Carefully, she climbed out of bed over Liz and then dashed across the room to hop in my lap. She then kissed me briefly before burying her head against my neck.
“How’d you sleep?” I asked in a whisper.
Surprisingly, she didn’t answer right away. After a moment, I almost wondered if she had fallen asleep again, so I pulled away to look down at her. She looked up immediately, having been staring at the wall. She finally blushed and answered my questioning gaze. “Very well. I…” She hesitated, biting her lip. “I’ve never felt so safe before, as last night.”
My eyes widened in shock. “You normally don’t feel safe?” I whispered.
She shook her head. “No, normally I feel just fine. No reason to be afraid really. But last night…I guess I just didn’t realize how much of a difference it would make to know you were in here with me, awake, watching over me, and protecting me. It was…very nice.”
“Nicer than me snuggling with you?” I teased.
She grinned. “Well, I don’t know really. Maybe we can try that sometime.”
I scoffed quietly. “Well, I’m not going to snuggle you with Liz in your arms.”
Trinity sighed. “Yes, that does complicate things. I’ll admit I’m growing a little attached to her, but I’m not about to share her with you.” She then looked at me meaningfully, as if to make sure I understood that wasn’t an option.
I smirked at her. “Well, I never expected you to. I care about her too, and I admit she’s really cute, but I’m not about to pick her over you. Like I said yesterday, if I had known what you would have had to go through to keep her here…” I hesitated, because even though I kept saying it, I really wasn’t sure.
Trinity immediately shook her head. “No, I think you did the right thing. And I would do it again. Five hours of torture is worth her life, even without her powers.” I stared at her in shock, causing her to give me a questioning gaze. “What?”
I shook my head. “Nothing, it’s just…you surprise me sometimes. If I’m being completely honest, you’re hard to understand. There are times when you are ruthless, and then other times when you are kind and merciful. And knowing exactly how you’ll react in a given situation is difficult for me to predict.”
She grinned at me again. “Well, I would be boring if you could predict my every move.”
I shrugged. “I think you would be plenty exciting even if I could.” I then glanced up to see the time, only to find Liz’s eyes open, staring at us. I jerked back slightly from the startle, catching Trinity’s attention too. “Oh, good morning Liz,” I said with a smile.
But Liz didn’t respond, continuing to stare. Trinity stayed in my lap, staring back at her…but it was more than that. She didn’t move, because of how Liz was staring. Her expression was unreadable, as she stared at us…No, as she stared at Trinity. I began to wonder if she was really awake, when the alarm went off and caused her to jump.
Trinity quickly got up to turn it off, and then stood over her. “Good morning,” she said in a cautious tone.
Liz immediately appeared to be her normal self again. “Good morning Trinity. Thank you for letting me sleep with you last night. I slept really well.”
Trinity’s mood shifted too, her tone less reserved. “Good. Me too. Now…” Trinity held out her hand towards her. “Are you ready for today? It’s going to be a lot of hard work – we won’t expect you to be able to do everything yet, but you still have to push yourself to get stronger.”
Liz sat up and nodded, taking Trinity’s hand to allow her to pull her out of bed. “Yes. I’ll work hard. I promise. I want to stay.”
“Good,” Trinity said cheerfully. She then looked back at me. “Which means, Jake, you need to make yourself scarce for a few minutes. I know you really enjoyed last night, but I’m not about to let you enjoy watching us change.”
I scoffed as I got up. “Oh, so now I’m the one who was begging to stay in here last night. Right.” I rolled my eyes for emphasis but couldn’t help but grin at her smirk.
I then went to the bathroom to change, as well as take care of some basic hygiene. I hadn’t used the toilet at all in the last two days and was beginning to suspect I never would again. It seemed logical, since I was neither eating nor drinking anything on a regular basis. And even when I was ‘drinking’ it wasn’t going into my stomach.
I still felt warm, which was encouraging. It meant I wasn’t hungry. I wasn’t looking forward to potentially requiring blood three times a day, so I was glad it looked like I might be able to at least go a day. Granted, it hadn’t been a full day since I had killed the fear metahuman.
Once we had all gathered on the track for our first run of the day, Zayden looking as grumpy as ever, Trinity had Liz wait while she ran her mile before breakfast. I thought about running it with her, but decided against it. I didn’t want to leave Liz just standing there by herself. Ava had been welcoming and generous, but I knew she would be annoyed if she had to start babysitting the twelve-year-old all the time – especially when she had her own mile to run and couldn’t do it in a minute and a half like Trinity and I could.
Liz was absolutely amazed – dumbfounded even – that Trinity could run so fast, and even more astonished when I admitted I could too. However, I quickly made sure to inform her that Trinity was able to be beat me when she ran her fastest. When I saw the way Liz looked at me, it suddenly became important to communicate to her that Trinity was better than me. Because she looked at me like she was looking at a god to be worshipped.
Once Trinity was done, we switched, and I ran to catch up with Zane while Trinity jogged slowly alongside Liz. Zane didn’t have much to say, and I was fine with that. Just running side-by-side, having the other person there, was enough. A quiet camaraderie. Plus, there wasn’t really a need to push myself since I wasn’t going to fatigue no matter how fast I ran. Once everyone was done, except for Liz, the other three went on to eat while I stayed and watched the two girls run – it wasn’t like I had anything better to do after all since I didn’t eat anymore. Granted, I knew I probably would have waited for them anyway.
Liz was surprisingly not that bad at running. She was definitely slower than everyone else, but that’s comparing her to people who were exceptionally fast even among runners. Trinity didn’t ask her about it on the track, since Liz probably wouldn’t have been able to answer her – it was clear she was really trying hard. But once they were done and Liz had caught her breath, she mentioned it.
“So Liz, we normally run nine miles a day…” She paused when Liz’s eyes widened in shock. “But I think we’ll start you off at only three miles a day. We can’t have you getting injured. However, I’m surprised you did even that well. I assumed even just one mile might be too much for you. Did you exercise before?”
Liz blushed as she responded. “Well, not exactly. That man didn’t make me stay by his side every minute of the day, so I was able to have some time to myself. I ended up dancing along with some videos they had almost every day. It was something fun to do and kept me in shape too.”
Trinity and I glanced at each other in surprise, before she looked back at Liz. “That must have been some serious dancing then.”
Liz shrugged. “Technically they were workouts. Dancing workouts. A couple of them had a Jamaican guy lead it. His accent was fun to listen to.”
Trinity smirked. “I’m sure it was.”
Liz gave her a confused look, but then let it go. Trinity asked her a few more question while we began walking to the cafeteria, but I was lost in my thoughts again so I didn’t really listen.
While we were eating breakfast, Trinity had a soldier come up, informing her that she was to report to see the General when she was finished. Much to my surprise, she scarfed down the rest of her food faster than I’d ever seen anyone before, barely chewing. Apparently, ‘when you’re finished’ didn’t mean ‘take your time.’ She then got up, giving Zane a meaningful glance, and then took off like a bat out of hell while leaving
her trash behind. At her speed, I wouldn’t have been surprised if she passed the soldier on the way.
Zane unsurprisingly knew what her look meant and grabbed her trash to throw it away. Once we were all finished, Zayden having been both the first and last one eating, we headed back out to the track to do our thirty minutes of yoga-like stretches.
Liz of course was super flexible, much more so than any of the rest of us. Ava seemed a little envious of that fact, although I couldn’t imagine why. She quickly made it into a game where she tried to get Liz to get in a position a normal person wasn’t capable of. I was glad she wasn’t able to bend her spine all the way backwards because that would have been too much for me. When people were capable of doing those types of feats, I began to wonder if they even had bones at all. Liz was certainly flexible, but thankfully she wasn’t that flexible. Seeing someone bend like that would have been like nails on a chalkboard for me – painful to hear, or in this case watch.
When Trinity had said she was going to have Liz start off with three miles a day, I suspected that meant she would be skipping this run, instead doing a mile before lunch and a mile before dinner. However, since none of us knew for sure, we decided to have her jog at a leisurely pace. I jogged with her, and it was clear she wanted to impress me, because I had to keep telling her to slow down and match my pace.
We ended up socializing about trivial subjects, like favorite colors and movies we liked – that at least made her more willing to slow down. I explained to her that my favorite color was a tie between blue and red. She assumed that was because of Trinity, which made me laugh. I assured her that those had been my favorite colors since I was like five years old. Liz shared that her favorite color was in fact purple and found it interesting that my two favorite colors combined to create hers. I didn’t think that was too special, but it seemed to be important to her, so I humored the idea.
I was surprised to find out Liz had never been to a movie theater – not once in her entire life. Any movies she had seen were either ones she remembered before she had been kidnapped or ones Weaver had on video at his mansion. She did get out a lot, but it wasn’t for fun. It was to accompany Weaver on his ‘business’ pursuits, which meant she had seen her fair share of killing and other horrible sights.
She of course didn’t go to school and hadn’t been in a long time. But somehow that was slightly surprising to me, because she didn’t seem unintelligent. She spoke like she was educated. When I asked her about it, she explained that she read a lot while there, which meant science and math were the only areas she was really lacking in knowledge. She knew basic math from elementary school, but anything more advanced than that was a mystery to her. I considered asking Trinity to see if they could educate her while she was here, even if it was just a couple of hours a day, but I wasn’t sure if they would go for it. Most of my peers back at my high school assumed that math and science weren’t important subjects, but at the very least they really helped develop critical thinking and processing skills. And I didn’t like the idea of Liz being at an educational disadvantage if she ever was able to escape this life.
Trinity finally came back just as we were all heading to the gym to lift weights. She informed us that Liz would be spending the afternoon off base. They planned on doing an extensive series of medical exams, as well as testing her shield more so that they had a better idea of how they might use her in combat. Trinity also mentioned that long-term they would be focusing on her shooting skills as I had predicted.
Only one soldier was there this time to evaluate Liz and develop a workout routine. If her slim body wasn’t indication enough, then her ability to lift weights sure was – she was not very strong. Given what I saw her do in the gym, I wasn’t even sure if she could hold a gun upright. At least the recoil from a high caliber rifle wouldn’t affect her though – her shield would protect her, which might be her saving grace. If she could just get strong enough to handle larger guns, then her shield would take care of the rest. And if she couldn’t get strong enough, then she would probably be fine as a sniper at least, so long as she could get good at aiming. Really, our team could probably use a sniper.
But at least her endurance was alright. Despite the effort, she seemed to handle the workout session well, just like she handled the running well.
Afterwards, everyone except for Liz ran a mile and then we all had lunch together. A soldier came to pick up Liz right towards the end, and the rest of us headed back towards the barracks.
Chapter 16: Date
On the way to the barracks, I had something on my mind. I was quickly discovering that I really loved running with Trinity. There was nothing like the thrill of going that fast without tiring, and having Trinity at my side made it extra special. But running on the track made it less exciting. It was more of a chore then. I wanted to find out if she would do it with me for fun. I knew that if she only went about thirty miles per hour then she could keep that pace up for a long time without tiring, and I was fine slowing down for her.
“Trinity?” I began tentatively.
“Yes?” She said with a grin. She seemed to like my sudden timidity.
“Would you run with me? Just to do it?”
Her grin widened. “Are you asking me out on a date Jake?”
I thought about it for a second. “Well, it’s not much of a date, but yeah. I guess I am.”
Unexpectedly, she lunged for me only to gently tap me on the forehead and take off. “You’re it!” She called after me, already several yards away.
I smirked at her, dashing forwards. “Oh, it’s on now!” Everyone else just looked at us in disbelief as we began playing tag like a couple of little kids.
But I really didn’t want to spend the whole time just chasing after her. I wanted to spend time with her, at her side. After a few minutes, I called out to her. “Hey Trinity, how high can you jump?”
She grinned back at me, before leaping a good twenty feet in the air. I jumped after her, almost matching her height. Although, I quickly realized I had a method of jumping she didn’t. Once I had landed, continuing to sprint, I leapt again except this time I used my blood to shoot me away from the ground. Suddenly I was rocketing over a hundred feet into the air, actually feeling like I was flying.
When I landed, I didn’t try to slow myself. I just landed, smashing into the ground unharmed.
Much to my surprise, Trinity wanted me to throw her up that high. I did and when she landed unharmed, she told me she wanted to go even higher. This time I rocketed myself into the air first, quickly grabbing ahold of her with my blood to pull her along. Just as the sudden tension between us slowed my ascent to a stop, I used the momentum to slingshot her a couple hundred feet into the air. She squealed in glee, although once I was on the ground I shot my blood out to slow her descent this time, unsure if falling from that height would hurt her. Either way she loved it and we spent the next two hours just doing variations of running, jumping, and tossing all around the base. Several times, we ended up falling together, holding onto each other’s arms and spinning rapidly as we fell.
She was having the time of her life, and so was I. It was amazing. And I loved the look in her vivid red eyes whenever she stared at me, especially when we were falling together. She had already told me that she ‘thought’ she loved me, but I could see in the way she looked at me that it went far beyond that now.
She also got me to go higher too by us jumping together with my blood, before kicking off of me to launch me even further. It was never as high as I could make her go, but it was still fun.
Within thirty minutes we had drawn a crowd, as soldiers on security detail told others inside the buildings. It was probably nothing like they had ever seen before, and before long there were a group of a good fifteen interchanging people watching us dash around faster than humanly possible. We were like a symbiotic duo, almost always connected by a thread of crimson, bolting around and high into the air endlessly. Like a continuous dance from sky to ear
th and back again, moving throughout the base at record speeds.
Even the General made an appearance to watch our show for a few minutes, but we didn’t find that out until later, being too consumed in each other at the time. At least we were told he looked sincerely amazed instead of cold or irritated. Apparently, even he could be astonished, despite his years of dealing with people like us.
After we were done having our fun, we walked back to the barracks hand-in-hand. Our group of admirers had finally disappeared by then, since people still had work to do. Zayden seemed a little annoyed as usual, but he didn’t say anything. Ava and Zane seemed to just be happy to see Trinity acting like a normal girl…a normal girl doing incredibly impossible feats. She really had been an ice queen before I came along, all business and no play, hardened by the life she was forced to lead, not to mention the traumas she had experienced at a young age.
When it was time to run five miles before dinner, we all kept pace with Ava to run as a group – even Zayden surprisingly, although I suspected that if we were slowing down for Zane, or anyone else for that matter, then he wouldn’t have been so willing. Liz still wasn’t back yet, but we knew she would be returning around dinner time.
Trinity disappeared once we were done, saying she would meet us at the cafeteria. I was surprised when she showed up with a bag of blood for me with a huge grin on her face. It was like she was bringing me a box of chocolate.
I smiled at her, not wanting to ruin her enthusiasm, and accepted it. She then ran over to get food for herself, before plopping down next to me. Her foot hooked around my ankle underneath the table and pulled it closer so that my thigh was almost on top of her knee. I still had the bag of blood in my hand in my lap.
I was almost just as warm as I had been earlier that morning, not to mention that the night before we had talked about waiting to see if I became less durable as my hunger increased, so I wasn’t sure if I should absorb it. She picked up on my hesitation after a few minutes of eating.
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