“Shut up!” Blip said. “You don’t think they’re listening?”
“What are you talking about? We’re in the Jacob!”
“There’s microphones in here. There are sensors all over this ship. I could hear everything you did over there.”
“You spied on me?”
“I watched you! I protected you! I’m your guardian. It’s what I’m designed to do.”
“Was lying part of your program? I want the truth, you tiny zit!”
“I’m telling you the truth. I didn’t know anything about what was happening over here.”
“How is that possible?”
“Can you shut up? Can we have this argument later?”
“No!”
He hushed her with a sharp, “Shhh!”
“You little brat. No!” Syn yelled back.
“They’re listening. What don’t you understand about that? They can hear us. Every word. We are stuck in here, and they’re coming for us!”
“Then don’t go all the way to the ground.”
Blip did not supply a retort at this. Instead, after a moment, he turned away from her and floated to the control panel. After a few seconds, he said, “Oh.”
“You stupid little robot.” But the fury had left her voice. Irritation laced the words, but there was also the sound of amusement.
Along the back of his frame, letters formed—a scrolling message aimed at her alone: I HAVE ASKED IT TO DROP US OFF AT THE TOP OF THE SETTLEMENTS.
Syn nodded. That was smart. Whoever was listening, whoever was waiting, would soon discover where they had exited, but there was far more hiding space in the settlements than at the base, at least right out of the Jacob. If they could get to the version of Aja here, they’d have a thousand places to hide. If there was a version of Aja. They’d yet to spy the ground and the thick dark clouds were coming up fast to meet them. Perhaps the jungle had been burned down. Or perhaps the designers had chosen another landscape to fill the surface. Maybe this had been a desert, or maybe a prairie, or maybe lake after lake after lake. For the first moment, she was eager to see the bottom. The Dark Disc still smelled like the pits of Hell, but there was the possibility of seeing something new.
The sense of gravity hit her, and she slid down to the ground, her feet striking the floor only moments after several large droplets of blood did. “Ewww!” She lifted her foot up and strings of thick, coagulating blood dripped off. “Ugh. Stupid burlys.”
“Burlys?” Blip asked. She smiled—she had been calling them that but only in her own head.
“Those two things up there. Ya, they’re, you know, burly and all. Burlys.”
He smiled for the first time since they’d crossed over to this side, and the sight stilled her heart. He was still Blip, and she was still Syn. We can do this, she decided. To herself, she nodded her head and grinned.
She reached over and pulled on a large piece of fabric draped over the hanging corpse’s shoulders. She tugged on it as it snagged on something behind the corpse, but the dead body was light and the fabric came loose.
She leaned down to wipe the blood from her soles but then paused, lifting the full piece up. It was a blanket, and while the one side facing the sunstrips had been bleached white and then stained with soot and dust, the underside showed pink cartoon ponies dancing and chasing about. She held it up to show Blip. “StarSnow and Gallopy.”
Blip smiled. “Looks just like the one you used to have.”
It did. Where had that blanket gone? They had lost it camping one week as they made a long trek through the forest and the hills, circumnavigating the base of the Disc. She had used it the one night they camped lakeside and curled up in it as the winds blew the mist from the rolling waves. They had left off early the next morning, and she had assumed she’d left it on lake bank, but when they had returned there, months later, it was nowhere to be found.
Blip must’ve grasped where her thoughts were headed. “It’s not yours. There were several of those left by the colonists.”
Syn wasn’t sure. She held it up, looking for small elements to confirm that this was or wasn’t hers. A tear. A stain. Something of indication. But she couldn’t remember the blanket well enough to know if that dark stain in the corners had been placed there by her or some other girl on this side. And the blanket hadn’t been hers to begin with. She had entered the Disc in only a white uniform and nothing else. She had found it in one of the Settlement houses, in some little girl’s room. No, that wasn’t right. She had found it bundled up on the side of a couch. The little girl who’d owned it laid dead next to it. The girl possessed dark skin and features, and the sharp, bulging eyes of someone who had been strangled to death.
Syn had stolen this from a girl that had been murdered. But, in truth, everything she had was taken from those that had been murdered. She was a robber of the dead.
17
THE SCRATCHING BETWEEN SKULLS
“Concrete objects can pull free of the earth more easily than humans can escape humanity.”
The Jacob lurched to a sudden stop. Syn fell against the floor, splattering the pooled blood across her clothes and face. The lift jolted again, and she lost all balance, falling face first into the sticky crimson mess.
Blip rocked a bit and righted himself.
The doors to the Jacob slid open, and the lights running vertically along the interior walls sputtered out, and the entire lift went dark except for the glow of Blip’s blue face lights.
Syn stammered, “What happ—” She came up on all fours, her face hidden under the red mask of the blood. It was now smeared in her hair, and she glanced her own reflection in the metal frame around the open doors. Only her dark eyes stared out from the crimson disguise.
“I think we’re there.”
“We didn’t just crash?”
Blip shook his head. “I don’t think this Jacob is working quite properly. It didn’t decelerate correctly. Usually ours are a lot nicer and don’t just hit the brakes. But I think we’re next to the J Settlements.”
Syn stepped out. The path around them lit red as the lights along the edge of the walkway and the corridor turned on at her arrival. “No.” She waited for Blip to join her. “What do we do?”
“Keep walking. We’re not far away.” He moved ahead of her, turning his case red to match the corridor lights. “And red light is hard to see from far away. Be thankful it’s in emergency mode.”
With each step into a new section, the corridor lit up. The red light provided only limited illumination, and she still struggled to see into the thick, cloudy distance. By habit, she found herself running a finger along each wall and door they passed, marking them with an imaginary paint. She read the door numbers. “95. 96. 97. 98.”
Blip finished, “99.” They had stopped before two large doors positioned at the end of the corridor where the others had been to their right-hand side.
“J1302-99?”
Blip nodded.
Syn took two more steps and the access panel lit red at her approach. She stammered, “Open sesame.”
“You sure?”
She nodded and took another step forward. “Please.”
Blip signaled the panel, and a few seconds later, the doors began to slide open. The edges of the door grated against the dry runners then came to a grinding stop with a finishing clang. Only a meter of passable space opened before them. The doors weren’t moving any further.
Syn didn’t wait for Blip. She tried to grip her spear and then grunted as she remembered it had been stolen. “Dammit.” She stepped inside the darkened door unarmed and undeterred. Blip followed. He opened a small shaft along his top, and a brighter red spot lit the room in front of them. As this was a private room, Syn’s presence didn’t force the illumination to turn on automatically. However, she knew all she had to do was mutter a command and the room would light up for her. Syn blinked, and her eyes quickly adjusted. The light revealed a small room with several desks, plastic toys, and a reddish carpet. A few white balls glowed in the bright light. No, not balls. Syn saw the hollow insets on each of them where eyes had once been.