Page 71 of Blue Arrow Island
“More popcorn?” A woman carrying a huge bowl full of hot, buttery popcorn stops in front of me and Amira, her metal scoop poised.
I put a hand over my stomach. “No, thanks. I’m so full. It was delicious.”
“Same,” Amira says.
She nods and moves on to the next group.
This is the first time I’ve made it to the Dust Walkers’ Friday evening social gathering. Before, I was still healing and felt too exhausted. After a dinner of beef, fish, vegetables, and rice in the Hub, a couple of kegs filled with tropical fruit juice were brought out.
It’s a sweet, refreshing change from water. And the popcorn, which was made in huge cast-iron pots over fires outside and tossed with fresh-churned butter and salt, was heavenly. It was served in little baskets woven from leaves.
I’m too full to eat another bite, and Olin is probably starving with the rest of the Rising Tide camp. Some of the people there—like Pax and Rona—are morally gray, to put it lightly, but they don’t deserve to starve to death. I don’t wish that on anyone there but Virginia.
“So you were forced into marriage?” Amira asks in a low voice, returning to our conversation.
“Yeah. Lochlan’s generals all have their pick of women. Or girls.” I scoff. “And if they get tired of her, she disappears and they marry a new one.”
“Disgusting.” She stares at the flames of a nearby fire. There are campfires scattered all over the open space outside the Hub to help deter mosquitoes, and we’re sitting on a log bench by ourselves. “And I suppose he forced you into...you know, too.”
Anger wells inside me at the memories. “When he was home. Which, fortunately, wasn’t a lot. It seemed like Whitman was aggressively invading territories and training new soldiers.”
“What happened when you got caught?”
I shrug. “He never officially caught me with the tea. I was careful about never keeping any at the house. He just suspected after two plus years of me not getting pregnant, so he had me examined by one of Whitman’s doctors, who said there was no medical reason I wasn’t getting pregnant. That was enough. He had some of his men take me to the prison in Carson City.”
“Bastard,” she mutters.
“Yeah.” I wrap my arms around my knees and glance at her. “What about you?”
Sadness flickers over her face.
“You don’t have to tell me,” I say, wishing I hadn’t asked.
“No, I don’t mind. I was in a relationship with someone. It hurts to say his name, so I don’t. We met a few months after the virus. It was always consensual sex, we just...didn’t want to bring a kid into this fucked-up world. We didn’t always have enough food for us, and the thought of having a child we couldn’t feed...” She clears her throat. “And one time when we were buying the contraceptive at a market, some of Whitman’s soldiers came out to arrest us. He—my partner—shoved one of them off me and grabbed his gun. He told me to run. One of the other soldiers shot him.”
Her devastation is written all over her face. I put an arm around her.
“I’m so sorry.”
She sags slightly. “They treated me like an animal. Not just after I was captured, but before, too.”
“Whitman’s vision of a perfect society is fucked,” I say bitterly.
“It’s just crazy. Everything was so chaotic after the virus that a billionaire was able to overthrow our entire government. I still can’t believe it.”
I hum in agreement. “Sometimes I wake up and don’t immediately remember. There are a couple seconds of blissful unawareness. Then the boulder of reality falls on top of me.”
She sits up straight, giving me a serious look. “Is there anything we can do?”
I glance over one shoulder and then the other, making sure no one else can hear me.
“I think there’s a lot we can do from right here,” I say in a hushed tone. “It was Whitman’s guys who brought us here, so we know this is some sort of training ground for him. The aromium, the kid soldiers, even the genetically modified crops—it’s all a big chess move for him. He plans to use the technology and the soldiers in the future.”
She nods, the corners of her lips tilting up in a smile. “So we sabotage it.”
“Right. I think what we need to do is gather as much information as we can about everyone and everything here.”
I’m surprised when a hearty laugh bubbles out of her.
