Chapter 23

Sera Westbrook's POV

Today's breakfast was baguettes and cream sauce.

At the table, Kyle said two things: there was very likely a mysterious organization hunting me, and everyone on the Titan was on the list; the vegetable farm was still short of irrigation water, and we had to reach the second water station today.

He set down his cup, and no one at the table raised a question.

No one asked Kyle why the mysterious organization was hunting me. In the base, Kyle, Taylor, and Dorian all knew my identity—only Cole, Vera, and Jax didn't.

But they didn't ask either. Maybe they had long since realized my identity was dangerous and didn't want to make me uncomfortable, so they never brought it up.

Tasks came one after another. Taylor stayed in the vehicle, in charge of adding armor and tuning the signal jammer; Cole, Jax, Vera, and I went out with Kyle; Dorian stayed on the third deck watching the data.

We were about to reach the second water station.

The feed came from Taylor's drone. A two-story concrete building surrounded by chain-link fencing, a modified pickup parked at the gate, water tanks stacked in its bed, four or five people loading water into it with practiced movements.

Outside the second water station, many Eroded were wandering around.

"Someone got here before us," Kyle said.

Our eyes fell on the side of the truck—the positions of the bullet holes, the re-welded seams, the thickened steel rings around the rear wheels. Very familiar. It looked like the same batch of modifications as Marshall's truck.

Cole lowered his voice. "This truck is the same batch of modifications as Marshall's. Their modifications are identical."

Jax walked to within twenty steps of them, and they immediately went on alert, all five guns raised. A short-haired woman came out from behind the truck. She looked to be in her forties, with an old scar slanting downward across her cheekbone, and she spoke slowly.

She gave her name first. "Rena."

Then she stated her terms. "The water is ours. We saw it first—first come, first served. If you're thirsty, I can give you a canteen, but as for more water, I won't give you any."

Jax said, "We don't need much water. We only need untreated water. As long as it's not contaminated, we'll take it. We mainly want it for irrigating vegetables."

"Vegetables?" Rena frowned. "How much do you need?"

Water used for irrigating vegetables can be recycled—used household water can go to the plants—so we didn't need much clean water.

Jax said, "Two hundred gallons."

Rena was silent for a few seconds, as if thinking it over.

Just then, a commotion came from behind us.

The Eroded, drawn by the noise and voices, crowded behind the door, their hard shells scraping against it with an ugly sound.

Taylor reported over the channel, "More Eroded have arrived in the surrounding area—very likely drawn here by you. There are a lot of them. Stay safe."

Rena heard it too, glanced back, and her expression changed.

Kyle said, "Let's deal with the Eroded first, then we'll discuss the water."

Rena nodded and compromised. "All right. Let's deal with the Eroded first."

The two teams began attacking in different directions.

Rena's team had a Sequencer who could raise stone spikes—very sharp, able to pierce straight through the Eroded's bodies. The other members raised rifles and opened fire.

Kyle used neural resonance to suppress the Eroded in the distance, Cole and Jax held the middle, Vera provided cover, and I handled the Eroded on the left and right, water and current bursting out together, electrocuting them to a crisp.

One Eroded slipped past Jax and charged straight at Vera's back. I stepped forward and drove the current into the gap at the Eroded's neck joint.

Vera turned her head, still shaken. "Thanks."

I said, "Don't mention it. Keep moving."

There were a huge number of Eroded. We fought side by side for a long time and finally wiped them out completely.

The battle against the Eroded was finally over, and both sides were covered in blood.

On Rena's team, one man's shoulder had been torn open.

Dorian contacted us over the channel. "Their wounded need treatment. If the wound gets infected, the whole team will collapse."

Kyle looked at Rena. "Your teammate is hurt. We have a doctor on our team—he can treat the wound. Give us some of your water, and we'll call it even."

Rena nodded quickly. "Sure."

Dorian chatted with us over the channel, guiding Vera step by step through debridement and bandaging.

Rena stood there watching it all, the expression on her face gradually relaxing. As the bandaging was about to finish, she leaned against the truck, watching Vera pick through the medical kit, and said with feeling, "You actually have a professional doctor."

"Yes, but it's not me. He's staying in the vehicle," Vera said. "I'm just here to help."

Rena was silent for a few seconds. "I can give you some of the clean water. Besides the clean water, I know where the backup pipeline at the second water station is. We've already surveyed that pipeline—it's probably not contaminated, but it doesn't meet drinking water standards."

Vera turned to look at Kyle, and Kyle nodded.

Vera smiled. "Good. Then I'll start moving the water."

After the exchange, we began moving water.

I went around behind the equipment area, where a piece of cardboard softened by water lay flat against the ground, pinning down an old-style maintenance logbook. The cover flaked off at a light touch.

A little curious, I flipped through two pages. The route map of the backup pipeline was clearly drawn—just as Rena had said, even more detailed. Burial depth, valve locations, all the information was marked clearly. I closed the book and put it in the inner pocket of my jacket.

Kyle walked over. "Find anything?"

"The backup pipeline records," I said. "Same as what Rena told us."

He nodded, didn't ask anything more, turned, and took a water tank from Jax. Rena watched us from a short distance, her gaze resting on me for a moment, then she bent down and lifted one end of a water tank.