Kowi punched him lightly in the arm. “Don’t worry about it, man. I got your back now.”

Trip tried not to smile, but I saw the corner of his mouth twitch. He reached over and punched Kowi back. “You’d better.”

Kowi winced. “Oh, shit, that hurt.” He massaged his muscle.

“Have you gone soft on me, dude, or what?”

“Hell no. I went to the Nokosi school of krav … whatever the heck it is. I’m sore as shit.”

“It’ll be worse tomorrow,” I said, trying not to smile.

Trip lifted his chin at me once and said, “How do we get in on these lessons, anyway?”

“Talk to my manager,” I said, sticking my thumb out at Peter.

“Yeah. I meant to talk to you about that,” said Peter to Trip, completely forgetting his shyness in favor of organizing my life. “I’m going to need names and so on so I can get the schedule together. Who do I talk to about …”

I missed the rest of it, walking away with Kowi, back towards the crowd on the other side of the tree. Trip stayed behind with Peter.

“Good work, Nokosi. You solved a big problem for us today. Again.”

I smiled shyly. “I didn’t do it for you guys. I did it for my friends.”

“Whatever your motivations, thank you.” He put his hand on my shoulder and stared into my eyes.

I saw golden flecks mixed into the brown of his irises. They reminded me of sparks that came out of a campfire. I was momentarily speechless, but my problem was solved by the agony of my toes being crushed beneath a moccasined foot.

“Hello, Kowi. How did everything go?” asked Coli, giving him a beaming smile. It transformed her face, making her incredibly beautiful.

Kowi’s hand slipped off my shoulder, and he stared at Coli for a second before answering. “Uh, it went well. You can let everyone know the tribes are together now.”

She stood on tiptoes and kissed him right on the mouth before turning and making the announcement to a mostly jubilant crowd.

Kowi smiled absently, watching her go. “I guess she doesn’t like me talking to you.”

“I guess she doesn’t,” I said, smiling and flexing my sore toes. “At least she’s not obvious about it.”

We both laughed, the uncomfortable feeling between us evaporating. When Coli looked back at us, Kowi winked at her, making her smile ramp up to level ten in a split second.

He looked as stunned by his girl’s beauty as I was. Apparently she was never without that scowl, even around him.

Now we both knew that next to her, when she was smiling, I was about as pretty as tree bark. I had a feeling I wouldn’t have to worry about fighting off his advances at least, regardless of my boyfriend-less situation.

***

Now that the voting was over, the hard work had to be done. Everyone was sitting again, waiting to hear what the tribes’ next steps would be.

“So, we’ve voted. We’re going to get our tribes together and start working on combining forces. That means food, clothing, maybe shelter, I don’t know …” Kowi looked over at Trip and received a shrug in return.

“Trip and I discussed it, and we think you guys should get together - those of you doing the same kind of work - and talk about how you could work as mixed teams. You guys are better at knowing how this stuff could function for you than we would be. Come see me or Trip if you have questions or disagreements on how it should be done.”

I leaned over and whispered to Peter. “Seems like it could work, right?”

“Maybe. If everyone cooperates.” He looked over meaningfully at a couple Creeks who were sitting with their arms folded, definitely looking defensive with their posture.

“Uh-oh. Trouble in paradise,” I murmured.

“I warned Trip,” said Peter softly.

“Oh yeah? What’d you say?”

“I told him he’d have to monitor the groups or he’d have little rebellions going on all over the place.”

“What’d he say?”

“He said he didn’t need me to tell him how to manage his people.”

“He’s an idiot.”

“Agreed. But I like the fact that he seems to be allergic to shirts.”

“Holy wowza, I know, right?” I admired Trip’s totally solid form from across the hut.

Peter gave me the cutest smile ever in response.

I put my arm around him and squeezed. “That’s the bright side of Trip’s personality, for sure.” I thought about it for a second and added, “I’m glad he’s not gay. I don’t think I could handle you dating a mean guy like him.”

Peter snorted. “As if a guy like him would want to be with a guy like me.”

I squeezed Peter harder, looking at him now instead of Trip. “What’s that all about? Any guy would be lucky to have you.”

“Whatever,” he said sadly. He tried to shrug me off, but I refused to be detached.

“Peter. Don’t make me hurt you. You are cute and sweet and funny. And even in the middle of all this mess you haven’t lost your class or your cool. Like I said. You’re a hot property. Anyone would be lucky to have you. Just not Trip, cuz he’s mean.”

“Well, I appreciate the thoughts, as misguided as they are.”

“Don’t worry. Your knight in shining armor will arrive someday. And when he does, I know he’ll not only be totally adorable, but he’ll be a good cuddler, too. I’ll bet Trip is a horrible cuddler.” I narrowed my eyes at the offender, ignoring his amazing body in favor of his imagined snuggling crimes.

“Yeah,” said Peter, gamely. “He probably just lays there and expects to be the cuddlee all the time and not the cuddler.”

“You are so right. Just look at him. I’ll bet you twenty bucks he’s a cover-stealer, too.”

“Not that twenty bucks means anything, since bills are only good for feeding fires right now, but yeah. I get it. I’ll bet you a can of beans he’s a cover-stealer.”

“A can of beans and a bag of chips,” I countered.

“Whoa. That’s serious. A bag of chips? Really?”

“What’s serious?” asked Kowi, coming up from behind and scaring both of us enough to make us jump.

“Uh … nothing?” I said, looking sheepish.

Kowi eyed me suspiciously for a second, but thankfully changed the subject. “I think we got a handle on this stuff now. You guys don’t have to hang around if you don’t want to. I can have someone bring you dinner.”

“Awesome,” I said. “I just need to talk to Coli for a second before we go.”

“About what?” asked Peter.

“Girl stuff.”

Kowi stepped back, giving me room to leave their presence and find his girlfriend. As I moved away, I heard Peter talking about his schedule again.

I smiled, thinking about how seriously he took his job. I wasn’t going to have to worry about a thing with the training, other than getting these noobs out of amateur status as quickly as possible.

I found Coli standing on the fringe of a group of girls, all of them talking about weaving cloth for clothes and making shoes out of deer skin and gator hide.

“Coli, can I talk to you for a second?”

She stepped back and faced me. “Maybe.”

I ignored her bratty retort since I was about to impose on her a little bit. “I need to ask you for a favor.”

“What is it?”

“Well, before I ask, I kind of need you to agree to keep it a secret.”

Her eyes narrowed. “I don’t keep secrets from Kowi.”

“Yes you do.”

“No I don’t,” she said, sounding pissed.

“Did you tell him how much you love him yet?”

She started to say something, but no sound came out of her mouth. She looked like a fish out of water for a second before she found her voice again. “Who says I love anyone?”

“I do. You do. Your face does. Whatever. Tell him when you’re ready. But I need your help, and it’s important. Just to me, though. It’s not a big deal to anyone else.”

“What is it?”

“Promise me you won’t tell.”

“No.”

I sighed, very frustrated. “Jesus, Coli, why the chip on the shoulder all the time with me?” I turned to walk away, already regretting having come up with the stupid idea to follow Bodo with her help, when I felt her hand on my arm.

“Wait.”

“What?” I said angrily.

“Listen. I’m sorry. I have a habit of … I don’t know. Always expecting the worst, I guess.”

“Yeah? Well, it gets old, you know?” I said, not quite mollified.

“So I’ve been told,” she said, looking over my shoulder.

I followed her gaze and saw the object of her despair. Kowi.

“Why don’t you just tell him how you feel? Stop acting angry all the time and get over whatever it is that makes you act so suspicious of everyone.”

She half-choked, half-laughed. It was a bitter sound. “Right. Like it’s that easy. Not sure if you’ve noticed, but the world ended. Everyone died and we live in the wreckage.”

I stared at her. “That’s how you choose to see it. I see that we live in a new world. That there are unlimited futures for all of us. None of us is going to die from pollution, the effects of overcrowding, ozone layer depletion or any of those other things adults were always moaning about. Maybe you think this world sucks - and I agree, parts of it do - but the other parts? They aren’t so bad. Especially now that the tribes are going to work together and build a nice community here.”

“It’s just more people to worry about as far as I’m concerned,” she said, looking out over the crowd. She snapped her attention back to me. “So. What did you want to talk about?”

“Nothing. You can’t keep a secret, and I don’t want the whole tribe knowing my business.”

“I’ll keep it a secret, if you promise it won’t hurt my people.”

“I promise. This is just my personal thing. It has nothing to do with you guys.”

“What then? What is it?”

“I need you to show me how to sneak around without being heard.”

She laughed. “What?”

“You heard me. I want to learn how to walk around and not sound like an elephant lumbering through the trees.”

“Why? So you can sneak up on us and listen to our conversations?”

“Please. Like you guys talk about anything worth listening to. No. I want to learn for practical reasons. Someday the canners are gonna show, and I want to know how to sneak up on them and snap their necks.” It sounded good to me. She didn’t need to know my real reason was so I could follow Bodo and find out what he was up to.

She thought about it for a second before agreeing. “Fine. I can show you. It’s not a big deal, really. I don’t know why you had to go on and on about it.”

“Me? That was you!”

“Whatever,” she said, turning to join her friends again.

“When?” I asked.

“After our next session,” she said, without looking back.

I left her to her weaving conversation and went back to get Peter. I dragged him away from a grateful-looking Kowi and brought him back to our hut, pleased that I had finally figured out the path to get there. I was tired of having to be escorted everywhere all the time.

Halfway back I realized that I hadn’t broached the subject of going after the canners with Trip and Kowi, when I had everyone together. That was stupid.

“What did you talk to Coli about?” asked Peter, distracting me from my thoughts.

“Nothing.” I tried to sound all casual about it, but I should have known Peter wouldn’t go for it.