Page 40 of The Explorer
“That’s not how it works, my young grasshopper.”
“What if Sparrow finds a new best friend and she doesn’t need me anymore?”
“You’ll always be special to her. You know that.”
“Yes, but I’m not there and someone could easily try to take my place as her closest friend.”
“You’ll make other friends here as well. You and Banni seem close already.” My last words came out with a bit of a bite, but she didn’t seem to notice.
Wrapping her arm tight around mine, she looked up at me. “I should have told you earlier, but I want you to know how grateful I am that you stayed, Indy. At least we’re going on this crazy adventure together. I’m torn between two countries so for the next year, you’ll be my home.”
I swallowed hard. “And you’ll be mine.” Our faces were close enough that I could kiss her, but the moment I leaned closer, Aubri wrinkled her brow a little and it made me hug her instead.
As we let go of each other after the hug, she smoothly moved on to a different subject as if we didn’t have a huge fucking elephant in the room with us. We needed to address what happened between us last night, but instead she asked, “Are you excited about tomorrow? Banni promised that he’d take us to his favorite old city and he even said that we could collect some treasures if we find any. I bet your mom would be ecstatic if you brought something home from Old Europe.”
“No doubt,” I said but knowing my mom I knew that she would agree with me that the only treasure I needed to bring home safely was Aubri.
CHAPTER 11
Treasure Hunt
Aubri
I was like a little kid when Banni, Alex, and Val took us treasure hunting.
“How far is it?” I asked when the old drone took off.
“Not far. The city was called Bordeaux and it was pretty before it fell.”
“But I thought Old Europe was locatedinBordeaux,” I said.
“That’s because Bordeaux is the closest city, but technically the survival bunkers were located in a nature park south of Bordeaux called Des Landes de Cascogne. Some of the regions in France were impacted worse than others during the Toxic War. This region is the safest to be in because we’ve cleaned and nurtured it for generations.
We hadn’t flown for long before Val pointed and made a sound.
Indiana and I pressed our noses against the window to look down. Below us ran a large river with ruins on each side nestled in between trees.
“What’s that spear sticking up?” Indiana pointed.
“That’s the old Cathedral. There used to be two towers, but one collapsed.”
“Have you ever found any real treasures?”
Alex laughed. “We’ve walked into bank chambers and seen piles of old money, but it’s not worth anything now, is it?”
“But what about art and pre-war technology? Have you saved some of that?”
“Hmm. There’s a guy that we know who runs a small repair shop. He’ll buy some of the things from us and fix them up for sale, but the market isn’t great. Most people want nothing to do with items from the polluted areas.”
“But you don’t bring back polluted items, do you?”
“No. It’s illegal. You’ll need to use these instruments to determine what’s safe to touch and what’s not. We always decontaminate the items we bring back to Helmes’ repair shop. He likes decorative things like old clocks and paintings. We don’t have room for furniture in the drone, so don’t ask to bring home large items.”
Indiana and I exchanged a look of impatience. We were both anxious to get down on the ground and get going.
As the drone descended, Banni gave us some firm instructions. “We go as a group and no one enters any ruins until the robot has measured the stability of the building. Understood?”
We nodded. The first one to exit the drone was Val, who went to the storage area to get equipment. I had to wait for Banni, Alex, and Indiana to get out before me and it felt like they all moved in slow motion.
