FORTY-FIVE: Start

FORTY-FIVE: Start

Staying alive in a place that didnt want you to was an endless string of chores. For the first several days at the lab, Alden spent every waking moment trying to organize and figure out how to do completely basic things. Like eat and bathe and sleep without having his brain run-through by a demon bug.

On Day 10, he woke up inside the bedroom hed made for himself. He checked the clock hed stolen from the wall in the rec room and marked the time. It rolled over about every twenty-six hours, keeping time according to Mother Planet and Artona III standards. Alden was counting days and sleeping according to a human schedule to stay sane.

Still alive, he said, his voice echoing.

His bedroom was set up within a large vault in the main lab building. Alden thought it was probably a cage for some kind of extra-dangerous summons. It had white metal walls and a floor so coated in runes it made the summonarium on the LeafSong campus look plain. And the only way in or out was a door six-feet thick that opened with a touch panel from the outside.

Which Alden couldnt use.

He kept it opened just far enough for himself to come and go, and hed wedged it with so many metal bars and pipes that the only way it could shut on him was if Kibby finally had enough of his nonsense and decided to off him in his sleep.

She left again, he thought, taking in the child-free room with frustration. Even after I explained to her why we ought to stay in here as much as we can stand.

Not a single bug had ever punched through the vault. Even though the lab was so much safer than the surrounding area, it was still slowly being riddled with damage. Signs of intrusion were everywhere if you knew how to look for it, and though he only saw a handful of the small demons buzzing around indoors each day, a handful wasnt nothing.

He had to sleep. He couldnt watch Kibby while he slept. She was supposed to stay with him here in their creepy-cozy vault asylum. Hed let her absolutely fill the place with toys and other odds and ends shed brought in from all over the lab, hoping it would keep her entertained when they couldnt rest at the same time. But she still disappeared on him constantly.

He rolled off the mattress he was using for a bed and dressed himself in clothes hed found in storage in the room that had once been Joes. The guy was tall for an Artonan, and they were the only clothes that werent too tight. Wizard pants and turtlenecks made up the bulk of Aldens outfits now.

Joe had also left behind a single Hawaiian shirt that must have been a gift from one of his contractees. It was green with huge pink hibiscuses all over it. Alden had decided to save it for special occasions.

There was a full bathroom with a shower in the main lab, and Alden followed the line hed laid out on the floor in tape to get to it. The lab was magically booby trapped. Maybe. Alden didnt know how the traps were triggered, but Kibby claimed she did. Either Joe didnt mind having kids running around while he was experimenting, or in the time since hed been gone, the assistants had decided it was fine to let her.

On Aldens second day here, when hed been dragging her around to catalogue every inch of the facility, shed insisted this particular winding path was the way you had to get through the main lab. So down the tape went, and Alden followed it.

He kind of hoped she was just messing with him. It was going to be one heck of a practical joke if a few weeks from now he found out she just thought it was funny to watch him weave around random floor tiles.

As he did every morning, he thanked the faucet for coming on and the toilet for flushing. His irrigation sticks were tucked safely in the vault, where he hoped hed never ever need them.

Kibby! he shouted. Im awake!

She might not have been around to hear him. Or she might have been ignoring him. Shed probably appear soon, though.

The little girl hated the vault, but she seemed to enjoy following Alden around and watching him do stuff.

First, water.

Every day, partially to make himself feel better, he added to his growing collection of bottled water. Hed found loads of storage containers all over the facility. Today he selected some large glass jars with strong seals on the lids, and after washing them with a removable shower head over and over again in hopes that any undetectable chemical residue would be taken care of, he filled them to the top and hauled them into the vault.

He set them beside all the other jars, bottles, and even a couple of small plastic barrels hed filled so far.

How long did water last in containers? Alden didnt know. But if it became necessary, hed boil the heck out of it and hope for the best.

Second, food. Hed squirreled away a couple of wheelbarrows full of dry goods in the vault, but that, too, was for emergency use.

He headed across the compound, sneakers crunching on gravel as he made his way to the residential section of the perimeter building. Hed repaired the damaged soles of his shoes with something that looked and acted like a hot glue gun. He hadnt gotten it quite right, but the patch was holding up pretty well.

Hows the buzz today? he thought, listening hard.

The drone of the demon bugs was quieter. It had been getting quieter for two or three days now. That had to be a good thing.

He went to the main rec room where the assistants had once hosted him. The kitchen was there, and they had a well-stocked larder full of food. There were sacks of grain and beans, and there were pre-packed meals in gold foil pouches. Alden had moved a lot of it to the vault, but the place was still full. The huge fridge had been stuffed with fruits and vegetables from one of the greenhouses when he had first arrived, and hed kept it supplied with the same varieties ever since.

He took a notebook made of oddly slick paper from the counter and grabbed one of the oily-looking pencils that wrote on it well. He glanced at the last note hed made.

Day Nine Dinner Ate a full serving of the green eggplant thing. Ate a trial serving of the pink rice (?). If dead tomorrow, be advised that pink rice is lethal to humans. :)

He added a new line:

Day Ten Breakfast Still alive. Feel fine. Pink rice not super poisonous. Eggplant is officially okay. Eating larger serving of leftover pink rice. Adding a spiky strawberry. For science. Hope I see you at lunch.

So far, the worst hed had was an upset stomach. Humans and Artonans could consume most of the same foods, but not everything. Alden definitely remembered hearing that it was a very bad idea to eat shellfish on any of the Triplanets.

Hed been getting by with things he recognized as safe from his meals on the LeafSong campus. And though he was sick to death of the stuff, he was drinking a lot of wevvi. They had so much of it, packed into bags that fitted onto the dispenser in the kitchen, and he assumed he needed the calories.

There was more than enough food at the lab to last him and Kibby for ages. He just had to make sure he survived taste-testing it all.

He shoved a small serving of rice and some beans hed already declared safe into the blue box that served as a microwave.

Heat and sanitize, he said in Artonan.

It had taken him a while to figure out what the word sanitize meant. When it came to using appliances, hed learned by following the little girl around and repeating whatever actions she took and sounds she made. He still did that a lot. He pretended not to know that they were both calling the automatic launderer ugly butt for no reason at all whenever they used it.

Kibby, food! You eat before? Or now?

Alden assumed not. She wasnt really into feeding herself. Shed eat absolutely anything he prepared for her without complaint, though, so it had worked out so far.

She liked marleck berries, and they still had some of those in the fridge. There was a jug of what looked and behaved like chunky liquefied egg and shed called it something something for second meal when hed asked, so hed been scrambling that for her, too.

He couldnt eat it himself, so it was better not to let it go to waste. He had no idea how to season it. He hoped it wasnt disgusting.

She appeared as he was sitting down with a cup of wevvi and his own bowl of probably-not-deadly rice and beans. Shed been crying. Her dark brown eyes were swollen and her short brown hair was tangled and sticking up at the back. It was a frequent occurrence. Alden didnt ask her about it. Hed tried a couple of times to offer comfort, but it seemed to make it worse for her.

Breakfast! he said, pointing at the plate hed made her.

Hed arranged the berries into the logogram for friend. Because he was a dork, and he didnt want his one and only companion to be mad at him for constantly trying to stick her in a vault.

She ate the berries and the scrambled stuff together, with her fingers. Not how Alden would have done it, but what did he know?

Thank you.

She always thanked him.

Youre welcome. Thank you for eating with me. What are you doing today?

She got up and went to the sink before answering. Kibby rarely felt the need to answer a question quickly. Even simple ones. It didnt seem to be deliberate rudeness on her part, and she never seemed offended that hed asked. He hadnt noticed the habit with adult Artonans, so maybe it was a kid thing. Or a personality quirk.

Watching -.

A show?

The appliances at the lab mostly ran on their own independent power sources. Magic, electricity, tiny hamsters on wheelsAlden didnt care how it worked. He just loved that it did. He was pretty sure it was the only reason they still had so much nice stuff to use.

The big television in the main room had served them well for a few days before suffering from a demon strike. A few smaller ones throughout the residence had just died. Like they couldnt take the pressure of living in this world anymore, the cowards.

Pat, pat, pat.

Alden shook his head and tried to focus. Well, heres a new one to add to the list. Centered, askew, assertive, andpoked? Petted? Wizardy fist bump?

It was kind of cute. He was sure he was supposed to friendly-pat back, but he didnt have a clue how. He couldnt even activate his skill without breaking her concentration and asking her to hand him something. Hed been wearing a string around his neck as his preferred carried item lately, but he always lost entrustment on it when he went to sleep.

Alden drooped on his cushion like the little kids. Maybe slouchy posture helped? He closed his eyes and tried to imagine himself patting back.

It was a failure. But maybe not a complete one.

When Alden gave up on trying to do something and instead focused intently on just the sensation of Kibbys magical fist bump, he gradually became aware of his own power as he had a few times before.

Its here. Around me. My own little patch of authority, keeping me here and keeping me myself. Its been shaped by the System so that I can use my skill, but its still mine. Joe said that there was always a portion of it unboundI guess I should be able to do things with it. Right? Surely a little friendly pat?

The lesson ended before he could get there.

Well, that was all right.

Sorry, Alden said, when Kibby gave him a disappointed look. I can practice.

Why not? He had plenty of free hours ahead of him. And it was about time for him to figure out how to spend the next weeks of his life now that he had started to get a handle on surviving.

After the magic class, they spent a few hours watching Artonan children learn important life skills and suffer hardship. Kibby seemed pleased.

And Alden sat beside her, making a list in his notebook of all the things he wanted to do if he didnt die from eating the spiky strawberry. He had to assume he had a future. One back on Earth, where he would maybe one day attend school, get a job, play video games

Live on Anesidora.

He hadnt really dug too deeply into his feelings about certain things yet, but maybe it was necessary. Boe and Jeremy would have known something was wrong the first time he skipped their usual phone call. He didnt think Joe could entirely hide his absence from LeafSong, so the university would have known by the next day, too.

Alden wasnt officially off on a super secret mission. He was a Rabbit, and it was supposedly a berry collection quest that had ended in disaster. It wasnt the kind of thing that the Artonans would keep under wraps for any reason he could imagine. He wouldnt just vanish with no word like Hannah had.

He would be officially declared something. Dead, missing, lost cause. He wasnt sure which because he wasnt sure what anyone else might know about his current predicament.

But they would tell his aunt.

If they declared him dead, legal stuff would happen.

If they declared him missing, Connie would definitely contact someone from Anesidora, probably Ms. Zhao or Mr. Thomas, and try to get them to find out what had happened to him. It most likely wasnt something they could do, but Aldens aunt wouldnt believe that. And shed be desperate.

In the same situation, he would have been, too.

Sorry, Aunt Connie. Sorry, guys.

Dead or missingeither way, hed be a known Avowed when he made it back home. So the secret unregistered route was completely off the table now. Hed have to go fully on the run if he didnt want to live on the island.

I dont think I had any doubts about registering. But I feel like someone took a choice away from me anyway. Its stupid.

Well, life on Anesidora would be his starting point. He could still go from there in a ton of different directions. Battlefield support like hed always dreamed wasnt off the table. Itseemed like a more extreme decision than it had before, though.

Alden had a lot more experience with being an Avowed dealing with a crisis now. It was so hard. He was terrified literally all the time that he was going to screw up. If Kibby diedhis fault. If he died and she was left to suffer here alonehis fault.

The first time shed abandoned him in the vault, hed used the privacy to break down and sob until he almost couldnt breathe. And only then had he gone to find her.

That didnt seem like very adult behavior. Never mind superhero behavior.

Maybe Im not cut out for this after all.

If hed had training of some kind, would that have made a difference? If hed had partners? A team? Would he have helped them the way hed always envisioned or would he just lean on them?

He didnt know anymore.

What he did know for sure was that weird, awful shit could happen to you as an Avowed. You could choose a peaceful life for yourself, and youd probably get it unless everything Alden knew about living on the island was a conspiracy.

But maybe you wouldnt. Maybe youd randomly get summoned to a place like this.

Even if Im not hero material, I still want to be able to survive.

So he would learn all the things he could learn in this situation. Language. His trait. His skill. Maybe even magic if Kibby had more of the kindergarten lessons.

How will I even know Im gaining authority and leveling the skill if I dont have the System?

Not sure. Try it anyway.

What are you doing? Kibby asked as Alden stood up from his seat and stretched.

He took off his string necklace and handed it to her. Familiar with the ritual, she handed it right back. His skill activated.

Practicing, he said. Practicing my magic. And running for my health.

?

Exercise, he confirmed, assuming that was what it was. Can I ask you for a gift, Kibby?

She stared at him for a long time and then nodded.

Its not that serious. I just dont know how to say favor.

Will you help me learn to talk better? When I say something bad, will you help me say it better? Youre smart, so you know what I want to say a lot. Give me help when I talk bad.

You want to say badly, said Kibby promptly. Or . Or .

Badly, Alden repeated. Awesome. Adverbs. Thank you.

Can I watch the exercise?

Yes, its not secret.

You dont - secret. - is better.

Its not private?

Thats good, she said seriously. You sound less .

Im happy, said Alden, wondering what he sounded less of. Thank you for teaching me.

It was a start.