Proud Machinery

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Elias cried out, and the other customers turned to look, but it was too late—he was already hurting, his face already twisted. Kess grabbed Silver's shoulder with one hand and poured electricity into her. Silver froze, locked in place by the current—but so did Elias, his body rigid and unable to pull away. For a split-second they all stood like that, a horrible three-person statue. Then Kess yanked her hand back. Silver swayed on her feet, and Elias fell backward, the needle no longer in his arm, and hit the floor.

"I'm sorry," cried Kess without thinking. "I'm sorry." She grabbed Elias and tried to pull him away from Silver, but he was heavy and she was weak and tired from having expended so much of her charge, which had been low when she walked in. She should have charged up first, she should have known it would be dangerous—

Silver, calm and seemingly recovered from the shock Kess had given her, looked around. They were in the back room of the coffee shop, so there weren't many other customers there, but every single one was looking at them. Most were confused, but one—a large man—was headed towards them with the look of someone about to sort something out.

Silver pulled something out of her pocket. What was it—a tissue? Some sort of gauzy fabric? She pressed it to her face, where it covered her mouth and nose and clung to her skin.

Without meaning to, Kess squeezed Elias's shoulder so hard her nails dug in. "Cover your mouth," she whispered in one panicked breath. "Hold your nose." He did so, and so did she, just as Silver held up a glass orb the size of a golf ball and threw it to the ground. It smashed at the feet of the concerned citizen marching towards them, and he stopped and stared down at it.

Silver walked out of the room at a business-like pace.

Elias struggled to get to his feet one-handed, his other hand holding his nose. Kess had to help him by pulling his shirt with her free hand. Then they ran, charging in the opposite direction from Silver. Running while you couldn't breathe, even just a little way, was torture. Elias drew ahead of Kess (why was she so slow?) but he reached back and grabbed her free hand, pulling her along. They reached the back door and slammed it open, stumbling out into the sunlit air.

They let themselves breathe.

Kess collapsed against Elias. He put his arms around her to hold her up, and his heart beat against his chest against her ear, and his heavy, gasping breaths moved through her hair.

"That stuff in the syringe," she said when she'd caught her breath. "Did she manage to inject you?"

"I don't think so," said Elias, "at least not with much of it. Before we ran I saw it on the floor mostly full."

"Okay. Okay. We have to go. She might circle around for us."

"But what about the people inside? What did that gas or whatever do to them?"

"It already happened, whatever it was."

"Yeah, but we have to know. We have to know what she's capable of."

Kess sighed and pulled away from him. As he let go of her, some part of her mind realized that this was the first time a boy had ever held her like that, and that she felt thinner and shakier standing on her own. She approached the shop with three wary steps and looked through the little window in the backdoor. "They look... fine."

"How could they be fine? She did something to them." He reached out as if to push the door open.

"No, it might still be in the air in there. Look, that big guy is getting up to leave. We can meet him at the front and ask him what happened."

"She might be there."

"Our cars are there anyway. And I think if she were coming for us she'd be here already."