Sun Touched (Diamara Book 1)

by J. C. Hart

  "And who says he needs help?"

  "He's just a boy. I think her family are dead. No one came." She struggled to get the right words out. "I want to help."

  The man sighed and shook his head. "Hate to admit it, but the boy could use a hand. What are you going to do with him?"

  "I...I don't know. I hadn't thought about it." Madea frowned. She hadn't thought about anything beyond coming here and seeing that he was okay. "I brought some food, I thought maybe he could use that."

  "Food won't do him much good. He needs someone to take care of him and if you've come all this way, you might as well take him home with you. Follow me." The old man shuffled off, his cane clacking in front of him, pausing for a moment. "Are you coming, or what?"

  "Okay, but I can't take him, you have to understand." Madea followed, trying her best to be patient as he paused at each corner, listening for who knew what.

  Eventually, he led them to a prefab unit with a blue door. The paint was peeling, exposing the metal beneath. "Give me some of that food you brought down."

  "You didn't tell me your name," Madea said as she fished into her pack, handing him a loaf of bread and some fruit.

  "Better you don't know my name. Don't want you coming back down to find me." He bit into the fruit, smiling as the juice flowed over his chin. "God, this is good. You must be pretty well off." He took another bite before banging on the door with his elbow. "Hurry up. I've got someone you'll want to see."

  After a moment, the door rattled and then opened. A small woman peered out, squinting at the light. She was only a decade or so older than Janae, but their noses had the same small bump in them. "What do you want, Dad?"

  "Janae sent this lady, she's taking Jaxon."

  "Janae didn't tell me she was going to send anyone." The woman shook her head and strands of red hair fell free of its binding. She pushed the door closed, but Madea stepped forward.

  "I don't want to take him, I just—I wanted to see how he is."

  "No, you're taking him," the old man said firmly. "Go get him." He stared in the approximate direction of the other woman, who scurried off, leaving the door open. "Now put your food inside, for their troubles."

  "I'm not going to take the boy. He should be with his family."

  "He doesn't have a family now, does he? And do you really think it's safe for him here? You were one of them that Hollowed her, you can pay the price." His words trailed off to a mumble, though Madea was sure she heard him say she was a fool for coming down here.

  Perhaps he was right. Woodenly, she opened her pack and removed the food items, stacking them neatly inside the door. It was the least she could do for these folk, who obviously weren't doing too well, but that didn't mean she would take Jaxon. She had work to do, and enough problems of her own already.

  A young boy, no more than six, shuffled towards her. He kept his eyes on the floor, only glancing up quickly as he stopped in front of her. He had the same blue eyes as his mother, the same puff of golden hair, though his was shorter and cleaner than Janae's.

  "Are you Jaxon?" Madea asked. She squatted in front him and tilted his chin up with her hand, trying to get a good look at his face.

  His eyes slid away from hers, as if by looking at her he would expose himself to more hurt. He nodded.

  "She's taking you to a new home. You'll be better off, boy." The old man reached out a hand and fumbled until he found the boys shoulder, which he patted roughly. "Did you get his things?" he asked of the woman, who had returned to the door.

  "Not that he has much." The woman handed over a small pack which Jaxon shrugged on.

  "He belongs with you lot," the old man said. "You might not see it, but we know. One of your Misters up in the rich domes knocked up our Janae. It was his fault she got Touched. Left us to deal with his bastard. No offence, Jaxon."

  The boy sniffed, keeping his eyes on the ground and chewing the side of his mouth.

  Madea didn't know what to make of the scene. They seemed intent that she take the child, but what was she going to do with him? She didn't know the first thing about children, and it wasn't like she could pass him off as her own. No, it was too much, too risky. This wasn't the help she was willing to offer.

  "I can't take him. I can bring you food. I can help you with credit, but I can't take him with me."

  "You don't really have a choice, is how I see it." There was a threat in the old man's voice which confused her. What could one blind old man do?

  He coughed and Madea felt a prickle at her neck. She scanned around to see three men step out from the nearest alley, and she could feel the presence of another slip behind her, ready to enforce the old man's word. "So are you going to take the boy, or...?"

  "Do you care nothing for him?" Madea asked. She took a few deep breaths, attempting to calm the pounding in her head.

  "Like I said, he's one of yours. Better he’s with you. At least they won’t Hollow you to keep you quiet." He laughed, an unpleasant smile on his face. "Help the lady find her way back where she belongs, boys. Gently, now." He walked away without another word.

  Madea wanted to protest, but the man behind her grabbed her arm and twisted her, nodded back down the street to the direction she'd come from. He had his other hand on the hilt of a knife at his waist and Madea's stomach tightened in fear. What length would they go to? What had she walked into?

  She swung her pack on, and then slipped a hand into Jaxon's. "Come on, then. I better get you...home."

  Her place was only just big enough for herself, and now she had a young boy to look after and a baby on the way. If only someone had invented a time travel machine, she could go back a few months and prevent herself from getting into any of this mess.

  Jaxon's small fingers clasped hers the whole way home, as though she could be the anchor he needed in the turbulent sea of his life. It felt strange to walk this way, hands linked, his so much smaller than hers. But maybe she could offer something more than what he had come from. The blind old man had said enough to make her curious, but she had no idea whether he was just spouting conspiracies or whether there was truth to his words. The suggestion that Janae had been Touched because of the circumstances of his birth? That was ridiculous. Wasn't it? Madea couldn't help but wonder who the old man had been referring to when he said that Jaxon's father was one of hers. It wasn't unknown for the classes to mix, but why would it be such a problem that Janae got pregnant and had the child? She was a consenting adult, and Jaxon looked healthy. All children are a blessing, she reminded herself.

  She thumbed open the door of her unit and let out the breath that she felt like she'd been holding for the entire journey. The men had left them at the entrance to Fourth, but she felt like other eyes had been observing their passage since then.

  "Well, this is home." Madea shrugged. "It's not much, but it's all I've got for now." All she'd had since she moved out of home, but she was going to have to ask for an upgrade into a bigger unit soon. Jaxon stared at the floor, still gripping her hand. "Are you hungry?" she asked.

  He gave the briefest of nods. She could see the hunger in his eyes—lucky she hadn't taken all of her supplies down to Fourth with her.

  "Alright, let's see what I can find then." She pried her fingers free and headed for the kitchen. "You can come with me, if you want. Do you talk at all?"

  He nodded slowly, a small smile slipping across his face.

  "Come on then, why don't you tell me what you like to eat?"

  "Have you got more fruit? Like the one you gave to Grandfather?" The look of hope in his eyes made her stomach cramp. She wouldn't have imagined anyone could look that way over a piece of fruit. Things were obviously worse than she'd realized. There should have been ample food on the plantations, and the council provided the essentials for everyone. Perhaps fruit wasn’t on that list anymore. She would have to talk to her father.

  "Of course." She beckoned him into the kitchen and helped him onto a stool at the bench before handing him a piece.
"So that man was your grandfather?"

  The boy nodded, not speaking with his mouth full—someone had taught him manners, at least. Madea pondered the oddness of the situation. A Touched and Hollowed mother, a grandfather willing to farm him off to the first person who came snooping, accusations of a rich father from one of the well-off domes, and pure, unadulterated pleasure over a simple piece of fruit.

  "I don't know if you can stay here for long." She regretted the words as soon as they were out. Jaxon stopped eating. His mouth fell open and his eyes welled up. "I mean, it's not a very big unit, and I work a lot. I don't know if it's the best place for you to be."

  "I don't have anywhere else to go." Jaxon sniffed.

  "What about your father?"

  "I'm not meant to talk about him," Jaxon said softly. "I don't know his name."

  Madea pushed a hand through her hair and sighed. This wasn't how this was supposed to go down. "Look, I have to go out for a bit. I've got work to do. You need to stay inside, do you understand? Don't answer any calls, don't open the door or even peek out the windows. In fact..." She grabbed a bottle of water from her cooler and some more food from the pantry before scooping Jaxon from the stool and plonking him on the ground. "Follow me."

  "Am I coming with you?" he asked.

  "No, I can't have anyone else see you. Not until I figure this out. You can stay in my room, it's the safest option." She pushed open the door and placed everything on the bed. "You can have a sleep if you want, or...I don't know. What do you like?"

  Jaxon shrugged.

  This was not going to be easy.

  "You might be a bit bored today, then. I can't really do much about that. I didn't think I'd be coming home with a child." Madea felt a pang of guilt as Jaxon slumped down on the floor by the bed and began to cry. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that. I...well, I don't know what I thought was going to happen. Your mum asked me to help you, and so I came to find you. I do want to help you. I didn't expect that they would give you to me."

  "You were with my mum?"

  "I was. She was really worried about you," Madea said. She thought back, trying to think of what Janae had said. It wasn't much, but a little embellishment couldn't do any harm right now. "She wanted you to know that she loves you very much. She's sorry she had to go. She didn't mean for it to happen."

  "I know. Granddad told me. The bad men made her get Touched so that they could take her away."

  "He said that, did he?" Madea rolled her eyes at his grandfather's conspiracy theories. People would tell themselves whatever made life easier. "I'm really sorry to leave you like this, I am, but I've got to get out to the fields and get my work done or I'm going to get in trouble. Do you think you'll be okay here for a bit?"

  Jaxon nodded. "I'm used to being quiet. I promise, no one will know I'm here."

  Madea smiled at him. "You're a good kid. I'll see you soon, okay?" She looked around the room, wishing she had something, anything, that a child might enjoy playing with. She didn't have a single toy in the house, even though some of her friends had started families. No one visited here. But she was the only one to blame for that.

  Jaxon was fiddling with his shoe laces, avoiding eye contact again. What was she going to do with him?

  CHAPTER SIX

  Madea pressed her thumb to the console and exited the dome, pausing for a moment as the doors slid closed behind her. A shimmery haze hung on the horizon; she could almost feel the heat from here. It wouldn't be long before the sun was at its peak. She shouldn't really be out now, she should have been back at the lab, but there was no way she could have predicted this morning's detour.

  Had it been only yesterday that she'd witnessed Janae's Hollowing? It seemed like a lifetime of things had happened since then; things lost, things taken away—things confirmed to be growing, invited or not. She reset her timer for three hours, plenty of time to get out and back without any danger to herself. It wasn't like she could leave Jaxon alone for much longer than that—who knew what trouble the boy might get himself into while she was gone?

  She couldn't think of that now though, she had work to do.

  She kicked black dust up from the arid ground as she walked, black rocks dotted the roadside, and large trees loomed ahead—the shelterbelt that protected their medicinal crops. She should have taken a transport, but the exercise helped clear her head. It had been too long since she'd stretched her muscles like this.

  She pushed through the rickety gate—only there to keep the native rodents out, not for security—and scanned the field. Only one other person was there. He wore simple clothing, like herself, his pack rested on the ground and he was bent low over a bush of jinweed—the same plant she'd come to harvest.

  These fields were communal, used to provide supplies to the medical and scientific services. And yet she had never seen this man here before. There was something about him which made her hang back and tend to the capsulim. She pulled some weeds from around the plants before taking some leaves and pressing them into a sealable bag for later. Madea worked her way closer to the jinweed, though it was apparent that the man had no intention of moving on.

  He had his hands in the yellow dirt, loosening it and ridding the ground of even the tiniest of weeds. After twenty minutes she crossed to him, unable to put it off any longer. She placed her pack on the ground and knelt next to a plant, carefully stripping off the leaves—only as much as she needed—and placing them in her container.

  She couldn't help but flick her eyes in his direction. He was darker than most of the people she knew—perhaps he spent more time outside than others—but he didn't seem Touched.

  A shadow moved across the sun and she glanced up to find the man standing above her. He seemed very tall from this angle and well-muscled, his face shadowed so she couldn’t make out his expression. He may not have intended to be threatening, but she couldn't help but shudder as a ripple of fear swept through her body.

  "I don't normally see others out at this time of day," the man said. "I'm Garrett." He held a hand out. She paused for a moment before taking it and was surprised at the ease with which he pulled her to her feet.

  There was a sting in her wrist, so she swept her hands down her pants, trying to shake off the bug that bit her, and brushing the dirt free. "Madea. I haven't seen you here before." His pitch-black hair was cropped close to his skull, and the stubble lining his cheeks and chin only enhanced his good looks. He was rougher, rawer, than the other men she knew.

  "I'm a...transfer, I guess you'd say. Used to live in the new set of domes but they needed my skills here. Not sure how long I'll be around." His eyes glinted in the sunlight. There was a sheen to them, a hint of something which Madea found unsettling. "What about you?"

  "I work in the labs. We needed to stock up on a few things, so I thought I'd come...and I guess I needed to get outside. Like you said, people don't normally come here at this time of the day." She shrugged and gave him a half smile. "So who are you working for?"

  "I'm afraid that’s confidential, but I think we might cross paths again, soon enough." He nodded. "You take care, Madea."

  "You too." She frowned, watching Garrett as he retrieved his pack and headed away from the field. Madea rolled her shoulders, trying to free herself of the traces of his smile, which lurked in her mind's eye. There was something about him, unsettling, yet appealing, something in the way he had looked at her, his deep blue eyes full of mirth and knowledge. And certainty, something she'd never really felt herself. She and returned to her knees and the jinweed.

  A bug crawled over her face and she swatted it off without opening her eyes. A moment later she became aware of the brightness outside her lids and they flew open. The sky looked strange from this angle, with the plants waving above her in a slight breeze. She was lying on the ground, and the vibrant orange sun was much further across the sky than she remembered it being.

  She sat up and glanced at her timer but it said she still had an hour before she risked expo
sure.

  That couldn't be right.

  Madea glanced around, but the fields were empty. Had anyone come while she'd been asleep? Surely if she'd been seen lying on the ground, someone would have come to help her. She got to her knees and reached for her pack, pulling it on as she rose. Her skin was flushed with the sun’s heat, but a chill to balance that warmth took root in her veins.

  She had fallen asleep. For some reason her timer had stopped working and hadn't set off an alarm. A chill ran down her spine as she sat, her stomach clenched. Until she got back to the domes, she wouldn't know for certain, but she was sure she'd been exposed. It was only a matter of time before madness set in.

  Only a matter of time before she became one of the Sun-Touched.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  It wasn't until she pushed through her bedroom door, already half undressed, that she remembered there was someone else in her house. Jaxon looked up at her from the floor. She squealed and tried to get her top back on, then gave up, resorting to covering her chest with it.

  "Sorry. I forgot..." She didn't want to say the wrong thing. "I forgot that I'd asked you to stay in my room. I need to have a shower... Are you okay?" She paused, frowning. Jaxon nodded. He must have been so bored. And she still didn't know how long she'd been gone for. "Do you like to draw?" she asked.

  He nodded again and she left the room, dragging her top over her head and crossing to her desk. She pulled out her tablet and selected a drawing programme, then went back to the bedroom and handed it to the boy, chastising herself for not thinking of it before. "Here. I won't be long. I need to get clean."

  "Thank you," Jaxon said. He chewed on his bottom lip, as if deciding whether to speak again. "What's your name?"

  Madea's mouth fell open. She raised a hand to cover it, stunned at her stupidity. "Madea. My name is Madea." She sat down beside him and placed a hand on his. "I'm really sorry. I didn't think to...Well, I think you can see that I'm not very good at this. I'm sorry."