survive down here?” I asked. It was almost a blessing that Jules had run off. We’d have to listen to her complaining about the stench the entire time. It wasn’t right, all these people living in filth. It was worse than the Zone.
“How do people live up there?” the beefy man guarding me asked while nodding towards the ceiling of the cavernous tunnels. He had a point. I guess nowhere was habitable at the moment. At what point would we start to prioritize the quality of someone’s life over just...living?
Jacob wasn’t handling the claustrophobic city as it reminded him of the sewage drain he fell down after being attacked in Ethros. After he was scanned, Lenny told him to file in beside Cyler. I ignored the threatening barrel of Heat at my back and reached around Cyler to grab Jacob’s hand, noting that he didn’t trust himself to put his mindspeak back in.
I took advantage of our time there to take in the room, observing everyone and looking for how strong of a guard presence there was but didn’t find anyone. There didn’t seem to be any class system down here. I noted Walker tags, purple fetter scars, and heads of white hair scattered around the cavern. It all blended together in a mass of humanity. There was a sense of community here that I hadn’t seen before. No one was fighting or even speaking as they stared at us. It felt like a quiet—and hopeless—existence. Ahead of us, a young boy was bringing an old Scavenger a bucket of water.
“They’re all so quiet,” I whispered. “They seem to work well together.”
Lenny must have overheard me because he then spoke. “You just need one commonality, miss. Survival bonds us. Anger keeps us going. We have strong hearts...and stomachs.”
Cyler watched the room also, and I knew that he was thinking the same thing as me. Although they had Heat, they didn’t have many guards. We could overtake them if necessary. Right now we were just playing along to gather intel and find the Scavengers Lenny and his man had captured.
Once Huxley passed the X scanner, they guided us to the middle of the room. “Everyone!” Lenny yelled through the cavernous room, his booming voice echoing off the walls. “We are one step closer to finding the boy with the cure. We’ve been searching for every Scavenger in the empire, and it has led us to a good lead. Soon we will all have the cure!”
There were a few polite claps, but something felt off. It was like everyone was in a daze, not really present as Lenny boasted. I looked around and noticed how still they were, like lifeless bodies with a pulse. Something was seriously wrong, and Lenny seemed manic. No one really respected his authority or his cause. It looked like they didn’t really care about anything.
He led us down the makeshift tunnels, and all of us watched in stunned silence, not sure how to take in everything before us. “So what was your plan?” Cyler asked, looking around at everyone with the same intensity as me. I knew that as a natural leader, he was taking mental stock of the living conditions, aligning his standards to his devoted leadership team, already making plans to save the people of Lythe.
“We found a Scavenger a few weeks back that gave us a good lead. We know she knows where the cure holder is. We can’t get her to talk, but I have a feeling you’ll be able to get her to sing. Found out from another Scavenger that she used to live in Dormas and knew you. It was only a matter of time. You’ll get her to talk.”
“And if we don’t?” Huxley asked. I still couldn’t shake the feeling like something was off about all of this. They didn’t seem normal; it was like they’d been drugged or something. I glanced at Maverick, and he kept sniffing the air like something was wrong. Suddenly, his eyes went wide like he’d realized something.
Lenny replied while his man shoved me. “Then we rip the information from her skull. I’m not afraid to do what’s necessary.” The dark cavern was lit with green flames that flickered with intensity, shifting at the air whenever we walked by.
I swallowed. What if this man went on a killing spree? We turned down another hall which was much more crowded. We were practically on top of one another, shoved against the slick walls of the cavern