Page 30 of The Quiet
He unscrewed the top to a metal vial, and inspected the contents, stopping several feet from them.
“We’re looking for someone too,” Ella said, straightening in protest.
“Ella, don’t tell him that!” Kay whispered harshly. “Things are bad enough as it is. I say we go back and pretend this never happened.”
“Too late for that,” Ella said but spoke to the ROSE as if he’d said the words, inspecting the vial in his hand, “at least for me. I’m here for a reason.”
“I’m sorry,” the ROSE apologized firmly and for the first time Kay seemed to notice the vial and the peculiar tension building between them.
“So that’s what you did when you saved people?” Ella asked, “drugged them with Amnesia and sent them off to a camp?”
“You saw my memories,” he said, “I can’t guarantee you didn’t see a Strike. People can’t resist looking into the past and it gives Strike a window into their future. The strongest of them can communicate and even act through that window.”
“Why didn’t the ROSE take Amnesia then?” Ella argued.
“We trained to keep our minds centered in the present.”
“Well then train me too,” she said, “otherwise you’ll have to kill me, because I’m not taking it. We’re looking for someone too.”
“I don’t have time for that,” he said, “it takes months, even years to develop that kind of discipline.”
Silence settled between them in a quiet battle of wills.
“Fine.” The ROSE screwed the top back on the vial, and slipped it back into its container before walking off. He scooped up the bags he’d collected and waited for them to follow.
Ella walked forward, scanning the beach now vacant of any firearms. Kay followed.
“Ella,” Kay said, hands still shaking as he wrestled the noose off his neck. He thrust it in the direction of her arm. “Look at us!”
“I am,” she said firmly. “Just don’t drink anything he gives you, alright? He’s going to try and drug us.”
“What?” Kay said incredulously.
Unsure if his mind could process much more, Ella briefly shared her experiences inside the curse. After elaborating, she re-directed them to the crisis at hand.
“This only gives me more of a reason to find Crow,” Ella said. “He didn’t go through Tunedyl forest to get here. This had to have been why. He knew it. He has answers.”
“If he had answers, then he hid them from you,” Kay argued back, “Not only that, but he was willing to let everyone on the team die! This is our chance, right now, turn around and dive right back into the water. Safety.”
“We find Crow, help this ROSE figure out what happened to Peter, and then at least we’ll have answers, but we can’t go back yet, especially not after what just happened.”
Kay swallowed, still shaking his head as he watched the ROSE who observed them from the fort entrance with what Ella knew was measured patience.
“He’s a real ROSE,” Kay repeated.
“Yes.”
“A Strike cursed him and trapped him like that. We just let him go, and we just killed Imperiamen.”
“I did, Kay,” Ella said, “Listen to me. You can go back if you want, but I have to keep going. I have to.”
Kay nodded, and after giving him a few seconds, Ella moved to follow the ROSE. As she attempted to grab her things, she found Kay helping alongside her, and before long they both set off in silence.
Before leaving into the woods, Ella looked back at the bodies, Kay seeming to recognize the emotions on her face. As she watched them, she felt the lightheaded nausea of her blood loss, and with it, the inklings of doubt.
“You can’t stitch these together,” he said from beside her.
She nodded with a quiet, “I guess not.”
