Brave New Love (6 page)

“And fight for the choice,” I agreed.

She drew back. She looked at me with her dark eyes, and I realized that her ancestors—at least some of them—had come to Ireland from some faraway place, bringing that lovely skin and
her beautiful straight black hair. She was Armenian on her mother’s side, but I’d never thought about what that meant.

My ancestors had come here, too, with their red hair and pale faces, from Denmark, a thousand years before hers. Travelers, explorers still.

“We can do this,” I said.

She kissed me.

K
IERA
C
ASS

The light was sharp to my eyes as the blindfold was removed. I shielded myself while trying to survey my surroundings.

“Shit, Dylan, what were you thinking?” someone said. The room was full of people, more people than I could have imagined would be willing to live like this. Part of me whispered that
I should be scared, and as I thought it, something icy crawled through my veins.

“She saw me,” my captor complained. “I had to take her.”

“You’ve gotta be kidding,” a man said. His stance gave him the look of a leader. “They already know we’re out here. Taking her just makes us seem
dangerous.”

My captor—Dylan—shook his head. “I don’t know what came over me. I froze. I’m sorry, Jesse.”

The others in the room were murmuring. Some gave my kidnapper a look of shame, others a look of pity. One woman—a middle-aged type with a child on her hip—was busy looking at me. She
appeared to be trying to comfort me with her kind eyes.

“She looks shaky,” said someone toward the back and, as he said it, I realized I was trembling, if only slightly.

“She probably needs to eat,” another nameless face suggested.

Jesse nodded. “She won’t be able to handle this. Give her something, Dylan.”

I looked up to the captor, to Dylan, who reached into his heavy-laden bag and pulled out one of the prepackaged snacks that he’d stolen from my house.

“What’s wrong?” I snapped, trying to seem unfazed. “Something wrong with your food?”

These Outsiders were the pain of our society. Everything was so calm now. But every once in a while, you’d hear of something like this—of clothes taken, toothbrushes stolen. Never a
person. I didn’t understand for the life of me why they’d opt to live in a cabin somewhere, crammed in like rabbits, rather than in the vast, peaceful streets in town.

Dylan smirked. “Trust me, nothing’s wrong with our food. Go ahead and eat.”

I smacked his hand away, a gesture I hadn’t used in years. Everyone seemed shocked. “I don’t want anything from you.”

Dylan, despite being the greedy crook who’d broken into my house, bent down and spoke softly, kindly. “It’s not mine, remember? It’s yours. Eat it.”

I sighed and ripped into the package. I took a bite and almost instantly felt better. I hadn’t even realized I was hungry.

A girl, sounding irritated, asked the group, “You know who you took, right?” Everyone turned to look at her. “That’s Mackenzie Shepard. The mayor’s
daughter.”

Nearly everyone in the room shook their head. It was a terrible idea to have someone like me in their midst. I didn’t know if it was more dangerous for them or me.

“Well,” Jesse said. “Guess we better put her somewhere.”

•  •  •

I prided myself on not making mistakes. A few years ago when some of the other guys and I had begun to sneak into the towns, the older ones weren’t thrilled. But they
didn’t stop us. No one could deny the benefits of our efforts.

Besides, all those pretty houses with their unlocked doors were so very tempting.

But I’d screwed up today. Bad. I was always careful when I snuck into the towns, even more so when I went into the houses. I was an excellent thief. I watched people, looked for routines.
She wasn’t supposed to be there.

When she walked around the corner, we both eyed each other, motionless. I could see her eyes looking me over. My clothes were like hers but mine were obviously more worn, and my skin was tan,
which wasn’t so common anymore. I also knew I had the look of someone who hadn’t been living in the sterile, dull stream of society. She inhaled, and I was sure she was going to scream.
Instead, she passed out and fell into my arms.

I could have left her there, but I didn’t. I took her, and I didn’t know why. I blindfolded her, slung her over my shoulder, and carried her back here.

The girl had been taken away now to finish eating and everyone else had gone back to work.

“Dylan, what the hell came over you?” Jesse asked, still angry. “Taking anyone at all is bad enough, but the mayor’s daughter? They’ll come for us now. For
sure.”

“I thought . . . I thought she could help us,” I stammered. It was a lie, but I had to say something.

“Help us? How?”

“She’s got access to stuff. I figured once she was out, she’d want to help. She has to know
something.
”

Jesse was shaking his head before I was even done. “Look at her. She’s completely glazed. If we don’t keep her that way she’ll flip out. She can’t handle
it.”

“If we take her down slowly maybe she could . . .”

Jesse shook his head again, he clearly didn’t believe me. Hell, I didn’t believe myself. “Listen, Dylan, you’re the best raider we have. I need you, and I trust you.
Everyone does. But you can’t make mistakes like this.”

“I know.”

“I don’t know what the hell to do with her. I’m not sure we’d be able to take her back. Not now anyway. Until we figure it out, she’s your
responsibility.”

I huffed and fidgeted. How the hell was I supposed to be responsible for a girl?

Without a word, I left Jesse’s and went down to the west forest. I was on chopping duty. I passed several houses along the way and tried to ignore the looks I was getting.

Our community was nestled away in unpopulated woods where my parents had helped build the houses. That was before they were taken away. We’d avoided being discovered because of one simple
geographical aid: the mountain. Jesse was the one who knew about the cave and that it led to a spacious, green circle. From the top of our outposts, we’d seen the Regulars come looking for
us, but no one ever found the cave’s dark sliver of an opening.

I made my way to the far side of the woods where Gabe and Andrew were chopping tree trunks into more manageable pieces. Without a word I lifted a spare axe and started chopping alongside
them.

“Someone’s grumpy,” Gabe said. Andrew laughed, which was his usual response. He rarely had an original thought.

I huffed.

“I don’t know why you’re in such a bad mood, man. We’re grateful,” Gabe continued.

“Yeah,” Andrew added.

“About what?” I said between swings. “That I’ve brought more pressure on us to be careful? That all the food I just gathered for Doc Sara will go to the girl? That our
supplies are going to be even more stretched now?” I swung again. “Yeah, everyone should be thanking me.”

“She’s gorgeous,” Andrew spat. It didn’t sound like a compliment so much as an assessment. “I’d eat less for a chance with her.”

My axe sliced through a chunk of wood. What did he say?

“Yeah,” Gabe agreed. “I’m so tired of looking at our girls I could scream. That Mackenzie? She’s
nice
.”

I turned around and grabbed Gabe by his shirt—between the two of them he was the real threat. “You keep your hands off her. She’s not something for you to play with.”

Gabe struggled to get out of my grip but didn’t bother swinging. He knew I could hurt him if I really wanted to. Realizing I’d done enough stupid things for one day, I turned to
leave.

“I think you need a snack, Dylan,” Gabe called after me, but I tuned him out.

In a matter of seconds, all the events of the morning became incredibly clear. For years I’d been stealing things for the group, making sure everyone had what they needed. Today, for the
first time, I took something for myself. And it was the dumbest thing I’d ever done. There was no way we could actually keep her here for long, and, if we did, girls didn’t fall for
boys who stole them.

•  •  •

The woman with the toddler on her hip escorted me to a cabin near another building that was almost exactly the same size. The one ahead of me looked neater though, at least from
the outside.

“Where are you taking me?” I asked. The threat of some unnamable thing hung around my periphery but never came into focus.

“Don’t worry honey. No one here means you any harm.”

“Is that what you say to everyone you kidnap?” I asked, not quite as angrily as I’d intended.

“We’ve never taken anyone before. And Dylan’s usually smarter than this.” She sighed and shook her head. “In the meantime, you might as well get acquainted with the
other girls.”

“Huh?” I asked.

Without explanation she walked up the wooden steps of the cabin, across the tiny porch, and knocked on the door. The angry girl from before answered the door. “Seriously?”

“Where else would we put her?” my guide said in a warm, pleading voice.

The angry girl begrudgingly opened the door. My guide motioned for me to enter and I followed her into the small house that was really little more than a box.

“This is the girls’ place,” my guide explained. “This is Monica,” she said, motioning to the angry girl, “and that’s Alicia and Tanya.”

I looked around and noticed two girls smiling at me from their bunk beds. Clearly they didn’t mind the company. The woman pointed to where the bathroom was in the back, pulled out some
sheets that were obviously stolen and set them on a bed that was intended to be mine.

“Play nice,” she said and left. I was alone with the three girls. I looked around the room and sat on the edge of my bed, not sure what else to do.

“So,” Alicia started, “how are you liking it so far?”

Was she serious? Who liked being taken from their home?

“I see clothes haven’t changed at all,” Tanya added, looking me up and down. It was true. I’d pretty much worn the same dark slacks and loose shirts for as long as I
remembered. The girls were wearing similar clothes, stolen from who knows where. But they’d dyed the shirts, stained them with grass or something. On purpose. “I’m not as brave as
Monica or Dylan. I could never go out there and see it for myself.”

I stood and picked up the sheets and tried to process what they were saying, which was a little difficult. Their words seemed fast. Everyone seemed fast here. Quick hands and sentences wherever
I turned, disorienting me more than the fact that I’d been taken.

“Monica’s so sly. She never gets caught,” Alicia said, her voice full of admiration.

I looked to Monica who was tying knots in a piece of rope and looking very pleased with her admirers. I felt for a moment that if I could see the reverse of myself in a mirror, she would be it:
tall, lean and dark, and very focused. I was too soft, too short, too passive to live here.

I shook my head. It felt fuzzy, which happened from time to time. I started putting my bed together. There was no way to fight being here at the moment. In fact, if there was a way to fight at
all I wasn’t sure how to go about it.

As I worked on tucking in a corner, I found my arm suddenly twisted behind my back. I cried out.

“Monica, what are you doing?” Tanya shouted.

“Listen, zombie,” she whispered in my ear. “I’m going to get you out of here. And I plan on being nice about it. But let me make it clear, if you so much as put a hand on
Dylan, I’ll break your fingers.”

She released me as quickly as she’d grabbed me and went back to her space in the corner. There was something tingling down my back that I hadn’t felt in years. A rush of cold crept
in, almost like what I had felt in the big cabin, but this time it was both worse, and better.

“Don’t worry,” I said, as the feeling retreated. “I’m not interested in that Neanderthal.”

•  •  •

I hid until dinner. I didn’t go back to the guys’ bunkhouse or to the Big House to see if I could be helpful. Today was a good day to lie low. I stayed tucked in the
outskirts of the woods, trying to align my thoughts.

I took Mackenzie for myself. I was still shocked at the thought.

I’d seen her before when I’d been out watching the houses, and she always seemed a little different. I remember once—before I raided her neighbor’s place—watching
her pick a wildflower. People in towns didn’t do things like that anymore. Another time I saw her stretch and pull her body all the way up on her tiptoes. That was months ago. Apparently,
I’d been watching her far more than was essential. The only thing I could attribute it to was affection for her and, now that I understood that, I had to figure out what to do next. I decided
I only had two options: throw myself into it full force, or take her home immediately.

The bells rang in the distance—time for dinner. Thankfully I now felt calm and hungry enough to rejoin the others. Still, I waited a few minutes. I wanted to give her time to eat and leave
if she wanted to.

The main cabin—the Big House—was a mess at meal times. It was the one place that could hold all sixty-four, well sixty-five, of us at once. By the time I entered, nearly everyone had
settled into their usual places: families in groups, couples and singles together in the back, and the kids running around between bites.

I saw that Monica, Tanya, and Alicia had brought Mackenzie. Gabe and Andrew were sitting with them. I planned to grab my food and go. Mackenzie looked so uncomfortable in the middle of that
swarm, and I could only make it worse.

I flew down the line grabbing the last few scraps of the meal. It was a meatless night.

“Hey, Dylan!”

I turned to see Monica at the table, smiling and waving me over. Mackenzie looked almost nervous. Impressive.

I walked over and sat across from Monica and next to Tanya. I didn’t know what to say, so I just listened to Gabe explain to Mackenzie that we weren’t bad people, it’s just
that we needed soap and shampoo and stuff.

She didn’t seem interested. Her eyes were flickering over our trays, and then down to her prepackaged meal in front of her. I could see her begin to question the difference and to look at
ours with obvious longing.