The Preston Six Collection: (Book 1, 2 and 3)
Page 30
“I felt as if I died when I submitted to Max. I thought Poly’s face would be the last caring face I’d see for the rest of my short life. I died again when Max celebrated their deaths. I had given up entirely until I saw you. You saved me.”
Samantha’s jaw clenched and she stared at him with fierce eyes. “I was scared, alone, shaking over next to the ball toss game, questioning my very existence, until I saw you. You have no idea how much it saved me to see you.”
Joey caressed the back of her head. “I guess we needed each other.”
Samantha pushed off and raised an eyebrow as if she came to some great realization. “I don’t know. Take me out of the equation for just a moment and you go running to Poly’s arms.” She said with a joking smile that didn’t reach her awaiting eyes.
“I think Poly met me half way?”
She punched his arm, sighed and then stared at the ground. “I miss Poly. I miss them all.” She looked up at him with tears swelling in her eyes.
It was hard to talk about their friends because they were more than friends, they were family. If Joey thought about it for more than a few seconds, he felt as if he might start sobbing. He learned to take deep breaths and hold them in. He had to put on a stronger face for Samantha.
They didn’t discuss it anymore as they finished their lunch. Samantha almost seemed brighter as she sucked out the last of the lemonade from her cup.
“I think we should start searching for this door. It might be our only chance of getting out of here. What about that one?” She pointed to a maintenance door.
“You know there’s probably a thousand doors in this place, right?”
“You have something better to do, Joey Faust?”
When he didn’t answer, she took his hand and walked to the maintenance door. He wasn’t optimistic about what was on the other side, but kept pace with her.
She flung the door open to a small room with mops and cones for when kids threw up or dropped their Mindy slushies’ on the ground.
“One down.” She shrugged and slammed the door.
POLY WOKE WITH A SPLITTING headache. It took her a moment to become aware, but she soon noticed the humming of the motor had stopped. The boat was still. She rushed to the zipper door and yanked it open.
Flopping out of the boat, she face-planted into the sand. The warm, rough sand caressed her cheek and her hands dug into it. Her legs wouldn’t work as she tried to stand. She stumbled and fell back down. Which was okay, it gave her another chance to feel the sand and make sure it was real.
Gazing past the beach to a jungle, it stretched as far as she could see. Thick foliage, large leaves, and green ferns were in between a mixture of palm trees and other trees. It looked like a tropical beach she would see on TV. She laughed and staggered to her feet with fistfuls of sand.
Was this the island?
The small waves splashed on the white sand around her craft. It looked strange on the outside—tiny. The slash marks poked through the ceiling. She hated it, but loved it all the same. It kept her alive. It listened to her stories and thoughts.
“Which way do I go?” she asked the boat.
The beach stretched out of sight in both directions. Which one was to the nearest Hyatt? Right seemed as good as any, but Compry’s stern voice told her to hide the boat. She was right, she needed to cover her tracks.
Poly grabbed her boat and pulled it into the jungle. Using her knife, she cut an X into the tree. The small activity sent her body into chills and she swayed from dizziness. Forcing her feet to move along the sand, she staggered in her chosen direction.
The jungle line didn’t change much as she moved by it. She kept glancing past the foliage, hoping to see something human, hoping for a soda machine to appear. Even a public drinking fountain spewing its germ-filled water sounded amazing; she would bathe in its filth.
The waves moved in and out, mocking her with their undrinkable water. She felt her body move with the waves, as if she was still on the boat. It made it nearly impossible to walk straight. If a cop did a DUI check, she would have been flung into the tank for boating under the influence.
Palm trees, bushes, more trees, and dozens of ferns—it all blurred by like a repeating pattern. Her legs felt weak and she wasn’t sure how long she had been walking. Then ahead, she spotted something different.
She squinted and was about to curse her mind for making up such a thing, but then it materialized in her blurring vision. A man-made structure, a small hut, built out of palm prawns and wood.
Wisps of smoke lifted into the air further behind the hut. The adrenaline snapped some of the webs from her head and she marched toward it. As Poly approached the hut, a horn blew. She froze and turned to the jungle. Her heart pounded, but she was too weak to run.
A man with a bow and arrow stood next to a palm tree. Not as much of a man, as a teenager, with brown hair and tan skin. He wore only long shorts and a shell necklace. She tried to focus on the young man’s amazing body, but her vision blurred, adrenaline crashing away.
“Who are you?” he demanded, arrow cocked.
“I—I. . . .” she stumbled and fell to her knees.
The young man lowered his arrow and jumped to her side, kneeling next to her.
“You okay?” The stupid boy left seven open spots on his muscular body. She could fatally stab him with ease, if her limbs were still working. But the soft look in his eyes and the fact she couldn’t stand on her own, gave him a pass.
“Water,” she said, but her throat felt as sandy as the beach.
He grabbed around her waist and helped her get to her feet. She leaned on him more than she wanted to, as he walked past the hut.
Beyond the hut, the jungle had been cleared for a small town filled with similar huts and a few larger ones. Smoke billowed out of the top of one building and the smell of fish filled her nose. Some people stepped from the houses and stood on their steps, staring. Two men standing in the center of the village, noticed the change and ran at her with long spears.
She reactively grabbed for the knife attached to her leg, but the young man helping her walk, stopped and put a hand on her to hold her back. Poly gritted her teeth. She would kill each one of them if she had to.
“No,” he said, waving his hands. “She’s not well. Get her some water.”
The two men slowed down, but kept their spears pointed at her.
Standing on her own became difficult and she again fell to her knees. She didn’t need legs to defeat them, just needed them to get close enough. The two men lifted their spears and stuck them into the sandy earth. One motioned with his hand and a woman ran up to her with a water bottle.
The woman held a water bottle, but to Poly it glowed like a holy grail. She grabbed it and drank it all, coughing, like she would throw it all back up. Swallowing hard, she kept it in place.
“Careful, dear, take it slow.” The woman took the empty water bottle and handed her another.
Drinking it slower this time, she let the liquid wet her throat and tongue. She placed her hand on her stomach and held back the urge to purge.
A small crowd formed around her and they stared as she kneeled in the sand, sipping a water bottle. She felt helpless on the ground, looking up at the people dressed in a variety of shorts, jeans, T-shirts, and dresses. She had never seen such a random looking group, like they all went to a thrift shop and picked out whatever fit, regardless of fashion.
“Put her in the hole,” one of the men with a spear demanded.
“No, she isn’t going to hurt anyone, look at her,” the young man she had leaned on countered back.
“I count four knives on her, she’s wearing an MM rescue suit, and I don’t like the way she’s looking at me,” the older man holding a spear said.
Poly pulled her glare away from the man with a spear. She hated being thought of as MM. “My name is Poly, I am not from MM, I am from. . . .” She paused, they would not know Preston, or even Earth. “I am with Harris.”
“You’re with Harris?” he asked.
“I was. Our plane was shot down and we got separated. He should be here soon.” She cringed at the last part, feeling like she had given too much information. Dang dehydration was fuddling with her brain.
Spear man gazed at the crowd forming around Poly. “Paul,” he said to the shell necklace guy. “Take her to the vacant hut and keep guard on her.”
“Are you going to use those knives on us, Poly?” The other spearman asked.
“Only if you make me.” She sneered, but quickly lost the will to maintain it.
Paul seemed amused by it.
She let him help her to the nearby hut, taking a swig of water along the way. The moisture in her mouth felt like Heaven. Her throat still felt raw, but with each swallow it lessened. If the world would stop swaying back and forth, she could get her footing and lose the tanned crutch with a bright smile.
A small wooden staircase led up to a door built out of branches and thatch. Paul lifted a board blocking the door and opened it. He helped her up the stairs and into the hut.
The hut was a twelve by twelve foot room with a small bed and a wooden chair. He led her to the bed and sat her down. She felt the stiff rows of lumber under the blanket, but anything on land was better than the bottom of that boat.
He stood in front of her with a bright smile, staring at her like she was a zoo exhibit. She frowned and put a hand on a knife, examining what part of his body she would stab first if he had tried anything.
He laughed, “I’m sorry, Poly, I don’t mean to stare, it’s just, I was wondering what your mutation was.”
She gave him a quizzical look. Did he know something about what Isaac did to her before she was even born? He couldn’t, how could they know anything about her?
“I don’t have a mutation.”
“Oh, I didn’t mean anything by that, it’s just, here, everyone has a mutation in some way.”
His body looked normal and she counted all five fingers on his hand.
“I can show you mine.” His lifted his leg straight out and then it bent at the knee until his foot was next to his face.
She gasped and covered her mouth. A leg wasn’t meant to bend that way and she figured he had broken it.
“Why. . . ?” Poly said.
“It wasn’t a choice of mine. Many of us were just simply born this way. We come from MM’s experiments. Eventually, they send us here.”
“That’s terrible.”
“Not really. It wasn’t until I got here that I knew what family meant. Here, we can live our lives, for the most part.” His hand twitched next to his leg.
“Well, I’m only here to meet my friends. Then I’ll be leaving.”
“Oh yes, you said you came with Harris.”
“Yeah.” She squeezed the edge of the bed for making the mistake of mentioning him.
“He’s sort of a legend around here.”
She released her grip on the bed. “What?”
“He formed the rebels. Took on MM and lived. Everyone knows who Harris is.”
A knock at the door. “You were told to guard her, not date her.” A voice from the other side of the door said.
“Okay, dad,” Paul said and opened the door. He smiled at her. “We’ll talk more later.” He stepped outside and closed the door.
Alone in the room, she lay on the blanket. A phantom feeling of the rocking ocean made her sit back up. Unable to get comfortable, she walked to the window.
Near the water, she watched as waves splashed onto the sand before retreating back out. She sighed and looked to the horizon. Feeling better physically only gave her time to think of Joey. In the distant horizon, he was out there, maybe seeing the same sunset she was.
A young man ran on the beach, laughing. He ran on his hands and feet like a dog. She squinted and saw his feet were shaped like hands. A laughing girl chased him and stopped twenty feet before catching him. She kneeled close to the sand and took a deep breath, pointed her mouth at the sand and blew. A wave of sand formed from the girl’s breath and crashed over the young man. He jumped out of it, spraying sand. She laughed and then it was his turn to chase her. Poly tried to watch, but they ran from her field of view.
A soft tap at her door, then it opened. There wasn’t going to be much privacy. She moved away from the window and felt for her knife.
The water woman entered the room.
“Hi, Poly, we didn’t get introduced out there. I’m Edith.” Her eyes didn’t meet Poly and she fidgeted with her hands as she spoke.
“Hello.” Edith had Poly’s gratitude.
“I . . . we wanted to invite you for dinner.” Edith looked at the floor.
The mention of food sent her stomach into rumblings. “Yes, please.”
She left the hut with Edith and the man with a spear trailed close by.
“Oh, come on, Hatch.” She put her hands on her hips and Hatch lowered his spear.
“Don’t mind him, MM killed his sister a few years ago in a search and he’s a bit . . . protective.”
“MM comes here?”
“They do. Sometimes it can be a year, maybe more, between inspections though.”
She walked past a hut, deeper into the town, forcing her sea legs to remain steady. That boy, Paul, would surely have his arms around her the second if she showed a struggle.
Similar huts to hers formed a large outer circle around a fire pit in the middle. People gathered around the fire pit, sitting on stumps or mingling with plates of food.
Most eyed her and she returned the curiosity. One woman sat hunched over and held a cane for support, her back looked contorted and twisted. A man with eyes the size of golf balls blinked at her as she walked by. Another man with his elongated neck dug a hole next to a stump, adjusting it. He grumbled at her as she walked by. Everyone else gave her a wide berth.
Edith brought her to a tree stump stuck in the sand, next to the fire pit. Paul sat on the one next to her. “I’ll bring back some food for you two,” she said and walked away.
“Thanks,” Poly said. After all the dreams of water were fulfilled, her hunger set in with a ravenous vengeance. She licked her cracked lips and put her hand over her stomach. Where was Edith with the food?
“It’s not that odd here, really.” Paul kicked at the sand in front of him.
“Who are you trying to convince?”
He laughed and leaned forward on his stump, letting his legs bend backward. She turned away from looking at it, as it sent chills down her back.
“How do you know Harris?”
“Uh,” she said. “They . . . I mean he, trained me.”
She instantly thought of Compry and their brief time spent in the training center. Throwing daggers, stabbing computer generated people, slicing dummies in lethal ways. She sighed at the memories that seemed so distant now. She yanked at the hilt of Compry’s knife and felt the green etched dragon on it.
“What did he train you in?” he asked.
“I really don’t want to talk about it,” she said snappier than intended. The hurt look on his face made her regret it, but the last thing she wanted was to talk about Compry in small talk. What happened to her body on that roof? Would Madame V take care of them? Maybe get her body back to her dad?
Edith broke the awkward silence that followed, with two plates of grilled fish and sliced mango.
“Thank you.” Poly took the plate. She ate the fish fillet and swallowed the mango down. Her stomach ached, but she didn’t care. Poly looked around for Edith, to see if she was bringing seconds.
“Hungry, eh?” Paul asked. “Here. I haven’t touched mine, you can have it.”
She took the plate from him and took her time as she ate.
Hatch sat next to Paul, carrying his plate and then Edith sat next to him.
The sun reached the edge of the tre
e line and darkness arrived in the small village. The other people sat around the fire pit, each held a plate of food, many sitting on the stumps or cross-legged in the sand. She felt their eyes on her, studying her. She shivered and rubbed her shoulders, glancing back at her hut.
“Maggie, can you start the fire?” Hatch asked.
A young girl whipped her long red hair back and shot glances at Poly as she reached into the stack of wood and grabbed a log. She held it in her hands and tendrils of smoke rose for a moment before it burst into flames.
Poly grabbed the front of her stump to keep from falling forward. Maggie tossed the burning log into the pile of wood.
In a few minutes, the fire engulfed the entire pit. The heat radiated on her face and the dancing lights lit up the many faces surrounding her. Many of those faces looked in her direction. Did they think she was with MM? She wrapped her arms around herself and glanced at her hut again.
“Don’t worry, they’ll come around once they know you’re not going to stab them with those knives. Besides, it’s going to liven up in a second.” Paul gave her a wry smile.
She had no idea what he meant. She shifted on her stump. “I think I’m going to go to bed.”
Someone on the other side of the fire pit whistled a repeating tune. A drum began beating in a similar tune, followed by someone hitting a log. Paul started clapping his hands and moved side to side on his seat. The others put their plates down and clapped along as well. Another drum joined in, followed by a deep horn. She looked for the musician and saw a woman pounding on a log with a large stick. Paul stood up, then Edith and Hatch did as well, clapping and moving to the beat. Great, she’d thought she might have stumbled across a cult, but it was even worse—social dancers. She knew what was next.
Paul extended his hand to her and she shook her head. Yep, they wanted her to dance. He laughed and grabbed her hand and pulled her up to her feet. He guided her a few steps closer to the fire, the heat pushed on her face, but it felt good after being in that horrible, cold craft for days. Paul kept his hand wrapped around hers. Edith stood on the other side of her and took her other hand.