“Go and get everyone, Sorrel,” Caroni said.

Sandstorm led the females to a cliff face. “There’s the entrance,” he said, pointing. “It’s narrow.”

“Sorrel, take the PlAK. Leave your backpack with me. Go inside and have a look around,” Caroni said from in front.

Sorrel shrugged her pack off and was glad to be free of its weight. She was tired to her bones. She eased herself through the fissure and turned on the PlAK. The searchlight was dim but adequate and revealed a smallish, empty cave with a sandy floor. She couldn’t imagine how sand came to be this high in the mountains.

“Looks fine,” she called to Caroni.

“It’s our sentry cave,” Sandstorm said.

One by one, the Tribals passed their loads into the cave and then slid in themselves.

“We have to be ready for tomorrow,” Caroni said. “Who’ll take the first watch?”

“I will,” Rashelope said.

Sorrel stood alone with her back to the entrance, waiting for her night vision to settle.

“I found a good spot,” Emrallie said beside her. “Come. Time to sleep.”

She followed her friend to the back of the cave, where there was a thicker pile of sand, like a small dune. Sorrel laid her backpack beside her and stretched out on her ground sheet, now thin from wear, her hand on the handle of her machete, glad for Rashelope’s presence at the mouth of the cave.

RESISTANCE
2085

CHAPTER 28 – COUNCIL

The males called it their council meeting. The two leaders had talked alone before bringing everyone together in a much larger cave, also with a sandy floor. They sat in concentric circles around Caroni and Arc. Torches flickered on the walls. Arc had tired eyes, brown hair tied in a ponytail with a shoelace and a full beard. Facial hair was unusual, and Sorrel wondered if he had grown up elsewhere – somewhere away from the plastic soup the sea had become. He seemed the oldest of the males, with a few flecks of gray in his hair and beard, and she wondered about their rules regarding old people. There was a flat rock in the middle of the circle. Arc sat with Caroni in the sand, leaning against the rock.

Sorrel wished she’d been allowed to sleep for longer. Her muscles burned and her eyes felt gritty. She thought of her mother for the thousandth time. Was she still alive? What trials might she be facing in this hour before dawn, wherever she was?

Across the circle, she met Kes’s eyes. He smiled and mouthed something. His gaze made her uncomfortable and she looked away. Rapt sat in the outermost circle, wearing his dark glasses. Males in the flesh, she thought. It felt like a dream.