Ian pulls me far enough down the corridor so we can't be heard. I don't like how tightly he's holding my arm, it's starting to hurt. But I don't complain, I can tell he's angry with me.
"Why can't you take your friend Angel with you?" He growls at me, glaring hard at me.
"I can't trust her not to spill anything about this place to any nearby Seekers. She's still that unstable." I hiss back. "Wanda's done it before, so she has experience with this sort of thing. That I can trust."
His scowl deepens. "But you said if you got caught, you'd both be shipped off planet. I can't lose her. Maybe you could just go alone?"
I sigh. "Possibly. But that would be even more dangerous."
"But wouldn't it be less suspicious with one of you instead of two?"
"Maybe. But I'm a terrible liar, I don't think they'd buy the story if I told it."
He puts a hand over his face and it seems he's fighting to keep his breathing even. I bite my lip, waiting for him to say something. I can't tell if he's thinking about what I said, or if he's trying to think of something to counter me. It's hard to see in this poorly lit corridor and with him still covering most of his face with his hand.
"Look," I finally say, seeing as he doesn't seem to want to speak. "I'm sure we can talk some sense into him, so we won't even have to go with this plan. Just…think it over okay? If you're still against Wanda coming…we'll think of something. But I'd suggest talking to her first." With that I begin walking back to where the others are. I can't tell if he's following or not. It doesn't matter to me. He may need the alone time to think about everything. I can't blame him.
I reach the room and everyone gives me puzzled looks but I just shake my head and make my way over to the counter and lean against it. I suddenly feel exhausted, like all of this deliberating and arguing has drained all of my energy. Angel looks at me, seems to sense my exhaustion, and looks at Jared.
"Can you take us back to our room?"
"Sure." He and Melanie begin walking back through the corridor I just came from, hand in hand. Angel and I follow shortly behind. We pass Ian, who walks back into the other room, probably going to talk to Wanda. He has a tense set to his shoulders, and I knew that wasn't going to be a fun conversation. Great, last thing I want is to cause an argument between them. I sigh and try to clear my mind. I wouldn't be sleeping otherwise.
We make our way into the main room and keep walking. I fix my eyes on the ground ahead of me. The conversations in this room continued, but I could feel several pairs of eyes on me. Humans just love to stare don't they? Isn't that impolite to do? Or is that just impolite to us Souls? Humans are a strange species. They could have a whole different set of manners from us that I don't know about.
We reach our room and we both climb inside quickly, noting that a dark red curtain had been hung over our door. We let it drop and the other two walk away. There's one lamp in the corner of the room, so it's lit, but very poorly. We both sit in silence, and I curl up on my mat, ready to fall asleep, when Angel speaks.
"Do you really think Lance will listen to you?"
"I don't know. I have to try though. I can't just give up on him. He's a member of our species and it wouldn't be fair to turn our backs on him." I say without turning to face her, I just stare at the wall.
"But what if he doesn't listen to reason, and we can't ship him off planet? What then?"
"We can't just let him die. He will listen, he has to listen."
"But what if he doesn't?!" She sounds frustrated.
"It's going to work. Don't be so doubtful." I yawn. "Anyway, I am tired of this conversation. I'm going to bed."
I close my eyes and drift off to sleep without another word to Angel.
I wake up several hours later, feeling stiff, and my body complaining loudly. I look over at Angel, she is still asleep. I decide to risk it, and leave the room without her. I need to find the river room, but the likelihood of me being able to find it myself is low. I would probably just get extremely lost, which would just be an inconvenience for everyone. Luckily though, I run into Jeb, who seems to understand where I need to go without me having to say anything and he takes me to the river room and is kind enough to wait while I stumble into the back room. I'm only there for a few minutes, but I have to work not to sprint past the dark pool that looks like it could be hiding something menacing. Jeb sees my expression and it looks like he's trying to hold back a laugh. I just ignore that and follow him back to my room and I climb inside to see Angel looking terrified.
"Where did you go?" She asks me, nearly yelling.
"Sorry. I needed to take care of some…stuff. I can take you to that room if you want." I have been picturing the directions in my mind over and over, I'm confident I can retrace my steps back to that room.
"Okay." Is all she says.
We leave the room and I picture the directions in my head, one image at a time as I reach what I'm calling "checkpoints". It takes us through the main room and this time I keep my head up and look to the left. People are raking at the soft dirt, putting something into the dirt. I catch a few people glance up at me, but then they go back to what they are doing. I even see Jeb talking to someone, he sees us and waves. I hesitate, then wave back and turn my attention back to where I am going as we plunge into the dimly lit corridor between the main room and the room where we bake the bread. We make a turn before reaching the bread room though and it starts to become slightly danker, and I can hear a distance gurgling, which tells me I am going the right way. As we enter the room there seems to be a small line formed so we just stand in the back of the line and those there pretend that we don't exist, which is completely fine with me. It beats getting stared at. Angel seems uncomfortable, shifting her weight from one foot to another. I don't know if it's because of the humans, or if it's because her body is complaining.
The line moves pretty quickly and soon, Angel's turn is next. She seems to hesitate going in, but I just nudge her gently and she disappears into the dark opening. While I am waiting, my stomach begins to gurgle, and I realize just how hungry I am. Luckily, Angel is quick and she comes out quickly, her breathing accelerated, she must have been terrified of that black pool that is between here and the latrine room. We hurry out of the river room and head back to the main room, pick up some food, and go to the bread room. We are both more comfortable being in that room, it's not so big and there's usually not so many humans in it.
We both just sit against the wall near the entrance and eat what's offered. The soup, bread, woody vegetables, and water, and there's a special treat, some sort of potato chips. We eat in silence, but quickly. We are both hungrier than we originally thought we were. Then I see Jeb approaching and I realize why and my mouth goes dry and anything I put in it tastes like dust.
"You ready?" He asks. I just nod and stand up.
Angel stares at me. I sigh. "You'll be alright being by yourself for a bit."
She moves her gaze to her tray and I follow Jeb towards the place that Lance is being held. I'm not sure what I will say, or how I will say it, I just have to hope that what I say is enough and that we don't have to do anything that could put us in danger. I bite my lip and clench and unclench my hands and stare straight ahead. All I can do is tell myself that Lance will see sense and that I will be able to save him. But the closer we get, the more my confidence disintegrates. Soon we reach his cell and I look at Jeb.
"You can go in. I'll just be waitin' right out here, if you need anything." He says gruffly. And then leans against the wall and slides to the floor.
I nod once and step inside. Lance is pressed up against the back wall, holding his knees to his chest. A lamp sits in the opposite corner. I sit down against the opposite wall, next to the opening.
"What are you here for? To tell me what my fate is?" He asks, a strangely sad smile on his face.
"Well, no. That's not it." I clear my throat. "I'm here to talk some sense into you."
His eyebrows knit together. "What do you mean?"
"You'll be a lot better off just staying in these caves." He opens his mouth to protest but I rush to continue. "It's really not bad once you get used to it. I promise. And nobody will harm you. I just…there was a lot of discussion. About having you killed. But I couldn't see that being a good solution. I thought maybe that you would actually listen if I talked to you. Because I don't want to see you get killed. That's not a decent…solution…to…to…" I couldn't find any more words.
He looks confused. I'm not sure what to make of that. I wait for him to say something. He opens and closes his mouth several times. He finally speaks. "You really think…that I can't leave?"
"You can't leave. At all. I'm sorry."
"I see." His eyes drop and he taps his fingers on his knees. "Well…I didn't think I had great options…but I hoped…just for a second I had hoped…"
"Yeah, I know how that is. I really am sorry."
He sighs and his eyes meet mine once again. "I guess I'm staying then. If it's that or die…well…the survival instincts of this species…being in this body…very strong. Very, very strong."
I don't know how to respond at first. I was not expecting him to be this cooperative. Relief floods through my body and I smile. "That's good to hear."
"But I just don't know how to…how to…deal with…" He is struggling for words. "I just don't know how this is going to work. Living in a colony of humans."
"It'll work. It's odd, but it works out." I say gently, omitting that there are certain humans that really don't want us here. That's the absolute last thing that he needs to hear right now.
He swallows hard. "I'm sorry for how I acted before. I was scared and I thought I was going to die anyway. I just…these emotions are so hard." He drops his head into his hands. "I've never experienced anything like this."
"Yeah me either." I sigh. "Also, I really haven't been here that long either, if that helps you feel better."
"Why do the humans keep kidnapping Souls?"
"Because…" I bite my lip, unsure if I am supposed to tell him. I do anyway. "There are humans that resist and they safely remove the Soul, they've been shipping them off planet apparently, and the humans live here. Is your host resistant?"
He shakes his head. "Oh no! If he had been, I would have been reinserted right away!"
I nod. "Makes sense." Then I scoot towards the opening. "Let's go back to the others."
He shrinks against the wall. I sigh and hold my hand out to him, which seems silly but when he takes it, I can feel how violently he's shaking. He's absolutely terrified. I slowly and gently pull him out of the hole. Jeb looks at us, but doesn't seem surprised, he must have heard the entire conversation. He gets up and starts walking towards the way we came. I start to release Lance's hand but he grips tighter, and I see in his eyes he's still terrified.
"Don't let go. Please." Is all he says.
I just nod and we continue walking down the hall in silence. Eventually I start losing feeling in my hand from how tightly he's holding it and I have to let go, to let the blood flow go back into my hand. So Lance walks with his hands clenched into tight fists against his sides. I have to walk a little faster to keep up with his longer strides. Jeb is far enough ahead that he's hard to see, but not so far as to be invisible. And soon I can see the bread room and Lance stops a few feet away from the entrance.
"It's going to be okay." I tell him, taking his hand and squeezing it once before I let go.
"But…humans…"
"They won't hurt you. And besides, there's my friend Angel and Wanda in there, they're both like us."
He takes in a deep breath. "Right. Of course."
I gently nudge his arm. "C'mon then. They might need help with something."
He hesitates and I sigh, grab his elbow, and gently drag him out. The others are clustered around the counter and all conversation dies when they see me with Lance in tow. Ian moves protectively in front of Wanda, while everyone else seems to be frozen in place.
"He couldn't stay in there forever." Jeb says. "And besides, Moonbeam here talked some sense into him. Quite gawking like that, Kyle." I hadn't noticed that Kyle had come into the room until Jeb barks at him. "Come on now, get back to work, I gotta go check on the crops." He disappears down the other hallway after he says that. Kyle seems torn, then follows, a smaller girl attached to his arm that I hadn't noticed before. I don't ask who she is because everyone is staring at Lance. I just roll my eyes.
"Did you forget that there is such a thing as manners?" I hiss at them. "Isn't staring considered rude?" I'm getting annoyed, especially at Angel. She should know better than to stare.
They finally all look away and go back to whatever it is they're doing. Melanie and Jared follow after where Jeb went, and I approach the counter and look at Angel and clear my throat.
"What can we do to help?" I ask, even though she isn't even working.
"Bread should be out soon…" She trails off.
"Good. That shouldn't be too hard for us to do."
I look at Lance and smile. He just gives me a quizzical look. I laugh.
Things were going to be interesting.