Rifter Wars Book 1: Battle Lines

~ Chapter Eleven ~ (Unedited)

I woke up slowly which was odd for me. My eyes were sticky and I almost couldn't see through the eye crusts. When I finally blinked my eyes open I was still staring at a dark ceiling. It tied to think about what had woken me up and identify it. When I turned my head an inch I could see the twenty seven year old prisoner sitting crossed legged by my head.

"Oh." He said. "You're finally awake. I couldn't get you up. Your friends were trying to decide if they should wake you or not. As soon as I came to sit by you it seemed to scare them off." He smiled down at me and I blinked up at him.

That was the first thing I had heard him say that wasn't a grunt or a noise of affirmation at a comment I had made.

"Um..." I said slowly. "Yeah. I'm up. What did you need?"

"I just wanted to ask you a few questions." He said shrugging.

I sat up slowly stretching as I did so. I looked over at all my friends sitting in a circle. They could survive without me.

"Okay." I said, turning towards the man. "Go ahead. Shoot."

"First," He said. "My name's Aaron." He stuck his hand out to me. He wanted me to shake it. So I took it in mine and smiled.

"Qwin." I said. This man was kinder than anyone I had ever met.

"Second, thanks for saving my butt back there. I really appreciate it. I would probably still be stuck back there if it wasn't for you coming and kicking some butt."

I smiled at his compliment. It was the first time in a very long time that anyone had complimented me.

"Thank you." I said. "You don't know how much that means to me." I smiled brightly at him.

"Oh." He said. "And Kilmen over there," He said nodding at the Ambassador man. "Is grateful too but he is too high and mighty to admit it."

I nodded and glanced over at my friends. He saw me look and almost jumped out of his skins trying to stand.

"Oh. I'm sorry." He said. "If you want to go be with your friends you can go ahead. I'm sorry."

"No, no." I said laughing and gesturing for him to sit down. When he had I explained my look in their directions. "I wanted to make sure they were not coming over to bother us. Molo's pretty good at that."

"He likes you, you know." My eyes flashed to his and I saw all of the naked sincerity in them.

"Who? Molo?" I asked astounded. That was news to me.

"Yes." Aaron said. "Wow. You really don't see it at all? I am so sorry that you don't see it."

I just kind of shook my head looking over at Molo catching him looking at me and then quickly looking away. I had never seen it before but now that Aaron had pointed it out I had seen a look in his eyes that looked like love. How I know what love looked like I don't know but that's what it looked like to me. I looked back at Aaron watching me.

"What was your life like before the compound?" He asked.

The question was so unexpected that I lost control of my expression and I felt surprise, sadness, and anger flash across my face before I got it under control again.

"Why do you ask a question like that?" I asked him.

"I don't know." He said. "You just seem like the kind of person who has had some sort of interesting past."

I think I was probably even more surprised by his honest answer than I was by his interesting question.

"I'd rather not talk about it." I said looking away.