Chapter 15 #2
Person, I processed with relief. A boy. Nothing with fangs, nothing with claws. My knife slid back into hiding as the gate collapsed and winked out completely.
Slowing, I jogged up behind Charley, in time to hear her murmur, “Another kid.”
Before I could speak, Charley looked at Natalie. “What do you mean, no adults? No children?” Her voice was measured, carefully deliberate; it was the same tone I recognized from this morning as Charley worked to connect Nil’s dots. “Not in the City, or not here at all?”
“Not on the island,” Natalie said. She’d already ripped off her chest wrap and was draping it over the boy’s groin.
He was still out cold. “The youngest person is Jason, who dropped in at thirteen. The oldest person to come through was nineteen. All of us fall somewhere in the middle. Like this guy.” Her arms folded across her chest, Natalie tilted her head at the boy.
“Didn’t Thad tell you?” she asked Charley, her expression perplexed.
“Only teenagers come through the gates.”
“And the occasional mountain lion,” Charley muttered.
“Don’t forget African lions,” I said. “We get those, too.”
She whipped her head around. “You’re kidding.”
“Nope. We’re pretty sure gates regularly roll through the African plains.”
“The zebra.” Charley nodded. “Right.”
Rives tossed Natalie a piece of fabric. “Nice move, twin. You just made my day.”
“Then my work here is done,” Natalie told Rives, tying the material around her breasts in a flash. But her eyes stayed on Charley.
“Lions and zebras and teenagers, oh my,” Charley said in a tight voice. She was staring at the boy.
The boy moaned, drawing everyone’s attention but mine. I stayed locked on Charley, who frowned.
“Is he burned?” Charley asked. “I mean, can gates burn you? Mine felt like it. And he looks fried.”
Now that I looked, the boy did look a little crispy. His face was bright red, like his hair. Ditto for his shoulders.
“If the gate roasted him, it’d be a first,” I said. “I think he had a head start on his Nil tan.”
Charley nodded. “Poor kid. Now I know why you didn’t add alone to your ‘same song, different verse’ intro this morning. I guess not everyone wakes up naked and alone, just the lucky ones.”
“Lucky?” Natalie’s voice was sharp. She raised an eyebrow at me, and I mouthed, Not yet.
The boy moaned again and blinked.
“Seeing how you’re still introducing Nil to Charley, I’ll take this one.” Nat’s voice had a dangerous edge. “Unless you want to.”
“All yours,” I said.
The boy jerked up, making the wrap slip and exposing himself. Snatching back the cloth, he stared at us, shocked.
“Hey,” Natalie said in her gentle-but-firm Leader voice. “It’s okay. You’re okay.”
“Bloody ’ell.” His eyes flicked to Natalie. “Who the fuck are you? And where the ’ell’s my bathers?”
I actually felt bad for the guy. Charley had a point. His entrance on the beach in full view had to suck, worse than just waking up in a dark meadow by yourself.
“You nicked my clothes?” The boy looked incredulous. “And my watch?” He scooted backward on the sand, but struggled to stay covered.
“We didn’t take your clothes.” Natalie’s voice was soothing. “I’m Natalie. I know this sounds crazy, but you came through a wormhole, and your clothes didn’t make it. I’ll answer all your questions in a minute, I promise. But first, where were you when the heat hit?”
The boy flinched. “How’d you know that?” His accent was tough, like a brogue. He narrowed his eyes at Natalie. “Wha’ja do to me?”
“I didn’t do anything.” The edge crept back into Nat’s voice. “The heat, it’s a gate. A portal. A wormhole, and it brought you here. But where were you?”
The boy blinked. “Mykonos. On holiday.”
“Okay.” She nodded, smiling like normal Nat. “Do you remember what day it was?”
“What day?” The rookie looked thrown.
“Try to remember,” Nat urged, gently. “What day was it?”
He told her, and she nodded. “And the year?”
She nodded again. “Okay, like I said, I’m Natalie. What’s your name?”
“Rory.”
“Welcome to Nil, Rory,” Natalie said.
“Nil?” Rory frowned. “Where the ’ell’s Nil?”
“Good question,” Charley said.
Rory jerked his eyes to her, lingering on her legs before traveling north. Watching his lip curl into a smile, I fought the urge to knock him back unconscious.
“Who’re you?” he asked Charley.
“Charley. Been here thirteen days.” Her response killed all thoughts of Rory. How would Charley know the days were so important? “Just thought you’d like knowing you’re not the only one new to the freak show,” she added, smiling.
She doesn’t know, I thought, strangely relieved. She’s just being kind.
Natalie spoke back up. “Nil’s an island. We all got here the same way you did, and we’re all trying to get home. Gates go both ways.” She smiled wryly. “Welcome to paradise.”
“Bloody ’ell.” The boy looked from Charley to Natalie, then swept the rest of us.
When he passed over Heesham and Rives, he stiffened, and his eyes flew back to Natalie and settled, hard.
“You think I’m a fucking eejit?” He glared at her.
“That I’ll buy this Alice in Wonderland shit yer selling?
What’re you blokes really after? Money?”
“Hardly.” Natalie sounded disgusted. “What we’ve told you is the truth. It’s up to you what you want to believe.”
“Bloody ’ell,” Rory said. “I’ve got no bathers, no mobile, no idea where the fuck I am or who the fuck you nutters are.” His fingers gripped the wrap so tightly they turned white; freckles popped out like dirt. “Fucking fairy-tale nut jobs.”
“Like I said, you’re on Nil,” Natalie snapped, “and it’s no fairy tale, let me tell you that. And if you wouldn’t mind, would you please stop using the word fuck so much? It’s getting on my fucking nerves.” Then she stormed away.
I was shocked. I’d never heard Nat cuss, let alone ditch a rookie.
“Be right back,” I told Charley. Then I glanced at Rives, who was eyeing Rory with a mix of contempt and pity. “Rives, you got this covered, eh?”
“Yeah.” Rives nodded. “Go.”
I had to jog to catch Natalie. “Nat, you okay?”
She turned, and I was stunned to see tears streaming down her face. “I can’t take it anymore. People come, people go. Jerks drop in, and Kevin’s gone.” Her voice cracked. “I’m done. I want out. I want Kevin, and I want to go home.”
She looked ready to break, or maybe she had.
“I know. Hey—” I moved to hug her, but she held up one hand. “No. I’m fine,” she said, sounding remarkably steady. “Get back to Charley.”
Charley. I sucked as an island guide. I’d left her twice now.
“You’d better tell her.” Natalie’s eyes narrowed. “And I mean now. She needs to know.”
“I know. I was just giving her some time. To, you know, get adjusted.”
Natalie sighed. “There is no time. You know that.” She paused, then hit me with a hard Nat stare. “If you don’t tell Charley, I will.”