Tunnel Walls

Chapter Seven

“Artie.” I say gently, causing her to lift her head from her bowed posture over the table.

“Yeah?” She spins on the cold metal stool so that she’s facing me.

“I’m scared.”

“I know.” she comforts me with her soft voice, acknowledging my fear.
“I mean, I know that the last three times we’ve been out, they’ve been fine. I know that that time, that time with the Solids, that was a one-off. I know that this is probably incredibly stupid and I know that I must sound like a massive idiot to you but Artie, I don’t know how to stop being scared.”

“You really do know a lot of things, Luca.” Her slightly sarcastic tone is an obvious attempt to make me laugh and I do, but hollowly. “Okay,” she looks at me more seriously this time “I’m not going to lie to you, Luca. I’m not going to tell you that we will be safe and that we will be okay because we both know that that isn’t a promise any of us can make. What happened with the Solids wasn’t necessarily a one-off, it could happen again. We were lucky, we were very lucky but that doesn’t mean that we didn’t also kick some Solid butt because we did that too.” She smiles at me sympathetically and I have never felt so close to anyone as I do to her. “Scared is good, at least it means that you know it’s real. There’s not really a place here for false pretences.” She gets up and pulls me into a hug. “plus, with how crap you are at fighting,” her laugh whispers into my ear, “it’s pretty understandable.”

“So anyway, what’s your latest invention you’re working on?” I pull back and look down at the mess on the table.

“Well I’m still trying to extend the chip’s distance but I’ve got a prototype of something else.” I look at her inquisitively; I have always thought that you look the most beautiful when your eyes light up as you talk about the things you love. “It’s a new version of that taser Puck gave you, a fingerprint recognition one so it can’t be used against you.” She picks it up off the table and lobs it to me, “here,” I catch it with surprising ease, enclosing my fingers around the cool metal casing. “Try and taser me with it.”

“You sure that’s a good idea?” As much as I trust her technical skills, I’m also worried about the possibility that I will actually hurt her.

“It’s wired to recognise my fingerprint only, try it.” 

“Okay,” I say nervously. I take a step towards her and she holds out her arm in front of her. I grip the taser tightly and press it against her arm, pushing the button down. Nothing happens. 

“See,” She smiles, “I told you I was good.” It continues like this for a little while, her telling me about all the amazing things that fill this small room, all the inventions she’s made. We sit down against the wall and she gives me a cylindrical metal object,

“What is it?” I ask, staring at the silver casing with red letters written on it.

“It’s a drink we buy from Lower, try it, it’s nice.” She smiles and opens her own and takes a swig. I look down at mine and open it using a little metal thing on the top of it. It fizzes over the top and cool dark liquid runs down my hand.

“What’s it called?”

“Just drink it,” She says, still sipping hers. I comply and it’s hard to describe the taste; it’s sweet but not too sweet and it’s brown in colour and fizzes in my mouth. She looks at me expectantly,

“You were right, it’s really nice.” I laugh at the strangeness of my newfound reality.

“I’m always right.” She says with her same lopsided grin. We continue drinking this fizzy liquid which she tells me is called ‘COKE’ and we talk for a while.