Evolution - The Oasis Project Book 3

Thirty-Four - Ira

I showed Yulian the closest town to us and for the most part he was asleep in the passenger seat. He made sure to be enthusiastic about tufts of grass, cloud formations, and the occasional sheep he saw on the side of the road when I nudged him awake.

"Maybe not the best day to do this?" I finally resigned as I pulled into a parking space. We were going to find Fang some fun distractions to ease his distress about Linkin's absence.

Yulian got out of the car and stretched his left arm lazily. Despite the summer heat, he had a jacket around his waist like I did, which concealed pistols at our hips. There was a shotgun in the back of the car if we needed it, too. Countryfolk didn't have so many questions, anyway.

"Hungover?" I asked him in English, not knowing the word in Russian.

Yulian look at me strangely before yawning. "No, I spent the rest of the night talking to Stuart about the human mind," he went back to Russian, turning a few heads as we crossed the street to the small craft store that only opened from Tuesdays to Fridays. He grinned and waved to the shopkeeper, a woman with badly-bleached ringlets who wished us good morning.

We picked up a huge bag of balloons and a deformed paper-mache chicken for Fang to paint. Yulian made small talk with the shopkeeper, who wondered where his accent was from. I filled her in with the fact that my brother was visiting from Belarus, using the Australian accent that I'd almost perfected. I dragged Yulian away before the woman could ask about why his arm was in a sling. He proceeded to continue his story in hushed tones, about how he wanted to work with Stuart on his repressed memories from Russia. Yulian wanted to see if he could help Linkin in any way.

I checked my phone on the way to the car and found a grocery shopping list from Thierry waiting for me. Does Celestia have dietary requirements??? he added at the end. I squinted at the screen, not knowing the answer. I decided to be lazy and told Thierry to ask her. He didn't reply to that message.

We got back to the house, finding it eerily empty and silent. I dropped my bags quietly at the door, Yulian and I pulling out our pistols and immediately sweeping the living room on high alert. I could hear my heart beating and tried to quieten my breathing. Noticing that one of the sofas had been moved at a slight angle, I gestured to Yulian, who edged closer to check, pointing his gun behind the couch.

"What the f—" A startled yelp left Yulian's mouth, harmonized by another person who wasn't him. Yulian clicked the safety back on his gun as the sofa moved even further away from the yellowish wall. Trevor pushed himself up, a sheen of sweat reflecting off his black-brown skin. He didn't look impressed.

"Guys, did you have to?" Trevor hissed, looking between Yulian and my confused faces.

"What the hell is going—" I began, but childish laughter sounded around the corner. Fang skipped from the other side of the staircase and grinned at Trevor.

"It's their fault, man," Trevor gestured at us with his tail, trying to reason with the kid.

"You still lost, Trevor!" Fang giggled and leapt at Yulian, who lifted him up with his good arm and nuzzled his badly-cut hair. "Uncle Yulian, we're playing hide and seek! Wanna be on my team?"

"There are teams now?" I asked.

"There are now." Yulian raised his eyebrows mischievously. "Okay, Fang, who do we find?"

"Dad and Beiya aren't playing, but we still need to find Uncle Stewie, Alessia, Wu, and the new lady with really long hair." He demonstrated the length by drawing a line at his small thighs when Yulian put him down.

"Celestia," I told him. I was surprised that she'd been included.

"Yeah, Uncle Stewie asked her to join in." Of course he did.

Yulian found Stuart and Wu quite easily, and Fang found Alessia bunched up in the storage closet. She didn't look pleased to hear that she hadn't won; I'd always seen a competitive side to her.

"Celestia, you win!" Fang yelled at the top of his lungs as Wu and Stuart started to prepare for lunch. A minute later, Celestia came down the stairs with a smile on her face, her hair still obscuring her cheeks.

"I won?" she asked incredulously.

"Yes!" Fang replied. "You get a high five."

Celestia was laughing as she squatted down to slap the child's palm.

"He's fun, huh?" I said when Fang ran away with Yulian and I saw a darkness returning to Celestia's eyes. She'd forgotten about the past for just a brief moment. I cleared my throat when she continued to stare into the distance. "Everything been okay?"

"Fine, I guess." Celestia went with me out of the back door. We walked along the shade of the roof. "I talked to some of the others. They're quite nice. Alessia, I think her name was? She relates a bit."

I hummed with a nod, understanding why those two would get along. Alessia had been kept at a distance ever since she woke up in Canada. No matter how much we tried to get to know her, there was always a part of us that suspected that she'd defect back to the Oasis Project. "That's good. Maybe you could help each other—"

We were interrupted by Thierry's voice which travelled down two stories. He swore in French, then English, and then went quiet. I looked at Celestia in alarm and we both hurried inside.