Out Of Orbit

Chapter 13

JARRYD

"I'm here."

Jarryd nodded at Rebecca's announcement.

"Where were you?"

"Talking."

Jarryd raised an eyebrow.

"Talking to who?"

"The wall," she replied, sarcasm dripping off of every syllable. "Who do you think?"

"The aliens." It was a statement more than a question. They'd had this conversation once or twice before.

"Yes. I was talking to the aliens. The ones that are feeding us and giving us a place to sleep."

"They're not our friends, Rebecca! They're forcing us to help them prepare for a war! If they were really friends, they'd help us get home."

Rebecca's eyes widened, tears pooling at the corners. Jarryd felt his jaw clench in response. It was getting ridiculous. Every time he tried to tell her to be more careful she argued with him. And every time he raised his voice, she'd come so close to tears he'd feel guilty. He shouldn't have to feel guilty. Everyone else understood. The aliens were dangerous. They had no way of knowing what the aliens were actually planning. Yet Rebecca spent more time with them than she did with her fellow...humans.

"They're dangerous, Rebecca. You need to stay away from them."

Jarryd winced. That had come out harsher than he'd expected.

"They're not dangerous."

Jarryd made a conscious effort to soften his tone.

"What about the war they want to put us in the middle of? You don't think war is dangerous?"

Just thinking about Rebecca in the middle of a battlefield made Jarryd tense. Whatever she thought of him, he needed to make sure she was safe. But she was making it incredibly difficult.

"They don't want to put us in the middle of it. They just want to use every possible resource to win. It's not their fault they're being attacked!"

"Of course that's what you'd think, letting them fill your head with propaganda all day, every day."

Tears slipped down her cheeks. Jarryd felt the familiar guilt eat away at the still-soft bits of his heart. When she spoke, it was with a voice made husky with crying.

"If you knew...they've been through so much. You don't understand...you can't..."

"Rebecca..."

She cut him off, shaking her head at him.

"I don't care what you think! They need our help! And I'm going to help them."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm going to fight."

"Rebecca!" Jarryd's mouth fell open.

"I'm going to fight! And there's nothing you can do about it!" Despite the tears still glistening in her eyes, Rebecca's voice was firm.

"You might not care about other people, but I do."

She left before he could stop her. A lump lodged itself in Jarryd's throat and refused to remove itself. Rebecca thought he was heartless, that he didn't care about protecting anyone else. Couldn't she see that all he wanted was to protect her?