Idiosyncratic

  “You know I secretly love your scowls,” he breathed.

  I pushed him away and turned my attention back to Gid’ion.

  “Worth it.” No’ll chuckled.

  “Please don’t tell anyone I asked you this, but...” Gid’ion took a step toward me. His expression made him seem embarrassed and frightened. “Is there a reason Oh’pol didn’t come with you?”

  My insides jumped at the sound of her name, and then the gut-wrenching pain took my breath away. He saw the answer, and his face dropped.

  “She...she stood up for me. She was always so kind. I never told her, though,” he said.

  “I’m sorry,” I said, not knowing what else to say.

  “Tell the hotshot to rest easy. I had given my heart to another too late, it seems. I feared this world would break us if we ever got together. Looks like I was right.”

  “Gid’ion...” I tried to grasp at anything to help him. “Oh’pol wouldn’t want you to use her as an excuse not to let people in. You’re right; the world has no room for romance. That’s why when you find someone, you become their warrior. Sea’bastin had been right. Love will cause you pain, but there are people out there who are worth the risk. There are even people out there who are worth the pain.”

  Gid’ion shrugged at my words, needing time to process them, I guessed. I hoped. He turned back around and pushed forward again.

  “You flatter me, dollface,” No’ll whispered.

  I gripped his hand, squeezing it tightly. “Sometimes you actually make a little bit of sense instead of spouting idiocy.”

  “Deviant.”

  “Palm greaser.”

  No’ll had been right about so many things. Not that I’d let him relish it.

  |Thirty Two|

  AS WE CRAWLED OUT OF another secret passageway, the train station filled the skyline. We picked up the pace but pulled back when Gid’ion marched up to the ticket booth.

  “Two for Expectations,” Gid’ion told the girl behind the glass, sliding three tributes toward her.

  She glanced behind him at us. No’ll turned in toward me, trying to hide his face. The girl’s eyes glazed over, misinterpreting his gesture as an intimate one. Blushing, she took the currency and printed out two tickets. Gid’ion distributed them to us after we were a healthy distance from the girl. The train station was bustling with people trying to get out of the city. Extra Watchmen helped control the crowd and also assisted those who were injured.

  “I guess this is goodbye,” Gid’ion said.

  “Thank you for all your help,” I told him.

  “Thank you. If it wasn’t for you both, the formula would be in the hands of REF,” he whispered under his breath.

  No’ll simply held out his hand and gave Gid’ion a firm handshake. Somehow, it seemed to mean more than my flimsy words.

  Gid’ion watched as we slipped into the hysteria of the mob. No’ll pulled me to him, keeping his head tucked close to mine. We quickly found our train, bound for Expectations.

  We took seats in the general seating cart, trying not to draw any attention to ourselves. Picking a small carriage would certainly place us in close quarters with other people. Soon the whistle blew as we were on our way.

  “No’ll?”

  “Yes, dollface?”

  “Did you find what you were looking for? Or, rather, who you were looking for?”

  “I got an answer, if that’s what you mean,” he said.

  “And?”

  “The answer is I’ll have no answer. My brother never survived the border crossing. I guess I have to be okay with not knowing.”

  “No’ll?”

  “Dollface?”

  “You could have died crossing the border.”

  He turned toward me, resting his masked forehead on top of my head.

  “It was reckless.” I said, staring up into his eyes.

  He held my gaze. Even with the gas mask, his deep brown irises seized all of my focus. I gripped the lapels of his coat, trying to hold on to this small, private piece of us.

  “I know,” No’ll breathed.

  “And here I was, thinking you always kept your wits about you.”

  “I guess you’re rubbing off on me. You are a deviant after all.” He winked.

  “I’m trying to be better about that. I don’t want to hurt the people I care about anymore.”

  “A reformed deviant.”

  “Yes, I guess so.”

  I WAS JOSTLED AWAKE by a hand on my arm. My head dropped from No’ll’s shoulder, and I jerked it back up to see his eyes on me.

  “We’re almost there, but there’s a problem,” he said nodding his head backwards.

  I turned my head slowly. Two Watchmen stood by the door, holding the wanted flyer with a clear photograph of me.

  “Probably some by each door. I wouldn’t doubt if they were spies,” No’ll whispered.

  “We’re going to have to cut it close, then.”

  He nodded and turned his focus outside the window. We were speeding through the thick canopy of the toxic forest.

  “When I say so, charge for the door at the head of the cart,” No’ll said.

  It was my turn to nod. I watched him as he kept a close eye on the forest, picking up on something I couldn’t.

  “When you said you had new tricks, what did you mean by that?” I asked.

  “You’ll see.” He smiled as his body turned taut. “Get ready.” Another second passed. “Now,” he said, standing up.

  I shot to my feet and began to run. I yanked open the door, and a torrent of wind surrounded me.

  “Stop!” a Watchman yelled as his companion charged toward us.

  As we rushed out of the train cart, No’ll turned me around to face him. “Up you go, dollface,” he said as he held his hand out for my foot.

  He heaved me onto the roof of the train. The engine roared against my ears as the wind nearly knocked me over. My short hair blew wildly around my head, whipping me in the eyes. No’ll’s hands gripped the ledge. He pulled up one leg, and I grabbed at his backpack to help yank him all the way onto the roof.

  No’ll clutched my hand as we ran down the train toward the caboose. We heard the thumping of footsteps right before a Watchman came running up from the side, his magnetic boots thudding loudly in front of us.

  He pulled out a ray gun, but No’ll was quicker. My steps faltered; I wasn’t trained for this particular scenario, but No’ll kept his momentum. He grabbed the ray gun, twisting it out of the Watchman’s hand with a practiced precision. No’ll then dropped down, slamming the sole of his shoe into the side of the Watchman’s boot. The boot began to smoke, and the Watchman’s foot flew off the roof as the magnetic mechanism combusted.

  No’ll grabbed my arm and yanked me along with him. We leaped over the gaps between the trains, my ankles twinging from the impact of each rough landing. I held fast to No’ll, and we used each other for balance as the erratic wind shifted with the winding track.

  No’ll charged us past two other Watchmen. I ducked my head when ray gun beams shrieked passed my ears. We were forced to stop when a small group had collected on the second-to-last cart.

  “Now, let’s stop all this running,” a Watchman said.

  “It will be okay,” I said, gripping No’ll’s hand.

  “You willing to stake your life on that?”

  “No, something far more important.” I turned to him, giving a small smile. “I would stake yours.”

  “Glad to hear that. Now we have to jump,” he said with a wink.

  I didn’t know what he was up to, what I was getting myself into, but I trusted him. So when he started to run for the ledge, I ran too. Beams of rays screamed through the air. My heart leaped into my throat when my feet vaulted off the train, and we plunged past the bridge of train tracks and into the depths of the toxic forest.

  |Thirty Three|

  WE KEPT FREEFALLING with no end in sight. My stomach dropped. Leaves and branches pelted us as we invaded
their territory. It took me a few moments to realize that instead of picking up speed with our descent, we were actually slowing down.

  A few more seconds passed, and we were buoyant in the air. No’ll’s hold loosened when we were vertical again. We were being lowered as if we were standing on an invisible elevator platform.

  When I looked up at No’ll, I was shocked to see lines across his cheeks and forehead. The spots that had once held his scales were blazing emerald. My hair floated out and our clothes hovered with us. The ground started to come into focus.

  “How are you doing this?” I shrieked.

  “Shhh,” he breathed.

  As a new panic started to form, I was bombarded with a familiar sickeningly sweet smell that had filled my senses. It made the contents in my stomach churn.

  When our feet settled on the ground and our buoyancy faded, I toppled the rest of the way down. Bile charged up my esophagus, and before I knew it, vomit splattered across the grassy forest floor.

  My matching scales began to fall off my skin to greet the blades of grass. I tried to stand, but my ailing body betrayed me. I plunged helplessly into the dirt. My liquefied extremities wouldn’t move properly.

  No’ll ripped off his gas mask, dropping it onto the ground as he fell to his knees. He didn’t move as he tried to catch his breath.

  “N—” I tried to speak, but my throat filled with more vomit.

  “Les’ette,” he whispered.

  If I could have comforted him I would have, but my body felt like it was imploding. My skin crawled as if microscopic creatures were forcing their way out of my pores.

  Time started to run like a film reel, spinning faster at moments or moving agonizingly slowly. No’ll’s brows furrowed in a slow-motion way, but then suddenly it all sped up. He scooped me up with a grunt, causing my limbs to throb as he adjusted me in his arms. His grip was soft. He pressed his lips to my ear in an almost apologetic kiss.

  “You’re one of us now.”

  |Thirty Four|

  “DOLLFACE, I’M HERE. I’m not leaving you,” No’ll’s voice whispered softly to me.

  His hand cupped mine. He breathed his words on my fingertips. As I wrenched my eyes open, I saw him watching me. His lips broke into a smile. He gave me a wink and then fell back into his chair.

  “I knew you’d fall for me one day, but to be hospitalized? Now that’s obsession, dollface,” No’ll teased.

  “I guess I would have to be crazy to love a young man such as yourself.”

  My limbs ached, and the air burned in my throat.

  “Well, in that case, I hope clarity always eludes you, dollface.”

  Dollface. His words rung in my head. I pressed my fingers to my cheeks. What did I look like?

  “You are my beautiful dollface, Les’ette. Nothing will ever change that,” No’ll said, pulling my hand away from my cheek.

  Oh, no, I thought, horrified. I must be hideous for him to say that!

  Why did I suddenly care so much about what I looked like as a human? Why did it matter so much to me what No’ll thought of my new appearance? I didn’t want to think about that.

  “No’ll?” I started, wanting to change the subject. “How can you fly?”

  “With a small number of people, Chemical SV permanently altered their DNA, giving them special abilities.”

  “Technically, it happened because of a mistake during non-homologous end-joining,” a man in a dark blue coat explained as he marched over to us. “After proteins carve off a portion of the nucleotides that Chemical SV altered and forced the damaged ends back together, some of your genetic material was jumbled in the process. Blast! Pow! Abilities!”

  “Always trying to best me, Ern’ist?” No’ll laughed.

  “It’s what makes our working relationship, well, work,” the man, Ern’ist said with a shrug.

  “So, you’re one of the mutated ones,” I said to No’ll.

  “And I think you might be, too.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  No’ll reached behind me, bringing over a mirror. My reflection stared back at me, and I was shocked by what I saw. All my scales had fallen out, but the green was still there. I still looked relatively like me.

  No’ll brushed his fingers across a patch of emerald freckles on my cheek. He pulled up the end of his shirt, revealing his own patch of green skin streaking up his abs toward his chest.

  “Can’t wait to find out what you can do.” No’ll chuckled.

  “It’d better be something good, because No’ll here says you’re going to rescue my daughter for me.”

  “Your daughter?”

  What had I gotten myself into? I’d only been conscious five seconds, and I’d already been assigned to a mission.

  “Don’t fret, dollface. You’re going to want to help him. I guess now is a good time to formally introduce you two,” No’ll said, clearing his throat. “Les’ette, meet Dr. Ern’ist Ricket, Hattie’s father.”

  |Thirty Five|

  A KNOCK AT THE ENTRANCE to the female sleeping quarters drew my attention forward. No’ll stood at the threshold, leaning his shoulder against the frame like one of the many sturdy fixtures in this bunker. He gave me a wink when our eyes tangled.

  I leaped off my mattress, boots booming loudly against the metal floor from the momentum of leaping off my top bunk. I snatched my tin box, which contained my required gasmask, off the iron framework. Throwing the white strap over my shoulder, I settled the small box on my hip. Everybody in this Astronaut Cluster was required to always keep it on their person in case of SV storms. That’s what they called it when a plume of the chemical descended upon the cluster.

  I weaved my way through the maze of bunk beds and hopped over rucksacks that littered the floor. The shelter was massive, but it was very cramped with all the girls and all the equipment. I was in the nomadic female bunker, meaning I had no family here to take me in. No’ll was in the nomadic male bunker across the cluster.

  The girls’ giggles bounced into my ears as I strode passed them. Even though I’d been here over three months, and No’ll came every morning to walk me to breakfast, many of the girls still blushed fervently and laughed nervously every time he came for me.

  “Good morning, ladies! I hope you all had a pleasant night’s rest,” No’ll greeted them.

  The girls’ replies always collided with one another’s. I could only pick out a few as a handful of them responded.

  “Good morning, No’ll.”

  “I slept so good!”

  “I want someone like you.”

  “You’re such a dreamboat.”

  I finished my last leg up to him in a march, narrowing my eyes in a scowl.

  “Good morning, dollface,” No’ll said, leaning in to plant a kiss on my forehead.

  Oohs and awws burst from the mob behind me.

  “Come on, palm greaser,” I said, slipping past him.

  “Have a good day, ladies,” No’ll shouted to the pack before following me.

  The torrent of goodbyes washed over me as No’ll fell into step with me. We trekked through the dirt, increasing in speed gradually. When I broke out into a run, I only managed three long strides before my feet left the ground. I hovered over the trail, buoyant as No’ll shifted the gravity around me.

  “No’ll!” I shouted, glaring at him as I started to float sideways.

  He sprung at me, catching me by my waist as he released more of our gravity. We drifted into the canopy of trees. I looked up, trying to see the sky, but as always the canopy was too dense with all the massive, mighty trees.

  Gravity turned me loose and I swooped off my feet and floated on my belly. That was No’ll’s subtle way of telling me he wanted my attention. I held tight to his hands as our stomachs both laid on nothing. His face was bright with vivid green lines, a mutation only visible when he activated his superpower.

  “Do you want to hear the good news first or the great news?” No’ll asked.

  “Good ne
ws and great news?”

  I just couldn’t get used to things like this, happy and light pieces of life. They were fleeting moments, ones I knew wouldn’t stay, but even still I wished I could just enjoy it more while they lasted.

  Gravity started to bring me back down quickly. We plummeted toward the ground, moving so fast a clump of my hair caught in my mouth. We halted suddenly, hovering mere centimeters from the dirt.

  “So serious, dollface.” No’ll chuckled.

  He released and added to gravity around us until we were both on our feet.

  “So, what’s the news about?” I asked.

  “Mission control finally received word from Sea’bastin. NNAF Deputy presented the formula to the Federation Leaders, and it looks like it was well received. I don’t think all of the country deputies are going to be as humble as the Federation Leaders, but at least we’re headed in the right direction.”

  “That is great news!” I cheered.

  “Yes, it’s good news, but that’s not the great news.”

  My fingers gripped the sides of my jumpsuit. I’d been hoping for news on Dr. Upton. There had been so very little. After Dr. Upton was taken to the Repurposed European Federation, he mysteriously disappeared. I guess I couldn’t have hoped for better news than that, but maybe...

  “It’s not what you think it is,” No’ll started, trying to let me down gently because he knew what was in my head. “Our mission was finally approved.”

  “Really?”

  I was happy, terrified, and curious as to why Mission Control had approved of someone like me, who had very little training for such a dangerous mission. If I were honest though, I really didn’t care about the reasons why; I was determined to do it.

  No’ll leaned in close to me. His voice was saturated in sarcasm. “I hope you and your superpowers are ready for a field trip.”

  THE THUMP OF MY BOOTS against the metal of the train would never not remind me of the Watchmen, even though I was the complete opposite. My thick Astronaut boots echoed more loudly than the screams from the passengers on the train.