Page 76 of Brood
We’re excited about having a second baby.
Today Will is going with some of the others here at the Mill to trade for provisions with the Refuge, so we’ll finally get some real news on how things are going down there after our escape and Brody’s death.
We’re excited about that too.
I’m smiling as I rub my cheek against Will’s bare chest. He smells strong. He has to work hard out here—hunting and working on construction projects—so he gets dirtier than he ever did underground. I don’t care. I have to work hard too.
“What are you smiling about?” Will asks, tilting his head down so he can kiss my messy hair.
“I don’t know. Life. Us. Bun’s birthday.” I kiss his chest. “Life up here. Life with you. I guess I’m just happy.”
“Me too.” Then he adds, in a murmur like he’s talking to himself, “I still can’t believe we did it.”
* * *
There’s always a lot of activity at the Mill. For a surface community, it’s large, safe, and stable, led by a strong, competent woman and managed by its own council. It’s been the center of trade in the region since they got the old mill up and running. The courtyards are always filled with farmers and scavengers coming to trade or lone men looking for women.
It’s fortified and well protected, so I feel safe, even with Bun, within the guarded perimeter, but I’ve learned I can never walk outside on my own.
Most of the time, I don’t even want to. The rolling hills and vast meadows and sprawling forests that surround this place still feel like an alien world.
There’s always so much sky.
I walk down from our quarters with Will as he leaves since I have a shift in the kitchen. Bun can kind of walk now, but I carry him because there’s far too much activity in the mornings to risk losing sight of him.
“Okay,” Will says, glancing over to where some others are gathering with the supplies designated for trade with the Refuge. “Don’t get into any trouble while I’m gone.”
I laugh at this, stretching up to give him a brief kiss and ruffle his beard. “I won’t. I promise. And be sure to ask about Bella and Trevor and Danny if you can.”
“I will.”
He looks like he’s going to kiss me again, but Bun stretches out his arms with a loud demand for “Dada!” So Will pivots to grab and hug Bun fiercely before handing him back to me.
Then he meets my eyes, everything he feels for me right there on his face.
I smile. Nod. “I love you too. Now you better get going.”
Bun and I watch as Will strides toward the trading group. Bun whimpers the way he always does when his daddy leaves, but then he snuggles into me and mumbles, “Momma.”
“That’s right. I’m your momma. And your daddy will be back soon. No one is ever going to take you away from us again.”
The last sentence is more a comfort to me than to Bun, who has recovered from his disappointment already and is happily babbling and playing with my hair.
“That kid is always in a good mood,” someone says. A woman approaches to stand beside me. She’s short with cropped blond hair and a smart, friendly manner.
I smile at Gloria, who arrived with her man at the Mill around the same time as we did. “Not always. But, overall, he’s really good-natured.”
“He must take after you rather than your man because Will is as approachable as a brick wall.”
I laugh, since her tone is teasing. “He’s not quite that bad. He just takes things seriously, and we’re still not used to living up here, so he’s…protective.”
“I get that.” Gloria knows what she’s talking about. She was born and raised in a bunker too. One of things we’ve learned in the past months is that there are multiple bunkers—even in this one region—and some of them opened to the surface world long ago. “But it’s better up here. Isn’t it?”
My eyes find Will across the courtyard. He’s talking to someone else, but he glances over as if he feels my eyes on him.
He smiles, and I smile back.
“Yeah,” I say, breathing in warm, grassy air and squeezing Bun gently. “It’s better.”
* * *