

“The cistern on the roof is directly above this room, so this is where all the washing gets done. We collect the used water for our fields.”

That was one thing I noticed when I first met people here: everyone was clean. It smelled fresh. But surely these people were dealing with the drought, too. I wondered how they managed it.

Maybe I could ask for a shower or even a small basin of water for a sponge bath. But that would have to wait until after this tour.

Harb’k led me back downstairs and continued my tour of the shopping plaza. The last store on this side had been a hardware store. Now it was an indoor food production area complete with a chicken coop, an indoor chicken run, and a bunch of raised garden beds with grow lights, which were so bright I winced.

“Wow! Talk about the power of the sun.”

“The lights are powered by the energy converter from an old shuttle. The humans here are extremely resourceful. They prove that even waste has value. Literally. This bed of vegetables is fed by the fish waste in the tanks below. Our Tech Wizards set it up, even though they claim they’ve never created anything like it before.”

“I have a question. Why don’t Xarc’n hunters take the Tech Wizard role? When I was talking to Sam, she made it sound like they are mostly humans, even though it’s a Xarc’n military role.”

“Because we do not understand how our technology works. We have only one job: fight.”

“I guess you’ve been fighting these bugs your whole life.” I kind of felt sad for him. What type of life was that?

“It is the only reason we exist. Or, it was.” He looked pensive as we walked back the way we came and passed the lobby with the stairs leading up to the bedrooms. “Mina is a daily reminder to me that there is more to life now. Before Earth and humans, we were unable to procreate. We are the last of our kind. Genetically modified soldiers cloned from genetically modified soldiers. Mina is proof that we have a future.”

We paused before the doorway that would lead us back into the room where the movie was playing.

“Thank you for trusting me with this wonderful secret. I promise I will never do anything to harm Mina. She is adorable and a miracle.”

I, of all people, knew exactly what a miracle she was. I’d wanted children so badly; I’d wanted to be a mother. The process of trying and failing, again and again, had soured the love between me and my ex-husband. He’d made excuses and got angry every time I suggested talking to a doctor, like somehow that was admitting we were deficient. By the time we finally went to the doctor and I was diagnosed with endometriosis, he’d already knocked up the neighbor.

Years ago, I would’ve balked at the thought of a family with an alien. But seeing Mary with her protective warrior and little Mina, I was envious of what she had.

I would never have what they had. Not with my broken and flawed body. I knew I wasn’t supposed to think of it like that, but it was hard not to. And for the first time in a long time, I wondered what would have happened if I’d postponed the surgery.

We tiptoed through the war room where the movie was still playing and stepped into what used to be a supermarket. They’d cleared all the shelves and only kept a few against the wall for storage. At the center was a large open area with a circle and several lines painted on the floor. There were also racks of melee weapons just outside the circle. Next to it, and aiming toward the back wall, was an indoor archery range with bales of hay behind the targets painted with red and yellow.

“This is where we train for combat,” Harb’k said. “And that is where Sam works on our ships if they need repairs.” He pointed to a corner with a large hanging sign that still read Produce. The area had been turned into a garage. There was the typical equipment I recognized but also strange ones I did not.

Today, there wasn’t a Xarc’n shuttle in there, but a pickup truck altered to look like a vehicle straight from the set of Mad Max . Sam waved to me from in front of it. She had the hood open and was tinkering inside. A few paces back, a mean-looking Xarc’n warrior was using some of the equipment as a pull-up bar. He was going at it like the frame owed him money.

“Hey, Harb’k. Zoey,” Sam called, waving us over.

She wore custom-made coveralls that, upon closer inspection, had little mice all over them. Cute.

The hunter behind her released the overhead bar and dropped down to the ground with all the grace of a big cat. Unlike Harb’k, who had a friendly countenance that shone through even though he wasn’t human, this hunter felt mean. Grumpy.

Hadn’t Sam said her “mate” was the hunter who’d been imprisoned at Sanctuary. No wonder he was grumpy. I’d be grumpy too if I’d been locked up for months. Was he going to react the same way Pip or Lok’n had?

He growled something in a low tone. It wasn’t like Harb’k’s growl. Harb’k’s growl was sexy and made me feel things. This growl made me want to run, but I stood my ground. Lok’n had caught me off guard, but I was ready this time; I wasn’t going to let anyone, seven-foot-tall alien or not, intimidate me.

“I apologize for not hunting down all the miscreants. I did not know the one named Corey was still alive.”

Okay. That was not what I’d expected.

“I caught him up on your story. I hope you don’t mind,” Sam said. “I thought it best he didn’t just take Pip’s story at face value.”

“Of course. Thank you.”

“I can go hunt this male down if you like,” Kan’n offered.

I dropped my jaw. “Um… ah, thanks, but no. If anything, Riley and I should kick his ass.”

“Yes. It is best if I leave him for you as revenge for your lost friends.” Kan’n nodded sagely, like of course it should be me and Riley who took Corey out.

“How’s Pip doing?” I asked. “You know, considering you guys are asking Sanctuary for a truce.”

“He’s having a hard time,” Sam said. “He’s giving everyone the cold shoulder.”

“He can do that? Does that mean you two are out a shuttle?”

“The shuttle works,” Sam said. “But everything is difficult to use.”

“I am glad I do not have a PIP model,” Harb’k said.

I was inclined to agree.

“Not all PIP models are like this.” Sam pushed a loose piece of hair off her face. “The PIP they have over in Rockies is a lot easier to get along with.”

“That one didn’t go through what this one did,” I said. “I understand the feeling. If you guys offered Corey and his friends a truce right now, I’d probably throw a fit too.”

Kan’n growled. “I will throw them .”

That was probably the more effective strategy. Today was turning out to be an interesting day indeed.

We finished the tour in the kitchen, which was in the back of the supermarket’s old bakery.

“I guess I’ll go set up in one of the spare rooms upstairs for the night.”

“You can stay on my shuttle.”

My cheeks heated up at the memory of being in his shuttle, and it was like he could read my mind.

“Tell me, Zoey, did you enjoy what we did?”

The hoarse sound of his voice went straight to my core and started a fire there. Feeling extra brave and guided by the soft purr starting in his chest again, I nodded.

“Say it,” he whispered, his arms sliding over my body and locking around me like the warmest steel cage. “Tell me you liked what we did.”

“Yes,” I whispered through the tide of arousal that threatened to flood me. “I liked what we did.”