RILEY
THE KEY looked dainty in the palm of his hand. "No way! You did all that to find this?"
I'd had time to snatch the USB key and ditch the grounds of Lauren's hideout before her arrival. On my way back, I hadn't noticed headlights through the trees or heard footsteps in the snow. I'd left the chamber in complete disorder. Books to the floor, library misplaced.
When I regained my upstairs room at the cabin, not without immense relief, I hadn't received any response from Ben or Devin. They've been sound asleep through the whole night. Lucky.
"That could have gone wrong too easily," chided Devin from the armchair.
In the early afternoon, they showed up after I awoke and sent them a text message. My chicken and lettuce sandwich still wasn't finished by the time the front door opened.
"Lauren's going to search for this," I said. "I don't know any good hiding place." I was already terrified to lose it, and I'd slept with the thing under my pillow. How much time would it take Lauren to figure out it wasn't in NIO's possession? Which permanent spot for the key would be safe from both?
"What do you think is inside it?" Ben continued to rotate it in his hand, ponderous.
Devin's mouth opened to speak but she held herself back a while. She blinked, staring at the black object. "I really don't know... We can ask Raymond to crack it when he comes back."
"Can't we try it now on the computer?" I asked, feeling suddenly curious about why I hadn't tried that sooner.
"This key is encrypted, no doubt about it. It'd be a waste of time. We should worry about other stuff."
Ben and I contemplated her, me chewing the last bite of my breakfast. I couldn't help but notice how beautiful she was, like a poisonous flower. She always stood straight, shoulders squared and attracting the attention wherever she appeared. Like many mutants, Devin seemed restful, but ready to snap if needed. The afternoon light highlighted some sparse freckles under her eyes, the only thing we had in common.
"I'm disappointed that you walked all that distance in the woods when it could have taken you much less time." She gazed at me.
"Gee, sorry I couldn't drive my car through the hills."
Her eyes dulled, but a cunning smirk was starting to deform her lips. "Clueless, as usual. I'm saying it's about damn time you knew how to run like us."
❃❃❃
We stepped onto the snowed sunroom and they both hopped over the railing like monkeys, dropping several feet down. A human would have broken their knees for that height. I lamely took the stairs to join them.
It was a luminous winter day, windless, the kind where the snow was powdery yet dense. Devin seized my focus when we reached the serried cover of trees. "It'll take us a while if we walk all the way there."
"I can't go on turbo mode before I learn how to switch it," I said rather grouchily.
"Well, Ben and I can burn the miles easily. You can just jump on his back, enjoy yourself a nice little game of leap-frog."
Before I could even consider it, Ben stretched out a hand with a smile. "Let's race this grumpy old lady and make her bite the dust."
Both of them were waiting at my sides, so I accepted his offer and hopped on. His hands secured under my knees as I held onto his ginormous shoulders. From the top, I now appreciated what it was like to be so ridiculously tall. A small thrill bubbled in my chest. I laughed.

YOU ARE READING
The Skylar Experiment : Dead Ending (second draft)
Science FictionBook #3 Lauren is back, and the small town of Oakwood reels into a near-psychosis. In the dead of a harsh winter, mutants struggle to come to terms with reality; NIO is always watching, closing in slowly but surely. A sentence is pending over Riley...