Chapter 20

Mia stifled a gasp. Rows of trees shot off into the distance, the tall grass between them waving in an ocean of yellows and pinks. There are several kinds of tree, some with the common green leaves of the plants on Earth, but other colors, too: yellows and reds, some deep purple, and even a few that were blue. Heavy bundles of fruit dragged at the branches of some, others held smaller varieties, or nothing at all. Several of the orange trees sported bright green flowers and a heavy sweet scent filled the air. The men spread themselves among the trees, producing bags of cloth and gathering fruits.

“Beautiful, isn't it?” Draven moved forward, a hand reaching out to touch the bark of a dark gray trunk as he passed.

“I've never seen anything like it,” she followed him, smiling briefly as a tiny mouse with three tails crossed the trail ahead of them.

“This is but a part of the old palace gardens,” Draven waved an arm in a long sweeping motion. “There used to be trees and flowers from all over the continent here, but many have withered and faded without proper tending.”

“It must have been magnificent; it's gorgeous now, even if it's a bit wild. Why not have the compound next to these gardens? Or at the palace itself, if the city was empty when you found it?”

She stopped, unsure whether she was overstepping. He probably didn't want to be reminded of his city's destruction. But then, the reminders were all around them, a question could hardly hurt. He turned so he was facing her.

“Besides the fact that it would have been a crime. it was a simple question of manpower. The team was simply not big enough to re-route power and water for such a large building. When we chose our unit, it took nearly a year to get one building set up. After that, we were able to adapt from what we had already learned and it went more quickly, but we still don't have the ability to manage a palace.” He raised a brow at her. “Would you have been more impressed if we had brought you to a royal ruin instead?”

Mia sighed.

“No, I suppose, given what you said, I wouldn't. It makes more sense to secure a manageable area, but how can you be sure you are the only survivors?”

Something dark clouded his eyes, but she persisted. Logically, if there were other survivors, they wouldn't need human women, they could make do with their own. Mia wanted to know what made them give up that venture.

“Imagine that before the fall of the city our people were as advanced as your own, except that instead of fossil fuels we had developed our energy around solar and kinetic energies, gathered by mainstream companies and delivered to the citizens and military wirelessly.

When we returned to the city, most of the energy facilities had been outright destroyed, the enemy had picked them as primary targets. The few that remained online were running at minimum capacity, maintained only by their programming prior to the devastation. We used every bit of that energy we could to power our vehicles and bio-scanners. For months we would charge one of the transports just to fly out in a new direction with every hope of finding survivors. The transports are fast, and the scanners quite powerful, we covered the majority of the continent and had begun plans to fly farther. After two years, the last of the power plants malfunctioned and we had only our own personal power sources left. We pooled those, stole equipment from one of the less damaged energy facilities and began to build our complex.

After five years, we gave up looking altogether. Moral had suffered a great deal in that time, and I ran the risk of losing my men to themselves. They needed something to look forward to, the promise of a future, however small it might be. You can only find so many desiccated remains of your people, or entire families that had killed themselves rather than face the Attaphus virus, before the mind starts to lose itself.”

Mia mulled over what he had said. It all seemed so terrible, and tragic. What did one do when they found their world destroyed? She didn't think she would have survived it, the draw to give up would be far too great.

“I don't tell you this to gain your pity,” Draven reached out and patted a tree, one of the flowering orange ones. There were several marks on its bark, just above where his hand rested. They looked like letters. Unfortunately, she really hadn't made any progress learning the written language. “I tell you this because I know that somewhere in your secret heart you are still looking for a way back to Earth. You have to understand that I will never allow this to happen, I won't sacrifice my men, the only hope for our people, for your comfort.”

Mia frowned. He had certainly read her well, but what had he expected? That she would roll over and accept her fate simply because he didn't see another choice?

“And if our positions were reversed? If I had stolen you away from this, your friends and your duties, your responsibilities and those you care for, because my people needed help, would you simply accept that it is so and give up on making your way back? I had a life on Earth, Draven, you can't expect me to simply forget it.”

Draven squinted at her and leaned back against the tree, drawing something out of his pocket.

“Your duties consisted of teaching a class of children, vastly important to be sure, but you were not irreplaceable on Earth. You know as well as I do that they had another ready to fill your position once the current term was over. Neither did you have many people who appeared to value you or care about your desires: a mother who lived across your country and a man,” he sneered the word, “who only cared about fulfilling his sexual desires. As far as I can tell, you had one friend you were in contact with, but she was also using you.”

He passed her the item and it pulled her out of her confusion.

“My phone!”

It should have been dead long ago, but it powered up and turned on when she pressed the button.

“You went through my phone?” How was that even possible? There was no way they would have a connection to Earth from here...was there? The connection bars were replaced with the no signal icon.

No, her shoulders sagged a little when the home screen came up. Of course there wasn't.

“How?” she demanded.

He pulled out the light tool and waved it at her. “We hijack tech, remember? I appreciate that you will miss Earth, that is a tragedy and you must face it. But none of you had the importance on Earth you have here.”

Mia opened her mouth but found she had little to say. He had taken what little privacy she had left and ripped it open, assessing and deciding her life had meant so little. As much as she was able to understand his position, his words still stung.

“Sir,” Kenahi called from a distance away, an urgency to his voice.

Draven stood, immediately alert. Without hesitation, Mia followed him through the trees. Her heart thundered in her chest, memories of the snake creature of the grasslands flashing through her mind.

There was nothing to be seen when they found Kenahi at last, but the man was tense and studying his surroundings with the caution of a man prepared for an attack.

“What is it?”

“Look,” the blond pointed at the ground, there were some scuffed markings there that Mia couldn't distinguish from one another. They had some significance, however, for Draven stiffened, his face growing shuttered and his eyes hard and calculating.

“What is it? A predator?” she wanted to know. If something was going to come after her, she wanted to be prepared. For the first time since they left the boundary of the compound, Mia questioned her desire for exploration. The city had felt so safe to her, so much like home it had been easy to place the dangers out of her mind in exchange for a little independence.

“No, this is no predator. I wish that it was. Call the men in,” Draven commanded. “We are going back to the compound now.”