The Last She: A Sci-Fi Romance
Chapter Two - Kaden
Three years ago, I'd held my little sister, Kia, as she took her final breaths. I'd buried our brothers the day before, beneath a dying Montana sky, and knowing how alone she would leave me carved a fear as deep as the pain. In life, she never stood still. In death, her small body was limp, the only movement a track of blood rolling from her white eyes. Let the horses free, Kaden. The last words I'd heard from a female. Until now.
A cool breeze blew leaves across the street, whistling through broken windows with a high-pitched cry. The eerie sound masked the steady footfalls of our small group. My whole body felt wired, on high alert, and it was impossible not to glance at Ara as often as I looked behind us. An hour ago, I thought my biggest problem was telling Gabriel we'd failed our mission and had lost our team's gun. Now I had to tell him, and the clan, we'd found the first woman I'd seen in three years. A woman who, judging by her stiff-legged walk and angry eyes, wasn't nearly as thrilled to be with us.
"Turn here, Sam," I said softly. Sam nodded and led us off the pavement and onto a game trail that wove through the remains of a community park. Now it resembled more a forest than a clearing, with weeds and trees growing where once there had been only grass. Still, the vine-covered outline of a children's playground stood as a reminder of what this place had once been. I tried to keep my eyes on the surrounding trees and houses, tried to watch for trouble, but everywhere I looked, all I saw were those eyes, high cheekbones, and reddish-brown hair tucked beneath a cap that couldn't completely conceal what she was. It seemed unfair that the last woman on Earth would be beautiful. But I suppose God had already proved Himself a cruel bastard.
Issac caught my eye, tilting his head toward Ara in as clear a message as he'd ever sent. Talk to her. Yet I felt a sudden uncertainty that was as out of character as our group's silent procession.
"Sam, let's stop for water," I said when we'd reached the massive oak at the center of the park, the leaves a riot of coppery oranges and red with the fall. Sam held the trailing rope that secured Ara's hands, happy as a new kid with a puppy. The fresh scent of earth and leaves mashed the rotted scents of the city as I turned to her stiff form. "Would you like some water, Ara?"
Her eyes instantly narrowed—fair—so I drank deeply before I held the bottle out to her. She hesitated, then snatched the bottle from me and did the same. When she was done, she dumped the bottle on the ground instead of handing it back to me. I lifted a brow but didn't say anything.
"Ready?" Sam said, his eyes going back and forth between the two of us.
"After you two," I said. Sam stepped forward, Ara glaring at me until the two of them passed. Issac, the king of silent discourse, glanced down at the water bottle and smiled before he, too, continued down the trail.
"Shut up," I said, and picked up the bottle and followed after them. I thought about what I would have said to him if we had been alone. What else could I have done, Issac? Think about what would have happened if anyone else had found her first. She had an empty gun and one backpack of supplies against a city overrun with warring clans. She was lucky to have been found by us. And then Issac would shrug, or not say anything, which would only make me imagine a million possible answers. Like maybe I was the bad guy here. Maybe I should have helped her instead of taken her captive. Maybe this wasn't the way to treat the last woman left on the planet.
Damn Issac.
It was nearly dark by the time we came to the mall, a huge domed structure that towered over the surrounding buildings. The deepening colors of dusk masked the building's decay, making it almost impressive. An empty parking lot stretched out around it, the only visitors a few shiny airships, rusted cars, overgrown weeds, and an abandoned army tank.
"We can't get them to run anymore," I said to Ara as we passed by the tank. She stiffened, but I saw her eyes go to the open top, where the hatch lay open. "It's a good place to spend the night, though, if you're trapped out in the open. You can lock yourself in."
She didn't respond, but there was something assessing in her eyes. Something that told me that, given the smallest chance, she would be gone.
I led our small group through one of the side entrances where Jeb waited for us. He didn't always scout ahead, but today I'd thought it wise. The mall was close enough to the clan that it was relatively safe from other clans, but nothing was completely safe in this world.
The side entrance led us down a small hallway, and into a back area that was once a storeroom. It had a solitary window in the back, concrete floors, high ceilings, three steel beams that ran through the center, and most importantly, thick walls and doors. The first time we used it we dragged in a fire pit from REI and knocked a hole in the ceiling for the smoke. Now we'd added a few shopping carts and a collection of the beanbag chairs Sam loved.
"Scout out the area?" I said to Issac, who nodded and disappeared through the doors into the greater mall area. It wasn't that I didn't trust Jeb . . . but I trusted Issac more. After all, he wasn't the one who'd suggested we check that she was female "all the way." I'd had to resist the urge to smack Jeb, but that impulse often overtook me. I took the rope to Ara's hands from Sam as he set to lighting a small fire to cook the rabbit he'd shot earlier in the day. Jeb sulked in the background, watching Ara, who stared at the door where Issac had disappeared. Gabriel had assigned Jeb to our group six months ago, and even if Gabriel was the clan leader, I wished now I would have refused. Jeb was a good horseman, and had a knack for sniffing out supplies, but he would also report everything about this mission, and Ara, to Gabriel. Which brought me back to my current problem: the young woman standing straight-backed beside me. I cleared my throat and nodded to one of the steel beams. "You can sit there."
To my relief she sagged against the pole—I wasn't sure what I would have done if she had refused. I used the trailing end of the rope to tie her to the pole. Just for while we make dinner and set up camp, I reasoned, trying not to feel guilty. By then Sam had a small fire going, and I unpacked our few supplies to set up camp. We worked in silence, a feat that rarely occurred. Issac came back a short time later and took over spinning the rabbit roasting over the fire. With everyone here, I couldn't put off the moment I'd been dreading any longer.
I cleared my throat. "I think we should call a vote." The men's eyes turned to me, and, catching the light of the fire, so did Ara's. "The rules state we bring all captured persons to the clan. But," I paused, "this is different."
"She's a prisoner," Jeb said at once. "She was in our territory. This shouldn't even be up for a vote, especially because she's female. We will be heroes when we bring her to the clan. I vote we follow protocol and take her back. That's what Gabriel would want."
All the more reason to not bring her back then.
I stared into the fire. "Sam?"
Sam wrung his hands. I worried most about his reaction to all this. I'd only joined the clan for him; to give him a sense of safety and community. But Sam's concern wasn't for himself. "She'll be safest with the clan. Gabriel won't treat her like a prisoner. That's my vote."
"Issac?" I said, voice heavy.
Issac let the silence stretch out so long I didn't think he would answer. Then his voice cut through the darkness. "I vote we let her go."
There was a stunned silence, broken only by the crackle of flames. He gave no further explanation, and I knew it would be futile to ask. My eyes flicked to Ara. She stared at the flames, betraying nothing. "It's decided. We take her to the clan."
I'd hoped reaching a decision and saying the words aloud would calm the tension that made my shoulders tense and neck ache, but if anything, it made it worse.
A silence grew again. At night we usually harassed and insulted each other till the embers burned low, but with Ara watching, even I wasn't sure what to say or do. Sam pulled the bow from his back, running his fingers over the string, probably thinking he'd need to wax it soon. Today he'd stood straight-backed and sure when the infected elk charged. He wasn't the little boy I'd found hiding in a tree fort in the woods. Yet he'd held the rope to Ara's hands with a gentle care. While she glared at the rest of us, something in her eyes softened when she looked at him. The thought gave me an idea.
I reached into my bag, pulling out the last of the bread from the clan, then knelt beside Sam. "Let me take over cooking."
I passed him the bread, nodding to Ara, and winked. He smiled, understanding, and then stood up and walked over to Ara. She glanced up, eyes hard, but then, again, her face softened at the sight of him. Something about his lanky arms and lopsided smile—he could win over anyone.
"Are you hungry?" he said, just loud enough for me to hear. Her voice was soft, I missed the response. As Sam fed her the bread, piece by piece, I wished that Red was here, or any of the other horses, so I could go for a ride and rethink this whole thing. I shouldn't have tied her up. Maybe I really should have listened to Issac and let her go.
But Jeb would tell Gabriel if we came back without her, and Gabriel would tear apart the entire city to find her. She'd been following us . . . maybe if I could spend some time alone with her, she might tell me why. I stood up, stretched, then moved back into the shadows and circled around the two, just in time to hear Ara say, "Sam, will you untie my hands for a minute? Just so I can get feeling back in my fingers?"
"No." Ara and Sam started as I stepped into view. "I'll take it from here, Sam," I said. Sam ducked his head, picking up the remains of the bread, and headed back to the fire. I crouched before her. Her eyes instantly hardened; even so, it was hard not to stare. The light of the fire lit the planes of her face, the high cheekbones, the delicate lips; all the tiny differences I thought I would never see again.
"Care for a bath, princess?"
Her lips pressed together, not answering, and my chest tightened with guilt. Was she afraid of me?
"I'm going to untie you." She leaned away as I crouched behind her, working at the knot securing her to the pole. While the rope around her middle slackened, I left the one holding her arms together tight, and grabbed beneath her shoulders, pulling her to her feet. Then we made our way past the fire, and then through the doors Issac had disappeared through earlier.
I stopped just through the threshold to let my eyes adjust from firelight to the light from the night sky. We stood in an open cavern, three stories tall and impossibly long, stretching into the darkness ahead. The glass roof had caved in, starlight reflecting against thousands of shards of broken glass. Circling staircases led up to the higher levels, and hundreds of darkened storefronts branched off the main floor. In the beginning, it hadn't been hard to walk down these halls with Sam and remember the crowds and noises, point out the remains of the food court or the video game store, the last poster pasted forever in the window. Back then it felt like the world had short-circuited, and as soon as it rebooted the people would return, mop the floors, clean the windows, announce some new sale, and we'd all hop back on the capitalist hamster wheel. Instead, each time we visited, there were more weeds, more shattered windows, and more debris strewn about the once-neat stores and aisles, until I found I couldn't remember this place as it was before. Not that I had particularly fond mall memories, but I felt like I was failing Sam by filling his teenage years with memories of hunting infected animals and taking captives instead of flirting with girls at the mall or playing video games.
Ara favored her leg as we walked, forcing us to a slower pace. Though part of me wanted to ask if she was okay, and if I could look at it, the other part knew that would scare her more than leaving her alone. Jeb had hit her pretty hard with that rope, the ass, but I also wondered if maybe it was an act. She'd survived this long; she had to be clever.
Our steps echoed in the massive space as we walked between overturned benches, trash, broken bottles, and discarded clothing. We passed a lump of matted fur that I hoped was the remains of a coat and not a dead animal; hard to say here. Ara took in everything as we walked, her eyes moving up a set of still escalators that led to the second level. When we turned the corner, we found our progress blocked by a large fountain. The graceful copper statue of a woman stood in the center. She was twice the size of a real human and held a kite that fluttered away from her, the copper burnished green. Two emerald-colored children laughed as they chased her, their fingers perpetually reaching. Beside the fountain sat a water pump stained the same deep grassy tone, and behind it two escalators led to the second floor.
I led us to the lip of the empty pool then dropped the rope, watching her as I did. If you're going to run, here's your chance. The pump was rusty, so I threw my full weight into it, forcing it down, then straining to pull it back up. Sam had found the fountain here; he remembered it from when he came here as a kid, as a sort of tourist attraction where you could actually pump the fountain and water would come up. It must have been connected to some sort of well system because it still worked. A deep gurgling noise came from the faucet and I pumped harder. Ara took a half step forward as red-tinged water sputtered out of the head, then ran down a small chute to fill the bottom of the pool. A clear flow soon followed.
"Here, let me." I moved to her, undoing the rope, and letting it fall to the ground, and then stepped back. There was nothing holding her now. No reason not to run. I moved to the fountain and stuck my head under the flow of the pump, the cold shocking me straight to the core. Then I pulled back and shook my head wildly, spraying water everywhere.
"Come on, princess, I brought you here to work, not stare." I gestured toward the pump, but her eyes shifted away, out into the darkness, and she took a step back. "Unless you think you can't." Her eyes came back to me.
I lifted off my shirt and tossed it to the ground. She arched a brow but didn't look away when I undid my pants and tossed them out of the fountain as well. Normally I'd bathe naked, but I didn't want to scare her off completely. Actually, I hadn't expected her to watch me undress. But she looked me over, head to toe, and then, right when I thought she would bolt, stepped up to the pump.
She grabbed the handle and forced it down, and the trickle of water began to flow, surging each time she pushed the pump down. I threw the water over my hands and legs, scrubbing off the dirt. Sam left a bit of soap hidden under the lip of the fountain, and I reached for it now. The dark hugged the corners and recesses of shops, and I was glad both Jeb and Issac had scouted the area. The mall was within our clan's declared territory, but it was a large territory, and besides the main central building where most of the men of our clan lived, we couldn't possibly defend it all. Gabriel liked to believe everyone respected the clan territories, but there were plenty of loners with no allegiances. And just before we'd left for our mission we'd gotten a report of a horde of men causing trouble downtown. Though the several organized clans throughout the city managed to keep an uneasy peace, it was the men who didn't stay put that were the most dangerous. They had nothing to lose. Unlike me, who suddenly had everything to lose.
"You won't make it," I said, grinning when her eyes flicked up to mine, surprise there. "I'd catch you. I ran track in high school."
"So did I."
Our eyes met, a silent battle of wills playing out. She could run, but I would catch her and bring her back. This wasn't her moment. She seemed to realize that, because she went back to pumping.
I washed the soap off, and then jumped out of the fountain and ran my hands across my body, sloughing off the water in rivulets. I'd need to change into dry clothes later. I pulled my black T-shirt onto my still-wet skin, then tugged on my pants.
"Your turn, princess."
She took a step back.
"Either you take a bath yourself," I said, "or I throw you in and scrub you myself. No offense, but you stink."
She took another step back, and I smiled and leaned back lazily. Give it a go, princess. See what happens. Another step backward, now ten feet away.
"Turn around while I get undressed," she said.
"Come stand by the fountain," I countered.
We sized each other up, a strange game of cat and mouse. She looked over her shoulder, and then sighed and made her way back to the fountain. She stripped off her shoes and socks, then lowered her feet over the side. She closed her eyes and pulled off her cap, letting her hair fall free and running her fingers through it. I suddenly felt like a creep watching her and threw my weight against the pump. Still, I wondered why she hadn't cut it—but was also glad she hadn't. I missed long hair, high laughter . . . well, a lot of things about females. The gurgle of water sounded again, like deep-throated laughter. The flow into the pool increased and ripples caught the moon's reflection. She stripped off Sam's jacket and my breath caught as I turned and forced myself to look out at the darkened storefronts and the mall stretching out beyond us.
"Do you have scissors?"
I almost laughed. It was such a girly thing to ask for.
"To cut my hair, I'm not going to stab you with them. A brush would work too."
I stopped pumping, trying to remember what store we'd found the soap in; it wasn't one we visited often. The sign had faded, but it was close, only one store over. "Stay here. I'll be back in a second."
I vaulted over a railing into the store. It was almost pitch-black inside. If she's going to run, it'll be now. Was that what I wanted? The last few years I'd broken in several wild horses for the clan. There was always a part of me that regretted it, that wondered if I should have left them free. I knew better than most the secrets and danger of the clan: once you were in, it was hard to get out.
I stumbled across a wicker basket and began to throw in bottles and things that looked soap-adjacent. There was some sort of hand towels that didn't smell too bad, and a wooden brush, so I threw those in too.
It took me less than two minutes, but when I ducked back out into the moonlight, I felt a surge of surprise—and something else I wasn't sure I wanted to name. She was still here. Long limbs, a small waist, and a tangle of long hair lit by the moonlight. I looked everywhere but at her as I walked back toward the fountain.
"Hey, princess, look—" I said.
"Look, asshole, it's Ara." The anger in her voice caught me by surprise. I didn't mean to, but I looked up, right at her, and then I couldn't speak even if I'd wanted to. "Not that hard, just two syllables. I could probably teach a monkey to say it, so I think you can figure it out."
I kept my eyes down as I set the wicker basket next to the fountain and went back to pumping. The water began to flow again.
"Thanks," she finally said, the sound of water splashing coming again.
"No problem," I said, keeping my voice light, even though the image of her standing there half-naked in the moonlight would forever be burned into my mind. "I thought we could go shopping tomorrow. We can't have you showing up to the clan looking like a bum." Not that there's going to be any way to disguise what you are.
"Where is this clan?" Her voice was careful, guarded, and I wondered how much I should tell her. Would she see the clan as a refuge or a prison? Something told me the latter.
"Nearby."
She climbed out of the fountain, and I stopped pumping and kept my back turned. The night was cold, and I figured we would need to go find some new clothes for her; the ones she wore looked ratty. A few minutes later she cleared her throat and I turned.
"Wow, you clean up good." She'd brushed on her hair, so that it hung long and wet, and I was suddenly grateful I hadn't found scissors. "Let's get you some new clothes," I said, leading us away from the fountain and into a sort of surfer shop that still had a few clothing racks left standing. Ara followed me inside, her eyes again flicking to each exit. "Go ahead," I gestured to the clothing. "Shop till you drop."
Again, she didn't acknowledge me. Maybe I was off my game. Or maybe being the last woman left on the planet made you a bit more suspicious.
While she was in the changing room, I stepped back into the mall, glancing down the long corridors that ended in darkness. In the last few minutes the wind had picked up, blowing stray leaves and cleaning the scent of rot with the smell of rain. There was a storm coming. Maybe it would have been wise to go back to the clan tonight after all. But even if it had been the right decision, I was glad we hadn't. The moment we got back to the clan, I doubted I would have the chance to get to know her, and how she survived and came to be here. Not that I was doing a great job now. I ducked back into the shop. When she emerged I couldn't resist letting out a low whistle, to which she rolled her eyes.
She held out Sam's black leather jacket, the one he thought made him look so grown-up and cool. "Here. This is Sam's."
"Keep it. We'll get Sam a new one tomorrow."
I led us back to the others, not wanting to push my luck any further. Since Jeb lost our team's gun a few days earlier, I had only my knife, and it felt like meager protection for the most valuable person in the world. Sam had food ready for us and had arranged the five beanbag chairs in a circle, each almost as wide as a mattress and as high as my waist. After we ate, I led Ara to the largest one.
"Hold out your hands."
"I thought we had gotten over these petty trust issues?" Her voice was dry. "You really think I'm going to try to escape?"
Yes. "Nah, do you know how hard it is to climb off these things quietly?" I pushed her backward and she fell back onto the beanbag chair with a gasp. We had only one sleeping bag each, so I covered her with mine and prepared for a cold, sleepless night.
Sam, Jeb, and Issac went to sleep, while I sat by the fire, letting it burn down, and then adding more wood.
I couldn't take her to the clan.
I couldn't not.
At some point Issac woke and nodded to his sleeping bag, for me to sleep while he kept the watch. But even when I closed my eyes sleep evaded me. I wondered if I wasn't the only one who laid awake.
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