Free The Yellow Pill by Michelle Chaves Page B

hair
was tied at the nape of his neck with a black string, a few strands having come
loose at the front. It hurt to see him even wearing his hair the same way as
Jin. Their personalities and expressions were so alike that it was impossible
to dismiss as a coincident. They truly could have been one and the same person…
    He
leaned back against the side of the elevator, arms crossed. Jin did that when he
was troubled or cranky. When he was his normal happy go lucky, he would
spontaneously rub Frey’s hair, or clasp his hands behind his neck while walking
or standing.”
    “Li
owns it.”
    “Huh?”
    “Li.
He owns the building, all of it.”
    “The whole
thing? Sorry, got distracted there for a while,” she said.
    “That’s
fine.” He kept his posture.
    The “I’m not totally happy” pose. The
words came out before she could stop herself. “What’s troubling you?” She knew
what Jon would do before he did it and it made her feel strangely at ease. This
was something she knew, a situation she could deal with.
    Jon
unfolded his arms to shove them into the front of his light grey pants,
shuffling his legs a bit as he looked over her head and to the side before
looking back down at her. “Well… I don’t know. It’s just strange, you know.
We’ve never been able to make contact with anyone from Hole throughout all this
time. We’ve seen a snapshot here and there, or short recordings but that’s it,
and now we have a person from Hole right here… a person .” He shrugged.
“How can you know what to expect from that? You’re…”
    “Not
what you expect?” Frey asked, having taken over the stance with her arms
crossed.
    “Well,
no… and yes… I don’t know. I guess I’m still confused at the speed of
everything.”
    The
elevator stopped and the door slid open. Focusing on him had helped her avoid
looking down, imagining those cracks spider-webbing from her feet.
    “I
just can’t believe how lucky we were. A couple of seconds later and they would
have killed you.” He stepped out onto the open platform that was nothing like
what Frey had expected. “Well, I guess you must feel the same to say the
least.”
    Frey
moved slowly into the garden. She suspected her mouth was ajar, but wasn’t able
to close it.
    It was
huge. Trees and bushes spread out around them, an actual lake opening up on her
right, with benches and little paths twisting between the foliage. There were
open places where patches of grass stretched like smaller fields, others that
were packed with trees. Somehow she knew the scale of it shouldn’t surprise
her.
    But it
did. Nature was a thing that didn’t thrive in Slum City… The sight baffled her
and Frey wondered when she would stop being able to sustain more information…
    Probably
when I die.
    But as
amazing that the greenery was, it wasn’t what her eyes stopped at. The entire
place was covered with a glass cupola, this one so clear and clean it was hard
to even make it out. It was nothing like the hazy digital projection of dome.
This one let the sky, the real sky shine through in with all its
splendor and light.
    Frey
hadn’t realized until then how very little she had been able to take in while
escaping from Dome.
    She
moved towards the closest patch of open grass, feeling like she was walking in
a dream or something. After standing in the grass for three long heartbeats she
just sat down. Jon came after her. She fell back in the grass.
    “I… I
just need to lay her for a while…” She breathed, not taking her eyes off from
the clear blue sky. Her knees were still shaking. She could hear Jonas lying
down next to her. This was just what she and Jin used to do. Laying down on a
rooftop together, looking up at a sky.
    But
this is the real thing…
    Jon
crossed his hands under his head as he stretched out.
    “They
told us the dome was supposed to protect us from radiation and the forces of
nature. Without it, we’d die. I kept asking myself all these questions