Nomad stood from his kneeling position and came forward in a purposeful step.
Sawtooth turned his rifle a bit, aiming it at Nomad. “Don’t come any closer, dickhead. I swear, I’ll shoot.”
Destiny lunged for Sawtooth and latched her hands onto the rifle just as he pulled the trigger. A gunshot rang out, blasting her eardrums in the process.
Nomad arrived a second later, landing a firm jab on Sawtooth’s chest.
“No, wait,” Destiny said as Sawtooth flew backwards, landing on his backside in a plop.
When Destiny looked at her hands, she realized she was still holding Sawtooth’s rifle. Then, somehow, it started moving on its own, aiming its sights at Nomad.
Summer flew to her right and stood between Hope and Nomad, only a foot beyond the end of the barrel. “No, Hope. Don’t. He’s my friend.”
“Actually,” Nomad said in a voice buried under a ton of gravel, his hands coming up to his mask, “I’m more than that.” His fingers peeled the headgear off to reveal his face, what was left of it anyway.
Destiny didn’t want to stare at his burns, but she couldn’t help it. The man had been disfigured beyond belief. It looked as though someone had held his face in a blast furnace until the skin had almost melted off.
Even his neck was a train wreck. Probably the reason his voice was completely jacked.
Right then was when her logic returned, replaying the man’s last words. “What do you mean, more than that?”
Summer must have had the same question, too, because she stepped aside, then brought her eyes up to the towering man with an inquisitive look on her face.
Nomad peered over at Summer, then at Destiny. “I know my face is not what either of you remember—”
Right then, a new revelation stormed into Destiny’s thoughts, almost knocking her over. The burned man’s voice wasn’t what she remembered, and neither was his face. But somehow, she just knew, deep down, as if she had just connected to his soul. “Blaze?”
Summer muttered something as she grabbed onto Destiny’s arm, stumbling a bit, her eyes as round as apples.
Destiny thought she had a firm hold of Summer, but then the girl’s legs gave out and down she went, with her knees smashing into the dirt. Tears stormed out of her eyes.
“Who the hell is Blaze?” Sawtooth asked, pressing to his feet.
Summer remained there, crying, all the while shaking her head. “Oh my God, how can this be?”
Krista arrived. “I thought your brother was dead. Isn’t that what Edison said?”
Summer’s voice cracked. “That’s what I thought, too. Edison lied to me, Krista. He lied. All this time, Blaze was alive.”
Nomad put his hand out to Summer, palm up and fingers outstretched. “I wish he hadn’t put you through all that.”
“It was you the whole time?” Summer asked, wrapping her fingers in his before he pulled her to his feet.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know it was you initially.”
“So tell me. When exactly did you?” Krista asked.
“When I passed Summer in the corridor of the silo. Even though she’s all grown up now and looks completely different than I remember, I recognized her voice and her body language. That’s when I knew.”
Krista’s face looked numb when she asked, “And yet you’ve been in the area all this time?”
“After I was injured and discharged, I had no place else to go. Returning home seemed like the right thing to do. I had nothing else. That’s when I decided to venture out and help those in need, which in turn led me here.”
“So let me get this straight,” Krista said. “You return home after a decade and instead of helping your sister, you decide to help a bunch of Scabs?”
“Like I said, I didn’t know it was Summer. She’s changed so much since I’d seen her as a little girl. I figured she was gone, along with the rest of the planet. Though maybe, somehow, I knew deep down that she was around somewhere. Or that maybe I would run into her someday. Not sure. But something brought me here. I just figured it was loneliness.”
“Or guilt,” Krista said.
Nomad didn’t respond.
“Oh, yeah,” Krista said. “You’re hiding something, that’s for sure. I don’t know what it is yet, but I’ll figure it out. And I’m guessing it has something to do with your burns. Nobody just shows up after the world ends and decides to become a vigilante for the less fortunate. There has to be a reason, and guilt is the most likely one.”
“Think what you want. My intentions have always been honorable.”
Summer raised her hands and made fists, smashing them into Nomad’s shoulders, chest, and face as she cried out. “You asshole. Why didn’t you say something?”
He just stood there, taking the pounding as she whaled on him, looking like a pissed-off drug addict on crack.
Tears flowed from Summer’s eyes as her voice went up in volume, her hands pounding on him even harder now. “I thought you were dead, Blaze. Dead. How could you do this to me? Do you know how much I’ve missed you? Do you know how lonely I’ve been? I thought my whole family was dead. And then you show up with Scabs?”
CHAPTER 45
Destiny stood firm as Summer continued her beating on Nomad, figuring he had it coming.
Plus, it wasn’t her place to intervene.
She really didn’t know either of them anymore.
They were strangers.
Not just in how they looked, but in every respect, except for their DNA.
Another thirty seconds drifted by before Krista finally stepped in and latched onto Summer’s arms and pulled her away.
The two of them dropped to the ground as Summer cried into her shoulder for what seemed like five minutes.
The strange thing was nobody moved during that time. Nobody said a word, as if everyone knew Summer needed to let it all out in peace.
Then, as if on cue, Nomad broke the tension by dropping his eyes and focusing them on the ground when he said, “I’m sorry, Summer. I wanted to tell you, but I didn’t know how. I figured the last thing you needed was to see your big brother like this.”
Destiny was about to join Summer and Krista in a support hug, but stopped when two more doors on the visitors’ vehicles opened and more people got out.
She counted a handful of skinny women with hair like Summer’s. Plus there was one younger version of them, and a dog and an older guy with a sag to his build.
As the women and the younger girl drew closer, Destiny realized none of them had noses. “Oh my God.”
Krista let go of Summer and stood up, turning to look in the direction Destiny was pointing, then brought her eyes back. “It’s okay. They’re with us.”
“Who? I mean, what are they?”
Summer got to her feet and wiped her eyes, her chest still heaving with emotion. “Scabs. But they’re good Scabs, mostly.”
“What?”
“I take it you don’t have Scabs where you come from?” Krista asked.
“No. We don’t have Scabs, whatever that means,” Destiny replied, realizing that was what Nomad and Krista were sparring about a few minutes earlier.
“Well, we do. Normally, their kind would be attacking.”