The Matsumoto Trilogy: Omnibus Edition by Sarah K. L. Wilson

Author:Sarah K. L. Wilson [Wilson, Sarah K. L.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Pronoun
Published: 2017-03-17T04:00:00+00:00

THE SPLITTING: 20

I WOKE UP WITH AN aching belly. It didn’t take long to find out why. Someone had me slung over their shoulder. My head bobbed painfully against something hard strapped to that person’s back and their shoulder stuck into my soft gut. I gasped.

“Hold up. I think she’s awake.”

I was tossed to the ground, and I looked up to see the shadow-woman who wasn’t a marine had been carrying me. She had felt very solid just now.

“You awake?” she asked, nudging me with a foot.

I blinked up at her. My throat was dry and my eyes were crusty, and a bandage covered one of them, but at least the top of my skull was still in place. I thought about answering her question, but rhetorical questions bother me.

“Patrick?” I asked. Weren’t they going to bring him, too?

“Over here,” I heard his voice, thick and blurred. I turned to look at him. He was propped upright by the man-shadow and he looked worse for wear. Not only was he still mostly doped up, but he was covered in blood and scratches.

A painful twinge brought my hand up to my face where a thick bandage covered the side of it. It felt like pain dulled by freezing – the type you know is going to get real fiery at a moment’s notice. This was new for me. That broken rib I had complained to Edward about a few months -and yet a few lifetimes- ago was the worst physical injury I had ever suffered and I’d been able to recover in the hospital. My life since then made it seem like a trivial thing, but the injury to my face made my belly roil with fear and nerves. What if it was infected? What if I couldn’t stand the pain when the freezing wore off? What if my eye was injured? It was covered by the bandage. Could I still see out of it? I bit my lip until I tasted blood, pushing fear aside with anger. No. I would not allow myself to fall apart. I don’t need anyone to save me, I thought, and pulled myself onto my feet by sheer willpower.

“If you’re awake, then you can walk.”

I agreed, but said nothing, simply trying out a step towards the marine. It was clear she was their leader.

My legs were working about as well as Driscoll’s were, but I was determined to walk on my own. I’d either been rescued or captured. Either way, I needed to stand on my own feet. If I had been rescued, then I needed to make sure they knew that I wasn’t going to be indebted to them. If I had been captured, then I’d need to find a way to escape.

“Who are you people?” I asked. My words started out slurred, but I forced myself to focus and they were clear by the end.

“She looks just like her,” the woman who had been carrying me, said. “Especially when she speaks.”

The marine grunted.

“We’re what’s left of the Baldric Colony,” she said.

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