“Enjoy,” she said with a twinkle in her eye.
There was something familiar about her. But it wasn’t the woman; it was the scarf. My mom used to have the same one.
I followed Hyden, as did Michael, dazed, numb, and no doubt in shock from the shootout. We sleepwalked past the sellers sitting on blankets or folding chairs behind tables displaying odd pieces of life, some from many years ago.
Michael noticed a large, flat piece of metal lying on a table. “What’s that?”
The seller was an eccentric Ender with his long white hair in many tiny braids. He perked up at our interest.
“It’s called a laptop,” the seller said. “It’s a computer.”
“You mean that big thing is an airscreen?” I asked. “That’s how they used to access the Pages?”
“They didn’t call them Pages then,” Hyden said. “Back then they didn’t document every second of their lives the way we do.”
“Not all of us,” Michael said.
The seller smiled and touched the metal, popping it open. It was even bigger.
“Look at the keys,” I said. “Like a typewriter.” I gave the seller a nod. “Thanks for showing us.” We moved on.
“What’s a typewriter?” Michael asked.
“You haven’t seen the old movies?” I thought of the ones my dad had shown me. The next time I saw one, he wouldn’t be there.
“Why did they call it ‘laptop’?” Michael asked.
“Because it was meant to be used on your lap,” Hyden said. “But no one ever did.”
“Why are they here and not outside?” I asked.
“They’re part of the underground people,” Hyden said. “Starters and Enders afraid of another attack, or of spore residue.”
“But aren’t they vaccinated?” Michael asked.
“Not all. And the vaccine can’t protect from a new bio-weapon attack,” Hyden said.
Bio-weapon. Attack. Spore residue. I felt dizzy.
I washed my face in the restroom and wiped my hands with the paper napkins neatly stacked on the counter. The scarf woman must have swiped those from hot dog stands. As I stood there alone, the deaths at the lab finally hit me like a punch to the gut from an unfriendlie. It was surreal being here at the flea market after what we had just gone through.
Redmond. Ernie.
I joined the guys in the refreshment area. They had bottles of water and cheap chocolate patties trying to pass for Supertruffles. Minimal amount of vitamins just so they could say they had them.
Hyden tossed one to me. “Here.”
I grabbed the chocolate. He threw the water bottle, but I missed and it thudded onto the ground. Michael picked it up and handed it to me. I stood there, not moving.
“What’s wrong?” Hyden asked.
“What isn’t wrong?” I said.
He came closer and carefully plucked the chocolate from my hand, opened it, and held it out for me to take. I took it without touching him, broke off a small piece, and chewed it slowly.
“Come on,” he said.
The fake Supertruffle was dry in my throat.
“I want my life back, okay?” I said.
Hyden stared at me. So did Michael.
“I only had a couple of weeks with my brother as a normal family, living in a home, and now he’s up there on that mountain, and I’m down here, underground, wondering if I’ll ever get to see him again. I was supposed to give him a life, not a nanny. And the way things are going, we might not all live to see tomorrow anyway.”
Hyden took a step closer. “I want the same thing you do—to be untethered. I want all of us to be free. But not now. We just have to take it one step at a time, okay?”
I looked away.
“It’s not like we’ve lost everything,” Hyden said.
I swallowed hard. How could he say that?
“We haven’t, Callie. Redmond is gone and we’ve lost the Metals. Lily and Savannah and Jeremy and the rest.”
I thought for a moment about the danger they were in—no matter what that dying Ender said, Hyden’s father could always turn them into human bombs.
“But we’re going to work to get them back. I have a bag packed with essentials. And cash.” Hyden gestured toward the car, where he’d put the large black duffel bag. “Research I can re-create.” He pointed to his head.
“But your lab, the computers,” I said.
“They didn’t get my computers,” he said. “I had a panic button set up to destroy the computers.”
“But then you lost them.”
“Let me show you guys something,” Hyden said.
We followed him out the flea-market exit and walked toward his SUV.
“I have the scanner. And I have backup.” He pointed to his car. “This is a portable lab.”