Chapter 22
Chapter
Twenty-Two
Kann
I woke to morning sunlight filtering through the canopy of leaves overhead, and Britta sleeping in my arms. Even though it wasn’t the most comfortable place to sleep, and the coarse bark bit my skin through the fabric of my uniform, waking with the human felt right in a way I'd never experienced before.
Usually, when I found myself with a female in the morning, my mind was already planning my escape—how to slip away without waking her, what excuse to give if she stirred. But with Britta, I wanted to stay exactly where I was.
Of course, that's when she began to stir. My arms tightened instinctively to keep her from rolling off the branch, but the sudden constraint made her eyes fly open in panic, as she thrashed against my grasp, clearly disoriented.
"Shh, you're safe," I murmured, keeping my voice low and steady. "We're in the tree, remember? I've got you."
Her body went still, then slack, as she released a breath. “Sorry.” Then she twisted her neck, which must have been as stiff as mine. "Is it safe to get down?"
I listened carefully to the forest around us. The breeze rustled the tree branches and birds chirped, but there was no sound of Drexians running beneath us. I nodded. "I'll go first and help you down."
The descent was slow and careful, my muscles protesting after the awkward night's sleep. At each branch, I reached up to brace Britta as she followed me down, trying not to think about how perfectly her smaller body fit against mine.
When we reached the lowest branch, I jumped to the ground and landed in a crouch, holding my breath to make sure no one was near enough to hear me and give chase. Then I tipped my head back and waved for her to jump down. She hesitated only a moment before jumping into my waiting arms, the dark cloak billowing around her.
I caught her easily, but as I lowered her, our faces drew level. We were sharing breath, her lips mere inches from mine. My gaze dropped to those lips and dangerous thoughts invaded my mind—how they might taste, how soft they'd feel against mine…
“Kann?” She said my name almost too softly to hear, but it snapped me back to reality.
I pushed the treacherous thoughts aside and set her gently on the ground, straightening and then going through the motions of stretching out my aching muscles. Anything to keep from looking at her.
When I finally allowed my gaze to pass over her, she held her hands to her stomach.
"Did you get hurt coming down?"
She shook her head, rubbing her midsection. "You don't happen to have any food on you, do you?"
The tension left me in a rush of relieved breath. "Is that the sign for hungry?"
"I don't know that one," she grinned. “But now this is our sign for starving.”
My own stomach growled, as it struck me that we hadn’t eaten since the day before, and I had missed breakfast to look for her. “I am also hungry.”
I thought about the simulation specs. Food hadn't seemed important when programming the simulation, but then I remembered trying to make it historically accurate for the hunt.
"The Gilded Peaks," I said, remembering the historical accounts I'd found in the archives. "There are edible berries at the base. If you're up for a walk?"
She ran her hands through her hair and a few small leaves sifted to the ground. “Lead the way. I’d do anything for breakfast right now."
I took a moment to orient myself in the right direction, hoping that Zav had gotten to the detail of the berries in the mountains and the freshwater streams.
After we’d been walking in silence for a while, Britta asked quietly, "What do you think is happening at the real academy?"
She had given voice to what I had been wondering since I’d woken that morning. We had now been in the simulation for long enough that we should have been missed. Not only missed but located. But if the program was still running and we were still in it, then there was some kind of issue getting us out.
“I think our friends are busy fixing the holochamber glitch.” My stomach rumbled again, as if agreeing with me. "And the rest of the school is having breakfast.”
"Missing your fried padwump?"
I glanced over my shoulder. "Don't remind me."
“Bacon has never been my thing, and padwump is a lot like bacon, but give me some warm Drexian bread with chidi berry spread."
The grumbling of my stomach was getting so loud I was afraid it might give us away. "Maybe we shouldn't discuss food."
“I guess not.”
We walked in companionable silence, as the ice-capped peaks grew closer, their high points catching the morning light. The trees had thinned out, which told me we were getting closer to the mountains, and I could feel the terrain sloping up.
"We're not climbing those, are we?" Britta asked
"No, just heading to the base. That's where the berries grow." I didn’t tell her that there should be some caverns, if Zav had gotten to that part of the simulation, but I was hoping that they would be a good place for us to hide until the program stopped.
“I don’t think of you as a berries guy.”
I gave her a crooked grin. “I will have you know I always had to eat some berries before I could eat the good stuff.”
“Like padwump?”
“Exactly.” I stopped so she could walk beside me now that the foliage wasn’t so thick. "What did you eat for breakfast as a child?”
"Lucky Charms cereal," she said immediately. "Pure sugar and artificial colors. My mom hated it, but my dad always bought it for me. Well, the generic version, at least.” Her smile softened. “He got it in big bags and poured it into a real Lucky Charms box for me.”
I did not knew what any of that meant. “Lucky Charms? What a strange name for a food.”
She eyed me, one eyebrow lifting. “And padwump isn’t?”
“What is strange about padwump?”
She didn’t answer that. “Is padwump the name of an animal? Please tell me tiny Kann was stalking fluffy padwumps through the forest."
I could sense she was teasing me, although I was not sure how she knew that padwumps were fluffy. “Not as a young Drexian, but—”
I didn’t get to tell her about my first padwump hunt because the sound of running silenced me.
Without thinking, I grabbed Britta's hand and broke into a sprint, pulling her with me. We needed to find a place to hide, and all the tall trees to climb were behind us.
“Now would be a great time to deactivate the simulation,” I muttered to the air or anyone who might be on the other side of the holochamber doors, wherever those might be. I held my breath and willed the simulation to vanish around us and the shouts and footfall closing in on us to disappear. But nothing changed.
Grek. I tightened my grip on Britta’s hand as we raced toward the rocky base of the holographic mountains.