Chapter 19 Chapter Seventeen Visit

The first thing that hit me was the heat wave - like a wall of steam, the thick and humid air rose and rolled around me, wetting my skin.Naturally, I opened my mouth and struggled to breathe through the suddenly dense air.The taste was stronger than before - the same metallic sourness that lingered in my throat as the water here. A gurgling mix of low and high notes seemed to come from all directions, echoing off the walls.I squinted anxiously through the swirling wet clouds, trying to figure out where the sound was coming from.It's bright here - dazzling at the top, like in the big room, but much closer.The light danced on the water vapor, creating a shimmering curtain that almost blinded me.I struggled to adjust my gaze and gripped Jeb's hand in panic.

I was amazed that the strange, fluid gurgling didn't respond to our entry, and maybe they couldn't see us yet. "It's very close to here." Jeb said apologetically, fanning away the steam that was coming from his face.His voice was relaxed, conversational, and loud enough to make me jump.He spoke as if no one was around us, and the gurgling went on and on and on and off his voice. "It's not that I'm complaining," he continued, "I'd have died several times if this place didn't exist. Of course, the first time I was trapped in these caves. And now, without it, we wouldn't be able to Hide here. Without a hideout, we're all going to die, right?"

He elbowed me, a conspiratorial gesture. "Great convenience, such a layout. If I had made it out of plasticine myself, the layout couldn't be more perfect than it is now." His laughter blew away a dank mist, and I saw the house for the first time. Two rivers flowed through the dank, cold, high-arched space, and that was the sound of water that filled my ears—water gushing out from beneath the purple volcanic rocks.Jeb talks like it's just the two of us because it's really just the two of us here. There is actually only one river, one small stream.The brook was nearest to us; in the light from above it flowed like a shallow woven silver ribbon round its low stony shore, as if it were ever going to overflow.A high-pitched female spoke softly, gurgling from beyond the soft ripples.

Bass voices gurgled from the river, and thick clouds of water vapor rose from the many caves in the ground near the distant mountains.The river is black, submerged beneath the cave floor, exposed along the house by broad, rounded regolith.The holes looked sinister and menacing, barely noticeable as the river rushed toward an invisible, impenetrable end.The water seemed to be boiling slowly, and that's how the heat and steam were created, and it sounded like the gurgling of boiling water.There are several long and narrow stalactites hanging upside down on the top of the cave, and the water drops towards the corresponding parasites.Three of them join together to form black, thin pillars between the two bodies of flowing water.

"Be careful here," Jeb said. "There's turbulence in the hot springs. If you fall in, you're screwed. It happened once before." He bowed his head gravely at the thought. The black vortex in the underground river suddenly became terrifying to my eyes.I imagined being trapped in the scalding rapids and it made me shudder. Jeb put his hand lightly on my shoulder. "Don't worry, just watch your step and you'll be fine. Well," he said, pointing to the far end of the cave where a shallow stream flows Dark cave, "The first cave behind there is the bathroom. We dug the ground and built a nice, deep tub. Baths have a schedule, but privacy is less of a problem—it's dark there. A piece of paint. So close to the creek, the room is very comfortable and warm, but the water will not burn you like the hot springs here. After that cave, there is another hole, through the gap. We widen the entrance That way we can get there comfortably. That room was the farthest we could go along the creek—it sank into the ground. So we turned that room into a public toilet, which was very convenient and Hygiene." There was a smug note in his voice, as if he was taking credit for what happened naturally.Well, he found and transformed the place - a little pride is warranted I guess.

"We don't want to waste batteries, most people remember the ground here, they can touch it in the dark. But since you're here for the first time, you can take this over." Jeb pulled a flashlight from his pocket and handed it to me.Seeing it reminded me of the moment he found me dying in the desert, when he checked my eyes and knew who I really was.I don't know why recalling this makes me sad. "Don't imagine that the river might take you out of here or something. Once the water goes underground, it won't come back," he warned me. As he seemed to be waiting for me to acknowledge his warning, I nodded.I took the flashlight from his hand slowly, carefully so as not to frighten him with a hasty movement.

He smiled at me encouragingly. I quickly followed the path he indicated—the sound of rushing water didn't make my discomfort any more bearable, and it felt odd to be out of his sight.What if someone guesses I'm going to end up here and hide in these holes?Would Jeb hear us fighting over the deafening sound of running water? I scanned the bathroom with my flashlight, looking for signs of an ambush.The flashlight made eerily flickering shadows that weren't comforting, but I found nothing to frighten me.Jeb's tub was bigger than a small swimming pool and black as ink.Down below, so long as I held my breath so as not to be seen, I hurried through the slender crack at the back of the room, escaping from my imagination.Leaving Jeb, the panic nearly knocked me down - I couldn't breathe properly; I could barely hear because of the buzzing in my eardrums.When I walked toward the room through which the river flowed underground, I galloped rather than walked.

Finding Jeb standing there, in the same position, alone, brought some comfort to my already shattered nerves, my breathing and heart slowing.Why this mad human being would bring me so much comfort is beyond my comprehension, and I guess these are, as Melanie says, desperate times. "It's not too messy, is it?" he asked, with a proud smile on his face. I nodded again and gave him the flashlight back. "These caves are a great gift," he said as we turned back down the dark passage, "without them we would not have been able to keep such a large crowd alive. Magnolia and Sharon got along very well together— Shockingly good — in Chicago, but they were lucky enough to hide just two of them. Having community again is such a beautiful thing, it makes me feel totally human.”

He took my elbow again as we climbed out of the uneven stairs. "I'm sorry, uh, where we let you live. It's the safest place I can think of, and I'm surprised those lads found you so quickly." Jeb sighed, "Ah, Kyle really Positive, but I think that's for everyone's benefit, let's adapt to the new situation. Maybe we can find a more comfortable place for you to live in. I will consider it. At least, when I am with you, you don't have to Tuck yourself into that little hole. You can sit with me in the aisle if you want, but with Jared." His voice faded away.

I listened in amazement to his apologetic words, a friendliness far beyond what I expected, a compassion far greater than I thought this species would be able to offer its enemies.I tapped the hand on my arm lightly, hesitantly trying to convey my understanding without causing trouble, and I was sure Jared would be more than happy not to see me. Jeb had trouble understanding my wordless exchange. "My dear girl," he said, "we'll figure it out anyway. Doctors can only concentrate on treating their fellow humans, and it's more fun if you're alive, I think." Our bodies were so close that he could feel me shaking.

"Don't worry, the doctor won't come to trouble you now." I can't keep myself from shaking, Jeb can only assure me now, no guarantee Jared won't make sure my secret is more important than protecting Melanie's body.I knew that fate would make me wish Ian had made it last night, and I choked up, feeling the scars all over my neck, into the lining of my throat. You never know how much time you will have.That's what Melanie said so many days ago, when my world was still in control. Her words echoed in my head as we re-entered the Great Room, which was the main gathering place of what Jeb was talking about as a human society. It was full of people, just like last night, everyone there had eyes of fire and anger, they looked at him with anger and betrayal, and when they looked at me, they looked murderous.I kept my eyes on the rock beneath me, and out of the corner of my eye I could see Jeb raised his gun again. Actually, it's just a matter of time.I could feel it in an atmosphere of hate and fear that Jeb couldn't protect me for long. It was a consolation to be able to squeeze through the narrow gap again, through the winding, dark maze, to my overcrowded hiding place, where I could look forward to being alone. There was an angry hiss behind me, echoing through the great cave like a nest of snakes being driven away with clubs.The sound made me expect Jeb to lead me through the maze more quickly. Jeb smiled softly.The more time I spent with him, the weirder he seemed to get.His sense of humor eluded me as much as his motives. "It gets a little boring in here sometimes, you know," he murmured to me, perhaps to himself.It's hard to tell when it's Jeb's turn, "Maybe after they stop being mad at me, they'll realize they appreciate the excitement I'm giving them now." We traversed dark trails that snaked like snakes and felt unfamiliar at all.Or maybe he went the other way and lost me.This time it seemed to take longer than before, but I could finally see the dim light glow blue around the next bend. I hugged myself, wondering if Jared would be there again.I know he'd be mad if he was there.I'm sure he wouldn't approve of Jeb showing me around, however necessary it might be. As soon as we turned the corner, I saw a figure leaning limply against the wall by the lamp, casting a long shadow towards us, but it was obviously not Jared.My hands gripped Jeb's arm tightly, and I twitched instinctively with fear. Then I actually saw the man who was waiting.Smaller than me - that's why I knew it wasn't Jared's - and very thin.Small, but also too tall, too lean and strong.Even in the dim blue light, I could see that his skin was a dark brown from the sun, his silky black hair now falling unkempt just below his chin. My knees stepped off. My hands gripped Jeb's arm in panic and braced myself. "Well, for God's sake!" Jeb exclaimed, visibly irritated, "doesn't anyone keep a secret here for more than twenty-four hours? Damn, it's getting on my nerves! People" His voice became smaller and smaller, and finally turned into a whimper. I didn't even try to understand what Jeb was saying, and I was caught in the most violent struggle of my life -- every life I've ever lived. I can feel Melanie's presence in every cell of my body.My nerve endings tingled as I recognized her familiar presence.My muscles twitched at her command and my lips quivered to part.I leaned forward to get closer to the boy standing in the aisle, and I leaned out because my arms wouldn't do it. Melanie learned a lot from the few times I gave in or obeyed her, and I literally had to fight her - so hard that new beads of sweat oozed from my brow Come.But now I am not dying as if I were dying in the desert, and I am not weak, I am not dizzy, and I am not shocked by the appearance of someone who I gave up everything and lost myself. Just knew this moment would come.My body is resilient and heals quickly - I'm strong again.The power within me that gives me control gives me strength. I pushed her out of my limbs, out of every place she was clinging to, pushed her into the deepest recesses of my mind, locked her there. Her surrender came suddenly and completely.what!She sighed, almost a moan of pain. I felt an inexplicable sense of guilt right after I won. I've learned that she is much more than a host of resistance to me, making my life unnecessarily difficult.Over the past few weeks we've become companions, even confidants - ever since the Hunter united us against a common enemy.In the desert, with Kyle's knife on my neck, I'm glad that if I had to die, it wouldn't be me who killed Melanie; More than just a body, but at the moment it feels so much more than that.I regret causing her pain. But it was necessary, and she didn't seem to appreciate it.Anything we say will be wrong, and any thoughtless action will mean summary execution.Her reactions are so frantic and emotional that she can get us into trouble. You have to trust me now, I told her, I just want us both to survive, I know you don't want to trust your human companions to hurt us but that's Jamie.she said softly.Her desire to see the boy was so strong it made my knees weak again. I wanted to look at him unemotionally—the haggard-looking teenager, leaning limply against the tunnel wall, arms tightly wrapped around his chest.I want to treat him as a stranger and react, or not, depending on the situation.I tried and failed.He's Jamie, he's beautiful, and my arms—mine, not Melanie's—want to hold him.My eyes filled with tears, streaming down my cheeks.I can only hope that in the dim light, no one can see. "Jeb," Jamie said—his greeting was low and husky.His eyes flicked to me briefly, then moved away. His voice is so deep!Will he really be that old?I felt double the guilt, realizing I had just missed his fourteenth birthday.The day Melanie showed me and I saw it was the day I first dreamed of Jamie.She struggles so hard every waking minute, suffers like that alone, hides her memories to protect the boy that he appears in her dreams and I email the hunter . I am now in disbelief in shock that I was once so callous. "What are you doing here, kid?" Jeb demanded. "Why didn't you tell me?" Jamie asked. Jeb said nothing. "Is that what Jared meant?" Jamie pressed. Jeb sighed, "Well, then you know. What's the good of that, huh? We just wanted to—" "Protect me?" he interrupted, gruffly. When did he become so mean?is it my faultof course. Melanie started sobbing in my head.It's distracting and loud - it makes Jeb and Jamie's voices sound even more distant. "Okay, Jamie. So you don't need protection, what do you want?" Jamie seemed surprised to surrender so quickly, his eyes flicking over Jeb's and my faces, struggling to come up with a request. "I want to talk to her about it," he said finally, his voice higher when he wasn't sure. "She doesn't talk much," Jeb told him, "but you're welcome to try, kid." Jeb snapped my fingers off his arm.Once he was free, he turned his back on the wall closest to him and leaned against it, relaxing himself on the ground with the gun resting firmly on his lap.Jeb's head lolled against the wall, his eyes closed.After a while, he looked as if he was asleep. I stood where he left me, trying to keep myself from looking at Jamie's face, but couldn't. Jamie was again amazed at how easily Jeb died down.He stared at the old man lying on the ground, which made him look younger.After a few minutes, when Jeb was still motionless, Jamie looked up at me, his eyes narrowed. He stared at me with furious eyes, desperately trying to be brave and grown-up, but also so clearly fear and pain in those dark eyes—that Melanie was sobbing in my head. It got louder, and my knees shook.Not taking the opportunity to crash again, I walked slowly towards the tunnel wall, over Jeb, and slipped to the ground.I curled up with my legs bent, trying to make myself as small as possible. Jamie watched me warily, then took four steps forward until he was standing in front of me.He gave Jeb a quick glance, and Jeb didn't move or open his eyes, and Jamie knelt beside me.He suddenly scrunched up his face, which made him look more grown-up than any other.Seeing the sad man's expression on the little boy's face made my heart ache. "You're not Melanie," he whispered. Not talking to him was even harder because I was the one who wanted to talk.Instead, after a moment of hesitation, I shook my head. "However, you are in her body." There was another pause, and I nodded. "What happened to your face?" I shrugged, I don't know what my face looks like, but I can imagine it. "Who did this to you?" he asked.His fingers hesitated slowly, almost touching the side of my neck.I didn't move, I didn't feel the need to avoid the hand. "Aunt Meggie, Jared, and Ian," Jeb listed dryly, and we both jumped at the sound.Jeb didn't move, his eyes were still closed.He looked so peaceful, as if answering Jamie's questions in his sleep. Jamie waited another moment, then turned to look at me again with the same serious expression on his face. "You're not Melanie, but you know all her memories and things, don't you?" I nodded again. "Do you know who I am?" I tried to swallow the words, but they escaped my mouth: "You're Jamie." I couldn't help saying the name in a caressing tone. He blinked, surprised that I broke the silence.Then he nodded and replied softly: "Yes." We all looked at Jeb, who was still motionless, and then at each other. "So do you remember what happened to her?" he asked. I cringed, then nodded slowly. "I want to know," he said softly. I shake my head. "I want to know," Jamie repeated, his lips trembling, "I'm not a kid, tell me." "It won't be very pleasant." I said softly, unable to stop myself from refusing the boy's request. His straight black eyebrows were knit together and frown in the center of his large eyes. "Please," he whispered. I glanced at Jeb, thinking he might be peeping at us through his eyelashes now, but I'm not sure. My voice is as soft as breathing. "Someone saw her go into a place in the exclusion zone and they knew there was a problem and they called the hunters." He flinched at the address. "The hunters tried to make her surrender, and she fled. When they trapped her, she jumped into an open elevator shaft." I shudder to think of the painful memory, and Jamie's dark face turns pale. "She's not dead?" he asked softly. "No, we had very skilled therapists, and they fixed her very quickly. Then they implanted me in her, and they wanted me to tell them how she survived so long." I didn't intend to say much, my The mouth suddenly closed.Jamie didn't seem to notice that I was slipping, but Jeb's eyes slowly opened and he looked at me intently.The rest of his body didn't move, and Jamie didn't notice the changes. "Why didn't you let her die?" he asked.He had to choke with difficulty, and was about to sob.It's all the more poignant to hear, because it's not the sound of a child's fear of the unknowable, but the groan of an adult fully understanding the difficulty.It's so hard not to put my hand on his cheek, I want to take him into my arms and pray he won't be sad.I clenched my hands into fists, trying to focus on his question.Jeb's eyes flicker across my hand, then back to my face. "I wasn't there when the decisions were made," I said vaguely. "I was in a cryogenic chamber in deep space when those things happened." Jamie blinked again in surprise. My answer was completely unexpected, and I could tell he was struggling with some new emotion.I glanced at Jeb, his eyes sparkling with curiosity. Jamie was equally curious, but more wary. "Where are you from?" he asked. Involuntarily, I smiled at the reluctant interest rising in his heart: "Very far away, another planet." "That's" he started to ask, but he was interrupted by another question. "What the hell is going on?" Jared yelled at us as he turned the corner out of the end of the tunnel, only to freeze there in a rage, "Damn it, Jeb! We agree not to—" Jamie stood up. "Jeb didn't bring me here, but you should have brought me here." Jeb sighed and stood up slowly.As he did so, the gun rolled off his leg and onto the ground, where it stayed just inches away from me.I moved away quickly, feeling very uncomfortable. Jared reacted quite differently. He jumped at me and ran across the aisle in just a few steps.I huddled against the edge of the wall, covering my face with my arms, and through the gaps in my arms I peeked at him pulling the gun up from the ground. "You want us killed?" he almost screamed at Jeb, pointing the gun at the old man's chest. "Calm down, Jared," said Jeb in a weary voice, holding the gun in one hand, "if I leave it beside her all night she won't touch it. Don't you understand Is this?" He pointed the barrel of the gun at me, and I cowered away, "Well, she is definitely not a hunter." "Shut up, Jeb, shut up!" "Don't talk about him," Jamie yelled, "he's done nothing wrong." "You!" Jared retorted, throwing his temper at the thin, angry man, "get the hell out of here now, or I'm going to strike!" Jamie clenched his fists and stood his ground. Jared clenched his fists too. I stood there in shock, how could they yell at each other like that?They are family, and their bond is stronger than any blood relationship.Jared wouldn't hit Jamie - he couldn't!I want to do something, but I don't know how, and anything that makes them notice me makes them angrier. Only this time, Melanie was calmer than I was.He couldn't hurt Jamie, she thought confidently, it was impossible. I watched them, confronted like enemies, feeling overwhelmed. We shouldn't be here in the first place.Look how unhappy we make them.I groaned. "You shouldn't have kept the truth from me," Jamie said through gritted teeth, "and you shouldn't have hurt her." One of his hands dropped, and it was raised to point at my face. Jared spat on the ground: "That's not Melanie, she's never coming back, Jamie." "That's her face," said Jamie firmly, "and her neck. Don't you feel sorry for the scars there?" Jared put down his hand, he closed his eyes, and took a deep breath: "You either leave immediately, Jamie, give me a little space, or I will force you to leave. I am not scaring you, I am now Can't take it anymore, okay? I'm at my limit, so how about we talk about it later?" He opened his eyes again, pain in them. Jamie watched him, the angry look slowly fading from his face. "I'm sorry," he whispered after a while, "I'll go but I can't promise I won't come back." "Now I can't think of that much, go, please." Jamie shrugged, gave me another searching look, and strode away quickly, making me agonize over lost time again. Jared looked at Jeb, "Go away too." He said bluntly. Jeb rolled his eyeballs: "I don't think you've rested long enough, to be honest, I'll monitor" "Go away." Jeb frowned thoughtfully. "Okay, sure." He started down the aisle. "Jeb?" Jared called after him. "What's the matter?" "If I asked you to shoot it right now, would you do it?" Jeb kept walking slowly, not looking at us, but his words were clear: "I had to do it, I gotta play by the rules. So don't make me do it unless you really want to." He disappeared into the darkness. Jared watched him go.Before he could take his anger out on me, I ducked into my uncomfortable sanctuary, huddled deep in the corner.