A Fortunate Accident – Chapter 21

I’m less than three episodes from the season finale of Next Up when the door to the lab opens and out comes a frazzled lab tech. I don’t get up. Most of the time, they’re checking to make sure I’m alive. When the door shuts, it falls into place with a loud clunk.

“Anything yet, Skylar?” he asks, glancing at the wallscreen. “Oooh, you’re getting closer to the juicy episodes.”

I wave at the wallscreen, pausing the show. “It is taking fucking forever for these two to sleep with each other. This is the most angsty show in the universe.”

“Yeah, but it’s so good.”

I sigh. “It is. I wish I could stop watching, but it’s an addiction at this point.” I sit up and roll out my neck. “Nothing yet. I haven’t noticed any changes.” I shrug. “I feel like I’m wasting your time just sitting around watching dramas, though the pay is fantastic for sitting around doing nothing.” I stand up and cross the room to grab another bottle of water from the fridge. Gotta stay hydrated on this hot world.

“Hmmm, I bet.” He looks at his datapad again. “We’ve noticed no changes in your health data either. Everything looks fine.” He sighs and drops his datapad to his side. “I think this one is a dud. Nothing happened to our previous test subjects except for a few headaches, so we thought maybe it would elicit a proper response from you. But I guess not. If you get a headache anytime in the next day or two, you can take painkillers for it. Just ask the doc.”

“So, I’m done for the day?” This is a first. I’m usually in the lab from late morning until dinner. It’s a sunny day outside. Maybe I can get some daylight on my skin and go for a walk. It’s been ages since I last walked anywhere for fun. Running for my life doesn’t count.

The tech glances over his shoulder at the lab window. Everyone inside is moving around, and storage bins are being brought in from the rear room.

“Yeah, might as well. We have to pack up here, anyway.”

“We’re moving again?” This is news to me. I thought we had another three days here.

“It looks like it. Sorry. Gotta go.” He hastens to the door, and when it opens, the conversations inside come spilling out for a second. I catch someone saying, “Fucking military,” before the door closes for good.

Outside, the camp is in chaos. I’m assaulted on all sides by the noise of people moving and shouting, buildings being broken down, and vehicles lumbering through the camp. I step out of the way as a man runs past me with a writhing bag in his hand. When the animals invade the camp, you know things are about to get rough and ready.

“Skylar!”

I whirl around at Kalvin’s voice. He’s holding up my bag and heading in my direction with Saif on his heels. My heart rate soars at the cacophony, the assault of sound. I squint my eyes and flex my jaw, hoping it’ll dissipate quickly.

“We packed everything of yours up and got out before they collapsed your suite.” He drops the bag at my feet. Leaning down, he looks me in the eyes before reaching out for my cheek. A moment of panic causes me to pull away. “Whoa, easy,” he says, lifting his hand. “Are you all right?”

“No.” I clamp my hands over my ears. “I can’t… My ears.”

I struggle to make sense of the auditory input. It’s like the entire world has its volume turned up, and I’m hearing everything at once. I shake my head and try to bring the volume down, but I can’t. A whimper lodges in my throat. The lab was so quiet compared to this.

Kalvin looks at all the people milling around us — the vehicles, the power tools, the generators — and turns to Saif.

“Do you have earplugs?”

Saif blinks. “Yeah. I never travel without them.” He sets his bag down and unzips it, rummaging around inside until he stands up with a tiny box in his hand. “Here,” he says, handing them to me.

I take a few calming breaths before letting go of my ears to accept the earplugs. The sound is deafening. The booming, shrieking, and grinding noises are so pervasive that I feel nauseated and fall to one knee. Kalvin lunges for me.

I squeeze each earplug and jam them into my ears. As they expand to fill out the voids, my heart rate decreases, and the sounds become manageable again. I close my eyes and slowly breathe in and out a few times.

“Oh, thank God. I thought I was going insane.” I slip the box into my pants pocket and stand back up.

Saif touches my face and tips it up to get a good look. He smooths out the stress lines on either side of my eyes with his thumbs. “It’s not that loud out here. What happened with today’s plant?”

I shrug and shake my head. “Nothing.”

“Hmmm.”

I can hear him perfectly, even through the earplugs. Maybe ‘nothing’ is the wrong qualifier for today’s plant. I should go find the doctor. Except there’s no infirmary anymore. It is just a space with collapsed building walls and a crane lifting them onto the back of a truck.

Another vehicle rumbles by, so I step out of the way. Once it’s passed, it reveals India and Takemo having a conversation on the other side of the expanse of grass. Just the people I need to see. It’s time to find out what’s going on.

“Come on,” I say to the guys, waving them forward.

I jog across the grass and raise my hand to catch their attention. “India! Takemo!” Takemo turns and smiles, and India hands off a datapad to someone else before turning to me. “Hey, so what’s happening? I just got kicked out of the lab.”

“Sorry.” India glances at my earplugs. “It was a split-second decision. The military did a flyover about an hour ago, and I expect them to be here in no time. We need to move.”

“Not just move,” Takemo insists, turning to India. “We need to consider a different part of the continent. This is way too stressful and dangerous.”

“No,” India says, swiping down with her hand. “We’ve been over this. I’ve had expeditions to every corner of the continent and several outlying islands. This area has the most diverse plant and animal life. Whatever happened to Rio to make it this way happened here at some point. We have to stay.”

“But we’re constantly moving, and Skylar is not getting to test as many plants because of this.” He glances at me. “I would feel much better about this situation if we stashed her in a nearby city and brought the plants to her.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” I say, throwing my hands up. “What the hell are you doing? You’re not my mother. I’m fine with being here.”

His jaw tightens. “You don’t need to be here. You can do what you do from a place of safety. It was one thing when we were moving every two weeks, and it’s another when we’re moving every third day. Not only would you be safer in a city, but you’d be able to test more plants.” He turns his stern eyes on India. “Which is the whole point of this affair, is it not?”

India rolls her eyes. “He’s not wrong, but he’s also not right.” She takes a datapad from someone who approaches her. “Look, we have nothing set up like that now. And that would require us to have another separate operation and have teams bring the plants to a Rio city, which would further erode our security.”

Takemo opens his mouth to object, but India raises her hand.

“I hear your concerns, and maybe we can make it work, but for now, I need to continue doing what we’re doing and hope the next location lasts longer.” She hands the datapad back and inhales sharply, turning to me. “I have an idea. Why don’t you and your network mates take a break? Take three days off and meet us at our new location. Luca is leaving soon to take a crew to a shuttle not far from here. Hopefully, when you return, we can stay in one place for two weeks or more.”

As much as I hate the jungle, the heat, the inconvenience of limited communications, and many, many other things about this job, I don’t want to leave. I’m in a groove now, and stopping to go back to the city will just make returning here more difficult.

“I’d rather stay and not lose momentum,” I tell her, but she shakes her head.

“Nothing lost.” India sees my hesitation and smiles. “Skylar, can I speak to you privately?”

“Sure.”

I follow her off to the side, away from everyone’s prying eyes and ears. I can still hear Saif, though, even from ten meters away and with earplugs in.

“Do you want to go back to Primeiro? To the Amagi or to my parents?” he asks Kalvin.

“I’ll go wherever Skylar wants me.”

“Good answer.”

“You guys are going back to Primeiro? Can I come along?” Takemo asks.

“To my parents?” Saif asks.

“Uh… Am I invited?”

I try not to laugh.

“Skylar,” India starts, so I turn my eyes to her, “you’re doing a great job. I’m thrilled you’re here. But I don’t want you to burn out on this. The constant moving is stressful, especially with the bad animal luck we’ve had lately. You could use a real bed and some downtime. Tell me, you haven’t met Katal yet, have you?”

She folds her arms over her chest.

“Saif’s mom? No. I haven’t.” Do I tell her about my disastrous first attempt to meet his family? No. I don’t think so.

“Well, then, you should go do that on your time off. But be sure not to mention me, okay? It’s in your best interest.”

The mystery is too much. “Why? What happened between you two?”

Her smile is wry. “We were university rivals. It’s silly now to think back on it, but we both got inducted into the same ‘secret’ society, and then we fought our way to the top of it.”

“Oh yeah? Who won?” I rub my hands together, ready for the gossip.

She throws her head back. “Neither of us. We both got pregnant our last year, and then Sidney Rodriguez stole the president position from us both. It was quite the coup. But we’re not friends, and it would be a good idea to leave me out of it. Just say you’re working for Athens Industries. It’s accurate enough.” She squeezes my upper arm and pulls me a little closer. “I spoke with Renata about the jump ring. We must have the technology the military has, or we’ll be doomed to failure. Any idea of how we can get it?”

I shrug. “I don’t know. That base we were in on Neve burned to the ground. There was talk about them having more than one gate, I think.” I close my eyes and recall the trip. But, details are missing from my memories because of the stress of the low oxygen environment. Most of my memories from late in that day are soupy. “I honestly can’t remember, but I’ll ask Vivian.”

“Well, if you think of anything, please let me know. So, what’s with the earplugs?”

“Skylar, we should go!” Saif calls out. “Luca is here, and he’s ready to leave.”

I back up from India and smile. “Tell your lab techs this plant wasn’t a dud at all. Enhanced hearing, but I didn’t notice until I was out in the open. I’ll give them a report when I return.”

“Well, at least we got something out of this trip.” She waves before turning away to head back to work.

I wave goodbye and jog up to meet Saif, Kalvin, Takemo, and Luca.

It’s time to get out of the jungle and back to civilization.