Page 55 of Savagely Yours
He fell silent for a moment.
I held my breath.
All I needed was for him to hear me.
“I hear you,” he said, finally. “I do. I’m not just saying that. But I can’t let you go back there.”
“Even if it meant that going back could be the ticket to taking this place down?”
“Yes. Tapley, how do you expect me to function knowing you went back to the place where I almost lost you? Actually, can I show you something?”
I didn’t have time to answer.
He left the bed, picked me up, and we went to the living room, where he sat me on the sofa. Then he returned for the covers, draped them over me, and closed all of the curtains.
“It won’t be as clear as if it was nighttime, but…” He retrieved a flashlight from a drawer and aimed it at a map on the wall. “This is what I’ve been doing since they split us up.”
The map lit up with a constellation of markings—dots, Xs, circles, lines. Yet, none of the markings were in the Sanitation area. This man believed that my skills were so vital to a survival effort that he hadn’t been able to fathom that I would be sent to work in a forced labor camp. The cluster of markings around the structures labeledAdministrationandOperationsseemed to confirm exactly that.
“This is everywhere I searched for you,” he explained. “I searched for you on active duty and on all my days off. I was trying to think...where would they put you with your skill set? That’s why Admin has so many marks. I checked every floor, every room. Then I checked Aspen, Hawthorne, and Juniper. Juniper made the most sense because that’s where Dr. Lin lives.The way I saw it was, if they put all the brilliant professionals there, then that’s where I’d find you.”
I had no words.
I’d assumed he’d forgotten about me. However, by the looks of things, this man never once stopped thinking about me.
“I checked the central warehouse, the infirmary annex. I even checked Distribution.” He went closer and tapped an image that resembled circuit board components. “This part, they call it Generator Block. They have engineers there. Totten’s been in the works for a while, and its main power source is still active. The concept for Totten was to create a residential community that’s more like a small town, so it was the best choice for a survivors’ camp.” He moved his finger due east. “This is the Education building, and I could see you as a teacher. But after that was a bust, my next stops were Intake and Security. If none of these had panned out, only then would I have considered Sanitation.”
Still, I had no words.
“But you probably already knew all these areas,” he added.
“No, not really,” I said. “I didn’t realize Totten wasthisbig. What’s that large area in the middle?”
He frowned. “Eden Square.”
“What’s Eden Square?”
“You’ve never been there?”
“Never even heard of it.”
“It’s where I first started, but it was easy to clear.”
He walked over, picked me up again, took me to a different set of windows, and drew back the curtains.
What I saw punched me in the gut.
There was a park and a market—an entire plaza with people mulling about, carrying what looked like paper shopping bags. The area was pristine, with trees, paved walkways, and green lawns. I even spotted a yoga class underway in one far corner.
“Has this existed theentiretime?”
“You didn’t know?”
“No, I didn’t know. I’ve never even heard of…” I closed my eyes and pressed my thumb between my brows. “Can we go back to the sofa?”
He shut the curtains and returned to the couch. Instead of setting me down, he took a seat and set me on his lap. Things had already been bad enough, but seeing that destroyed something inside me.
“I’m sorry,” he offered.
