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“Hey,” Crew looked down at me. “Whatever you’re thinking, don’t. This is going to be fine. I promise.”
I shook my head. “It isn’t that. Maybe I don’t deserve it.”
He scrunched up his eyebrows, shaking his head. “I say you do, and I’m in charge here. That’s all there is to it, so get some rest.”
Crew shut the lid without another word, and after a brief second of confusion, I fell asleep, darkness moving through and then over me like a warm blanket as the buzzing swallowed my world.
* * *
It was the lack of noise that woke me. Crickets sounded somewhere in the distance, but other than that, no noise filtered to me wherever I lay. I struggled to wake, and a gentle hand stroked my hair away from my forehead. “Easy, beautiful. You were in there a lot longer than I expected, but you’re healed now. It might take a few seconds for you to reorient from the machine, so move slow and take it easy.”
Finally, with more struggle than I could ever remember having before waking up, I blinked awake. My head was on Crew’s lap. He ran a casual hand through my hair as he regarded me quietly.
“I feel funny,” I said, because I did, and I couldn’t quite define it.
He nodded. “That’s the drugs. They even hit people like me, sometimes even harder than they hit you. But you’ve been asleep for a few hours. Just rest. There’s no rush to get out of here.”
“Raine?” I managed to ask. My throat was dry, but he produced some juice from nearby and offered it to me. First, he helped me sit up, and then he gave me some to drink. I swallowed it down, the cool sensation pushing away the parched, dry feeling.
“She’s fine, ” he finally said. “Gator brought her to some other families. She’ll stay with one of them, and they’ll help her and the baby.”
I never found out what she decided to name the baby. In that moment, I didn’t really think I’d remember it anyway, if he did know it. I rubbed my eyes. “Everyone else is okay?”
“As far as I know, they are. Gator told them where we are, if they need us. We’re just far enough outside of town for me not to be able to hear them and they can’t hear us. I figured I’d give us all a little privacy while you recover. There are too many ears interested in you right now. You’ve become a local celebrity overnight. That can’t be fun, especially when you’re not feeling well.” He sighed. “And obviously we have to start working on privacy issues.”
I was sure he was right, but it was too much for me to think about right then. Instead, I leaned back against the wall and closed my eyes. I decided to take his advice and just let my body wake up, since lethargy weighted my limbs.
Eventually, I opened my lids. Everything was sharper, brighter. I could see again and the dizzy, off feeling had passed, thankfully. Crew leaned against the wall next to me, his eyes closed and his breathing steady. After a second, he opened them to regard me. “Feeling better?”
“I am.” Much, much better actually. My hands didn’t hurt, my body felt cool. A crick in my neck I’d forgotten I had was gone. I noticed the absence, having grown so used to the pain. “Thank you. How were you able to fix it so fast?”
“That was Gator. He’s really capable with a lot of technologies. We were the same rank way back when, but he followed me here, and now it’s like I’ve somehow become everyone’s de facto leader. I didn’t ask for the role, in case you’re curious. Anyway, it was just a spliced wire problem. Net could have fixed it, but he didn’t want to. The more I learn about him, the worse it gets.”
I blinked. “His name was Net? Lightning Man, you called him Net?”
“That’s who we think he was, at least. He never introduced himself, but from what everyone can remember, that was his name.” He shook his head. “He had a lot to answer for, and maybe he met death too quickly.”
I leaned my head on his arm. “Maybe he did, but I’m glad he’s gone, and I’m sure Raine is, too.”
“Raven. ” His voice sounded more like a sigh. “I need you to know…I never did any of those things. Not ever. I was ordered to do some bad things, but not like what he did. And I’d like to think, if they had ordered me to do terrible things, I wouldn’t have done them. I would’ve taken my death from them and said no.”
“I do know.” I guessed I shouldn’t have sounded so sure, but I felt sure. None of the people hanging out with Crew shared Lightning Man’s level of evil.
I was sticking with that name for him, too. I preferred it.
I lifted my head to look at Crew, only to find he’d closed his eyes again and seemed to be resting. “Are you okay?”
He seemed sort of…off. Tired. Granted, he’d run after me at high speeds, so he was entitled to get tired. It’s just I knew it took more than that to wear him out. These men showed me so much kindness, and I didn’t feel like I was at risk in their presence at all. Just the opposite. They kept protecting me.
I’d never had so many people solely focused on me before, as I’d been more of a peripheral person. I’d gotten very comfortable by myself, in fact, and used the time to observe others. Being their focus now, well, it struck me as more than unique.
Swallowing, I ran a hand through his hair when he didn’t answer me. “Crew?”
“I have a pretty bad headache.”
I hadn’t expected that. “Does that happen to you usually? I know you guys are almost never sick.”
He winced. “First headache ever that didn’t come from banging it really hard.”
