“He’ll never get to see another sunrise,” Renaldo said. “Never get to see his mom and dad again. Never get to love.”
Rhea glanced at Will and lowered her voice. “I should have never approved this mission.”
“If you hadn’t, the slums would be out of water right about now,” Will said.
“At the very least I shouldn’t have come along,” she said. “Bringing these assassins with me.”
“You couldn’t have known they’d follow you,” he insisted.
“But I had an inkling,” she said. “The Scorpion had followed me into the Outlands once before. After Anderson’s attack, I should have realized the same thing might happen again, and I should’ve stayed well away. But I came. Putting you all at risk.”
“Look,” Will said. “We were well aware of the risks when we signed up to be part of the diversionary force. We knew death was more than possible, if not from bioweapons, then the Aradne security forces. Adding assassins to the mix didn’t change much. In fact, we were safer when the assassins attacked because they concentrated on you. Chuck made a mistake. He stood up when he should have remained in cover. You can’t blame yourself. Besides, as Chuck told you, he wanted this. It was an honor for him to serve you.”
She turned her head aside, letting him work. She knew Will was right. It wasn’t her fault. Yet it still hurt, just as Bardain’s death hurt. And Anderson’s.
I won’t let grief rule me. I cannot.
“You’re a Karnator, right?” Rhea said. “Do you believe he’s already returned?”
“I do,” Will said. “Perhaps in a different galaxy. Hopefully as something sentient, but if not, he still exists. So that’s why you need not grieve.”
She sighed. “The problem with the Karnator theory is, well, it’s a little sad. Sure, in your theory, we get another chance at life. But it means we’ll never see those we lost again. Ever. According to you, if I die, I’ll be reborn as something else, with no memory of this life. I’ll never see you again. Never see Chuck.”
Will nodded. “That’s the price we pay for the chance of life. Would you rather cease to exist, and descend into nothingness? Besides, who knows, you might just meet him again, you just won’t realize it. He could be the seedling you plant in your arbor. Or the neighbor’s newborn. Or the bioweapon you meet on the field of battle.”
Rhea shook her head. “None of that is really comforting. Especially the latter.”
Will nodded. “You already know what it’s like to be reborn anyway.”
She stared into his eyes. “Yes. And it’s an experience I’d rather not do again.”
“Fair enough,” Will said. “By the way, I don’t want you to feel like you have to stay awake while I work on you. Catch some Zs, if you feel so inclined.”
On that note, she closed her eyes.
The convoy reached the ruins bordering Rust Town shortly before dawn.
Rhea had slept the whole time, surprisingly enough. Or maybe it wasn’t so surprising—all that fighting, not to mention the damage she’d taken, had exhausted her.
She awoke to discover Will had repaired most of her upper body. One leg was also partially working. She was able to sit up as the convoy approached the settlement, and Will continued to work on her damaged legs afterward.
The ruins were bumpier than the plains beyond, which was probably what had wakened her, considering the number of times she was being jolted in her seat. The wheels were only gimbaled, after all, unlike the super-gimbaled versions the tankers had sported.
A robot sentry watching from the ruins nodded as the vehicles passed.
Between the ruined buildings to the right, she could see the rebuilt Texas barriers; there were even a few rotting Hydra heads still impaled on flagpoles outside those concrete walls.
The convoy turned inward, toward the settlement; ahead, the gap in the Texas barriers that formed the southern entrance awaited.
The robots on duty let them pass without issue. The settlement council had assigned a new sheriff, a man sympathetic to the Wardenites, and he’d advised the sentries to watch for these SUVs. The old sheriff, whose name was Astor, had deserted to Aradne: he had been complicit in the bioweapon attack against the settlement, having recalled all robots and other defenses from the perimeter ahead of the Hydra arrival. Astor deserved jail time, but instead probably lived in a luxury penthouse courtesy of the Aradne city council.
As soon as she had a network signal on her HUD, she glanced at Renaldo.
“Prepare a message for Chuck’s parents,” she told the Wardenite. “Send them our deepest condolences. And… and whatever else you want to say.”
She felt ashamed for not having the courage to visit his parents in person, and even more-so for making someone else decide what to tell them, but she truly didn’t know how to handle it. She had no idea what to say, knowing that the wrong words would only compound their grief. She thought it was better to leave it to someone who had known him better. Then again, Renaldo and Chuck had only really met for the first time after joining her Wardenites.
She shook her head, forcing the guilt away. I don’t have time to deal with it.
She actually did, but she wasn’t going to admit it to herself.
The convoy threaded through the city. The people had gathered along the rebuilt streets to welcome them, and they threw confetti into the air in between shouts of “Warden! Warden!”
“They love you,” Will said.
“For now,” she told him. “But give it a week. Let’s see how much they love me when their latest water supply runs dry.”
They stopped outside a compound surrounded by more Texas barriers. These barriers were topped with laser turrets in places, and two well-armed robots watched the main entrance.
“What’s this?” she asked McGraw.
“Welcome to your new headquarters,” McGraw said. “The Wardenites decided you needed somewhere a little more secure. Considering what happened in the Outlands, I agree.”
Will and Horatio helped her debark, as she
