Once An Eve Novel

just trying to survive, just trying to take care of their own. Yes, that’s changing now, little by little. Couples are having children again. But this country couldn’t afford to wait. We needed new housing, a capital, a thriving population, and we needed it immediately.”
    I stared at the sun-bleached buildings before me, their facades faded to creamy pastels—blues, greens, and pinks. It was easy to see what had been restored on the main strip: The colors were brighter, the glass gleaming in the midday light. The paved roads were cleared of debris, weeds, and sand. Then there was the stretch of land out by the wall, so different from everywhere else. Desolate buildings were half covered in sand, their roofs caved in. Signs had fallen over. Rotted palm trees littered the street. In the farmlands, cows, shifting ever so slightly in their tight-packed pens, made the ground look like a black, undulating mass. Rusted shells of cars were lined up in an empty parking lot. From high above, the improvements were clear—buildings were either restored, or sand-battered and broken. The King had either saved them, or they’d been left to rot.
    “I can’t forgive you for what you’ve done. My friends are still prisoners. Your soldiers killed good people when they hunted me; they didn’t even flinch when they shot them.” I thought of Marjorie and Otis, who had given us shelter along the Trail, hiding us in their cellar before they were killed.
    The King turned back to the tower. “In the wild, the soldiers’ first priority is to protect themselves. I’m not justifying it—I won’t. But they’ve learned from experience that encounters with Strays can be deadly.” He let out a deep breath and pulled at the collar of his shirt. “I don’t expect you to understand, Genevieve. But I found you because you’re my family. I want to know you. I want this City to recognize you as my daughter.”
    Family . I turned the word over in my mind. Isn’t that what I’d always wanted, too? Pip and I had lain awake at night, talking about what it would be like to be sisters, growing up in the world before the plague, in some normal house on some normal street. She’d remembered a brother, two years older, who had carried her on his back through the woods. I’d wished for that, hoped and wanted it in those last days, alone with my mother in that house. I’d craved someone there beside me, to sit with me by her door, listening to the quiet rustling of her sheets, someone to help me endure the sound of those horrible, hacking coughs. But now that I had family I didn’t want it anymore—not like this. Not the King. “I don’t know if I can do that,” I said.
    He rested a hand on my shoulder. He was so close I could see the thin dusting of sand on his suit. “We’ve planned a parade for tomorrow,” he said finally. “It’s time the people know you’re here, time that you take your place as Princess of The New America. Will you consider joining us?”
    “It doesn’t sound like I have a choice,” I said. He didn’t answer. My stomach quaked. Arden was in some cold room and I was here, high above the City, the King’s daughter, discussing a parade. “You have to release my friends,” I said. “Arden, Pip, and Ruby are still in that School. You have to call off the search for Caleb. I was the one—”
    “We can’t discuss this anymore,” the King said, his voice low. He turned back to the building, where a soldier was staring through the metal scope at something beyond us. “Two soldiers are dead. Someone needs to be held responsible.” He narrowed his eyes at me, as if to say, And it won’t be you .
    “At least tell me you’ll release my friends. Promise me that.”
    Slowly, his expression softened. He wrapped his arm around my shoulder. We stood there looking out at the City below. I didn’t pull away. Instead, I let him believe that we were one, the same, united side by side. “I understand where you’re coming from. Let’s enjoy the parade tomorrow, give ourselves some time. I promise I’ll consider it.”

fourteen
     
    THE BLACK CONVERTIBLE CREPT ALONG THE MAIN ROAD , speeding up, then stopping, like a frightened cockroach. I rode in back with Beatrice, the King in the car ahead of us. There were nearly half a million people in the City, and it seemed as if all of them had turned out for the parade. They stood, hands outstretched over the barricades that lined the street, cheering and waving.