The Anomaly Project

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

AUTUMN

The door to the snack shack swings open and hits the inside wall with a loud bang, announcing Masato's entrance. I glance up at him from where I'm kneeling, organizing the cans, and we nod at each other. I don't say anything, and neither does he.

Masato kneels beside me and starts helping me sort through the cans, but I can tell he's catching glimpses at me while we work. I keep my eyes away from his.

Finally, he stops in the middle of what he's doing and stares directly at me. I pretend not to notice his piercing gaze, but after a few minutes he lets out his breath loudly and I have to meet his eyes. I raise my eyebrows, feigning innocence. "What?"

"Something's wrong," he says, frowning at me. "You're upset about something. What's up?"

"I'm fine," I reply, wanting to avoid this conversation. Noah made me swear not to tell anyone we were leaving because he doesn't want them to try to convince us to stay. But it's really hard to keep secrets from Masato. He always seems to know what people are feeling, which makes him easy to talk to. But, I can't talk to him about this, no matter how much I want to.

I turn from him, kneel on the wooden floor, and continue sorting through the cans of food. Masato comes over, takes a can of ravioli out of my hand, and crouches down in front of me, looking me hard in the eyes, his face serious. "Autumn," he says. "Don't you trust me?"

My brows furrow. "Of course I trust you. What does that have to do with anything?"

"If you trust me, then why won't you tell me what's on your mind?"

His eyes are so dark that it's hard to tell where the pupil is, which is a little unnerving. I look away. "I'm fine, Masato," I say insistently, and turn my back to him. "It's nothing."

He sighs quietly behind me, and then I hear his footsteps walking away from me to the other side of the shack. He starts shuffling through things, organizing, but I can tell that he's not going to let this go. I have to avoid him for the rest of the day, or I just might spill.

After about ten minutes, Masato comes over and puts his hand on my shoulder. "That's good enough. Let's go stretch our legs or something," he says, and I follow him out of the shed. Outside, Noah is sitting by the firepit, talking to Todd, Tessa and Brooke. As Masato and I get closer, I can hear them.

"...not full sentences," Noah's saying. "I can communicate with people telepathically, and I can hear them if they form a sentence in their mind and sort of think it toward me, if that makes sense. But actually reading minds is different. Thinking is weird, you know. A lot of the time, people don't actually think in perfectly eloquent sentences or anything. Everyone's thoughts are different."

"So how do you actually read minds?" Brooke asks.

Noah shrugs. "I don't, really. At least, not in the way you would assume. If you're actually thinking of a sentence, I can hear it, but mostly I just hear your thought patterns. Like, I can tell that you're considering going hunting in a few days because you think we're getting low on meat," he says to Todd, whose eyes widen. Noah glances at Tessa. "And I know you want to go back to that abandoned store to get more supplies," he says.

The corners of Tessa's mouth slowly turn up in a smile. "That's amazing," she says. "Really, it is."

"I can also distinguish whether someone's lying or telling the truth," he says. "It's a really handy skill to have."

"But you don't hear thoughts all the time?" Todd asks. "I mean, you aren't hearing all of our thoughts at the same time right now or anything?"

Noah shakes his head. "No. I only hear thoughts if I listen for them. And I can hear Autumn's and Masato's thoughts right now." He turns around and grins at us. I take a seat beside Todd, and Masato sits down next to Brooke.