“I’m on my way, Locke. I’ll be there by—”
“No, Jenna. Not you. Someone here. Not you.”
“I can be there in a few hours. There is no one else. No one good enough who understands about the Bio Gel.”
“Jenna.”
The phone tab slips from my hand, and then the world slips away too.
* * *
Hazy voices call to me. I call back.
I try to find them. Reach them.
Jenna, no …
not you …
Dark … miles of darkness …
Where are we?
I’m here for you … always here …
Are you an Escapee?
Something more?
not you, Jenna …
the tunnels … endless black tunnels …
lipless grins … lidless eyes …
prisoners …
There. Again.
Miles and miles of …
I force my lids back and gasp for breath. Light. Blessed light.
But hovering in front of me is the last thing I want to see. Xavier’s sputtering face looms in and out of focus. When he sees my eyes open he walks away, yelling, “He’s awake!”
Jenna’s scowling face comes into view next. “You are not immortal, you know?”
I look around, orienting myself. The apartment. Thank God I’m back at the apartment. I try to pull myself up in the bed and groan in agony. Every inch throbs. I look at my chest and arms, a zigzag of cuts, repairs, and bandages. It looks like I’ve wrestled with a lion. Maybe five of them. Like the last time she patched me up, I’m naked from the waist up. I can guess that the lower half is the same, and even though I know Jenna has seen me before, I try to pull the sheet closer to my sides.
She isn’t do
ne with me. She walks to the other side of the bed and pours me a glass of water, almost simultaneously waving her arms in the air, which is a feat in itself. “Honestly, Locke, you have your limits just like anyone else! You’re only a boy with a few enhancements.”
“And drawbacks,” I add, noting how much I hurt.
“Oh yeah, you have plenty of those!”
I see the worry on her face.