Hypersonic Missiles

Ada

I woke up early but I wasn't the first up.

Beside me Sam was sound asleep, I could hear Johnny mumbling to himself but he too was out cold.
Most of them were still sleeping actually, it was only Eli who was sitting, up by that same window, watching.

I wanted to ask what he was looking at but I knew it was a stupid question. That and I wasn't sure I wanted him to know I was awake yet.
I wasn't sure I wanted to be alone with him, not because I thought he was the kind of bad that would hurt me, but because he was the kind of older lad that scared me senseless. He was serious, but I knew he was too young to be as serious as he was. He hardly smiled, his brows always firm and set, his eyes always watching, always brooding and dark. And he seemed so frustrated by me, so unforgiving, I wasn't sure I wanted to wind up stuck in conversation with him alone just yet. If I said the wrong thing and no one was about to get me out of my mess I wasn't sure where I was likely to end up. 

"Ada..." he said, his voice low and tired. He wasn't watching me, his eyes cast out the window, so how he'd known I was awake I couldn't be sure, "come here I wanna show you something..." he said nodding me over then when he didn't hear movement from my bed. 

I bit my lip, hesitating, looking at him like a baby bird trying to assess a potential threat.

"Come on love you'll miss it," he said nodding me over to him again so that this time, though still a little nervous to show him that I was awake, I pushed myself up off my mattress and tiptoed my way across the mess of beds on the floor to get to Eli where he sat watching out the window. 

The glass was dirty, probably safer that way so as no one could see in, but through it I could see what he was looking at. Just out to sea, a wreckage. The sunlight hit off it and lit it up like copper or rust, glowing this early morning shade of brownish gold. It was gorgeous, but it wasn't that he was looking at. Playing in the waves around the skeletal structure there were dolphins, grey and glistening, dancing between the metal and the waves. 

"Gorgeous aren't they," he said softly, "bet yas havent seen anything that pretty in a while have you little one?" he asked, his eyes never once straying from the sight before us. I shook my head, biting the tip of my thumb as I looked out the window and gazed in quiet awe at the beautiful scene. It wasn't a scene in fitting with this world. 

"You didn't sleep much last night did you," he said then, not a question but a statement of fact, "don't lie to me cause I know you didn't..." he said making me blush a little as I focused my gaze on the dolphins and the sea though the sun had already risen high enough it no longer bathed the ocean in honey coloured light. It was grey again now and the life was beginning to drain away. 

"I slept a bit," 

"Not enough though Ada, you need to rest up and look after yourself if you're gonna heal,"

"I'll heal," I said quiet and determined, perhaps not so much determined but desperate, "I'll be fine," I said because I knew I had to be. If I didn't heal, if my wounds got worse I'd wind up dead. 

"You need to rest, go on, go back to sleep..." he said nodding back to the mattress beside Sam who was still fast asleep. I frowned, brows knitted in confusion, why had he called me over to sit with him if all he was going to do was send me back to bed again. 

"But..."

"No buts, go on now, bed," he said his stern features and his stubborn eyes telling me to do as he said. I swallowed a lump in my throat, trying to hide my confusion, trying to hide the fear which bubbled up inside me the second he changed his tone. For a brief moment I thought I'd seen him soften as he watched the sea and the sunrise. Perhaps I had been mistaken.