Secret Value of Zero, The (6 page)

As she sat on the campsite’s edges, she tried to ignore the others’ closeness. Everyone chatted around the lamp, eating their food. Meke always wondered what they said, but settled herself into her seat. She wasn’t young anymore. When she was five or six, whenever the other children had let her play with them—a rare, treasured event—she would laugh along with them, not understanding what was so funny. Sometimes, the children would say bad things about her and laugh, and Meke would laugh along in her ignorance. Meke had stopped laughing along after that.

Meke brushed dirt off her hand and munched on her dinner. Despite all of the varieties of Prosperon GE food, the same bitter aftertaste chased every bite. Meke wondered what it was like, to eat soil-grown food like people did once upon a time.
 

A sharp tingle emerged from behind her. Meke forced her body to still and not to turn around and investigate. Ever since Trove’s questioning stares, Meke had been more careful with her responses to her new sense. Training her body in stillness was contrary to Meke’s entire being.
 

The motion behind Meke continued. As it closed in, she could feel its small, furry shape. Not human. It could be an animal. The idea both excited and terrified Meke.
 

Prosperon, by declaring nature dead, also declared all animals dead. She had only read and heard about these creatures from other people. She had never been close to any actual animal. Bugs and insects lived in a tiny world of their own. Mammals were a different matter entirely.
 

This creature felt like some animals that Meke had seen pictures of. The body was round, but it had a long appendage—a tail, perhaps? Yes, Meke decided, it must be an animal. It moved too erratically to be a robot, which were rare anyway. Also, robots never trembled.
 

Meke wondered animal must need some kind of help. Otherwise it wouldn’t approach a strange human like her. Meke wanted to reach it, communicate with it, but she didn’t want to startle it, so she kept still, breathing lightly. With slow, steady hands, Meke crumbled her food into her palm. Theria glanced back, but seemed unconcerned with the fact that Meke was ruining her food. The others were too focused on their own food to notice anything.

Meke exhaled and flung the crumbs overhead in one smooth motion. If anyone asked questions, she would say that she hadn’t liked the food. That wouldn’t be a lie either; she hated the spam flavor of these bars.
 

The morsels landed several meters behind her, well within her sense. The small furry body darted away, fading away as it left the periphery of her sense. Meke tried not to feel disappointed. This creature would surely be skittish. Humans rarely, if ever, ventured hereabouts. Still, Meke wanted it to take the gift.

Meke resigned herself to her lost food and dignity. Suddenly, the creature reemerged into her sense. It crept toward the crumbs, its tail low on the ground. It circled the food several times before sniffing it.
 

The creature had pointy ears and a delicate snout. The shape seemed familiar, but Meke couldn’t place the name. Then she remembered the creature that was called “cat.” Before Prosperon, cats had lived with humans, almost like prized children. Now they apparently roamed free in the wilderness.

After the cat gobbled all of the crumbs, it darted away, fading into the rocks. Meke smiled and waved an unseen, silent goodbye.

AS SHE ate breakfast, Meke crumbled some more food and dropped them as they walked toward the edge of the mountain range. Meke felt slightly foolish for wasting food, but she could feel the furry body following them, snatching up the crumb trail.
 

Even when the trail of crumbs stopped, the cat still followed. This constant companion warmed Meke. Don’t be sentimental, Meke told herself, but she still smiled. Meanwhile, the furry creature clung to the periphery of Meke’s sense. Only once did she glimpse the cat with her own eyes. It was no wonder that the cat had stayed hidden for so long—dark brown spotted its long, black fur— its colors blended into the forest’s shadows.
 

Arya dropped back, nodding at Meke. “We are coming out of the mountains soon. Be careful—there are Prosperon soldiers all along the mountain exits.” Her eyes swept the entire landscape. Trove and Theria had shed their relaxed stances and now watched the area around them intently, their bodies tense and ready to act. Meke’s own muscles tightened and she nodded at Arya.
 

They had good reason to be anxious. The forest was particularly dense here with trees so close that their branches overlapped in a tangled mess. Anyone could lie in wait in the deep shadows.
 

They moved slowly, checking for intruders at every step. Meke focused on extending her sight as far as possible. She had been practicing expanding her reach. It had worked; she could feel the sense reaching further, centimeter by centimeter. Now her sight extended a few meters further than before. Meke guessed that she could feel almost fifty meters out, but she had no way of measuring her range.
 

All Meke could see or feel was the cat, still trailing them. Her brain was starting to ache from the exertion. Meke couldn’t keep her attention on the inconstant periphery of her sense for too long, so her energy flagged as they walked.
 

When they finally caught sight of the flat grasslands beyond the mountains, Meke’s concentration faltered. She hadn’t seen the flat golden grasslands in eight years. She stared at the grasses rippling in the wind. She exhaled, hoping she would get to feel these prickly straw-like reeds. She pushed her sense back into attentiveness. Once she did, alarm overtook her.

 
A large shape drifted at the edges of her periphery.
A human shape.
 

It was motionless, perched on a tree. Meke strained her brain a bit more and felt five more bodies, all on tree branches. They resided right at the outermost edges of her slowly expanding sense. She was positive that these figures were soldiers. They all held something in their hands, and they didn’t feel friendly.

Everyone else moved cautiously, but steadily. Their faces remained intent but calm.
 

Meke started to wave at Arya, Trove, anyone. Nobody looked at her. Panic wracked her mind. Meke stood there, her mind oscillating between Arya and the people in the trees.

The figure closest to them raised something to his shoulder. Meke had only seen them a few times before; it was a crossbow.

Before any thought formed itself, Meke’s feet were pounding onto the moist forest floor. As she crashed into Arya, a sharp object blew by the back of her neck.
 

Seven, eight, nine—Meke lost track of the number—pointed things flew overhead. Meke squeezed her eyes shut, but felt everything. She jerked away just before one flew so close that she felt the breeze as it passed her. The figures in the trees dropped down to the ground and closed onto them.
 

Arya lay under Meke’s weight, but her eyes were alert and searching. After the assault receded, Meke craned her neck and saw a victim of one of the darts—Cecil. Theria had dragged Cecil’s motionless body behind a tree. Trove had already taken cover a few meters in front of Theria, his sword out.
 

Meke could feel the outlines of the figures approaching as Arya shook Meke off and slid up against a tree. Most of the soldiers held crossbows, but some had swords and daggers too. Arya fumbled around for her knives.
 

Suddenly, Meke felt an attacker to their rear make a fast approach, darting behind trees. Other soldiers circled around, more cautious. Meke shook Arya’s shoulders, but the woman continued to stare into the forest toward the point where the attack had come from. The lone figure stood away from the tree, raising his weapon with its sights set on Arya.

Meke could feel her own breath rush past her teeth. She could feel the man’s every breath as he adjusted his grip with an eerie certainty. Adrenaline focused her mind, putting her target into full relief; no longer was Meke overwhelmed and dizzy with sensory overload. She only saw the man with the crossbow.
 

Meke kept thinking, “Arya will see. Arya will notice me.” As time stretched out, Arya didn’t move and Meke thought all was lost.
 

The black-brown cat leapt onto the man’s face. A whirl of black and brown surrounded the man, then was gone. The man was on his knees, free of the tree’s cover. He clutched his face, absorbed by his pain.
 

Shocked out of her stupor, Meke seized a dagger from Arya’s belt and threw the dagger, hoping for the best. She had never even held a dagger before so the dagger didn’t fly true.
 

But the aim, however poor, was good enough for an injury. The dagger imbedded itself into the man’s arm. His mouth opened to scream. Meke only had a moment to be surprised at some semblance of accuracy, and to be repulsed by it all.
 

Arya’s own dagger followed Meke’s by only a few seconds. Arya’s dagger flew truer, burying itself deep into the man’s chest.
 

Arya craned her head. A moment of stillness passed, then Arya turned to Meke. “How did you know that man was there?” Meke shook her head, but Arya took hold of her chin. “I need to know. These aren’t institution guards. These are real soldiers, far better trained. We’re outnumbered.”

The image of Cecil crumpling onto the ground sprang unbidden to her mind. The choice became clear, however Meke’s heart protested. Meke ignored the gnawing vulnerability that grew inside of her.
 

Meke raised her hands but hardly knew what to say. “I can see more than I can see.” That didn’t make sense, so she tried again. “I can feel shapes that I can’t actually see with my eyes. I can feel all around me for a good number of meters.”

It felt odd to tell someone about this. Saying these things made them real, more vivid.

Arya’s eyes widened. “You can see the soldiers around us?”

Meke nodded.

Arya blinked, then shook off the daze and nodded. “Okay, can you tell me about them?”

“There are five more people. They are further out,” Meke replied.

Arya whispered into her handheld, keeping an eye on Meke. “Where are they, and are they close to Theria and Trove?”

Meke had to close her eyes to fill her brain more easily. Two of the figures were closing in to Meke and Arya, but the remaining three were near Theria and Trove. One was only a few meters away from Trove. Meke described all of this as Arya translated her words for the others. After a few moments, Arya tucked her handheld into her pocket and faced Meke. Then Arya asked her about the ones closest to them and Meke told her.
 

Arya clenched her remaining three daggers so tightly that her knuckles turned white. She pressed down her hand palm-down, “Stay.”

Meke shook her head. “Give me something to defend myself with.”

Arya looked at Meke and with tight lips, she took a dagger out of her boot. With a quick flick of her wrist, Arya put the dagger’s hilt into Meke’s hands. “Be careful with that thing,” Arya said, then she was gone.
 

Meke still didn’t know what to do with the weapon. Having it in her hands still made her breathe easier. Even if someone came, she had a chance—a small one, but a chance nevertheless.
 

Regardless of whether she wanted to or not, Meke felt Arya’s figure glide in a large arc around a soldier. Arya drew closer to the man, her feet picking through the broken twigs and cones on the forest floor. The man remained still, watching some unseen point.
 

Arya struck quietly and efficiently. One moment, the man was crouched behind a tree and the next, he lay facedown with a dagger in his back.
 

Meke’s legs felt weak. She slid down the tree’s trunk into a sitting position, still clutching her dagger. As Meke rested her weary legs, she felt the small, familiar creature approach her. Her jangled nerves made her jump when the cat rubbed himself against her, purring furiously. Then she smiled and welcomed him into her lap and stroked the dusty fur, glad to feel something good and solid under her fingers.
 

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“Hello.” Arya crouched by her. The cat had long since fled, startled by something. “May I have that back?” Arya pointed at the dagger in Meke’s hand. Meke handed it over, sorry to abandon such a small comfort. “Everyone’s safe now.” Arya sighed, rubbing her mouth.
 

“That’s good,” Meke said. Numbness pervaded her every limb, every muscle and every thought.
 

Arya sat in front of Meke, shaking her head, smiling. “I thought Sterling was wrong, you know. But he was right. I shouldn’t have doubted him.”

“What? What does that have to do with me?”

“We’ve been feeding him information from the institution for years. He told me to bring you after I sent him your latest brain scan. I thought they’d finally killed you, so I wanted to get you somewhere safe. So, I agreed. But he said it was something more.”

The realization weighted down on her. This Sterling, this unknown man, brought her here because of what she could do. Somehow he had figured out her secret before she had.

“So this Sterling will use me? As what? A weapon?”

Arya’s mouth opened, but she closed it. “No. Don’t you think like that. He’s a great man. He saved the revolution. Without him, we were just—” she waved her hand, “—amateurs. We have a real chance because of him.”
 

Meke’s arms felt too heavy for signing. They had just rescued her because of what she could do for them. She wasn’t sure what they wanted from her, but she was sure that she didn’t want to give it. This alien feeling inside of her was becoming hers; Meke wouldn’t give it up.

“I understand,” Arya said, “it’s too much for you right now. We’ll keep you safe now, then you can figure it out.” Arya glanced up. “Trove will keep you company until I can get a hold of our escorts.”