One day she was working to fillet a corner and she forgot that he was even there.
“You’re going to finish too early, you know,” he said.
She turned, surprised, and saw only the dark velvet light. Her mask was still down. She raised it and saw him sitting on the desk. She couldn’t remember when he had come in. Her brain was barely working.
For the first time, his smile disappeared at the sight of her. He blinked and they stared at each other.
“What?” she asked.
“Nothing,” he said, shaking his head and looking away. “You’ve gotten very thin.”
“Oh. Maybe if you people fed me something.”
Elijah nodded.
“What did you mean before? Too early?”
“I was commenting that you’re going to finish your project before your term is up. You were sentenced to three weeks. Maybe it’s for the best.”
“Why?”
“I’m not sure how much longer you’re going to be able to work. You kinda look like you’re going to collapse at any minute.”
“I can’t look that much worse than yesterday.”
“I didn’t come yesterday,” he said. “I haven’t been back since last week.”
She looked at the supply of metal. It was nearly gone. She was almost done with her gas tank as well. She wondered about the atmosphere. How was there any oxygen left in her cell? The air was probably circulating on her trips to the top of the stairs for water, but still.
“Madelyn?” he asked.
“What?”
“Nothing. You seemed to drift off for a second.”
“I’m almost done,” she said. “Let me finish here.”
She turned back to her work and lined up the next weld. After brushing the metal clean, she positioned her hands and the flipped her mask down by jerking her head. The world swam with the movement.
The next thing she knew, she was looking up at Elijah’s face. His head was blocking out the light.
“Let go of me. I’m almost done,” she said.
“I’m not holding you down,” he said. “You collapsed. I’m going to see if I can get you an energy drink or something.”
She felt his hands take the tools from hers. It was pleasant to stay on her back. The world made more sense that way. Her eyes drifted shut.
#
#
#
#
#
Madelyn tried to sit up at the sound of the voices. Her head was so heavy that it felt like it was packed with lead. She had to settle for opening her eyes.
“I see what you mean,” the older woman’s voice said.
“I was thinking that with the job done, we could forgive the last two days.”
“Out of the question,” the woman said.
“Then let me put her on electrolytes or sugar water,” Elijah said.
“No.”
Madelyn closed her eyes again.
When she opened them, she sat up fast.
“Stop!” she yelled.
Elijah nearly dropped the torch. The welding helmet, adjusted poorly for his head, tumbled to the floor. He laughed.
“Close your eyes!” he said. “You’ll burn your retinas or something.”
“You’ve got that lined up all wrong,” Madelyn said. She reached for the bottle of water and took a sip. She felt the liquid seep down into her body. Her flesh soaked it up like a plant with parched roots. “Please don’t ruin all my hard work.”
“Settle down. I’m not going to ruin anything. I watched you do this. I think I can handle finishing up these last two bars.”
Madelyn shook her head. She got to her feet and took the torch out of his hands. She shooed him away as she moved the clamp. He hadn’t even gotten that part right.
Elijah took his normal seat on the desk.
“The good news is that you get out of here tomorrow,” he said. “The bad news is that you’ll have to spend a lot of time with Oliver while you do his right-hand chores.”
Madelyn ran a nice bead and welded the bar in place.
“Has he been wearing that cast since I broke his hand?” she asked.
“Yup.”
“I don’t understand that. Why didn’t they just use a wrap on it? He could have been back to normal in day.”
“He probably couldn’t afford it.”
Madelyn flipped the visor back up so she could look at him. “You people charge each other for healing? What kind of society is this?”
Elijah laughed. “A practical one. People get old and sick. You can’t spend all your time and energy on caring for the old people, and as they get more and more sick, people become unreasonable. The first time they fall they’ll say something like, ‘If I get to the point where I can’t walk, be sure to do the right thing.’ Then, when they break their hip, they’re begging you to take care of them. If we didn’t give everyone a budget, the old people would soak up all the resources.”
An image of her father loomed up from Madelyn’s memory. She flipped down the visor and used the purple flash of the welder to scare the thought away.
“The more you work, the more you build up health credits. If your injury is directly due to your job, then the healing comes at half-price. I’m sure that Oliver didn’t get the discount because his injury came from negligence.”
Madelyn finished the bead and looked over at Elijah. He had his hand up to shield his eyes from the flash.
“He was supposed to be watching you when you broke out,” Elijah said with a lowered voice.
Madelyn thought about that as she finished up the work.
“W
AIT
,”
HE
SAID
.
S
HE
didn’t like being that close to Oliver. He smelled terrible. Madelyn held a bucket in each hand. The handles dug into her skin and the weight made her shoulders ache.
“Go!” Oliver grunted. They shuffled across the parking lot. Oliver’s hand swept back and forth. The light on the device flashed green. Madelyn tried to keep the buckets from slopping as they reached the building and pressed their backs against the bricks.
“Follow,” he said. He stalked slowly to the window and waited as Madelyn lifted each bucket through and placed them on the floor inside. The broken glass cut her shirt when she leaned forward. Oliver waved at her and they ran down the side of the building towards the street.
She didn’t bother to ask again what they were doing. He hadn’t answered any of her questions so far.
When they got back to the park, Oliver turned to dismiss her with a pointed finger.
“Wait,” she said. She took her pack from her shoulders. “Before you go. I heard that maybe you could use this.” She dug out the wrap and held it out towards him. It was one of her catastrophic injury wraps. His hand could have been severed and the wrap would have been able to paste it back on. With a wrap like that, he would be using his hand again by dinner.
Oliver waved it away.
“Take it,” she said. “It’s a gift. I’m sorry that I broke your hand.”
“You didn’t break it. The door broke it.”
“Well, then I’m sorry that the door broke your hand when you were chasing me.”
She pressed it to his chest. “Please.”
He shook his head. “It’s too much.”
“Then use half,” she said. “Save the other half.” She was angry at herself for not thinking of it earlier. She could have cut the thing in half herself and saved the rest for a rainy day.
He finally reached for it. “I can donate half.”
Madelyn nodded and smiled.
“This doesn’t get you off the hook for my chores. You’re paying me back for last month.”
“Got it.”
He tilted his chin at her before he turned. She wasn’t sure, but it seemed like a sign of respect. After he disappeared through the trees, Madelyn turned and scanned the row of houses. She had to find the right one before dark, or she would end up sleeping outside again. Madelyn started jogging.
She turned a corner and saw Elijah sitting on the stoop. Madelyn slowed as she approached.
“You’re looking healthier every day,” he said with a smile.
“You think? Go figure—let someone eat food and they don’t look like they’re about to die.”
He laughed and stood up to open the door.
“How did the chores go?”
“Terrible,” she said. “I finally got up the nerve to give him the wrap. He took it.”
“Excellent.”
“Maybe he’ll take that stupid cast off so he can bathe,” she said.
They both laughed. Oliver’s smell had become a topic of conversation at gatherings.
Elijah’s house was in decent condition downstairs. Madelyn liked it. In some ways, the subterranean life reminded her of her grandmother’s cabin. Elijah waited for her to close the door at the top of the stairs before he turned on the lights. They descended into the cozy apartment.
“How much longer do you have on chores?”
“You tell me.”
“It’s more than two weeks,” he said. “I know that much. At least then you’ll get to work with the fire team. They’re all young people—very energetic and very optimistic.”
“Sounds great,” Madelyn said. She moved into the living room while Elijah disappeared into the kitchen. He banged around in there while Madelyn closed her eyes. She liked Elijah’s little house. He didn’t have a good eye for decorating, but neither did she. He had focused on making the place comfortable. That was just the way she liked it. People probably talked. There were probably rumors that she and Elijah were a couple, but that wasn’t the worst thing in the world. He was well liked and had a lot of friends. Being close with him was raising her own status. People were actually nice to her at the gatherings.
“I got you a treat,” he said. He came through the doorway carrying a plate. When he set it down in front of her, she couldn’t believe it. The people of Fairbanks ate simple things—just what they could grow and harvest. This was a cupcake, complete with a birthday candle and purple frosting.
“Where did you get it?”
“Happy birthday!” he said.
“It’s my birthday?”
He nodded.
“How do you know?”
“Someone found your birth records on the ether. Today is your birthday. Want to know how old you are?”
“No.”
She reached forward and touched the frosting. It was soft and fluffy. The sweetness exploded in her mouth.
“Thank you!”
She had the urge to hug Elijah. She folded her arms and resisted the idea.
“Aren’t you going to eat it?”
“I feel like I should save it.”
Elijah laughed. “What good is that?”
“I mean until after dinner.”
He nodded. “Okay. I’ll allow it.”
“Thank you, sir,” she said with a solemn expression.
Elijah laughed at her and held out his hand to help her stand. They went together to the kitchen to prepare the meal.
#
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#
#
“Please memorize your exit and have a seat,” Cleo said. The woman commanded the room easily from the podium. She wasn’t the oldest woman in the group, but she had an undeniable authority and used it well. Madelyn respected her even though she still resented the sentence that the woman had punished her with.
Madelyn glanced at the slip of paper that Elijah held. Their exit was through the south window and across the athletic field. Elijah flipped the paper over. He seemed more interested in the old advertisement printed on the back. He touched the picture of a smiling baby.
Madelyn wondered why he wasn’t attached. He was handsome and people seemed to like him. She had made up several stories for him, but had never asked directly. Her leading theory was that he had been seeing the welder, Robin. This theory was unsupported by observation.
“We have a looming crisis in delta one. I’m sure that most of you have heard of the tomato blight.”
Madelyn’s mind began to wander. The people were obsessed with farming and Roamers. Sometimes, just to keep things interesting, they would obsess over Roamers and farming. Madelyn glanced around. Most of the people looked just as bored as she was. A man a few rows back shifted his weight. Just for a second, Madelyn thought she caught sight of a familiar face.
In two days, Madelyn would finally finish helping Oliver with his chores. Now that his hand was fixed, he seemed downright angry to watch Madelyn do his work. She was eager to move on as well. A lot of the young people had gravitated to the bonfire crew. If she was going to locate her nephew or Harper, that’s where she would find them.
Cleo moved on to new business.
“Gabriel has asked to address the group. Let’s welcome him back,” Cleo said. She put her hands together and shook them over her head. The room joined her in the greeting. The sound of all their shirtsleeves gently shaking gave Madelyn the creeps, but she mimicked the others. Inside her chest, her heart sped up. She wondered if it could be the same Gabriel. She hadn’t heard a thing about him in the weeks that she had been a part of the community.
It was him—most of him at least.
One of Gabriel’s eyes was grey and cloudy. One of his ears was missing. His voice was weak and scratchy.
“I asked to speak with everyone at once. I don’t want my news to be misinterpreted or misrepresented.”
He paused to clear his throat and Cleo approached and put a hand on his back. Gabriel looked like he had aged fifty years since Madelyn had seen him last.
He pulled away from Cleo’s touch.
“It’s time to go south, towards the snow. I know that everyone’s dearly attached to what we have here, but this time is over. He’s coming for us, and he makes the Zumbidoes look like schoolyard bullies. This whole city is going to get chewed up in an instant.”
Cleo looked around. She was clearly not expecting anything like this to come from the old man.
“Gabriel, maybe you should have a seat and we’ll get you some water.”
“No. I want everyone to know what I’ve seen, direct from my mouth. I don’t want any filters or rumors about this. My granddaughter and I were up in the mountains. Some of you know why.”