Endurance Read Free Page A

report back to Silk. Will you be all right here?”
    Thimble scrambled to her feet and nearly fell when her ankle turned. He caught her as he’d done before, and her cheeks burned. She didn’t want to be weak and imperfect in his eyes.
    “She’s in charge now, I take it?” She didn’t wait for confirmation.
    Quickly, Thimble counted the brats, who whimpered with fear and hunger. They hadn’t been able to finish their meals. No bells tolled the time any longer, but it had been a while. But maybe all the food hadn’t been ruined. Cold, charred meat was better than nothing.
    “Would you watch him for me?” Stone asked.
    She took the brat without hesitation; the little one mattered to her friend, so she’d do her best. “I don’t know how safe it is,” he added quietly. “I’ll look for you later.”
    She nodded. “I’ll try to find something for us to eat.”
    To her astonishment, he leaned in and kissed her cheek. She’d seen such gestures exchanged between Breeders, who touched each other with a careless, lovely warmth, but Stone had never done more than sling his arm around her shoulders or steady her when she stumbled. With wondering fingers, she touched the warm spot on her skin and watched him stride away into the murky darkness.
    “Well.” With some effort, she rallied for the sake of the brats. “Stay together. There must be dinner around here somewhere.”
    “Miss Thimble,” a brat said timidly.
    “Yes?”
    “Why did the world end?”
    It wasn’t a question about Topside; she realized that much. So he wanted to know about the recent fighting. Impossible to explain such things someone so young.
    But she tried as she picked a careful path through the wreckage. “The elders had rules that weren’t fair. They punished people who didn’t do anything bad. Some other people got angry and wanted the elders to stop, but they wouldn’t, and so they fought.”
    “Who won?” a girl piped.
    “Nobody,” Thimble said softly.
    “Everything’s broken and dirty and we didn’t get any breakfast,” another brat put in.
    She couldn’t remember their numbers. That wasn’t uncommon in the enclave. Only fellow brat-mates bothered to learn the numerical designations for everyone in their dorm. To everyone else, the brats were underfoot and interchangeable, unless they proved strong enough to earn a name. Today, that saddened her.
    The tallest brat asked, “Who will take care of us?”
    “I will,” she replied.
    “But you’re a Builder.”
    “Once things are back to normal, the Breeders will take over.” If enough of them survived. “But until then, you’re with me.”
    “Thank you.” The brat holding her free hand squeezed it.
    Stone’s brat wrapped an arm around her neck and put his head on her shoulder. A dirty thumb went into his mouth. An odd softness radiated through her at the way he nestled there, such perfect trust. This brat was part of the boy she—well, her friend, Stone.
    She spoke with more confidence than she felt. “Come on.”
    Thimble averted her eyes from the worst of the carnage, guiding her charges away from the deceased. But one girl stood fast, her face sick and pale as she stared at a fallen female.
    After endless moments, she lifted damp eyes in a thin and dirty face. “That was my dam. I wasn’t supposed to know, but she gave me extra meat at meals.”
    Thimble would have felt better if the brat had cried, but the girl swallowed her tears like gravel and her gaze went flat and still, fixed on nothing in particular. She didn’t stare at the dead Breeder anymore. With a choked reassurance that even she didn’t believe, Thimble went on toward the kitchen area where the conflict had started. She found offal, blood, chunks of flesh, severed limbs, and corpses already attracting flies. The stench stole her breath.
    We can’t eat in here.
    “There must be stores somewhere,” she said aloud.
    The brat who had asked about their welfare suggested, “The fish