It was a strange and wonderful thing, to be free. Different to the freedom of slavery or of expressing your own beliefs. Freedom always seemed to Will like a dream that would never come true. Like the existence of aliens or giant marshmallow monsters.
Impossible.
He couldn't remember life before ICE. The first time he walked outside the cabin after Ryo rescued him was a surreal experience. He'd never forget the vast expanse of space across the lake or the endless sky above the tops of the trees. It was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.
It had been five days since he and Hunter were rescued. Five days of fresh air, good food and no surgery or torture or medicine or cruelty.
Five days of freedom.
But Will could not get used to it. He saw the way the others so easily blended into the world around them, how comfortable and happy they were. Why did he not feel the same way? Why did he constantly tense himself every time someone used the word 'doctor' or 'Men in White', or when he heard the sounds of knives in the kitchen?
The fear was still a plague in his life.
What had happened with Fearne hurt him the most. His worry for her was so deep that it pained him.
Everything around him was green and radiant and wonderful, but Will only paid attention to Hunter. The way her red hair flowed in the wind that rushed through them as they ran hypnotized him. The way she smiled when she threw blissful glances back at him and her golden eyes flashed in the sun. And how melodic her laugh was.
"Keep up, slow poke!" Hunter yelled and ducked under a low-hanging branch. She pushed harder, but that only made Will more distracted.
Hunter helped him get back into a routine of eating and regularly exercising. And he loved it: The smell of morning air and the moisture around him or the cool breeze on his face. He especially loved when the sun set through the trees and the sky was full of pink and orange.
He could definitely get used to this.
After a twenty minute run, Will's lungs were about to collapse. He yelled for Hunter to stop.
"Just up here, I see the edge of the cliff!"
Will jogged through the last few trees to a clearing where, just like she'd said, they stood over the edge of the hillside. To their left, they could see the lake a few miles away where the cabin was. Far on their right was the local town where Mosi and Chantal had just yesterday ventured out to go grocery shopping. Everywhere else was sunlight and clouds and woods and sloping mountains. It was coming close to twilight – Will's favorite time of day.
Hunter sat herself down on a flat rock, heaving. Will flopped beside her.
"You're getting ... faster," she said.
"Soon I'll ... beat you home."
Hunter huffed. "Yeah right."
Will looked at her, clamping a hand against the stitch in his side, distracting himself with the purity of her pale skin and the way the fire glowed in her hair. He'd never seen her so alive.
"Hey there's ... there's something I've been meaning to tell you since we got rescued."
Squinting through the sunset light, Hunter sighed. "If it's about what happened at ICE again, I'm-"
"It's not, okay, we've already been through that." Will looked into her worried eyes, not wanting to give her any more reason to feel guilty than she already had. "Besides, you did the best you could under the circumstances. I've forgiven you."
"I wish I did more," she said. "Maybe my father would still be alive."
"I don't think you should worry about him. I'm sure the doctor is keeping him around just in case."
"I keep praying he will." She stretched out her arms. "What did you want to tell me?"
That I'm falling for you.
He couldn't bring himself to say those words out loud. They terrified him. He'd never felt anything like this, let alone been in love. He wasn't ready to publish his feelings.
"Later, it's not important."
"Okay. Have you spoken to Joshua yet?"
Will looked away. "No."
"Not at all?"
Will put his hands between his knees. "I know it's unfair for me to still hate him after what he did to you and how you got over it easily. But it's hard. I can't look at him without remembering the day he took you and walked away from me. I would have had a different life, a better life."
"I know I shouldn't be defending him after the things he did, but ... what if he did take you? Would he be able to protect both of us from the Agents? If he was caught again, all three of us would have grown up in there."
Will stared at the fiery orange ball falling between two mountains in the distance, even if it hurt his eyes. Hunter shimmied closer to him and the electricity of her body leaning against his was different to the hours they spent lying in the guard's quarters at ICE. Now, they were free to remain there as long as they liked, free to be with each other even. The prospect excited and scared him.
"I'm sorry, I just ... I need more time than you."
Hunter slipped her hand into his, their fingers intertwining.
"Good thing we have all the time in the world."
Will stared down at their hands. It was strange how something so simple could petrify him. Without knowing why, he pulled his hand away from hers and stuck both of them in the pockets of his hoodie. He looked away, a lump of guilt forming in his throat. It wasn't the first time she'd held his hand. There had been multiple connections in ICE. But they were all for comfort, nothing more.
This new relationship development scared him.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
"Yeah. Let's ... let's head back. I'm starving and I want to check on Fearne."
It was a lie, but despite the hurt in her eyes, it got her moving. As the sun disappeared like sand in an hourglass, they turned their backs on the view and ran home.