“We didn’t. Not really. We knew to head west. Find Julie. We knew to look for her on the other side of the city. That’s where Maya found us last night, under an overpass in the city.”
Jay hugged her again. “Maya is amazing.”
Layla tipped her head back to look at him. “Are you two a couple?”
He chuckled. “God no. No one is a couple with Maya. She’s too stubborn for that. Plus, she doesn’t stop moving. She has a save-the-universe complex. She brings people here and takes off almost as fast as she arrives. I don’t think the woman sleeps.”
“Yeah, I got that vibe.” Layla bit her lip, wondering if Jay had someone though. “What about you? Are you married or…whatever?”
He shook his head, his gaze slightly narrowed. “I don’t know how much you know about the world, but marriage isn’t really a thing these days. Neither are couples.”
She frowned. Her parents were married and they were certainly a couple.
Jay inhaled slowly. “There aren’t enough women for people to live in monogamous relationships. Some people do anyway. It happens. But not too often.”
She searched his eyes. Her parents had done their best to educate the two of them, and they’d had television whenever electricity had been possible, but there were certainly gaps in Layla’s knowledge. “Explain?” She pushed herself to sitting once again, but still leaned against him, liking the human contact.
He rubbed her arm with his hand. It felt good. “You understand that over the past three decades fewer and fewer females have been born, right?”
“Yes.” That was why her parents had gone into hiding in the first place—to protect Layla and later Ariel from possibly being captured. Any number of things could have happened to them, ranging from scientific experimentation to forced marriage.
“I’m sure about the time you were born, the government was splintering. Militant groups were forming all over the country. Many of them have united in the past two decades, leaving us with about three main entities. All three are dangerous and live above the law. The government can’t be trusted either. The two-party system is splintered, and they continually switch power, which means no one can trust them from one month to the next.”
She nodded. “I know the two parties used to be the democrats and the republicans, which later changed.”
“Yes. As the divide grew, the titles changed. Most people living in this country are very polarized between the Commonwealth and the Republic. We, The Wanderers, stand with the values of the Commonwealth—the idea being that we’d like to live in a democratic society in which people still have free will.”
She nodded. “And the Republic would like to establish a more controlled society in which women don’t choose who they’re married to…” She shuddered. This had been the reason her parents had left society.
“Again, married is a strong word. Women have few rights at all under the Republic. They’re expected to turn themselves in to the government to be essentially bred by whoever the government sees fit.”
Layla shuddered. “Is it really that bad?”
He nodded. “They like to sugarcoat it and pretend they match people up according to their interests and temperaments, but in the end, it’s just a pretty way of taking away the rights of female citizens for the, quote, good of society.”
Jay’s thumb stroked her hip, and she wondered if he realized it as he kept speaking. “The militant groups are worse than the Republic. They snatch women right off the streets, hold them against their will, and treat them worse than second-class citizens.”
Layla swallowed. “I suspect my parents chose to tone down their descriptions a bit, but I’ve always understood the gist. Are there other groups in this fight too?”
“Yes. Religious zealots, outlaws, and even the wealthy. In the end, it’s best to avoid all of them. Other people are living under the radar, other groups like ours who would like to preserve equal rights, but they don’t have the numbers we have, and they tend to eventually get caught.”
“What happens to them?”
Jay stared at her. “You really want to hear all this?”
“Yes. Don’t pamper me. Information is power. I may have holes in my knowledge, but if I don’t fill them, I’ll just be in more danger.”
He surprised her when he leaned closer and set his lips on her forehead, holding them there for several seconds before drawing back with a sigh. “You’re right. I hate it, hate that there’s a pure innocence about you that’s about to get destroyed, but you need to know everything.”
She nodded, breathing rapidly. The feel of his lips on her forehead lingered. “I know I seem innocent, and in many ways I am, but I’m capable of taking care of myself. I’m trained in self-defense, I know every single plant that can be eaten, and I could survive off the land for the rest of my life if I needed to. Please, Jay, fill in the holes.”
He smiled at her, staring into her eyes as if he could see things even she was unaware of. “Okay,” he whispered. He drew in a breath. “I won’t sugarcoat it. The Wanderers are very careful to remain hidden. We do everything we can to protect the women in our society. We have strength in numbers. Some other groups do not. When a group is found, the males are usually killed on the spot, and the women are brought to wherever the militants’ headquarters are.”
Layla winced, but she’d suspected as much.
“No matter who captures them, they’re considered in defiance of the law—be that the actual law under the Republic or the complete lawlessness of the militants. Either way, women are a commodity. Sold. Traded. Raped. Bred against their will. There is no easy way to say it.”
Layla fought hard to avoid reacting to the hard reality. He hadn’t said anything she hadn’t already suspected, but hearing it out loud from someone who had more up-to-date information than her parents was hard to swallow.