Echoed Lullabies (Lunar Chronicles x Reader)

Chapter 8

I peered out the cockpit window at a crop of leafy plants. The fields stretched out in every direction, the view of the flat horizon broken only by a stone farmhouse nearly a mile away.

A house. A lot of vegetables. And a giant spaceship.

"This isn't conspicuous at all," Cinder mumbled.

"At least we're in the middle of nowhere," said Thorne, peeling himself out of the pilot seat and sliding on his leather jacket. "If anyone calls the police, it will take them a while to get here."

"Unless they're already on their way," I countered, but didn't meet his gaze. Neither of us had brought up the incident that had occurred a couple nights ago, where he half-tucked me in and cut my restraints. They'd stayed off since then and Cinder hadn't protested. She hadn't even said a word when I insisted I come with them on their little adventure. I'd assumed he'd said something to her.

Whether I wanted to know what it was, I didn't know.

The ramp began to lower off the cargo bay and Iko chirped, "You three go off and have fun now. I'll be sitting here, by myself, all alone, checking for radar interference and running diagnostics. It's going to be fantastic."

"You're getting really good at your sarcasm," said Cinder, joining Thorne and I at the top of the ramp as it smashed a very fine row of hearty foliage.

Thorne squinted at the glare on his portscreen. "Bingo," he said, pointing at the two-story house that had to be old enough to have survived the Fourth World War. "She's here."

"Bring me back a souvenir!" Iko yelled as Thorne and Cinder stomped down into the field. The ground was soggy from a recent watering and mud clung to the hem of his pants as he cut through the crop, making his own direct route to the house.

I followed, drinking in the wide-open farmland and the fresh air, so sweet after being locked up inside the Rampion's recycled oxygen.

"It's so quiet here," Cinder murmured, voicing my thoughts.

"Creepy, isn't it? I don't know how people can stand it," Thorne said.

"I think it's nice."

"Yeah, like a morgue is nice."

As refreshing as non-recycled air was, I didn't enjoy the quiet too much. In my career, silence meant suspicion. That, and it was so utterly boring. While I definitely had some regrets, there was a certain kind of excitement that you couldn't find anywhere else outside of battle.

A cluster of smaller buildings were thrown haphazardly throughout the fields: a barn, a chicken coop, a shed, a hangar big enough to house a number of hovers or even a spaceship, though not one as big as the Rampion.

Cinder drew up short when she spotted it. "Wait."

Thorne turned back to her. "Did you see someone?"

I followed Cinder's gaze. "Cinder—"

Without a word, she changed direction, squishing through the mud. Thorne and I trailed after her, but not without me sighing exasperatedly. Cinder shoved open the hangar's door.

"I'm not sure that breaking into Michelle Benoit's outbuildings is the best way to introduce ourselves," Thorne quipped.

Cinder glanced back, scanning the house's empty windows. "I need to see something," she said, and stepped inside. "Lights, on."

The lights flickered to life and she gasped. Tools and parts, screws and bolts, clothes and grimy shop rags, all flung haphazardly around the space. Every cabinet hung open, every storage crate and toolbox had been tipped over. The glossy white floor could hardly be seen beneath the mess.