Intrepid (36 page)

“I think we just accidentally entered the wrong coordinates, is all. Would you be kind enough to tell us where we landed?” Liam asked, even though he knew.
 

The woman grinned. “You’ve stumbled upon the Trubulanas right at the Hours of Acid, but I’m pretty sure you know that, child.”
 

I looked up to the woman’s high ceiling only to understand that there were thousands of stories growing above us. The very skyscrapers we wandered into were the foundations for the Upling cities. The weight of it felt heavier than it should have, and it suddenly became the only thing I could think of. Something within me wanted to find stairs or an elevator and make my way up there.
 

The woman studied my expression when I looked back at her, and her eyes narrowed with a different idea. “Since you’re stuck with us for a few hours, I’m Unua. And you are?”
 

Still mesmerized by the idea of the world above me and the desire to see it lifting my mind up there, I opened my mouth to answer, “Te—” but Liam cut me off and said, “This is Tessanna, and I’m Lyndonal.”
 

Unua’s eyes widened. “Gaians! Straight from the source, eh?”
 

I wanted slap myself on the forehead for the mistake I’d almost made. Of course the names would give away what Vein we were raised on. “Yes ma’am,” I added for good measure.
 

“Are you sure that’s your name?” she asked, and I sucked in another breath.
 

Liam opened his mouth to respond, but movement from behind the beaded curtain caught his eyes, and we both watched a slender hand part the strands. “It’s not polite to lie,” the man who walked out of the room said. I’d never seen him before, but I knew the silver in his words, even in this foreign Trubulana language. He was beautiful in that calm kind of way, with bulbous cheeks and cashew-colored eyes. “You sure did figure things out faster than I thought you would.”
 

Liam squared his shoulders. “Nobu!” he exclaimed as the man collided into him with a man-tastic hug.

I backed myself towards the maze of shelves, and my entire body began to tremble.
 

Did Liam know Nobu would kill us? Unua said not to Jump during the Hours of Acid, but was that just a lie to keep us here?
 
Where could I go?
 

My eyes began to swirl as I searched for an escape. I could push another universe into existence. It looked like there were plenty of places in this store that we could hide in until the Hours of Acid ended, and every time they found us, I could push another universe out so we could hide in a new place. There was definitely enough Energy here to pull from. It’d be a strange game of hide and seek, but at least it’d protect us until we could Jump again.
 

Nobu let go of Liam, and the grin on his face was so genuine, it was hard to believe the man would ever harm him. But there were too many factors at risk. Nobu was with people who were clearly Shadow Boxers, but even that made no sense. If he was a Shadow Boxer, why didn’t he kill me on
Geeta
?
 

“How’d you know I’d be here?” Liam asked.
 

“You didn’t think Texi was the only one we’d track, did you?” Nobu said.
 

“You’re kidding.” Liam tried to hide the anger in the words. He didn’t like being tracked any more than I did.
 

“We knew you’d eventually trust your instinct and take off with her. I just thought it’d take you a little longer. You still had so much more to learn from Santiago! I thought I trained you better than to be so damn impulsive.”
   

I cringed. Nothing he was saying made sense, but I didn’t have time to figure it out. The pulse of the universe was moving too fast for me to hold it inside myself. I felt an earthquake in my heart, pulling me forward into the fingertips of Creation.
 

“Liam,” I squeaked. My voice caused the others to look my way. I backed up some more until my back hit against a shelf. There was a shivering of books and the crash of a jar as it cackled against the wooden floor and broke into shards to mix with a green, sparkly powder.
 

My eyes were doing more than the usual swirling. I knew that the purples had not only invaded my irises, but the whites around my eyes as well. I could see the shapes of their bodies like faded holograms in the distance behind galaxies being born in my eyes.

Nobu, Unua, and Liam stared at me in gap-faced horror, and I felt my skin come alive with possibility.
 

“Texi,” Liam whispered. “You have to stop.” He stepped towards me, cautious, as if he was approaching a skittish animal. The look on his face terrified me, but there was so much power in this universe—so much potential.
 

The tha-tha-tha-tha-da-thump pulse was tearing me apart from my insides, as if my lungs couldn’t keep up with my heart.
 

“Pull it in. Don’t let it out,” Nobu said, but what could he possibly know about what was happening to me?
 

Liam took another timid step towards me, and I reached out to touch his arm. But then I saw why they all looked so terrified. There was a soft, green glow radiating along my arms, and I groaned as the color intensified. I couldn’t tell if it hurt or felt good.
   

“Texi, I know it’s overwhelming, but breathe.” Nobu coached from where he stood, but still kept his distance. “Count to ten. Slowly.”
 

I nodded. “One,” I whispered, but the word barely shook out of me. “Two.” I tried to slow the pulse, but the more I tried, the brighter the glow from my skin became. My Energy wanted to reach out with or without me.
 

“Three, Tex,” Nobu added, trying to pull me through.
 

“Three,” I parroted. “Four.”
 

This little city on this little planet on this little universe within the infinite Multiverse hid something big. I squeezed my eyes shut and let go of the counting. I let go of Liam and Nobu and Unua and this little shop tucked under an Upling city, and I let my entire soul reach out to the Nothing for answers.
 

I opened my eyes, and let the trickle-tickle feeling within them burn as a smile filled my green, glowing face. “The other half,” I whispered. “It’s here.”
   

Emory
 

‘Hide and Seek’—
The Manifesto

We may end before the search, and the search may end before we do. So why bother?

My friends, there are no guarantees but one. If you never seek, you’ll never find, and this is why we bother.
 

You are not alone in this desire to give up. Everyone questions if it’s the right way to spend our time and Energy.
 

But have heart. You have those who searched before, and these are the Giants which can lift you up and inspire you towards greatness. Look to your past when you are unsure of the future, for the people who helped to build you will help remind you of your Intrepid roots.
 

-S-1, V-1
 

Epilogue
 

I couldn’t get enough of the Fun-Fried-Music Festival. What better way to spend the weekend than with my favorite bands, my best friends, and boys?

Boys, boys, boys. Upling boys at that! Upling boys were so much hotter than the Groundling boys. They had this sun-kissed way about them that made me want to run my fingers along every single tanned face I saw. These boys weren’t like Landry and Leopold down below, with their pale faces and stale breath. These boys had spunk.
 

 
The only thing I could have lived without were the port-o-podic adventures. There was never any toilet paper left, and I’d forgotten to bring the tiny roll that I usually kept in my purse. So, like always, the port-o-potties lacked the level of cleanliness I usually desired, and there was a lot of hovering and some very emphatic shaking of my toosh every time I had to pee. And, of course, the moment I was done waiting in that ridiculously long line, my favorite song began to play. Nothing is more frustrating than being stuck in a port-o-potty when your favorite song comes on.
 

When I escaped the plastic dungeon of doom, I took a breath of fresh air and looked at my watch. It was the Hours of Acid down below, but up here, the sun was still out. I thought about my parents and my brother down below. They were probably holed up playing cards to wait out the Siesta. Sometimes I missed Siestas, but that was the tradeoff. The Uplings lived every minute of every part of every day, and I was an Upling now. It wasn’t that I didn’t miss them, and it was easy enough to visit them. But ever since I turned seventeen and made the decision to attend Universidad up here, I didn’t see them much. They were happy down below, and I was happy up above, and we all loved each other enough to recognize the importance of happiness for all parties involved.
 

Speaking of party, this one was epic.
 

I ran back into the crowd and jumped into the dancing throng of bodies. I could taste the energy of it on my tongue, and I could almost feel the pulse of everyone around me. I opened my mouth to sing along, and let the song tumble out of my lungs. I’d lost my friends, but I didn’t care. I was finally starting to find myself.
 

I was in the middle of shaking my booty when I saw him. The most beautifully tanned boy I’d ever seen in my life standing just a few people away from me. He was staring at me—studying me, and it only made me dance harder and sing louder.
 

It worked, because he pushed his way past the people between us and started dancing too. “Hey, little Groundling,” he said, and his voice was smooth and bright. It wasn’t like Landry’s damp monologues or Leopold’s droopy syllables. Even the way he called me a Groundling didn’t offend me. Sure, my skin was pale, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t learning how to live in the sun.
 

“Hey, yourself,” I said back. Flirting was becoming as easy as smiling for me, and I never shied away from a chance to practice. Mika was teaching me to stop being so shy. She kept saying, “If you act like a Groundling, then you’ll always be a Groundling,” and that was the last thing I wanted to be anymore.
 

He danced closer and grinned. “How do you like the Flashlight Debutants?” he asked and nodded towards the stage. Behind the singer, who wore a strangely elaborate peacock suit, were four dancers. Each girl had strobe-light flashers on her fingers that bounced off in choreographed places as she danced.
 

I had to play it cool. No one ever openly admitted how much they loved the Flashlight Debutants. “They are kind of basic, to be honest, but they look hot while they do it,” I answered.

He stepped closer to me, and his eyes crinkled in ways that brought out different shades of brown. The boy was a hottie, but Mika always said to make them work for it, and I danced back a few steps. I looked over and grinned at another boy who was standing a few feet away. Mika said the best way to make a boy want you was to play it cool and act interested in someone else.
 

This boy wasn’t about to give up. “What’s your name?”
 

I looked at him, but didn’t wash the faux-boredom off my face. “Emory,” I answered.
 

“Ahhh. That’s a good solid name.”
 

I shook my head in protest. “No. It was the name my mother came up with because she didn’t have an original bone in her body. Do you know how many Groundlings born my year were named Emory?”
 

The boy frowned. “A name is just a name, little Groundling, and originality comes from harder stock than some label your parents placed on you. I can tell you’re a lot more special than you think.”
 

I opened my mouth to reply but then felt one of my epic headaches coming on. They’d been making appearances all week, and they always found a way to incapacitate me for a good solid minute, or ten. The last place I wanted to be was around some stranger, no matter how beautiful he was, when one hit. He’d probably try to go all knight-in-shining-armor on me, and that wouldn’t be good for my game. So I said, “Thanks. That’s sweet. I gotta go find my friends—“
 

“So soon. You didn’t even ask my name?”
 

I sighed, and felt the onslaught of twirling behind my eyes. I needed to get away fast, because my head was not about to wait for me. “Fine. Fine. What’s your name?”
 

He grinned, showing a wide expanse of extremely beautiful teeth. It was a smile that made my heart stutter slightly, and I found myself grinning back despite the daggers burning behind my forehead. His mouth curved around the words as he answered, “Awe. You think I’ll give up my name so easily?”

There it was again—that seedling of pain that reminded me that I needed to get away. My smile fell, and I reached up to rub my temple with my fingers, but before my fingers reached their destination, the boy beat me to it. It startled me, but the contours of his soft, sandpaper fingertips as they moved in circles on my temples was the most soothing feeling I’d felt all week. Rather than protest, I let my body relax into the brain massage he gave me.
 

The song changed into a slower beat, and we both swayed to the melody as my headache shrunk back. As if there was nothing strange about what he was doing, the boy continued on with the conversation. “Okay. Okay. I’m just messin’ with you. You still want to know my name?”

“MmmHmm,” I mumbled as I nodded yes.
 

He laughed, “I’m Sully. It’s nice to meet you.”
 

I smiled, and said, “Now that’s a pretty original name.”
 

Intrepid

j
.d. brewer

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