Adrift (26 page)

Then he noticed the noise. Not the chatter of a hundred voices that he’d learned to tune out over the years. There were voices, but those weren’t the sounds he found himself focusing on. It was a weird chatter of musical notes. He couldn’t figure out what it was he was hearing until a dark brown creature dropped out of the sky and landed a short distance away, amid a low bunch of bright yellow flowers. It pecked at some spot in the hidden dirt with a long beak. He realized what it was with another laugh, which startled the creature and sent it fluttering back into sky. A bird! A real bird! He wasn’t hearing music, but birds chirping and singing to each other. Which, he decided, was its own kind of music.

He pressed on. A short distance further, still inside the clearing, he caught sight of a pool of water. A pond, he corrected himself. There were other people there. They were the voices he’d noticed. A handful of children were gathered at one end, laughing and shouting and splashing each other. Further out, there were a pair of adults propelling themselves through the water with their arms and legs. Swimming. They were swimming. He’d always wondered what that would be like. Between the kids’ games and the adults sport, Tron had no idea which he’d rather try. He was going to do one though. God only knew when he’d get another chance, and he didn’t intend to miss it, no matter how shaky his new body was.

He’d only taken a couple steps toward the pond when he heard it. That laugh, so soft
, yet it managed to find its way through all the clamor of the children playing and capture his attention. Tron squinted, and wasn’t at all surprised to see Kivi sitting on a bench at the far end of the pond, talking animatedly with a light-haired boy.

It wasn’t running, what he did then. Even in the surge of energy that poured out of his chest at the sight of her, Tron was too weak to run. But he got as close as he could, stumbling as he went. “Kivi!”

She looked up as he got close. She’d already been smiling, and the expression doubled when she saw him. Tron didn’t think he’d ever seen so many of her teeth at once. She stood up, and Tron noticed her leg was encased in a thin cast. She shuffled toward him at about the same speed he was moving toward her. When they finally reached each other, he scooped her up and held her just as tight as he had the last hug they’d shared. She squeezed his neck and giggled as she kissed his cheek.

“You’re ok!” He breathed it into her shoulder, a little afraid that if he loosened his grip she would fade away. He hadn’t let himself think about how bad he missed her, how not being able to talk to her was like a part of him
was missing. He hadn’t let himself wonder if the people at the base were what they seemed, and if maybe they’d killed her and Whit while they kept him trapped in his bed. But she was here, alive and laughing and with him.

She pulled away
, just a little, and looked down at him with her beautiful hazel eyes dancing. “Yes.”

He laughed, wondering what had possessed him to think she’d be saying any more than that. “You’re heavier too! What have they been feeding you?”

“Dietary supplements. I was malnourished. I might grow.” She pointed down to her leg. “And that.”

She turned a little and gestured to the boy behind her, the one Tron had almost forgotten about. He was standing now too, and looking at the two of them with an odd look.
“This is Martin.”

Tron recognized it an instant later, when he felt the same emotion wash through him. J
ealousy. Martin was jealous. He wanted more than just a fun conversation with Kivi. He wanted what Tron almost had, what Tron could have if he took it. What a part of him desperately wanted. Maybe all of him would, if he could just have some time to sort it out.

“
Hello Martin.”

Kivi smiled at him, then turned back to the boy. Martin wasn’t as young as Tron had thought. He had to be about their age. And he was good looking, like the boys on Lucy who were always being chased by the most girls. Clear skin, friendly smile,
average size. When he was healthy again, Tron could probably take the guy. He’d taken Whitman, after all. But that wouldn’t help anything, he knew. Kivi wasn’t going to be impressed with any stupid display of strength. She was too smart for that.

Did he want to impress her?

“Martin is an apprentice medical technician. He said he could show me the power station now, if I promise not to touch it.”

“Oh.” Tron forced a smile. “You should go.”

Kivi tilted her head. “I shouldn’t leave you.”

She wanted to, though. He could see a hunger in her eyes, one he’d caught hints of when she was working on the engine. She would hum, he knew, when Martin showed her the power station.

He could keep her. She would stay, if he asked. And he could kiss her, the way she’d kissed him. Maybe she’d kiss him back. Then she’d be his, more than any of the kids on Lucy who snuck kisses ever belonged to each other. And once the doctors were done with them, and they figured out what they were going to do next, there would be no adults to stop them from taking it too far. They could fall in love and get married and pop out babies and live happily ever after. Which was terrifying. They’d probably be happy and everything. He would have a real family, one that he was the center of, and he wouldn’t think about the one he was supposed to have but never got anymore. He would stop seeing his mother’s dead face every time he closed his eyes and thinking about how he really should be sadder about it.

But if she didn’t kiss him back, that would be it. That would be the end of things. She was his family now, but if he pushed for something like that and she didn’t want it, she would shut down. Just like she did on Lucy. He’d have lost everything. And Tron had no idea which one it would be. He didn’t even know which one
he really wanted. Not to lose her completely. Never that. But the other stuff. He didn’t know if he wanted the other stuff.

So Tron let her go.

“Nah. You don’t have to stay on my account. I’m headed back to my room now anyway. You have fun.”

She stared at him a while, her blue eyes unblinking. It was a little creepy. Did she understand? Probably. It was Kivi. There’d never be anyone in the universe who got him more than she did. Finally, she reached into a pocket – he didn’t even know patients’ uniforms had them too – and pulled something out. She opened her fist and there were the two mics she had made for them.

He smiled, a real smile, and plucked one out of her hand. “Still want a voice in your ear?”

Kivi tucked the remaining one into its place, then threw her arms around his waist in another tight hug. “I
don’t want to be alone.”

Other Books by Lyn Lowe

Blood and Fire Saga

Burnt

US:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00888KYDO

UK:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00888KYDO

Forgotten

US:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AFB2ENA

UK:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00AFB2ENA

Destiny

US:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D4YEBYK

UK:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00D4YEBYK

Lost

US:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DRO5MS6

UK:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00DRO5MS6

Misery

US:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GOYBNFM

UK:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00GOYBNFM

Ruin

(Coming 2014)

Acknowledgements

Thanks first, always, and more than I can ever express to anyone who reads this story. A couple years ago, writing was just a dream. A daydream, actually. Something I hoped would one day be more than just what I did in my free time. Now there are people who read the words I’ve written and that will never stop amazing me. You guys are the best!

A big thank you, too, to my family. They put up with a lot from me during the month I took to write this thing. Or, more accurately, they put up with a lot of nothing from me, as I
spent the whole month holed up in my room or at my ‘day job’ and was of no help to them in any way whatsoever. And not a one of them gave me any grief about it. Which is probably more than I deserve.

About the Authors

Lyn lives in Michigan. It’s cold there most of the time. She is not a fan. She spends entirely too much time there playing video games and watching Netflix. Sometimes even with people!

She started reading when she was six years old, when she met a girl younger than her who could read the whole menu at a restaurant and she could barely spell her own name. Within a month she was reading chapter books. Four years later she started writing a horrible story about orphans. Since then, she's devoured just about every book she’s come across and found better things to write about. 

She’s a fan of amusing t-shirts, shiny new electronics, science fiction TV shows and cartoons. It’s also a safe bet to assume she’s into anything else remotely dorky. Also Batman.
 
Especially
Batman.