“You said you had questions,” Fairy said. “About the other people with uniforms like yours.”

  “I’m out here because I’m looking for them,” Marcus said. “I need to know how to get to their enclave. You’ve been there. You can tell me how to find them. That’s all I want from you.”

  The three scavvies looked at one another. The tension returned in a hurry.

  “What is it?” Marcus asked.

  “Well,” Fairy said. “I don’t think we can give you directions. I mean, we didn’t expect to have to tell anyone how to retrace our steps so we didn’t pay attention to landmarks or anything.”

  “You mean you don’t know how to get back?”

  “No, we don’t,” Fairy said.

  “You’re lying,” Marcus replied. He raised his pistol again, pointing it at Klev. “Tell me the truth or he dies.”

  “Wait!” Fairy said. She hesitated before speaking again. “Okay, I know how to get back. I think. Maybe. But I can’t give you directions. I need to see everything.”

  Marcus almost laughed. It figured. He lowered the gun again. “Then I guess you’re going to have to come with me. Can you find your way in the dark?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  He pointed at Fairy. “You, go inside that tent. Zip it closed.”

  “Why do—”

  “Just do it,” Marcus ordered.

  Fairy shut her mouth, nodded and went to the tent.

  “What are you going to do with us?” Jojo asked.

  Marcus stared at them. His father would say he should shoot them both, get rid of their excess baggage and solve the problem as simply as possible. But they were kids, and they were unarmed. It didn’t seem right. His father would call him weak for thinking that way. Then again, his father hadn’t killed the Sheriff. He had.

  “You’re free to go,” he said.

  “What?” Jojo replied. “I’m not leaving without Fairy.”

  “Fairy’s riding north with me in the morning. There isn’t enough room on the trike for you two. Either I can shoot you dead where you stand, or you can get the hell out of here. And don’t think about trying to ambush me again. Maybe you think you’d win because I only have one arm. You won’t, and then you’ll die. I don’t think you want that.”

  “Are you going to kill her when you get where you want to go?” Klev asked.

  “Not unless she gives me reason to,” Marcus replied.

  Klev and Jojo looked at one another, then back at him. “Okay. We’ll go. But we aren’t going far. Just to the other side of the highway. We’ll wait there for Fairy to come back,” he said loud enough to make sure she heard.

  “That’s fine by me,” Marcus said as Klev started bending to retrieve his gun. “Leave it.”

  Klev stiffened and then straightened up. “It could be dangerous out there.”

  “Don’t I know it,” Marcus replied. “I suggest staying out of sight. I’ll leave the pistols here when we go.”

  Jojo and Klev began backing out of the mall. When they reached the glass on the floor, they turned and ran.

  Marcus lowered his gun, walking over to the tent where he had placed Fairy. She was in the back corner, curled up and crying.

  “You were going to ambush me and now you’re crying?” Marcus asked, caught off-guard by a sudden wave of guilt.

  She looked at him with red eyes. “You killed my friends. The only people who ever cared about me. You didn’t even give them a chance.”

  “I’m supposed to wait for you to shoot me first?”

  “We wouldn’t have shot you. We just wanted to take the trike.”

  “That isn’t much better.”

  “We’re just trying to survive out here, same as anyone else.”

  “And you got in over your head, and you paid the price,” Marcus replied coldly.

  “What the hell do you want from me?” Fairy cried. “I’ll show you how to get where you want to go in the morning. Why don’t you leave me alone?” She curled up tighter in fear of how he would react to her shouting.

  Marcus flinched from the attack, angry at himself for his response. He always felt so torn between who he was and who his father had tried to turn him into. Did he even know the difference anymore?

  “You don’t need to be afraid of me,” he said, as gently as he could manage. “What happened before is over. I don’t have any malice toward you, and I don’t want anything from you except directions.” He stepped into the tent and sat down near the door. “Your parents are dead?”

  “Isn’t that obvious?” she asked, her voice muffled through her arms.

  “Mine too,” Marcus said. “I never really knew my mother. Hell, I don’t even know if it was the trife that got her, of if my father was the one who killed her.”

  Fairy lifted her head, looking over at him in shock. “Your father?”

  “He was a cruel man,” Marcus said. “A hard man. He always said he had to be to teach me how to live in this world. How to survive the trife. He told me I had to be the strongest. I guess that’s why I killed the Sheriff. I need to be the strongest or I’ll die.”

  “Not if you have friends,” Fairy said. “Do you have any?”

  Marcus shook his head. “Nobody. But I heard the way you were talking to your friends. More like a bully than a pal.”

  She laughed. “We always talk to each other that way. And somebody has to be in charge, right? You can’t have more than one leader or you die.”

  “That’s true.”

  Fairy uncurled herself slightly, getting more comfortable with him. “I’m sorry about your ma. And double sorry if it was your pa that killed her. I can’t imagine what that’s like. My folks were caught by the trife. Same story as most orphans out here. It was my fault. They were trying to protect me, blocking the trife from getting to me until I could get out of reach. I spent the whole night shoved under the back of a car, claws reaching in for me. They gave up in the morning, and when I came out my parents were dead next to the car.”

  Her tears ran more freely now. Marcus watched them, angry and frozen. He didn’t know much about empathy. “I’m sorry too,” he forced out.

  The words didn’t carry much warmth with them, but it was enough for Fairy. She smiled and nodded, taking herself out of the corner and sitting across from him. “I get why you shot the others. Their life or yours. That’s the way it works, I know. You seem nice enough. You came back to talk to me instead of keeping me prisoner.”

  Marcus shook his head. “I’m not that nice. Maybe I’m just kind to you because you aren’t a threat to me.”

  “I appreciate that, Marcus.”

  Marcus smiled. To be honest, it felt good to have someone to talk to who wasn’t trying to tell him what to do or interested in using him in some way. It had been a long time since he had a normal conversation.

  “You’ve been out scavenging, but you don’t seem to have much barter with you,” Marcus said.

  “We’re not really scavengers,” Fairy replied. “More like nomads, but not even really that either. Nomads travel in bigger groups and usually have horses or modboxes or some other way to get around. I guess you can call us wanderers. We just kind of move around, look for the things we need, take what we can find. We happened on that group up north by accident. What do you know about them?”

  “I know they’re dangerous,” Marcus said. “You’re lucky they didn’t cause you any harm. I also know I need them to help me with my arm. It’s infected, and if I don’t get to a doctor in the next day or two, I don’t know if I’ll survive.”

  “You do look pale,” Fairy agreed. “And your forehead is beaded with sweat.”

  Marcus put his gun down, leaving it between himself and Fairy while he reached for his head to wipe his brow. He knew she had a chance to grab the weapon. She knew it too. Would she?

  Their eyes met. He finished wiping his forehead, rubbing the sweat on his armor. She didn’t move.

  “I won’t run,” she said when he didn’t pick it up again. “I think you need my help.”

  “Even though I killed your friends?”

  “I told you, I understand why you did it. It hurts that they’re gone, but every second out here is a risk, and their luck ran out. Maybe that’s a cold thing to say.”

  “Maybe,” Marcus agreed. “That doesn’t make it untrue. You’d help me even though I killed the Sheriff?”

  “No offense, Marcus, but I don’t believe you on that one. Maybe you killed a really good gunslinger, but it probably wasn’t the real Sheriff. If there is a real Sheriff.”

  Marcus held back his anger. He knew it would be hard to convince people of what he had done, especially before word of Sheriff Duke’s death began to spread. “Maybe you’re right,” he admitted. There was no sense ruining the growing rapport with the girl over it. He still needed her help, and he had decided he didn’t want to hurt her if he could avoid it.

  Fairy smiled. “If you’re sick, you need to try to rest.”

  “How do I know you won’t kill me while I’m asleep?”

  “Your father taught you to be a killer,” Fairy said. “My father taught me to help those in need.” She paused, biting her tongue.

  “What were you going to say?” Marcus asked. “It’s okay.”

  “Like the Sheriff,” she finished.

  Marcus gritted his teeth and nodded. In the back of his mind, a seed of guilt began to sprout. Had he made a mistake killing Duke?

  “You can sleep, Marcus. You look like you need it.” She reached out for the gun. Marcus watched her carefully, letting her pick it up. She pointed it at him. “Just so you know you can trust me.”

  He realized he wasn’t tense at all. For whatever reason, he already did trust her.

  She kept the gun trained on his forehead for a few seconds. Then she lowered it and smiled.

  Marcus smiled back at her. “It’s been a long time since I had a friend,” he said.

  She slid forward on her knees, crossing the tent. Marcus froze as she reached out for him, wrapping her arms around him in a warm embrace. He stiffened at the touch, remaining frozen until she pulled away. Part of him wanted so badly to melt into the affection, to accept her care and compassion. He just couldn’t do it.

  “My father taught me there aren’t bad people, just bad circumstances,” Fairy said. “And that a little bit of kindness and understanding can warm the coldest hearts. Bring out a person’s true nature. Maybe you don’t think you should be a nice man, but there’s a good person in there.”

  Marcus stared at her, fighting his emotions. Fear, anger, happiness, acceptance. Damn it, this girl was tearing him apart at the seams. All he wanted was directions. “I’m going to try to rest,” he said. “Unless you think your friends will come back, I think we’re safe enough here. You should get some sleep too.”

  “They’re afraid of you,” Fairy replied. “They won’t come back.”

  “Will they wait for you to come back?”

  She laughed. “They’d better.”

  Marcus moved onto his back, eyes up toward the top of the tent.

  Fairy sat over him, the gun resting in her lap. “Goodnight, Marcus.”

  “Goodnight,” he replied, closing his eyes.

  He was out within seconds.

  6

  Marcus

  Marcus woke to coldness against his forehead, eyes snapping open, hand reaching for a gun that wasn’t there.

  “Marcus, it’s okay,” Fairy said. She leaned over him, lifting the damp rag away from his head and dunking it in a pail of water.

  He froze, eyes darting from her to the pail. Where had she gotten it? Where had she found water? “What’s going on?” he asked. His mind felt trapped in a fog. Was any of this real?

  “Relax,” Fairy said again, lifting the rag and squeezing it out before putting it to his forehead again. “It’s okay. We aren’t being attacked. But you are burning up. You were talking in your sleep too. Mumbling something about some woman named Wanda. I think your infection is getting worse.”

  Marcus’ heart pounded, his breathing shallow. He reached across his body, touching the stump of his arm through his armor. The pain was unlike anything he had ever felt before, and he couldn’t stop himself from whining, tears pouring from his eyes.

  “Here,” Fairy said, dunking the rag again and then holding it over his mouth. She dripped the water in, and he swallowed it gratefully.

  “Where did you get water?” he asked.

  “Rooftop,” she replied. “You’re lucky. Another day or two and the puddle would have dried up.”

  He could have kicked himself. He hadn’t thought to look for standing water on the roof. He should have known better.

  “The pail was in one of the stores,” she continued. “So was the rag. You haven’t spent a lot of time out in the wilds, have you?”

  “Not in a long time,” he replied, letting her administer to his head again. “How long was I asleep?”

  “A few hours. I watched you the whole time. The sun won’t be up for a couple of hours, but I don’t think you can stay here like this. If you think those folks in the uniforms can help you, then we ought to try to find them.”

  “Try? I thought you know where they are?”

  “I mean in the dark. Although it might be light by the time we get close. Either way, I don’t think you can wait.”

  “You still want to help me?” Marcus asked.

  “Why wouldn’t I?” Fairy asked. “You trusted me not to kill you, especially in your sleep. As far as I’m concerned, that makes us friends.”

  “Why do you want to be friends with a killer?”

  He wasn’t sure why he asked. His mind felt addled. He was vulnerable right now. Too vulnerable. If he had more strength he would have despised himself for it.

  “We’re all killers, Marcus,” she replied. “In one way or another. That’s what this world made us into. Now that the trife are gone, maybe we can be something else. Something better. I don’t know. But here you are, and you need help. And if me helping you means you helping someone else down the road, then maybe that’s all it needs to be about.”

  “That sounds pretty naive,” he said.

  “I’ll let that slide because you’re delirious,” Fairy said. “I know how to survive out here.”

  “I could have killed you.”

  “But you didn’t. And now you’re stuck with my help. Deal with it.”

  Marcus laughed. He could hear the edge returning to her voice. The girl who was accustomed to calling the shots. He was too weak to counter her, so he reached into his pocket instead, withdrawing the keycard for the trike.

  “Here. This will activate the trike. We need to go now, or I’m a goner.”

  She took it from his hand, leaving the damp rag on his head as she left the tent to retrieve the hovertrike. He heard it start up a moment later, and then her boots on the tile, pushing the vehicle back to where he rested.

  Her head poked in through the flap. “Do you need help standing up?” she asked.

  “No,” he replied. He gritted his teeth, forcing himself up. It took all his strength and willpower. Fairy moved into the tent to help him up the rest of the way. He didn’t want the assistance, but he wouldn’t have been able to get up otherwise. “The gun,” he said, motioning to where it still lay on the floor.

  She picked it up, looking at his armor. “How do I attach it?”

  “Here,” he said, tapping the magnetic catch.

  She pressed the weapon against it, and it turned in place until it fit properly in its slot. “Cool. How does it know not to come off at the wrong time?”

  Marcus hadn’t thought about it. “Maybe it knows the difference between a hand and not a hand,” he guessed.

  She held him up as they exited the tent. Marcus growled as he swung his leg over the seat, boarding the vehicle. Fairy moved to sit behind him.

  “Wait. You need to drive,” he said. “I might pass out, and then we’ll crash.”

  “I don’t know how,” she replied. He had figured as much when she walked the trike back.

  “It’s easy. Turn the right grip forward to speed up, back to slow down. Use the brakes if you need to slow down faster. They’re here.” He pointed to levers on the handlebars. “Angle the handlebars the direction you want to go. Pedals allow you to control the anti-gravity plates so you can jump or dip, but let’s not get into that. Just keep it quick and steady. And off the ground.”

  “Got it, I think,” she said, climbing onto the trike in front of him. He wrapped his arm around her stomach to hold on.

  “Sorry,” he said when she flinched at his touch. “I don’t want to fall off.”

  “It’s okay,” she replied. “I don’t want you to fall off either.”

  “Just ease us out through the front door.”

  Fairy turned the throttle and the trike began drifting to the door. She kept it slow as they went over the broken glass and through the front, out into the parking lot. “We just need to follow the road for a piece,” she said. “And then cut across the fields to the west when we clear the old settlement. There’s another road after that. I’ll know it when I see it.”

  Marcus started to feel dizzy. He leaned forward, resting his head on her shoulder. “Please hurry,” he said.

  “Hold on.”

  The trike shot forward, taking off across the grass toward the highway. Fairy shouted in excitement before remembering why she was on the trike in the first place. She turned the throttle, accelerating again, moving at a near-blistering pace onto the highway, where she rocketed northwest.

  Marcus barely noticed. He wasn’t sure how well he could hold on. He didn’t know if he could stay awake.

  He didn’t even know if he could stay alive.

  7

  Marcus

  Marcus didn’t die. He didn’t lose consciousness either, though there were times during the ride when he wanted to. Fairy became more confident with the trike from the moment she turned off the main highway and began the leg of their journey that sent them across the wilderness, primarily through farmlands long untended, where the wild vegetation mingled with the original fields. They whipped through thick stands of wheat, slalomed around trees and even went up and over an old house. The roof was so covered with moss she didn’t see it until it was almost too late.