Saturn County

Two | The Inventory

The list was written on the front pages of a spiral notebook that Emma once used for a Spanish class. She'd ripped out most of her notes save for the first few pages so that a potential thief would see nothing but a tattered memory of the life they'd left behind. Aria considered it paranoia—the inventory held no secrets but what remained on the open shelves in unlocked stores. Aria had never flipped to the back pages; Emma had made sure of that.

The inventory was never just for items—it was at first when they first arrived, but the purpose had long since changed. It was a list of people. Emma knew every person in the mall by name, and not just their name but who they ran with, how long they stayed, what they took with them, where they planned to go—whatever she could learn. Clara had helped her, though she knew she was better at getting information. Regardless it was still her book—Clara didn't know that she and her brother fell in the pages of her notes.

"Looks like the same thirteen for the most part," Clara said, taking a seat beside Emma on the ground, leaning against the cement wall beside a broken glass door that once housed a jewelry store none of them could ever afford. "Our six, the three band kids, four stoners. Except I saw someone else around last night, late. Some guy, wasn't carrying any bags, looked alone from what I could tell. Probably came to scout and left."

Emma jolted forward; it was no surprise Clara had failed to mention that until now. She was a smart girl, but she was too kind, too quick to assume innocence. And although there may be nothing guilty about some stranger arriving at the mall, there was something threatening nonetheless. "I heard glass break last night," she said. "Aria didn't believe me."

"You think there's new people here?" Clara asked, "Wouldn't we have seen them?"

"Not if they don't know what they're facing." When the Deloses first arrived, they remained hidden in the loading dock—the outside one, not the underground secret Daisy thought she didn't know about—for two days, venturing out only in pairs: Aria and Emma, Sebastian and Daisy. Sure, Daisy technically didn't share their name, but Emma thought it encompassed her still. A name before and a name after the plague were two very different beasts.

Her name before and her name after, it was a guard she'd grown comfortable employing. Daisy had taught her that names could be dangerous; she introduced herself to strangers always as Quinn. Not quite a lie—it was a piece of her name—but if it spread amongst the county it would not trace back to her. Emma pushed herself off the ground, stars spinning before her as she stood. Since the plague she couldn't remember the last time she was sustained enough to stand; feeling woozy had become the new default.

"You sure it was from the east side?" Clara asked as the girls walked across the linoleum hallway lit only by the skylight above. Once upon a time there was electricity but now there was no one left to pay the bills. The stores were memories of a dream, she always thought: broken windows, mannequins defaced, everything valuable stolen. In the first few days of the new world when those with money paid their way into salvation and the pacifists congregated in the empty trailer parks and all that were left were the wild, vagrant teens who couldn't fathom a future before and certainly not after, the stores were looted and abandoned. No one colonized the mall for a long while.

"We wouldn't be able to hear it if it wasn't," Emma said. They had set up camp just outside the skeleton of what used to be a Macy's. It was one of the few stores that closed with a warning, leaving behind nothing useful at all. It was why they slept outside it; there was somewhere to run and no reason for anyone to come near. If the glass had broken on the other side of the mall, Emma wouldn't have heard it while she held her watch the night before. The center was too massive for that.

Besides, the crash came from behind her, behind her and below. The newcomers were in the store.

"If they were in the store we'd be able to see them." Aria had rolled her eyes when she told her what she'd heard. She'd gestured to the empty store with the white walls and open shelves—there was no one to be seen. From the second floor of the mall it was no surprise they couldn't see them on the first floor. The sound was behind her and below.

Aria was smart but she was tired. Emma couldn't blame her for ignoring the facts in a desperate scramble to pretend she was still in control of their lives. No one was in control. That was harder to admit.

Sometimes Emma wondered if she should tell Sebastian what she learned instead, if maybe he would help her. She would trust him with the inventory long before she turned to Aria; he wouldn't tell her she was sticking her nose in where it didn't belong, that she was dumb and painting a target on her back. The only problem was that he would tell Daisy and sometimes she thought that wouldn't be so bad but sometimes she knew her list would no longer belong to her. Instead she kept her mouth shut. What she knew was hers alone.

She could see Aria talking to Sebastian outside their tents. Her sister's head was down, some anxiety weighing it towards the ground. Emma had long since given up on asking her what new problem had arisen—Aria was always quick to brush her aside. Emma couldn't help carry a burden that was not shared with her. So instead she made her list, kept track of the people Aria wouldn't.

Sebastian saw them descend the static escalator, nothing but a head nod before he returned to his book. He said nothing to Aria, and though it wouldn't have mattered if he did, Emma was glad she never raised her head. Aria would tell her it was dead stupid to visit the first floor of Macy's knowing full well there were unaccounted for visitors. Then again, Aria wouldn't believe there were people there.

The first floor doors to the store were wrapped shut with a padlocked chain someone had broken a long time ago, though the chain remained as though it might deter vagabonds seeking the same refuge as anyone else. Only this time the chain was on the ground, evidence that someone had passed through the doors since the last time Emma had looked. She pulled it open slowly.

Her footsteps always echoed loudly inside the store. It made her heart beat harder and her lips purse shut, a deep silence filling her lungs to counter the unwanted sounds from her corpse. There was motion in the back left corner, where the ground was carpeted and quiet and the store once sold athleticwear; Clara had tapped her on the shoulder, chin pointing in their direction.

They had seen them first.

"Who's there?" someone called as a figure approached.

"That's who I saw," Clara whispered. Coming near was an Asian kid not much older than them but far taller. Emma recognized him vaguely, he hadn't gone to her high school but the county was never huge. Both girls raised their hands to reveal they held no weapons, though Emma still carried a kitchen knife in a makeshift sheath attached to an old belt she'd stolen from her mom. They had done this enough times not to be scared.

"I heard glass break last night," said Emma. "Came to check out the damage."

"Of course you heard it," the boy muttered, rolling his eyes. "You guys been camping out around here?"

"Yeah, for awhile now." There were benefits to telling that truth. She had a stake in the mall, she knew the area, she had a right compared to them. She could see in the way he smiled he didn't see her as a threat, but no one ever did. The threat was Daisy—it had always been that way. Emma was too afraid to wield her knife.

"I'm Benji," he said, extending his hand. "Benji King."

At times when Emma met someone she could feel it in her stomach that, for better or worse, they were meant to stick around. Like Kami Marks from sixth grade who only left when her family paid for a spot in a city, like Clara Green. This time she felt it spreading, deep in her gut, that something had stuck, and if that was the case there was no use hiding her name, for when something clicked there was no point in hiding from the inevitable.

"I'm Emma," she said. "If you plan on staying, first floor of Macy's is a pretty shit idea. Too many doors."

"Means there's a lot of ways out."

"And a lot of ways in."

"Yeah." Benji looked puzzled by that, as though he hadn't fully thought their position through. She didn't know the others' names but it meant they weren't the brightest. He seemed like a nice kid—some people survived on charisma alone. She'd make a note of that. "Thanks for that."

"Of course," she nodded quickly. Her words felt short in her mouth, like the air had been stolen. "Welcome to the Grove."

a/n

did I—did I actually update this story?

I do have a ton of ideas for this and I'm really, really excited to write it, I've just been obscenely busy this semester.