Independents: Taoree Trilogy #2

by Michele Notaro

  I spit out my sip of water. “Oh my god!” I started cracking up. “I cannot believe you just said that.”

  “We’ve been on the road so long, I think I might explode the first time someone touches me.”

  “Jesus. I think we’re a bad influence on you.” I couldn’t stop laughing in surprise. “Stop making me laugh.” I had to clutch my stomach from laughing so hard.

  “You’re the one that keeps leaning on me and rubbing my back and everything,” he said as he shoulder checked me.

  I put my hands on my face, completely mortified. “Uhh,” I groaned, “sorry.”

  “Don’t be sorry. I like it.”

  I groaned again, dropped my hands, then elbowed him in the ribs, making him laugh harder.

  Only an hour later, Wes needed us to uanria again. And again, I was dizzy after the energy transfer. When he needed it done again an hour after that, I started getting a headache and ended up needing to wear sunglasses, even though I’d been wearing a hat all day.

  Another hour passed and I heard Wes yell, “Fuck!”

  “What’s wrong?” I asked immediately, even though I was sure I knew the answer.

  “It’s coming back again, J. I’m so sorry, I know you’re already drained,” Wes said in a defeated voice.

  “Hey,” I said, stepping up to him and putting my hands on his head. “I don’t mind, Wesley. I’m just glad that I can help.”

  Orrean put his hands over mine. “We’re going to be okay, Wes, don’t worry. We’re going to make it.”

  I couldn’t help but smile at Orrean. That was the first time he’d said that he thought we would make it there in time, so it gave me hope. We had to make it, no matter what.

  Orrean and I pushed our light into Wes and I felt it mixing together before wrapping around each tiny Qiren. This time it took a few seconds longer to get all the leaks plugged up, but it still wasn’t too long.

  When I let go of Wes, I automatically turned into Orrean, who was standing next to me. I surprised him by wrapping my arms around his waist and burying my head in his chest. After his initial surprise, he wrapped his arms around me and sagged down into me. He was a good six inches taller than me, so he had to bend down a little to rest his cheek on my head. I had my eyes closed because I felt like the ground was spinning.

  When I felt like I could speak, I asked Orrean, “Are you as dizzy as me?”

  “Yes.” He squeezed me tight.

  “Is there anything we can do to help it?”

  “Just keep drinking water and eating food,” he said simply.

  “That kind of sucks since we’re always running low on food,” I said.

  “Yeah.”

  After a minute, I gave him a squeeze, then pulled away and looked up at him. For the first time, I noticed dark circles under his eyes. He had definitely lost a little weight over the past week and his eyes didn’t look as bright. I couldn’t help but wonder if I looked the same.

  “You guys okay to keep going?” Cal asked quietly.

  I looked at my friend. “Sure, let’s go before we lose any more daylight.” I looked at Orrean. “You good?”

  He nodded and started walking after Cal, with me next to him. Orrean seemed to be walking slower than usual. Probably not a good sign.

  ***

  When we went to sleep that night, Orrean said that he had figured out a way to keep Wes’s Qiren at bay while we slept. I figured we were going to have to have our hands tied back together, but he just said that it would work if Wes and I slept on either side of him.

  So I lay down at one end of the tent with Orrean next to me and Wes next to him, with the promise that Orrean had everything under control. It was surprisingly very easy to trust him.

  Orrean was curled in a ball under the tree, so I ran over and knelt next to him. “Are you okay?”

  He didn’t answer, he just kept shivering.

  “It’s okay,” I told him, sitting down and pulling his head into my lap. “I got you.” I rubbed his arm and back as he lay there, shivering with his eyes closed. I tried to use my body heat to warm him, but he shivered all night long.

  When I woke up, I blinked away my grogginess, then looked at Orrean next to me. I had to sit up to see better, but he was curled in a ball and shivering, with one hand on Wes’s chest. My brother was looking pale with sweat pooling on his forehead. I put one hand on each of their foreheads. Orrean was ice-cold and Wes was burning up.

  I shook both their shoulders. “Orrean. Wesley. Wake up.”

  Neither responded.

  I quickly pushed out of my sleeping bag and knelt by their heads, shaking them again. “Orrean. Wesley. Come on, guys, wake up.”

  “What’s wrong?” Cal asked groggily as he climbed out of his sleeping bag.

  “I don’t know,” I said, panicking. “Orrean’s ice-cold and Wes is burning up. They won’t wake up, Cal. Help me.”

  “Shit,” Cal exclaimed, kneeling by Wesley and patting his cheek to try and rouse him.

  I kept shaking them both and calling their names, but nothing was working.

  After a few minutes, Cal grabbed my hands, stopping me. “Look at me, J.” I did as he asked before he continued, “You need to try and heal them.”

  “I don’t know how,” I whispered.

  “Yes, you do. You’ve done it a million times over the past few days,” Cal insisted.

  “Not by myself. Orrean always does it, I just let him use my energy too,” I admitted as I looked down at Wes and Orrean.

  Cal grabbed my cheeks and forced me to look at him again. “You do know how. Put your hand on Wesley’s head and push your energy into him. Your body will know what to do.”

  I just stared at him. I didn’t think it would work.

  Nolan was behind me. “You have to try, J. It’s going to be alright, but you have to try.”

  I blew out a breath, but gave them a nod, and Cal released my face. I lifted Wes’s head into my lap, put my hands on Wes’s forehead and immediately started pushing my energy into him. I concentrated and after a tense minute, I found the Qiren. I felt my brow furrow as I wrapped my energy around each one, but I couldn’t find any problem with them; they were all well-secured. I pulled my energy back.

  “I don’t understand. Nothing’s wrong with his Qiren,” I told the others, who were staring at me.

  Nolan was worrying his lip, thinking before he said, “Try to help Orrean. If he wakes up, maybe he’ll know what’s wrong with Wes.”

  I nodded, then moved Wes off of me and scooted over to Orrean. I lifted his head into my lap and cupped his cheeks in my hands. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, then started sending my energy into him. I felt my energy connect with his and I gasped out loud at the collision. It felt like his light was reaching out to mine and wrapping me inside it, in its warmth. I took another deep breath before moving my energy through Orrean, searching for an injury. I didn’t find anything wrong with his head or his lungs, but when I reached his heart—that was on his far right side, unlike humans—I felt it beating slowly and weakly.

  I pushed my energy toward his heart and wrapped it around. His heart soaked it up for what felt like an eternity until it finally started beating at a regular pace.

  I heard Orrean inhale loudly, so I opened my eyes to see him blinking under me. His eyes were flickering around in confusion, clearly disoriented, so I started rubbing his cheeks with my thumbs.

  “Shh,” I whispered, still letting my light flow into him. “Orrean, it’s okay. I have you. You’re okay now.”

  I closed my eyes in relief as my body started to feel drained. I slowly leaned forward over his face until my forehead was resting on his chest, my thumbs still rubbing his cheeks. I felt him lift his arm until his hand gripped the back of my neck, where he started rubbing my skin there.

  His voice was quiet and hoarse, “Pull back, my Balu. Too much energy you are using.”

  “Will you stay awake if I stop?”

  “Yes.”

&nbs
p; I nodded against him and started pulling my light back until I cut it off completely. After a shuddered breath, I asked him, “Why won’t Wes wake up?”

  “His body is fighting hard to keep the Qiren at bay. He needs to use all his energy on that. He will not wake up until we can remove them.” His voice was still quiet.

  “Shit. Is there nothing we can do?”

  “Just what we’ve been doing, Renuella. I’m sorry.” He squeezed my neck.

  “Okay.”

  “Does he know what’s wrong with Wes? What’s he saying?” Cal’s frantic voice made me turn my head to the side to look at him. I didn’t lift my head from Orrean’s chest, though.

  “Can you not hear him?” I asked, then closed my eyes in understanding. “I really need to get better at noticing when we’re speaking Taoree. Wes’s body is using all his energy to keep his Qiren from activating. He won’t wake until he has the surgery at the Independent camp.”

  “Oh, fuck.”

  “Yeah.” I closed my eyes and turned my head back so I could hide my face against Orrean’s chest. He was still rubbing my neck and I was still rubbing his cheeks, and I had no energy to move away, nor did I really want to.

  Nolan started talking behind me, but I didn’t bother to move, I just listened to him say, “We need to figure out a way to carry him, then. He obviously can’t hold onto our backs. Maybe we could push him, like in a wheelchair-type thing?”

  “Where are we going to get a wheelchair?” Cal asked.

  “It will probably be a while before we find one. Shit,” Nolan stated.

  “What if we pull him? We could find something to lay him on, like a door or something, and hook some rope to it.” Tabitha surprised me with the concern in her voice. “I think we should be able to find supplies to make something like that.”

  “That’s a good idea,” Nolan said. “Okay, we’re going to have to split up. Two of us will have to go out to find the crap we need and one of us will have to stay here with Wes, Mandy, J, and Orrean.”

  “Hey,” Mandy complained.

  “Yes, Mandy, I know you can fight, but Wes, J, and Orrean are in no shape to. You can’t be here by yourself with all of them,” Nolan said.

  I heard Mandy grumbling under her breath, but Tabitha spoke louder, “I can go with you, Nol. We can get what we need and Cal can stay here with them.”

  “Are you sure?” Nolan asked.

  “Yes, I would like to help.”

  “Is that good with you, Cal?”

  “Yeah, I guess,” Cal answered distractedly.

  Everyone started moving around, so I whispered to Orrean, “I need to lie down, but I don’t know if I can move.”

  “Here,” he whispered back, then very slowly moved his head off my lap. Without lifting my head up, I slid my legs out in front of me, then turned on my hip and somehow ended up lying on my side next to Orrean with my head on his shoulder. He shifted on his side to face me and wrapped his arms around me, then we both fell back asleep.

  We were awoken a short while later by Cal shaking our shoulders. “Jeremy, Orrean, we got Wes all set up. Do you think you guys can walk?”

  I rolled off of Orrean—feeling a little weird for sleeping on him like that—then I stretched. I actually felt a little better, so I said, “Yeah, I think I’ll be okay.”

  “Orrean?” Cal prompted.

  He cleared his throat. “I should be fine.” His voice sounded hoarse and tired.

  I sat up and looked at him. He still didn’t look very good. He had dark circles under his purple eyes and his coloring looked a little off. All Taoree were really pale to begin with, but he almost seemed whiter than white and perhaps a little ashy. I slowly stood up, my body sore and stiff, then I held my hand out to Orrean to help him up.

  Before he could grab my hand, Cal was there, scooping Orrean under his arms and pulling him to his feet. Cal had to hold on to the alien for a few seconds so he could get his bearings. When Cal let him go, Orrean seemed even stiffer than I felt, but he and I walked out of the tent while Cal packed our stuff up.

  Everyone else was waiting for us outside. I raised my brows at the sight before me. Wes was lying on what I assumed was a door or a big piece of plywood. He was wrapped up in his sleeping bag and had a bunch of ropes wrapped around him and the door—I guess to keep him from falling off. Near Wes’s head, there were long handles with some very thick rope somehow connected to one of the backpacks. The entire contraption was lying on top of a wheelbarrow, or the bottom portion of a wheelbarrow, though it was obvious they were planning on pulling it, not pushing it.

  “Where the hell did you find that?” I asked Nolan.

  He smiled at me. “We lucked out and found a gardening store not too far from here. We tested everything out after we hooked it together and it works fine.”

  I gave him a half-smile, then walked over to my brother. I placed my hand on his head, but right before I pushed my energy into him, Orrean pulled my hand away. I looked at Orrean questioningly.

  “He’s okay. Don’t waste your energy,” he said quietly. “I can sense his Qiren. I won’t let anything happen to him.”

  “Thank you.”

  He smiled at me before walking toward Mandy and kneeling in front of her. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but Mandy gave him a hug before he stood back up. Soon, the others had the tent and everything packed up and we were on our way, albeit slowly, thanks to Orrean and me.

  “How many days before we reach the camp, Nol?” Cal asked later that day.

  “I’d say at least seven days,” Nolan answered after thinking about it.

  “Holy fuck,” Cal said under his breath, but I still heard him.

  “We’ve been making good time, but we’ve slowed our pace a little today,” Nolan said in what I was sure he thought was a quiet voice, but wasn’t really quiet at all.

  “We’re gonna need to figure something out,” Cal mumbled. “All three of them look terrible.”

  “I know, Cal, but I don’t think we can carry or pull all of them at the same time,” Nolan whispered to Cal.

  “Why can’t we take a car?” Tabitha asked them quietly.

  “Orrean told us the Taoree Legion have specialized equipment made for tracking vehicles. He said we would be captured within an hour at the most. It’s too dangerous,” Nolan told her.

  “Well, that’s shitty,” she replied.

  I saw Nolan nod at her.

  Cal glanced back at where Orrean and I were walking. He was taking his turn pulling Wes at the moment, and luckily for everyone, Mandy had been walking more today than she usually did.

  Cal turned back around to look at Nolan and Tabitha. “They both look like they’re gonna keel over at any second.”

  Nolan glanced over his shoulder and whispered to Cal, “They look like fucking zombies.” They both actually sounded really concerned, even though that last statement had me amused.

  I called to them, “You know we actually can hear you guys, right?”

  They both looked back at me with wide eyes.

  I snorted and flipped them off. “You two are assholes.”

  “Sorry, J,” Nolan stated. “We’re just worried about you.”

  “Don’t care,” I called to him.

  “We didn’t mean to be offensive,” he told me.

  “Seriously don’t care, dude.”

  “I really didn’t—”

  “Nolan, shut the fuck up and stop treating me like I’m dying. You’re both assholes, but I love ya anyway. Now, it’s way later than usual, so can we stop for some lunch?” I asked, exasperated.

  He stopped walking and eyed me for a moment before nodding and sitting down right where he had stopped. I looked around, but upon seeing nothing else to even lean on, I grabbed Orrean’s wrist and led him over to the wheelbarrow. I slid down the side and leaned on the large wheel, then tugged on Orrean’s arm to get him to sit next to me.

  He hadn’t said more than two words all day. It was very obvious
that he was using more of his energy on Wes than I was. Once seated, he leaned his head back and closed his eyes. Luckily, he had already dropped his backpack next to us, so he wasn’t leaning on anything awkwardly.

  I pulled out a bag of croutons and a can of sweet potatoes from my bag, then found a can of soup in his. I opened both cans with my can opener and held his soup against his chest until he took it from me. I passed him his water bottle, which he drank from immediately. I opened the bag of croutons, grabbed his hand and dumped some in his palm, then grabbed a handful for myself. We sat in silence as we ate.

  When I was almost finished with my food, I turned toward my other companions and said, “One of you is gonna have to get some water and broth or something into Wesley.”

  Orrean spoke without opening his eyes, “I have a zheluangi in my pack.”

  “A what?” Nolan asked.

  “It’ll shut his systems down and put him in a hibernation that will keep him from needing food and water and… the bathroom,” Orr explained, still with his eyes shut. “Each one lasts for at least seventy-two hours. You just snap it on his wrist.”

  “How many do you have?” Cal asked.

  “There should be a dozen in my pack.”

  When Orr didn’t move to get it out, I looked over at everyone else. “Can one of you get it?”

  Cal stood up right away. “Uh, I’ll do it.” He walked behind me. I could hear him moving around, but I didn’t even bother to turn around and look. “These bracelet-looking things?”

  “Yes,” Orr said.

  I finished off my food, then closed my eyes and leaned my head back. I started to nod off and when my head fell forward, making me jump and snap my head back up, I looked around. Nolan and Mandy were still eating, so I leaned over until my cheek was resting on Orrean’s shoulder, like I typically did to Dream-Orrean. He already had his head back with his eyes closed. I managed to fall asleep for a few minutes before the others woke me.

  Chapter Four

  Every night, we just sat next to one another, laying our heads together and resting. It was like I could actually fall asleep in my dream, when I was already sleeping. Every night I would tuck my arm behind his and slide my hand forward until we could hold hands, lacing our fingers together. It always made me think of Colt, but instead of feeling guilty, it was nice to remember. Orrean and I had lost the ability to talk since our energies were so depleted, but we didn’t need to. We just had to sit there with each other and offer comfort.