Wonderfall (or, The Girl with the Rabbit Tattoo)

Chapter 21 | Illusions

I cocked my head, hating a plan where I hid like a coward while the girl I was with put herself in danger. Then she turned, furrowing her brow, stabbing her finger at the shadows behind the rock.

"There. You go there. Right now. And don't make a sound."

I ground my teeth in frustration but quickly slipped over the top of the rock and down the other side. A six-foot shrub had grown up behind the rock and I nested myself at the base, wrapping my body around the boulder, the shrub's branches covering me like a blanket. Pulling myself forward a few inches, I couldn't see the whole of the small clearing we were in. And I couldn't see Mia, but I could see the place she had been watching.

The rustling grew louder. My stomach churned. I imagined the worst—a sentinel that looked like one of the wraith-like mech-machs, with their stringy arms and a face with a dozen eyes. But my thoughts stalled as the sentinel appeared—nothing could have prepared me for what I saw.

The sentinel wasn't a bot at all. It was a woman. Taller than any woman I had seen, she looked to be over six feet. Her hair was black and cut super short, almost like a boy's; her skin looked like it may have once been fair but had seen too much sun; her features, beautiful and exotic and sharp like a predator. She wore pants the color of charcoal and a long-sleeve shirt to match, and even though she was taller, her body looked like Mia's, hardened by marching thousands of miles over thousands of days.

Without taking her eyes off the spot where I knew Mia was standing, the woman took a single step closer to be clear of the trees.

"Mia," the woman began, her tone an octave deeper than I was expecting. "I should have known I'd find you here."

"Hello, Daisy."

"You are in a restricted zone. Care to explain why?"

"It was an accident."

"An accident?" the woman said, a smirk cresting her dark lips as she crossed her arms.

"That's what I said."

"This is the third accident you have had, wandering into restricted zones."

"What can I say? I'm a scout."

"You may be a scout, Mia, but you're also getting dangerously close to violating the terms of your freedom. If you have another accident, I'll have no choice but to fit you with a tracker."

Mia said nothing for a moment.

"Tell me you understand, Mia."

"I understand, Daisy," she said. I could hear the irritation in her tone.

"Good," the woman said. "Now please leave the area immediately."

"Okay."

Seconds passed and nobody moved.

"Immediately means now, Mia."

"Fine," Mia said, drawing out the word. "Is the lighthouse far enough away for you?"

"That's good for a start."

"Fine," Mia repeated, this time slapping the boulder with her hand. "The lighthouse it is."

If I didn't feel like I was about to relieve myself in my pants, I might have laughed. It was so obvious what Mia was doing—announcing where I should go to find her—it was almost comical. Anyone with a brain could figure that out; I just hoped the sentinel wouldn't.

I heard Mia walk into the trees and up the mountain and I stayed as still as I could manage, waiting for the woman to leave. But it seemed like hours passed and the woman Mia called "Daisy" stood there, unflinching, staring.