Enders(23)

Ernie sat beside her body in the back cargo area.

“Is she going to be all right?” I asked, staring at her shiny black hair.

“Sleeping Beauty will wake up,” Ernie said. “Eventually.”





CHAPTER EIGHT





By the time we got to Hyden’s place, the Metal Ernie had captured lay in the back, gently rocking to the car’s movement. It was hard to believe this was the same girl who just an hour ago had been leaping through the air and clawing at Ernie like a wildcat. I wondered what she’d be like when she woke up.

“Wouldn’t it have been better if she came of her own free will?” I asked. “Now she’s going to be angry.”

“You wanted her, we got her,” Ernie said.

Hyden gave me an apologetic look as he pulled into the garage. Ernie got out, holding his gun close to his chest. He checked the place over just as Hyden had before. Then he pressed the button on the wall.

“He’s talking to Redmond?” I asked.

“To make sure everything is okay,” Hyden said.

When Ernie returned to the car to get the Metal, he slung her over his shoulder as if she were a duffel bag, her weight barely affecting his confident stride. He put her on a bed in one of the empty rooms not far from mine while we watched from just outside the door.

“It’ll be best if you’re here when she comes to,” he told me, handing me the wallet he’d fished from her purse. “Her name is Lily.”

I sat on the bed. I wondered how I’d feel, waking up in a strange place, having some girl I didn’t know staring at me. But better she see me than Ernie.

After a few minutes, Ernie brought in a tray holding a turkey and cheese sandwich and a glass of apple juice.

Soon, Lily started twitching and mumbling. Then she opened her eyes with a start.

“What?” she said, disoriented. “Who are you?”

“I’m Callie. And you’re okay. It’s safe here.”

She struggled to sit up.

“Just rest,” I said. “Are you hungry?” Food could turn an enemy into a friend … or at least buy a little trust.

I brought the tray over. She picked up the sandwich and sniffed. Then she bit into it.

“Have you got more?” she asked.

I knew then we were going to be okay.



Over the next couple of weeks, we brought many more Starters to the lab. We were able to convince most of them by talking instead of using force. But no matter how we brought them in, they all wanted to stay. We had a real dorm going, full of Metals with various skill sets. Some of those skills had been exploited when the Starters were rented, like wrestling or martial arts, and they continued to practice them if it was possible. But other skills, like cooking or making repairs, became useful in our community.

Meals were taken in shifts to accommodate everyone in the dining room. It was just off the kitchen, a large, white-walled, bare-floored space with worktables, and dinner was the happiest time of the day. Breakfast and lunch were grab-and-run, but I wanted everyone to eat dinner together, partly because it made sense to share the cooking duties, but also because it made the Starters a community.

I missed Tyler. Hyden convinced me that the risk of doing another airscreen-talk session was too great. And I wasn’t sure that it wouldn’t just make it harder on both of us in the end. It was easier not to hear my little brother’s voice. It kept me focused on what I had to do.

Rescue Metals.

Hyden and I got so good at it that sometimes we even did it without Ernie. If Hyden had to touch someone, he used a towel or a jacket as a barrier. We were both more relaxed around each other, but he still hadn’t told me what was behind his inability to touch.

“Hyden, what happened to you?” I asked one day when we were driving on a stretch of highway, alone on a Metal hunt. “Why can’t you be touched?”

He was silent for a long moment, then inhaled deeply. He held his breath as if considering whether to answer me. Then he let it out with a sound that I hoped was relief—but maybe was a huff.

“I was working in the lab, with my father. This was back before we split. My mother was there; she’d just brought us cocoa with marshmallows.” He smiled. “I don’t remember most of that day, but I remember the marshmallows. Weird, right?”

I shook my head. I knew what that was like, remembering some bizarre detail about my life before the spores. Before I became a Starter.

Hyden cleared his throat. “There was an accident, an explosion. We never figured out why, but it happened. My dad was all right, but my mother and I were burnt.” His voice cracked on the word “burnt.” “We had treatments, surgeries, but there was pain for months.”