by Shelly Crane
When she convulsed against me once, I knew she was going to be all right. But then I heard the pounding of footsteps and knew we had bigger problems.
“No, no, no,” I begged anyone who would listen. I picked her up in my arms and, hoisting her as gently as I could, but as quickly, and rushed to the end of the alley, peeking around the end of the building. I couldn’t stop the hiss that left my lips as I watched eight guards coming up the way, kicking and banging at anything and everything they could see as they swiftly made their way toward us. They knew that the magnetic pulse’s time was almost up and then all the bots would be back up, all the businesses and markets would be running again, all the people would be bustling, and the hover rail would be overhead. Right then, it was so quiet you could practically hear the drats in the walls eating through them. Drats—rat, feline, and canine DNA, big enough to be dog, but looked like cats and rats smashed together to make a really ugly pile of rodent. The scientists thought it would be a good idea to make up all these new species and then release them into the wild because it was cruel to put them out of their misery. It didn’t matter if they messed up the eco system or chased children when you weren’t looking. It was originally a project to get rid of the rat problem, but now was just more of a problem than anything.
Snow was still falling lightly and that seemed to make things even quieter as I struggled to be silent. I turned, looking for anything to help me. Sophelia jerked again in my arms and was finally awake and aware. I shushed her.
“Everything’s okay. Shhh.”
“Maxton,” she begged and shivered in my arms. She pressed her face into the crook of my neck.
“What is it, sweet?” I whispered, not knowing what else to do. I was surprised that it popped out of my mouth, but it had. It was out there. And she hadn’t smacked me. But as I looked down I realized it was only because she was unconscious. I sighed and took my pill, holding her tight and letting the convulsions come, trying to hold back as much as I could so as not to wake her. Her episode hadn’t even been that bad to me. Mine seemed worse than on some occasions. Sometimes they were worse than others. You never knew how bad they were going to be until you were in the thick of it.
* *
We woke up hours later, way after the Militia had gone. They apparently hadn’t found us snuggled at the end of the alley. I sighed, enjoying the new breaths the pill allowed me, and looked down at Sophelia still in my arms. She felt so right there, so promising to everything in my future. And I kicked myself for even thinking it.
This girl had a plan, a future planned out for herself that didn’t include me or this place at all. And the fact that I was even thinking about a future with her was wigging me out. What the hell was my problem? I’d never gone gaga over a girl before. And I figured that right there what the problem.
She wasn’t a girl.
She was a woman.
And that was a problem for me apparently.
She was everyone I’d ever thought I’d want wrapped into a delicious redheaded ball of runaway sarcasm and wit. I didn’t stand a chance. And she had plans to leave the first chance she got. That was my luck. I guess I just needed to start guarding my heart a little more. Or maybe…get her to realize that leaving wasn’t the best idea after all.
Whatever this plan was we were working on, two heads were better than one.
Chapter Seven
star - a fixed luminous point in the night sky that is a large, remote incandescent body like the sun.
Sophelia
I woke feeling warm and calm…too warm and too calm. His arms were around me and my face was pressed into his amazing smelling neck. No one’s neck should smell that good after being on the run for days. It should be illegal, against the laws of nature of something, but I could still smell the soap or shampoo from the last time he used it.
I inhaled him quickly as I pushed him away and looked at his face. He was awake and waiting for me to say something. Great.
“Um…you gave me my pill?”
He nodded. “Yeah. We waited too long. Almost didn’t…” He didn’t finish that sentence and I was grateful. He had given me my pill and held me through the convulsions, the shakes, the awfulness that follows it.
“I’m sorry you had to do that and—”
“Stop,” he said softly, but he meant it. His fingers curled around my side and pressed into my skin. “Did you really think I would just watch and not help you?”
I was shaking my head before he even finished his words. “Thank you for saving me. I would be dead or in confinement if not for you.” I pushed away and got up quickly, the feel of his fingers still on my side like a brand. I didn’t like how quickly I’d gotten used to his touch, to any touch at all. What did that say about me? What kind of person did that make me? He looked up at me and I could see in his face that he was wondering where the quick change in my attitude had come from. “We need to get going. We’ve wasted enough time.”
His jaw clenched as he stood. “Yeah. When it comes time for our gravity dose, I’ll make sure we take it in time. We won’t waste any.”
It was better this way. I couldn’t be getting all gooey over him. And him—he practically told me that he had other things to do, would be doing them as soon as he could. Then I’d leave and…
Bad idea all the way around to even think about him as anything but the boy who turned me in and then grew a conscience.
I led the way, but he wasn’t having that as he pushed past me in the alley and peeked out to make sure that no one was out there.
“It’s all clear,” he said gruffly and cleared his throat. He looked back at me, a bit sullenly. I wanted to roll my eyes, knowing that I had put that look on his face, but I kept it to myself.
“Let’s cross as much ground as we can today. We need to get wherever…it is that you need to go.” I pushed his back a little so he’d move.
He went without a word, still hell-bent on keeping his secrets. He wanted my trust so completely, wanted me to wake up with my face in his neck after he had saved me and just…what exactly? What did he want from me? But he didn’t want to give me much in return.
We made our way back out into the bustling streets where it would the safest. Since we were walking instead of taking public transportation, the walk across this small planet was long for someone on foot, but it was crowded and well populated. Every street was littered with markets and then housing stacks in the near distance, and then markets and then a business district, and then a docking station, and then more housing stacks. After a while, he handed me a package of sausage and egg wrapped in a piece of thin bread that he said was a burrito. It was pretty yummy, but when I bit into, there was cheese. Real, breathing, beautiful, alive, yellow, stringy cheese. The tears came slowly; I wondered if my mother would have wiped them away for me or scolded me for being weak, for not being her strong girl.
I tried to hide them, discreetly wiping them on my sleeve. Who cries over food? I always seemed to be getting so worked up over it with Maxton, didn’t I?
When you were a mine worker, you got an allowance. It wasn’t really a paycheck because it was practically nothing. And that didn’t afford you the luxury to shop in the markets. I guess that was why we never had cheese. Mine-workers were only a step above slaves.
“The fact that I can bring you to tears with a breakfast burrito is an amazing thing.” I looked over, surprised that he had seen me. I thought I had gotten away with it. He smiled a half-smile and spoke even softer. “It will never get old how food amazes you,” he said and then switched gears so fast I couldn’t say anything to him about it.
He shot off to the side of the street and then beckoned me to him. There was a shop at the end of the docks. I wasn’t comfortable here at all. I was edgy, looking around for something to happen.
“It’s fine,” he promised, apparently able to see that I was about to have a freak-out. “We’ve got an ally here.”
“What?” I squeaked.
He
pulled me into the shop. It was the last one at the end of the market district and it looked dingy, dirty, rundown, and shady. I didn’t want to go in there and I tugged away from his grip on my elbow.
He made a little derisive noise and asked, “What’s the matter? Don’t you trust me?”
I just stared at him with my mouth open. What a question to ask. He had turned me in for the reward; twice I might add. Technically. He worked on the black market and was now traipsing around with a convict, sleeping out in the open, almost dying of oxygen deprivation, almost getting nabbed and taken by guards, all while on the run from the Militia who want to take me to confinement or my-mother’s-God knew where else. Really? He wanted me to trust him?
“Yes,” I breathed quietly.
“Come on, melys,” he said with a smile that held, showing his perfect teeth, his perfect lips—except for a tiny scar that dimpled on the side when he smiled wide—and tugged on my arm gently.
I went because…my ovaries made me.
I made a noise that sounded a little like coughing and asked, “You will tell me what that means one day, won’t you? The mallas thing?”
“It’s melys. And yes.” He stopped at the door and looked back at me. I swear, even though it had to be at least thirty-four degrees out there and my nose was frozen, the temperature between us rose so much my face felt hot. My lips parted out of necessity. He looked at my lips first and then back at my eyes. “I promise one day I’ll tell you what melys means.”
“Why won’t you tell me now?” I whispered and somehow knew that I wouldn’t like the answer.
He swallowed and turned to knock on the big, gray, patched-up metal door. “Because you won’t like my answer.”
I stared at his back. I could smell him as we both waited for whoever to answer the door. I wouldn’t like his answer, huh? I’d never heard that one—melys. Must have been what the ship-workers called slaves or something. I never came across them much.
But he said it like an endearment.
My explosive sigh came just as someone opened the door, saving me from having to deal with Maxton’s questions. Or pity. Or whatever it was he was giving me.
The man ushered us in quickly, looking stunned to see me, or maybe just the fact that Maxton had someone with him. He was an older man, stocky, and short. His face was adorned with a huge mustache that would make Hitler proud and utterly jealous. Yes, we knew who Hitler was. They made sure to tell us all about the bad things on Earth. Like, see what happens when we let you run wild? Hitler happens!
“I’ve seen this face, Maxton. What are you doing, fy mrawd?”
Maxton went to him and cupped his shoulder with his palm, using his opposite arm. “My brother.” He paused and they looked at each other. I could only assume he said ‘my brother’ in whatever language they were speaking. “All is well, I promise you. This girl…she—” He looked back at me for a moment, making me squirm because he had to find a way to explain why I was here. “She’s with me.”
The man looked at me and then nodded. “Okay.” I noticed that he had a slight accent that I’d never heard before. It was a little strange, but so pleasant. I actually wanted to ask him to keep speaking so I could listen more. “Come this way.”
Wait—what?
“What?” I spouted and covered my mouth with my fingers, hoping that maybe it hadn’t been as loud as I thought. They both looked back at me with expectation on their face and I lowered my fingers to my chest, still keeping them in a crumpled ball of fingers. “Uh…I was… You’re going to just trust me, let me come with you, just like that? Because Maxton says I’m with him?”
He smiled at me and I wondered why so many people were doing that. I’d never been smiled at so much. It was unnerving and unnatural. They were like weapons, those smiles. Put your smiles away, people.
“Yes, just like that. Maxton is my friend, my brother, my comrade. We’ve been through…” He looked at him and seemed to get emotional. He hung his head as Maxton gripped his shoulder.
“It’s okay, Ivan. Thank you so much for this.”
Ivan looked up and shook his head so hard. “You don’t ever thank me, boy.” They hugged and it was one of those things that even though I had been out of polite society for some time, I knew that I should look away. But I couldn’t. I’d never seen anyone act this way or love each other this way…since my mother. The last time I’d ever seen anyone hug anyone that hard was when she was telling me goodbye…before they pushed her off that ladder.
My chest buckled in on a silent sob as I watched them—an old man and a young man, who clearly had done him a great service at one time. Maxton whispered to him and then looked at me over the man’s shoulder. He saw me.
He saw me.
For all that I was, it was all right there for him to see. I hadn’t meant to. But that scene, them replaying the worst night of my life in some strange way, even if they really weren’t replaying it at all. I wiped under my eye and turned away.
The crying was really getting old. Maybe on the Providence there was a procedure to have your tear ducts removed. They were just sick enough to think of something like that. And sadistic enough. And I had a feeling I’d love to not cry anymore once this was all over, away from Maxton, away from this world that had turned against a little girl who just wanted her mother.
And couldn’t pay her freaking taxes.
Chapter Eight
hol·o·gra·phic – a three-dimensional image reproduced from a pattern of interference produced by a split coherent beam of radiation and lasers.
Maxton
I knew she was embarrassed for showing herself, for showing her tears and fears and all that she was feeling in front of me, but I was appreciative if nothing else. I knew she’d been through a lot. I couldn’t even begin and wouldn’t even try to imagine it. But I needed her on my side. We needed to be in on this together if we were going to survive. This had nothing to do with the fact that I could almost feel her pulse on my skin whenever our eyes connected, that there was a physical ache when she slept on me and I could do nothing to soothe her when she groaned and moved about in her sleep. This was about survival, not the fact that I wanted that redhead.
So for now, I would wave my platonic flag and be protective in the only way that was fitting. But she’d better hope I didn’t see a crack in her armor or I was slipping my fingers in and pulling it apart.
Ivan led us to the back of his shop where I knew all too well there was a secret door, I just didn’t know where. It moved every time I was there, to keep anyone from knowing where it was, to keep them safe.
He looked back at me over his shoulder. “Ready?”
I nodded. “It’s been too long.”
“You’ve been out doing your work to save them, to save us all. Don’t feel guilty for that.”
I sighed, feeling his words slice into me and apply the bandage all at once. I could see Sophelia staring at the side of my face, wondering what his words meant. I scoffed a little at his implication. Yeah, I knew. How could the bad guy be a good guy? How could a guy who worked on the black market be anything but dishonorable? How could I possibly be any of the things that he was saying? I looked at her, feeling a stab of bitterness at my life bubbling up, knowing I could never go back. I’d always be the bad guy. But hadn’t I saved her? Yes, I had turned her in, but I had come back for her. I had risked my life and—
Her face. I swallowed painfully. She wasn’t looking at me with disdain or disbelief. She was just waiting. Waiting for me to explain and tell her the reason we were there, the reason for his comment, because apparently, she could believe that I could be a good guy. Her face full of wonder and anticipation told me everything I needed to know, and I’d never wanted to kiss a female so much in my life as I wanted to kiss her for believing in me in that moment.
For taking the sting and pain of that epic, old, blazing wound away with just a look, and she wasn’t even aware of it.
I didn’t want to tell her or try t
o explain—I just wanted her to meet them. Ivan searched for the door while Sophelia and I stared at each other. When I heard him curse and an alarm go off, I laughed. Sophelia followed suit shortly after. I turned to him. “Ivan, where did you leave it?”
“Leave what exactly?” I felt whispered against my ear from behind and felt a shudder go through me.
I looked at her over my shoulder. “He’s looking for the door.”
She pointed to the back door of the shop. “Um…”
“No,” I whispered. “It’s a secret. He moves it every time we use it so it can never be found.”
“What’s on the other side?” she whispered back.
“Aha!” Ivan yelled before I could answer. When we looked over at him, he was standing on a small stool and his face was peeking through the bottom of the holographic door. “Hurry!” he yelled and poked his head back out to look down at us. “I’m holding this open with my chip. It’s not pleasant. Let’s get going, young ones.”
I gripped Sophelia’s sides gently to maneuver her under Ivan. I heard her small gasp, but it wasn’t anything near what I expected, so I was pleased. When I lifted her without preamble so she could grab the bottom of the doorway, she gasped even louder. I laughed when she looked down at me. “I’m fine. You could eat an entire table of pancakes and you’d still be light at a feather, Red. Climb up.”
Ivan grunted and I thought it was because he was in pain, but I heard him mutter down to me as Soph pulled her legs up like a champ. It was a dark room and there was nothing in there. I felt bad for not warning her about that so I yelled up, “Everything’s fine, Soph. Just wait there, okay?”
“You shouldn’t say things about how much they have eaten or not to a female you care about,” Ivan said to me and gave me a knowing look. I shook my head at him.
