Chapter 163

  - Evan -

  A few hours had passed; it was not sundown again, and for a while, the world was small.

  Not the city—never the city—but the room. The living room has a low-hanging ceiling and old, uneven walls. The soft, mismatched furniture pulled in too close. The faint smell of old metal and new life yered together in a way I didn't think Shell City deserved.

  Jakeh sat on the floor next to his wife's bed, holding the baby that was asleep on his chest like she always belonged there. By this point, their son had woken up, come to his mother, and fallen back asleep beside her in bed, and slept sitting up, pale but radiant.

  Micah popped in quietly, checking on the family hovering at the doorway with kind and watchful awareness.

  James leaned against the counter on the floor, pretending not to stare every time Micah or the baby moved or made a sound.

  Josh was ughing quietly with Becky over something small, by the sound of it. It almost seems foreign, like ughter was a forbidden nguage the city had tried to erase from some of the families here. And yet we spoke it anyway.

  Elia sat cross-legged on the floor near the door, her back against the wall, knees pulled in. She didn't say much. She didn't need to. Every so often, she'd gnce toward the bedroom or at Jakeh and the newly found family, like she was afraid the moment would vanish if she looked away too long.

  I watched her more than once.

  She belongs here now. You could see it in the way her shoulders had finally lowered and the way her hands weren't always ready to run. Shell City had taken a lot from her—but not this. Not tonight.

  I rubbed the back of my neck.

  It was too loud in here.

  Not noise... But emotion.

  Kaysi caught my eye.

  She tilted her head slightly toward the door.

  Are you good?

  I gave a small nod.

  "Hey," I announced to the others, finally pushing off the wall. "We're going to step out for a bit."

  Jakeh looked up. "Is something wrong?"

  "Nah," I answered quickly. "Everything is good. Just...a perimeter check. Fresh air.

  Jakeh nodded. "Thank you."

  Kaysi stepped beside me. "We'll stay close to the house."

  Josh straightened instantly. "I'll come," he said as his forearm made contact with the back of my head.

  "Jeez, Josh, why do you need to come?"

  He looked at my bruised knuckles, and I sighed.

  "Fine..."

  Becky blinked at him. "You just said you were tired."

  "I am," he said. "But if he's walking, I'm walking. Besides, it may help me sleep."

  Micah stood. "You all are walking; why not make it a group trip?" She giggled. Grabbing James by the arm.

  James groaned. "You all realize this is how horror movies start," he joked.

  He sighed. "I hate all of you right now."

  Josh elbowed him. "Oof."

  "I think you meant, you love all of us!" Josh corrected.

  James muttered something suspiciously like an agreement under his breath as we walked out the door.

  Kaysi looked back at Elia. "You think you want to come?"

  "I think I'm going to stay," she said quietly. "If I step outside right now, I might wake up, and this won't be real," she joked.

  Jakeh squeezed her shoulder. "Don't worry, you're home, and we aren't going anywhere."

  She nodded as we shut the door softly.

  Just like the air shifted, thinner and more rexed.

  Josh stretched his arms above his head. "Okay. That was a lot." He breathed.

  "That's what happiness feels like," Becky said.

  Josh flinched and twisted his face. "Gross."

  She gently punched his arm and then hugged him.

  We started walking down the corridor toward the stairwell that led to the outside level.

  Our boots echoed softly.

  Micah broke the silence.

  "Family, sometimes, is a strange thing for some of us. I didn't know if she'd make it. The bor was hard," she admitted.

  "She made it, though," Kaysi said gently.

  Micah nodded, but her hand was csped too tightly.

  "My mom—I heard stories about how my mom had the same issue." She said quietly, "With bringing me into the world."

  We all looked at her.

  Micah had opened up in recent years, but she still rarely volunteered information about herself, let alone sensitive details.

  "She was young," Micah continued. "My dad was gone by the time I was a few years old, as you know. And my uncle helped raise me. I grew up hearing that I almost didn't happen."

  James' voice softened. "But you did."

  "Yeah," she said, exhaling. "Sometimes I feel like I'm still trying to prove my worth and pay back everything they sacrificed for me.

  Becky gnced at her. "You don't."

  She blinked. "Don't what?"

  "You need to prove yourself much less pay them back; you work hard alongside them, and now your uncle pys an even greater role."

  We reached the stairwell and pushed through to the outer ptform.

  We stood there enjoying the view of Shell City's artificial glowing sky, a muted twilight sundown.

  The farming district stretched in yers of structured greenery and metal pathways.

  Looked peaceful.

  It wasn't.

  We started walking again along the outer edge, habitually scanning rooftops and corners.

  Josh shoved his hands into his pockets. Rosa already started packing and moving things around.

  "The mansion?" Becky asked.

  He nodded. "Yeah, I feel weird saying that. I only moved to Evan a year ago."

  "It's your house, too," I reminded him.

  "It will be our house soon," Becky added.

  Kaysi bumped Josh's shoulder. "Don't get weird about it."

  "I'm not."

  "You are."

  Becky smiled faintly. "Everything for all of us is about to change soon after graduation."

  James kicked a loose bolt on the ground.

  "My dad has already got me enrolled in that military academy program. He tried to do one out of state at first."

  Micah stopped walking. "What, you stopped him, right?"

  He shrugged. "Barely."

  "He still thinks discipline will fix what's 'wrong' with me."

  '"There is nothing wrong with you!" Becky scoffed.

  "Tell him that." I found a college that does a dual-enrollment program, works in the military, as my dad wants, and offers tech. I only hope he approves of this one."

  Kaysi stepped closer to him. "You don't have to fit in someone else's pns. You will be a legal adult by then."

  "No, unfortunately, I won't. I jumped a grade; remember, I am a year younger than all of you."

  Silence fell again.

  "My mom and dad can't wait for me to go to college. Becky said. "And I just know I will have fun with all of you! I mean, come on, we will all be having one big sleepover!"

  "You mean kind of what we are doing now?" Kaysi teased.

  The city hummed somewhere below; machinery shifted.

  But for the moment, it was quiet with us.

  "Six teenagers are about to graduate," Becky said, "and most of us will be moving to the mansion. Some days it feels like time is slipping out of our hands, doesn't it?"

  "We don't get to control time; you may be able to, but we can't," I joked with her.

  The artificial sky flickered just once.

  The steadied.

  I gnced upward instinctively.

  "What was that?" Kaysi's eye darted around.

  I put my hand on my earring. Happiness always felt loudest before something came to break it.

  The air suddenly thickened.

  "Time stops for no man..." An unseen voice spoke from the dark. Whispered.