Awake

TWENTY TWO

The girl lunged forward and grabbed my wrist. I flinched, wanting to hit her away from me, but unable to strike a child, even a potentially cyborg one. Her fingertips were callused and warm against my wrist - nothing like the smooth, flawless skin of the Hierarchs.

"Yes. Let's go," she breathed.

"But - " I said helplessly, "You -"

She glared up at me, her vivid blue iris contracting and relaxing around her pupil like the lens of a camera.

"What? Haven't you ever seen someone who's been modded before?"

"Modded?" I repeated, then froze as a swell of laughter from behind one of the closed doors reminded me of the very real danger we were in. "Ssh," I hissed. "Explain later. We need to go, quietly."

She was staring at the direction of the noise, too. "You didn't kill them?"

"Come on," I tugged her out of the doorway, pulling her to a halt when she was about to continue down the corridor.

I quietly closed her cell door behind us, and drew the bolt, then raised my finger to my lips again. She rolled her eyes.

Walking in the other direction, the corridor seemed much longer. Every slight noise from the room that hosted the poker game made me tenser. One unexpected sound, and I'd probably shatter.

We reached the end door, and I pulled it gently open, ushering her out in front of me. Then I closed it slowly, only letting out a breath when it was finally shut.

I pointed to a patch of shadow a few dozen meters away from the building and the girl nodded. We both jogged through the dark towards it. Once we reached it, she turned to me expectantly. "So, where's your squadron?"

"My what?" I was trying not to stare at her glowing eye.

"Your squadron," she matched my look of disbelief with one of her own. There was a moment of awkward silence, then she exploded quietly. "Fuck! You're alone?"

I nearly choked. It's half hilarious, and half terrifying to see a child swear. She stared at me furiously, her eye glowing brightly. I looked around, nervously. "You might want to keep an eye on..." I stopped when I realised what I said, and pointed at her glowing iris feebly. "Just... it's quite bright."

"What?" She held her palm up in front of her, and flinched when she saw the light reflecting of her skin. "Shit."

"And keep your voice down," I reminded her.

Her eye dimmed slightly. "How are we getting out of here, then?"

"Well," I improvised, "I can melt the fence."

"Well done," she said sarcastically. "Have you got a gun?"

"No," I countered, "have you got a silencer?"

She looked startled, and I decided to press on my advantage. "Stealth got you out, and it's going to help us again. We just need to use our brains."

She scowled at me. "Good luck using brains against an Angel. An Angel would eat your brains."

I tried to smile at her encouragingly. She took a wary step back, so it might have come across as a bit deranged.

"Let's stick to constructive criticism, shall we?" I said.

She nodded, intimidated, and I stared at the fence. "Do you know where that road leads?"

"You don't want to go there," she said. "That way's the city. You'd give yourself away the second you arrived."