I say who is and isn't my guestRight now, you are...
I say who is and isn't my guestRight now, you are my guest, and I am
offering you this room
I still didn't like it, but I wasn't going to upset Jeb, eitherI vowed that I would disturb nothing,
if it meant sleeping on the floor
“Well, let's keep movingDon't forget: third from the left, seventh in
“Green screen,” I added
Jeb took me back through the big garden room, around the perimeter to the opposite side, and
through the biggest tunnel exitWhen we passed the irrigators, they stiffened and turned, afraid
to have me behind their backs
This tunnel was well lit, the bright crevices coming at intervals too regular to be natural
“We go even closer to the surface nowIt gets drier, but it gets tiffany diamond hotter, too
I noticed that almost immediatelyInstead of being steamed, we were now being bakedThe air
was less stuffy and staleI could taste the desert dust
There were more voices aheadI tried to steel myself against the inevitable reactionIf Jeb
insisted on treating me like… like a human, like a welcome guest, I was going to have to get
used to thisNo reason to let it make me nauseous over and over againMy stomach began an
unhappy rolling anyway
“This way's the kitchen,” Jeb told me
At first I thought we were in another tunnel, one crowded with peopleI pressed myself against
the wall, trying to keep my distance
The kitchen was a long corridor with a high ceiling, higher than it was vintage omega watches wide, like my new
quartersThe light was bright and hotInstead of thin crevices through deep rock, this place had
huge open holes
“Can't cook in the daytime, of courseSo we mainly use this as the mess hall
until nightfall
All conversation had come to an abrupt halt, so Jeb's words were clear for everyone to hearI
tried to hide behind him, but he kept walking farther in
We'd interrupted breakfast, or maybe it was lunch
The humans–almost twenty at a quick estimate–were very close hereIt wasn't like the big
cavernI wanted to keep my eyes on the floor, but I couldn't stop them from flashing around the
roomI could feel my body tensing to run for it, though where I would run, I didn't
know
Against gucci bookbag both sides of the hallway, there were long piles of rockMostly rough, purple volcanic
stone, with some lighter-colored substance–cement?–running between them, creating seams,
holding them togetherOn top of these piles were different stones, browner in color, and flat
They were glued together with the light gray grout as wellThe final product was a relatively
even surface, like a counter or a tableIt was clear that they were used for both
The humans sat on some, leaned on othersI recognized the bread rolls they held suspended
between the table and their mouths, frozen with disbelief as they took in Jeb and his one-person
tour
Some of them were familiarSharon, Maggie, and the doctor were omega seamaster de ville the closest group to me
Melanie's cousin and aunt glared at Jeb furiously–I had an odd conviction that I could have
stood on my head and bellowed songs out of Melanie's memory at the top of my lungs and they
still would not have looked at me–but the doctor eyed me with a frank and almost friendly
curiosity that made me feel cold deep inside my bones
At the back end of the hall-shaped room, I recognized the tall man with ink black hair and my
heart stutteredI'd thought Jared was supposed to take the hostile brothers with him to make
Jeb's job of keeping me alive slightly easierAt least it was the younger one, Ian, who had
belatedly developed a conscience–not quite as bad as leaving Kyle vintage omega watches behin