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She sees him tied to the hood of their car like a living masthead.
Of course she sees him
Around them is blood, fire, and death but she sees the man being thrust into it head on.
She feels pity, a little of it at least. She's busy staying alive, keeping the girls alive. She has no time for anything other than a flash of basic human sympathy.
Then their eyes meet.
His eyes are black and blue. Icy irises surrounding a black hole that could swallow her whole. There's fear, anger, pain, madness. His eyes contain a universe of pure chaos.
She doesn't feel pity anymore.
That man is mad, but he will survive.
She saw iron in his eyes. Hard, stubborn, determined iron.
In their chrome world, it's people with metal in their marrow who always survive. Asking for more than survival is like wishing on stars. Pointless.
Soon enough she escapes that skirmish with the girls.
They wash themselves. They drink precious water and out of the haze of dirt and dust comes the man with the black and blue eyes.
He's chained to a war boy and she can see the blood tube passing between them.
She was right about the iron. She's seen bigger, stronger men than him collapse after a day of being a blood bag. To have been stuck in the pursuit of her, all the way out into the desert. It's been two, maybe even three days, and he is standing strong. The iron must be in his blood too.
She respects that. But that doesn't mean she plans to allow him any of her precious water, and she trusts no man around her girls.
Still, he fights well. Chained to an unconscious man, with a gun that doesn't work, he fights well.
Normally she wouldn't forgive his threats to the girls and to herself, but she remembers the fear in his eyes and she understands. To him they are no different than the war boys he escaped from. To him they are all threats.
She understands that since she feels the same way.
It isn't until they are surrounded by more threats, and he hasn't shot them yet, that she has to make a decision. Trust the mad stranger or have one more person to fight.
She chooses the former, and when he takes a gun and loads it, there's a moment of fear in her gut. Then without a word, he hands it up to her and starts shooting at the men pursuing them
and then she knows she made the right choice.