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Wren

Three loud thumps against her door. Mason didn't wait for a response. The tread of his shoes sounded loud in the quiet of her house. The mattress exhaled when he flopped on the bed.

He rocked the thin mattress that sat on a rope and wood frame. Eying the ratty T-shirt Wren had put on to sleep in; he picked at the frayed hem. "Beautiful," he mocked. "You slept in this?"

"It's comfortable."

"It's hideous," he proclaimed.

"If you're going to criticize me, feel free to leave."

"Someone woke up on the cranky side of the bed. Actually, you've been kind of weird lately."

"No, I haven't." Wren's words were combative.

"Really?"

"Fine, maybe a little. I have a lot on my mind."

"What's on Ray-Ray's mind?" Mason said in baby talk.

"If you are going to be a brat, I'm not going to tell you anything." She swatted his tattooed, well-muscled arm.

He moved closer, snuggling into her side. "Come on, Wren, what's the problem? Your dad?"

"Surprisingly, no." Wren paused. The words came out on their own without thought. "Do you believe everything they say about New State and the people who live there?"

"From what I've noticed on raids, it all makes sense."

"What about the tech heads? Maybe they are people just like us."

"I doubt that. They can't be with that CHIP Implant."

She bit her bottom lip. "Maybe they aren't all mindless robots everyone says they are."

"What's going on? Are you having doubts about the raid on the archive?"

She shook her head. "No." She played with the hem of her beat-up t-shirt and switched subjects "What do you want in a partner?"

Mason's eyes narrowed. "Where'd that come from?" He stared at her through slits. It's not like there's a checklist or anything. You have more experience in this. Didn't you date that raider last year?"

"For about two minutes." Wren's cheeks turned warm. "I raid. I don't date."

Wren wondered why she started this conversation. After a minute of awkward silence, Wren prodded Mason with a finger to his stomach. "Well?"

"Stop," he grunted and jerked her hand away. "I'm taking your question seriously. Give me time to process."

Mason lay on his back, her hand trapped in his, staring at the ceiling. Finally, he flipped over so he could read her expression.

"With my superior wit and intelligence, isn't it obvious I'd want someone equally compelling?"

Wren guffawed. "Sure, if that's how you see yourself."

"Now, who's not taking this seriously? Don't you want someone who is smart enough to have a deep, meaningful conversation but also intelligent enough to shut up and do something crazy and fun?"

"It sounds great in theory, but do people like that exist?"

"So little faith. There's me and your dad."

"Not appropriate. What if they had a different kind of intelligence than we have?"

Confusion covered his face. "How many different types of intelligence are there? Don't answer that. In addition to being smart, my ideal man has to be attentive but not overbearing. I'm my own person."

"He better not make you give up your best friend," Wren added.

"Exactly!" Mason let go of her hand.

"Anything else?" Wren snuggled herself into the crook of his arm.

"Chemistry. While he doesn't have to be gorgeous, there has to be a spark."

"Have you ever found someone with all these qualities?"

Mason laughed. "If I had, would I be here with you?"

Wren swatted his stomach. "You make me feel so loved."

He turned serious. "You're keeping secrets from me."

A blush bloomed across her cheeks. "No," she said unconvincingly. "Do New Staters ever have conversations like this?"

"Hell no. But enough of this idle chit-chat. You need to get up and dressed. There's a meeting about the next raid, and if you want to be on it, you'd better be there. Twenty minutes." He hopped out of the bed and sauntered out of the bedroom. A loud bang followed.

"What would I do without you?" Wren yelled after him.

He yelled through the closed door. "You better tell me the truth soon."

***

Two days later, Wren prepared for the raid, the last one before the attack on the archives. A plan wrestled in her head. Mason would have told her the idea was a stupid idea, but she didn't care. She hadn't revealed her hook-up to anyone and still hadn't processed the entire experience, but she wanted to return to Codex's house.

She could get intel on the archives without revealing the Grounder's plan. At least she told herself that was the reason she wanted to return. She'd been assigned a job to do on the raid as well, but she could accomplish that at his housing pod. The items she needed to procure lived there.

A cloudless, chilly night greeted her. Barbed wire stung her cheek and cold itched under her layers of clothes as she wiggled under the barricade. Once inside, she jogged, hoping the brisk pace would warm her. The intense lights lining the street clearly marked her as an outsider. Her glance alternated between sky and ground. She picked up pebbles as she neared Codex's pod, tossing them at his window, which glowed pale with the light of technology. The seconds felt like punches as Wren shifted from foot to foot.

When the door opened, she flew into the interior. She grabbed Codex's hand and ushered him up to his room without a word. When she released his hand, he stared at it.

"What?" Wren demanded. She rubbed her palms together. Were her hands sweaty? Did they smell from digging under the barricade?

"I've never held a person's hand, not even my parents. Interesting. Thanks."

"Really? No hand holding?" New State kept getting more bizarre. "What else haven't you done?" Wren discarded her jacket on a chair in his climate-controlled room. Her fascination with New Stater's lives overcame her discomfort.

"New State discourages physical contact other than between married couples or when it's clinical to help with hookups. Physical contact is..." his face went blank for a moment. His green eyes froze, turning glassy.

"What just happened?" Wren reached out with concern, her hand on his arm. "Did you have a stroke? Computer CHIP go haywire?"

"Searched my database. Consider physical contact like your appendix. It's a useless vestige of the evolutionary past."

"That was creepy."

"What?"

"When you went all blank and focused on your database."

He shrugged her concern aside. "I also haven't..." He paused.