Chapter 6
Seven days after the horde broke, a convoy came up from the south.
Three armored trucks with the Central Sanctuary seal on the doors. A middle-aged man in a gray uniform led them and introduced himself as a representative of the Sanctuary Council.
A young woman had come with him.
She was the daughter of the Sanctuary Chairman.
Her name was Olivia Grant.
She was twenty-five, good-looking, and poised. Her skin was clear, and her hair was neat in the middle of the apocalypse, which told me everything about how the Sanctuary lived.
Worse than that, she knew how to talk.
She was good enough at it to make it look easy.
She was better at it than James.
"Commander Stone, this is an honor." She shook his hand with a warm smile and perfect manners. "The Sanctuary has been following what your Haven has done. Seven hordes turned back. You're a legend out here in the Wastelands."
Evan just nodded.
How little he said didn't bother her.
She turned to the rest of the Haven, and a few sentences later, the whole yard had warmed up.
I watched from a distance.
Olivia, standing next to Evan, looked like one thing more than anything else.
They matched.
She was poised and easy with people, and he was cold, quiet, and dangerous.
Side by side, they looked like the power couple of the apocalypse.
I didn't. Next to him, I looked like a loud bird perched on a block of ice, and anyone watching would have felt sorry for the ice.
I ran a pass over the crowd. The Haven was thinking more or less the same thing. 'She's beautiful.' 'The Chairman's daughter.' 'She and the Commander look right together.'
Someone else was thinking, 'She's better than Claire. At least nobody's reading our minds every day.'
I turned and left. I'd seen enough.
The talks happened in Evan's office. I sat in the next room, listening and taking notes.
The Sanctuary representative went straight at it. "Commander Stone, our proposal is simple. Your Haven joins the Sanctuary. Shared resources, mutual defense. As a show of good faith—"
He put something on the table.
It was a metal card with Permanent Access Pass printed across it.
"A Sanctuary Permanent Access Pass. The holder brings one companion inside for good, with the highest tier of support we have. Three have ever been issued in the entire Wastelands."
For people in the Wastelands, the Sanctuary was heaven.
There was electricity, hot water, real hospitals, actual schools, and solid walls.
People were killed and robbed for a chance to crawl inside.
The representative slid the pass across the table. "A marriage would bind the two of us tighter, of course. Ms. Grant has admired you for a long time."
I heard the word "marriage" through the wall, and my pen stopped.
Evan was quiet for a long time.
Then a fragment came through.
Ethan thought, 'Useful.'
My breath stopped for a second.
Useful?
The pass was useful. The marriage was useful. The Sanctuary was useful.
It had moved him.
Of course it had. The Sanctuary was better than this wreck of a place by a mile, and the woman was beautiful and gracious and good with people. She beat me at everything.
Most of all, Olivia couldn't read his mind.
Olivia would never catch him thinking one annoyed word about her the way I did.
When they finished, I set my pen down and closed the scouting log as quietly as I could.
I stepped into the hallway and stood there a while.
Then I went to find James.
"If you had a Sanctuary pass," I asked, "would you go?"
James looked at me. "Would you?"
I smiled, "I'm wondering what happens to this Haven if he leaves for the Sanctuary."
"Are you worried about the Haven or about him?"
I didn't answer.
James was quiet for a moment, and then he asked me something.
His voice was gentle.
"Claire, do you still love him?"
I opened my mouth.
Love wasn't a strong enough word. I was gone over him.
He probably didn't even like me back.
It had been more than a year since I told him, and he'd never once said he liked me.
He'd never put my name next to that word at all.
I'd been reading his hands instead of his mouth. He saved supplies for me, so he cared. He put himself between me and danger, so he cared. He didn't push me off when I kissed him, so he cared.
But had he ever said it?
Never.
"I need to make a decision," I said.