Rayne ran into the apartment, out of breath. "We found some serious Seeker activity in Arizona. They found an abandoned car in the desert, and someone walked alone into the desert. That's all we've got from the Seeker transmissions. The only thing, is, that it seems like they're chasing another Soul. Why would they be chasing another Soul?"

"They wouldn't. Something else has to be going on. Let's pack up and go out."

Two days later I regretted my decision. The desert was hot and desolate and there was nothing here to find except Seekers chasing their own tails. We eventually turned back for home. The Seekers seemed to have made the same decision.

1 year later:

I walked down the painted corridor, its walls a riot of colors and landscapes, murals done by Teresa. Things had been good these past few months. We had improved our relationships with the other human cells to the point where they were all comfortable with me now. I now took week-long supply trips for them every few months as a gesture of goodwill. They desperately needed the food and medical supplies I brought them. To save face we called it trading—they lent us members of their crews who were good at particular things like Greg from Gail's group who had his Masters in Electrical Engineering or Pops from Russell's group who could build literally anything. We put their talents to use and then gave them supplies in trade. It worked for us. Even Max's group, once we got to know them, hadn't been too bad. They had a few members who we had asked advice from: they had a chemist, a botanist, and a man who had been a doomsday prepper before the invasion. All of them had valuable information to trade to us for medical supplies and food.

As a plus, Rayne and Hadley had gotten to play with Franklin and Motter, the two little boys in Russell's group, and even James, the little boy I'd done the extraction on in Max's group, as well as Josh, a twelve year old boy that Max's group had hidden from my eyes the first time we'd met. We hadn't yet gotten them all in one place to play together, the six of the kids, but we planned to do that sometime this fall. We reluctantly agreed that the silo was the best place for this meet up but refused to allow all of Max's group to come, so only Josh and James' mom and dad were bringing them, and they were being blindfolded for the last 100 miles. Rayne, at fourteen, told me she was getting a little old for all this now, but she still had fun with them.

We hadn't had a human sighting in ages. Everything had been quiet for nearly a year. It was coming up on fall, another season where I'd have to be topside for harvest. I didn't want to go. I was packing up my bags to go when Rayne rushed into my office—Eric never went anywhere these days when he could send Rayne in his stead—a look of delight on her face.

"Humans! We think we finally found those humans down in the Arizona desert!" She gushed.

"Tell me about it! How do we know?" I said. We had been looking closer at the desert in Arizona ever since the failed trip last year.

"We went back and looked at all the human sightings for the past five years in the surrounding 500 miles. There have been an unusual number of sightings of humans here and here and here and here." She pointed to a map that was covered in dots, "Eric did a fancy calculation and figured out that their center of operation was somewhere within this radius because that's the one place they're never sighted. They never rob stores in this area, so that must be where they live. It's their safety zone."

"Do we have enough to go on?" I asked, getting excited.

"Yes, I think we do. Eric hacked into some old human satellites that aren't used any more, like the ones for Google Earth, and he has some pretty good ideas of where to send us."

"Well then, let's go." I said. "Round up the gang."

Nate, Rob, Kim, Evan, Blake, Tom, Rachel and I all climbed on the bus. Ellen and her five-month baby bump would be sitting this one out.

We drove south for twelve hours to Arizona, to the area where we thought the humans were. When we got there we did an old-school middle-of-the-night canvas. We searched the entire area that Eric had highlighted on the map, looking for a hideout or a cache of supplies.

It was Rob who found it. It was clever really. They had used an old rock slide to hide a van and a big moving truck. We laughed in glee when we found it and then set to make a plan. We parked the cars we'd brought out of sight around a corner of the rock and then hid behind the big moving truck.

Not knowing what to expect, and having had unfortunate experiences in the past, everyone else armed up. I was aware that they were doing this for my protection, and I felt grateful to have such good friends. Where stood off behind one the moving van was out of the way so they wouldn't see us and run. Unfortunately we'd need to surprise them, and scare them out of their minds. We waited, and waited, and waited. We waited for three days, taking shifts, before we heard a car rumbling across the desert late at night. I signaled everyone to join us behind the truck—there was strength in numbers—and then took my position at the back of the group.

"Guns up" Nate ordered. It was an unusual thing for him to ask, but it made sense. We didn't want to get shot in their surprise and we had no idea what types of humans we were finding. Smart ones, to not get caught in this long.

The humans got out of their car and came over to the big moving truck, joking with each other, in a good mood. They stopped short when they saw us and panic filled their eyes. My heart tore for them.

"Steady, now, everybody just keep calm." Nate called out to them. As one the group reached into their pockets, fumbling for something small. I didn't understand, but Nate did. "Wait, wait, don't be swallowing anything! Jeez, get a grip! No, look!" He turned the flashlight on his own face.

None of them moved.

"See," Nate continued, "Okay, now, you don't shoot us, and we won't shoot you. See? And he laid down the gun he was carrying. Everyone else holstered their weapons when Nate did and I could see the dawning of understanding coming in a few of their eyes. "We found your cache here—clever, that; we were lucky to find it—and decided we'd hang out and make your acquaintance. It's not every day you find another rebel cell." Nate laughed, seeing the shock on their faces.

"Look at your faces! What? Did you think you all were the only ones still kickin'? He laughed some more. None of the humans had moved an inch, though I could see they were beginning to relax a bit.

"Think they're in shock, Nate," Evan said.

"We scared them half to death," Rachel said, "What do you expect."

The waiting got awkward. None of the humans had unfrozen yet. Finally the lead guy whispered, "Who are you? I looked closely at their group. They had three men and two women, but there was something about the second woman. She was small—very small—but that wasn't what I noticed about her. I looked closer and silently gasped. She was a Soul!

They had a Soul just like me!

Nate was laughing and introducing the crew. I wasn't listening. I was staring at this woman, barely more than a girl, whose Soul eyes showed me that I was not alone in this world. I was not the only one who cared for humans. Judging by the way she clung to the man at her side, I was not the only one who had found my life partner in a human.

Life as I knew it was suddenly and fantastically changing.

"I'm Jared." The big man said, "This is Melanie, Aaron, Brandt, Ian, and Wanda. There are thirty-seven of us altogether."

Somewhere my brain registered that thirty-seven humans was a huge number, but my brain was still absorbed with Wanda, as I now knew her to be called. She was a Soul and I was not alone anymore. I hadn't realized I felt alone until just this moment, but here was a person who understood everything I had been through! I couldn't wait to meet her.

Nate was saying something about being one-upped on the number of humans in the group. Right. Thirty-seven humans. That must be fun.

Jared seemed astonished. "You've found others?"

"There are three other cells separate from ours that we know of. Eleven with Gail, seven with Russell, and eighteen with Max. We keep in touch. Even trade now and then." He laughed again. "Gail's little Ellen decided she wanted to keep company with my Evan here, and Carlos took up with Russell's Cindy. And, of course, everyone needs Burns now and then –" He stopped abruptly and looked back at me, apologizing with his eyes for messing up.

"Might as well get that out of the way," Rob muttered. He was worried. Didn't he see Wanda?

Nate took a deep breath and said, "Now, you all just take it easy and hear us out. Calmly, please. This upsets people sometimes."

"Every time." Rob muttered, putting his hand on his gun.

"What?" Jared asked in a flat voice.

Nate sighed and turned to me, gesturing me forward. I was still mulling over the idea of another Soul who was helping humans and I did what he said, smiling to myself about how this was going to sound to them.

"This here is Burns. Now, he's with us, so don't go crazy. He's my best friend—saved my life a hundred times. He's one of our family and we don't take kindly to it when people try to kill him."

Kim pulled her gun out of her holster and pointed it toward the ground. She was still furious about what Max pulled, but I was about to put all her fears to rest.

"No, it's okay, Nate, See?" I pointed at Wanda, "They've got one of their own. Looks like I'm not the only one who's gone native." I grinned at Wanda, absolutely delighted, and walked toward her. I held out my hand, in the way of these humans to greet her, and grasped her tiny soft hand in my big one.

"Burns Living Flowers." I said. Every time I said my full name a little part of me was transported back to Fire World where I had done such horrible things. I knew these humans here were my atonement. Her eyes widened when she heard my name—she'd heard the stories of Fire World, then.

"Wanderer." She replied.

"It's…" I needed just the right word to sum up how I felt about meeting her…"Extraordinary to meet you, Wanderer. And here I thought I was one of a kind."

"Not even close," She said, and I raised an eyebrow, surprised. They had more of them? Was that how their group was so big?

"Is that so?" I said, stunned. "Well, maybe there's some hope for this planet, after all."

"It's a strange world," She murmured. The way she said it made me believe she'd been to more than a few.

"The strangest." I agreed. I didn't have to travel far to know that. My humans were odd, but they were mine, and that's what made this home.

The man named Ian walked up to her and put his arm around her. I smiled at them and said, "I can see I'm not the only one who found the local flavor more to my liking, either."

Wanda smiled up at Ian, who looked gently down at her. Neither of them commented.

"My wife is human, too." I explained. "We have a daughter, adopted, and a son. We'd love for you to meet everyone. We have a secure hideout up in Colorado. As long as not too many trucks are seen on the property at once, it's easy to get people in and out. We're well hidden underground."

The man Jared was over talking with Nate but he overheard my statement.

"I don't know if we want to do that just yet." He cautioned.

I nodded, understanding. It was a lot to take in, meeting a huge group of other humans. "For now, if you'd all consent to being blindfolded, we'll take you back to our cave. You can get to know everyone." Jared said.

After a brief look between Nate and I we consented heartily. These humans were different than some of the other bands we'd found. They seemed calmer, more in charge of themselves and their people. They had more than one Soul in their company. I felt deep in my bones that we could trust them.

We sent off a happy message back to our camp, hid our cars better, and then allowed ourselves to be blindfolded. A long walk through sand and a couple of climbs and drops later and we were told we could take our blindfolds off. We took them off and were stunned. We were inside a great cavern. It was filled with people!

Jared was standing on an outcropping of rock, telling everyone who and what we were. He made special note of me and told everyone not to harm me.

What? I thought they had multiple Souls here? Why would he need to warn the larger group not to harm me? Maybe the group was so large that there were dissenters…?

After his speech we were surrounded by people, smiling, laughing, everyone getting to know everyone. Even people talked to me. One teen boy especially came up to me. He looked to be about fifteen or sixteen.

"Do you have anyone in there with you?"

"Huh?" I asked, confused at the abruptness of the question.

"Do you have anyone in there with you? Wanda had Melanie, so we took her out and gave her a new body." I didn't follow this exactly, but it sounded like Wanderer had quite a story to tell.

"No, it's just me in here. It's always just been me. Stephen, my host, unfortunately didn't make it."

"Wanderer was put inside Melanie's head and they came here together and then we took Wanderer out and put her inside a new body so they wouldn't have to share." he said.

"I'm sorry, what is your name?" I asked, struggling to keep up with this boy.

"Oh, I'm Jamie, I'm her brother. Melanie's brother, I mean. But I am basically Wanda's brother too."

"It's nice to meet you Jamie." I said. "So Wanda was inserted into Melanie, but Melanie stayed alive, and they lived together in there for a while?"

"Yes."

"And then you took Wanderer out and put her in a new body? One that didn't have a Soul or a human claimed to it?"

"Yes."

"Wow."

"Did Wanda and Melanie by any chance abandon a car and wander into the desert, followed by Seekers?" I asked. It had to have been the trigger to all of this, the thing that Eric had seen last year.

"Yeah, how did you know that?"

"We've been trying to find you guys for a while." I said simply. Jamie nodded, his eyes wide.

Everyone else was mingling, smiles on their faces, and a old man named Jeb was introducing himself one at a time to each one of us, a rifle slung over his back and a smile on his face.

"So you are just like our Wanda?" He asked me as he approached.

"Well, it sounds like we came to the conclusion differently, but we both got there eventually." I said, shaking his hand.

"Well, welcome! What's yer name?"

"I'm Burns, Burns Living Flowers."

Jeb nodded, "Fire Planet." He said knowingly.

Huh. Wanda must have told them a lot about our worlds.

"Yes. I didn't like it there." I said. What an understatement.

"You like it here better?" He asked curiously.

"Very much." I said. The humans had guns and dogs and no concept of trust, but I liked it here better. So much better.

Six months later:

We had been planning this day for months. A small group of humans from each rebel cell was meeting to discuss the future of human civilization on this planet.

Gail, Greg, Alana, Hadley, Kallie, and Susan were coming from New Mexico. Russell, Cindy, Carlos, Motter, Franklin, and Nan were coming from Texas. From Arkansas Max was bringing Landon, Cheryl, Haylee, James, Josh, and Lulu. And from the caves in Arizona Jared was bringing Melanie, Wanda, Ian, Jamie, Aaron, and Brandt.

It required a lot of planning, but we had finally figured out how to get everyone in one place safely. I did a lot of traveling. So did Wanderer and Ian, since he preferred to be with her. But it had all come together. Wanderer, I felt odd calling her Wanda, was bringing Jamie, Melanie, Jared, and Ian in the last trip—she'd already brought Aaron and Brandt.

They came down the stairs from the silo and were instantly greeted by a mass of people. It was hard to keep track of everyone in the chaos but I found Wanderer, her tiny frame hugged up against Ian's larger one, and shook her hand. Near them were Melanie and Jared. To my left, my fourteen-year-old daughter was shyly sizing up Jamie, who had just turned sixteen. Somewhere in my head I registered that this was going to be a problem, but I pushed it down for another time.

"Wanderer, Ian, Jared, Melanie, welcome! Come on into the Main Tennis Area, I mean Maintenance Area. It's an inside joke. Never mind. Anyway, come this way. We're all going to gather there.

"Jamie, come on!" Melanie whisper-shouted.

He looked at Rayne and then looked back at us. "I think I'm going to hang with Rayne for a bit." He said awkwardly, looking at us and then at her and turning red. Melanie raised her eyebrow while Jared whistled and laughed.

"Don't you dare do anything I wouldn't do. Be good." She hissed, then turned to follow us.

I processed what just happened then decided to deal with it later.

We walked into the Main Tennis Area and I looked around. I saw the faces of my family, of those other humans that I had saved, of the humans we had found and become friends with, and I took a moment to remember and be grateful. On Fire World I'd tried to kill myself because I was hurting the natives. Here I'd gone native to save them. I wasn't naive enough to think that the lives I'd taken on Fire World could be replaced, but I did believe that I had redeemed myself, at least a little bit, with my work here. I was proud of what I'd done and I was ready to do more. These humans depended on me, on Wanderer, for their survival, and I wasn't going to let them down. I wasn't going to betray them. I was going to save them. I was going to save them all.

I looked to Nate, he smiled and said, "What?"

"I just was thinking about the first time we met." I said. "I'm so glad that I didn't turn you in and you didn't attack me with that hoe and that you convinced me to do this." I gestured toward everyone who was sitting down waiting for us to start.

"Me too, Burns, me too."

I clapped Nate on the back and smiled to myself. This was my family. It was where I belonged. I'd finally found my home.

The End.

A/N: Thank you for reading Gone Native. It has been a long ride, but a good one. I'm so grateful for all my loyal readers. I'd love one final review or PM from each of you who have read the whole thing, just to say goodbye and thank you.