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It took forever to get out of the building. Part of me expected to hear Jenny running behind me screaming “That’s him, that’s him”, but there was nothing more than the usual mid-morning bustle. Corina was standing beside me, wearing a white top with puffy sleeves, tight trousers, and shoes that came all the way up her calf. They had thick soles, and strings that pulled them together at the front, and I wondered where she got all these crazy clothes from. It wasn’t anything like I had seen any Dagashi wearing on the ship. I turned to look at her.
‘Suppose we had better find somewhere to live.’
She nodded. ‘With power, if we can. We need to test the converter.’
I scratched my head. A tall order, given that everywhere with power already had people, and I really didn’t feel much like company for a while.
‘How about — oh, I don’t know how to describe it. The place you were working on the first day I spoke to you, in the park.’
‘I wasn’t working that day,’ I said, casting my mind back to the trip up to London Fields.
‘Before that,’ she chuckled. ‘The day I whispered this is nice to you. It took me days to get up the courage to do that.’
I realised she meant the Docklands. ‘It’s risky. There may be people there who know me.’
‘Then go past, into buildings we’ve prepared for searching but not opened yet. I think I have a list somewhere.’
‘If you know that sort of stuff, I have a better idea,’ I said, and started walking.
We’d been on the move for a half hour or so when I realised Corina wasn’t saying much. She usually couldn’t stand silence and filled it with anything she could, but today the conversation was missing. I turned my head, not stopping, and saw she was looking at the ground as we walked.
‘What’s the matter?’
‘It’s such a shame about the little girl.’
‘Shame? Why?’
She looked at me with a ‘how can you be so stupid’ face. ‘You really don’t know?’
I shrugged, lost.
‘That makes it worse. She loves you, idiot.’
‘What? No. You don’t understand. She was my sort-of-adopted sister. Her mother took me in when my parents—’
‘Even more obvious. Not just hero-worshipping a big brother but an available one at that — and no father figure.’
‘Well, if she did it was only a crush.’
‘She still expected you to notice her. Why else would she be so angry?’
That stopped my thoughts in their tracks. Corina had a good point. Jenny had been madder than she should have been.
‘Every time she said us, she meant me,’ Corina finished. How could I have missed that? Then again, I’d not have done anything if I had noticed; the thought of Aunt Trude’s glare would have been enough to kill any thoughts in that direction, but I understood her anger a bit better.
‘Could I have done it any better?’ I asked.
Corina didn’t answer for many steps. ‘No, I don’t think so, but it’s still a shame.’
I agreed, and kept walking.
When I got to the ganger station outside Tate, Corina made me go to the nearest food station to figure out where she was. As I walked up to the machine a burly proctor stepped into my path, so close his outstretched hand almost hit my chest. With his other arm he held out a sheet with a picture on it.
‘You seen this boy?’
I looked closely, not faking. I wanted to see how wrong the new picture was. Corina had done a good job. I was fairly sure that what was in the background was one of the plazas I passed through on my way to ‘rescue’ her, but the face looked nothing like mine.
‘Sorry, no,’ I said, and made to step forward. The palm in front of me didn’t move, and I did a stumbling half step that didn’t go anywhere.
‘You see him, Sir, and you make sure you find a proctor and tell him real quick. We need to speak to this person about an urgent family matter.’
The last three words came out in a ‘this is what I was told to say’ voice. I figured the proctor wouldn’t know a damned thing about who they were looking for or why, but I bet there was a bounty on my head for whoever did find me.
The proctor stood aside and I took the last few steps to the food station. I had to take a ration, even though I had plenty in my bag, or it would have looked weird. I didn’t think anybody would buy it if I only did a credit check and walked off. It was enough, though, and Corina told me she knew where she was now.
‘Great. So all you need to do is find us a building that’s ready for people to live in, but that’s empty.’
‘Anything else you would like? Hot and cold running water? Entertainment channels on the vid?’
The words didn’t mean anything, but I could tell she was being sarcastic so I smiled my best smile and said nothing. A moment later Corina said, ‘this way,’ and a pale arrow appeared in front of me.
It wasn’t easy to get in. The gangers had put chains through the doors and locked them closed. I couldn’t see why. There was no decent tech loot to be had, so the Tech Mercs wouldn’t be interested in the place.
I found a way in. The building was only ten floors tall, and the emergency escape ran up the outside. I climbed over the top of the gate, jabbing myself in the hand with a spike along the top of the gate, then dropped inside. Four floors up, the fire door hadn’t closed properly, and we sneaked inside.
It was like and yet unlike my old home. The partitions were still made of the same strange board the Dag provided but there were no private rooms, just long halls with a rank of sleeping pallets down each side. The lower levels smelt of men, but there was nobody about. As I climbed higher, there were fewer and fewer signs that anybody was living here. I settled in a commons area on the eighth floor, where there were windows to see out.
Corina sat on a table opposite me, hands resting behind her and legs crossed at the ankle. ‘I suppose we should see if this still works,’ she said, pointing at the power cube.
I took everything out of the bag, put it together as I’d been shown, and looked expectantly at Corina. She looked into empty space for a moment, then pointed at the cube. ‘Would you take that over to the nearest window for me? I want you to look very carefully at it.’
We stood at the window for about a quarter hour, turning the cube this way and that, running the wire through my fingers. By the end of it all I knew was that the goo coming out of the crack was still sticky and made my hand itch.
‘It will have to do,’ Corina finally pronounced, but after I had connected everything up she still looked worried. ’I’ll have to stay connected as often as we can, though.’ I scavenged the place for bedding, not wanting to sleep in one of the long rooms and not wanting to go too far away from Corina. By the time I had set up a nest, evening was starting to draw in and the light was fading. There wasn’t anything more productive to do, so I lay down on my improvised bed. Corina settled next to me and I turned to face her.
‘How much do you hear inside my head?’
She pulled a puzzled face at me. ‘What do you mean?’
My face start to burn and I was thankful the light hid my blush — then realised she didn’t need to see it to know it was happening. ‘A couple of times it’s seemed... well... like you can read my mind.’
Her face went from puzzled to mischievous. ‘Would that trouble you?’
I tried to shrug, which wasn’t easy lying on my side. It turned into a clumsy one-shouldered hitch. ‘I don’t have many options if it does.’
‘What made you ask?’
‘You seemed to know I was thinking stuff before I knew it myself, even when I knew I hadn’t been muttering to under my breath. And the dreams.’
‘Dreams?’ Her eyebrows rose. ‘What sort of dreams?’
I didn’t say anything. She managed to keep her eyebrows raised for a full minute, then fell on her back laughing. ‘I get clues, hints from your body about what is going on in your mind. I can feel your heart rate change, your body releasing neurotransmitters and adrenaline. I can even feel your brain pre-planning physical movements. Most of the time they tell their own story, but no I cannot read your mind.’
‘And the dreams?’
‘You still haven’t told me what they are.’
‘Me and you,’ I replied, but it took me a moment before I could finish. ‘Only I can touch you.’
‘When you sleep I can get your body to listen to me better, to believe things that it would ignore if you were awake. In a way, we dream them together. Would you like me to stop?’
I didn’t even think about it.
‘No.’
Corina looked puzzled, but I couldn’t keep from kicking my ‘nest’ to the four corners of the room, and I couldn’t keep the bad words from spilling out of my mouth. While Corina and I had been out exploring the area, somebody had stolen all my food rations.
‘But you can get more,’ Corina said.
‘That’s not the point,’ I snarled. ‘It’s the first rule. You don’t take other people’s stuff. Never. What if I’d left you there?’
I caught her expression changing from confused to thoughtful out the corner of my eye, and my anger suddenly drained away. Again, it was fear not anger. Fear that she might have been taken. I had thought that it might be safe to leave her while I went out working, or exploring — she had to be connected to power as much as possible. Now it didn’t seem I would be able to leave the building without her.
‘We have to go to the food station,’ I said. ‘At least, I do. How are you for...?’ I ran out of words as I realised I didn’t have a clue what to call her ‘food’.
‘I have about 85% charge,’ Corina replied. ‘As long as I can stay connected to the feed for more than seventeen hours each day, I should be able to maintain that.’
I looked around the room. ‘Guess we can’t come back here. Can you find anywhere else we can hide out?’
‘I’ll think about it while you walk to the food station, but while you do I’m going to shut off some of the fancier tricks. No sense wasting what charge I have.’ She flickered and vanished and I instantly missed having her walking beside me, even though the link was still there and I could still talk to her.
The route was more complicated than I remembered, and twice I had to retrace my steps when I took a wrong turn. The second time, I caught myself glancing out the corner of my eye, waiting for the smug look and playful-but-pointed comment, and missed her all over again. Then I realised Corina wasn’t even paying enough attention to catch me out and poke fun at me and that started me worrying.
There was a queue at the food station, and when I flicked my eyes to the clock above it I groaned. I had managed to arrive right in the middle of the rush for evening meal. It was too far to go back and return later, so I lined up with everybody else and waited my turn. Fifteen minutes of bland smiles, vague nods, and ignoring people before I was standing in front of the machine. I pressed my thumb against the pad, and the forefinger of my left hand was already poised above the button to request three rations.
The machine buzzed angrily at me and the display flashed up ‘Zero Credit’. I quickly scanned the rest of the screen. It had my name right, at least my new name, but no record of any ration activity in or out. An attendant appeared from behind the machine. I snatched my thumb away and pressed the button that cleared the screen as he asked me if there was a problem.
‘Nothing serious,’ I answered, hoping the grin I pasted on my face didn’t look as false as it felt. ‘Guess I’ve been hungrier than I thought. My own fault.’ And I gave him a wave as I stepped out of the line and mentally yelled for Corina.
‘All my food has gone again.’
I was obviously having a bad effect on her. She spat out some of my favourite swear words like she meant them. ‘They are moving quicker than I thought. I hoped with me gone they would forget the whole thing, but it looks like they may be digging to see what else I tampered with.’
With nowhere else in mind to go, I was walking along the side of the river. ‘Are they coming to get us?’
‘I really don’t know. I’ve found somewhere for tonight, though.’
I followed her directions to a block of buildings Trude had told me were called ‘shops’, and I broke in to some rooms on the second floor. There wasn’t much in there except dust, but strangely, there was power. I tried to find stuff to make a bed while I ignored how hungry I was getting, and Corina sat on a broken wooden box and watched me. Eventually I gave up trying to find enough for a bed. In the rooms below I found a couple of cushions with mould on them, and I sat on them with my back pressed into a corner of two walls.
‘Corina—?’ I started, but the words stuck behind my teeth. On the walk back from the ration machine, a horrible realisation had popped into my head. I had squashed it quick, as I didn’t want Corina to hear me think it, but now I was settled I realised we would have to figure it at some point. I just didn’t know where to start.
‘What, Jax?’ Her head was tilted to one side and a slight smile touched the corners of her lips. She looked beautiful, and that made it all the harder.
‘What are we doing?’
She didn’t change, except for soft creasing of her forehead.
‘I mean, what are we going to do? Not right now, but later. Even if the Dags don’t come for us, where do we go?’
Corina’s expression drifted towards sadness and fear. ‘You don’t want to stay with me anymore?’
‘It’s not that. Nothing like.’ I spoke too quickly and too loudly, and sounded like I’d been caught pinching rations. ‘But is this all you want? Creeping around the ruins of London, sneaking from place to place while we try to find you enough charge to keep you alive?’
Corina looked into my eyes for what seemed like forever before she answered. ‘Is that so different from your old life? But yes, Jax, that is enough for me — so long as I’m with you.’
My mind shut down and I clenched my jaw shut to stop anything stupid dribbling out. I didn’t know that much about girls — as Corina had already pointed out about Jenny - but even I couldn’t miss the message Corina was giving me.
But what was I supposed to say back? I was still struggling with the fact I had a friend who wasn’t flesh. Yes, she was clever and funny and wonderful to be with and yes, if she was real... we might have a future together. Right now, I couldn’t see how, no matter how much I wanted it.
I couldn’t say that, though. Even though I knew Corina knew it as well as I did, it wouldn’t help to point it out. I pushed my lips into a firm line. ‘That’s what I want to, and I’ll do what I must to make sure that happens.’
It seemed to be the right thing. At least, Corina smiled.