“No,” I confess. “I knew when Wulf had me. Yours was the face I wanted to see. You were the one I needed to talk to. You were my regret, that I had hurt you. I never wanted to hurt you.”
“I would rather go through the hurt to have you be certain of us, than never have pain and have you live with the uncertainty,” Pace says as he caresses my cheek and sticks a flower that has fallen out of place back into my braid.
“I am certain of you. You are the one thing in my life that I am certain of.” He lowers his mouth to kiss me, and it is so gentle, and so sweet, full of promise for our future. A future that we are going to fight for. When he finally pulls away he looks at my hair and grins. “I like it like this,” he says. “Even with the flowers.”
“Don’t get used to it,” I say. “And the flowers are courtesy of Nancy. She worked very hard getting them arranged just right.”
“I shall be sure to thank her,” Pace says. He looks up at the sky, placing the sun to get an idea of the time. “We should get back. Are you strong enough to walk?”
“Do I have a choice?” Pace helps me to my feet, and we set off back the way we came. “How did you find this place?” I ask.
“Jane told me about it,” Pace replies. “She spotted it when they were looking for a safe place to move everyone. When I told her I wanted to bury Mother like they did in the before time, she told me what to do and suggested I look for the churchyard. I thought I’d come back and cut back the grass and clean up the place when I got a chance.”
We are just out of the cemetery, and I turn to look at the ruins of the church. It really is a pretty setting. It is obvious where the new growth begins and the old ends. Tall evergreens wave to and fro in the breeze, and around ground level is an explosion of shiny green buds, just waiting to burst into bloom like the wild flowers in the meadow. The building itself is so interesting, with its peaked stonewalls and the tower beside it.
“It would not be that hard to put a roof on it and make it livable,” I say.
Pace takes my hand, and I look up into his beautiful blue eyes. “I was thinking the same thing.” He kisses me again. I do not know what I did to deserve him, but I know in my heart I will do everything in my power to make sure I never hurt him again.
By the time we reach the turn in the path to return to the enclave, I am having a hard time keeping up with Pace. My legs feel as if they are made of wood, and it takes every bit of my concentration to determine where my feet should go with each step. It doesn’t take long for Pace to realize my difficulty, and he kneels down so I can get on his back. He carries me the rest of the way, with Pip swooping over our heads and Jonah trotting along beside us. I am so exhausted that all I can do it lay my head on Pace’s shoulder and hang on.
As we turn up the slope that leads to the enclave I see that everyone has returned. The tank sits by the gate that leads inside, and I get my first look at it up close. Pace sets me on my feet as we come to it, and I reach out to touch the cold hard metal of its leg. Jonah takes one look at it, puts his ears back, hisses, and runs through the gate as if his tail is on fire. Pip flutters around it and then lights on the top of one of the wooden posts that forms the wall of the enclave.
I am amazed at the mind of Dr. Stewart. That he was able to create this from the pieces of armor they found among the ruins in the area. I look up the leg and see how it hinges at the knee, much like my own. It also hinges where the leg meets the body. The body, which looks a lot like a rectangle, only with curved edges, easily stands five stories high. There are eight narrow openings, large enough for someone to maneuver a rifle from the inside, yet small enough that only the best marksmen would be able to shoot inside of it. In the front, over the long cone that protrudes, are two more openings. There is a hatch in the belly that opens only from the inside, and a rope ladder hangs down from the top and can be rolled up and taken inside once everyone is in.
“There’s a seat for whoever is driving it inside.” Pace points to the windows over the cone. “The nose is like a battering ram. Lyon is certain that a combination of explosives and the tank pounding on the glass will shatter it.”
“And we just walk right in.” I look at the tank in wonder. “Can you imagine how powerful the rovers would be if they had someone like Dr. Stewart among them?” I say to Pace. “There is so much available to them, all they had to do was put it to use.”
“Levi said if they had tamed the horses that run wild they would be a lot harder for us to beat in hand-to-hand combat,” Pace replies. “I think you were right about them. The strongest takes control and continually keeps the rest beat down so they won’t over throw him. Progress is impossible when it isn’t nurtured.”
“They are more like us than we originally thought,” I say. “Like us, they never had a choice.”
“Ragnor and his wife chose to leave,” Pace says. “At least we think they did. They disappeared. For all we know they could be spying on us and going back to tell Wulf where we are.”
“Or they could be biding their time, waiting to see who is going to come out the winner. I believe they are hoping it will be us. Did they help you find…” The last time I saw Ragnor, he said he would help Pace escape. But since that escape is how Ellen got killed, I hesitate to mention it.
“He found me and led me to the hut where she’d been taken,” Pace says. “I never would have found her without him. Of course if I hadn’t found her she might still be alive.”
I put my hand on his arm. “No. Don’t think that. From what I know of Wulf, he would have used her or anyone else he thought we knew as bait to get us back. He would have tortured her, and even if you surrendered it would have not changed what happened to her. At least she died with you there. At least she died knowing that you would be safe.”
“She didn’t even know what hit her. Dr. Stewart said she died instantly.”
“So she did not suffer. That’s all anyone can ask for, for the people they love.”
Pace smiles sweetly. “I guess that’s all anyone can ask for when they die. Not to suffer.” He shakes his head. “I wish you could have known her before all this. When she wasn’t so full of hate and confusion. I wish you could have known her the way I did.” His voice breaks and Pace pinches the bridge of his nose between his fingers to keep from crying.
“I will know her,” I say. “I’ll know her because of you. Because she raised you and she taught you to be kind, and strong and patient, and oh so very wise about things. She taught you to keep calm, even when the world is exploding, and to love passionately and to be fair to everyone. She taught you to believe in things beyond the dome and to act on what you believe. I cannot even begin to imagine how proud of you she must have been, but I can imagine how much she loved you.”
Pace blinks back tears. “Thank you, Wren.”
“There you are!” Jane exclaims as she comes through the gate and across the footbridge. “I have been worried sick about you. I never dreamed you would take off across the country. When Levi came back without you, I wanted to shake him.”
“I had to find Pace,” I say simply.
Jane looks at the two of us standing there, side by side, and she smiles. “I’m glad you did. But please, Wren, come inside and let me check on your wound. Your tromping across the country cannot have been good for it.”
I realize that Jane is right when I take a step to follow her inside the enclave and nearly sink to the ground. Pace catches me and picks me up, this time in his arms and carries me. I feel foolish for having almost fainted again and embarrassed because I am so weak, especially when Pace carries me into the cabin with Jonah meowing loudly behind us. Everyone is inside and they all turn to look at us. There are more people than I can count gathered around the two long tables.