Seventh 2 Survive (WAYHAUGHT)

31-19

A short while after Waverly's departure, Xavier had returned to their underground hideout with a handful of bean bars. He offered them round, Ace's eyes lighting up in anticipation. Xavier ignored her.

"The child needs to eat," Nicole said, snatching one from his hands.

"She is Swan's problem," he replied.

Nicole handed Ace her bar.

The child eventually fell asleep in the monk's arms, Nicole finding a place away from the others. Swan's insistence on taking only one passenger in his beat up freighter troubled her, wishing now she'd suggested Xavier go instead, to be rid of him for a few hours. Her mind continued to dwell on the facility. There had been no time to check if the guards found the jump pad. As long as they hadn't, there was a chance of getting Waverly home.

Xavier sauntered over. "Do not be soft on the child."

Nicole ignored him.

"They only slow us down."

She held back from telling him to fuck away, as Waverly would have told him to do.

"I see it in your eyes," he added, dragging a plastic crate over.

"Waverly believes you are the future." The intensity of his gaze sent a shudder through her body.

"And you do not. I can see you hate me, as my people hate you. We are the same. We have the same needs. We want what keeps us alive." Xavier's shoulders hunched, carefully peeling off the silver wrapper from his bean bar, offering it to her. She declined. "There was a time when I would have killed anyone who came from the sky."

She felt the same about him.

"Your people do not know what we know. You do not know this world, as we know it."

She listened. He might know this world better than her. He might know how to stay alive in a landscape which offered only death. But, she had seen Waverly's world.

"You do not believe in its future, as we do."

"We want what's best for everyone," Nicole replied.

Xavier threw back his head, laughter filling the stuffiness of their shared sanctuary, the child stirring in the monk's arms.

"Best for everyone," he repeated. "Your people speak without eyes. Have you visited a dome? Have you? Have you seen how we are treated? We exist only to serve those above us, our lives reduced to nothing more than keeping you fat."

Nicole heard the truth in his words.

"We are worked," he continued, "and when we no longer can work our bodies are thrown outside." He fell silent for a moment, as though reliving images of those left in the sand. "Our women are forced to breed to replace..."

"I am sorry."

"Sorry." He shoved the last of the bean bar into his mouth. She watched as he carefully folded the silver wrapper, stuffing it into his pocket when done. "Can we eat sorry?

"Guess not."

"This place. This settlement, supporting the domes in the valley beyond."

"What about it?"

"I was the same age as that child Swan chose to keep. Crawled through a stinking tunnel, a smell which to this day lingers."

Nicole's attention was drawn to his rugged face.

"Walked until my feet left red footprints. I was lucky."

If he was going to try to win her over with a sad story she wasn't buying it. His attitude to Ace told her he cared for no one but himself.