Hugh Howey - Molly Fyde and the Land of Light

And then he was gone. Electric motors flew into gear, propelling the shuttle forward, knocking the lance to the side and sending the blast out over the empty wasteland. Molly held the lever forward, hurtling them, unguided, away from the fracas. She peered back down the aisle toward the rear.

Cole and Edison were there, holding themselves against the jamb of the glass, the lurch forward having nearly sent them out through the opening.

She signed as they clutched one another, regaining their balance.

Safe.

Molly rested in the bench behind the driver’s seat. The hand she’d injured in the guard’s mouth was wrapped in strips of torn tunic; her good one was intertwined with Cole’s. Ahead of her, Dani drove with one hand, his right arm black and singed from a glancing shot. Without the bands, they couldn’t tell how bad his injuries were, or if it was the gun or lance that had caused them. Molly had tried to tend to the wound while he steered, but he had waved her away.

The other shuttle had given chase for a few kilometers before its fuel cells ran completely dry. Molly and Cole had debated on whether it was even safe to be heading for the city and who they could trust. Dani, they were sure of. Both Questioners had risked their lives for them—one paying the ultimate price.

In the end, they decided to leave their escape up to Dani, who had to be as paranoid as they after that last trap. Part of Molly was too exhausted to care, eager to have someone else decide. She looked down in her lap where the Wadi lay, curled up and content. Walter had found some food supplies and juice pouches scattered from the crash; the lizard had sucked one of them dry and then fallen asleep.

Every now and then, Dani craned his neck around to gaze at the thing, his eyes wide in wonder.

Leaning forward, Molly looked across the aisle to check on Edison. He’d been tinkering with his lance for the past hour, using his adaptable, prehensile claws to inspect its innards. Molly cautioned him twice to watch where he pointed the thing—she could only guess at what sort of modifications he was making. As if the things needed to be more deadly. She tried to shake the image of Walter’s Questioner out of her mind—his body cut in half, guts spilling everywhere, the putrid odor—but couldn’t quite do it.

As soon as they pulled onto a paved road along the city’s outskirts, the ride improved immensely, and the shuttle became less noisy. A breeze continued to waft in from the broken window in the back, cooling the sweat on Molly’s neck. She squeezed Cole’s hand as they passed a glass dome with trees and plants inside.

“I see it,” he said.

The strange sights outside had Molly longing to ask Dani more about his home planet. But even if she had the means to communicate with him, he seemed too lost in his own thoughts to have hers intrude. Then again, if his morose and contemplative demeanor had anything to do with having been betrayed, she could certainly give him some advice on that. Even if it was just to warn him that it never got easier to take.

For a few kilometers, they continued to approach the distant band of skyscrapers. Then, Dani turned to the right and merged onto a busy road dozens of lanes across. Molly watched the lights illuminating the highway fly by, then followed the vertical poles ahead as they converged on the horizon. She pictured the wide swath of pavement and steel stretching all the way around the planet, like a wedding ring around a finger. She imagined one could drive in a straight line, forever, ending up right where they started. Circumnavigating Drenard would be one endless trip through an unchanging, dawn-soaked city. As boring as that seemed, she felt a strange compulsion to do it, driving all the way around, just to say she had.

Compared to Earth freeways, the traffic was heavy, yet swift. Molly watched Cole’s head spin to follow the odd vehicles that went past, sorting out shapes and models and doing boy-brain things. She was far more interested in spotting the people inside the shapes.

Smaller females that made her think of Anlyn could be seen riding in the back. Children often had their faces pressed to the glass, watching the large shuttle rumble past. Every now and then, blue eyes would widen and flash as they spotted Molly—a human! Disbelieving shock would register on their pale faces and then be lost, replaced with the see-through reflection of Molly’s own image in the glass.

She could see Cole’s reflection in the window as well, looking past her. When their eyes met, they smiled at each other’s reflections. An old habit from the simulator.

They spent almost an hour on the road, moving at a blistering rate of speed. Molly felt tiredness creeping into her head, tugging at her eyelids, but her heart was still racing, her body too keyed up, her accelerator pinned. She wouldn’t be able to sleep until they were safe, even though such states usually ended up being illusory.

“Whatcha thinking about?” Cole asked.

“Hmm? Oh, nothing. Just tired. I feel like we haven’t stopped running in over a month.”

“Yeah. Except for whenever we’re in prison.”

Molly laughed. “I guess we should start appreciating that time a little more.”

“No thanks,” Cole said. “At least when we’re running, we’re together.”

Molly faced him and batted her eyes sarcastically. “Awww. Aren’t you romantic?”

“I’m serious. In fact, that’s what I’ve been thinking about for most of the ride. Along with why this planet doesn’t seem to have any billboards.”

Molly looked out her window to confirm his observation.

“If I hadn’t gone on that trip to Palan with you, what would the rest of my life have been like?”

“Peaceful?” Molly offered.

“Boring, more like. Or empty. I don’t know. Forty years of crunching jump numbers, if I was lucky and didn’t get blasted out of the sky.”

“Why are you thinking about stuff like that?”

“Because I’ve nearly died a few times in the past two days.” He released her hand and rubbed the back of the Wadi as if to remind her of one of those times. “And I’m not freaked out by it. Not like I should be.”

Molly watched his hand slide across the colorful scales between the two protruding stumps on the Wadi’s back. “Do you feel numb or something?”

Cole looked over at her. “No. The opposite. I feel really alive . There’s something about being around you, but I—” He paused.

“But you what?”

“I’ve always felt it a little bit. Even back at the Academy. I always felt like you were special. Different . And back then I thought it was because—”

“Because I’m a girl?” she offered.

“Yeah. But not… that . Not the way I feel about you now. Not at first.”

He stopped petting the Wadi and rubbed his face with both hands. “Man, it’s so hard to explain. And not because I can’t say it—it’s like I just don’t understand it. All I’m saying is that I feel like I’ve lived a good life just by being around you. As friends, and now… whatever else we are.”

Molly reached over and cupped his far cheek, pulling his head around to face her.

“Just tell me you love me . That’s what you’re feeling. That’s what the words are for.”

“I love you,” he said. “I do. But it’s more than that. I promise. When I figure it out for myself, I’ll explain it to you.”

“You do that, handsome.” And she leaned over to give him a kiss.

The Wadi in her lap stirred, sniffing the air. Now that was an emotion she hadn’t sensed in several shifts of the two lights.

The defense spaceport came into view well before they got there. Tall, streamlined shapes stood vertical against the waving tapestry of colorful, sun-setting lights. The shiny hulls scattered the hues in all directions, mixing the beauty of natural wonders with well-planned, artificial forms. The accidental and the engineered played off one another to the betterment of both.