City Under Ice (Into the White, #1) by TE Olivant

Author:TE Olivant
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: dystopian science fiction
Publisher: Shuna Publishing
Published: 2017-06-28T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11: Lisanne

“I still can’t believe you’re alive!” Just seeing Angel Sam’s crooked smile after everything that had happened made me realise just how lost I had been.

“It’s good to see you too, Lisanne.”

Sam’s face was a strange mix of the familiar and the strange, his features warped a little by the plastic window of the suit. It felt strange to hold him without an inch of skin touching. When we had settled down in the tent of snow that the huge outsider had built we’d instinctively shuffled together.

“How did you get to the shelter? You can’t have walked there on your own from the city?” Sam asked now that we had a moment to ourselves.

The stranger had gone outside the shelter to make the fire, and I wasn’t sure if it was from consideration of our feelings or horror at being hear us. Each time I caught myself staring at his strange body with its teeth and claws and fur, I thought of my own. We must seem just as strange to him. Was he appalled by our skin and hairless bodies? I forced my eyes back to meet Sam’s.

“Someone found me. Remember the Physician?”

“That old guy? But he walked months ago.”

“He survived somehow.” I shuddered at the memory of his crippled hands. “He found me and took me with him, but he had these weird ideas... Anyway, it was all wrong...” I didn’t know how to talk about what the Physician had said. “So I left. I came upon the shelter, which I guess was made by your people?”

Kyrk put down the pack he had carried into the hut. He looked surprised at being spoken to.

“Yes,” he said, “we place shelters on the White to make travel easier. You never know when you might need a safe place to spend the night.”

“Well, I certainly needed it last night. So thank you.” Without thinking I held out my hand. The stranger paused, then stuck out his own to meet it. His hand was large with those long yellow nails that were more like claws, and I had to stop myself from flinching as he touched me. But he merely held my hand gently for a second then let it drop. I risked a glance at his eyes which were so dark brown they were almost black.

“What happened back in the city? Tell me, how did you end up out on the White?” Sam was clearly dying to hear my story.

“I followed...” I was about to say that I had followed him, but it seemed a childish thing to say when he was right in front of me. Maybe he hadn’t wanted to be followed? I swallowed and tried again. “After you walked...”

But Sam was shaking his head.

“I didn’t walk. After I found out about everything, the secret messages and the supplies, I went to see the Leader.” His face coloured. “I thought if I showed him that I’d found him out then he’d have to come clean. Of course, I should have realised he would just send me out into the White.

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