In Search Of The Neon City

28 - Lo

My cheek rested heavily against his chest, which raised and lowered slowly, in calm, deep breaths.

It was early morning. On the verge of night, he was still asleep, and even though I was completely exhausted and tried my best, I could not fall asleep again. My heart was pounding too hard in my chest.

I studied the calm face and the extremely light skin with the small implanted circles that pulsed in a turquoise tone under the skin.

With a smile on my face, I thought about how it would feel to be constantly connected to a whole network of information. To gain access to the world in the blink of an eye.

I stroked a lock of hair from his face and smiled at the feeling of the almost synthetic white hair between my fingers. Inside, a calming feeling spread, whatever happened, I would be grateful to have met him and see the inside of Vegas.

Something told me that a life in the Wilderness would not feel as terrible now that I knew more about the world. And especially not if I could share it with him.

"Tristan?"

The unknown voice made my heart start beating even faster, but for a completely different reason, and I immediately started shaking the one they called out to, who was still sleeping next to me.

Some stranger was approaching us, and I sincerely hoped this was the person we were waiting for.

"Over here," Tristan replied, now awake, letting go of my body to get up from our temporary sleeping place.

"Good hiding place" the man sighed tiredly as he stepped forward into the dim light from our lantern "too good."

He looked to be in his forties, with orange hair and a bushy beard. So completely different from everyone else I had met in Vegas. His unkempt appearance and tired attitude reminded me more of the people outside, and I was immediately curious about the stranger.

Without caring about the man's whining, Tristan turned and extended a hand to me to help me to my feet. "Lo, this is Tom."

"And you are the famous Lo" he said and looked me up and down "the boy who made the great Tristan rethink his life and the researchers to frantically scratch their heads." He reached out a large freckled hand and shook mine with a sly smile on his lips "nice to meet you. Are you ready to meet the others?"

I nodded a little and quickly started to gather our things, pulling on my hat and backpack while glancing up at Tristan with a skeptical questioning look.

"What?" he laughed.

"The great Tristan?"

He rolled his eyes and shook his head "I will tell the long version another day, but in short, a few months ago no one would have thought I would side with the rebels. Myself included."

"True" muttered Tom "Tristan was well on his way to get a medal and shit, a big promotion was waiting when you got home. Wasn't that so?"

Tristan nodded as he bent down and picked up his own backpack "but that's history now."

"Galwa is not convinced," he continued, "you need a grand plan, not just words. Prisoners are not enough."

"Lo is no prisoner" he replied calmly and turned his gaze to me, with a soft smile he pulled his thumb over my cheek before turning his gaze back to Tom "tell Galwa I'll share all the information I have with him."

"How?" the man muttered sceptically, crossing his arms across his chest.

"You can connect directly to my Link. I have access to most of the Vegas database."