by RMGilmour
“Yeah, there’s usually bad news at the end of that statement.”
“Such a pessimist,” she uttered.
“Speaking from experience, actually,” I mumbled, and followed her anyway. “And I will find out what Aleric meant, sooner or later.”
She led me toward the east - not responding to my last comment - through the fields and back to where the forest began. I was sure we were near the mirror wall, and I decided when Haize was done with me, I was going to find my way back to it and travel along its outer edge until I found a way in.
However, we didn’t go through the forest, instead we remained along its edge, until we came to something that could have been either a gigantic tree, or a small house.
“The tree hut,” Haize chuckled, leading me around its base. “It’s lunchtime.”
Nothing so terrible.
The front of the hut was completely open, no wall at all, only two wide, wooden steps leading into the room. The room itself was much wider and deeper than it first appeared. The outer shell was made entirely of wood, and a great tree grew out of the back wall, and leaned over the top of the room before climbing skyward. It gave the hut the appearance that it was made entirely from the tree itself.
“Come on,” Haize said. “Grab a seat before they all go.”
I stepped up the two low steps, marveling at the great room, and as I entered, I immediately noticed the temperature difference. Haize explained the barrier across the front that shielded the room from the heat. They could also dim the direct light from the sun, if they chose. Turning back to the opening, I waved my hand across it, but there was nothing there. I bit my tongue and let it go, stepping further into the room.
Inside, the room held several long tables with chairs on either side, that were placed around the outer edges. In the center of the room were three long, cushioned couches arranged to provide the sitter a view of the outside, which overlooked the flat lands and the fields. The back of the room held a wide counter, similar to the food hall, but smaller, and with trays beneath to hold prepared food. Although on this occasion they remained empty. Beside the counter was a small kitchen of sorts, stocked with fresh food and containers of liquid.
I sat at one of the tables as Haize had instructed, just as the Rathe from the fields began to make their way toward us. She arranged cups, containers, and plates of food across the tables, before joining me.
Very quickly the room filled with them, talking over one another, and laughing. Each of them introduced themselves to me, as Haize explained that I’d be joining them in the fields.
The last of them entered carrying a large, heavy-looking container. He was the largest man I’d seen in the Colony so far, and he bore the markings of the warriors. He slammed the container down upon one of the tables and then slapped its top.
“It’s done,” he exclaimed with pride.
“You’re going to love it,” Haize smiled at me.
I hoped it didn’t contain their alcohol. If it did, I was sure I’d be sleeping in the hut.
The large man was introduced to me as Castor, and he was indeed a Heart warrior, but preferred to live as the Rathe did. The warriors respected his choice, and Haize quietly explained that he had been brought to Threa against his will. He had a wife and child back on Heart, and he missed them dearly.
He handed me a cup filled with the liquid from the container, and smiled. I raised my eyebrows at him ready to question, but he only laughed.
“I see someone touched by Aleric’s liquid,” he boomed. “It’s only juice.”
I first smelled it; its scent was sweet with a touch of bitterness. Then tasted it - a rich blend of fruit and herbs, strange but good.
“It’ll keep you strong,” Haize told me.
“What is it?”
“Further south are the tree farms. Castor has a knack for blending seeds and soils and such. He and Aleric get up to all kinds of no good. They blended the alcohol, you seemed to enjoy your first night.”
“That was more out of necessity, than enjoyment,” I muttered, but I was pretty sure she already knew that. “How long have you been here?”
At first, she seemed to stare right through me, but then smiled. “Too long to contemplate. I arrived shortly after Aleric did. We helped each other understand this place.”
“What was it like for you, when you first came here?” I asked, and observed that neither she nor Aleric could be more than thirty something. However, I had a feeling they were much, much older.
“Well, what you’ve been experiencing this past week, was pretty much how it was for everyone.”
“Including the screaming?”
“Especially the screaming.”
Shortly after the meal, I felt a burst of happiness spread inside me; a warmth filling the center of my chest, radiating throughout my limbs. I tried to analyze this new feeling and at first, I thought it was the pleasant company and their food, or Castor’s drink maybe, but as I focused upon the sensation I found it was him. Jordan. He filled every part of me, almost the same way he’d done when I was back on Earth, but this was so much more intense.
With each moment that passed, his presence grew stronger, and I gasped at the sensation. The warmth that coursed through me fluttered to the surface, reaching for him, searching for the sound of his voice and his image as though a part of me was missing, was too far away. I needed him with me, to hear him and see him, even if only for a brief moment.
As though sensing my distress, Haize reached a hand out to mine, gently squeezing, and I heard her murmur a gentle hush. I glanced up at her to see her staring back at me. She pursed her lips and hushed me once more.
I wanted to leave, to run to the city wall, but when I tried to stand she tightened her grip on my hand, urging me to stay. I did as she willed me to, but as I waited silently beside her, time seemed to drag on, minutes taking hours.
Once the hut began to clear of people, she whispered to me to wait, and I remained behind with her, watching them leave. I expected them to return to their work in the sun, but all of them headed toward the hills.
Haize began to straighten the room and I rose to help her, hoping she could give me some explanation for keeping me there. The feeling was still strong within me, and I struggled to keep the emotions off my face.
“They’re not going back out into the fields?” I asked, attempting to distract myself. But as the last of them disappeared, the feeling within me grew stronger yet again, warmer, flooding me with that sense of him.
“No, we need to be back inside the Colony,” Haize explained.
I wanted to ask why, but the words wouldn’t make it out.
“Haize,” I whimpered.
He was so close, I felt as though I could touch him.
Aleric’s voice came from just outside of the entrance to the tree-hut. And he wasn’t alone.
“She’s here!” Jordan’s voice asserted, before he even saw me. The sound of him moved through me in familiar waves, and a moment later he stepped into the room.
I wanted to run to him, but my feet refused to move. Instead, he strode closer to me, until he was standing right in front of me. And I could feel him, without even touching him. The warmth that filled me radiated out of me, rippling across my skin, pulling me out of myself to join him.
I couldn’t tell if he was doing this or if I was. But the feeling of leaving my body, of being so closely joined to another person caused a tremor of fear in my stomach, and I pulled it all back in, closing the feelings off as much as I could. I didn’t want to think about this new sensation, nor the fear that resulted. I wanted only the single-minded happiness of seeing him.
He came for me.
“You’re here,” he whispered.
But I couldn’t make a sound. I inched one foot forward and fell into his arms.
9
Jordan
His warmth and strength wrapped around me, moved through me; his presence fille
d my heart, making me whole. The feeling inside of me tried to escape once more, but again that sense of leaving myself overwhelmed me and I reined it back in. Instead, I breathed him in, letting him take over me, and I lost myself in this boundless sense of us.
I didn’t move for several minutes, I think out of fear that he would disappear again, but slowly my arms traveled around his waist, and I held on tight. He was tall; my head only reaching to his chest. I pressed my fingers into his back and imperceptibly traced the outline of his muscles beneath the softness of his shirt. It was several more minutes before the constriction in my chest loosened up enough for me to speak.
“Jordan,” I whispered, but I couldn’t say another word. I squeezed my already closed eyes until they hurt and told myself to be brave. He’s here.
“You came for me,” I said, and inched away from him just enough to see his face. He was even more striking in person than in my mirror. One hand traveled up to his face, to be sure he was real, and he bent his head to rest his cheek in my palm.
“Jordan,” came Aleric’s voice. “She needs to come with us.”
“No,” we said together, both turning toward him.
“Neither of you can be out here after dark.”
“We have plenty of time. I’ll make sure she’s safe before the night falls,” he promised.
“You better,” Haize responded. But worry crossed her brow as she looked at me. “I’ll be waiting by the cave. The way we came out, do you remember how to get there?”
“The cliff by the river?”
“Yes.”
“I’m sure I can find my way,” I replied. All we really did was follow the river, then cross the hills to the flat lands.
“I haven’t heard your voice for a week,” he breathed, as Haize and Aleric left. “I thought I’d lost you.”
“You didn’t know I was here?”
“No. I wasn’t even sure I’d brought you. The Guardian kept it from us. Aleric informed Mason that you were at the Colony. He promised to bring you out here as soon as he could.”
“How did you bring me… here…?” I hoped he knew what I meant, but at the same time I tried to retain the question that had formed around the words he’d spoken.
When he laughed, the sound soared through me, creating a new level of happiness. I hadn’t been aware of the emptiness that had crept back inside me. The void hadn’t returned, but I felt the difference now that he was here. I was whole with him. All I needed now was to stay in his arms for the rest of forever.
“Mason simply reminded me that the Central Unit gives us all our wants, all our needs.”
He slid his hands down my arms, taking both of my hands in his. I raised my face to him, but he only stared at me, not moving, not speaking, as though he was waiting for something. I tried to remember our last few conversations, if there was anything I was supposed to do or say, but there was only one thing I hadn’t previously stated before coming here. He knew how I felt, but saying it out loud, I was sure, would make my chest explode.
And then I recalled all the questions I had to ask, things I needed to say, and remembered Grid, and the guilt began to creep around my insides. Never again would I let that happen, but I had to tell him.
“What are you thinking?” he quietly asked.
“Why?”
“Your face is so expressive, but I can’t hear a word of it. It’s going to take some getting used to.”
I smiled. At least now we were on the same level. And as I looked up at him, I tried to focus on the conversation we needed to have, but I lost myself in the depth of his eyes and everything else paled in comparison.
I wrenched my gaze away from his, and buried my face against his chest once more. I needed to get this over with.
“We need to talk,” I told him.
“Hm, that sentence never ends well.”
I chuckled, thinking of my own version of that statement that always followed another’s.
“First, there’s something I have to ask you.”
“Anything,” he promised.
“When I was still… on Earth and you were in my head, you told me that your Central Unit would protect me, would not share my thoughts and memories with anyone. Why did you say that to me?”
“Because that’s what the Central Unit does. It protects us and the people whose eyes we are seeing through. Mason explained that the information needs to be analyzed first, to determine if it would benefit us or harm us.”
I crushed my lips together and looked down at my feet, not knowing how to continue. I believed him. That was what he had believed would happen.
“Why?” he frowned, and pulled me toward the couch that was nearest to us, facing me as we sat.
“Maybe Mason didn’t realize, maybe Aleric didn’t tell him,” I mumbled my way through my thoughts. “I’m sure he would have told you.”
“Lydia, what?”
I sighed, “Everything, every moment, every thought was shared with everyone in the Colony, and maybe in the city too, I don’t know.”
“That’s not possible. At least, not in the city,” he insisted. “How do you know this?”
I stifled a groan, not wanting to let the rest out.
“When I first came here and almost disintegrated myself against your city wall… someone saved me. Brought me to the Colony, and has been taking care of me,” I wished I didn’t have to say anymore. “He told me that’s how he knew to find me.”
“Who?”
“Someone also from Earth. Grid.”
“Grid,” he repeated, as though searching the word for its meaning.
“There’s more,” I couldn’t look at him. “I was both thrilled that you’d brought me here, and terrified that you weren’t there for me, with me.”
“I’m sorry,” he breathed.
I still couldn’t look up at him, I needed to get it all out before my courage failed me.
“He said no one from the Colony had ever met with the ones who had brought them here.”
He didn’t respond.
“I was sure you’d come for me. I waited. But after a week had passed and then being told about…”
“Ssh,” he gently touched his finger to my lips, then moved his hand around to my cheek.
“He kissed me,” I whispered. “And I let him.”
He pulled his hand away, as I’d expected him to do. I’d betrayed him. But then he covered both of my hands with his.
“Look at me.”
I did.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t the one to meet you. I’m sorry I brought you here without knowing what I was doing, I should have waited for Mason. I just needed to protect you from whatever you were going through. I didn’t stop to think about what would happen to you here.”
“Jordan…”
“I cannot even begin to imagine what you’ve gone through since you arrived. There is nothing you could ever say or do that would lessen my need to be by your side forever, nor take it away.” He cupped both of his warm hands around either side of my face, holding my eyes with his. “Please always remember that.”
I felt his warmth, his love for me surge through me and around me, and I wanted to escape, to join him. I didn’t want to be afraid, but this new sensation of losing myself was too intense.
“Jordan,” I began, and then stopped when brief memories of my losses reminded me of what I was doing. I knew I was damning him, even here in this existence, and I couldn’t release the words that were stuck in my throat.
Wrapped in his gaze, I saw myself reflected back, safely encircled in their endless surface. He leaned in, slowly, gently, his lips tasting mine, savoring each moment, and I gasped back his breath; its sweet warmth filling me with his presence. His tongue caressed mine, stirring a groan deep within me, and he pulled me onto his lap, facing him. His warmth wound around me once more, enticing mine out.
His mouth traced my jaw, whispering my name. Behind my ear, affi
rming his love. Down my neck and back up again, pleading with me to stay forever; his breath lingering upon my skin. Then drawing my lips back to his, owning me and giving himself to me.
Until finally, he inched his face away. He entwined both of his hands with mine, holding my gaze. Heat radiated between our palms, around our fingers, and I felt my skin shimmer where we touched.
“You feel that too, don’t you,” he whispered.
I nodded. The warmth that began in my chest, raced to my hands, pulling me outward, toward him. “I feel like I’m leaving my body.”
He sighed, his relief washing through me as he drew me into his chest and held me tight. “So, it’s not just me.”
“What are we doing, and how?”
I felt him minutely shake his head and the fear I’d initially felt in those first moments of meeting him, began to creep up my spine. It worried me that maybe what we were feeling was more than two people were supposed to feel. Whatever part of me was trying to leave to be with him, surely wasn’t supposed to leave my body. What would happen if it did?
That was a question I wasn’t ready to explore. I wanted to be with Jordan just the way we were. Intact.
He easily picked me up and turned me around, holding me across his lap.
“We have a sunset to catch,” he whispered.
I was amazed at how low in the sky the sun already was. We had been lost in each other’s embrace for hours. An eternity with him would not be long enough.
As the sun sank upon the flatland horizon, the sky lit up with familiar colors. A sunset I’d seen before. It looked very much like our sunsets we’d shared at my river. Though I shouldn’t have been so surprised. There were so many things that so far, seemed the same.
When the last of the golden-orange had left the bottoms of the darkening clouds, he cradled me as he stood up and then gently released my legs, allowing my feet to touch the ground.
“You need to get back to the Colony,” he sighed.
“Why can’t I stay with you?”
“I promised Aleric and Mason that I wouldn’t take you into the city until we were sure it was safe for you.”