The Forgotten Light

3. Fairlight

Every time they met Carter Reyn, Fairlight wondered why the man was looking at her like that. She thought maybe it was just her paranoia, but just when these thoughts were going through her head, she met Carter's gaze once again that night. This time, however, he did not avert his gaze so quickly, only when the girl raised an eyebrow, as if in silent question "What?", he walked over to the RAM and opened its trunk.

She didn't like the fact that she couldn't decipher the man. Could it be that the rebel knew something about her that the others didn't suspect? She wouldn't be surprised if he told her to her face that he didn't trust her. Fairlight may have liked him, but she wouldn't entrust her friends' lives or her own into his hands.

She and MJ stood together in front of the warehouse and closely followed everything going on around them. Ritael and Akio were supplying crates with food supplies. Dusty and a few of Reyn's men were busy packing cans of water.

Harlyn and other beefy guys were removing the heavy junk from the RAM that Carter was so fond of, excluding the adrenaline rush of venturing downtown. His little hobby was assembling cars and sometimes even robots. He could lean over pieces of metal for days, take them apart or weld them together and create something completely new. He was quite a talented man. Some jealous person, at one time, suspected him of selling parts to the Invicta Beings, or even building means of transportation for them. However, no one who had seen Carter Reyn at least once in their lives believed in this alliance between a man and an unknown species. And even if such alliance did exist, a shot to the man's leg ended everything between them. He would be unlikely to burn with a desire to cooperate with someone who made him an invalid for the rest of his life.

"Perhaps you caught his eye? " accosted MJ, chewing on a tiny pencil. Even she noticed Carter's gaze directed in their direction.

"Just be quiet and better tick off what we already have from the list."

"It's also possible that it's because of your hair. It's so white in the moonlight that your head looks like a big luring light bulb. We can ask Reyn to steal some dark hair dye for you next time."

"I adore you, MJ, but at times like this, I feel like pushing your shaggy head into the sand. But it probably wouldn't make any difference on your hair," Fairlight cut off with a wry smile.

MJ laughed under her breath and put some check marks on a piece of paper. She marked all the food products on the list with a buckle and signed with one word "Tack: check. Countless amounts of drinking water: check. Great. What's next...

"What about medicine and first aid kits?"

"...Medicine: none. First aid kits: also none," MJ continued in one tone, as if no one had interrupted her before.

Fairlight snorted with laughter and was already cursing in her mind at having to go up to Carter and dun for the rest of the stuff, when Lola, a 16-year-old brunette from the local camp called out to her "Hey, don't forget the medication and bandages! They're still left in storage."

"Let me help you," Fairlight offered and moved behind the petite girl.

The inside of their base looked much better and safer than the outside. Inside, one didn't have the impression that the building would collapse on their heads any moment - the ruined exterior, as a matter of fact, provided them with safety. The creatures were unlikely to bother searching the tumbledown buildings, where even rats would be afraid to commune. One could say that the interior was decorated lavishly. Compared to their camp in Florence, the one here even had paintings and books. Of course, all stolen from downtown Phoenix.

"You should take them with you. Everyone at the base has already read them at least three times," said Lola, seeing that she was looking at the bookcase. "They are all more than twenty years old, but still quite impressive. Few books from the pre-Invicta era have survived."