Sorry about not getting this up earlier. Right now I'm also working on a couple shorts from different points of views. Just remember that the last chapter left off when Rose went to sleep.
It was what I guess was a classic, fluffy dream. The one that sticks in your head for years to come and then one day tell it to someone at a 'fairytale' moment. It was twilight over the horizon and I was sitting on soft sand with my arms wrapped around my knees lightly. The sand was still warm from the heat of the sun between my toes. The wind was blowing lightly from the side and my hair danced and curved in the air. I had been sitting there by myself for a while until I heard somebody behind me and looked up. It was Jamie, with his beautiful smile and lush, green eyes; the ones that sent my heart soaring with warmth, even in a dream. He came and sat next to me and whispered the words in my ear, "You don't have to be alone you know."
"I know" I said with a smile and rested my head on his shoulder. He wrapped one arm around my shoulder.
"Not when I'm here for you" He whispered and then I closed my eyes and let myself drift in the dream.
My eyes fluttered open when somebody shook my shoulder slightly. "Good Morning Rose" Jamie said all bright and awake. "Wanda stopped by to drop off some clothes for you. She said they'll have to do for now but the next time we go on a raid we'll have to get some more. Anyway, today we're working on irrigating the tomatoes. I'll leave you here to get dressed but if you're not out in ten minutes then I'll have to come in and get you 'cause Jeb can get real mad if somebody is late."
I sat up in my bed and then stretched. "Sure, see you in a few minutes." I half-yawned; then he left and shut the door. I got changed fairly quickly; mostly thinking about Jamie. The dream I had felt more of a fantasy. It felt very nice even as a dream. However, I then started remembering the one time it was sort of like the way my dream had been, that was awful. One name that of which would be burned in my memory: Josh. The name to me was riddled with betrayal and despair. He left me dangling; he left me alone; he left me betrayed; simple, he left me. How many times had I thought so much of him? What he told me was mostly lies. I had once thought of him as one I could trust. How young, naïve and blind I was.
I was changed now and, strangely, anxious to see Jamie. I shoved the malicious thoughts away hoping they would never come back. My hope was empty; they would always come back.
Jamie was waiting outside and a smile lit up on his face as soon as he saw me. I couldn't help smiling back. He led me through the halls while told me about the people in the colony and pointed them out to me. Then we walked into the kitchen and grabbed some chicken and corn soup. We sat down at the same table with Melanie, Wanda, Jared and Ian.
"Hey guys" Jamie greeted. I gave them a shy smile instead.
"Hey Jamie" said Melanie. "I was wondering if you two would fancy a game of soccer later."
"Sure, I'd love to. How about you Rose?" He turned to me. Did he honestly forget I wasn't human? I didn't know if that was flattering or insulting; but flattering coming from him. That made my heart flutter.
"I'd like to as well but I think that I would kill the ball or hurt anybody I crash into. And I don't think it would be a fair game if I could run faster than a cheetah and you guys can't. I think I could watch though. That would be fun." I said.
"Sounds good to me." Jamie said. We finished our soup fairly fast and got up to put our dishes away. He again told me about the people that were part of the colony. By the time we reached the tomatoes I had known most of the peoples' names.
The structure of the tomato plantation was genius. The mirrors reflected the light so they could be kept indoors. I must say it was quite refreshing to see some lush vegetation, even if the plants were only a foot tall. Jamie grabbed two shovels from a hole in the wall and threw one to me. The shovel made a ding noise like a bell when I caught it, guessing that was the shovel hitting my hard skin; or the other way round. I made a theatric cringe when it did at Jamie, he laughed.
"Come on Rose." He led me to the far corner of the plantation. Other people started to arrive when we did; a lot of them stared at me before going to work.
"Okay, the water comes in on from the far wall. The ditch should only be about seven centimeters deep and the width of your shovel wide. The ditches coming through the plants are only four centimeters deep so the water can overflow into the plants. Unfortunately, the dirt is really hard from the sun and the bit of water that leaked in here from the storm so it will take some time." He explained and started digging.
"Sure" I said and for a few short seconds watched him dig. The soil looked like it was hard when he was digging; he only did less than an inch in the time. I played copycat and did the same and used the same amount of force. As soon as I did, the shovel went two feet straight through the ground and at the same time I bent the metal shovel back in the same movement. Everybody heard the metal bend in the room and bent up from their work to look at me. There was an awkward silence for a few seconds when I decided to say, "Um…Oops. I guess I forgot how strong I was. Umm…" I pulled the shovel back up and bent it back making the same sound as it was before. Then looked over to Jamie and gave him a cheesy smile.
He laughed and said "Yeah, I think you better go a bit lighter" and then went back to his work. I tried going lighter but it didn't work out so well. I kept on making it too deep or too shallow and sometimes bending the shovel. I eventually gave up and, gently, tossed my shovel to the side. Jamie looked up at me as I bent down and dug my hands in the dirt exactly four centimeters in. I then dragged my hands all the way to the other side of the plantation. It felt like my hands going through some rough sand. I then reached the end with a two big balls of dirt. I sprinkled it along the wall and walked back to Jamie with a smirk on my face. His jaw had dropped open in shock. I had just completed in around thirty seconds what would have taken an hour.
"There you go, all done. Guess we have some time off." I concluded whilst dusting off my hands and gave him a half-smirk, half-charming smile.
Jamie was still in shock; whether it was my inhuman strength or my smile I don't know. "Um… I think we should go and talk to Jeb about something a little different about your work." He said and pointed to the exit without looking away from me with his shocked face. I shrugged my shoulders and followed him out. We met Jeb halfway down the cavern.
"Uh… Uncle Jeb. Me and Rose finished our part of the field thanks to her super strength. Do you want us to do the rest of the field or do you want us to work somewhere else?" Jamie asked.
"Well if you are really that strong then maybe you two can help Kyle and Sam with the room that needs to be mined." He said and continued walking down the tunnel. Jamie did the same and I followed.
"You know, Jeb's right. You could be very useful around here, it will us more time. However, I think it will take some time for the guys here to get used to you. Jeb's already cool with you so it shouldn't take too long. To be honest, you're not that different from an ordinary human."He smiled.
I couldn't help feeling pleased at these words. He honestly thought that I wasn't that much of an animal. If my father had added wings to the G.E.H.A., I would have taken flight by now without effort.
I heard the sound of clashing metal and rock down the tunnel. We reached them a minute later. The doorway had already been mined but the room was only half the size it was supposed to be.
"Hey guys" Jamie greeted the men. They were fairly well built so I wasn't surprised that they were assigned this difficult task. "Jeb told us to work here after we finished our section of the field. But Rose will be doing most of the work."
"Ugh…are you kidding?" Kyle said.
"How in the world is she supposed to be strong enough to mine?" Sam asked.
"Just watch her" He sighed.
"Okay…" Kyle said than threw me the mining tool in his hand. I caught it and then examined it. The angles on it made it very unpredictable to how the rock would break. I would need something more exact with my strength.
"Um… No thank you" I said shyly and handed him back his tool. He gave me a very confused look fixed with a 'you gotta be kidding' look but took it anyway. I turned to the wall that needed to be mined further.
"How much deeper does it need to be mined?" I asked without looking away.
"Around two more meters" answered Sam. I nodded and placed my fingers on the wall with only my nails touching it. I then quickly extended them into the rock without making me move an inch. It was like cutting through hard butter. Both men gasped as my nails went in. I then slowly scrunched my fist together dragging the rock out with my nails almost effortlessly. The rock that fell tumbled to the ground. I had made a hole in the wall.
I could do better.
I stepped back to look at the entire wall top to bottom. "So do you want it this width and height and two meters deeper?" I asked.
"Yeah" Sam answered, a bit stunned. I smiled and got to work. I used my nail to penetrate the rock deep by a few inches and outlined the entire wall with the little crevasse. I then hit the wall really hard causing it to crack all the way to the ends and touched my outline and then stopped. I had carefully hit it so the crack would only spread sideways and not anywhere else.
"Whoa. Cool." Jamie said.
"Jamie, how about you kick the wall?" I said as I turned to look at him with a slight smirk.
"Sure" He shrugged and walked over to it. As soon as he kicked it the cracked wall turned to rubble and dust. When it settled you could see that the wall was the same shape, just deeper in the chamber.
"Well, this shouldn't take long" Sam concluded. Kyle had a look on his face that was a mixture of annoyance, shock, jealousy, aggression and embarrassment. I tried not to burst up laughing for the next hour and thankfully, succeeded.
The two men eventually left after Kyle making a grunting noise leaving me and Jamie to do the mining. It was a lot of fun; me and Jamie working together. We had smiles on our faces the whole time. Whenever he turned to me my smile would widen and show my teeth. His smile widened as well and my heart fluttered when that happened. We penetrated the chamber for about a meter when Jeb came in.
"Hey guys. Wow, lookin' good. Anyway it's time for lunch so you two better hurry up before all the chicken goes."
So we dusted off out hands and headed for the kitchen. We grabbed our meal and sat down with Melanie, Wanda, Ian, Jared and Doc.
"Where've you two been?" Melanie asked raising one eyebrow.
"We finished work early so we went to take over at mining the new room. We got it covered and Kyle got really pissed with Rose" Jamie said, chuckling.
"What did you?" Wanda asked me.
"I just scraped the rock away," I said. Then Jamie looked over to me, raising one eyebrow and giving me the 'And?' look. Wanda and Melanie did the same. "With my bare hands." I added quietly.
Ian and Jared burst into laughter and Wanda and Melanie chuckled. I couldn't help noticing my voice had changed since yesterday. It was so lifeless and robotic then. Now it was full of emotion and life.
"I bet the look on his face was priceless." Ian said after he stopped laughing.
"Did you get a photo?" Jared asked.
"No, but I could draw it for you" I said. Everybody went 'huh?' when I said that. "Just get me a paper and something to draw with and I can show you. Jamie fetched one from the kitchen and came back with a paper and pencil.
"I have a photographic memory. I can remember everything I see. I can also draw everything I see. Almost trace the image in my head." I explained. I started drawing on the paper, carefully tracing the lines of the picture in my head. I could see both the white paper and the picture at the same time. I also drew fairly fast; I was done in about a minute. Then I lifted up the picture and showed it to them. They all burst into laughter again.
"Yep. Definitely priceless"
After we were done we headed down the caves. As I turned to go into the cavern full of bedroom Jamie pulled my arm. I looked up at him confused.
"We promised to go play soccer, remember?" Jamie said. I smiled and nodded and then continued down the cave. Then I muttered to myself,
"Oh this is going to be fun."
Preview of next chapter:
"Come on. I've wanted a shopping partner in like forever"
Again, sorry about not getting this up sooner. I've got other stories I'm thinking about writing but I promise you guys that I'll finish this one before I go onto a really big , new, adventure one. I might post a few short ones though. I'll probably be writing a bit more now that Easter holiday is coming up.
Anyway, let me know what you think about this chapter in your reviews. Also, let me know on what you think is going to happen next or what you want to see happen.