They had come from the hills behind the compound, south of the tennis court, slipping through a gap in the fence in the early morning. If we’d have thought to go around to the back of the house we might have seen them yesterday, slowly, slowly crossing the terrain and making their way toward us.
They were clearly exhausted: even the ones who were in good shape had cracked lips, were sunburned and covered in brown-gold desert sand. Some of them looked worse: there were three or four who had scrapes and bruises across their faces and arms. One of them, huge and hulking, had scrapes all across his chest, a gash on his leg, and an impressive black eye. I wondered if any of the boys had fought in the wars.
It was with some embarrassment that we led them to the grass to sit—they seemed a little surprised that there were no seats, but they didn’t complain. We brought them endless jugs of water and had some food ready to give them: toast with jam, bacon, eggs, bowls of baked beans. One of them lifted the bowl of beans to his face and poured it into his mouth like it was the final dribbles of milk in a cereal bowl. They’d had some supplies with them, they told us, but it wasn’t the same as real home-cooked food. It felt almost indecent, we girls rested and showered, gazing at the boys, dirty and exhausted, their eyes darting around the compound, and traveling inexorably back to us. I thought that the oldest might have been in his early thirties, while the youngest was surely no older than twenty. Even after three days in the desert they were beautiful. But we were beautiful too, and we sat straight and let them look.
“How many of you are there?” I asked, though I had counted already.
I had to ask, because it was the most important question.
“Nine,” one of the boys said. He had neatly trimmed brown hair and warm brown eyes, and sunburn across his neck and his collarbones.
One of the boys who had scrapes across his chest, who had introduced himself as Andrew, said, “One of the boys got lost. He won’t be coming.”
Yet another said, “How many of you are there?”
“Ten,” Mia said, and we all fell quiet as the boys looked at the girls, and the girls looked at the boys.
“We’ll show you around,” Candice said, getting suddenly to her feet. I knew what had motivated her into action; we all did. This was the rule of staying in the compound. It was what made people watch the show, day after day, and what people talked about during the ad breaks: you stayed in the compound only if you woke in the morning next to someone of the opposite sex. If you slept alone, you would be gone by sunrise. There were usually ten girls and ten boys to start with, but now, as the girls outnumbered the boys, one of us would be gone by tomorrow. “It’s too big a group to show around,” Mia said. “Candice, you take four and I’ll take five.”
If this plan was disagreeable to Candice she didn’t show it. I went with Candice, as did Jacintha. Eloise and Susie went with Mia. Becca and some of the other girls cleared the boys’ plates and brought them into the kitchen to clean up.
Candice took us to the west, the prettier side of the compound, where the maze lay, and the gardens and pond. Of the four boys in our group, I remembered only a few of their names. Candice walked slowly, keeping in mind the boys’ exhaustion, though they had perked up considerably, and were looking around with interest. We were showing them around like we were showing off our own property, and they were viewing it as though they had never seen it before.
“Was it terrible out there?” Candice asked. “I wouldn’t like to have done it myself.”
Andrew said, “It was an interesting experience, for sure. We got to know each other pretty well. No, it wasn’t terrible, but we were certainly glad to see you all.” I glanced again at the marks on his chest and face. I thought they made him look more handsome. He was of an average height and build, with light, curly hair. When he smiled, dimples emerged deep within his cheeks, softening his appearance and lending him a certain boyishness. There was something about him, though, an ease of movement and a way of holding your gaze that set him apart. Candice walked alongside him, glancing at him now and then. Of all the boys, he seemed the most approachable.
“You got a few scrapes, there,” I said. “What happened?”
“There were some issues,” he said. “But we worked them out.” He smiled at me. “It’s good to be around women and be civilized again.”
The rest of the boys stayed silent. Whatever had happened, they weren’t going to tell us.
“Well, thank God you made it,” Jacintha said.
One of the other boys piped up. He was tall and broad-shouldered, like a rugby player. I thought his name might be Marcus. “I can tell you this much. You really learn a lot about yourself in the desert. It was difficult, but it was thrilling too. You have to rely on your wits. There’s nothing to hide behind.”
Another man, wiry and wearing tortoiseshell sunglasses, possibly named Seb, said, “A man can be a man in the desert.”
Candice made a polite noise of interest and turned back to Andrew, pointing out the dusty area that we thought must be for boules.
The man with the sunburned neck fell into step beside me. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t catch your name.”
“Lily,” I said.
“Nice to meet you, Lily. I’m Sam.” He held out his hand for me to shake. I took it, smiling at the formality.
“What?” he said, smiling back. His eyes were a very warm brown, the same color as his hair.
“I don’t know,” I said. Rounding a corner, I bumped into him a little, and the small act of my arm brushing against his seemed uniquely embarrassing. “Sorry,” I said. He took a small but noticeable step away, placing distance between us. I pretended to look in the opposite direction.
“I’m, ah—” Sam said. “I’m conscious that I haven’t showered in a few days.”
“That’s okay,” I said. He smelled faintly of sweat, and there was dirt and sand clinging to his legs. Perhaps outside, at home, it might have thrown me off, but after days of waiting for the boys in the clean, orderly house, the sight of this man before me, dirty and fantastically real, thrilled me.
He looked around, as though taking in the sights. He stepped closer again. The ground beneath my feet was sandy and gritty, scuffing my white shoes. His arm brushed mine again, the hair on his forearm grazing the underside of my wrist. I hadn’t felt so excited since I had come here. He turned to me. “Do you—?” He stopped himself. “I keep forgetting that we can’t talk about our lives outside the compound,” he said.
“It gets easier after a couple of days.” “What do you talk about?”
“The house, mainly. The grounds, the weather.” I shrugged.
We walked in silence for a few moments. I could see the other group on the east side of the compound, Mia leading them around like a tour guide. I could hear her voice perfectly from across the way, loud and nasal.
It was clear that the boys were tired, though they didn’t say so. Candice announced that she was hot, and wanted to sit in the shade for a bit, so we paused under a tree. When I glanced at Sam, he was looking above him, his face tilted to the blue sky. In the clear light, I saw lines on his forehead. I wondered how old he was. When he saw me looking, he smiled. “I think this will be good,” he said. “A chance to start again, right?”
“Right,” I said. The truth was, I wasn’t entirely sure I agreed with him. Neither was I sure that I disagreed with him. I thought that it was endearing that he wanted to start again here. I didn’t say what I actually thought, which was that it was a good place for a break.
When Candice felt that the boys were sufficiently rested, we wandered over to the eastern side of the compound, passing the gym. The man shaped like a bodybuilder and with the worst injuries fell into step beside me, and Sam shifted forward, as though to give us privacy. I thought the other boy’s name was Tom, but I didn’t want to ask for a second time. He had closely cropped blond hair and slate-gray eyes. But it was difficult to focus on anything other than his enormous build. He said, “What did you girls get up to while you were waiting for us?”
“We cleaned, mostly. We were excited for you all to get here.”
He nodded. There was sweat on his forehead, and he wiped it off unselfconsciously. I had surreptitiously been swiping at my upper lip for the past half hour, when I was sure that none of the boys would notice.
“I imagine you’ve been making lots of plans for what to do with the place.”
“I guess. Yeah, we’ve talked about it.”
“I have lots of ideas,” he said. “Even before we got here I had ideas for what we could do. But,” he said diplomatically, “I wouldn’t want to get in the way of what you girls have planned. You were here first, after all.”
He glanced over at me. His appearance was unremarkable, except for his size. “We can talk about it when we’re all together,” I said.
“We’re happy to be here. In the desert it gets so cold at night, you know. You can’t feel it here, because you’ve got shelter. It’ll be nice to share a bed tonight.”
I wondered if he was stating it as fact, or if he was providing an opening for me to suggest that we might share a bed. I felt sure, however, that he wouldn’t react well to being turned down. When I said nothing, he walked over to Candice.
The boys took a few minutes to test the equipment in the gym, and Jacintha stood beside me and spoke quietly. “What did you say to Tom?”
“Which one is Tom?”
She made a Tom-like gesture, squaring her shoulders, holding her arms separate from her torso. It was a good impression. In unison, we glanced around to make sure he hadn’t seen it.
“I didn’t say anything,” I said. “We talked for, like, a minute.” “There are ten girls and nine boys. Whether we’re here in the morning
or not depends on if a boy likes us. Don’t shoot anyone down just yet, all right?”
When we had finished the tour, we all sat in the grass. It wasn’t uncomfortable anymore: I was already getting used to it. Candice sat beside Marcus, and Susie sat beside Sam. I sat next to Jacintha. Everyone was relaxed, except for Tom, who was looking around restlessly. “The fence around the perimeter,” he said. “That’s new, right?”
We couldn’t say that it was likely put up in the last couple of weeks by the previous residents, so Candice only said, “Brand-new.”
“That’s good,” he said, his eyes following the boundary line. “And there’s the barbed wire, too. It’s safe, then? I mean, you’ve felt safe here, the last few days?”
“It’s safe,” Candice said. Tom nodded. I thought then that there was something off about him. While the other boys were staring openly at the girls, Tom was staring out into the desert.
“What about a glass of something a little stronger than water?” Marcus said. “To celebrate us finally being together?”
I met Candice’s eye, but she looked quickly away. We had drunk all of the alcohol already. “There isn’t any, yet,” she said.
Irritated, Seb said, “Have you not been following the instructions?”
“The screen hasn’t been on,” Jacintha said. “We think it was because they needed us all to be here.”
Andrew stood. “Why don’t we check if it’s on now?” He offered Candice his hand, and the two of them made their way into the house. A moment later, Candice emerged, her arm waving in the air. The big screen had lit up.
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From The Compound by Aisling Rawle. Copyright © 2025 by Aisling Rawle. Published by Random House, an imprint and division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.
