A male voice called out, “Kate! They’re back!”
Lynn took another step toward the building. The fire bowl slipped from her fingers and shattered with a sharp noise that sounded much farther away than it should have. She pulled the wheels of the cart over the embers.
Figures emerged with fires of their own, but they were shadows against the brightness encroaching on her vision.
Her foot caught behind something, and she went down, entangled in ropes. She managed to catch herself on her hands and knees, bumping them on the hard concrete. The cart’s momentum pushed her forward, scraping her knees and palms raw, but the pain barely registered. Everything already hurt, so what were a few more cuts and bruises? She sucked in a breath.
Hands touched her back and arms.
She shook them off. “D-Dani. H-Help… D-Dani!”
Some of the hands disappeared. People talked, but she couldn’t grasp the meaning of the words.
Someone undid the ropes around her waist.
Lynn sank down onto the concrete and enjoyed the cold. Dani’s safe. The cold seeped into her bones and invaded her mind. I’m done. She let go of her consciousness, secure in the knowledge that Dani was finally home.
Before anything else, Lynn heard her stomach rumble. When she tried to swallow, she found her mouth dry. Her head throbbed, and thoughts were hard to hold on to. Oblivion still had a hold on her, but she fought against sinking into it again.
She became aware enough to tell she was lying on something soft and covered by blankets, tucked in and comfortable. Lynn tried to focus her sluggish brain and fleeting thoughts. Memories trickled into her awareness in reverse order: collapsing in front of the Homestead, the nighttime chase, lighting the fire, and braving New York City in the dark, and then: Dani’s lifeless face.
Fear jolted her system like lightning, and she tried to sit up. Pain flared across her entire body instantly, a mixture of debilitating muscle soreness, stinging injuries, and general fatigue. She barely got her abdominal muscles to rise to tension before she fell back. Dizziness flooded her system, and when she tried to reach up to grip her throbbing head, sharp pain reminded her of her wounds. She couldn’t lift her right arm at all, but its root cause lay in a restraining pressure, not her shoulder injuries. Lynn dropped both arms down to the bedding again and tried to open her eyes. The sunlight flooding in seemed to sear her eyeballs. She closed them again and turned her head away from the source.
“Look who’s awake.”
Lynn froze. The voice was familiar, but she hadn’t spent enough time with the Homesteaders to place it instantly. It wasn’t Kate, so it had to be— “R-Ren.”
“Got it in one.”
The tension in her voice knotted up Lynn’s stomach. Thoughts of Dani sank to the background as Lynn realized she may have been taken care of, but was far from safe. She tried to open her eyes again but failed. “C-Curtains?”
Ren ignored her request. “How are you feeling?”
Lynn tried to gather her wits. She had a pounding headache that was worsened by her quickening heartbeat. She opened her eyes to slits in the hopes of adjusting them slowly. At the same time, she tested her right arm and found it, indeed, restrained. Pain flared through her shoulder even as she explored the few inches of wiggle room she had. Metal slid over metal. Something had been fastened around her wrist.
“Don’t try to get free. You’re on mandatory bed rest until we have some clarity.”
Lynn tugged at the restraint again. “What? How?” She tried to look down but that damn light was too much.
“I asked you a question, Lynn.”
Lynn couldn’t give a damn about what Ren had or hadn’t asked. Panic tightened her chest. I’m trapped! She took a deep breath. Focus. Think! She turned her head away from the light—and the sound of Ren’s voice. Through her lashes, she could spot a door in the opposite wall and what looked like a hallway beyond. Her eyes were adjusting slowly. Good, what else? Is anything broken? She wiggled her toes and fingers. Everything felt sore, but at least she could feel them.
“Fine.” Ren sighed. Something creaked. “I’ll get Kate.”
Lynn’s heart stuttered, and she whipped her head about, blinding herself and becoming dizzy all at once. “N-No!” She would much rather deal with Ren than Kate right now. Ren had patched her up before and had probably done so again now. “W-What do you want?” She squeezed her eyes shut as her head swam and spots filled her vision.
Ren sat down again. “How are you feeling?” She accentuated each word as if it were a separate sentence.
“I’ll live. My head hurts. Could you close the curtains?” Lynn tried to open her eyes again, but the glare sent daggers through her eyes, into her skull. She gave up and squeezed them shut again.
“Maybe in a while. We’ll have a talk first.”
A talk. Right. “Okay, let’s talk.” She shifted to find some comfort—and test her bonds. “How’s Dani?”
That gave Ren pause. “That’s not what I want to talk to you about.”
“I know that’s not what you want to talk about—” She tried to twist her hand to escape the clasp around her wrist, but it was too tight. “But it’s what you’re going to have to tell me before I tell you anything about Richard and what happened on the road.”
Ren seemed to consider that. “She’s a fighter. That might save her.” A small wobble in Ren’s voice betrayed her worry.
Fear gripped Lynn’s heart, but she clenched her jaw and refused to let it show. At least she’s alive. “That’s not an answer.”
“It’s an answer, just not one with a lot of information. Tell me something useful, and I’ll tell you more about Dani.”
Lynn didn’t want to give in right away, so she deflected. “Why are you here and not Kate? I figured she’d want to hear the story firsthand.”
“She—” Ren hesitated.
Lynn discovered that it wasn’t necessary to squeeze her eyes shut anymore, as long as she kept them closed. “Yes?”
“That’s none of your business.”
Lynn smirked, trying to project a more powerful version of herself than she felt. She needed to be in control of this, not Ren. “Okay, then you have a deal. You answer one of my questions, and I’ll answer one of yours.”
A few seconds ticked by. “Okay.”
Victory! “Okay, is Dani awake?”
“No. What happened to her?”
“Mauled by a bear. Is she going to survive?”
Ren hesitated. “Maybe.”
Fear pushed through her veins. “That answer isn’t going to get you a lot in return.”
“It’s the best answer I have.”
Lynn chanced opening her eyes to slits. It hurt, but it wasn’t the searing pain from before. Ren’s blurry shape sat near Lynn’s right shin. She blinked to get more focus. “Then explain why you don’t know. If you give me a long answer, I’ll give you a long answer in return.”
“You don’t make the rules, you know.” Annoyance crept into Ren’s voice. “But fine, the cuts on her abdomen are infected, and the flesh has started to rot. The infection is in her blood, and she has a high fever. We’re doing what we can, but she’s just awake enough to fight us, which makes trying to make her better a lot harder.”
Lynn frowned. “Fighting you?”
“It’s not your turn.”
Frustration mixed with the worry swirling in her gut. Why the hell are you fighting them, Dani? They’re your people! “Ask your damn question, then.”