Chapter 4

"Ah, that was good," William said as he polished off a large sandwich. "Best I've eaten in months. Years, even. Maybe ever." He patted his stomach.

"We do okay for ourselves here," Iris said with a smile. "Speaking of, we need to get you and your people assigned to some rooms. Want to come see the dorms?"

"Sure!" Caroline said as she stood up from the table. She squeezed William's shoulder and said, "You coming?"

"Actually, I'd appreciate it if he could stay and talk business for a few minutes," Victor said. "I want to find out about his salvage work."

"Okay then," Caroline said. "See you later, all right?"

"Sure thing," William said. He grinned as he watched Caroline walk out the door. Then he turned to Victor and asked, "So what do you need to know?"

"I just have some questions about things you've seen in L.A.," Victor said. "Jorge said you were in the salvage business."

William nodded. "Yeah, that's what I do. I've been all through the ruins on the coast, as far south as Pendleton."

"But you're out of Fresno?" Victor asked.

"Near there. A little town at the foot of the Sierras called Springville." He frowned and added, "I didn't go into Fresno too much. Too many Smashers."

"Smashers?"

"People who really, really don't like old tech," William explained. "They don't know enough to know what tech is safe to use and what isn't. It's all bad mojo to them – they say God put a curse on all old tech. Anything more complicated than a windmill, they smash it."

Victor nodded slowly. "They must not think too much of your line of work, then."

"You got that right. They're all up and down the Central Valley. Even Jorge is almost one of them, for all that we've been friends for years."

"But you still helped him out?"

William nodded. "Hey, it's bad for people who get blanked. Especially women. And I owed Jorge a favor. So when he said his sister had gotten hit…" He shrugged. "I couldn't tell him 'no', could I?"

"So you found your way into the old Dollhouse."

William nodded. "The gangers have stories about it. The Bloods know me – I've done business with them. They said there was this place in West Hollywood that was haunted. It was worth a shot." He shook his head. "We just didn't get what Jorge hoped for, that's all."

"So here's the thing I really can't figure," Victor said. "After that, why did you keep going with them? Why come all this way just on Caroline's word that we'd be here? You could have gone back to doing salvage like you always did, but you stuck with them."

William grinned, and nodded his head. "Yeah, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense, does it? I kept asking myself the same questions."

"So?" Victor challenged.

"So I was the kid who always pestered the old folks for stories about the old days," William explained. "My grandparents, even my parents remembered a little bit about what it was like. I always wanted to hear more about it." He shrugged. "Then when I was sixteen, I joined a salvage crew to see how real all the stories were. I was running my own crew within three years."

"And you'd heard stories about us," Victor said.

"Yeah," William said. "And when Caroline said that Safe Haven wasn't just a fable, but was real – well, I just couldn't resist checking it out. I figured, at worst I'd find some new places to salvage. At best…" He looked around. "Well, it really did turn out to be real."

Victor nodded. "All right. You know a lot about old technology, then?"

"Some," William said. "If you need some salvage done…"

"We do. There are a lot of parts we need to find to repair our equipment. If you can help us, great."

"I'm you're man, then," William said. "There is one thing I'm curious about, though."

"What's that?" Victor asked.

"Caroline says you're from the old days," William said, staring at him. "But you don't look any older than I am."

Victor nodded. "Yeah. My sixty-second birthday was last week."

"So then…" William hesitated. "There's some kind of tech that keeps you from getting older?"

"There is," Victor said softly. "A few of us got it, not long before the Fall. It was supposed to heal some old injuries, clear up some scars." He closed his eyes. "It wound up doing a lot more than that."

William whistled. "Wow. Too bad you don't all have it."

"No," Victor snapped. "It would be a nightmare if everyone had it. This isn't something you want."

"What? Why wouldn't I?" William asked. "Who wouldn't want to live forever? Seems to me it's just something you want to keep for yourself."

Victor fixed him with a cold stare. "No. Believe me, if I could get rid of it, I could. But I can't." He frowned, and added, "Besides, I'm not going to live forever anyway. Eventually this stuff they put in me is going to stop working. When that happens… When it happens, I just hope I have the courage to put a bullet through my head before it's too late." He closed his eyes. "You haven't seen what happens when the nanoregenerators go bad. It's… not a pretty sight."

William shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "Oh. Sorry, I guess. It just seems strange – you've got what seems like a gift, but…"

"Something we should have learned long before the Fall," Victor said, "is that technology always turns and bites you if used the wrong way. Those Smashers you talk about have that much right, at least."

"God, my dorm room at Fremont was bigger than this," Caroline said, standing in the small bedroom that Iris had shown her. It wasn't much bigger than the twin bed that was pushed against one wall.

Iris smiled. "We spend most of our time in the common areas," she explained. "Besides, we had to share that dorm room, remember?"

"Right," Caroline said. "And you think I won't be sharing this one?"

"William will have his own room."

"Uh-huh," Caroline said skeptically. "And we'll either both be there, or both in here, every night."

"You're really that serious about him?" Iris asked.

"Oh, God," Caroline said, sitting down on the bed. "You have no idea."

Iris sat down next to her. "Tell me."

"It's like…" Caroline began. "Tell me something – is sex… different for you in that body?"

"You mean, different from our original body?" Iris asked. "Yeah, some. I mean, I'm a couple of inches shorter, and my breasts are bigger than they were, so yeah, it's not exactly the same."

"But is it better?"

"Better?" Iris looked thoughtful. "I don't know. Not really better, or worse. I mean, it was pretty good before, right?"

"Yeah, it was," Caroline said. "But now… I don't know if it's something about this body, or just that William is that good, or the combination of the two somehow. But – it's amazing. I didn't know it could be this good. The things he does to me…"

"Wow," Iris said. "You're tempting me to drag William off to bed to find out for myself."

"Huh?" Caroline looked startled. She pointed at Iris' pregnant belly and said, "Looks to me like you already have yourself a man, sister."

"Oh, yes," Iris said with an impish grin. "Several."

"Several?"

Iris laughed. "Hey, it's different now," she said. "We're not all that in to monogamous relationships around here. The baby's father is named Gabriel – I'll have to introduce you to him. And yeah, I do still sleep with him fairly often, but he's in too much demand for me to keep him all to myself."

"Um," Caroline said, taking that in. "So the two of you aren't…"

"Married?" Iris grinned. "Nope. Didn't marry the fathers of my other two kids either."

"God, girl, you're a regular tramp!"

"Not by our standards," Iris protested. "The father of my first baby is a guy named Zone. You'll meet him at the Council meeting tonight. I had a serious crush on him when I was going through puberty the second time, and as soon as I was physically old enough not to creep him out…" She grinned.

Caroline shook her head. "I can't even imagine that. You were, what, a thirty-year-old woman in a ten-year-old body?"

Iris nodded. "It made things difficult, yeah. Anyway, my second child's father is Victor."

"Victor?" Caroline gasped.

"Hey, don't tell me you've never thought about it," Iris teased. "I know better. It was one of the many times that he and Priya were broken up, and he's got those cute puppy-dog eyes, you know? I wasn't intending to get pregnant that time, but hey, he's a good dad." She smiled and said, "Seventeen other women agree with me on that score."

"Seventeen?" Caroline sighed. "It's going to take me some time to get used to this place," she said. "So how many other kids do we have?"

"Well, there's Patrick, who you met at the gate," Iris said. "You've probably guessed, but his mother was Original Recipe Caroline. Caroline 2.0, who we called Echo, had one too, but she didn't live long. And Rose, a.k.a. Caroline 5.0, has three. You'll meet her at Council too – she's teaching down in the village school right now."

"Great," Caroline said. "Another one of me. My head hurts already just trying to keep it all straight."