Emergence (Eden's Root Trilogy) (23 page)

Sara shrugged.
“I kinda liked MMA when I was a kid.”

“Remind me again why I’m your friend, you freak?”
Fi fingered her elbow gingerly. “I think you broke my elbow.”

“
Fi, you almost kicked me onto my face, and my spleen feels like it exploded. You’ll be fine. I’ll give you a massage later, ok?”

“A
s if rolling around on the ground together wasn’t enough,” Sean grinned.

“Don’t be
a pervert, Sean,” Sara retorted.

“What?
I know I’m your boyfriend, but I’m still a guy. That was kinda…”

“Don’t!” Fi said, glaring at him.

Sean turned to Asher, who stoo
d leaning against a nearby tree. “No, really… two pretty girls in skin tight black clothing, kicking each other’s ass. Am I wrong, Ash?”

“Unh, u
nh, Sean. I know better than to touch that with a ten-foot pole.”

Fi punched
Sean in the side as she pulled on her button-down shirt. “Good! At least one of you has the sense to keep his thoughts to himself.”

“Yeah!” Sara added.
“Just for that, it’s button-downs only for you tonight, mister.”

Sean made a face.
“Yeah. Like nookie makes it on to the to-do list out here, Sara.”

Everyone burst out laughing.

“Nookie?”
Fi gasped, clutching her stomach as Sara and Sean turned to twin towers of crimson. “Nookie?”

Sean’s face twisted
. “What? What the hell do you want me to call it?”

When
several Army members joined the laughter, Sean stomped off. Sara followed him, doing her best to paste a serious look on her face while Fi and Asher doubled over, gasping.

Fi
’s face and stomach ached and she struggled for breath, but it felt good. She sagged against Asher as her laughter slowed. “Aaaaaaaaaaaaah, God. I don’t think I’ve laughed like this since…”
How long had it been?
She searched her memory, but it kept running into a grey haze right around Luke’s birth. The ache in her gut shifted. “I don’t remember.”

Asher tugged at her chin
until she met his gaze. He smiled — the kind of smile that was tattered a bit, at the edges. Her heart squeezed with the knowledge that many of those tatters were her fault. Her breakdown after Luke. Her volunteering to go undercover. Her insane need to get to Kiara
. All my fault
.

He
ran his hands along her jaw and tucked her short black curls behind her ears. “It doesn’t matter how long it’s been. What matters is that you found your laugh again.”

“
Thank you.” She smiled and melted into him, pressing her cheek to his chest. “You know, you’re really good at that.”

“What
?”

“Saying exactly the right thing.”

“Hmmm.” He was silent for a second, and then, “Nope. No. There’s no way. I can’t live up to that. I’m already going to break it.”

“What are you talking about
?”

His voice grew merry.
“Unless you think the next thing I was going to say
is
exactly the right thing.”

“W
hat’s the next thing you were going to say?”

“I was going to ask if you
thought Sean would object to me calling him ‘Nook’ from now on.”

She laughed so hard she nearly broke in two.
As usual, Asher was right. It didn’t matter how long it had been. In the midst of hell, she’d found her laugh again, and that was all that mattered.
Good luck to you, Truthers,
she thought, enjoying the superiority of it.
Because my friends and I are going to kick your ass. Asses. Sheesh. She couldn’t even threaten someone without thinking about grammar.

--------- Fi ---------

C
old rain pounded the roof of the Wal-Mart. Sleeping bags stuffed with the resting Army of Eden lined the aisles in haphazard clusters. Though the store had been heavily looted, they’d found a handful of metal garden tubs, lending the beauty of fire to their shelter. The makeshift fire pits were too small to create any real heat, but a little light was always heartening.

Of course, anything would’ve been b
etter than a second more in that freezing slop,
Fi thought. There was nothing like the combo of snow and thunderstorms to make progress an unbearable misery. The first time she’d trudged through a late spring blizzard with the Family, she’d been totally freaked out when thunder clapped overhead. They’d been marching all night and she’d panicked, thinking she was sleepwalking...or losing her mind. But when everyone else jumped at the lightning her brain kicked back in and she told them all to hit the deck. They’d crawled behind some rocks that made it seem like they were sheltered from the lightning, though they weren’t.

She never forgot it — how the
snow came so fast that it was slapping down in whole coats at a time. The Family had huddled together for warmth while the men took turns digging them out of the deepening snow. It was twelve grueling hours before that storm blew itself out. And in the end, the rocks had saved them, by shoring up a break in the drifts. Otherwise they might have been buried, despite the men’s best efforts.

She shivered. It wasn’t her favorite memory.
Her feet tapped against the floor anxiously as she sat in the café booth. She’d come here for a moment of comfort away from the press of the Army. It brought back happier memories of shopping with her mother, Maggie. Well, tagging along really, she’d been so small. Maggie always found it the height of amusement that at five Fi enjoyed her pretzels with a healthy layer of spicy mustard, but it was still her favorite condiment.

Or it would be, she thought, if it still existed
. After the Famine she’d found it rather a shame that there were so many packets of yellow mustard and no spicy pretzel mustard. Her stomach growled.
Gotta think about something else
.

Unfortunately, every
time she let her mind wander, it would creep its way back to the looming reality. They were only a half-day’s hike from Camp Truth. Even though this rain-sleet-snowfall crap would make for a hard, muddy trek tomorrow, it wouldn’t stop them. No matter what happened, she and Sara would begin their counterattack on the Truthers.
And so it begins
, she thought, for the millionth time that day.

“
Um, Fi?”

She
turned to see a familiar face. Hannah Lemly.
Of course.
The girl had been like a reverse shadow for a week now. Reverse because there was nothing dark about her. It was like being followed by Tinkerbell. Fi wouldn’t have been shocked to see a set of iridescent wings sprout from the girl’s back.

“What can I do for you, Hannah?”

She tugged at her fleece hat. “I have a question.”

“Ok.
Go ahead, shoot. You have my undivided attention.”

“
You know I said I read Mr. Asher’s book.”

“Of course.”

“So I know that you were only fourteen when you started training to be a warrior.”

“Yes, that’s true.”

“So, I’m fourteen and I really want to learn. Can I start training?”

Fi
choked, and then tried to cover it with a cough when she saw that Hannah’s mittens had balled into fists. Tiny, tiny fists.
Crap. She wants to fight?

“That’s a tough question
, Hannah. First of all, I’m not your moth…” Her voice trailed off as Hannah’s face tightened.
Double crap.
Fi’s heart sank. How could she have forgotten that Hannah Lemly didn’t have any family? “Sorry.”

Hannah
looked away and shrugged. “That’s ok. So what? My mom’s dead. She got sick during the Famine and we didn’t have any medicine. Short story.”

“
No, Hannah, I should’ve remembered and been more sensitive.”

“That’s ok,” she lifted her chin.
“You were tough anyway, when you lost Maggie.”

P
ain shot through Fi like lightning. She’d never heard anyone say her mother’s name like that.
Not a stranger.
Not someone who’d only read about her. To have this girl know her—to draw comfort from her story—it was hard. She didn’t wish her story on anyone.

She cleared her throat.
“Ah, yes. That’s true. But it was very hard, and I still found time to cry.” She gestured for Hannah to take a seat. “So why do you want to start training?”

Hannah was silent for a moment
and then slid in next to her. “I saw something.”

Ah.
“I see. And it made you want to be stronger? Tougher?”

“Yes.”

“And why did it make you feel that way?”

H
annah’s face twisted, her nearly invisible brows turning white against her reddened face. “Because I could’ve done something about it.”

T
hey sat in silence for a minute, Fi still reeling from this revelation. She was pretty sure that not even Jonas knew what this little medic really wanted.
She wants to fight back.
Torn, Fi studied her. No matter what she might claim about her age, Hannah looked like a baby. But how could Fi turn her down? Wouldn’t she be a hypocrite after raising the banner of “warrior” over herself at the same age? “I’ll tell you what,” she finally said. “I’ll make you a deal. If Asher can find the time, I’ll ask him to start your training.”

Hannah’s lips
twitched. “Do you think that maybe I can also train with Miss Sara someday?”

“Sara?
Are you serious?”

Hannah nodded.

“Uh, sure, maybe. I’ll have to check with her. But you’ve watched us enough to know that Sara doesn’t play nice. She won’t care that you’re small or new. She’ll push you. And she’ll hit you. And believe me, it will hurt.”

“
Yes! Yes! Oh, that’s ok, yes!” Hannah fist-pumped.

“But you have to make me a promise.”

“Anything!”

“You have to promise to
stay OUT of the coming battle. And I mean not going near the battlefield at all. Not as a water-girl, or a medic, or anything. You can support the team from the medical tents, but no battlefield. Do you hear me? I don’t want you to think a couple weeks of starter training will make you ready for something like that.”

A frown ghosted across Hannah’s face, but she held out her mitten.
“Deal.”

“I mean it
,” Fi said sternly, as she shook her hand. “This battle is going to be a million times worse than anything that I’ve ever faced. This isn’t a fistfight with a drunk…”

“…
or a gang-fight in a basement grocery store,” Hannah chirped.

Good Lord.
The kid had
memorized
Asher’s book. “That’s right,” Fi said. “I almost died that day…and others since. And speaking as a somewhat experienced warrior to an aspiring warrior, I’ll tell it to you straight. What we’re planning to do next scares me to death.”

“Ahem.”

They turned.
Asher was standing on the other side of the café wall, a strange expression on his face.

“Ash
.” Fi smiled. “Perfect timing. I’d like you to meet your newest trainee.”

His
eyebrows rose. “You want to start training, Hannah?”

“I told her she could only train with you if she promised to stay out of the battl
e completely.” Fi turned to Hannah and summoned her sternest expression. “And she agreed.”

Asher
pushed out his chin like he was impressed and bowed. “As you wish. We’ll begin when the weather improves.”

Hanna
h jumped up, clapping her mittens together and then stopped and bowed her head. Fi’s heart squeezed as she was reminded of a six-year-old Kiara, bowing to Asher in a clearing in the woods.

“Thank you
so much,” Hannah breathed, “I can’t wait.”

Asher took Fi’s hand.
“Now, I’m sorry, Hannah, but I have to steal her away.”

Fi followed him, her hand still clutched in his, as he wound behind the counter of the café and through a back door.
“Can you believe that little Hannah wants to train? And,” she added, “this is the best part…she wants to train with
Sara,
of all things.” He turned them down another, darkened hallway.
Wait, where was he taking her?
“Hey, Ash. Where’s Luke?”

“He’s with Sara.”
He grinned over his shoulder. “Of all things.”

“And where are we going?”

“It’s a surprise.
I found something for us.”

They wound around another corner and he led
her into a small office. It had been ransacked and picked over and now boasted only a single desk and chair buried beneath a snowfall of brittle paper. Asher closed the door behind them and pulled the blinds.