Page 27 of Rising

They were personal items. At times I felt guilty for invading their space, but when it came to uncooperative assholes, it was always better to be safe than sorry. Who knew what he could be carrying on him. I wasn’t going to be the one who slipped up for the second time in one day. I couldn’t fail my people again.

I wouldn’t.

I held his gaze steady, letting him know this wasn’t one of the things I was willing to budge on, even tonight. “Yes, it’s my duty to my people to make sure that everyone who enters this wall isn’t a threat to our security. You’ll hear this a lot, but here it’sCompound first.So I’ll be checking your bag for any weapons, and depending on if you’ll be allowed to stay or not, you’ll be allowed to keepsome. The amount will depend on your position. The rest you can check out of one of the weapon offices near one of the gates once you leave these walls, or if you prefer to practice with a certain weapon during your training. Everything else is yours to keep. We won’t touch it again after the initial inspection.”

“Compound first, sounds embarrassingly dystopian,” he retorted, a bit of humor coming back to his voice.

“Hey, no one said you had to stay, bud. There are several gates you can take your leave through,” I half joked, but my stomach turned.

Something told me I needed to watch him a bit more carefully. He was hiding something, but I couldn’t tell what. And I certainly hadn’t been able to clear him from involvement in today’s events, though I doubted I’d ever know for certain. I’d have to get Reina in here for the next time I questioned him, see if she could sense anything behind his words.

Turning on my heels I made my way through the door, placing my leash of fire around him once more, keeping him close as we made our way through The Compound towards The Kitchens. The moist huff on his breath hit the back of my neck, hard to accomplish from the difference in our height, and I tried to contain my rising anger. I had no desire to satisfy his efforts to irritate me.

I wanted to send him on his way back through North Gate. Wanted to tell him to get lost, but there was something in my gut telling me to keep him around. That he would play an important role in whatever lay ahead.

The streets of The Compound were still pretty empty, and I assumed everyone who didn’t need to be out for work would be tucked away in their homes until morning. Reasonable fear taking root in a place that they had once felt tremendously safe in. I nodded at the few people we did pass as we approached the end of the General Living Quarters and moved towards the center of our little town.

The second the aroma of cornbread and soup hit my nostrils, our stomachs growled in unison. Had I been next to one of my friends, I probably would have laughed at the idea of our bodies being in sync, but not with him. I hoped to never be in sync with a man that had probably never said anything genuine or positive in his life.

I stopped and allowed him to stand at my side, calling my fire back into my body as I turned to him, assessing his current mood. “We go in, we get our food togo. You stay next to me and you look at me, and only me. Not a glance at a single one of these people. They’ve been through more than enough today. They don’t need to withhold the scrutinizing glare of the scary-looking stranger that showed up at their front door in the midst of an attack.”

He cracked his knuckles, his smirk telling me he was enjoying some sick joke inside his head. No words left his lips, and I think that pissed me off more than whatever he could have said. Uncomfortable from his pressing stare, I started walking towards the doors.

We entered the large glass building, and I heard his breath catch, his reaction filling an empty space in my heart with pride. “Beautiful, isn’t it?” I asked, moving us towards the to-go counter that stood in the center of the room, also doubling as the coffee counter. My mouth watered at the thought of a sweet yet bitter cup warming my tongue.

“I don’t know. Seems like a waste of energy to me. Somewhere out there, there’s a tome full of more important things to do in the middle of an apocalypse than play interior decorator.” I wasn’t thrown off by his tone this time. I knew how hard life was out in The Expanse.

I’d been out that way once for an emissary trip to one of our larger ally communities in Duluth, Minnesota. They pretty much utilized the downtown area and its existing structures and built a wall around mirroring ours, designed to keep those who were unwanted out. But their way of living was different from ours. Harder living, that was for sure.

The weather extremes were harsher up north. A place where winters were already pretty long, turning into an entire territory of perma-winter, their warmer days imitating the end of fall at best. Sure, their citizens with air magic could temperature regulate the city, but that would mean a consistent, and significant, drain on power, and drained power means vulnerability in face of an attack. Three and a half years ago, when territories were being established and borders were being drawn, the idea of an attack was much more likely as groups sought to display their dominance or expand their area.

As time went on, attacks from other groups were less likely, and since humans took more time, effort, and magic than the dead, more magic was able to be spared as the attacks diminished. Even still, their time wasgeared more towards survival, and while they did indulge in some luxuries, decor and infrastructure were definitely not one of them.

Infrastructure was kept up to code for safety and warmth up there, not beauty. Only thing harder than that would be living out in Covert Province, it was hard enough trying to survive, couldn’t imagine it being under some sort of dictatorship.

“When you have a community this large, we found that once the more important things were established, people were best fit working in professions they love. Something they have passion and pride behind. It’s something I wished there was emphasis on in The Before, and Prescott saw the value in it enough to bring it here. The possibilities of what you can provide to this community are endless, Alexiares.” One glance this way and the look on his face made me pity him for a moment. His visage resembling every bit of a lost dog.

“It takes some getting used to, that’s for sure. But who’s saying beauty can’t also be purposeful?” I added, pointing out the herbs and other medicinal flora hanging from the walls and ceiling.

As we approached the counter, I forced a smile at the teenager behind the counter, careful to present a calm demeanor when tensions ran high. “Hey Elie, how’s it going?” I asked.

“A little shaken up, but I’m okay, for the most part. Mom and Rex were already off their shifts from the Stables and at home. Dad’s still out on the fishing trip, but he asked about you before he left. Wanted to know howyouwere doing after everything? I hope you don’t mind me askin’. I told him you were strong, you could get through anything, but heinsistedI ask. You know how he is.” The small girl rambled on, hair resembling mine, though her brown skin was a deeper tone.

I kept my smile pretty, knowing how much she admired me. She wanted to be a soldier one day, though both her parents and I tried to sway her from this life. Representation was important, but I didn’t want to be responsible for such a pure heart taking such a dark turn by facing the realities of life outside these walls.

Surrounded by death, the dying, and the dead.

A few times a week if I missed lunch, she’d stop by after her shift with a warm coffee and any remaining scraps before The Kitchens started prepping for dinner. She’d sip on her own coffee, watching me interact with my soldiers and mimicking their fighting stances.

It wasn’t that I didn’t care or appreciate her family, but Jax’s death was the last thing I wanted to talk about moving forward. I knew that they cared about me too, but I was ready to try to let go of the hurt and focus on figuring out what was going on around here.Thatwould do more good than my tears.

Alexiares sighed next to me, clearly growing impatient with the one-sided conversation taking place. I waited for a natural pause before I interrupted, “Hey Elie? We’re on a bit of a time crunch, can you please bring us two coffees to-go, two orders of cornbread, vegetable soup for me and turkey & veggie soup for him.”

She smiled and nodded her head in acknowledgment before heading towards the back where the actual kitchen was. Alexiares and I turned towards each other at the same time before awkwardly turning away as I let him survey the rest of the rooms.

“So, you’re not just informal with me. Good to know,” he muttered low, testing my patience and seeing if I would react.

I moved my neck side to side, letting his words roll off me as if they didn’t matter. I didn’t understand why he was rash and testy with me, someone who was responsible for whether he could stay or go, but chalked it up to just being his personality. Shit, maybe he was this insufferable in The Before too.

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