“Fiancée?” Sarah looked like she could’ve been knocked over by a light breeze.
John took my hand in his. “Right.”
There was pause where Asha gave Kimmy a pointed look. John rolled his eyes; he clearly wasn’t going to be doing the introductions. Kimmy stared back, unmoved, until Asha cleared her throat loudly.
“Oh, yes,” Kimmy said hurriedly, embarrassed. “And this is Asha. A friend of Claire’s. And, uh, mine too.”
Awkwardness hung in the air, and I resisted the urge to hide my face behind my hands. Sarah’s long stare didn’t help my nerves, and the silence seemed to stretch on for an eternity.
“You brought them here?” she finally said. “Why? Do you have any idea how people are going to—”
“Yeah,” John interjected. “We know. We’ll call a council meeting.”
“A council meeting?” Sarah said incredulously, looking sharply to the right and left, as though expecting hidden informants to suddenly appear. “Get in here. Before someone sees you and rains hell down on us all.”
She stepped aside and waved us into the house. I hesitated, but John tugged on my hand, and I followed him inside. Sarah pushed the door shut with a loud snap and turned three deadbolts to lock it behind her, which did nothing to reassure me.
The air inside the house was thick and warm, like a cozy blanket in the dead of winter. It smelled like cooking—smoky and savoury, with the fresh, earthy scent of herbs. Mixed in was the scent of soap, of clean laundry, and of burning wood. It smelled like a home, so wholesome that I wanted to weep.
I hadn’t eaten a decent meal in weeks, and I was still chilled to the bone, but we’d made it, and this place I had heard so much about was real. The nightmare of our journey was finally over. I swallowed hard, trying not to succumb to the tight ball of emotion that ached in my chest.
We stripped off our coats and boots, and Sarah led us into a small but cozy living room. A squashy green sofa sat against the far wall, with a mismatched pink loveseat beside it. A polished oak coffee table sat in the middle of the room, but the true centrepiece was a massive stonefireplace. The gentle crackling of the fire was soothing after another long day in the frozen Wasteland.
There was a small, golden-haired boy of perhaps five on the sofa. He stared at us with open surprise and fascination, his hands frozen in mid-air around what appeared to be a toy truck and, of all things, an elephant.
“Hey, buddy,” Kimmy said affectionately. “You probably don’t remember me and John, huh? You’re so big now.”
The boy looked to his mother with creeping alarm. “Mommy, who are they?”
“They’re friends,” Sarah said, though her glance at Asha and me was doubtful. “It’s alright, Jake. Go back to your game.”
Jake still looked uncertain, but he quickly resumed what seemed to be an epic battle between the truck and the elephant and forgot us. Sarah settled onto the sofa beside him, groaning and rubbing her baby bump.
“Sit,” she ordered John. “If you expect to be served, you can think again, because I’m not getting up again in this condition.”
He chuckled. “Wouldn’t dream of it. So, another one, huh?”
He led me over to the loveseat to sit down. Kimmy sat on the arm, while Asha contented herself with the floor. I motioned for her to squeeze in beside me, but she shook her head.
“It would seem that way,” Sarah said with a sigh, then groaned again as she shifted in her seat. “We decided four wasn’t enough, apparently.”
Four kids?I hadn’t known anyone with so many children before. Our strict population control at the compound made it unlikely that would’ve ever been allowed.
“Where are the others?” Kimmy asked.
“Bruce took the kids out on a hunting trip this morning,” Sarah replied. “They should be back soon. He’s going to flip out when he sees what you’ve brought with you, I’ll tell you that much.”
I exchanged a look with Asha, who clearly didn’t appreciate being talked about as if she weren’t there any more than I did. I knew better than to speak up, however. This was John and Kimmy’s show now.
“So,” Sarah said, her tone suddenly brusque. “Tell me where you’ve been, what you’ve been doing, and just why you thought that bringing those girls here was a good idea.”
John bristled a little. “Did you not hear that she’s my—”
“Fiancée, yes,” Sarah said impatiently. “I don’t mean it like that. She’s in danger here. Her friend, too.”
My pulse quickened. I’d known, in an abstract way, that coming here meant I might be in danger, but hearing it said out loud by a Valley resident made it real.
“In case you forgot, I live here,” John said. “And as my wife, Claire has as much right to be here as I do.”
