Free Earthfall by Mark Walden Page B

Royal Marine, I think. Do what he tells you and you’ll both get along just fine.’
    Jay pushed the doors open and led Sam into a much larger room beyond. There were just four people in the room, but Sam still hesitated. It might only have been four people, but that was four more people than he’d seen in the past eighteen months. He was still feeling overwhelmed by suddenly meeting all these new faces. Jay saw the look on Sam’s face and smiled.
    ‘It’s OK,’ he said, putting a hand on Sam’s shoulder. ‘I felt just the same when I first arrived. It was all a bit much to take in at first. I’d kinda got used to being on my own. You know what I mean?’
    ‘Yeah,’ Sam said quietly. ‘I know exactly what you mean.’
    On one side of the room there was a short dark-haired girl and a tall red-headed boy who were looking at a map on the wall and having what looked like quite a heated conversation. Sam followed as Jay walked towards them.
    ‘Guys, I’d like to introduce you to our latest recruit,’ Jay said. ‘This is Sam. Sam, this is Kate and this is Adam – they’re our resident scavengers.’
    ‘I prefer the term reclamation technician , actually,’ Adam said with a sniff.
    ‘I dunno, I quite like the sound of scavenger,’ Kate said, offering her hand to Sam. ‘Makes us sound cooler.’
    ‘Nice to meet you both,’ Sam said, shaking Kate’s hand.
    ‘If you need something, but you’ve got absolutely no idea where to find it, these two are the people who’ll get it for you,’ Jay explained.
    ‘Assuming the Lost haven’t got there before us, of course,’ Adam said with a sigh.
    ‘The Lost?’ Sam asked.
    ‘You know,’ Kate said, ‘everyone else. All the people who got wiped by the signal.’
    ‘Oh, yeah right,’ Sam said. ‘I call them Walkers.’
    ‘Walkers, Lost, whatever,’ Adam said. ‘The fact is that they’re stripping the whole city bare. It’s getting harder and harder to find the things we need. We’re going to have to move further out of the city soon. Stirling knows it even if he doesn’t want to admit it.’
    ‘OK, Adam,’ Kate said, shaking her head slightly, ‘don’t lecture the new guy. Everyone’s already heard what you think, but you know it’s not as simple as that. Not all of us can just leave.’
    ‘I wasn’t saying that we should all . . .’ Adam began.
    ‘OK, OK, enough,’ Jay said, holding his hands up. ‘Much as I would love to have this conversation again , I was actually hoping to introduce Sam to everyone else at some point today.’
    ‘Fine, whatever,’ Adam said, turning back to the map on the wall. ‘No one ever listens to me anyway.’
    ‘That’s not true,’ Kate said. ‘I listen to you. How else would I be able to tell you exactly why you’re wrong?’
    ‘Come on,’ Jay said, nodding his head towards the three battered old sofas arranged in a U-shape in the middle of the room where two girls were sitting chatting while another boy was reading a book.
    ‘OK, Sam,’ Jay said, pointing to each of the others in turn, ‘this is Liz, Nat and Toby.’
    ‘Hi,’ the boy called Toby said, lowering his book. ‘Welcome to our burrow.’
    ‘Toby runs the kitchen,’ Jay explained. ‘He’s the one who makes sure we all get fed.’
    ‘Only because if I let anyone else do it we’d all be dead of food poisoning within a week,’ Toby said with a crooked smile before retreating behind his book again.
    ‘So, Sam, tell us, is it true what Rachel said?’ Nat asked. ‘Did you really get stung by a Hunter?’
    ‘Um . . . yeah, I suppose I did,’ Sam said, sounding slightly uncomfortable.
    ‘Got to tell you, then,’ the girl called Liz said, ‘you’re a whole lot more alive than you should be.’
    ‘Yeah, that’s what everyone keeps telling me,’ Sam said with a sheepish grin. ‘I’m just lucky, I suppose.’
    ‘You can say that again,’ Nat said, shaking her head slightly.
    ‘Nat’s a surface operative like me and Rach,’