Socialpunk (Socialpunk #1)

Socialpunk (Socialpunk #1) ~ Fire (Chapter 13)

The afternoon grew colder and colder as it progressed into evening. Ima could feel the exhaustion down to her bones, but she couldn’t fall asleep, not in the dark, echoing tunnels where the Socialpunks lived. Nahum sat next to her, still and bundled, trying to stay warm. Vaughn had built a fire for them right on the platform, using some wood he found below on the tracks.

Ember had spent the entire afternoon nagging Vaughn about the fire. She didn’t understand why they needed it, didn’t understand why Vaughn would waste so much time trying to keep Nahum and Ima warm. The three Socialpunks had some way of regulating their body heat and weren’t affected by the plummeting temperatures. But Vaughn had noticed Ima’s shivers right away, and Ember wasn’t happy about that.

“They’ll get sick,” Vaughn would reply, over and over again. Ember would mumble something about degenerates and stalk off. Ten minutes later, she’d be back, trying to get Vaughn’s attention again.

Less than an hour after Vaughn found the wood, he had a nice fire started. Ima was amazed he’d even figured it out at all, much less so quickly. She had never learned to build a fire, and she wasn’t sure that she or Nahum could have done it on their own, in a place like the tunnels.

While Vaughn had been making the fire, Nasser had sat both of them down to grill them about their lives. He had wanted to know everything—about their families, their strengths, their weaknesses, their friends, what they tended to eat and drink, where they had been, what they had been exposed to—every little detail of their time in The Dome. Nahum could only remember about a week of his life, so his interrogation was much shorter than Ima’s. When it was her turn, she found herself admitting things that were typically too hard to talk about. She told Nasser about Dash, about her mother, about Lia and the other girls at school. She even told him a bit about her father, though she glossed over a lot of things and left out the more disturbing parts. Something about Nasser’s personality made her feel at ease; he had a way of showing fascination over even the most mundane things in her life. She had some suspicion that he was fishing for something specific. At the same time, she felt this compulsive urge to please him. She found herself studying his reactions to see if she was giving the right answers.

By the end of the questioning, he seemed happy enough. He retreated to his tent, and Ima hadn’t seen him since.

Ember’s sulkiness had improved greatly once the fire was riotously towering above them. She seemed almost cheery, sitting on the concrete next to Vaughn, whispering and flirting with him. She had her arms wrapped around his neck and was practically in his lap. Vaughn didn’t seem to mind, though, which Ima found strange, since she had been getting this feeling that he was interested in her. That feeling evaporated when she saw him smiling and laughing with Ember, accepting her kisses with pleasure. She was not on his mind, not in the slightest. A part of her felt relieved, while another part felt pathetic for thinking she would even be the object of his affection when a girl like Ember was in the room.

Ima huddled closer to Nahum. His body heat felt good and safe. After everything that had happened, she only had a small piece of home left, and that was Nahum.

They had pills again for supper. Ima and Nahum both politely refused, but Vaughn saw right through them. He rustled up some synthetic candy bars and handed them over. Ima tore into hers hungrily, to Ember’s disdain.

“Is it time to sleep yet?” Ember asked, shooting Ima a disgusted look.

“Will we sleep out here?” Nahum asked. The Socialpunks only had three tents, and they were the only ones who needed the fire.

“There’s a bed big enough for both of you in my tent,” Ember said. She glanced over at Vaughn with a smile. “I can sleep in Vaughn’s bed tonight.”