Outside

Chapter 7

My lungs feel tight in my chest. "She... What?" My old home. She wants to destroy my old home.

"I would've told you earlier, but like I said, it was 3:00 AM, so I didn't want to wake you up." Kyan explains. "I've been thinking about it, and there's about an 80% chance that if we try to do it, we'll all get crushed because of their power and numbers. I know we're strong, but unless they have no army at all, or a very small army, which are both unlikely, we'd fail miserably."

"What about if we can?" I ask, trying to get in Occi's mind to figure out why she'd want to do this. "I mean, we can free all the other children in there."

"There's still a 20% chance or so that we can, and for a statistical probability of our safety, that's not a lot. But it's something. I mean, I'm just making blind judgements based off how many people are here and the amount of security I actively saw around the Aequa grounds. The 20% chance of us succeeding solely would rely on the Aequa being short-staffed on guards and needing time for backup to arrive." He sighs, pressing his lips together as his eyebrows furrow, eyes locked and squinted on the floor in front of him, in deep thought. "However, I don't know everything about either group. I'm only guessing, so take what I'm saying with like... a heaping tablespoon of salt."

I take his guesses pretty highly. They're better than any I could ever come up with. Statistics was his favorite subject back in school. Mine was lunch.

Kyan picks up a piece of paper with writing scribbled over it and sits down on the side of his bed. "I don't know. I've given it so much thought but none of it's actually certain. Maybe if I consider the variable of outdoor cameras and sensor activated--"

"I'm glad you're ok now." I interrupt him.

His face turns pink. "Me too." He looks back down at the paper. "Is that why you rushed over here without even putting on shoes? You were worried about me?"

"Maybe." I feel my face grow warm.

"I told you I was fine."

I sit down next to him and lean over his shoulder to look at the paper. His writing is neat and yet all over the place. Math equations, graphs, and notes fill the page, making my head spin. I let my head fall further and I rest it on his shoulder. I reach my hand up and place it on his forehead, blindly doing so and nearly covering his eyes. "Your fever's gone." I tell him. I can feel the rise and fall of his shoulders as he breathes. He stiffens.

"What if Occi makes us all fight in her army?" He says quietly. "You know I'm nowhere near strong enough to fight off anyone, let alone actual soldiers."

"I would do whatever it takes to make sure you never end up in a situation where you would have to fight against some military guy." I reply. "Plus, I'm sure since Occi probably knows you wouldn't want to do it, and she doesn't seem like the kind of person who would force you. I wouldn't worry about it." He rests his head on top of mine.

"How is everything right now? Did I miss anything in the half a day I slept?" He asks.

I infodump on him. I tell him about how Drew was talking bad about him and how I stormed off, although I didn't go into detail about what he said. I tell him about running into Ellie. I tell him about tonight. He doesn't interrupt me at all. He stays so silent I was scared he might have fallen asleep, but I know he hasn't. He's not like that. He's always been there for me to talk to, listening respectively and quietly, no matter how boring what I say is. He always listens to me as I go on and on about everything, like he cares about every word I say.

I don't ever want that to change again.

"Wow." He says after I finish. "Ellie's here? And she's ok? Wow." He looks stunned. "It never even occurred to me that she could be here. It was so long ago that the three of us were together. I mean, I didn't know her for as long as you did, but I'm still so shocked."