NUMB

Day One - Jet (pt. 2)

I nod along as Beck talks.

"So basically, it's like being at the gate, but instead of just standing around doing nothing, you walk around the yard and monitor the Numb, make sure they don't get into any trouble. A lot of them hurt themselves out here, with all this concrete around it's easy for them to slip and scrape themselves or land on a loose rock and get a nasty cut."

"So it's like babysitting, basically," I joke.

"Basically," he says. "I'm gonna leave you here, think you can handle it?"

"Doesn't sound too hard," I tell him.

He slaps me on the shoulder, hard, and then walks away.

Of course, because it's my first day out here and because Murphy's Law exists, I spoke too soon. A few minutes after Beck leaves—I've made it about a third of the way around the yard—a fight starts. I'm not sure how it happens, what starts it, but it explodes out of nowhere. It's a girl with dark hair and this ginger kid going at it.

The girl is kicking his ass. She's got him pinned to the ground in no time. I don't know how he gets back out here so quickly, but Beck is suddenly here. And they're still fighting and he yells at them then runs over to pull the girl off the boy. She's still swinging at the kid who's sitting on the ground crying.

I jog over to where they are and hover near the boy. He's a mess. Blood drops onto his leg from his nose, his lip is completely busted open and oozing onto his chin, and he's gonna have one hell of shiner in about an hour.

The girl who is being held by Beck is thrashing around in his grip, her hands clenched at her sides where her busted knuckles drip blood onto the concrete. She stills and smiles, her teeth red like she just chugged an entire pitcher of fruit punch. Her eyes narrow as she stares down at the kid. She's got this patch on her uniform, a null symbol with two small circles underneath it.

"Names!" Beck shouts.

I focus on the boy, who's been crying this whole time, bloody snot dripping out of his nose. He's a mess. The both of them rattle off their names and their levels. Two and One. Matching with the symbols on their uniforms. Where the girl's has two circles beneath it, the boy—Quinn—only has one.

"Alright, to the infirmary with the both of you." Beck pulls the girl along with him as he walks away.

I try to help Quinn up off the ground but he's gone soft and his body is heavy. Someone comes to help me lift him and we hold him up awkwardly while he finds his legs again. My gaze skip over the faces watching us, all of them staring like they're just watching static on a TV screen. It's a little unnerving.

Then my eyes catch on a girl. She's staring back at me. I give her a small smile, but she just looks away from me. I don't have time to wonder about any of that exchange, because we're moving now. It's a struggle to keep Quinn up long enough to get him to the infirmary. But we manage.

The infirmary is busier than I've ever seen it before. From one of the rooms comes the sounds of someone arguing. Loudly. The voice sounds like it could be the girl from the fight. Two nurses come towards us and say they can take Quinn off our hands. He's shorter than the girls, but they move slowly as they head towards a patient room with an open door.

I take in a deep breath, hold it for a second and then let it out. So much for my first day down here being easy. I turn and push through the doors to leave, but there's someone standing there and I almost hit them and then run into them when I catch the door.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't see you there." I stop the door from swinging back and hitting me, then glance at the girl in front of me. My eyes automatically drop to the badge on her shirt. "Level Three?"

She looks at me, more at my throat at first and then her face lifts up and her eyes meet mine. I swear, my heart stops for a second. She's got these dark eyes, definitely brown but the color is so dark it bleeds into her pupils—though the one on the right seems a bit cloudy. Her red-brown hair frames her face, cut off at her jaw and bangs that sit above her eyebrows. The color of her hair brings out the gold in her skin, her skin that's covered in faint scars.

Her voice is so level it's almost perfectly monotone as she says, "Yes. Elyse. Level Three."

///

Jackson wipes at the corners of his eyes where he has some tears from laughing so hard. I let out one last ha and check the time on my walkie-phone. Just past ten. After the fiasco in the courtyard today, Beck finished showing me the routine and then cut me loose. Told me I'd need to come back to fill in the gap in the night shift.

I couldn't say no. I'm still intimidated by the guy. He's like those hardcore drill sergeants you see in movies. Like if I were to ask for anything or refuse one of his requests, he'd make me drop right in front of him and do push-ups for being unsatisfied with my position or something.

I fix my eyes on the Compound again. It's not hard to see the kids in their rooms at night. The windows don't have any curtains or blinds on them. There are the bars, but they're wide enough apart that it doesn't obstruct the view too much. The lights go out at nine PM on the dot every single night. I figure they must be on a timer or something. Anyway, the lights go out and all movement in the windows stops.

I count off the windows on each floor. They sit in neat rows, all the same in the same spots on each floor of the building. On the east wall, there are five rows of ten evenly spaced windows that I can see before the building curves where the back corner would be. Five rows of ten windows whose rooms are now lit up by the moonlight breaking through the clouds. I'm through my third run through of counting them off when the number dies in my mind.

There's about thirty feet between us and a couple of floors, but I can see her almost perfectly. She's staring directly at the alcove where Jackson and I are standing. Her arms are folded on the windowsill, her cheek pressed against her forearm. She's positioned perfectly between the bars so none of them block her face, like she's done this a lot before and knows just the right spot to sit at.

I can only make out little things like the white sleeves of her shirt and the fact that she's got short bangs that sit just above her eyebrows. A cloud passes over the moon for a brief moment, darkening the window so all I can see is her outline against the glass. When the cloud moves and the light spills back across the windows, she shifts. She props herself up with her chin in her hand instead.

Now it's easy to tell that she's also got shorter hair, it stops just above her jawline. In the moonlight, her hair has this nice reddish color to it. I lean against the railing, keep my gaze fixed on this girl. The only person in the windows I've seen after lights out. I've seen her there before a few times, but this time is different. Because this time I know her.

It's Elyse.