Роберт Уилсон - Days Since... - Jenny - Day 986

Xavier’s gaze fell. He stopped walking.

Jenny stood, her mistrust looming over him. “None of this makes sense.” Her voice bordered on yelling. “The S.A. fakes your death, going through an elaborate scheme to do it by killing someone else. Then— Then , you show up in their uniform like you’ve forgotten everything you “died” for.” Jenny supplied the air quotes along with the sarcasm. “Do you even remember what the hell they did to us? To you? To Grant? To Sam?”

“I didn’t forget!” Xavier rattled back. “Not at all. If I had, I wouldn’t be here with you on this miserable march to wherever the hell you’re taking us.”

She bore down on him with her eyes. “What? You don’t trust me?”

He blinked and shook his head. “What are you talking about? Of course, I trust you guys, I left everything for you. The letter. The journal. I trusted both of you to continue the fight.”

“At least some of us are still fighting.”

“What the hell’s wrong with you, Jenny!” Grant interrupted. “Xavier’s back from the dead and you’re actin’ like you want to put him in another grave. We’ve all been through enough. Quit this.”

From the corner of her eye, Jenny caught Grant’s glare bouncing between her and Xavier. Grant’s right, but still… “We deserve to know the truth.”

Grant licked his lips. “Let’s worry ‘bout gettin’ home for now. Put this behind us until later. Lot’s happened and emotion’s high. Nobody needin’ to say somethin’ they can’t take back.”

“No, she’s right, you guys deserve to know.” Xavier exhaled, sending a long waft of breath into the air. “It’s probably better to get this all out now rather than wait.” He gritted his teeth, jaw flaring while he searched for the words. His eyes tore past Jenny to Grant and stayed there. “Dad found my mom. Alive.”

Grant offered a soft smile. “I knew he’d find her.”

Xavier nodded. “I appreciate that, but it’s no coincidence that’s when things started to go to shit for us. Took him awhile to find her even though she’d been only, what, six miles away from River’s Edge? It was maybe a week or two before we had our trip with Simon that he found her.”

Grant’s brow furrowed.

“He found her with the Second Alliance. My mom started the S.A. Or, I mean, not only her, it’s not like she’s in charge, but,” he stammered, “she’s been there since the beginning. And when my dad finally found her, they sent for me, for us. That’s why we were going to the Capital. But of course, we never made it. It all fell apart with Simon and the letter.”

“If your mom’s so high up,” Jenny said, “why the hell did Haverty have you locked up like that?”

“He got his.” Xavier smirked. “Mom saw to that. Haverty said he didn’t know, but he did. He was just pissed off I found his letter and wouldn’t tell him where it was.”

“Do your parents know about everything that happened there?”

“They don’t believe me.” Xavier turned to Jenny—her jaw hung by a thread. “No one would if their whole experience is the S.A. Capital. The Capital’s a whole other—”

“What the hell, Xavier? Are you even trying anymore, or did you give up?”

“I promise you I haven’t changed. I still hate the S.A. Nothing’s different.” Xavier’s chin dipped into his chest. “It really is complicated… I don’t think my mom really knows what’s going on. Dad certainly doesn’t. He had his doubts about them, but never saw it firsthand. The S.A. keeps them— I don’t know… Out of the loop, I guess.”

“I’m not buying it.” She stepped closer to Xavier, and her gloved finger pecked at his chest. “There’s no way they don’t know.”

Xavier swatted her finger away. “My parents would never, never allow any of the bullshit to happen if they knew.”

The conviction in his statement burned Jenny’s ears. I want to believe you, but I can’t right now. You’re hiding something. I just don’t know what it is yet. Drawing in a deep breath, she told him, “You’ll have to prove yourself.”

He turned from her and kicked through the snow with his head down. Matt took to his side. Jenny went to follow, but Grant grabbed her by the arm, holding her there so Xavier could escape for the moment.

“He’s not telling us everything.” Jenny snatched her elbow loose but stayed put.

“He’s not the only one.” Grant’s forehead wrinkled with the rise in his eyebrows. “You’re not say—”

“Hard to trust him when he’s one of them.”

“Hard for him to feel welcome when you treatin’ him like this.”

Jenny didn’t respond.

“This is Xavier we’re talkin’ ‘bout. What’s he got to hide from us?”

“He’s in that uniform.”

“He found his mom and dad. What wouldn’t you do to get your parents back?”

“That might be the point…”

“I can’t believe you’re sayin’ that ‘bout him. I know him, if you don’t, that’s your problem. I know if there’s anything else to tell, he will. Just quit bein’ so hard on him. Let’s focus on gettin’ back to the Depot and sortin’ through this mess later. No sense in fightin’ ourselves. S.A.’s comin’ for us, not Xavier. Can we least agree on that?”

Jenny nodded but kept her eyes forward. “Sure…” Curling Sherman’s lead within her hand a few more times, she took out the slack, placing him closer to her. “Good, boy.” She petted him along his side. Maybe I’m wrong… No way the S.A. knew I was coming for Matt and Grant. Doesn’t even seem like Xavier knew they had been taken in the first place. They didn’t let him know anything.

“If this ain’t the time, sorry, but…” Grant waved his hand in front of Jenny’s face. “You here?”

Her eyes went to his for only a second—“What?”—then returned to her friends’ slow march into the distance.

“Jenny…” Grant raked his teeth across his bottom lip. “Why you have Sherman? Why the hell Danny send you out by yourself?”

She thought for a moment, considering the truth as an answer, but couldn’t bring herself to let it go. “You’ll have to ask him. I can’t explain why he does what he does.”

“That don’t make no sense. Somethin’ bad happen?”

“Not that I know.” The lie slid down the back of her throat, sickening every inch of her body on the way down. Clenching her teeth, she mustered everything inside her to keep her eyes from welling up, but it surfaced anyway. Damn it. Not now. She stormed off. Grant followed, unknowingly walking through her tears.

Jenny watched the others, one by one, duck through the lower partition of a shattered glass door into the McDonald’s sitting cater-corner to the Depot. Each step through, each crunch of the glass shards beneath their boots gave Jenny pause. She blocked the entrance from Sherman—“Platz!”—then began scraping the fragments away with her foot. After inspecting the floor to ensure the glass wouldn’t find its way into Sherman’s paws, she called him through, “Hier.”

“He listens really well,” Xavier said, the remark sounding more like a peace offering than an actual statement.

“Yeah.” Jenny nodded, twitching her lips into a hasty smile. “Just take watch here. Matt, take the far door.”

Xavier took post with his rifle at the broken door’s entrance, and Matt moved into position on the far side with the pistol Jenny had given him earlier.

“From in here, we’ll need to make sure the Depot’s still good. If somehow the S.A. got here before us, we’re not gonna want to walk into what’s about to happen.”

“And what’s that?” Grant eyed her.