‘We should search the city after for survivors,’ she said.
Dom turned to her. ‘Good idea. Although, it’s likely they escaped when the barrier came down.’
The first shop they came across was a clothing store. A garish, yellow dress hung in the window. She noticed Dom startle at the sight of it.
‘What’s wrong?’ Anya asked.
Dom blinked. ‘Nothing. It’s just, I’ve seen it before.’
‘Where?’
His lips pinched and she didn’t need him to elaborate. Anya’s Copy had worn a similar outfit when she’d tried to seduce him. She hadn’t seen the attempts or the dress, but the newborn Canya had kindly replayed most of the details for her.
‘Oh,’ was all she said.
Dom pushed against the door. It was unlocked. A bell overhead rattled.
He turned back to the others. ‘Split into groups of three and check the shops in this row. Carissa, show Charlie where the food storage unit is. Use the prisoner to access any locked spaces. We’ll meet in ten and sweep another area.’
Dom, Vanessa and Anya entered the small shop.
Vanessa looked around the space. ‘Your newborn came here to buy her dress.’
‘So I heard.’
‘She wanted to emulate you, but also become someone else. It was an odd experience to watch her go through puberty in the space of a week.’
Anya lowered her gun with a shiver. ‘Maybe we should check this place and get out.’
Knowing her newborn had been here made her want to leave.
Vanessa started her checks behind the counter, pulling out boxes and emptying them on the floor. There weren’t many to search, just three. From what Anya saw, they only contained a few pieces of paper.
‘They were well organised,’ said Anya.
‘Not so much organised as there wasn’t much paperwork. The goods came from looted towns and were dropped off at the shops. The patrons paid with credits on their tags. Paperwork existed to give humans a sense of normality.’
‘Did you ever shop here?’ Anya asked.
Vanessa nodded. ‘The towns had some good stuff.’
She finished up her search behind the counter. Anya walked over to the rails of clothing set against one wall and pulled them out. She knocked on the panels, listening out for the sound of hollow walls. Nothing. Dom slipped into an area at the back of the shop. She followed him into what looked like a changing room. It had a full-length mirror. She stood in front of it and winced at the sight before her.
The hair that Charlie had lovingly cut into feathered layers a few days ago was pulled back off her face. Strands hung messily around her face, which was streaked with dirt. She scrubbed at the skin using her knuckle.
‘Do you think Canya tried on her dress in here?’
Dom surprised her with a kiss on her cheek. ‘I don’t care. She could have worn the sexiest, red dress ever designed and I wouldn’t have noticed her.’
With a sigh, Anya gave up on cleaning her face. She was only spreading the dirt around. ‘I could do with a shower and a clean pair of clothes right now.’
She glanced at her combats and black T-shirt. She looked like the soldier she had always been and less like the frightened girl who’d turned up at camp.
Dom grinned at her in the mirror. ‘I love you in this look. It’s so... badass.’
Anya’s lips quirked from the compliment. ‘Yeah, I suppose I am.’
But her smile faded when she remembered why they were there.
‘When we get out of here,’ said Dom, ‘I’m taking you on a real date.’
Her heart pounded faster. ‘With flowers and chocolates?’
‘Yeah, and a big glass of wine.’
‘I’ve never tasted wine before.’
She had, once, with Alex. During their forced seduction of each other. But that time didn’t count as special.
Dom smiled. ‘Neither have I.’
He knocked on the panels in the changing room. The walls sounded solid enough.
Vanessa poked her head in. ‘Anything?’
Dom shook his head. They returned to the plaza where the other groups of three had gathered.
‘Anything?’ he asked.
Charlie said, ‘The food storage unit is empty.’
Others reported back that their search had turned up no false walls or nooks.
‘Okay, we continue our search of the other shops.’
‘And if we don’t find anything?’ asked Charlie.
‘Then we search this entire city from top to bottom.’
13
Dom
Dom checked the last shop in the plaza with Anya. They found no hidden doors, no loose floorboards and no secret rooms in any of them.
They lingered in the shop filled with knick knacks—soaps, hairbrushes and mirrors—from their towns.
‘There’s nothing here,’ he said sighing.
‘We haven’t checked the rest of the city.’
He laughed. ‘The rest of the city is huge.’
This was becoming an impossible task. Maybe Charlie and Vanessa’s idea to return to the camp was a good one. It made his skin crawl to be here.
‘If we all split up, we can get it done faster,’ Anya said.
That’s what worried him—splitting up. He’d led Max’s old team into this city without giving much thought to what they’d do when they got there. So far they’d wandered around, armed with a few maps Thomas had sketched from Carissa’s memory banks.
He dragged a hand down his face. ‘I’m a failure.’
Anya grabbed his arm. The move startled him and he stared at her.
‘No, you’re not. Never say that.’
She let go, her gaze darting away to places they’d both checked.
Despite her confidence in him, Dom couldn’t let the feeling go. ‘Max wouldn’t have charged in here without a plan. Vanessa and Charlie told me we should take a small group for June, and wait until the injured were strong enough to travel.’
‘If you’d done that, we wouldn’t have survived the ambush by the replicated Copies. And June might have died.
