“Her name is Remi.” He turns to me. “Remi, this is Lydia.”
“Pleased to meet you,” I say slowly. I start to reach out my hand but think better of it.
“We found her at the hospital,” he continues. “She was looking for an old friend named Jessi Paxton.”
Lydia’s face goes from narrowed eyes to wide eyes, her mouth gaping open. Then without warning, her mouth closes and she seems to be snarling at me. “You aren’t going to take her. I won’t let you!”
“Calm down, calm down,” Stephen says, holding up his hands. “She’s not taking anybody. I just wanted her to meet you.”
“Why are you looking for Jessi Paxton?” she asks.
I look at Stephen and he just nods for me to tell her. “Her father sent me to look for her. That’s when I came across Stephen and some of your friends. One of them’s a real jerk,” I say, rubbing the back of my head.
“So, you’re wanting to take her from me?” Lydia asks, tears filling her eyes.
“What are you talking about?” I ask. “Jessi is here? She’s alive?”
“Auntie!” The voice behind me is so sweet sounding, so innocent, like something that could have never been born of this world. “Can I go outside?” I turn to see a tiny little girl, barely reaching a height above my knee. She’s wearing a ruffled dress and her bright, blonde hair is pinned back into little pigtails.
“Not right now, Evie,” Lydia says.
“Evie?” I say. I squat down to look at the little girl in front of me.
Her blue eyes study mine and she smiles. “Who are you?” she asks.
“I’m Remi,” I tell her. “Your name is Evie?”
She nods emphatically like she is proud of nothing more.
“Short for Evelyn?” I ask, turning my head toward Stephen and then to Lydia.
“You can’t take her,” Lydia says, now standing. “She’s been my baby since…since the day it all started.”
I hadn’t planned on taking anyone, but what better opportunity for me than to bring Paxton his granddaughter? He would welcome me in without question. All would be made right. All would be forgiven. I would demand to be a soldier. Not just a soldier, but a commander. Paxton might even ask me to be an elder. This little girl is all the security I need.
“But her grandfather is still alive,” I say. “He runs a town not too far from here.”
“You can’t take her anywhere,” Stephen says.
“If you didn’t want me to take her, then why did you show her to me?” I ask. “Why did you bring me here instead of just sending me on my way?”
“Because you made it to the maternity ward all by yourself and back to the entrance without a scratch,” he says. “That takes talent.”
“I’ve been on the road a lot,” I say.
“We could use a person like you here,” he says. “I want to be open and honest with you. No, Jessi is not here, but her daughter is.”
“Then I should tell Robert Paxton about her,” I say.
“I don’t know who this man is, or what Crestwood is like, but I can promise you that we offer protection,” Stephen says. “I brought you to Lydia and Evie because I want you to know that I’m not lying to you. You’ve got an honest bunch here that really cares about one another. You can offer us your skills and we can offer you protection.”
“But you don’t even know me,” I say. “You don’t know what kind of person I am.”
“I know you are skilled,” he says. “I know that you’re willing and able to go on missions.”
I look down at Evelyn and she smiles back at me. What if this is the new start that I need? What if I don’t take Evelyn back to Paxton? What if I stay with these people? It seems secure enough, though not nearly as comfortable and nice as Crestwood.
“Am I allowed to have a gun?” I ask.
Stephen laughs at me with an eyebrow raised. “Everyone carries a gun if they are old enough. Of course you will be allowed to carry a gun.”
Elkhorn is not the ideal location. There are so many things that can go wrong. It seems that most of their protection consists of a flimsy wall and the hope that most raiders won’t come near the Epicenter because of its past. These are weaknesses that will be their undoing someday.
But not today.
I look into Evelyn’s smiling eyes. Her true grandfather is waiting for her even though he doesn’t know of her existence.
My thoughts are broken when we hear a crackling from the radio headset. “Unplug the headset,” Stephen says. Lydia does as he commands and a muffled voice says something unintelligible.
“Can… hear…? …is…, ov…”
“Red Falcon, this is Home Base, do you read?” Stephen says over the radio.
There is a long static noise before a voice calls out from the other end. It’s such a low tone, I can’t tell if it’s a man or a woman.
“Is this Home Base?” the voice asks clearly.
“Yes,” Stephen says, seemingly not recognizing the voice.
Lydia stands next to Evelyn and holds her close to her side, staring me in the eyes as if to dare me to try and take her away. Evelyn still stares up at me, smiling brightly.
“Home Base,” the voice says, “Red Falcon has been compromised. They are my prisoners, but I am willing to make a deal.”
Stephen swears loudly, raising his hand to throw the radio in frustration, but thinks better of it. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. “Where are my scouts? What kind of deal are you talking about? Who is this?”
There is a long silence from the other side of the radio, but finally it crackles to life.
“There will be plenty of time for discussion. For now, keep the transmission open.”
“Who is this?” Stephen repeats.
Another pause.
“You can call me Shadowface.”
Chapter 19 – Waverly
I sit on the floor against the wall while Scarecrow stares at me down his sharp nose and reveals his crooked, yellow teeth as he smiles. I want to kill him. He took the one I loved away from me forever. I want him to suffer. I want him to feel fear. I want him to die.
He and the other raiders got to me before I could get up. I don’t know what happened to the others, but I hope that they got away in time. I guess, I know that they did because what happened in the vision hasn’t happened yet. But this is the warehouse. I recognized it on the way in before Scarecrow’s men threw me into this small room. I can hear the storm raging outside, a sign of things to come.
I stare up at Scarecrow as he paces the floor in front of me.
“You have something I want,” he says. “You stole it from the SUV.”
“I don’t have it,” I say. “Your men already searched me.”
Left to right, right to left he paces. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a cigarette and lights it, puffs of smoke clouding up the room. “Which means one of your people has it then. Isn’t that right, Waverly?”
Hearing him say my name sends shivers down my spine. How does he know it?
“Sorry about killing your boyfriend,” he says with a grin. The ashy glow of his cigarette illuminates his eyes like a demon as he sucks in the poisonous air. “He should’ve kept his mouth shut.”
“You didn’t have to kill him,” I say, feeling for the chain and diamond ring under my shirt. “All we wanted was to pass through.”
“Wrong place, wrong time,” he says. “We wouldn’t be in this situation right now if we hadn’t met that day. Personally, I’d rather not have to chase you all over the country just for a dinky little thing.”