Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 144277 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 721(@200wpm)___ 577(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144277 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 721(@200wpm)___ 577(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
“What if they control the whole line? What if they’re the terrorists?”
“They’re not.”
“How do you know?”
“Just… they’re not. I know. It’s not them. So we just need to get past them and—”
But his words trail off. He doesn’t stop talking—his mouth is still moving—it’s just… I can’t hear him anymore.
It’s different than the underwater sound too. Everything just begins to… fade.
Then, I’m gasping again. Tyse is holding me in his arms, looking down at me, panicking. “Clara! Clara!” He’s practically yelling. And he’s very close, so this is loud and makes me wince. “Can you hear me?”
I nod, choking again, but it’s different this time. I can breathe, but I don’t feel well. I can barely open my eyes and—
The next thing I know, spark is flowing through me like a river. It’s filling me up and everything is warm, and good, and I’m smiling up at a very worried-looking Tyse.
“I feel… amazing!” All these words come out as a giggle. “What’s happening?” Again, I’m laughing. But I’m also looking at Tyse, and he’s not laughing. He looks… scared. His face is completely white. Like all the blood has drained from him. His eyes glowing a bright blue. And when I glance at his neck, I see pulsating light inside him. Like… strings of lights. Like threads, running in lines, up and down his neck.
For some reason he reminds me of those workers. Of those bots.
The blackness comes back, quickly overtaking me, but just as quickly, it recedes again. This time we’re in a cave. I see spark-colored crystals—giant, massive, tower-sized spark crystals rising up from the cave walls. The drunk feeling is gone, the choking, gone, and I feel quite good.
I blink, staring at a petrified Tyse, who is kneeling down next to me. Then I push up, propping myself up onto my elbows to get a better look. “Where are we?”
Tyse laughs, blowing out a breath. It’s one of those relieved laughs. “I have no fuckin’ idea. But it took me ten tries to wake you up this time, and—”
“This time?”
“Clara, we were hopping worlds for over two hours.” He twists his wrist to show me his watch, but it just confuses me more.
“What?” I push some hair out of my eyes and get to my feet, noticing that there’s a sleeping bag spread out on the ground, and my shoes are off. As if we’ve been here for a while. Tyse stands up as well. “Two hours? But…” I look back at Tyse. “It felt like seconds.”
“That’s because you were unconscious. I brought you here because…” He waves a hand at the crystals. “Well, I can’t say for sure, but I’m thinking this might be where spark comes from. It’s the only place where you actually looked better rather than worse when we arrived. You do feel better, right?”
“Yeah. I feel fine. I remember choking, but…” I shrug. “I can’t really remember anything else.”
“We were attacked by augments on the 702 train line, do ya remember that?”
I think back. Some of it, I do. The explosions. But then I see that man’s glowing blue eyes in my head and shiver. “Yeah,” I tell Tyse. “I remember.”
He lets out a breath. Like he just came through a very stressful time. “Well, we’re gonna stay here in this world for a while. So you can recover.”
“OK.” It’s confusing that I need to recover, so I take a moment to think. Clearly, this dimension hopping isn’t something I’m particularly adapted to, and he’s trying to be polite about this. Still, I need to ask. “Am I… in the way?”
“What?”
“You know. The mission? My weakness? I mean, I’m not like you, Tyse. I wasn’t really built for this. It’s possible that I’m more of a… a liability than a weapon.”
His smile is lazy and his eyes are bright. “Woman, ya couldn’t be a liability if ya tried. It’s not you. It’s just… people, right. Hoppin’ through spark dimensions is…” he exhales loudly. “Ya know, challenging.”
I reciprocate his smile, but deep down I can’t help but read between the lines of his concern. People. He said it like he’s not people. Because this world hopping stuff doesn’t seem to be challenging to him at all. In fact, he looks rather… robust after his challenge.
“Anyway,” he says. As if reading between the lines of my silence. “I’m callin’ it a day. We’re makin’ camp here. At least one night, but maybe more, if we need it. I mean—” His effort to smile here is commendable. It’s just not… reassuring. “It’s not like we’re actually huntin’ that terrorist anymore, right? We’re just… leaving the Alphas. Right?”
“You’re asking me?” I point to myself.
“You don’t sound sure. I thought we had agreed. Take the train down the line and find ourselves a good world. Well. Maybe this world right here is the good one? Maybe we don’t even need to go back? Maybe this is our happily ever after?”