The Retreat (The After Trilogy Book 1) (15 page)

Tears burned her eyes, and she swallowed back emotion. “I’m here. You’re okay.” She kissed his forehead. “You’re okay now.”

She looked over Deimos’s head at Houston, only to find the eccentric man’s hazel eyes glistening with their own sheen of tears. The doctor smiled at Romy and bent to his work, racing between Deimos’s side and the screen over and over again.

Deimos blinked his eyes open with clear difficulty. “Ro. The others? What happened?”

“All safe,” she assured him. Romy gave him a quick account of what had happened to date, excluding the details of the Mandate’s astronomic subterfuge, and puberty. Phobos or Thrym could have that honour.

Even her flash recount was too long. Deimos started to drift off less than a minute afterward. Romy darted a questioning look at Houston, who came around the bed to pat her hand.

“Just asleep, little skyling. Don’t get your knickers in a twist.”

Houston didn’t take his eyes off of Deimos as he spoke and for the first time Romy detected a bit of relief beneath his charismatic façade.

“How close was he?”

Houston pushed up his ever-slipping glasses and gave her a serious look. It sat oddly on his face.

“Close.”

* * *

R
omy propped herself up on her elbows atop her bunk as her knot trailed in through the door.

Phobos grinned at her, covered in dirt from his day in the garden.

Elara had the intense focused look she got when processing information—she must have learned something interesting today. She muttered a “hello” to Romy and sat, tense, on her own bunk, brow furrowed.

Thrym entered last, pissed off and arms raw up to the elbows.

Romy rolled up to sit on her bed, a grin plastered on her face. “Deimos is awake.”

Thrym’s face cleared. Her knot erupted in whoops. Romy’s breath caught at the blinding joy on Phobos’s face. For the first time since colliding into Earth in their battler, he looked his normal boyish self. Like the space soldier who stole the extra chocolate cake.

Thrym caught her up in a hug, pulling her in to his chest and burying his face in her hair. She returned the hug, squeezing as tightly as she could.

“Houston said he’ll be okay.” Her words were muffled against Thrym’s shoulder, but the others heard.

“Can we go see him?” Phobos said, prying Thrym away.

He wasn’t too impressed when Romy told him to wait until morning.

“So how were your days?” she asked.

“Do you know they have permits for
everything
now,” Phobos interrupted. “To have children, to cut down a tree, to burn rubbish. . . .”

“Really?” Romy asked. It kind of made sense to her, though.

Thrym nodded. “The penalties are pretty harsh from what I’ve heard. Apparently, a woman was taken from here a couple of years ago for littering. Like gone. Never to be seen again.”

“Where was she taken?”

He shrugged. “Some island the Mandate controls.”

“That’s. . . .”

“Extreme?”

“Well, yeah. How did the Mandate find out?”

Phobos’s green eyes grew murky. “One of her neighbours.”

“Someone told on her?” Romy’s eyes grew huge. She shared a look with Thrym, remembering his bad feeling from a few days back.

It seemed so harsh. To be taken from your family and friends for something so simple. But at the same time, one person littering wouldn’t have an effect, but if the entire population littered, it would be global warming all over again in another two centuries.

Phobos drew a hand over his face. “It’s going to make it hard to stockpile things so we can be ready to leave when Dei is discharged. I’ve never seen such strict accountability for everything. And we grew up on the
orbitos.
”

“Can we get anything?” Romy asked.

The four sat steeped in thought for a while.

“I’ll be able to get some of the smaller seeds,” Phobos said with finality. “We’ll want to grow crops eventually, and some of the tiny seeds won’t be missed.”

They looked to Thrym. He stretched his arms overhead and placed both hands on his head, a deep frown between his brows. Romy hated seeing it there; he took too much upon himself, cared too much for others.

“I need more time to assess the washhouse,” he said. “There is a pile of damaged stuff that might not be missed. But I’d need help getting it out.” He nodded at Romy.

She straightened. “That probably won’t be a problem.” Romy doubted she’d even be missed.

“Did you scope out the area on your trip?” Thrym asked Elara.

She’d spent her day in driving lessons after someone found out she was the knot’s top pilot.

Elara shook her head. “Once we left the settlement the tracks all became a twisting mess. I’ll try to make sense of it, but . . . you guys, we were driving out with men and guns, dropping them off around the settlement.”

Romy frowned. “What were they doing?”

Elara sighed. “I think they’re sentries.

“Sentries?” Thrym echoed.

The knot exchanged troubled looks.

It was Phobos who eventually said the words aloud. “What are they watching for?”

Romy shook her head. “More like, how do we get past them?”

Elara was trying to sit still on the bed, looking around the group expectantly.

Thrym laughed. “How was the driving?”

Elara bounced on her bed. “It’s more about coordination with your arms and legs, and there are nowhere near as many switches or levers. You don’t have to constantly stabilise the vehicle against acceleration. You know, because we’re not in space.”

Phobos groaned loudly.

Elara continued with a smirk. “And they have things called ‘shocks’ so you don’t get thrown around quite so much. But then it’s weird how the ground and wind can affect the steering. I went through a big puddle and we
aquaplaned
,” Elara said proudly.

It sounded amazing. Romy felt a small twist of jealousy. Even Phobos had learned to grow food in vertical planters.

“Oh, the coolest thing?” she squealed. “They have 3D printers for everything. You can just be like, ‘Hey, I need a radiator,’ and just
print
one.”

Romy shook her head. Honestly, that baffled her.

“Yeah, they print a lot of their food that way,” Phobos interjected. “Except the fruit and veggies.”

“Seriously?” Elara’s face twisted.

Romy laughed. “I’d still take it over dehydrated orbito food any day.”

Elara and Phobos snickered in response.

“Mine isn’t as interesting,” Thrym added. “But I learned there’s no land ownership on Earth anymore.” Thrym peeked sideways at Romy.

“Like no one buys a house?” Elara asked in confusion.

“Every settlement has everything necessary for survival, and the resources are communal. Everyone receives what they need to be healthy.”

“I like the idea. It eliminates greed,” Phobos said.

Romy found herself leaning towards Thrym, eager to hear more. He ignored her, sharing a look with Phobos.

Phobos glanced at Romy and grinned. “She’s not as fidgety as Ellie when she wants to know something.”

“Yeah, but my mouth doesn’t hang open like that.” Elara glared back at him.

Thrym’s blue eyes twinkled and she blushed at being caught out. She couldn’t help that this was the most interesting part of her day. She hadn’t learned
anything
polishing Houston’s medical instruments.

“Apparently, the big settlements are incredible. Huge circular structures with high buildings and transportation,” Thrym continued.

Her eyes widened.

“And no one has jobs, really. They just help out with what they can, when they can.”

Romy’s thoughts drifted as the others continued their excited chatter. The settlement was more tightly run than they’d thought: sentries, strict accountability, and the loyalty of the Earth humans to the Mandate.

That was their biggest disadvantage—not knowing exactly how everything ran.

And if the Mandate could find out about a woman littering from another country . . .

. . . then how long would it take for the Mandate to learn of the sudden appearance of five space soldiers?

D
eimos was washed and dressed in fresh clothing by the time his knot trailed in early the next day. He looked mildly more focused, though his cheeks still held that gaunt, near-death look.

Phobos carefully gathered his brother in an embrace. In a rather gruff tone, he simply said, “About time.”

Romy visited Deimos a few times as the day moved on. As much as she wanted to see him, he was still exhausted and not up to talking too much.

Gathering her boredom was distracting Houston from his work, she moved to the wooden bench outside Atlas’s office. It gave her a view of the entrance area where the four offices branched off. One was Houston’s; one was Tina’s. The third belonged to Atlas.

As the seconds ticked by, the unknown fourth office caught her attention. She assumed it was an office like the others, but in two days, not one person had entered or exited the room. At least not while she was there.

Romy swung her legs down and pushed her blonde hair behind one ear. Even a couple of weeks on Earth had seen her locks grow longer than ever before. Not that she would have ever told anyone, but she'd secretly wished for long tresses like a fairy-tale princess.

She approached the locked door, looking around to see if anyone lurked in the entranceway. No one had told her the office was “off limits”, but instinct told her she shouldn’t be opening that door.

But it was in plain sight. Unguarded. Romy reached out and turned the knob.

“It’s locked.”

Romy tensed at the sound of Atlas’s voice.
Now
he chose to come out of hiding!

“What’s in there?” she asked, heart galloping in her chest.

No answer came. Why didn’t that surprise her? Romy crossed her arms. Annoyance bubbled up within her and she shoved it down to the best of her ability, knowing part of it was puberty.

Why couldn’t he just give her one straight answer?

“Atlas. . . .” How did Romy begin to ask everything she wanted––no,
needed
to know? “What is going on?”

She felt such a rush when she looked at him, those loose strands of hair falling over his eyes. He was enigmatic and reserved. Romy couldn't decide if he was good or bad.

His eyes flickered away, darkening. “What’s going on is your knot is supposed to be blending in.”

Romy brushed aside his bogus answer. “Don’t be obtuse. You know what I mean.”

It came to her that, really, she understood everything she needed to about the orbitos, and the Mandate. All of her angst was from not knowing who
he
was.

She took a step closer. “Who are you?”

For the first time since their meeting, Romy picked up a flash of something in his eyes. A flicker of . . . uncertainty, perhaps? A crack in his broad-shouldered confidence.

He unclasped his hands from behind his back and approached her with coiled steps. It made Romy feel like she should run, but she forced her breath to stay even, straightening and levelling him with the same look. It was ruined by the fact that he was taller.

Atlas brushed her cheek with his thumb and her breath caught before resuming its staid pace. Why did he always do that? Before she could ask, he’d bent his mouth to her ear. Warm breath tickled her neck.

“The one person you should trust,” he breathed.

Atlas inhaled deeply and Romy felt her legs shake beneath her. Her body thrummed at his nearness.

Gripping his shoulder, she looked up at him. “What’s going on?”

A dramatic throat-clearing interrupted Atlas’s reply. “That, little skyling, is your body telling you that Atlas would be a prime candidate for reproduction.”

Romy shrieked, shaking legs forgotten as she whirled around, pressing her back against Atlas.

Houston stood, propped against the doorway in faux casualness.

“Reproduction?” she repeated dumbly. The word registered a split second later and Romy bit down on her lip, wincing in embarrassment. Atlas hadn’t moved from behind her. At least he couldn’t see her face right now.

“Yes. The act whereby a male inserts his—”

“How long have you been standing there?” Atlas cut in.

“—into the lady bits. Not long.” Houston waved a hand in the air, a large grin splitting his face.

The man behind her hummed quietly. Romy wasn’t sure she believed the doctor either.

Houston continued. “I could have told you the door was locked, my dear.”

Romy narrowed her eyes. That was right at the start of their conversation!

The lanky man scuffed the floor with a shuffling foot. “Now that we both have your attention, Atlas, this has got to stop. I feel like I’m treating the entire campsite every day.”

Romy jumped in. “Thrym is much better in this area than I am. He could actually help. I can switch places with him,” she offered.

Houston pushed his glasses up, swinging his stethoscope. “Not to mention, it doesn’t leave me much time to work on . . . other things.”

Atlas grunted softly. Houston stared directly over Romy’s head. It felt like the pair was having some kind of cryptic conversation. She turned to the side so she could inspect Atlas’s grey eyes for herself. But the man behind her was an impassive mask.

“All right,” Atlas ground out.

“What?” Romy exploded. After all her ignored heartfelt reasons yesterday, he was just going to agree?

Atlas glanced her way as he turned to his office. To lock himself away for comets knew how long again. “You will now be working in the storage room. Try to make some sense of it. Tina will show you. Tina!” he barked.

The door to Tina’s office flew open. Romy peeked inside and saw maps and plans covering the walls. They could be useful. The thought of stealing from Tina was vaguely terrifying, however. Romy envisioned many broken bones if she were caught.

The redhead’s scowl quickly turned to a saucy smile. “Yes, darling?”

Atlas frowned at Tina and, it seemed, avoided looking Romy’s way. “I need you to show Rosemary how to use the scanner system in storage.”

Tina’s mouth dropped slightly for a long second before she snapped it shut. She glared at Romy. “I guess I can do that.”

Houston walked to his room, gracing Romy with a dramatic wide-eyed expression at the tension between the other pair.

“That is all,” Atlas commanded.

Who on Earth is he?
Romy thought in exasperation. Atlas had mentioned a superior. Who did he defer to? It clearly wasn’t Tina. Did his commander occupy the fourth room? If so, the person never ate, slept, or peed. Maybe they used diapers, too. She bit her lip to stop her laughter from bursting free.

“Rosemary,” Atlas interrupted her musings. “Go with Tina. She will show you what to do.”

It was an order.

She supposed she should respond quite well to orders. Or she had before, anyway. But now, with her hormones raging, Romy decided she didn’t care who he was—no one spoke to her like that. Especially when they were lying through their butt. She tossed her short hair in his direction. “Whatever, Atlas.”

Romy really needed to think up some better retorts. She left the entranceway in the wake of a furious Tina.

Her anger didn’t stop her from straining to hear the voices behind her.

“Do you remember puberty, boss?” Houston asked.

“What’s your point?”

“Rebellion would be the word that comes to mind.”

“We need to keep her safe, H. You know we do.”

“She’s just in the next building. You can see the stairs from here. And I really do need more time to analyse. . . .”

Romy’s feet slowed, but their voices were too faint to make out. Tina threw a sharp glance her way. A foreboding shiver worked its way down Romy’s spine as she scrambled to catch up with the woman.