Lifel1k3 (Lifelike #1)(53)
Eve breathed deep. Looking inside herself and finding her old pragmatism waiting just below the surface.
“Let’s just get this done,” she said. “Sitting out here and chattering is a nice way to get ourselves spotted and perforated by those Freebooter bullyboys.” She glanced at the lifelike. “Can you manage Kaiser? I’ll get Cricket.”
“Right.” Ezekiel scooped up the blitzhund, slipped over Lifeboat’s side and into the water. Holding Kaiser with his one good arm, the lifelike floated on his back and kicked with his legs, powering away across the bay. Eve handed Excalibur to Lemon, plopped Cricket on her back and slid into the water, a little sickened at its greasy warmth. It was jet black, scummed with a thick gray froth of plastic and Styrofoam. Lemon followed into the soup, patting Lifeboat gently on its hull.
“Good job, girl,” she whispered. “You can go home now. Thank Carer for us.”
The ship trembled, its shell slipping closed. With a soft exhalation, it sank below the surface. Eve felt the current swell underneath her, the rush of water as the vessel swam away, leaving them alone in a sea of oily black.
“This water reeks,” Lemon muttered.
“It’s going to smell like a sea of roses compared to that sewer.”
“Pfft,” Lemon scoffed. “How do you know what roses smell like, Riotgrrl?”
Eve chewed her lip, the sting of old memories tightening her chest. She turned and began breaststroking across the water, Cricket on her back, Lemon close behind. She paddled through the slurry, pausing as the occasional searchlight skimmed the water. The Freebooters didn’t seem too jumpy, jawing and joking as they patrolled—Eve figured they weren’t expecting much capital T to come out of Zona Bay. A body would have to be downright desperate to swim in this slop. Even more desperate to go crawling through sewers afterward.
Turns out Desperate was becoming Eve’s middle name.
They made it to the outflow, and Eve’s stomach tried to crawl out her mouth and run away screaming at the stench. She dragged her kerchief up over her lips and nose, blinking back hot tears. Lemon was softly cursing with more skillz than Eve had ever given her credit for. The pipe was two meters wide, blocked with iron bars just past the entrance. It was crusted with filth, smelled like absolute death with a slice of warm intestine thrown in.
Ezekiel slung Kaiser up onto the outflow’s lip. Struggling a little with only one arm, he still managed to haul himself up, taut muscles glinting in the moonlight. Bracing himself against the curved wall, he propped his leg on the bars and pushed. With the grating sound of tortured metal, the steel began to bend, finally popping loose from its welds with an echoing spannnng.
Floodlights arced across the bay, scything toward them. Ezekiel grabbed Lemon’s hand. “Come on, Freckles.”
“Nononono!” she yelped. “Age before beauty, I insi—”
Ezekiel pushed the girl into the tunnel, then reached down to Eve. His eyes locked with hers. Cricket scrambled off Eve’s shoulders, up Ezekiel’s arm. Eve grabbed hold of Ezekiel’s fingers, felt his superhuman strength as he hauled her out of the greasy sludge. He crushed her against his body, leaned back against the wall as a floodlight fell on the outflow entrance. Her heart was hammering under her ribs. His chest hard as steel beneath her hand.
“Shhh,” he whispered.
The floodlight hovered over the entrance for a few moments more, did a pass of the black water around its lip. But finally, it retreated. Eve heard distant bells echoing across the bay, the squawk of comms units and a grumbling automata growl.
“Close,” he said.
“Very,” she agreed.
Ezekiel held on to her longer than he should have. Part of her wanted to stay in his embrace longer still. But the reality of it, the rust and the stench, the blood and the hurt, all of it stained the moment for Eve, sent it spiraling down into the black water of Zona Bay.
“We should go,” she said.
Ezekiel nodded, helped her to her feet.
They joined Lemon and the others, waiting just inside the tunnel, then Ezekiel slipped off into the dark, boots trudging through the sludge. Eve took a deep breath and plunged in after him, her optic and Cricket’s eyes lighting the way. Lemon couldn’t see too well, and Eve took her hand, squeezing tight. Even with all the chaos of the last couple of days, all the blood and muck, the revelations of the life Eve had lived and lost, she still had Lem. Still had Cricket and Kaiser. Still had people she loved.
People I love …
She glanced at Ezekiel, forging through the dark. Part of her was grateful for his help. The rest of her was hateful of needing it in the first place. She’d no idea how to feel about the rest of him. Life had been simple a few days ago. Her worst worries had been finding meds for her grandpa. Winning in the Dome. Dodging trash like the Fridge Street Crew.
Now her grandpa wasn’t her grandpa. She was the last surviving member of CorpState royalty, with a bunch of psychopathic androids on her tail. She was a deviate, an abnorm, her manifestation at the WarDome probably broadcast to every Brotherhood chapel between here and the Glass. She had no scratch. No plan. No idea.
But at least she wasn’t alone.
“True cert,” Lemon whispered. “If you ever had doubts about my affection for you, Riotgrrl, I hope crawling into a sewer for you will put ’em to beddy-byes.”
Eve squeezed her friend’s hand, smiled in the dark.