Hollowgirl by Sean Williams Page B

I’m-doing-your-job-for-you look. Clair One stared after them for a moment with her mouth firmly set, then picked up her blanket and went in the opposite direction. She didn’t look at Clair. She didn’t look at anyone.
    Clair knew that mood. Her mother had called it the Brooding Bear when Clair was small, and still occasionally did so, to annoy her.
    Zep started to go after Clair One, but Ronnie caught his arm.
    â€œYou must be joking,” she said. “Keep your head down until someone tells you otherwise. I’ll go.”
    Clair watched her leave with gratitude. Ronnie was a good friend, and so was Tash. In the real world, she hadn’t appreciated just how good until almost too late.
    â€œDid you tell her?”
    Zep’s question brought her out of her memories.
    â€œWhat? Oh, you mean Libby. No. She figured it out. We were stupid to keep it from her.”
    â€œIs that what you did? You and, uh, your Zep?”
    â€œHe wasn’t my Zep . . . but yes, that’s what we did and it was the worst thing ever. Remember that, next time you’re in this position.”
    â€œYou think there’ll be a next time?”
    â€œGod yes. You’ve got all the staying power of a butterfly.”
    â€œWhat I mean is . . . you’re absolutely sure we’re not going to die in here?”
    Perhaps she was being too hard on him.
    â€œI don’t plan on it.” She put her hand on his shoulder and squeezed, struggling to reassure both of them. She hadn’t realized that saving her friends from each other would be so difficult or so time-consuming. It was exhausting. “Just try to rest. Later we’ll find a fabber and get us some better clothes. You need something practical and I need something that doesn’t smell like ass. Then we’ll make plans. Okay?”
    â€œOkay.” He flashed a grin up at her. “Three’s company. I get it.”
    Clair had momentarily forgotten Jesse.
    â€œI don’t know about him,” she said, “but I’m going to get some sleep.”
    Jesse took the hint gracefully. He understood when to give her space. If anything, he was too good at it. They were a pair, in that sense. If circumstances hadn’t thrown them together, nothing might ever have happened between them. And nothing might ever happen now, if she wasn’t careful.
    â€œI hope that’s okay,” she said, reaching out to take his hand.
    â€œOf course.” He smiled and blew her a kiss, something he had never done in the real world. It was a start, she told herself. Not an ending.

[16]
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    EVERYTHING WAS QUIET in the caves apart from a low murmur of conversation from the members of WHOLE that Clair couldn’t overhear. She found a blanket and a spot that wasn’t too cold or damp, and made herself as comfortable as she could on the cold stone with her parka zipped up tight. From behind her, under a ceiling covered with twisting rock straws, came a steady drip of water, like the ticking of a crystalline clock. She concentrated on that rather than on Clair One, Q, and Wallace—or hermother, or Billie, or any living person who might or might not be in the Yard and need saving right now. Don’t think about the exit, she told herself, or reconnecting with the outside, or rebuilding everything that is currently only numbers. She would deal with that later, when she had gotten some sleep. Out of the ashes, she swore, a phoenix would be born. But the fear remained: unless Wallace finds me first . . .
    When she slept, she dreamed of rising oceans and clouds of ash. Lightning struck all around the horizon, creating a flickering electric cage. She was afraid of the light. It was alive somehow, and yet the sound it made was a hissing crackling noise utterly unlike anything natural. If it touched her, she knew, she would become like it and never be able to turn back. The thought terrified her so much she couldn’t breathe.
    A