Chapter 37: Day One
They spent the early part of the afternoon doing practical things.
Leon found the river in about fifteen minutes — closer than the sound had suggested, maybe a hundred meters north through a stretch of thinner trees. Not wide, but moving fast over flat stone, which probably meant it was clean enough with the filter. He filled both their bottles and came back.
Emma had used the time to clear the ground under the overhang, moving the larger stones out and evening out the pine needles into something that would be less uncomfortable to sleep on. She'd also strung a length of cord between two points on the rock face using hardware from her pack, somewhere to hang wet things if it rained.
"River's easy to get to," Leon said, handing her the bottle.
"How far?"
"North, straight line. You'll hear it before you see it."
She drank, handed it back. "Did you see anyone?"
"Two guys setting up maybe fifty meters upstream. Didn't interact."
She nodded.
They ate a small amount from their rations — not a full portion, just enough. Leon checked the zone map again. The contract depot was to the northeast along a ridge. The ground flattened toward the coast in the west. The eastern side of the zone dropped sharply in elevation, which made it harder to move through and probably meant fewer students would bother with it.
"I think we go northeast first thing tomorrow," he said. "Before the depot gets crowded."
"How early?"
"Four-thirty, maybe. Get there when it opens."
Emma looked at the sky through the gap in the overhang. Already past three and the light was changing faster than she'd expected. "We should figure out a watch system."
"Or just stay close enough that noise would wake the other one."
"That works."
They sat for a while without much conversation. Somewhere south, voices — too far away to make out words but more than two people. A larger group moving, or just carrying on.
They ate a full portion of rations around six and boiled water using the heat tab in Leon's kit.
"Mine has two tabs," Emma said, checking her pack contents. "I'll keep the second."
"Good."
After dark the forest was louder than Leon had expected. Things moving in the undergrowth, occasional bird calls at odd hours. Twice he heard what sounded like students — distant voices, footsteps — but nothing came close to their position.
They'd settled on the loose watch system. In practice neither of them slept especially well. Leon dozed in stretches and came back to full awareness periodically to listen. The overhang kept the wind off.
At 4:15 he sat up.
Emma was already against the rock with her pack beside her.
"How long have you been up?" he asked.
"A while."
He ate something small and checked the map.
"Jay and your sister," Leon said while he was eating. "He asked her out."
Emma looked at him. "Where did that come from."
"Just thinking. From when we went to the shop."
"She said no." Emma pulled at a loose thread on her jacket. "He pretended it didn't happen. She pretended it didn't happen."
"Did you know him before Valorian?"
She looked mildly surprised. "Since middle school."
Leon hadn't known that. He'd assumed they'd met here.
"He never mentioned it."
"Jay doesn't really bring up the past much." She tucked the thread back. "We lost touch for a bit in high school. Different schools. But when we both ended up here it was just easy again."
They were quiet for a minute.
"His family situation is kind of complicated," Emma said after a bit. Not like she was about to tell a story, more like it had just come to mind. "His dad's side has money. Proper money. If things had gone differently he probably would have come in at high C "
Leon looked up from his pack. "Seriously?"
"His parents divorced in high school. Jay stayed with his mum. His dad didn't take it well — cut him off completely. So here he is in D4 on his mother's income."
Leon tried to place the C rank families he'd heard about at Valorian. High C. That was around where the Crest family sat. Leah Crest was C2.
"If his father hadn't cut him off he'd be around the Crest family level."
"Probably somewhere around there, yeah."
She said it simply, like she'd already sat with it a while. "Jay doesn't talk about it."
Leon nodded and went back to adjusting his pack straps.
A minute passed.
"You've known him since middle school," Leon said.
"Yeah."
"And you're still clearly close."
"We're good friends."
He glanced at her. "Is that all?"
Emma paused with her hand on her pack zip. "What?"
"I'm just asking."
"We're friends, Leon."
Her face had gone slightly pink in a way that had nothing to do with the cold. She turned back to her pack with more focus than the task required.
Leon decided not to push it.
"We should head out," she said, standing and pulling her pack on. "If we leave now we'll get to the depot close to when it opens."
"Yeah, okay."
He stood and shouldered his own pack. Emma was already moving out from under the overhang, checking the zone map on her band.
Then footsteps. Somewhere close.