It had been so long and I still hadn’t gotten any sleep yet.
I rubbed a hand over my face and looked around.
Nobody else had moved.
Hannah was still asleep against her backpack with Nadia curled up beside her, Derek had somehow managed to snore despite everything that had happened and Joel was dead to the world, one arm thrown over his face.
But Declan wasn’t.
He was sitting near the doorway, exactly where I’d left him when we swapped watches, the rifle he’d taken from the HAVEN soldier resting across his knees.
He wasn’t staring into space or struggling to stay awake.
For some reason, he was taking the weapon apart one piece at a time, laying everything out neatly on the dusty floor beside him.
I pushed myself up quietly and crossed the room and he looked up briefly at the sound.
*Couldn’t sleep?”
“No.”
He nodded once, like that wasn’t surprising, then went back to what he was doing.
I stopped beside him, looking down at the rifle.
“I’ve been thinking about that.”
He looked up, wiping his brow for a second.
“The rifle?”
“You taking it.”
That got his attention.
“What about it?”
“If HAVEN’s using trackers or serial numbers or whatever else military groups use, I don’t particularly want us carrying around something that tells them exactly where we are.”
He let out a slow breath through his nose.
“I thought about that.”
“And?”
“As you can see, I’m checking.”
I watched him remove the bolt before setting it aside.
The rifle was in better condition than I’d expected.
Hardly any dirt inside, barely any wear around the moving parts.
“You know what you’re looking for?”
“I know enough.” Declan muttered under his breath.
I crouched beside him as he slid the receiver over without saying anything.
I took it, turning it over in my hands while he continued stripping the rest of the weapon.
“You’ve done this before?” I asked eventually.
“A few times.” He admitted without sweat.
“Military?”
He smiled faintly without looking up.
“No.”
That was all I got.
He didn’t bother to explain where he had learnt it.
That was a stupid question anyway.
20 at most.
But he could have been in the military.
Ten minutes later we’d spread most of the rifle across the floor between us.
“No tracker that I can see,” he said.
“Doesn’t mean there isn’t one.”
“But if there is…” I trailed off.
He leaned back slightly.
“It’s hidden better than I know how to find.”
Fair enough.
He started putting the rifle back together, his movements slower than before, making sure each part seated properly before moving on to the next, and I looked away when I realised I’d been watching his hands the whole time.
“There was something else,” I muttered under my breath after a long second.
He glanced up.
“The radio.” I said.
That made him stop.
“What about it?”
I kept my voice low without really thinking about it.
“It changed earlier.”
He waited and I continued.
“I was listening to the broadcast during my watch and it… cut out. Just for a few seconds.” I frowned, replaying it in my head.
“A woman came through instead.”
I paused, my brows furrowed.
“She sounded out of breath. Like she was forcing herself onto the frequency.” I looked towards the radio lying where I’d left it.
“She said, ‘Do not come to HAVEN…’ then, ‘they are not…’ and it cut off and the normal broadcast came straight back after that.”
He stayed quiet for a moment after I finished.
He was silent for long enough that I wondered if he’d heard me properly.
“Could be a test,” he said eventually.
I looked at him as he shrugged.
“Or could be real.”
That earned a scoff from me.
“Gee, That’s helpful.”
He gave a small shrug.
“I’m not trying to be helpful anyway so… That’s a win.”
I couldn’t help smiling as he fitted the last piece back into the rifle before setting it aside.
“If it’s real, somebody wanted that message heard badly enough to risk transmitting it. If it’s a test, somebody wanted to see how people would react.” He rested his forearms on his knees.
“Either way, we’re still heading to HAVEN.”
I folded my arms across my chest.
“You don’t think we should turn around?”
“And go where?” He raised a brow.
I didn’t answer and he looked towards the window.
“We’ve got one destination. That’s all we’ve had since we found the radio. A warning doesn’t suddenly give us another one.”
I’d gone over it in my head so many times I’d stopped counting.
He wasn’t wrong.
We moved over to the window a few minutes later without saying anything.
The sky beyond the broken glass had started fading from black to grey, enough that the outlines of buildings were beginning to appear again.
The city looked almost peaceful from up here.
If I hadn’t known better, I could’ve convinced myself people were still sleeping in those apartments, getting ready for work, complaining about traffic.
Instead, a burnt-out bus sat across the junction below us, and the only thing moving was a sheet of newspaper drifting between abandoned cars.
“Your father was military.” Declan broke the silence of the still night.
I looked at him.
“What?”
He kept looking out of the window.
“That’s my guess.”
“How did you get there?” A frown pulled at my lips.
His posture straightened and he tilted his chin up.
“You’ve handled a rifle before.”
I looked him over.
“So have you.”
“Yeah, so have I.”
I waited, expecting him to explain, but he didn’t.
What did I expect anyway?
He was obviously hell bent on being mysterious.
After a few seconds he looked across at me.
“Or I could be wrong and you just learn fast.”
That got a reaction from me — I turned to him, my expression twisted into one of thoughtfulness, but I didn’t reply to him.
Outside, the first edge of sunlight finally broke over the horizon, washing the city in a dull orange glow.
Far in the distance, almost hidden by the morning haze, a Rig moved between the buildings.
Even from kilometres away it looked impossibly large, taking slow, deliberate steps that made the skyline seem smaller around it.
That was just one.
But it was enough to send me into high alert.
The other Rigs laying dormant in the city could also awaken soon.
I picked up my rifle and checked the magazine before slinging it over my shoulder.
“I’ll wake Nadia.”
Declan nodded and I crossed the room carefully, stepping over scattered backpacks and sleeping bodies.
I was halfway to Nadia when I realised Joel was already awake.
He was standing by the opposite window, looking north and I slowed to take a closer look at him.
“Are you okay? We’re moving out soon.”
He didn’t turn around.
“I think I know who the Rigs are looking for.”
Something in the way he said it stopped me where I was.
And I couldn’t stop the curiosity that bubbled up in me.
If there was a slight chance that he was right about the Rig tracking someone — who was it?