Arise from the Rubble by Eileen Glass

Author:Eileen Glass
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Glass Fiction
Published: 2015-10-25T21:24:42+00:00

☼☼☼••

She snaps to like he slapped her, the visor of her helmet making him feel closely scrutinized for his prying. Still, he’s too curious for his own good.

“How did you do this?” Oliver presses.

She twitches, her neck jerking slightly, and he imagines a flinch behind the visor. The connection he feels, as though she stopped being a soulless suit by showing emotion, disappears when she gets a hold of herself and shouts, “I let you in! My pity. My mercy…I let you right through the gate!”

She gets so close, Oliver's warped face looming in place of her head, and he shrinks back from her yell.

Time to put his acting skills to use.

“Hey, I didn’t do anything. Yes, the key is to the machine, but I was only…” Woah. Easy, he hears in Wyatt’s voice. He hasn’t figured out his story yet. “I found it, alright? Heh. In this guy’s pocket. See, me and him were making out in the bathroom, and I thought I could find some extra cash, so I went digging into his pockets. All I got was lint and that key.”

Is she buying it? She must be listening closely, judging by her proximity and the way her head tilts, like she’s thinking. Oliver works fast to come up with something plausible. He wishes Kat were here. She often jumps in to speak for him during difficult situations.

Oh well. He’s forced to do his best.

“We, uh, we met up again here. At the coliseum. He was waiting for the key to trip the sensor, and when it did he found me. But, uh, we hit it off you know?”

Oliver expects her to laugh, just as Katrina did when he told a similar story.

“I’m being honest. I’m not a terrorist.”

“What were you doing in the mech?”

“Seemed like a nice place to get out of the cold.”

“Bullshit.” She pushes him, and he trips forward. “You were…” She has to think for awhile, and it comes as a surprise to Oliver when he realizes she actually has no theory for what he was doing in there.

So it’s true. Cops shoot first, investigate later. Uh oh.

“…Sabotaging the machine.” she finishes, but with less enthusiasm, hinting that she knows how stupid that sounds.

If she had a chance to look inside, she’d know that’s impossible, but arguing with her at this point is a waste of breath. Still, he got her to stop and listen. Maybe, just maybe, they can come to a peaceful resolution before he has to go to jail.

Clueless and helpless: “I don’t see why you have to feel guilty about letting me in. Even supposing I am a terrorist, you were just doing your job.”

He pulls the sympathetic act better than he expected. Years of retail can make a person a pro-schmoozer.

“I knew there was something off about you. I knew it. You were shifting your eyes, trying to look over my shoulder. But I had pity on you. Because I thought you might be telling the truth. Your story was so dumb, I figured it had to be true! And…and now look.

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