Repatriate Protocol Box Set 3

by Kelli Kimble

  The girl edged closer, and I shifted the light to illuminate her clearer. She held an arm in front of her face, blocking my view.

  “My friend,” I continued. “I think he fell when the ridge collapsed. Did you see him?”

  She was almost close enough to reach out and grab her if I wanted, but I kept my arms loose at my sides. I didn’t want to alarm her. She suddenly dropped her arm and stood upright.

  She looked . . . familiar.

  “What’s your name?” I asked.

  “I remember you,” she said. “Nimisila. You swung me on the swings. You used to take care of me sometimes.”

  I felt a little catch of emotion in my throat. “Arisa?” I whispered.

  She smiled, and I noticed some of her teeth were missing. She seemed too old to still be losing baby teeth. Was she missing adult teeth? “Your mom is gonna be so happy,” she said. “I can’t believe it’s you.”

  “My mom? My mom is here?”

  “Yes, and your dad, too.”

  “What about your mom?”

  Arisa looked away and crossed her arms over her chest, as if she were cold. “She’s dead.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” I was surprised to find I had genuine remorse over the aunt who had betrayed me.

  I let the light fade so that Arisa’s grief could stay in darkness. I heard her scuff a foot against the ground. She wasn’t wearing shoes.

  “Maybe you could take me to my parents?” I asked. I wondered whether she was cold, but she didn’t seem to be shivering. Even in the semi-darkness, I could see her clothes were patched and worn.

  She nodded. “Yes.”

  “Thank you,” I said, switching to internal conversation out of respect. “I only recently learned they might still be alive. I–”

  But before I could finish my thought, she shushed me and ducked. She glanced up at me and made a frantic motion for me to scrunch down beside her.

  “What is it?” I was careful to make sure my thoughts could only be heard by her.

  “The cave dwellers. They don’t like city people. They’re looking for you and your friend.” She belly-crawled to the edge of the canyon wall and looked down into the canyon.

  Having very recently seen that wall crumble away, I stayed where I was.

  After a few minutes, she backed up to me. “We’ve got to go. Follow me. Be quiet. If they hear you, we’re dead.”

  I didn’t mention my abilities, nor did I mention I could easily protect us from any physical threat. It seemed easier to follow her and explain later, when we weren’t hyped up on adrenaline.

  She crawled past me, and once she was a suitable distance from the canyon edge, she got her feet beneath her and took off running. Her bare feet didn’t make a sound as she padded over the sandy dirt. Not wanting to give away our position with clumsy sounds, I drifted above the ground, right behind her. We moved along a flat, sandy area, then into a grove of scraggly pine trees.

  It couldn’t have been more than two miles from the canyon – which didn’t seem a particularly safe distance from the cave dwellers – but she led us down a hill and across a small stream before I spotted a fire in the distance. I pulled up short as a lump formed in my throat.

  Arisa came back to me, grabbed my wrist, and pulled me forward. “Come on,” she said. “Your mom is waiting for you to come home.”

  Chapter 8

  Their shelters were like ours, though they were shaped more like a box than a dome. Five of them were circled around a fire. Shadows walked around the fire. When we got closer, I saw each of the shelters was only maybe four feet tall, and they were made of three walls, with the opening facing the fire.

  As we approached, I saw someone climb out of a hammock in the shelter opposite the fire and emerge into the full light of the fire. He was older, nearly bald but with a grizzled white beard that shone orange in the firelight. Arisa perked up, and the two of them locked eyes. I watched as the man’s eyes bulged wide, then a grin split his beard open.

  He turned away, and then I heard him. “Nimisila,” he said. “Welcome, dear, welcome! Where is Moira? Someone fetch her. She’s going to want to see this.”

  Around the fire and in the shelters, there was movement. People emerged into the firelight to approach me. I smiled and nodded, not knowing what to say. They were talking to each other, directing conversation around me. It was something I’d grown used to as a child – even if they’d been broadcasting their thoughts, I couldn’t have heard them at the time – but it rubbed me the wrong way now.

  “Hello,” I said out loud, approaching the fire. “I understand my parents are here?”

  There was an excited shriek in the shelter behind me, and I turned. An older version of my mother was standing with her fist pressed against her mouth.

  “Mom?” I asked. I took a hesitant step towards her.

  She ran to me and wrapped her arms around me. At one time, she would have smothered the top of my head with kisses, but I was too tall for that now. Instead, she pressed her lips against my cheek while simultaneously crushing me against her.

  I felt as if my world’s axis had shifted 90 degrees. She was alive.

  “I can’t believe it,” she said. Her voice sounded as if she’d gargled with gravel, and she coughed before continuing, “Your dad is going to be so happy to see you. I’m so happy to see you.” She pulled away and cupped my cheeks in her palms, turning my face toward the firelight to see me better. “You’ve grown into such a beautiful young woman,” she said.

  There was a stirring behind me, and I looked over my shoulder. The crowd surrounding us parted, and my father took several halting steps towards me. His feet seemed to be moving slower than the rest of his body, and he tripped into us, nearly knocking me off my feet. “Nim,” he said. His voice sounded rough, too. Tears were streaming down his face.

  “Dad. I can’t believe it. They told me you were dead.”

  “That’s what they told us about you, too,” he said, “but we never believed it. Not for one minute did I believe my Nimisila was gone.” He hugged me, and my mom leaned against my back, sandwiching me between them.

  “I’ve missed you so much,” I mumbled into his shoulder.

  “We’ve missed you, too,” he said. He pulled me back and studied me, tucking a stray lock of hair behind my ear. “You’ve really grown up.” He tried to stifle a cough, but then had to release me so that he could cover his mouth.

  “You haven’t been talking here,” I said.

  They exchanged a glance, then my dad tucked me under his arm. “Come on. We’re going to sit down and catch up. Are you hungry? Have you eaten?”

  “I’ve eaten,” I said.

  He steered me towards one of the shelters. There were four hammocks hanging from the walls and ceiling, two on each side, with one above the other. Someone was lounging in one of the lower hammocks, and when we entered, he got up, nodded, and left the shelter.

  “Must be hard to get into those upper hammocks,” I said.

  There was another brief, uncomfortable silence, but it didn’t last. They sat on the floor, cross-legged, next to each other. I sat down facing them. “This is a lovely community,” I said. “Similar to the one I was living in. Near the ocean.”

  “You didn’t come from the city?” Mom asked.

  “Just now, I did, but I only spent one night there. Thanos brought me to the city, and then here. He says his father led you and the others here during the experiments. Is his dad here?”

  Dad coughed. “Did you say Thanos?”

  “Yeah.”

  They looked at each other again.

  “I’m getting the feeling something isn’t right here,” I said.

  “You know,” Dad said, “my voice is awful sore. I think I’m going to switch to telepathy, if that’s okay with you.” He rubbed at his throat and winced.

  “Of course,” I broadcast. “I can communicate this way. I just prefer to speak.”

  “Keep your thoughts just to us
,” Mom said. “We need to explain some things.”

  “Okay,” I said. This time, I sent my thoughts only to the two of them. A prickly feeling was starting to linger around the base of my neck. “You want to tell me what’s going on?”

  “You know how we got here, right?” Mom asked.

  “Roughly. Thanos’ dad brought you here from the city. He was supposed to kill you, but he didn’t have the stomach for it, so he hid you instead. You’ve been hiding here since then.”

  “Yes,” she said, “though it isn’t quite that simple. Thanos’ father, Orthos, brought us here, and he was supposed to kill us, yes. We thought you were dead, or we never would’ve come with him.” She paused and looked down at her hands. “He taught us things. Things he learned from the experiments they did on children like you.” Tears came to her eyes. “Please, believe me, Nimisila. If I’d thought for a moment you were still alive there, and you had to endure even half of what he did to us . . .” She trailed off.

  “You couldn’t have helped me,” I said. “When Orthos fled the city, it was because I destroyed the facility.”

  “We’ve been here longer than Orthos,” Dad said. “He brought us here, all the families, and he left. He came now and then with provisions, but he didn’t join us at first.”

  “Oh,” I said out loud, forgetting myself.

  They didn’t comment, and the silence stretched out.

  “I’m sure they were just as convincing with you as they were with me,” I finally said.

  “I feel just awful, knowing you were there, and we left. Can you ever forgive us?” Mom said.

  “Of course,” I said. “I don’t blame you for what happened. The lab was a fortress; even if you’d known I was in there, you couldn’t have done anything. The only way out was . . .” This time, it was I who trailed off. I didn’t want to admit to my parents how ruthless I’d been, how I’d taken lives without a thought and crushed precious resources, as if they were replaceable.

  “You can tell us, sweetie,” Mom said. “Did something happen? When you destroyed it?”

  I sighed and looked at the ceiling. It was made of branches, woven together – though it must have been quite dense, because I couldn’t see any starlight peeking through. “I killed a bunch of people. At first, it was the people who, uh, trained me, but then I just got angry, and even as I burned it down and crushed it, I killed the people who were trying to run away. I didn’t even know most of them, had never seen them before, but I killed them. Like they were just ants running from an ant hill.”

  My mother looked stricken, her eyes wide, but her brows furrowed. “Nim,” she said, and reached for me.

  A loud sob escaped me, and I leaned into my mother’s arms.

  She shushed me while running a hand over my hair, smoothing it. She rocked me back and forth gently. “It’s all right,” she whispered into my ear in her raspy voice.

  That only made me cry harder. She loved me, despite what I’d become.

  I turned my head and looked out of the shelter. Curious looks were being cast in, but when they saw my face, everyone quickly turned away.

  I pulled away from my mother and wiped tears from my face. “I’m not proud of that,” I said. “At the time, it seemed like something I had to do. I know now it was wrong, but if I were in the same situation again, I’m not sure I could help but do the wrong thing again.”

  “What they did to you was brutal,” Dad said. “Nobody in their right mind would deny you the right to be angry.”

  “You said Thanos brought you here.” Mom said. “Where is he?”

  “When the canyon wall collapsed, he disappeared into the canyon. I tried to look for him, but I couldn’t sense him. Then, I saw Arisa, and I just kind of forgot about him.” My cheeks felt hot. I shouldn’t have left him back there; I should have insisted Arisa help me look for him.

  But my parents exchanged another look.

  “What?” I asked.

  “The people who live in the canyon . . . they don’t like people from the city,” Dad said.

  “I know. Arisa told me. So, that just means it’s even more important we get back there and find him before they do.” I stood up and patted dirt from my butt.

  Dad shook his head. “The cave dwellers caused the collapse. They’ll already have him. You’re lucky they didn’t catch you, too.”

  “How did you get away?” Mom asked.

  “I flew,” I said.

  Mom blinked. “You must be very powerful,” she said. “Nobody here can do anything like that.”

  “You have abilities?” I said, stopping mid-step.

  “Yes,” Dad said sharply. “Your mother just told you he taught us.”

  “You didn’t say he taught you telepathic things,” I said, stung by his response.

  “We all have some very basic capabilities,” Mom said. “A few people – like your father – can leave their mind to go to a place where their body is not. Most of us can temporarily change a small object. I can hear conversations I’m being excluded from and shield conversations I’m having from the thoughts of others.”

  I shook my head. It had taken very intense stress to develop my abilities. He’d taught these people how to do these things on his own? Without hurting them? “And he taught you this stuff? Without torturing you?”

  “We had to endure some pain, yes,” Dad said, “but I wouldn’t call it ‘torture’.” He opened his palm to reveal a circular scar. I could tell from the raised appearance of the scarred tissue it was from a burn – a brand, to be exact. I glanced at my mom. She held her palm up, as well, revealing the same mark on her hand.

  “We can talk about that later,” I said, pushing aside my curiosity for the urgency of saving Thanos. “We have to go find Thanos. If they have him, then we should try to get him back.”

  “Sit down, Nim,” Dad said. He patted the ground where I’d been sitting. “I know you want to help your friend, but the cave dwellers have a very specific way of dealing with city people. He’ll turn up in the morning, when they’re done with him.”

  “Done? You mean they’ll kill him?”

  “No, of course not,” Mom said. She put a reassuring hand on my knee and squeezed.

  “I couldn’t feel him anymore,” I said. “After the canyon collapsed, I couldn’t sense his presence.”

  “That doesn’t mean anything,” Dad said. “You’re obviously very tired. Why don’t I get you set up for bed? You’ll feel better in the morning.”

  He didn’t wait for me to answer. He left the shelter and returned a few minutes later with another hammock. He moved two of the hammocks down a little bit and hung the new one above them.

  “Yes, let’s get you ready for bed,” Mom said. “It’s been a hard day for you; anyone can see that.”

  She led me out of the shelter to a bathroom, which was little more than hole in the ground, surrounded by a small structure. It smelled wretched, and I wondered how they kept it clean. Back at my village, we’d gone to great lengths to create a system that kept our body waste out of sight and smell.

  It was better than going off to pee behind a tree, though, so I used the facilities. When I came out, my mother led me back to the shelter.

  Dad pointed to the hammock he’d just hung. “That one’s for you. It’ll be the warmest, since it’s up high.”

  I eyeballed it. I could easily get in it, if I used my ability, but how did any of them get into theirs? Only the lowest hammock on each side was easily accessible from the floor.

  “Don’t worry about us,” Mom said. “We’re used to getting into them.” She turned towards the hammock and touched it. The strings seemed to grow, causing the hammock to slump lower – though the excess length also managed to bend around the lowest hammock. Mom turned and put her bum in the extended portion of the hammock, then the whole thing drifted back into place, with her swinging from it. She turned and fidgeted until she was comfortable.

  Dad handed her a blanket. “See you in the morning,
Nim,” he said. He pressed a kiss to my forehead. “We’re so happy to have you here with us.” Dad settled into the hammock below Mom, and I drifted into the upper hammock. I heard a few stifled gasps. “Wow, you weren’t kidding,” Dad said. His voice belayed parental pride, something I’d not heard in a long time. Tears pricked at my eyes again. “That really is an impressive ability.”

  “Thanks,” I said. I noticed the steady sound of movement around the fire had stopped. I turned my head to look out, and the people who’d been staring into the shelter jerked away. It occurred to me I hadn’t been alone in the lab. “Hey. My friend, Elton; are his parents here?” I asked.

  Dad began to cough, so much so that Mom got up and gave him a wooden cup to drink from. She thumped him once on the back, and he stopped. “They aren’t here anymore,” he said.

  Mom handed me a blanket and settled back into her hammock. “They had a run-in with the cave dwellers and decided to move on,” she explained.

  “But they’re alive?”

  “They were when they left here,” Dad said.

  “There aren’t any other parents from the time when you were in the lab, dear,” Mom explained. “We’re the only people left from your age group. These others; they all came after.”

  My throat clenched. “You mean the experiments didn’t stop?”

  “You mustn’t blame yourself, sweetheart. You tried to stop it. The destruction definitely gave them a hard time,” Dad said. He laughed. “When I think of the difficulty you caused them, the look on the mayor’s face when he found out his prized program had been razed to the ground . . .”

  “But I didn’t stop it. I probably made it even harder for the people behind me.”

  “Let’s not worry about it anymore tonight. In the morning, this will all seem a lot better,” Mom said.

  I didn’t answer. My mind spun in every direction it could, and I found myself tensing in the hammock, my tense shoulder blades crunching against each other. My father was soon snoring, and the camp quieted. When I glanced over my shoulder, nobody was at the fire, which was burning to embers.

  I sure hoped it would seem better in the morning.