Salvage

Twelve - Part 2

Adam exhaled a relieved breath and ran his fingers through his hair. He was still pale, and there were red marks and bruises forming around his neck and throat, but he seemed full of restless energy.

"Good. That's good. I wanted to be able to explain, and I was afraid the attack would - that I might not get to see you much after this."

"Well you already said goodbye to me once." Aurora may be here ready to listen, but she wasn't going to make it easy on him. Something in her was still angry, betrayed, hurt, and she clung to that, letting it strengthen her.

"Do you want to eat? Meet everybody?" Adam paused, glancing down the quiet hallway. "This is the only quiet part of the house, so if you wanted to talk..."

"We should talk first," Aurora agreed quietly. There was a lot she didn't know. Also, he had kissed her. She needed to talk about that with him, too, but it was too difficult to bring that into the mix right now. There was time enough later, after she could discuss it with Ros.

"I have a room out here I share with Daniel." Adam turned to the door he'd been leaning against and turned the doorknob.

It opened into a small, neat bedroom, with two twin beds on opposite sides of the room, and one dresser in the middle. "Wow." Aurora couldn't imagine sharing such a small space with anyone.

"Yeah, we mainly use it just to crash, if we're out here visiting late," Adam explained. He went over and took a seat on one of the beds, so Aurora followed suit, sitting on the one across from him.

She kicked her legs, booted toes not quite reaching the floor, and traced the patterns of the rug with her eyes. "So you guys don't live out here... But the rest of the group does? Where am I, exactly? What happened?"

"You're just out in the county. They bought a house out here for everybody, it's pretty huge so we all fit. It was meant to be our kind of rehabilitation house, to start us out." Adam looked around the small bedroom and shook his head. "We were real grateful to move out and get that place in town, I'll tell you that."

"The county." Aurora glanced out the window. It was still a bit cloudy, but the sun broke through now and then, and the view out the window was gorgeous, what she'd have expected. Rolling, lush, grassy fields and meadows, with occasional trees standing tall, and tangles of blackberry bushes along the borders. "So whenever you talked about your friends who lived in the county, it was this whole... subject group."

"Yes," Adam said simply. One of his hands was resting on the bed next to him, and he plucked nervously at the coverlet, picking at a loose thread. "We take care of them. Daniel and I... We were the first ones out. We figured out a way to get out. Ran as far as we could. We were on the run and hiding for a few weeks, until we found someone who would listen, and help. From then it took a couple more months until we could convince the government to send in troops, clear out that facility. We never knew how many other kids there were, they kept us separate. There were hundreds in there, all different ages. They tried to send us all back to the states we came from. Everybody in my group is from Washington."

Aurora blinked, sucking on her lower lip as she thought it through. "So there's groups of kids all over the country, trying to learn how to live normal lives right now?"

"Yeah. Daniel and I travel around and go visit them sometimes, when we can." Adam paused, skin flushing pink around his ears. "They kind of... Well, they like it when we come visit. They think we saved them or something."

She stared at him, incredulous. It was like he hadn't even heard the words that had come out of his own mouth. "You did save them. You're still saving them."