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“What the hell is wrong with you?” I burst out. “They didn’t attack us.”

Hamilton shrugged. “The system automatically targets Wastelanders once we get within a certain distance of the Delta. My job is not to interfere.”

“They were innocent,” I hissed at him.

“Wastelanders are not innocent, Ainsley,” he replied with a shrug. “You ought to know that. They got too close; they paid the price.”

Outrage and nausea burned in my chest, but nothing I could say would help the dead couple. I suddenly realized I was shivering, though not from cold. I pulled John’s t-shirt more tightly around me, burying my face in the collar and inhaling deeply. It still smelled like him, and as I gritted my teeth against the horror of what I’d just witnessed, I used the scent to ground myself.

My husband would tell me to be strong. To survive. Whatever the cost.

So that was what I would do.

Chapter 4

Claire

The Delta was vast and sprawling, far more than even the Cave had been. Even though it was dark as we drove downhill towards the Wall, I already knew it was much larger. Lights dotted the top of the Walls, and Hamilton answered radio calls from the patrol units threaded throughout the Delta’s Zone of Control, letting them know of our imminent arrival.

Eventually, we drove up to the tall, iron doors of the front gate, where Hamilton radioed the watchtower to let us in. With a loud hiss and a groan of metal, the doors opened, and Hamilton drove us through. As soon as the vehicle cleared the gate, the doors slammed shut behind us, and I had the uncanny feeling of being sealed into a tomb.

On the other side of the gate, we were greeted by a simple, empty concrete room illuminated by fluorescent lights. To the left, a ramp led downward, and I spotted a row of similar military vehicles resting at the bottom; they were obviously stored there. There was a booth next to the ramp, where a bored-looking female soldier was reading a book behind the desk. The space was otherwise empty except for a set of steel double doors that bore the message CAUTION: DECONTAMINATION ZONE.

Hamilton turned off the engine and hopped out of the truck, then delivered the keys to the soldier in the booth, who nodded at him in acknowledgement. He withdrew a pack from the cargo hold, then came around to open my door. To my surprise, he offered me his hand to help me down, which I promptly ignored, jumping down on my own. I didn’t appreciate any attempts to paint this as anything other than what it was: a kidnapping. We walked to the double doors ahead of us, while the booth soldier jumped into the truck, presumably to park it below.

“Have you ever entered a compound before?” Hamilton asked, nonplussed at my rejection.

“No,” I admitted. “But I’ve left before. The Cave’s gate wasn’t like this, though. It was guarded, but it didn’t have a garage like this. Or a decontamination zone, whatever that is.”

He nodded. “It was a much smaller site, so less of the bells and whistles. The Delta is the second largest in the province. The decontamination zone was built some years ago, when we had some trouble with soldiers bringing illness back into the Delta through their contact with Wastelanders.”

“Second largest?” I repeated, eyebrows raised. “There’s one bigger than this? And you’re just…telling me that? At home, we were never given any information about the other compounds—only that they existed, and we didn’t even know they were run by the same people. I only learned that later.”

“I’m sure that the Sire will tell you more,” Hamilton replied with a shrug. “But it’s late, and you need rest, so let’s get this over with.”

He gestured to the steel doors, and I cautiously followed him. On the other side, another plain concrete room awaited us, with another set of double doors on the far wall.

“Wait,” Hamilton ordered, and I hesitated. The doors behind and ahead of us both clicked, locking us in, and my stomach jumped.

A pleasant, computerized female voice sounded over a speaker on the ceiling. “Welcome. Please remain still for decontamination.”

“Close your eyes and mouth,” Hamilton said, a second too late.

A white cloud descended from spouts built into the ceiling, and I inhaled a mouthful of medicinal-tasting dust. I coughed, my eyes streaming. A few seconds later, the cloud had dissipated, and other than my throat burning, it was like it’d never happened.

“Thanks for the warning,” I croaked, suppressing another cough. “God.”

To my surprise, Hamilton’s lips quirked upward—the first sign that he was just a person like the rest of us, rather than a living statue.

“Sorry,” he replied. “I keep telling them to put that warning as part of the announcement, but they never do.”

The doors ahead of us unlocked, and Hamilton led me out onto what must normally have been a busy street. At this hour, it was dead silent, illuminated only by sparse streetlights. The surrounding buildings were all military installations, with only the occasional faint glow from a shrouded window.

“Where are we going?” I asked as Hamilton fiddled with a touchscreen phone. I hadn’t seen one since I left the Cave, and it now seemed foreign and strange.

“Not far,” he replied. “I’ve called a car, though.”

I’ve literally walked thousands of kilometres in the dead of winter, I wanted to say. I think I’ll be fine.