Chapter Nine

The day following the explosion they already cleaned up everything after I got back from breakfast. “A cooking accident” was all they would say. Then they switched me to a bunk in the building next door, but I had no roommate this time.

Then I walked to the ground combat stadium for my daily exercises. I was walking with my head down, still traumatized from the death of ST and the fact that I was supposed to be murdered. Why didn’t they murder me now? They would have known that I was alive. Was that just a test? What would they want with me now?

Perhaps it was out of intuition, I immediately turned my head and looked back. Among the moving privates, there was a girl standing still, eyes locked on me. All I could see was her dark hair and her sharp eyes. When our eye contacts met, she smiled and looked away. A second later she disappeared into the crowds.

"What... Who is she?" I thought.

Again I saw her when I went to lunch. She was sitting on a table not far from mine. Again she made that mysterious smile when I made eye contact. This time I got a closer look at her, thanks to my enhanced eyesight. Her hair was a bit smooth and curly at the end. She has round eyes, with thick eyelash and eyebrow. Her face was smooth, without any signs of makeup. She seemed like born for being a model. However she was different from Jessica. The whole atmosphere around her was different. It couldn't be expressed simply in just a few words.

But why was she staring at me?

Does she have anything to do with ST's death?

I walked over, attempting to talk to her, but she just winked at me and left, again disappearing into all the other privates.

After dinner was the third time I saw her. I was walking back alone on a narrow and quiet pathway. Since ST's death I didn't feel like talking to the other non-human privates. There would be nothing to talk about anyways. There was a car racing past in front of me, and from the shiny black doors and the windows covered with reflective material, I could see her standing behind me.

This time I pretended not to notice. I continued walking in my normal pace and veered at a corner straight ahead. I hid behind an old, thick tree. Then I could see her.

I tiptoed behind her.

"Who are you?" I questioned.

She twisted her body back back and struck out a hook kick aimed for my head. I saw that coming and ducked out of the way, but it was too early to be happy. Building on the momentum of the hook kick, she lashed out her other feet in a roundhouse kick, and it hit me square on the ribs.

"Ouch! Stop!" I fell on the muddy ground.

"Sorry, you scared me." Her voice was cool and smooth, like the surface of a lake in a windless night. It was gentle, and a bit monotone, yet I could sense so much emotion concealed beneath.

"I should say that to you," I replied. I smiled too, a sign of friendliness. I didn't want her to feel any hostility; she seemed like a human, despite the monotone in her voice, and I would wish to make some human friends in this base.

She smiled a bit. She turned her face and tried to hide it.

"Why are you following me?" I asked.

"Ummm..." She muttered. "Reasons." Then she blushed a little.

I knew I shouldn't push further. She might be too shy to say, whatever the reason would be.

"So, what's your name?" I'm trying to break the ice here.

"Skye."

The surprise probably revealed itself on my face.

"Yeah, I have a human name. I prefer this better than SK807," she said, filling in the holes of my doubt and curiosity.

"I'm Andrew."

"You are the Andrew? The one who destroyed the Reader?"

"Well, you can put it that way," I looked down. So much memories. Those images appeared in an interminable array.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to..."

"No it's okay. But how did you know? Didn't they make this classified?"

We reached another turn in the pathway, and adjacent was a thick tree with huge branches. There were some leaves covering the outermost surface, but inside the leaves were not so dense. Skye climbed up the tree and motioned for me to follow.

We reached the top of the trunk. There was an ample amount of space for the two of us. Glancing down, we could see all the dorms and training units and the concrete covered roads. Moonlight shimmered on the lake near by, and the dim rays reflected and refracted and formed a halo near the water. I never imagined so much serenity in the base like this.

"I was walking past the Reader room and I heard a lot of noises, which was quite rare in a place like that. I climbed up the walls to a window and saw the Reader pulsating and humming with the fans running crazily. Then I realized something was off because usually the reader could explore someone's mind with such ease. So I kept watching. Then I saw smoke coming out of the reader and some metal parts on the outside falling off. I saw a fire. Then officers were running in and out and I quickly returned to my dorm," Skye answered my previous question.

"Yeah, and more tragic things happened after that."

Skye nodded empathetically. "I'm sorry to hear that. I know how it feels."

Did she really know?

Of all the pain and fury and regret and grief? Had she ever felt so powerless as I felt when I watched ST getting shot? Had she ever felt the guilt I underwent when I realized that it would have been me laying in the pool of blood? Had she ever felt so desperate as I experienced when ST was dying and I couldn't get any medical help? Did she know?

"Do you actually know those feelings when you saw your friend taking a bullet for you, and dying for you?" All the emotions I've been feeling in the past few days exploded out of me; the fragile logical cork that sealed the barrage of feelings were blown apart. I covered my face in my hands and breathed heavily. I didn't want to embrace the cruel reality again.

"Sorry," I said weakly, "it was hard for me."

She looked down for a moment, then stared at me with her dark, beautiful eyes.

"Yes, they killed my family.”