CHAPTER 3

The next week passed slowly, and rather painfully. When my side began to throb with pain both day and night, Soul and a few other doctors dragged me into another white, glaring room that smelled of the burning disinfectant. Once there, they X-rayed my chest and finally just cut the bandages away to address the wound themselves. I guess what they found wasn't good, because before I knew it I was surrounded by at least twenty people. Before I could really begin to freak out, someone injected something into my arm and the world went dark.

I awoke to find myself in a soft bed, another oxygen mask strapped to my face and wires streaming from my chest to a large machine beside the bed. My side was re-bandaged and the pain was dulled, but it was still there. Soul eventually came into the room, telling me that my wound had become infected and they needed to operate to cut away the infected areas and skin. She gave me more painkiller and left, leaving me to lie there for a day and a half before coming back to check on me again.

After the rest of the week she came back, finally letting me eat another peanut butter and banana sandwich since I had been living off of fluids in the past week. She re-dressed my side after examining it again, to make sure the infection didn't return. "Now I think you're set to go back to your other room, but I'll check with the professor, just in case."

"Wait, Soul," I said, suddenly. "this might seem weird…but was your mother's name Jennifer?"

Soul didn't say anything for a few seconds. When she seemed to recover from my question, she said, "I think you've been on too much painkiller. I'll lessen your dose…"

"No, it's just…before I came here…Blaze and I entered that little shack back in her woods. There was a diary in there, the diary of Jennifer H.. She married a guy named Nick and had a baby named Soul. Was that you?"

Soul sat down heavily on the foot of my bed. "My mother's maiden name was Jennifer Halff, before she married my father, who was Nick Green. I am their daughter."

"What happened to them?" I asked.

"They died," Soul's voice cracked. "by the Flames. I don't know how or why I survived, but the next thing I knew, I was working here. When I saw you lying outside my old home dying, I had to help. I want to stop these Flames."

"My family died in the fires too." I said. "Blaze saved me."

"It seems like everyone's lost someone they know and love to the fires." Soul sighed. "At least they can't get us here."

"Where exacally is here?" I asked.

"We're in the air." Soul replied. "This facility is propelled by many tiny engines and propellers mounted on the sides. We're safe from the Flames, but every now and then we have to land to find food. This place runs off of smoke."

"That's amazing!" I said in awe.

The door swished open and I recognized the sound of the professor's shoes as he walked into the room. "All right, if you want to get out of here, you've got to work with me." He said gruffly. I obediently lay back and against my will let him poke and prod at my sides. A few times I resisted the urge to curl up into a ball and stay that way. After the professor was satisfied that I was healing correctly, he backed off and muttered, "Get out of here, we have things to do."

Soul helped me up and to the door. From there, I followed the wall back to the other room I had been previously living in. Four beeps sounded, and the door opened. I found my way to the bed and sat on the edge. "Can you stay, Soul?"

"I'm sorry, Silver. I have to play a part in the experiment we're conducting." Soul said from the doorway. Her voice echoed slightly. "But as soon as we're done, I'll come back here."

"Ok," I said, hiding the disappointment in my voice. I had already explored the entire room and I wasn't really looking forward to doing it again. The door slid shut and there was a soft beep as it locked in place.

I gently pressed my hand over my side. The pain was almost completely gone. I figured I had better regain the strength in my legs and got up, following the wall a short distance. After I had taken a few steps I left the wall, heading for the small green smudge in the middle of the room.

It was nothing more than a small radio, but to me it was my only friend in this place when Soul wasn't here. I ran my hand over it until I came to the third button. I pressed it, and soft music filled the room. The only available station was the only station the Flames had not destroyed. It played a variety of different tunes, but that was fine with me. I liked all kinds.

Right now the station was airing a soft rock song, about love. I think I had heard this one before. I sat down on the floor and adjusted the volume slightly until I knew I would be able to hear it across the room. I made my way back to my bed and lay on my stomach, my left arm dangling off the bed and my right under my head. I found myself wondering what Blaze was doing…was she worried about me? I knew I would be worried about her if she suddenly vanished in the middle of the night.

I don't know exacally how many songs I listened to before the door opened with four soft beeps. I excitedly got up and followed the wall to where a white figure was standing. "Soul, what were you working on in there?"

"Nothing of any importance." She sighed. "Actually quite boring."

Something about her tone wasn't right. It sounded like she was…scared? It was hard to tell, but I knew if I could see better I would have been able to read her facial expression. I turned my head to the dark gray smudge of a door. "Why do you lock it?"

"Just for security reasons. We don't want you wondering around here, setting off every intruder alarm, do we? Also it can isolate any diseases, either from you to us or us to you."

"That's not all, is it?" I asked, looking up into her face.

I must have given her the same look I give Blaze if she doesn't tell me directly what's going on. Soul sighed heavily, but didn't say anything for a few seconds. "I'm sure you've noticed you're the only non-human here." She settled on at last.

"I have been wondering about that." I admitted. "Why?"

"Let's sit down." She said. "This could take a while."

I grabbed onto her coat sleeve and followed her to the small bed. She sat down next to me and took a deep breath.

"Well, first of all, we've never seen anyone hurt as badly as you and still survive," She started. "and…we're sort of short on space. In all there's only been one other like you here, and he died from his injuries."

Something wasn't right. Something in the way she said that last statement made me wonder… it was rushed, almost as if Soul was afraid of forgetting what she was going to say before she actually said it. I nodded, trying not to give away my suspicions. Soul nudged my hand, and pressed something into my palm. It was rectangle shaped and about as thick as my pinky finger. There was a small bump in the middle of it, with a short indentation running down whatever it was' back. I slid the bump forward and it moved down the indentation. Something came out the end of it.

"That's a flash-drive. We use them to carry information back and fourth." Soul explained as I began clicking the bump forwards and backwards. "They plug into the computers we use and we can transfer data to or from anywhere in this place."

"Cool!" I continued clicking it.

"I thought you should get to see…er…feel— whatever works for you—a few everyday things we use here. In case you want to stay and help us here."

"I've got to go back to Blaze. She's probably freaking out right now." I held the flash-drive out towards Soul so she could take it. "And she's sort of like my sister."

"I understand." Soul said.

We talked for a while more. Soul wanted to know how we lived on the surface for so long, with all the burning smoke and debris cast into the air from the fires. I figured it was just an adaptation to keep us from suffocating, but she said she'd have to run that theory by with the professor. If there was one thing I learned about that man, it was 'if in doubt, take Silver from his cold, gray room and put him in another cold gray room and ask him a load of questions and/or run tests.' Not very fun.

"So…what was your family like?" Soul asked casually.

"They seemed pretty normal, but that's mainly just because I haven't been around many families. Most of them had been destroyed." I said. "I had a sister too, a real one. Her name was Cobalt and she liked to explore and do very life-threatening things, most of them involving heights and fire. Two of the things I hate most." I shivered. "But we always got along. Although she liked to pick on me because I was younger."

"I've always wanted a sibling." Soul said. "But then once I thought about it, I figured I was better off as I was. I always seemed to do more if I was working by myself."

I nodded. I was the complete opposite, and Blaze was always growling at me to do something independent of her, but then I would counter that I was one step away from blind and she was very lucky she got to see at all. I usually won arguments, partly because Blaze didn't like to argue. I was really starting to miss her right now.

I leaned to the right until I was resting against Soul's arm. "Um…" She stuttered, not exacally sure of what to say. "I…uh…I sometimes I miss my friends that have died here. Most of them were like a family to me. I know how you feel." She pulled me in for a light, reassuring hug, gently smoothing down my quills. Her body began to shake with sobs. But they weren't tears of loss for her family and friends.

"Soul, what's really wrong?" I asked. Her uneasiness worried me. She released me from the hug and leaned back.

"I…I can't tell you." She managed to choke out. "I'm sorry…I just can't."

I became aware of the radio again, in the middle of the room. The song coming from it I had heard once before, but the words stuck with me like I had heard it a million times.

It was so much like the night so long ago where I lost my family…

Soul must have heard the words too. She took a shaky breath and tried to keep her emotions in check. The song was about being lost until finding someone to trust, but then that person was torn out of the singer's life. She never trusted again, only the first time. In many ways this related to my life, however distantly.

"I was told that my mother liked this song," Soul said. "I've always liked it also."

"Maybe it's her way of saying that everything will be all right." I suggested.

"Maybe it is," She agreed. "if so…" she trailed off.

I didn't say anything. I instead waited for her to finish her sentence, but the end never came. Finally Soul stood up and said rather reluctantly, "Sorry Silver, but I should go see if anyone has anything I should be doing for them."

"That's ok." I watched her whitewashed form leave the room. The door slid in place with a small beep, leaving me alone again. I leaned against the cold wall behind my bed and tired to imagine Blaze reading to me from one of the books we found. There was really nothing else I could be doing.