Time Salvager (Time Salvager #1)(74)
She looked over the edge of the building down at the rest of the Boston Common, where the low-hanging soot clouds swirled, the gray-colored winds dancing around the buildings like wisps. It was a harsh world she lived in now. To survive out here, these people had to work and live efficiently, and rely on one another for things to get done.
The backbreaking work continued until noon, when the scorch of the sun became too much for them to handle. All the crews retreated to safety inside the shells of the skyscrapers to break for lunch. There, children even younger than Sammuia, all under ten years of age, brought up their meals: assorted brown and green mush with salted leaves and small black grubs curled into balls. She was starting to get used to these disgusting meals.
In fact, she was so hungry she didn’t even realize she had inhaled it all until her plate was clean. She looked down in surprise. It was as if her taste buds had turned themselves off in order for her body to digest the nutrients without throwing them up. Elise gazed around the room. This was how these people lived, day in and out.
During the hottest four hours of the day, when it was far too dangerous to work, the crews spaced themselves out on the stairwell of the building and passed containers of water, fresh sacks of untainted soil, seeds, and useful farming tools up from the surface. The old soil, with its nutrients used up, was tossed over the side of the buildings. This work continued until the sun began its descent toward the horizon and the temperature cooled. Then the crews went back to the roof and worked three more hours until it was too dark to continue.
When the long day was over, everyone marched in twos back down the buildings. Elise’s initial fears about ascending and descending in darkness now came true, since the setting sun no longer offered enough light to illuminate the doorways. Fortunately, the group was prepared for this. The lead and anchor person of the group turned on some sort of light around her wrist, not unlike the kind James used. Elise was initially uneasy with the oppressive darkness, but soon her eyes acclimated to the low light until soon it no longer bothered her.
She had to be helped by several of the children as they made that final trek down the stairwell to the ground floor. According to Franwil, this was their typical day, with only every eighth day saved for rest. By the time they reached the communal field among the six buildings, night had just fallen. Dinner was brought out and, for the next few hours, they sang and told stories around a large bonfire. Most of it was a big haze to Elise. She was so dead tired that she almost dozed off into her dinner.
Franwil nudged her awake and helped her to her feet. Otherwise, Elise probably would have just fallen asleep on the grass. “Get some sleep,” the elderly woman said. “Tomorrow is another day.”
She signaled to a gaggle of children to help her to her tent. Elise barely made it. She probably wouldn’t have without those kids holding her up. To her surprise, James was already sprawled out on the floor inside. He hadn’t quite made it to his mattress.
“What’s wrong with you?” she asked.
His eyes fluttered open and an “uh” escaped his lips as he tilted his neck so he could see her. “Tired,” he said softly, then groaned as he tried to sit up. After one or two futile attempts, he fell back down onto his back. “Just come closer,” he mumbled. “I can’t quite move my head to see you.”
Elise was too tired to smile and instead just lay down on her side next to him. “Standing takes too much energy. What happened to you, tough guy? Shouldn’t this be a cakewalk?”
“We were moving mountains of dirt with sticks and shovels. These primitives are trying to change the course of a river by hand, for abyss’s sake.”
Eyes closed, Elise lifted her hand and wiggled her fingers. “Couldn’t you just use your bands and do that hocus-pocus thing you do?”
“Doing hocus-pocus takes energy, and I’m not going to waste it moving mounds of shit to divert a river of the same stuff. Energy is at a premium. Who knows how long I will be able to keep these bands charged? This isn’t like your time period, where there’s a plug around every corner.”
“No roast in every pot, huh?”
“What’s a…?”
Unable to crane her neck toward him, Elise grunted and rolled onto her right side, using her left arm resting on his chest to support herself. “Never mind.”
James opened his left eye and looked down at her hand resting on his chest, for the first time noticing how close she was to him. It must have given him strength, because he managed to roll left until they were facing each other. He looked a little uncomfortable lying so close to her. To be honest, it made her a little self-conscious as well.
“What I wouldn’t give for a bath,” she murmured, running her hand down his arm. She frowned at the dirt that caked onto her finger. “Do they exist anymore? Seems like personal hygiene has gone the way of the dinosaurs these days.”
James put his right arm on her shoulder and they steadied each other as they lay on their sides, too far apart to embrace properly, but close enough that she felt a tingle shoot up her back. The heat of his presence was comforting. The truth was that Elise didn’t know what to think of him. James was still the same Salman she had taken a liking to back on Nutris, but he also wasn’t.
The mysterious stranger she had crushed on was even more mysterious than she ever thought anyone could be. There was a broodiness about him, a sadness that seemed to suck the joy out of a room. And now that she thought about it, he definitely wasn’t as good-looking as Salman, either.