Chapter 24
Ben lay on his back with his injured leg propped up. He was barefoot his bloody boot and sock standing by the side of the mattress along with a portion of his jeans that had been cut off revealing a pale and hairy portion of his calf. Niko had removed the metal piece under his careful instruction and had sewn up the gash. He was now slurping on a cold Instameal packet of sesame pudding.
She watched the others as they sorted out the rest of the new food. Besides Lo and Norm there was Devon, a boy about fourteen with dark brown skin, a slight build and a cracking voice. He was quickly sent back outside to keep watch along with Rosie whose pale freckled face was framed by a mass of black curls.
There was also Jade who had a piece of cloth tied over her eyes to hide the scars of an acid burn and Gretchen who Niko had yet to see.
“Niko ...” Ben said softly, he touched her hand and she moved it away.
“There’s nothing you can possibly say.” Niko told him. “You knew where he was and you never told me. Did you think once I found out I’d dash off at the first opportunity?”
He raised an eyebrow. “Hm, how did we possibly get out here then? I know I wasn’t the one so eager to fly out in the middle of nowhere.”
She felt a blush staining her cheeks but she held her ground. “Please.” She scoffed. “You, me, alone. You were probably just as eager. You’re pathetic, I should have left you in the helicopter.”
He actually looked hurt for a moment and Niko turned away. She came face to face with Norm and she stiffened slightly. Their argument had been conducted in a whisper but who knew how long she’d been standing there or what she’d heard. She and Ben were supposed to be together, a couple, like Lo and Norm obviously were but anyone who’d listened in on their discussion would know that wasn’t the case.
Niko gave Norm a small smile and she did the same stretching out the tattoos and scars on her cheeks as she held out an Instameal packet.
When she reached for it the cuts on her back protested. She gasped and went rigid. She tried not to make a sound biting her lower lip against the pain. Norm’s eyebrows pinched together in concern. “Are you okay?”
Behind her Ben struggled to raise himself from his awkward position. He touched her hand briefly. “Let me see it.”
She hesitated, not because she didn’t want him to touch her but because she was in the embarrassing position of needing his help only a few minutes after calling him pathetic. As if reading her mind he rolled his eyes. “That would be unethical, Niko, withholding help just because someone called me a name. Especially out here.” He muttered something under his breath that Niko couldn’t quite catch but it didn’t sound as solicitous as the first sentence. “What?”
He laughed. “Nothing.” He pulled up the end of her shirt revealing only a fraction of skin but what he did see made him whistle softly. “What were you doing? Looks like you got into a fight with a wandering wildcat. You won I hope.”
“I was saving you, you’re heavy.”
“Oh,” He paused. “Then there’s that.”
He instructed Norm to get him some water before deftly cutting the back of her shirt in half with the golden scissors. She shivered in the sudden cold and even that small movement sent spasms of pain radiating across her torso.
Ben hummed as he assessed the damage. “I would say it doesn’t look as bad as it feels but it looks pretty bad. Might even leave a scar. Not to worry I hear that scars on girls are quite the turn on for young men in the city”
Niko felt the corners of her mouth flutter upward in a smile despite herself.
Norm came back with a chipped bowl. Ben glanced at its contents and shook his head. “I’ll need more than that.”
“But that’s wasting water.” She said eyebrows raised in disbelief.
Niko glanced at the bowl. It was filled with about an inch of water which after spending a month in the city did seem like a shockingly small amount but she knew that they were being as generous with their rations as possible.
Ben a city boy through and through didn’t see things the same way. “I can’t clean anything with that. She’ll get an infection.”
“I won’t get an infection.” Niko said carefully wrapping her arms around her knees. “I don’t get sick.” And she hadn’t, even when the really bad virus had swept through the neighborhood and it seemed like everyone was either running a high fever or dying including her own mother.
“Well wunderkind, just because you don’t get sick doesn’t mean I’ll chuck sanitation into the wind.” Ben said. “I need more water than what’s in this bowl.”
Norm didn’t budge and noticing the tension between the three of them Lo gravitated to Norm’s side. “Is something wrong?”
Niko’s back was to him but she could almost feel him about to raise an objection about the amount of water they had been given. She jabbed an elbow into his side tears springing to her eyes as her back loudly protested the movement.
“Nothing.” She gasped. “We’re fine. Thank you for the water.”
Lo raised an eyebrow obviously the two of them looked nowhere near fine but she let it go. Norm set down the bowl leaving Niko and Ben alone in their corner of the room.
Ben groaned. “Why do you always hit me so hard? I’m injured here, have you no sympathy?”
Niko said nothing; her back was still punishing her.
Suddenly she felt cold water trickling down her skin as Ben carefully cleaned the glass from her cuts. “I guess we could always walk back to the city.” He said as he carefully dipped a rag into the water. “Where there are lots of medical supplies and people aren’t stingy with their water.”
“I’m not going back to the city.” She said and he paused. There was no need to ask why.
“Do you have any idea where to look?” He asked instead and not reproachfully either.
“Where ever that photo was taken.” She answered. Ben’s fingers were light on her bare skin as he picked out the little pieces of glass. They formed a small mound beside her; she couldn’t believe that she had been able to run with all those fragments burrowed into her skin.
“That was a few miles away from where we first found you.” Ben said in a low voice. “But the gang’s moved since then, we’re not sure where. Not everybody likes to talk to us.”
She heard a muted hiss as Ben flicked open the lighter. He was probably sterilizing the needle; he was so exact when it came to things like that but so bungling with so much else.
She squeezed her eyes shut as she felt the needle prick her skin, thread enter one side of the gash and exiting the other then a tiny tug to pull both sides together.
Ben deftly sutured her wounds closed going about it more easily than she had. With a soft snip he cut the last strand of thread.
“I need you to raise your arms so I can wrap your back.” He said holding up the roll of gauze. “I won’t try anything if that’s what you thought. I’m not that pathetic.”
Silently Niko raised her arms. Obviously her comment stung. She couldn’t raise her arms very high; it seemed that once the adrenaline wore off her body was beginning to stiffen up. His hands would bump into them as he wrapped the beige colored cloth around her torso. When he was finished he tucked in the last corner under her armpits.
Lo and Norm were sorting through the packets of Instameals before adding them to their stores when Jade spoke up. It took Niko a moment to realize that she was talking to them, as she wasn’t exactly turned in their direction. “I couldn’t help but overhearing that you’re both from the city and that only one of you plans to go back there.” A faint smile painted her lips. “I’m from the city too.”
They both raised their eyebrows she looked as thin and careworn as everyone else on the Outside did.
“Do you want to come back with us? I mean...” He shot Niko a quick glance. “Me?”
Jade shook her head so vigorously that the ends of the scarf wrapped around her eyes flapped from the movement. “No, I’ll n
ever go back there. But if you want to stay here for any amount of time you’ll need to get rid of your id chips. The city can use it to follow you.”
For a moment Niko had no idea what the woman was talking about then she remembered the chip Ben had implanted under her skin. It seemed like such a long time ago, she barely felt it and never had her identity as a citizen called into question so the chip was never really in the forefront of her mind.
Now she glanced down at her arm and at the slightly raised bump under her clear brown skin then her eyes slid toward Ben. “Is that true?” She whispered.
His grimace was answer enough. “Only for people who kill Slithers like us that way if we get lost or killed they can find us.” He was about to apologize when another thought passed through his mind. “Wait. Not everyone knows about that especially the average citizen. Can you--- did you used to---”
“My husband did.” Jade said finishing his sentence. “I was very vocal about how things were being done after the Grey Rebellion and instead of taking my advice they forced me out and Derek made the decision to come with me. They didn’t like that.”
“Did they do that to your eyes?” Niko asked. She had been pressing her fingers deep into her arm and they left four little crescents on her skin.
Jade’s hand reached up to touch her cheek. “No, that was me. This environment is quite unforgiving on the ignorant and I was shockingly ignorant back then.”
Niko Page 30