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C H A P T E R T W O

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I CRINGE in my sleep as soon as I hear my alarm going off. The blaring racket that blasts from it is excruciatingly painful to my ears. It is my least favorite sound in the whole world.

Despite my strong urge to hide under the covers from my responsibilities, I still get out of bed and get dressed in my work clothes—a simple tank top layered with a jacket and my 'scrapping' pants. They are dark and tight jeans with different sorts of fabric, mostly leather, sewn into places where holes used to be. I still remember the day I traded for them around a year ago. I have had to stitch them up with any available fabric multiple times since then.

When I head into the kitchen, I am met strangely with silence instead of the hustle and bustle of my mother as she makes breakfast. Instead, I find her and Willow surprisingly entertaining the guy I met yesterday. I believe his name is Jax if I am not mistaken.

His green eyes glance up at the sound of me entering the room, a small smile gracing his features as soon as he notices me. "Good morning, Nyssa." I'm surprised he remembers my name. Not many people do. I'm normally just 'that Travers girl who is a scrapper' or 'the no-nonsense trader.' It's refreshing for someone to actually remember my name.

"Good morning," I greet. I'm about to leave it at that, but my curiosity gets the best of me. "What are you doing here?"

Jax isn't fazed by my rude curiosity, and he actually decides to embrace it. "I'm just traveling around the village, visiting every family."

"Why?" I bluntly ask.

My mother shoots me a glare, trying to tell me to shut my mouth with her eyes.

"Well, I find it comforting to know where any future employees of ALLICO come from," Jax replies, a small smile still gracing his features.

I scoff. "As if I'd ever be chosen, and if I was, I wouldn't want to go," I state, grabbing the cereal box on the table and helping myself to a bowl of it. Scrapping is a hard job, and I'll need my energy.

"That's a shame," he states. "I was starting to really like you." I can't tell whether he's being serious or sarcastic. Surely, it is the ladder.

I roll my eyes as I sit down and begin to eat my cereal. My mother and Jax go back to their conversation they were having before I came in the room while Willow just stares at me giddily. As I shove a spoon full of cereal in my mouth, I notice her staring and narrow my eyes at her. "What is it, Willow?"

Willow giggles. "Nothing." She glances at Jax across the table and then back at me before giggling again.

"You're so weird, kid," I comment, continuing to eat my cereal.

"Do you make this cereal yourself?" Jax questions in fascination as he reaches for the box sitting on the table. He inspects the inside of it. "It doesn't look like the kind you get from government rations."

My mother smiles kindly. "Yes. Nyssa actually came up with the idea to make our own cereal, so she can trade our cereal rations for leather on Market Day." She sounds so proud of me, which is strange because she has never told me that my whole life. Ever.

Jax's green eyes fall on me yet again, and he sends me what I assume is a fake smile. "How resourceful of her." I send him a fake smile right back. He glances down at my outfit, a curious expression developing on his face. "Where are you going today?"

"Scrapping," I reply plainly, as if he is supposed to know what that is. It's obvious by the look on his face that he has no idea what I'm talking about, and I'm glad.

"What's that?" he asks, placing a hand underneath his chin in fascination.

I roll my eyes, finishing my last bit of cereal. "It's where I go out into the dangerous, barren wasteland and find any sort of valuable scrap metal I can sell or trade."

"That sounds incredibly daring," he compliments, running a hand over his bleach blonde hair.

"Yeah, well, it's whatever, I guess," I reply as I stand up and head over to the kitchen to dump my bowl into the sink.

Jax is quick to follow. "Can I go with you?"

I crinkle my nose up, as if the idea of him coming is disgusting. In a way, it is. He'll only slow me down. "No."

"Nyssa!" my mother cries from the dining room table, standing up and heading over to me. "Don't be so rude," she scolds quietly, sending Jax a kind smile. She's so incredibly fake. "She'd love for you to go along."

"Mother," I hiss, sending her the sharpest glare I can manage. She doesn't even flinch.

Jax smiles at me, and I have no idea what to say. I don't want him to go with me at all, but then again, I could have some fun with this. It would be hilarious to watch him scrap. "Fine, he can come. Be ready in ten minutes," I demand, heading back to my room to gather my things.

Jax just smiles. "Aye, aye, Captain."

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IT IS unbearably hot today, and the air is really thick, making it hard to breathe. We've been walking for a good two hours. While I could keep going, I give us a break every twenty minutes of nonstop walking. I don't want Jax to collapse on me, mostly because of the incredible trouble I'd be in for. I kind of feel bad for him. He's not used to this at all, yet I am. It was his choice, though.

"Could you...please slow...down?" Jax requests between hard breaths.

He's being so dramatic. "Word of advice: take slow breaths. And don't breathe very often," I suggest, slowing down a bit anyway.

He doesn't say anything in response, and I figure he has finally taken my advice. It takes us another thirty minutes until we reach the familiar old, abandoned ship that is a landmark for me. When I was younger and first started scrapping, this area was filled with scrap metals. I was quick to harvest it all, and now I have to go further out to discover more valuables.

I always start tracking my journey at this old ship, and today isn't any different. I quickly tie my long red cord to a piece of wood on the ship.

"What are you doing?" Jax questions curiously. He's always so curious. I wonder if it's because he is a scientist.

"I use this to find my way back. I know how to get home from the ship," I explain, starting on my way again after attaching the cord reel to my backpack.

Jax nods in understanding, following closely behind me. At least he doesn't stray off on his own like some I've brought with me has done. Axis was really bad about that when I used to take him with me. It's refreshing to have someone who actually listens to me.

The sand gets tougher to walk on as we press on, our heels sinking into the earth. I've adapted to the environment so much that I have no trouble going through this, and I have to keep reminding myself to slow down for Jax.

"How do you do this everyday?" he asks in disbelief after an hour of silence.

I chuckle as we approach what I like to call a goldmine—a huge old airplane. I've been working to take it apart piece by piece and take it back to the village and sell it on Market Day. "You get used to it after awhile."

"I couldn't imagine doing this everyday," he replies, and I just shrug in response. Sometimes you just have to do what you have to do.

As we finally reach the plane, I lower my backpack onto the ground and reach into it for my screwdriver and crowbar.

"What do we do now?" he questions, staring at the tools in my hands unsurely. Surely, he's used a screwdriver before, I think to myself.

I smirk. "Now, we scrap." I hand him the screwdriver and head up to the front of the plane, where a ton of metal is still left. As I begin to work to pry it off, Jax just watches me carefully.

"Um, need some help?" he asks after a few minutes pass. I finally wrench off a piece of metal and toss it onto the ground, starting the bottom of my pile. Jax nods in understanding. "Alright, I'll take that as a no." He ventures inside the plane, probably deciding to search for something he could manage by himself.

I chuckle when he's finally gone, finding the idea of this rich boy out in the desert completely hilarious. He's so out of his element, yet he's so determined to make this work and show me that he can do this. I roll my eyes. He's probably just doing this to get me to join him at ALLICO. I just hope he doesn't plan to stay here too long.

After working on the front of the plan and gathering a good pile for the day, I glance at my watch and notice it's already two in the afternoon. We'll have to eat lunch pretty fast and then rush back before it gets dark. I've been out here in the dark before, many times actually, and it's terrifying. Not only does it get kind of cold since the sun is down, but storms are very common, and getting caught in one in complete darkness completely sucks. Then, there's the scary monstrous beasts that lurk around out here when the sun begins to set. I had one encounter with them, and it was enough to last a lifetime.

"Jax!" I exclaim, grabbing my backpack and pulling out my lunch bag. "Time to eat!" He's quick to exit the plane at the mention of food, and when he gets closer to me, I notice the thick coat of sweat along his forehead. "Found anything good?"

He nods. "I found a good bit of stuff and even found a few old books," he states in excitement as he takes the sandwich I hand him.

I nod. "Well, eat up fast because we still gotta load this stuff up and then get out of here before the sun begins to set."

"What happens out here at night?" he questions, and it's then I realize how many questions I've actually answered of his today.

"Bad storms and monsters," I respond after swallowing the last bite of my sandwich.

Jax's eyes widen in surprise as he glances over at me. "You serious?"

I nod and stare him right in the eyes. "Dead serious." I stand up and begin to pile my metal stash in a neat stack onto the sheet I will pull behind me when we start back. Today was successful, as every day at the airplane is. In other directions, scrappers are not as lucky with their hauls. I fear for the day I finish off this airplane and have to venture further into the wasteland.

Jax joins me in piling my scrap onto the sheet, and I notice he actually gathered many valuable pieces. Maybe he's not as bad at this as I thought he'd be. I'd never say that out loud, though.

After we finish piling it all up, we begin our trek back, switching out with the scrap metal pull every ten minutes to give each other a break. Every time Jax takes a drink of water from his canteen, I glance over at him out of the corner of my eye to make sure he still has some left. I'm honestly surprised he hasn't drank all of it by now. The first time I scrapped, I made the stupid mistake of downing all my water and then having none left for the rest of the trip. Granted, I was also fourteen years old and had no idea what I was doing. I should have asked help from one of the more experienced scrappers in the village, but my pride kept me from doing so.

When we finally make it back to Solaris, both of us are exhausted. As we pass the ALLICO aircraft, I narrow my eyes in confusion when Jax doesn't head for it. "Why aren't you going home?"

"I'm not just going to leave you right now," he states as if it's obvious, gesturing to the pile of metal I'm dragging behind. He takes the reigns from me. "Besides, it's my turn to pull."

That's the moment I know Jax Ebony isn't just some pretty, arrogant rich boy who just doesn't care about anyone but himself. I wish he was, because little would I know, it would make everything easier for me in the future.

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