Brody wasn’t listening anymore. He was running full speed to the flier, not looking at him.
He followed, grabbed him by the shoulders on the stairs, stopping him. “They are all still asleep, Brody. Give it a minute or two.”
Brody turned around. “Please, let go of me.” And he did, had to.
The kid ran up the steps into the flier, walked over to where Fuller was, and sat down next to him. He watched him put his arm around the man, Fuller awake now, looking at the kid.
“We need to talk.” Brody’s soft voice.
The man got up without a word and they walked past him to the clearing. He stopped them and asked Max to please turn around. Fuller spun around, glaring at him, still angry.
“Give me your hands, Max,” he asked softly.
He did, and he unlocked the band and handed it to Brody, nodding to the kid, hoping he’d never have to use it on his father, but knowing, too, that he would if he felt he had to.
He walked to the stream, needing space from all of them, needing to be alone. He took his shoes off and waded in, feeling the water rush past him. He washed his face and his hair, enjoying the feel of cool water on his skin, calming himself. Afterward, he sat on the bank, twirling the water with his toes, watching the sun slowly rise over the water, throwing pale yellow streams of light through the trees on the other side of the water, making it hard to look at. He finally got up when he saw the tiny stream of smoke from the fledgling fire and walked back, barefoot, not wanting to put shoes on his wet feet.
Drake was by the fire, humming softly to himself, enjoying the morning as only people like him ever did, the ones who were up and running at the first sign of light. Lancer nodded to him and helped him keep the flames going, neither of them saying anything. He knew Drake wouldn’t talk to him, not unless he wanted him to, and he was far too tired for that. They got the fire hot enough and Drake put up a kettle of tea and a smaller one with coffee, still humming contentedly, and went off to collect things for breakfast, leaving Lancer to watch over the flames.
He heard the soft rustling of branches being moved and then Brody and Max came out into the clearing, speaking in whispers. There was no band on Max’s hands and he hoped it meant he’ll be okay now; that whatever Brody said to him would be enough to keep him safe. He knew the man would likely be angry at him for a long time, forever maybe, and that he would have to let him be. He was okay with it if it meant Brody didn’t have to bury him just yet.
He watched, surprised, as Brody turned to the stream alone. Max waited for him to disappear on the trail and then walked toward him. He stood, apprehension making his face feel hot.
Max stopped a few small steps away from him and put his hand out, eyes on his. “I owe you an apology, Lancer, more than one, really, but one that really matters. I hope you’ll forgive me for what I’d asked of you. And I owe you a thank you, I think… for saving my life,” he said simply, quietly, and dipped his head slightly, his eyes serious, no humor in them.
He grabbed the man’s hand with both of his and then surprised himself by pulling him into a hug. Max hugged him back, fiercely, smiling at him. “I think we’re going to be great friends,” he said, and then stepped away from him, still smiling and ran to the flier, looking much younger than his forty something years.
“What are you grinning about, soldier?” Drake’s voice startled him. He didn’t realize he was grinning until now. Drake looked at him curiously for a moment, and went back to preparing whatever he was going to throw into the pan. He set the pan with all the stuff in it on the embers after a while and poured tea for himself and coffee for him, as if he knew he hadn’t slept much last night. Drake always seemed to know these things about everybody, and he knew it pleased him immensely that he could do these small kindnesses for them. He thanked him, enjoying the first few sips of the hot, bitter liquid.
“He’ll be all right, Fuller will. I was wrong about him my whole life I think. Never thought I’d say it, but I like the man. Strange, how that happens…. I could have killed him with my bare hands for what he did to Brody in Crylo, you know? I wanted to.” Drake shook his head, sadness radiating from his soft face. “What you did last night—you saved two people, I think. I don’t think Brody would have survived it.”
Lancer dropped his eyes, thinking of the little gray-eyed boy, the one he’d likely never see again, not even as a frame on his screen, and he felt his eyes fill up and spill over, Drake’s blurry shape moving toward him, slowly, as if through mist. He put his head into his hands and felt Drake’s giant arms around him after a beat, and he let himself cry for his boy, let the pain of losing him for good wash over him, spilling in hot streams through his fingers, Drake’s soft voice telling him that somehow or other it’ll be all right, and that he should have done it a long time ago, should have let himself.
He heard the door to the flier slide open and bolted up and away from the fire, away from Drake and all these people coming down to the clearing, running blindly into the woods. He felt branches slapping him in the face and neck but didn’t feel the pain of it, didn’t feel much of anything at all until he ran full speed into Brody, knocking him to the ground. The kid slowly got up, a stunned look on his face, and then stood there blocking him. Lancer heard him whispering his name over and over again after a while, only he didn’t know what he was supposed to do about it. Finally, Brody put his arm around him and walked him the rest of the way to the water, and then made him sit down on the edge of it. Lancer was too dazed to fight him. He felt Brody put something cold and wet to his face, and he closed his eyes and let him, and after a while he felt his own breathing again, felt the blood rush to his face, something burning on it, all the coldness and wetness gone now. He heard the kid move and opened his eyes.
Brody was crouching in front of him, his feet in the water. “I can’t leave you here like this, Lancer, so please, don’t ask…. We’ll find him, you know? Not in any way that’ll hurt him, but we will. Someday, even if it takes years.” The kid was watching him, eyes shining gold through all that blue in the early sun, sadness etching lines into his too-young face. “Tell me what to do, Lancer, anything. I’ll do it, we all will, you know that,” Brody whispered, still looking at him in that way, and it hurt to see him like this.
But he couldn’t talk now, didn’t trust himself to. He shook his head and waited for the kid to go, to let him be, only Brody didn’t move and it made him want to laugh, remembering when he did that to him in Reston, and how angry the kid got at him for it.
He made himself stand up, Brody standing with him, keeping his hand on his arm to steady him. “I need to say goodbye to him is what’s going on, and I don’t know how to do it…. I haven’t thought about it until just now, after all that happened with your father, that I won’t even get the frames of him anymore. I won’t know how he is or what he looks like and there isn’t a damn thing any of us can do about any of it. I’ll be all right, I promise. I just need a moment.”
Brody watched him in silence for a long moment, then nodded and walked away, silent as a ghost, and he knew he wouldn’t say anything about it again, not to him, not to anybody.
He knelt in the wet sand, the water lapping around him in cold swirls, and closed his eyes, remembering every feature of the boy he loved but never knew, trying to picture what he was doing right now, picture how he was. He took the screen with his face on it out of his pocket and flipped through all the frames he had, stopping on the last one they sent him, the last one they would ever send. He looked at it for a long time, letting the tears run down his face.
“Forgive me, son,” he whispered into the serious gray eyes. He stood up, turned the screen off, and in one hard motion hurled it into the water, the splash of it making him flinch.
The stream quickly carried it downward, away from him, making it smaller and smaller, and when he couldn’t see it anymore, he turned away and walked back to the clearing, to the warmth of the fire and Drake’s face, steeling himself for the
concerned looks but knowing, too, that they would let him be because that’s just how they were. And he thought for one brief, hopeful moment that maybe Brody was right; that somehow they would get him back to him, however long it took. It’s all he had left of him now, this sliver of hope, so he let it settle heavily on his heart, a painful lump of hope.
The smoke reached him before he saw the fire. He stopped, listening to the voices of the kids and one new voice, Fuller’s. He couldn’t hear what they were saying, but he had a feeling they were talking about him and suddenly he needed them to stop. He broke into a run, snapping branches along the way. All eyes were on him when he got there, but nobody moved to get up.
He walked over to the fire and put on the biggest smile he could muster. “I think I may have skipped breakfast. I hope you left me something good.”
They smiled back at him, all but Riley. Drake handed him a heaping plate of food, still hot, and they all went back to their chatter, leaving him be. He walked over to where Riley was sitting with Ams. The girl got up without him needing to ask and went into the flier, the rest of them following her, as if on cue.
“I’m all right, Riley,” he said softly to the kid when they were alone.
Riley lifted his face and stared at him for a long time, putting him on edge with that look, and then shook his head, his too-long hair covering half his face. “I didn’t ask, Lancer, don’t need to. I wasn’t going to ask, either, but you’re not all right. I’d rather you didn’t lie to me again.” He stood, turning toward the flier, away from him.
Lancer set his barely touched plate of food on the grass and got up. “You’re right, Riley. It won’t happen again.”
Riley turned and walked back to him and then threw his arms around him, not saying anything for a while, looking at him with those ridiculously old eyes of his. “Don’t you dare lose you, Lancer,” he whispered finally and ran from him as if embarrassed.
“I love you too, kid,” Lancer said quietly to his back after a few moments, knowing Riley couldn’t hear him, but he needed to say it, for himself, so he did, again and again.
Author’s Note:
Please note: the events in The Code and the following book take place eight years after the conclusion of Legacy. I hope you enjoy the journey.
1
Runaways
Telan, June 5, 2244, Woods Outside Fordham Orphanage.
She was watching him again from behind the tree, he could sense it. This shy girl trailed him like a shadow for over a week now and he let her, never calling her on it, not even looking at her, but he couldn’t do it today. He needed to be alone. He turned and walked right up to where she was hiding and, before she could run, grabbed her by her hand, holding her in place.
“What do you want?”
The girl blushed, eyes looking past him, anywhere but his face.
“What do you want from me? I know I am a freak and all, but this got old a long time ago. I come here to get away from everybody and you’re not letting me. I need to know why.”
He let go of her hand.
The girl had tears in her eyes when she looked at him and he felt bad for snapping at her, but he couldn’t help himself. “You are not a freak. I didn’t mean to make you angry, I am sorry,” she whispered, and dried her eyes with her hands, turning away from him.
He waited for her to calm down, not wanting to upset her any more than he did already, and she finally looked at him again, eyes dry now.
“I’ve been needing to tell you something, but there just never seemed to be the right time. That’s why I’ve been following you out here… I think they lied to you about your parents, about why your eyes are like that. I heard the mistress talking about you with a soldier, an Alliance soldier. It was at night and everybody was asleep, only I can’t sleep sometimes so I run or walk, and I saw them talking. The man said he knows your father, and that could only mean that your father is one of them. The soldier tried to get the mistress to let him see you, but she wouldn’t let him. I won’t tell anybody, I swear. I just… I thought you should know.”
He slid down the tree into the grass and put his head down, thinking through this.
He believed this girl, that she was telling him what she saw, but he didn’t know what to do with it. He’s felt something in his story was off for years, but he was used to questioning and overthinking everything. That’s what the teachers said about him. And the kids calling him a freak or a mutant didn’t bother him much, didn’t hurt like it used to. He just kept to himself and did his work quietly and quickly, and then ran into the woods to be alone, away from their words and their laughter.
He looked up and the girl was watching him, her large brown eyes shining wetly, but there were no tears on her face. He’d liked her since sixth grade when she just showed up there, not talking to anybody. They walked her into his class and she sat by the window next to him, because it was the only empty seat in the room. Nobody ever sat next to him, as if they were afraid they’d catch whatever he had that made him broken, but she didn’t seem to mind. She never talked to him, or anybody. They sat there like that all year, letting each other be. But he watched her, too. In secret. Watched the way her hair fell in ringlets down her shoulders, the way the light through the windows made her eyes look warm and full of gold in the middle, how she’d bite her bottom lip when she was thinking about something….
He stood up and walked over to her. “I’m not angry at you. Thank you, for telling me. But you shouldn’t follow me anymore. If I am a half-breed, you’re not safe anywhere around me,” he said, his voice quieter than he wanted it to be.
She nodded and turned away from him, took a few steps toward the dorms, and then stopped. “Are you going to run?”
He had to now, he knew, and he didn’t want to lie to this girl. “I am,” he whispered.
She faced him. “I want to come with you. I won’t make it any harder on you and you won’t have to take care of me or anything, I swear, but I can’t stay here. I’ve been meaning to run away from the first, only I never had the courage to before. Please, Telan, you need to let me come….” She took a few steps back to him and took him by the wrists, making his skin feel hot where she touched him.
He jerked his hands away from her. “I can’t… I can’t risk taking you. I don’t even know where I am going. I’ve never lived anywhere but here. I don’t know if I can keep myself alive, never mind anyone else, is what I am saying. You won’t be safe with me.” He said it softly, not wanting to hurt this girl, but of all things, she was smiling at him. He never saw her do this before and it surprised him and made him blush.
“I was on the streets for years before they brought me here. I can keep us alive. Nobody is going to be looking for us either, once we are away from here. We are just orphans. We just need a few days to collect all the supplies we’ll need. I’ve been wanting to get out of here for years now, and I will, one way or another. I think it’ll be safer for both of us to do it this way. I won’t even talk to you if you don’t want me to, I promise. You won’t even know I am there.”
She said it all quietly, softly, but she was looking at him, unblinking, and he knew she meant what she said, that she would run with or without him, so he nodded to her and she left him then, running onto the trail, not making any noise. He smiled, watching her run.
He took his time going back to his dorm, taking in the trail and the shimmer of the small lake in the distance. Devin would likely be in the room by now, which meant the usual taunts and a few punches or slaps. He steeled himself for the pain and humiliation of the next few minutes and picked up the pace, wanting to just get it over with. He took the stairs two at a time to the third floor, ignoring the few younger kids screaming insults at him, and walked in. The room was dark, Devin lounging in the chair, smoking something as always. He was almost eighteen now, all bulk and no brain.
“Hey, freak. Shut the door. I’ll be with you just as soon as I’m done with this.” His voice was raspy from all the smo
king, he guessed, much too low for someone his age. He’s hated him since he first met him. The kid was a bully, and he was his favorite subject. He closed the door softly behind him and locked it, took off his shirt, and leaned on the wall on his side of the room, keeping his hands in fists at his sides.
Devin casually put out his smokestick and stood up, facing him, a crooked grin splitting his face. “Should we work on your face today? It’s been a while.” He swaggered over to him and without another word backhanded him hard across the face.
Telan kept his eyes on him, trying to control his anger. He only needed to get through the next few days, and he’ll be free of him, free of all of them.
Devin slapped him open-handed now over and over again and then grabbed him by the neck, pushing him hard into the wall, growling at him. “One day, freak…. One day I am going to kill you, you bloody coward. Will you just stand there when I cut you up into little pieces? You sure you’re not a girl under all that? I’m rooming with the biggest pussy in the dorms.” Devin spat in his face and turned away from him, a look of utter disgust disfiguring his already ugly face.
The dinner bell rang, and Devin ran out of the room as if it were on fire. He knew he’d be taking what little food they got from the smaller kids. That’s why he raced to the dining hall like that every time the bell rang. He couldn’t go down there now, couldn’t face all the other kids with his face looking the way it did, so he slid down the wall and put his head in his hands, waiting until he was breathing normally again, and when he was, he went through his few possessions and packed a few shirts and two pairs of jeans and boxers into his bag as tightly as he could, so it wouldn’t look too bulky. The rest of his clothes he’d have to leave behind, so his absence wouldn’t be noticed too soon, and suddenly, he couldn't bear to wait the few days. He needed to run right now, only he’d have to find a way to tell Selena that somehow, and he didn’t want her to see him like this, with his face bruised. He splashed cold water on it for a long time, trying to get the redness down, but it was too new and needed more time, the time he didn’t have. He grabbed his bag and went down to the dining hall. The kids were making a ton of noise there, but he still heard it: “Freak”, “Light Eyes”, “Mutt.” He blocked it, looking for the girl.
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