“Orange was funny,” said Lissa, while working. “She’d climb on the sofa even when my parents yelled at her. I miss her.”
Sima brushed a hand over the girl’s hair. “I’m sorry. What’s it like to have a cat?”
“She was nice. Bad people visited us a lot to buy the stinky stuff. Whenever a mean one got close to me, Orange would hiss and scratch them.”
“She loved you, too.”
“You’re kinda like Orange, but you have an axe.” Lissa smiled up at her for a moment before looking sad. “Are Nix, Asif, and Tamma ghosts now?”
“Who?” asked Sima.
“They were my friends. The nice man took care of them, too. They brought me food when they got done begging. And they came to visit me after the doctor lady made me stay alone in a white room.”
Sima took a deep breath. “They were on the ship with us?”
“Yeah.” Lissa nodded, then pulled Sima’s right arm into her lap before starting on a bracelet for her. “Nix and Tamma got the pod next to mine, but they weren’t in our lifeboat.”
They’re probably drifting through space. Sima bowed her head, hating the Earth Government for what they did to innocent children. But they couldn’t possibly have known something would collide with the Progenitor before it landed. “The big room we were in split up into little lifeboats. Maybe they landed somewhere else.”
A constant thump, thump, thump of rubbery branches banging together came from the boys.
“Did they run outta air?” asked Lissa.
“Something broke this lifeboat. If nothing broke theirs, maybe they’re okay? Mine didn’t break. The lid opened when I hit the button.” But the bracelet told me where to find it.
“Oh.” Lissa looked back at the lifeboat. “I don’t want them to be ghosts. They were nice to me, so I’d be sad if they turned into ghosts.”
“Me too.” Sima squeezed her shoulder.
“The cops found us,” said Lissa, continuing to braid grass around Sima’s right wrist. “The nice man who helped the other kids beg ran away, but the cops told us they wanted to help. They promised we’d have families and houses and stuff. And school.”
“I don’t think they lied.” Sima looked out over the meadow, keeping an eye on the boys, who had gone from ‘sword fighting’ to chasing a glowing, flying butterfly-like bug. “We had an accident.”
Lissa patted the completed bracelet. “I don’t think they lied either. I did get a family.”
Sima hugged her. Don’t you dare die. I won’t allow it. You don’t have permission.
“They gave us a ride in a big gee-vee, and we got baths and new clothes. But they took the clothes away on the ship.” Lissa shrugged. “It’s okay. We don’t need them.”
“We would if the ship was still here. There’d be a city with people.”
“Like Earth?” asked Lissa, a hint of worry in her eyes.
“Not exactly. Much smaller and nicer, without all the bad people.”
“Oh.” Lissa reclined in the grass. “Do the sky mantas ever land?”
Sima shrugged. “I don’t know. Wouldn’t they have to? They can’t fly while sleeping?”
“Maybe they’re like flat balloons.” Lissa grinned. “They just float.”
“Could be.”
Lissa resumed coming up with names for the mantas. Perhaps a few, she named more than once. She talked about her friends as if they had survived and might be living like this, camping in the jungle. Sima kept quiet. Even if those kids had made it to the surface in an intact lifeboat, without an adult (or a faking-it-as-much-as-possible sixteen-year-old) they probably wound up Night Scratch food. But, in all their wandering, Sima had only located the one other lifeboat, and it had been smashed to shrapnel. The Progenitor carried over eight thousand people. If all the lifeboats had deployed, she should have definitely found at least one more. It’s not as if they’d scatter themselves deliberately to the far corners of the planet; they’d all more or less come down in the same region. That she hadn’t seen any more painted a grim picture of what must have happened in orbit. Perhaps those bits of metal they found yesterday had been the biggest pieces of the ship to survive.
Sima kept one hand on the axe at her left side and held Lissa’s hand with the other. Though she reclined in the grass, she remained wary of danger, constantly scanning the trees. Eventually, Lissa found the energy to run again, and zoomed off to join the boys in their effort to catch the small, glowing bugs. The day passed in a blur of laughing children, a trip to the river to fill a water jug, and synthesized food.
As twilight approached, Lissa stumbled and fell, out of breath. While the boys continued racing around, Sima trotted out into the meadow to collect the girl, carrying her back to the lifeboat hatch. Lissa stared at her, both ashamed and scared.
“Your lungs were hurt by the bad stuff you breathed.” She pulled hair away from the wheezing child’s face. “The doctors did fix you, but you still need time to get better.”
Lissa nodded, but didn’t try to speak.
Using the bracelet to project a holographic surface she could draw on, Sima continued teaching the girl how to write in GANSEC. The boys made a trip to the river on their own to get more water, and Austin ran the fabricator to produce steaks for everyone.
Sima sniffed the meat and glanced over at him.
“Tired of chicken,” he muttered.
“That’s fine.” Sima took her portion when he handed it over, and tore a bit off with her teeth. Total cavewoman moment… sitting in the grass eating meat with my bare hands.
Over the course of their meal, Austin’s mood darkened. He kept giving everyone sour looks, but didn’t say anything. He even shied away from Juan who’d taken to sitting close to him whenever possible.
“Austin?” asked Sima in as encouraging a tone as she could manage. “Is something bothering you?”
He lifted his head and glared at her, but the surly scowl didn’t last long. “Yeah. It’s not your fault. It’s not anyone here’s fault. Sorry if I’m being a turd.”
Sima patted his arm. “What’s wrong?”
“This. Everything.” He wiped a smudge of steak juice off his leg. “I miss home. I miss my friends. I miss having shoes. I miss having clothes.” His voice rose until he almost yelled. “I miss real beds and video games and real toilets and real showers and real food. I’m so totally bored. Why did they do this to us? Why? It’s not fair!” His face scrunched up. For a few seconds, he fought back tears, but lost his composure and cried.
Lissa and Juan blinked at him, though neither said a word.
“Don’t look at me!” he yelled, before turning around to put his back to everyone, his face red.
Sima moved to sit beside him with an arm across his shoulders. After a little while of resisting her pulling him close, he caved in and leaned against her. She held him, letting him cry out his frustrations. Lissa got up and wandered into the grass, chasing the glowing bugs at a walking pace.
“Are you tired of it, too?” asked Austin a few minutes later.
“A couple days before the EGSF arrested me, I was carrying a package for a guy. He put something around my neck and told me it was a bomb. Said if I took too long or tried to steal the box, he’d blow my head off.”
Austin gasped at her.
“It wasn’t really a bomb, but I didn’t know that. I was so damn scared thinking the EGSF would catch me with an explosive. On the way to deliver the box, I almost got caught by the cops. I ran and tried to hide in an old building, but it was a Scather hangout.”
He shivered.
“They threw me in a pit, so there I was, trapped with a bomb around my neck and a pack of Scathers who were gonna kill me whenever they got done partying.”
“But it wasn’t really a bomb?” asked Austin.
“No. But, again, I didn’t know that. Have you ever been so scared that you stopped caring if you lived or died?”
He shook his head. “No.”
“In that pi
t, I knew I was going to die, either to the bomb or the Scathers. So, I figured it didn’t really matter what I did if I’d wind up dead anyway. I climbed out of the pit and attacked the Scathers, punching and kicking and biting… anything to get away.”
“Like you went after that cat.”
“Kind of. But different. I wasn’t thinking at all with the Scathers. Total desperation launched me out of that pit because I thought I was going to die no matter what happened. I had nothing at all to lose. When that cat chased you up a tree, I could’ve run away and not gotten hurt… but I couldn’t do that and leave you there. You know?”
He nodded. “You’re awesome. Sorry for being pissy. You really don’t mind it here?”
“Going tribal wasn’t high on my list, but it beats being dead. And… if I had a choice between going back to my old life dodging gangs and begging on the streets of Earth or continuing to run around the jungle in my underwear… I think I’d stay here.”
“Bull.” He laughed. “You’re trying to make me feel better.”
“I really would rather be here than on the street… but I do miss having actual clothes. Not like I had real clothes before. My tunic was four years old. I wore scrap fabric for pants. Pulled them off a dead guy.”
“Ick.”
She stretched out a leg and wiggled her toes. “I had sandals I made from some old boot soles and power cables.”
“I had a lot of clothes. Whenever I broke into an apartment where they had a kid my age, I’d always take something… unless it was girl stuff.”
She laughed.
“Sometimes I took girl stuff too, but to sell.”
“You little thief.” She nudged him in the side.
“Yeah.” He stuck his tongue out. “So what? They were Citizens.”
Lissa crept over and sat on her left, holding one of the glowing butterflies on the back of her hand. “She likes me.”
“How do you know it’s a girl?” asked Austin.
“It’s too pretty to be a boy.” Lissa nodded.
He rolled his eyes, then smirked at Sima. “So, you really like it here more than Earth?”
“It’s less scary. I’m not constantly worrying about someone attacking me or if I’m gonna even wake up when I go to sleep. Except for the Night Scratch, I really do feel safer here.”
Lissa looked up from the butterfly on her hand, blinked once, and said, “But we’re all gonna die. There’s no doctors.”
“Our odds are still better here,” deadpanned Sima. “Doctors don’t help Outcasts.”
“The doctor lady helped me.” Lissa tilted her head.
Sima ran a hand over the girl’s hair. “Yeah. I guess we got promoted for our last few days on Earth.”
Austin grumbled. “I’m tired of being stuck in my underwear.”
“You’re not stuck in them. You can take them off.” Sima raspberried him.
The bracelet buzzed.
Sima turned her left arm over to reveal the holographic screen.
‹Hey. That’s my line.›
Austin and Lissa both jumped when Sima burst out laughing.
29
Waypoint
For no particular reason, Sima woke in the middle of the night.
She stared up at a jagged blue hole overhead, a rip in the metal breaking up the total blackness of the lifeboat. While she had to pee, the urgency didn’t feel so bad it explained her sudden wakefulness. The soft breathing of two kids echoed in the silence.
Two kids.
Sima lifted her head and came nose-to-nose with Lissa who’d crawled on top of her, chest to chest. The girl had stopped breathing again, pink liquid dribbling out of her mouth and nose.
“Light!” yelled Sima.
The bracelet displayed its screen, all white, which served as a weak flashlight.
She rolled Lissa onto the floor, braced the back of her neck, and did the same thing Austin had done, pinching her nose and blowing air into the girl’s mouth. The flavor of super-artificial cherry exploded into her senses. The older boy stirred with a moan, though Juan remained zonked.
“Come on,” rasped Sima after a few breaths. She took another deep one and forced air into the little girl. Again and again, she repeated it until Lissa finally sat up coughing.
The patter of text appearing on the bracelet’s screen happened, but Sima ignored it, too overwhelmed to do anything but cradle Lissa and shake with fear.
Lissa coughed more, and fell into a labored breathing that sounded as if a gallon of phlegm bubbled inside her chest.
“Is she okay?” asked Austin in a bleary half-awake voice.
“I think so,” whispered Sima.
She eased Lissa forward and clapped her on the back a couple times. Eventually, the girl hocked up a big lump of slime. After, she collapsed sideways and tried to catch her breath.
Finally, Sima glanced at the screen.
‹She should not sleep on her front. It is more difficult to breathe.›
Sima sniffled. She pulled Lissa closer, resting the girl’s head on her thigh while positioning her flat on her back. She sat there in the dark, stroking Lissa’s hair in a repetitive, calming motion. Soon, the girl fell asleep again.
Austin rolled onto his side and curled into a ball.
‹You should sleep, Sima. I will monitor Lissa’s breathing and zap you awake if she needs assistance due to a respiratory interruption.›
“Okay.” Sima lay back, adjusting Lissa to stretch out beside her, using her shoulder as a pillow instead. She closed her eyes, but didn’t expect to fall asleep again after that.
Exhaustion, however, had other plans.
Sima woke to Austin poking her in the side of the head with his toe. She looked up at him, covered in a thick layer of sweat and indigo-stained briefs.
“It’s hot and crappy in here. Can we go swimming?”
“That sounds like a good idea.” Sima sat up and jostled Lissa awake.
The girl yawned, coughed once, and smiled.
After ushering the kids outside, Sima collected the giant phlegm blob with her bare hands (having little other option) and carried it outside. She rinsed her hands off from the drinking water jug, then handed out more ‘zucchini steaks’ for breakfast.
They spent most of the daylight hours in and around the river since it wound up being another particularly hot day. Lissa’s woven jewelry failed to survive the rigors of swimming, but she didn’t care. It only gave her an excuse to make more later on. Once again, the kids painted themselves blue with the oil coating the huge ground-running root. Austin found a long rubbery vine that worked as a swing. Cheering and laughing, the boys took turns swinging and diving into the river. Lissa wanted to try it, but Sima didn’t think the girl had the arm strength to hold onto it safely, so she triggered a wailing, begging fit by forbidding her from riding the swing.
Sima decided to compromise by having Lissa cling to her back while she swung on the vine and jumped into the water. Eventually, the waning daylight chased them back to the safety of their home. Enough sun remained for dinner to happen outside, and they sat around a circle, knees almost touching, in the grass by the lifeboat door. Much to her surprise, Lissa insisted on having the zucchini-like plant again for dinner—and ate two slices.
Beep beep beep. The bracelet vibrated.
Sima held up her arm. “What?”
A yellow arrow appeared pointing southeast above the text, ‹24.2 Mi.›
“What is it?” asked Austin.
Juan stuck his head in the way. “Compass?”
“No, a waypoint.” Sima tapped the bracelet. “To what?”
Lissa leaned up, her nose hovering at the top edge of the screen. Light from letters typing out tinted her face cyan.
‹The signal has transponder codes matching the Progenitor’s mission.›
The bracelet vibrated in a series of pulses for thirty seconds.
“What did you do?” asked Sima. “What’s the pulsing?”
‹Attempting
to communicate with remote system.›
“If that’s another lifeboat, they’re dead.” Austin frowned at the floor. “It’s been too long.”
“Nuh-uh,” said Juan. “All the pods can’t be broke. Maybe the doors worked.”
“If there’s more kids, we need to help them,” whispered Lissa.
Sima hugged her. “You’re right. Bracelet, why did you wait a month to show me this?”
Text disappeared and retyped. ‹Signal began 02M 38S ago.›
“The signal just started?” Sima gazed at the sky. “Maybe the ship is still up there and a new lifeboat landed?’
“Maybe it’s smashed or something and wires just made contact,” said Austin.
‹Possible. Unknown.›
She looked from one child to the next. Dragging the kids twenty-five miles across the alien jungle seemed like a fabulously bad idea, especially with Lissa weakened. Leaving them here while she went off alone came pretty close on the scale of dumb things to do as well. If I go off and die, they’re not gonna last. If I take them, we might all die. Sima closed her eyes and breathed for a moment. New signal. More people might be alive. I have to risk it. Maybe I should ask them?
“How long would it take me to get there?” asked Sima.
‹Average human walking speed is between three and four miles per hour. Approximately five to seven hours depending on your pace and the terrain.›
“So, an all-day trip.” She sighed at the ground.
“I’m going to scout that signal tomorrow. Do you guys wanna stay here or—”
“No!” yelled Lissa.
Juan shook his head.
“Nah.” Austin gripped the second axe. “I gotta protect you.”
Sima ruffled his hair, earning a smirk. “Okay. We will all go, but everyone has to wear pants.”
“I don’t wanna,” said Lissa, sticking her tongue out.
“We might find other people,” said Sima. “You really should wear pants.”
“No.” Lissa shook her head. “I don’t wanna go. I wanna stay here. Home.”
“There could be other kids in that pod. Maybe your friends, Nix, Tamma, and Asif?”
Out of Sight (Progenitor Book 1) Page 31