The Retreat (The After Trilogy Book 1) (20 page)

He gripped her upper arm in a vice-like grip. She yelped in pain.

“Officer Cayne?” came a questioning call.

Romy’s eyes filled with shameful, humiliated tears. But they wouldn’t fall. Not in front of him.

The grip on her arm disappeared and she whimpered as blood rushed back into the limb.

Lucas strode to the door, gun swinging over his shoulder. He smiled at her demeaned state. “That was your last warning. Next time, I’ll follow through on my promise.”

Romy twisted away as soon as he disappeared from view. She pressed a fist against her mouth, squeezing her eyes shut. No sobbing. Not until he was gone. Rising on tip-toes, she watched the three soldiers march away. Tears tracked down her face as she finally let out her terror. Dry gasps shook her body in torrents.

Wave after wave passed. And she felt filthy. As though she should wash for days. It took her ten attempts to do up the button of her shorts with fumbling hands.

She just sat there. Sat there until the last bell chimed. And Romy felt calm.

Calm and empty.

Lucas was right about one thing: she hadn’t known what sexual assault really was.

The thought of what that man might do to her made Romy sick to her stomach. She looked around the room and stood on shaking legs. Romy was less of a fool than she’d been this morning. Lucas had no qualms about breaking the law.

She sighed. She couldn’t stay in this room by herself. It wasn’t safe. The matter had gone past the point Romy could deal with. Self-preservation had kicked in.

Lucas would think he’d scared her off with his physical advances. And he had. He was also arrogant enough that he wouldn’t expect her to tell anyone.

And she wasn’t going to because she suspected his orders came from the top.

But she wasn’t going to stick around for him to hurt her, either.

“A
re you sure there’s nothing I can do here?” Romy asked. The question took on a whining quality. If Houston had no work for her to pretend to do, she didn’t know where else to go.

Houston looked between her and Thrym with a baffled expression. “I’m sure,” he said slowly. A frown lingered on his brow.

“Is there a problem?”

Romy whirled to find Atlas in the doorway. Did he have some kind of damned Romy radar?

Houston waved a hand at Romy. “Blonde skyling is bored with filing and has crawled back to her first job.”

That sounded bad. But it was the gist of what she’d said.

Atlas’s eyes darkened. “No.”

“You say that a lot,” she muttered.

Atlas watched her, grey eyes flicking over her face in consternation. Romy didn’t miss the shared glance between Houston and himself.

“You can’t keep swapping roles, Rosemary.”

She’d had about enough of that. “It’s Romy,” she snapped. “Use it.”

Thrym walked up behind her and rubbed her back. “Ro, what’s wrong?”

“What makes you think something is wrong?” Her voice shook. “I’m just bored from being alone in that room.”

“The job isn’t there to be entertaining. It’s there to be done.” Atlas’s jaw clenched.

Romy hated that he thought her lazy.

His glare was met with her own. She folded her arms.

“Well, can I pick someone to help me at least?”
Safety in numbers
, she thought.

The tall man in front of her was noticeably confused. The urge to tell him was overwhelming. But Lucas’s words haunted her. He was above the law. And she could only guess that meant he worked for the Mandate. Atlas and Houston stood no chance against them. Getting them involved would put
them
in danger, as well as Knot 27. Romy’s head throbbed painfully.

Atlas was watching her, not answering her question.

“Well?” she repeated in a weak voice.

Houston cleared his throat and Atlas jerked. He clasped his hands behind his back. “I’ll see who might be suitable to join you in storage. But it will take me a few days.”

Romy’s heart sank. Atlas’s face flickered at her reaction. A few days? What might Lucas do to her in that time?

Romy didn’t uncross her arms as she moved around Atlas to the doorway. She was disappointed she hadn’t gotten what she came for: an escape from Lucas. Part of her knew it was unreasonable to be mad at Atlas when he didn’t know all of the facts, but the rest of her was deathly afraid for her knot.

And she was learning fear could make you act in ways you never thought possible. She walked out of the room without another word.

Her feet dragged as she approached the storage room. She darted looks around the clearing, hopeless in the knowledge that Lucas wouldn’t show his face until she was inside and trapped.

Orange hair caught her attention.
Nancy!

The girl walked casually across the clearing. Too casually, in Romy’s opinion. And she was all alone. Romy knew what that meant.

She raced after her young friend.

Nancy was nearly through the hidden panel in the alleyway when Romy skidded to a halt behind her. Nancy jumped at the sound, hitting her head on the fence.

“Jeez, you flamin’ Galah, why’dya do that?”

Romy bent in half. “Can I come?”

Nancy winked. “Got a taste for the guns, right?”

“Right.”

Nancy pulled her through the fence. “The others are already rolling. Took me a while to get the dishes done. Come on.”

She took off through the trees, and Romy skimmed over the grass, which had been flattened by the car moments before.

Salvation.

At least for another day.

* * *

R
omy lay back on the ground after checking for bull ants. She wasn’t eager to encounter them after Freya had been bitten five minutes before.

“Does Earth still have koalas?” she asked.

Eddie shook his head, blushing. “N-no, they were classified as extinct last century. Before genetic staples were created.”

Romy went blank. “What?”

“You know, they take a staple of the species DNA to clone,” Nancy said, rolling her eyes.

“I see.” Humans had not only survived global warming, they’d saved some of the at-risk species. Romy tried to keep her face in suitably bored lines, but really the information amazed her.

“They’re g-gone for good,” Eddie explained.

Nancy laid back and placed an arm over her eyes to shield them from the glaring sun. “They all had chlamydia anyway.”

The group laughed. Romy smiled uncertainly.

“What’s chlamydia?”

Nancy wrenched upright. “What?” She laughed. “Don’t tell me—space soldiers don’t get STDs?”

Her mind rang empty. She was unfamiliar with the term. “Not to my knowledge.”

Hannah was the first capable of speech. She wiped a tear from her eye. “That’s bleepin’ priceless.”

Romy shrugged, not in the loop whatsoever. It was something she was getting used to. “What other animals were lost?”

“All the cool ones,” Freya said. “Elephants, tigers, pandas, emus, lemurs, hippos.” She pursed her lips in thought. “Penguins, whales, and dolphins.”

“I liked the lemurs.” Romy frowned. “But you have some new species too, don’t you?”

Nancy scrunched her nose. “Mainly insects. But there are wingos.” She caught Romy’s expression. “Wolf dingos. Not too weird. The dingo is a wolf anyway.”

“There’s mutterflies. Moth butterflies. Quite beautiful, but deadly,” added Eddie.

Romy’s mouth dropped.

“The crows and seagulls have mated with every single bird they can.”

“Polar bears are gone. But not before they did the deed with the grizzly bear.”

Romy wracked her brain for the name. “Pizzly?”

Freya laughed. “Grolar bear. Pizzly is lame.”

It was about as lame as “grolar”, but Romy didn’t argue the point. She shook her head at the information. “That’s amazing.” She couldn’t wait to tell Phobos.

The others didn’t seem impressed.

Nancy brushed away a speck of dirt. “Yeah, whatever, sky girl. I just wish we had a chance to see the other animals before our ancestors killed them off.”

“
Yours
didn’t,” Eddie said to Nancy. Romy wondered what that meant.

“Doesn’t matter, in the end,” Nancy said brusquely. “They still died like everybody else.”

The playful mood was torn away, settling into a heavy glumness. Romy opened and closed her mouth before finally asking, “Was it . . . bad? After The Retreat?”

Nancy turned her head away. They couldn’t have been alive 150 years before. But it was still raw, judging from the sudden closing of the group.

Her whole life Romy had blamed the Earth humans—for not appreciating what they’d had, for being greedy and selfish, and careless. She’d even thought that they deserved what they got. She glanced around the circle of teens. Romy could tell from the sole tear trickling down Nancy’s face that, no matter the Earth humans’ crimes against nature, they had paid for their mistake time and again.

“Are you guys coming to the settlement festival tomorrow night?” Freya asked shyly, after several minutes of tense silence.

Fred scoffed as he crawled into the car. “Of course they are. Right, Ro?”

Apparently Romy and Fred were on nickname basis now. Romy smiled. “I hadn’t heard about it until now.”

“We have a celebration for the coming of each new season,” Nancy explained.

“Has the season changed?” Romy inquired, looking at the trees.

Nancy answered with a barking laugh. “You can’t feel it, but technically the season ends tomorrow. Plus, what Freya really wants to know is if Thrym will be there.”

Romy’s eyes widened as the other girl punched Nancy hard.

Something dropped inside her. “If our knot goes, I’m sure he’ll be there,” she said in a hollow voice.

“Would you introduce me?” the red-faced girl asked.

Nancy groaned. “Ugh, stop thinking with your pants, Freya. I swear you’re all about boys these days.”

“Just because you still want to climb trees like a child, doesn’t mean I do!” Freya shot back.

The girls sulked as Romy kept up an awkward conversation with the boys.

“How old are you guys?” she asked Eddie.

“Nancy and me are nineteen,” he replied. “The others are seventeen and eighteen. Except—”

“Me.” Fred's chest stuck out proudly. “I’m twenty-three. But mentally, I’m thirteen.”

A grin played on Romy’s lips. When she was out here, it was easy to forget all of her troubles.

“What are you guys doing tomorrow?” she asked carefully.

“Dishes, dishes, dishes,” Nancy groaned, coming out of her mood. She whacked her head on her forearms.

“We only get away maybe once a week, if that. Sometimes, in winter, it’s once a month.” Hannah pouted.

There went her escape plans for tomorrow. Maybe she could go and sit with Deimos. There was no way she was going to that room. And as far as she was concerned, Atlas couldn't make her.

Romy picked some grass. “Tell me more about Earth.”

Nancy turned on her side. “What do you wanna hear about?”

She could be subtle about it. Or. . . . “Tell me about the Mandate.”

“Take less than you need!” the others chorused before falling into laughing heaps.

Romy smiled. “I’ve seen that flashing on the screen. What does it mean?”

Freya answered, rolling her eyes. “It’s the Mandate’s mantra.”

“It doesn’t even make sense,” Nancy grumbled. “Less than you need,” she scoffed.

Romy thought about it. It really didn’t.

“It was designed to erase our ancestors’ mindset that a want was a need,” Eddie began. “It’s not supposed to make sense. It reminds us that needs like food and water shouldn’t be taken for granted, or expected.”

Fred pushed Eddie to the ground. “Blah, blah, blah.”

That signalled the end of the discussion and the group piled into the car.

Romy didn’t talk much on the return. When they got close to the settlement, Eddie cut the engine, and the group hopped out to push the car the rest of the way.

“Why don’t you guys just leave the car here?” she asked.

“Patrols would find it,” Nancy puffed, straining against the vehicle. “Gotta get it in and out during the middle half hour. They lurk about fifty metres into the tree line. And occasionally fleece the area outside of camp.”

She hadn’t known there were camp patrols, and Thrym and the others hadn’t mentioned them. Their knot could have left, only to be caught in the first few steps!

Sweat rolled down her neck.
Season changing, my butt—it's as hot as ever.
Romy tore off her overshirt to reveal the tight black tank underneath. She wished she hadn’t made the last-minute decision to wear three-quarter camo pants instead of shorts.

Eddie and Freya concealed the vehicle with the net. It really did look like a pile of leaves had built up between the fence and the abandoned bungalow. Fred peeked over the fence and one by one they all squeezed out. Romy couldn’t help noticing how much easier it was for the three other girls. Her tall frame barely made it through.

Romy pulled away from the others as they reached the clearing. She’d decided to sit on the steps of the storage building to give the illusion she’d been there working all day.

It wasn’t to be.

“Where have you been?” A furious voice spoke from her left.

Romy blanched at the six feet, six inches of angry Atlas bearing down on her. Angry was an understatement. He was livid. How long had he been looking for her? Her eyes flicked to Nancy and the others who were stalling, watching her exchange with Atlas.

“I was . . . walking.”

His face showed disbelief and contempt. “Walking? All day?” he asked sarcastically.

“Well, I wouldn’t say all day,” she hedged.

He was wearing a singlet, tucked into black camo pants. The skin on his arms glistened from the unrelenting heat.

“That would have to be the case.” His eyes sparked dangerously. “Being as I left in search of you five minutes after our conversation and couldn’t find you until now.”

He grabbed her shoulder. “I’ve had everyone out looking for you. Where have you been?”

Romy set her jaw. “I was walking,” she repeated. She knew he could tell she was lying. It was her typical weak Romy-lie.

She must have looked Nancy’s way one too many times because suspicion lit Atlas’s eyes, and he began to turn. She held her breath as the group began to scatter.

Romy waved her hand in front of Atlas’s face. “Why were you looking for me?”

He faced her, but blinked at her arm and very slowly grew still. His eyes locked on something. Romy glanced down and couldn’t help the loud inhale she took. She stared at the blue-black finger mark bruises surrounding her upper arm.