Dreaming in Static

Chapter 14

Polaris

A few moments of silence passed. Amir's hands, clenched into fists, were slowly relaxing.

His mother said quite loudly, "Polaris, what do you think of the curry?" Her voice had become a few pitches higher.

"Um--it's wonderful." Polaris looked down at her fork, which was stained with ranch. She hastily stuck her fork into the pile of chicken, dotted with specks of curry powder. Polaris glanced up at the woman sitting across from her, who looked thoroughly unimpressed. Coupled with Wei's look of extreme discomfort, she felt like she was about to die from the awkwardness of the whole situation.

And then the sky fell in around her, and Polaris realized that dying from awkwardness wasn't her main concern at the moment.

Everything was shaking--there was so much noise everywhere, and things were falling everywhere she looked, she was falling, and she could hear the whooshes of what must've been jets of some sort, zipping past her. It was as if there'd been an explosion. A bomb. Polaris was struck with a sudden ray of clarity before something crashed into her, making her lurch into the ground.

A broken tile was cutting into her cheek; she tried to push herself upright, her mind still swirling, trying to calculate what to do--but then everything stopped, save for the sound of the jets shooting by.

Everything went still.

Polaris blinked the dust from her eyes and moved her palms to a smoother spot on the ground to push herself up. She surveyed the scene around her, squinting through the thick dust that was settling on mounds of debris. Even the jets had flown too far for her to hear them; all she could hear was her own labored breathing, the tinkling of pebbles falling to the ground, the slight scraping noise of her hand against concrete as she slid it across a chunk of what used to be the wall.

Her retinal display informed her that something was missing in her abdomen. Polaris's hand went to the skin of her stomach automatically, finding her repair panel almost immediately. It'd been a bit loose after Ali's repairs, but now it'd swung open, and wires were spilling out, loose ends sparking.

She felt no pain; whatever was wrong with her stomach had also cut off the nerve connections in that area. But that also meant that she wouldn't be able to stand.

Polaris pulled herself out of the rubble with her arms, looking around for Wei and his family. The fallen plaster didn't seem too bad from this angle, and she dragged herself forward, the grains of rock scratching against her bare legs.

"W-Wei," she called out weakly, looking around frantically, and that was when a strong hand grabbed her by the throat and flung her backwards. 

Polaris crashed into the ground behind her, head snapping against something sharp, cutting into her scalp. She saw the crazed face of Amir above her before her retinal display exploded in light--

deactivating deactivating

--and she could feel her heart, she could feel her heart, and then she could feel nothing at all.

Andromeda

Pulled into the back of the bomber plane, Andromeda composed herself quickly and fixed her gaze on the person in front of her, who was still clutching onto her wrist with a grip of steel. In light of what had happened over the past week, she honestly wasn't very surprised about this new development.

And the boy holding onto her wrist was watching her, his brows furrowed. There was a very judgmental look on his face.

"What?" Andromeda snapped, twisting her arm away.