When Raptor and Gideon began discussing the next steps in their plan, Jessica noticed the girl search the pockets of her camo coat.
"Psst."
Danielle stared at the next sofa. "Looking for this?" said Valerie, dangling a 9-millimeter.
Danielle jumped out of the cushions and reached for her weapon. She almost took Valerie by surprise, but Valerie held the pistol out of reach as Dexter and Shannon quickly pinned blondie against the couch.
"That's enough, Dani!" said Gideon. The girl froze in place, making nervous eye contact with her uncle. "Quit the hasslin' and sittown. We're having a discussion."
Danielle crossed her arms, huffed, and fell back on the sofa to brood to herself.
Warily, Jessica steered from Dani's woeful glare to Gideon's.
"I know that look. Don't mind her," he said. "You'd be prone to anger, too, if yer parents were abducted by aliens."
Jessica scratched her scalp. "What does that mean?"
"See, Danielle's mother, my sister, was one hell of a tracker. I suppose she found somethin' that took her out over yonder, past the normal places we scratch in the woods. She took the husband, and Danielle followed. See, Dani inherited their sneakiness but not their luck."
"Uncle Gideon..."
"Don't gimme that look, Dani." He returned to his guests, red-eyed. "Both her parents were none-the-wiser when she went after 'em. She saw it all. And as she tells it, they found somethin'. Somethin' big. A bright light in the middle of the woods came and took 'em. No one seen 'em since.
"I looked. Took the next best trackers we had and found nothing, and they kept looking even after I stopped askin'... In the months, in the year that followed, we found nothing."
Danielle's face was a tired trench of resentment and depression recognizable at a glance. Back to her shot glass, Jessica peered through its transparent surface then took a sip. She remembered what it was and immediately set it back down.
"I guess the light couldn't have been anything but the Azareans?" she said. "Makes this fight pretty personal, I suppose?"
Gideon peered right through her but said nothing.
At a loss, Jessica's words tumbled out of her mouth. "At least she had an uncle..." The words came out more shaken than she anticipated. Perhaps she drank too much.
Pensively, Gideon took his time refilling her glass with moonshine and soda. "It is what it is," he said, then refilled Raptor's glass. "There are some nooks in the forest the aliens don't know to go, places just happen to lead to yer Sub Terra home yer so eager to find. I know where it is."
Upon pulling the knife from the map, Gideon tipped the edge on a specific point. "Can take you at dawn if it pleases you. Danielle knows the way."
"I don't know about that, uncle," the niece said nervously.
"Take their company and maybe they'll take some of yer bitterness with 'em. Our city rebels will get theirs so we can survive. We're isolated, which has its benefits, sure, but if you keep to yerself long enough you forget chur friends when you see 'em."
"We all need friends," said Raptor, taking another swig of moonshine, "especially now. There's no rest for the wicked, so why the enemy?"
"Funny," Jessica chuckled, "the Azarean standard of living seems unrivaled on paper, but I don't see quality to life when it's expendable at the rate of a heartbeat, subtracting life's beat."
"That moonshine's hitting you hard, missy," started Gideon, "I do hope yers beats long enough to give the pale necks their due. You gonna use some of that old metal medicine, ain'tcha? You and that Bobble." Turning to Raptor—"And you'll remind yer brass that we're still out here."
"Over a hundred years and counting," replied Raptor, stuck on the ceiling. "We might never win, you know..."
Jessica's brain paused the moment like a freeze frame, attentive to the glint in Raptor's eyes. "I think it depends on your definition of winning," she told him.
"Exactly," said Gideon. "Even if yer not around long enough to see the end, victory is a lit torch."
"Which will count for nothing if we don't get it to its lamp," Raptor said hoarsely. "I think it's about time we turn in. That way we start early, tomorrow."
"Yeap." Gideon stood up. Jessica heard nothing but footsteps after that, background noise to a series of future simulations streaming through her head until they hit a solid bank.
"Jess..." Dexter shook her out of her thoughts. "You alright?" he said. She looked at his youthful mug. What would she have done if he had died? The image of Pine Rim and Beth still rocked her psyche and occasionally crept into her sense.
"I'm cool."
"Jimmy!" Gideon called. A scruffily-bearded Woodsman appeared atop the cellar door. "Take the boys to the stockpile." Then he turned to Valerie directly behind him. "You'll be sleeping in the old yard. Dani'll take ya."
"What?" Danielle blurted.
"Watch 'em, guard 'em, and be a host. I know what chur gonna say, and no, you don't have to like it." As Gideon stepped out of the cellar, Danielle stormed up after him. Jessica and her friends quickly followed but only found their place in the dark because of how loudly Danielle protested.
***
At the sound of high-pitched whines, Jessica and her friends found Danielle's frown carved by the lantern's light. The girl stopped, for a second, if for no other reason than to leer at them. "This way," she said before stomping off.
"I would ask what her deal is, but I get it," said Shannon.
"Yea, me too," Jessica mumbled.
"She reminds me of somebody that I used to know," added Valerie. "That girl changed. She became a little less lonely, a little less enojada, and a lot more..."
"She hasn't spent much time around people her age," Gideon said, halting next to them.
"It's actually an overrated experience," Jess sighed.
"For you, maybe, but you had your pick of the litter. Somethin' worked in yer case. She never even had the chance."
Gideon walked off, gesturing for the two brothers to follow. Dexter had a farewell glance for Jessica and her friends. Mostly Jessica. "Up and early tomorrow. Have a good night, and..." His eyes rolled upward in contemplating what to say.
"So, you're not joining us?" Jessica joked, then smiled to mask her regret.
"Ask him again when you're safe in home territory," Raptor remarked. "Alone and in private."
Dexter stared daggers at his older brother.
"Just have a good night," said Jessica.
"Good night," he said back.
"Good night," she whispered.
Dani yelled, "Hurry up, city girl!"
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