Page 104 of Dustwalker

She’d never seen the human shacks from this angle. The contrast between the buildings on opposite sides of the wall was stark, and having both in sight made her stomach sink.

Within the barrier, everything was orderly, precise, and deceptively alive. Green trees along the streets, electric lamps flickering on, well-maintained rooftops, all the buildings in neat rows. Beyond the wall, the human shacks were small, rickety, filthy things, clumped together without pattern or planning. The landscape surrounding them was bleak, a smattering of browns and yellows. The only plant life came in the form of barren trees and the scrub grass poking up through the dust.

The sun was slipping away on the western horizon. It would be dark soon, and Lara and Ronin would be out there, in the shadows…

“Looks clear.” Ronin leapt down, and dust swirled around his boots as he landed. He held his arms up to Lara.

She lowered the rifle, and once he’d slung it over his shoulder, she passed down her bag. Ronin set it at his feet and raised his arms again. Without hesitation, Lara swung her other leg over the top of the wall and pushed off.

He caught her easily and held her against him. “Hard part’s done.”

Lara smirked. “Seemed simple enough.”

“Chance worked in our favor.” Ronin tipped his head toward theshacks she used to call home. “We just need to pass through there and Cheyenne will be behind us.”

He set her gently on her feet and bent to retrieve her bag.

She pulled it on her shoulders and adjusted the straps. It wasn’t terribly heavy, but she knew that would change, as she’d have to carry it a long way. “Should be easy. Most everyone beds down early.”

Ronin nodded, swept his head from side to side in another search, and began walking. Gravel crunched beneath his boots. Lara fashioned her scarf into a makeshift hood and set off after him.

It would’ve been easy to forget the danger now that she was outside the wall again, but they weren’t clear yet. Not until the lights of Cheyenne were nothing but a memory, lost beyond the horizon.

They didn’t talk as they followed the old trail across the no man’s land between the wall and the human settlement. She’d walked it many times before, but it had never felt this way. Last time, she’d been filled with uncertainty and fear. She hadn’t known Ronin when he took her to the market, hadn’t known if she’d be okay, if she’d ever find Tabitha, if she’d survive her first night with the strange bot who’d stalked her through the ruins. It had been a journey into the unknown.

This was another trek into the unknown, but she wasn’t afraid anymore, and she wasn’t alone. Her companion wasn’t a dangerous but intriguing stranger. He was Ronin. She loved him, trusted him, would go anywhere with him.

Her eyes drifted to her old shack as they neared it. Light escaped through the gaps around the closed door. Oddly, Lara wasn’t upset about someone else living there. She and Tabitha had shared it, but it had never been anything more than shelter. Home had been withTabitha, and now…it was with Ronin.

Lara hooked her thumbs beneath the straps of her pack. “I wonder how long it took.”

Ronin glanced over his shoulder. “How long what took?”

“For someone to notice I was gone.”

He swung his gaze to the shack. “In a way, you helped someone else who was in need. Just like Tabitha helped you.”

“Yeah.” Her eyes lingered on the structure while they walked past. How could it look completely unchanged and yet so different at the same time? When it was behind her, she settled her attention on Ronin’s back and nodded. “Yeah, you’re right.”

They pressed on. Everything was familiar to her, even in thedeepening shadows. These were the paths she’d taken to fetch water, to head out to the ruins, to visit Gary and Kate and the other people she sometimes traded with. The few people still outside cast them wary glances. If anyone recognized Lara, they didn’t let it show.

Soon, the shacks were behind them. Had the settlement always been so small?

Ronin led her up a gradual embankment. At the top, it leveled off to form a wide, flat road stretching as far as she could see to the east and west. The grass and weeds growing through the cracked, mostly buried pavement swayed in the wind. Only a hint of orange remained on the horizon, leaving the rest of the sky a muted blue-gray that rapidly faded to black as it moved eastward.

Ronin stopped at the edge of the road and turned to look north. Lara stood beside him. The wind tugged at her, whipping the loose ends of her scarf, but the coat Ronin had given her blocked the worst of it. She followed his gaze to Cheyenne. The bot district’s lights were already bright, casting a yellow-tinted glow in the hazy sky.

“I’m sorry to leave, if only because of what that place could have been,” Ronin said.

“What do you think it could have been?”

“A place with a promising future. A place worth staying in.” He turned to her, shadows deep on his face. “A place where we wouldn’t have to worry. Where we could just…live. Not only us, but everyone.”

Lara took his hand, lacing her fingers with his. “Bots and humans have never lived together.”

His hand was warm, his fingers firm but not ungentle as they closed around hers. “I don’t think that’s true.”

She furrowed her brow. “What do you mean?”