“How about we start with introductions? Seeing as we’re all civilized folks,” Noah continued for the group. He gave the couple their names, gesturing to each of them in turn. When he got to Lysander, Noah shot a dirty look at him.

“Good to meet you. You can call me Taj, and this is my partner, Beatriz,” the man responded.

“Great, good to meet you too.” As Lysander watched the interaction continue without any input from him, the only thing he could focus on was how different Noah acted with strangers. Seeing him be amiable was a truly odd experience. “So, you wanted to know more about Tessa’s Shift?”

“Preferably,” Taj answered.

Before Noah could explain, Tessa chimed in. Her exhaustion had only increased since they set out that morning. Lysander had plied her with an apple at some point while they walked, but as far as he knew, that was the only food she had consumed since the small bites of jerky the previous day. “The truth is that Lysander and Ramon are from the city,” she began. At the mention of the city, both Taj and Beatriz looked visibly shaken, surprise knocking them from their guarded postures. “They’re being used as guinea pigs for my ability and to maybe strike a bargain with your commune for resources. Kinda a two birds, one stone situation.”

“Guinea pigs? Sent outside the Barrier to die?” Beatriz asked, speaking to them for the first time. Her brown hair sat on top of her head, pulled tight into a bun to keep it out of her face while working. She had the sort of no nonsense voice and tone that always made Lysander feel like a kid being scolded.

“Well, the hope is that they come back totally fine, but yeah, the city was willing to gamble with their lives if it meant my power worked,” Tessa continued. Lysander had no idea why she was lying, but he kept silent–on purpose this time–in order to play along.

“So these two are expendable? And what about the other two?” Beatriz pointed at Lexi and Noah.

“Lexi is our guard for external threats and Noah is the navigator. They work for the Campbell’s, like me.” The more lies Tessa told, the more nervous Lysander felt. His palms had become coated in a thin sheen of sweat.

“Okay, sure. Saying we believe all that, what is it that the city wants with us?” Taj spoke up, sounding skeptical.

Elbowing Lysander, Tessa motioned for him to carry the conversation now that she had placed somewhere that he understood. His mouth still tasted like dirt, and his tongue chafed unpleasantly as he unglued it from where it had sat impotently, but he finally put words into the world once more, “Uh, right. Um, so, we were hoping that we could make a deal for some of the food you produce here. Things are pretty dire over in the Barrier and all, so anything you might be willing to part with would be helpful.”

Beatriz laughed humorlessly. “They want help from us now? Most of these people were either cast out or left behind when the Barrier went up.” Her hand cut a line through the air in the direction of the people still milling around pretending to work. The motion also drew his attention to a secluded plot of land cordoned off from the rest of the makeshift village by a wooden fence. Inside, rows and rows of white painted stones laid and he could make out someone kneeling in front of one, brushing dirt from it and replacing a bundle of dead wildflowers for a new bouquet.

“I-I know that it’s asking a lot, but I–I mean, we just aren’t sure what to do anymore. Without more food, the council wants to cut the Barrier back and leave even more people out to die,” Lysander pleaded. This was his last lifeline, the only thing left he could think to do. If he had to limp back to the city as a failure after this, he wasn’t sure what was left for him. He would have to look Miria in the face and tell her he was wrung dry, that he had expended all the lifeblood he had trying to save their home and it had still not been enough.

Beatriz narrowed her eyes at him, the squint lines in her forehead growing deep–a byproduct of long days spent in a bright sun and years of distrust. “If they’re really that desperate, why would they send two guys sentenced to death?”

Struggling to come up with an answer to that, Lysander twisted his fingers together. He wished he could just unburden the truth to these people, but he trusted Tessa’s judgment more than his own in this at least. “They couldn’t risk sending anyone else with her power so untested. If they come back alive and with a positive response, they get to live,” Noah cut in, shrugging as though not particularly invested in the fictional Lysander and Ramon’s fate.

With a sigh, Taj planted his hands on his hips and scuffed his foot along the ground, sending up a tiny puff of loose dirt. “This is all pretty sudden,” he said, “The city hasn’t bothered with us since the Barrier went up, and now they’re sending folks out here to beg for scraps. Feels a little off to me, but I’m also not about to let you head back without any kind of answer. So, what we’re gonna do is set y’all up with a room for the night and we’ll talk things over with the rest of the commune and get back to you before the rooster crows tomorrow morning.”

This had to be a figure of speech because Lysander didn’t see any animals at all roaming around, let alone chickens, but he had no real idea what time of morning it referred to either. Probably earlier than he had ever woken up, though.

At this, Beatriz pulled Taj’s arm and hissed into his ear in what was most likely intended as a whisper but came out loud enough for them to overhear. “You can’t be serious, Taj. No one will be happy with this. That vulture Jarrod will have everyone up in arms before the dinner bell rings.”

“I know that, Triz, but it’s only one night, and we’ll post up a guard,” he responded in the same low volume.

“You fool of a man,” she scolded, but Lysander could see the resignation on her face muddled together with a kiss of affection, “We don’t even know their Shifts.”

“Just trust me, Triz. I know what I’m doing most of the time.” As he spoke, he began to walk back into the village, waving his arm for them to follow.

As they moved into the rough rectangular layout of buildings, Lysander saw that even though they looked freshly constructed, the structures actually looked well made. The total effect of the place screamed of a village from 1700s New England, complete with a few children playing with a wooden hoop and a stick. Everyone they passed had a layer of dirt permanently grafted onto their hands and under their fingernails. Even the kids had tougher calluses than Lysander, and he could practically hear their judgemental thoughts projecting from their distrustful gazes as they shuffled past.

Taj led them to what could be generously referred to as a shed. With all five of them inside, they had just enough room to sit with their legs outstretched comfortably, and they had to share the space with a collection of farming tools leaned against the walls and strewn across shelves. There was no real floor, just tamped down earth, so chances were good that they would all be disgustingly dirty by morning.

“Sorry about the cramped accommodations, but we don’t have much room for guests out in these parts,” Taj apologized, “I’ll have someone bring you over some food in a bit. We eat vegan most of the time, so hopefully y’all like your veggies.”

“Thanks for putting us up,” Lysander said.

Nodding, Taj began to close the door, “I’ll let you get some rest, then. There’ll be some guys just outside the door if you need to go to the bathroom or anything, but otherwise, I’d appreciate it if you could just stay put here for the night. Nothing personal, just don’t need my people panicking.”

“Okay, no problem,” Lysander responded, though it would almost certainly turn into a problem when one or all of them went stir crazy in this confined space together.

“Appreciate your understanding.” With that, Taj closed them in, taking most of the light with him. Without electricity, the shed plunged into darkness. It took a few seconds for Lysander’s eyes to adjust to having only the small crack of daylight seeping under the door, but Noah was already rooting around in his bag and pulling out a few half melted candles, wax droplets caked onto the sides. After another moment, he also unearthed a book of matches and struck one, touching the flame to each wick carefully.

“Try not to knock it over and set us on fire,” Noah nagged as he passed two of the candles around to be placed, his narrowed eyes on Lysander.

As much as Lysander wanted to deny the possibility, he couldn’t. With his long legs and clumsiness, he could see himself carelessly kicking one of the candles over and killing them all in the process. With that in mind, he kept himself as far as possible from all three, even though that meant his space in the shed was more shadowed as a result.

“Are these the only candles we have?” Tessa asked.

“Of course not,” Noah snapped but refused to elaborate further. “Why did you tell them the truth about your power?”

The accusation flew from him, and Tessa’s eyes widened in surprise. “I didn’t!”

“Close enough,” he complained. Even with how irritated he seemed though, he kept his voice pitched low enough that anyone lingering outside shouldn’t hear him. “If they found out it worked, they would probably try to kill the rest of us and keep you as their slave.”

“Don’t be so hyperbolic,” Tessa scolded, “I couldn’t think of anything else to tell them that would have let us keep the bubble up. Hopefully they just believe it’s a fool’s errand.”

“I was doing fine on my own. You could have just let me handle it,” Noah argued. His eyes burned hotter than the candles, the flames flickering in the reflection of them.

Lysander could see that she wanted to continue the fight as her fist tightened where it rested in her lap and a muscle in her jaw ticked from clenching her teeth too hard, but she merely said, “Next time I’ll keep my mouth shut.”

“There won’t be a next time,” Noah scoffed.

“As much as I love watching you argue with anything that moves, I think we have more important things to talk about right now,” Ramon asserted, “Namely what we do if they don’t agree to help.”

“What can we do? If they don’t want to help, we just have to go home,” Lysander muttered.

“Even you sound doom and gloom now, man,” Ramon remonstrated.

“Not on purpose,” Lysander faltered, “I just don’t know what other recourse we would have. Tessa can’t last much longer like this.”

“True, but that doesn’t mean we couldn’t try again. There has to be more farms like this, right?”

“If there’s one, there’s bound to be more,” Lexi added, “Whatever Lysander wants to do, I’m in.”

Before Lysander could protest, Noah did it for him, “Hell no. I agreed to a one off adventure or whatever. I’m not signing on to slump around the countryside with my traitor sister and the bumbling clown.”

The dig at him stung, but Lysander brushed past it. “As much as I don’t want to give up, we’re running out of time.”

“So maybe it’s time you brought your girlfriend in on it?” Lexi suggested. “She could buy us more if she knew we had something cooking behind the scenes.”

Lysander had legitimately lost count of how many times he had told her Miria wasn’t his girlfriend, so he ignored that for now. “Maybe she could, but at the same time, how much longer do you think we could keep doing this without attracting Anthony’s attention? Me and Tessa have jobs. If we just quit now or keep taking leave, I think people might start to get suspicious. Plus, we need the money to, like, survive and stay housed.”

With a shrug, Lexi continued, “Okay then. Whatever you wanna do.”

“This is probably the wrong time, but you are being weirdly loyal to a person who told you repeatedly that he wanted nothing to do with you,” Lysander complained.

“Someone had to say it,” Ramon muttered.

She shrugged again. “It’s not like you can do anything about it. You’re stuck with me.”

Once more, Lysander found himself wanting to scream ‘why’ into the void, but he resisted the urge. “Fine then. I guess we just hope they say yes for now, and if they don’t, we can reassess once we’re back in the city.”

“Speaking of heading home, do you guys know of any old pharmacies on the way back cause it doesn’t look like I’m gonna find anything here for Richie,” Ramon stated.

“We’ll have to be quick about it if we want to make it back before Tessa drops, and I doubt there’ll be anything that hasn’t already been looted or ashed, but yeah, there’s some places we could check,” Noah remarked, still looking sulky with his arms crossed.

“Cool, cool. Richie’s a reasonable guy, so even if it’s not the full amount, he’ll probably let us in. I think i mighta been a little harsh with him last time. Made his hackles raise,” Ramon continued optimistically.

“You go on believing that, buddy,” Noah griped.

While Noah and Ramon continued to bicker with each other, Lexi took that opportunity to stand and squeeze into a spot near Lysander. “I appreciate you trusting me enough to bring you out here,” she said.

“Yeah, well, I was desperate,” Lysander replied pettily.

She chuckled, “I know, but still. It’s nice traveling with a group again. I kinda forgot how fun it could be.” Sneaking a glance over at her face, he saw a small smile gracing the corner of her mouth. It honestly may have been the happiest he had ever seen her, other than when she was laughing at her own jokes.

“If I wasn’t constantly sore and scared for my life, I think it could be fun, yeah,” he murmured.

“You’re a weird guy, Lysander,” she responded. She had her chin in her hand and her head tilted to look directly at him.

“So you’ve told me,” he grumbled.

“No, no, I’m not teasing you this time, I swear,” she denied with a smirk, “I just like that you’re…different than most other people I know.”

“Because I don’t murder people?” he quipped.

She breathed out a laugh, “No. Well, yes, but no. It’s more that you care about things, I guess. Personally, I try not to give a shit about much because it’s easier out here to hold just a couple things close, but you seem to live your life on the opposite spectrum.”

“You have Noah.”

“Like I said, a couple things. Noah’s one of mine, and now so are you.”

As flattering as that was, he still sighed, “Most people don’t kill off the family members of the person they claim to care about.”

“I would hope they would if that family member was plotting the death of that person.”

“I’m just saying, there had to be a better way,” he groaned, feeling the futility of arguing with her about this.

“Maybe, but this was definitely the most efficient way,” she insisted, “Rip the bandaid off and all that.”

“You say that, but I think I have more problems now than I did before.”

“And that’s why I’m still around,” she pressed, “To help clean up the mess we made.”

“I appreciate that, at least,” he conceded, but he didn’t feel any better about anything. Wanting to move on, he continued, “Let me see your hands. I’ll redo the bandages.”

For once, she seemed to sense his desire to be left alone because she didn’t continue poking at old wounds while he worked. Her palms had turned a gastly muddle of deep blues and reds with the deepest shades carving a line through the middle where she must have caught the antlers directly. Wincing, he gently began to refasten the bandages, trying to keep the dirtiest parts on the outside away from her skin.

Later that night, two men dropped off trays of food for them. The plates were made of treated wood, as were the cups. The food itself was a simple stir fried collection of vegetables over noodles made of zucchini and summer squash. Half the things on the plate were out of season, but there they were all the same like the giant field of wildflowers they had walked through. The water they provided tasted earthy and tangy as though it had been pulled from an old well, but Lysander gave it the benefit of the doubt after seeing how healthy the villagers had looked.

As the night progressed, their little shed began to leak in the cold through the planks, but thankfully with all of them so close together, they stayed mostly warm through shared body heat. Lexi even deigned to dole out her blankets among them, each of which was large enough for two people to fit under. All in all, it felt a bit like sleeping in a dog pile. Since he spent almost every night with Bingley curled into him and the cats draped over him, Lysander felt at peace being so close to the others. There was something innately comforting about hearing the rise and fall of someone’s breathing as they drifted to sleep, and even with all of his anxieties about what was to come, Lysander fell asleep almost instantaneously to the chorus of the others' soft exhales.