I remember a comment she made when I was younger that she had wished I was her real child. I know I’m not her child, I don’t know whose child I am, but I call her my mother all the same.
The thought of losing the other children, causes anger to rise. I feel heat growing from my arm from the thought of innocent lives taken because of me, but I conceal it behind my mother’s back.
We sit in silence, not knowing what to say next. Hannah walks in with Quin behind her. I hear him explain to her that he’s in need of some tools since they’ve decided to fix everyone’s homes. She says the only tools are down at the power plant, which is an hour’s long hike.
“Is it guarded?” he asks, as he continues to follow her around the room, while she fills small bowls with grain from the barrels.
“Not since Acheron abandoned it when they became self-sustaining with that energy core of theirs.” She hands the bowls to Quin, picks up others, and begins to fill them as well.
“How does it stay functioning?”
She looks at him with a funny expression. “Where do you think we get our electricity from, young man? Why do you think we keep the tools down there?” She loads his arms with more bowls and then promptly exits the building, Quin following closely behind.
I smile at the exchange but stop when my mother’s face falls, and a concerned expression appears. She waits until Quin and Hannah are out of earshot then turns to me.
“How well do you know the people you’re traveling with?”
I feel my nerves beginning to fray.
“What do you mean?”
“Quintus is with you,” she says, more as a statement than a question.
“We met in the Wasteland. Why, Mother, what’s got you so frightened?”
“Quintus never came out of the Dormitories with us. Thatcher went back for him, but the housing unit he’d been living in was obliterated, so he couldn’t get to him. As far as we know, the only children who made it out were Kedua, Lehen, Vier, and you. If someone helped him escape, who was it? Or even how, or why?” She takes my hands, grasping them tightly. “Promise me you’ll be careful?”
“Of course I will.”
I stay sitting on the cot as my mother gets up to help Hannah who has returned with an arm full of eggs. I think about what my next move should be and shudder at what I come up with.
I think I may need to get rid of Quin.
More questions come up from what my mother has said.
If only four are accounted for in the escape, and Quintus was not one of them, then where are the other two? Where has Quintus been if they didn’t save him? Who has he been with? Did Devlan ever recognize Quin?
I pull my feet up to my chest, hugging them. My instinct is to run, but there’s nowhere to go. I don’t want to leave my mother. It’s been over twelve years since I saw her. She and Devlan are the only family I really every had. Magda calls to me to assist her and Hannah with the chores. I nod my head, more to clear it than acknowledge her request.
The remainder of my day is spent working around the village. Jagger and Quin spend the day down at the power plant, doing maintenance, and picking up tools and any other items they may need to fix up the houses. I spend my time in the stone building, which is the dispensary, with Hannah and my mother. We bake bread, tell stories, and get a large feast ready for the evening.
I’m happy to be here, but at the same time, my fears about Quin and my questions about what I must do next are eating away at me. I don’t feel like celebrating anyway.
Snow continues to fall over the next several days. Jagger and Quin have moved into the house next to my old home that I now live in with my mother, while Naomi and Cass stay in a house across the way. They seem quite happy here and have made it known they’re intent on staying when the rest of us are ready to continue on.
I’m restless, and can’t sleep the fifth night.
What my mother told me about Quin has left a sour taste in my mouth. I wish it were warm outside so I could go running and burn off some of this tension. Donning a used wool coat Henry found for me, and putting my boots on, I wrap myself up tight and exit the warmth of the dwelling. I go over to the barn to check on the animals. Several are snuggled in their beds of hay, so I go and sit next to a calf that is only a few hours old. Its mother died during labor, so Andrew has placed it in the icehouse for food. I stroke the head while the calf sleeps, and she sighs softly with each caress. From where I’m sitting in the barn I can see the entrances to all the houses.
The cold starts to seep into my bones after sitting for almost an hour. I’m nuzzling myself closer to the calf when Quin steps out onto the small wood porch, furtively heading toward the path to the power plant. He doesn’t appear to be carrying any kind of torch to light his way through the dark, which strikes me as odd.
I pat the animal’s head, get up, and begin to follow him making sure the Levin gun I keep tucked in the small of my back has not slipped out of place. I don’t go anywhere without it now. Since the ground is covered in fresh powder, I try to walk in Quin’s footsteps so not to leave any trace of my own. His stride is much wider than mine, which makes it more difficult.
My
