An Outsider's Call

16

SAWYER

I walk out of my room and down the hallway, on my way to Cyvil's office. I'm still a little unsure about this, but Cyvil's the person I'm most comfortable talking to right now. Freemind people are still strange.

My arm has gotten better. All I need is to wear a thin layer of bandages, but better.

I then see Vegas suddenly run past me, and go down the steps, off to see the people.

"Oh no, Vegas, no!" I exclaim, trying to grab onto him. He leaps down the stairs, immediately out of my sight. "Oh my God, how are you so fast? Vegas?"

Oh Eli's gonna be angry when he finds out Vegas left the bedroom. He didn't want this dog anywhere near these people.

We run down all the several flights of stairs, and once I reach the bottom floor I don't see him anywhere. I groan, "Ugh, come on Vegas..."

I search for him down the open rooms. I take a turn, and see if prancing over to someone standing at the end of the hallway. They're standing in front of a gigantic window that takes up the whole wall in front of them. The scenery from outside is beautiful... giving us a great view of the ocean.

From the blue hair I see, it's America.

Vegas runs up to her and stands in front of her joyfully. America looks down at Vegas, startled, starting to back up.

"Oh!" she exclaims. "Oh my God... heh."

America smiles as she looks down at Vegas.

"It's okay!" I exclaim, echoing through the whole hallway. America glances up at me. "He's friendly."

As I walk up to America, her smile fades quickly. Her hair's in a high ponytail, other ponytails securing buns in it, and in a dark black zip up tank top again. I stand in front of her, getting awkward.

"Hey..." I say. She gives me a single nod. "We haven't had any chance to talk."

She raises her eyebrows briefly, still not saying anything.

"We got off to a bad start, America. Is there... any chance at all we could talk at all?" I ask. She stares at me.

"What? Like... sixteen power user to sixteen power user? What part of that wouldn't be awkward after knowing your kind of background?" she says. I stare at her, totally unknowable on how to feel about that answer.

"America, I know you know a lot about me. I don't know anything about you. But I know you and I have something in common. So I─"

"So you just wanna see what both of us would find relatable? Doesn't sound very informal to me. Sounds... girly." she says. I sigh, trying to keep my cool.

"I think I know why you're mad at me." I say.

"I never said I was mad at you." she points out, looking closely at her nails.

"You think I was involved with the Attack on July 3rd, 2058," I say. The moment I say that, her eyes land on mine, looking heated. "I don't know what my father made you think about me, but I swear none of it was real. I didn't know this place was real until a week ago."