"What do you think?" Judit's big eyes were boring into Sannah, her face anxious. "I know you had plans, like, for us. But you don't know what it's like here. And there's a lot..." The big eyes left Sannah, looked around, to the cliffs, to the moon. "I know it sounds crazy, but I think it's a good idea, I really do."
Sannah rubbed her eyes with her hand, tried to take it all in. She'd barely slept at all, kept up by the most ghoulish nightmares (Saint killed Bayim, shot him in the face. Saint paid to sleep with her mum), and her mind was claggy and malformed, like damp toilet paper in a bowl.
She didn't have plans, not really. She'd told Judit she had, but it had been a lie. So could she? Do this off kilter thing, like Judit said? There was nothing stopping her, not really. What did she have to go back for? Saint.
No. The more distance between her and him, the better. She thought of Bayim, again, and pain twisted in her guts so hard she thought she might be sick. She hated the world. Hated it. She just wanted to get as far away from the whole sick, ugly thing as possible. So yes, she had nothing to lose.
"I'm up for it," she finally said, decisive. "Yes. I think yes. Are you sure it's safe?"
Judit grinned, leaned in and squeezed Sannah's arms. "I think so. I mean, no, I'm not sure, but Gaen seems to think so. So I suppose that's a risk we've gotta take."
"I'll do a bit of research," Sannah said, taking her top lip between her teeth. "See what I can find out."
Judit hugged Sannah awkwardly, kneeling on the sand, and Sannah hugged her back, trying to hold back the tears that were always on the cusp of falling, now. She failed, and began to sob.
"Are you okay?" Judit pulled back, her hands still on Sannah's arms. "I don't think I've ever seen you cry before. And now, and the other day on the boat..."
She studied Sannah's face, and Sannah avoided her eyes, looking over to Brock and Lintie, cuddling and conferring by a black rock.
"Did something happen? At school? While I've been away? You seem different." Judit paused, looking at Sannah, then looking down to the sand. "I don't even know how you got here," she said.
"I'll tell you. All of it. Not now. When we've finished all this." Sannah roved the bay, the cliffs, with her eyes. She took a deep breath, wiped her cheeks, blinked away her tears. "So. How the skit do we get you all out of here?"
Judit called Brock and Lintie over, and they separated, made their way from the rocks to the sand. Lintie looked at Judit. Judit nodded, and smiled.
"Hiya," Lintie addressed Sannah, beaming widely. "I'm so pleased. I can't wait for you to meet everyone. We came down on our own, 'cos we didn't want it to look suspicious. If they tracked us. But everyone is looking forward to meeting you. I'm Lintie. I didn't say hello properly before." She offered Sannah an extra warm smile, and Sannah smiled back, hoping it didn't look as insincere as it felt. Happiness was a bit of an alien concept to her right now.
"So. We have a plan," Judit said. She recounted her Lavy idea to the group and they nodded, taking it all in. Lintie had obviously heard it before. She would nod excitedly just before Judit said certain things, indicating to the others that something important was coming next.
"Genius," Brock laughed.
His voice was sparkling. It's because Lintie's coming at last, Sannah thought. They're going to be properly reunited. She thought of Saint again and felt like death.
"So I need you to write some instructions for us," Judit went on, addressing Sannah now. "For Jaddy. How to do it, once he's in the mainframe."
"I can do that." Sannah nodded. "Do you have a screen, Brock? So I can look a few things up?"
He nodded. "Yup. And a pen and paper on the boat, if you want it."
"Prepared for anything," Lintie laughed. "Such a boy scout."
He pushed her affectionately, and Sannah's heart broke a little more. That's love. That's what it looks like. Real love don't do this to you, Dierdra intoned in Sannah's head.
Brock brought the screen and a pad of paper from the boat, and Sannah sat on the grainy sand to work out her instructions, glad to have something to bury her mind in. The others were still planning besides her.
"So you know what to get?" Lintie asked Brock, swinging on his hand.
"Course I do. I was born for this."
"Merle said not to forget soap. She said if you leave it to boys they're bound to forget soap. She gave me this list to give to you." Lintie scrabbled in her blouse and pulled out a paper.
"And menstrual cups," Judit said. "I have mine, but I'm not sharing it. That'd just be gross."
Lintie laughed, and the two girls began painting ridiculous sharing-sanitary-product scenarios.
"The only thing is, I'll need money," Brock hesitated. "I have some, but really the more the better, at this point."
"Dag." Lintie's voice was heavy. "I don't know what to suggest."
"I have some," Sannah said without looking up from her sheet. "About two hundred digits."
"Skitting hell." Judit's voice was shocked. "Is that how much you made doing that pop-up stuff at school?"
"More actually," Sannah still didn't look up, concentrating on her code.
void loop() {
// pinMode(rxPin, INPUT);pinMode(txPin, OUTPUT);
// gpsData=Serial.read();
gpsData=network("C.Cepphus_1").read();
if (gpsData==-1) delay(100);
"But that got stolen. I got this afterwards."
else {buffer[counter]=gpsData;
counter++;
Serial.print(gpsData, BYTE);
"Skitting hell," Judit said. "You really have a lot to tell me."
if (gpsData=13){
for (int i=1;i<7;i++) {
good=0;
"Crude," Brock said. "We'll be all set with that. I can really get us fixed up. You up for going shopping tomorrow, Sannah?"
if (buffer[i]=="$GPRMC"[i-1]) good=1;}
if (good==1) transmitData(txPin, buffer);} } }
Sannah nodded, adding a final bracket to her code. The instructions were huge. She'd used both sides of six sheets of paper, in her tiniest, neatest writing. She took up the screen, flicked to a search window, see if she could dig up any dangers in their potential plan.
The others continued talking excitedly, mostly about what Brock should buy.
"Chocolate," Lintie was saying. "Get some chocolate. I miss chocolate so much."
Conquest, clearance. A military base. And now, useless, unnecessary, facing the wrong side of the world, nothing.
It seemed Judit's friend was right. It looked like it was safe.
"So." Sannah clicked off, looked up, passing Brock the extinguished screen.
"I'm all set. We're ready, guys. It looks like we have a plan."
YOU ARE READING
Wildlings
Science Fiction✨Watty Shortlisted!✨ In Albia, the poor are scum, and there's no scum worse than Exotic immigrants. Shy, studious Sannah MaVae is determined to make something of herself, escape the expected fate of a young Exotic. It's just a shame her wild little...
