“And they won’t notice if you open a rift in the middle of the farm?”
Was this his way back home? My foolish heart suddenly jumped, and my throat closed up a bit. I was annoyed that the thought of him gone was painful.
But he shook his head, “No, no one would notice. They have all been gone for a long time. I doubt the Man would even think of looking at the farm.”
He looked so sad that I wanted to lean over and put my arms around him. Shit, that was going to be difficult. I sat back and crossed my arms tightly, pinning my hands down. Just in case, they acted without my permission.
“I see.”
“Yeah.” He abruptly stood, and I followed.
We walked down the stairs and entered the basement again. I had my phone with me. Hopefully, I could connect to the satellites. It was a big space and far enough down that it was colder here than upstairs. The cemented floors helped and for a few years I had toyed with the idea of putting in a wine cellar.
We walked into the spare room that would serve as our mini-plantation. It was freezing and felt cavernous. I flicked the lights on, and we waited in quiet for all the strips to flicker on.
“We might have to replace the lights, I haven’t checked them for a while, and they aren’t as responsive as they should be.”
Asher waved a hand in dismissal. I shrugged and turned my phone’s screen on. He did the same, and we waited while our devices attempted to connect to the satellites orbiting far above.
He walked to the middle of the vast space and after a moment I joined him. I was watching him walk but trying to convince myself that wasn’t, in fact, the case. I could tell that my phone wasn't anywhere near able to find a satellite.
“Any luck on yours?” I asked.
“Yeah, it found something. Not sure if it will hold on to it but be ready to write.”
I nodded and put my phone in my pocket and brought my notebook out, and adopted a patient posture. I could tell he was stressed out, or this was reflecting my changed attitude.
Either way, we stood in silence, and the quiet was a blessing. After all the stress of the last two days, I was enjoying a moment not spent in chasing, or in fear of capture.
“Ok, here we go.”
I got jarred out of my reverie and wrote the numbers down quickly. He double-checked that I wrote it down properly, and we left the basement. Once upstairs he sank into his seat and toggled back to the app.
All the numbers inputted he hit done, and we waited as the app applied the changes. I assumed it was applying the changes, the rift generator at this point hadn’t shown any signs of working.
It was boring staring at nothing, so I looked around to see what Denny had gotten up to while were busy with the app and generator. I didn't see him, but I looking up at the upstairs balcony I saw the lights on in his bedroom.
The poor boy probably needed a shower, and even more, he needed sleep. Proper, healthy sleep and not the simulated sleep of the dead. I envied him; rest seemed a long way off still for me.
Of course it was light outside, the day had started for most people. Morning routines were in full effect, and Denny was getting ready for bed. Our systems were all messed up, and essentially we were living in a different time zone.
The app was still working on the setup, and the generator was sitting quietly, it looked like a brick.
“How long will it take to configure the generator?” I was getting impatient. The day was wearing on, and my immortality was slipping away slowly.
“Eliza, some serious calculations go into this. It isn’t just like walking into the plantation. The app has to configure the exact locations of each space and the most optimum route to bring the two together.”
I held up my hands in surrender, if he had explained the complexity better, I wouldn’t have been impatient. He glared at me for a moment longer and then looked back down at the screen of his mobile.
At long last he sat back with a look of relief. I guess he wasn’t so sure after all of the app’s ability to configure the generator.
“It successfully plotted a path and the size of our plantation,” He said.
“Cool, so now what?” I asked.
“I'll go downstairs and start the rift.” He said and stood.
“Hold on a second, you mean we start the rift don’t you.”
He sighed, and his shoulders slumped. I was instantly angry and suspicious again. Why was he reluctant for my help all of a sudden? Asher turned to me and sighed.
“No Eliza, just me. I need to start the rift.”
“Why? Why can’t I help you?” I was up and stood in front of him, blocking his path to the stairs.
“Because you aren’t alien,” He muttered.
I frowned at him, “What do mean by that? Surely, after all, this it is a matter of switching it on and standing out of the way?”
He shook his head and rubbed a hand across the stubble on his chin. It was an attempt to distract me I thought, it worked for all of two seconds. But my general annoyance was enough to pull my attention back on track.
“It requires my DNA to start the process; I need to be the physical link between the two places.”
“Seriously?” I was dismayed, so much for me being able to do this without him.
He turned away from me and scooped up the generator and pocketed his mobile. When he turned back, he gave me a crooked smile.
“Yeah, so you can forget about getting rid of me so easily.”
He walked around me and down the stairs; all I could do was sink back down into my chair. Well, of all the luck mine had to be the weirdest in the world I thought.