Steel Horizon

Chapter Twenty-Five

He pulled me from the ledge and let go of my hand, leaving me standing there to stare at him like I had no idea what just happened. And I didn't. Why did a Scrapper just save my life? Never before had they cared if we lived or died.

"Why did you save me?" It wasn't that I was ungrateful, I was just too shocked to say anything else.

It wasn't often they hesitated before speaking, but he did, only for a moment. "I do not know. I felt this . . . something within me. It told me to save you."

I took a deep breath, barely believing what I was about to say. "It's called a conscious. That thing you felt in your chest? That's emotion."

I felt like something unreal was happening.

Change.

"I have never . . . cared about saving a living thing before. But the last time I saw you in the cell, I did not want to leave you there to die. I remembered you from before, from when we first captured the male human."

"You remembered me?"

"Yes. I did not feel anything then, not until we captured you the second time, when you told me about your feelings for other people." Allur looked out into the city, his expression almost sad. "It is a warm feeling. Do you always feel things in that way?"

"Sometimes. Sometimes it's warm and sometimes it's painful."

"Painful? In what ways would it be painful?" He narrowed his eyes, trying to understand.

I swallowed the lump in my throat thinking of Jude. "You were there when they took Jude away. That's what is painful. Having to see the person you love being taken away when you can't do anything about it."

"Is that what I saw in your eyes? Pain?" He was truly curious.

This Scrapper had no empathy. He had no clue his questions were becoming hard for me to answer. "Where did you take him?" I asked. "Is he still alive?"

"When I saw him last he was alive, yes."

I glanced out at the city where smoke still rose from the buildings and the Scrappers still fought us. "You need to tell me where he is." I turned to him. "Please. I need to find him."

"Because you care for him?"

"Yes."

He pointed behind me, out towards the city. "A mile that way. In a building made of steel. I cannot guarantee anything." I started for the stairs, but he said something, making me stop. "I want to feel as you humans do, and I think I am beginning to." He nodded once, slowly. "I think you have finally given us something more than knowledge. Something much more valuable. The very thing we have been searching for."

"Does this mean you're going to leave?"

He didn't answer. The form of response I got from him was the side of his mouth turning up in the slightest smile.

I ran from the building and down the streets, afraid of the Scrappers and afraid the humans would mistake me as one. The first department store I came across I ran in and took a sweatshirt off the rack, hoping at least nobody wouldn't see my hand. I could hear gunshots down the road and bombs destroying buildings behind me. Scrapper planes still hovered over the city, and the only person I wanted to see might already be dead.

Leaving the store with only Jude on my mind, I pointed myself in the right direction and ran. I ran past more mercenaries and civilians with guns, all wanting the same thing. I ran past bodies, both Scrapper and human. It not only felt like I was running towards Jude, but it also felt like I was running from something within me. A parasite I couldn't get rid of no matter how many times I tried to deny its existence. It was still eating away at me.