Free Vessel by Lisa T. Cresswell Page B

them all out. I grabbed a handful of the metal nuggets and jammed them into my pocket before I lifted the tool box to throw it. It was heavier than I expected, and I struggled to get it over the railing. It fell hard, crashing into beams and scattering metal bits everywhere. The remaining Tribe members scattered as the box fell into their camp, nearly hitting Recks.
    I turned to face the boy now on the landing coming after me. I thwacked him hard in the face with a shot at close range, and he went down immediately, holding his face. He stumbled and fell over the railing, landing with a smack on the floor by Tiber.
    “Get back here!” Tiber screamed at the empty building, deserted by his Tribe. I took another shot at him, grazing his head. This time, he dodged in fear. I fired three more at once, and he ran into the shadows.
    I crept down from my perch, carefully listening for any sound. All I heard was the wood burning in the barrel. I hurried to Recks, past the boy who’d fallen and who was as still as death. I never meant to kill him.
    My hands on Recks’s back felt his warmth, his shallow breaths. He groaned at my touch and curled into a ball.
    “Recks, it’s me.”
    “Alana?”
    “Yes. Are you hurt bad?”
    “I don’t think I can get up.”
    “Be still. They won’t come back for a while.”
    “Where’d they go?”
    “Run off somewhere,” I said. I tried to think of how to treat his injuries.
    “Wait … what are you doing here? How did you find me?”
    “I followed you.”
    “You saw everything?”
    “Yes.”
    “You were supposed to stay put.”
    “How could I save your life if I did that?”
    “It was reckless, but I’m glad you did it.” Recks tried to smile through the pain, but it looked more like a face I would make.
    My stomach growled hard. We hadn’t eaten for a long time. The smell of barbecued meat hung in the air around the fire barrel. Glancing around, I found two pieces of meat dropped in the confusion. I picked them up and brushed off the dirt.
    “Look, Recks. There’s some left.” I pulled off a bit with my fingers and stuck it between his lips. He chewed it, still lying down, and then opened his mouth for more like a baby bird. My bird. I fed him nearly all the meat like that, saving only a little for myself. I knew I’d find something else, but Recks was helpless.
    His arm looked broken. He refused to move it, hugging it close to his body when he was finally able to sit up.
    “You shouldn’t stay here. They might come back,” he warned.
    “Can you walk?”
    “Just get back to the room with the books. I’ll meet you there.”
    I shook my head. “I’m not leaving you like this. You come with me or I don’t go.”
    “Don’t be stupid! Go!”
    I flinched at the anger in his voice. I felt myself shrink for a moment, but I knew he couldn’t make it on his own. “You aren’t my master, remember?”
    Recks started to speak again but stopped and smiled at me. I felt myself smile back.
    “Help me get up then,” he said, reaching for me with his good arm.
    I pulled him up and let him lean on me. He held one foot off the ground as if he couldn’t straighten his leg.
    “Can you put any weight on it?”
    “Maybe a little,” said Recks, gingerly setting his foot down. He groaned between clenched teeth.
    “We can wait a while,” I said, unsure how we could get back to the apartment.
    “No, we need to move, at least out of this warehouse.”
    “I saw some vacant shops down the street. They weren’t too far.”
    “Okay,” Recks said, taking a deep breath. We worked our way to the exit, stopping to rest twice before we got there. Once there, I let him rest against a window frame.
    “Wait here and I’ll check to be sure we can get inside,” I told him. Out of breath, he didn’t argue. I ducked outside into the night. It was late now, the light of the bonfire down the street completely gone. A white cat ran across my path, but otherwise, it was completely still.