They had lights inside their eyes, they had lights inside their eyes.

[notaparker]

Not that the clinic isn't a marvel of coconut-radio-esque science, but it's a relief to be out of there. Lying around with no company but my own thoughts -- and, okay, a reasonably steady stream of visitors bringing snacks and episodes of Archer -- isn't really my idea of a good time. I'm not always the biggest fan of my own company

Comments

[notaparker]

It seems like he was headed in the same direction as I was, but there could be other things along those paths. Heck, maybe he doesn't even know where it's going and is just wandering. I've done that, myself.

Maybe I should mention? It can be kind of alarming to stumble upon, you know, graves.

I guess it's a normal part of a community. Not that we're a normal community, and it's way less full than expected, what with people disappearing rather than dying...

Little fuller, now.

Gosh, I'm morbid, today.

"I promise I won't fall over on you," I say, trying a smile. "Uh, hi."

[notaparker]

"It's just a flesh wound," I say, "you know, of... most of my flesh."

I don't suppose he'll get the Monty Python reference. Wait, is that racist? I mean, he's doing well, language-wise, but he doesn't seem fluent. I, obviously, would be far more out of my depth in his language. What with not speaking it.

Maybe I should ease up on the references.

Maybe I should drink a rainbow and heal all my injuries.

"I can walk. I'm not winning any races, but I can manage. Um, thanks, though. Jessica, I'm Jessica."

[notaparker]

He smiled. That's kind of sweet, really, that he smiled at my completely opaque comment just to be polite.

I'd say my heart, but that's both too true and too misleading to say. "Punctured lung," I say, pressing a hand to the affected spot, but lightly. Stitches, and all. "Down in- you know, Rapture?"

[notaparker]

"Fixing, no. Healing, yes," I say, and then regret it, because it's a semantic commentary that he's not going to get. That while I'm healing, while the wounds will repair themselves and my lung, presumably, will return to allowing me to run around with the paltry fraction of my former speed and strength that is the norm here, I haven't succeeded in fixing anything. That is, things that aren't me. Things like the situation down in Rapture, like what happened to the Little Sisters.

"The doctors patched me up. In the, uh, clinic. They're very good."

[notaparker]

I pause, and lean in a little to peer at what he's indicated. That is not a great place to have a scar, mostly because of what it indicates about the wound that caused it. Head wounds are worrying. So are lung wounds, or wounds in general, but head wounds, those are bad news.

"What happened?" I say. "I mean, if you don't mind saying. You don't have to. Blank slate and all."

[notaparker]

"...Christ on a cracker," I say, because that is insane. That's horrifying, that's like the plot of a crazy horror novel or movie or something. Which, actually, the way this place and the multiverse works, it probably is, but that's not something to mention.

"As- why? Who were these people, how'd they get away with that?"

[notaparker]

He looked angry, there. Good. That, clearly, deserves anger, and I have a flash of it myself, because...

"That's- That is revolting, people should... revolt," I say. "Everyone goes along with that? That's horrible!"

I like to think that should someone try to introduce that where I'm from, it wouldn't get off the ground. Not if they were official. I've seen agencies supposedly for the good of the people do some terrible stuff, but institutionalized child murder islands are on another scale entirely.

[notaparker]

"Who- they don't know who they can trust?" I say. "Well, the kids, they can't want to go visit Child Murder Island."

But a moment's thought puts a hole in this, unfortunately. "Except some might think they could get out of it or get an advantage, because some people are horrible, and how do kids organize an uprising, anyway. Ugh, that's awful, how does a society even get to that point."