“Well,actually, it’s next to the fire,” said Peter. “We don’t want it burned.”
Jwalked over to Patrick and handed him the spit, all four limbs of the rabbit wrappedaround the wooden rod. Pink, smooth, with no fur on, it looked repulsive. Ishivered slightly and turned away.
Imoved a few IPs back and sat on a log.
Onceboth rabbits were cleaned and skewered on spits they were placed next to thefire and we all sat in a circle around it.
“Didyou see anything interesting on your little off-road trip?” asked Peter.
“Yes,”said Patrick.
“And… ?” asked Peter, when there was no continuation.
“Wedon’t know,” said J.
“Whatdo you mean you don’t know?”
“Well,we found a building. Actually, we found quite a large complex, but most of thebuildings were destroyed—”
“Exceptone,” jumped in Simon.
Andthen none of them continued.
“BloodyMary, you’re keeping us in suspense here!” said Peter.
“No,sorry, it’s just that we don’t know what it was,” said J. “The building wassealed by a massive steel door.”
“Nodoor handle, I presume,” said Frank.
“No,actually, there was. But it was like… a wheel.”
“Cometo think of it, you know what it reminded me of?” said Patrick.
“What?”
“Anuclear shelter entrance.”
“Lovely,”said Peter, rolling his eyes.
“Couldn’tyou get in?” asked Rick.
Patrickshook his head. “Nope. We tried. Couldn’t open it.”
“Deadend, then?” asked Peter.
“Iguess so,” said Simon.
“Ireckon it really was a shelter, Patrick,” said J.
“Well,no big loss then,” said Peter, turning back to the roasting meat.
Afterseveral more passes, he rose from his log to kneel next to the roasting meat.He cut one small part from the side and then, holding the piece between knifeand thumb, he put it in his mouth.
“Mmm.”He nodded. “Ready!”
Thenhe sliced the meat for everyone and handed over the plates. The conversationwas replaced by silence, and all that was heard was the soft chewing of food andleaves rustling in the wind high above us. Every now and then I stole a glanceat J, and every time, I saw him looking back. I ate a lot less than I reallywanted to because I was unsure my stomach would keep the meal inside.
Iknew that once the dinner was finished, he would want to talk to me.
AndI was so afraid of that.
Myheart was in my throat, and my palms were shaking. I was afraid of being closeto him, of us talking without the buffer of the group where I could hidewhenever I needed to.
Jput the plate down next to his feet, and after a few passes, so did Simon, Patrick,and Peter.
“Here,give me those,” said Patrick and reached out his hand to take the used plates.“I’ll do the washing up.”
“Thanks,buddy, for taking my place,” said J and then winked at me.
Patricklooked back, his face confused. “It’s—no, it’s my turn… ah!” he said andwaved at him dismissively. “I know what you’re trying to do. Don’t you trusthim, Dora. He’s older than he looks!”
“It’sall about how you feel,” said J. “And I feel young.”
Theyall laughed, and although I understood the joke, I couldn’t join the laughter.My stomach was in knots.
“Allright, I’m ready for bed,” said Peter, who then looked at J and gave him abarely noticeable nod. “C’mon, guys. I think we all need a good rest for thetrip tomorrow.”
Patrickleft with the dishes, and Simon, Rick, and Peter stood up and left for theirtents.
“Actually,I’ll stay by the fire for a little bit,” said Frank to Peter, then turned to J.“You know, to warm up for the night.”
Jrubbed his forehead and sighed. Then he looked at me and asked with a smile,“Dora, want to walk with me?”
Walk?
Inodded and rose from my seat, not saying a word.
Wewalked a few dozen IPs away from the campground in silence until we came to anuprooted tree. It had six or seven thick roots spreading in differentdirections. J chose a thick horizontal root and sat down, as if it was a bench.
“Come,Dora, sit with me.” His voice was amused but mysterious at the same time.
Ichose a root on the other side, a few IPs away, and sat down, masking my faceunder Senthien calmness and looking at him with a pretense of disinterest. He laughedquietly and lowered his gaze. Then he shook his head slightly, stood up, andsat down on the root I was sitting on.
Iswallowed.
Thiswas definitely less than one IP, and I felt like a heavy weight was pushing onmy chest.
“Whatdo you want to talk about?” With my best Senthien intonation, I clearlyindicated that there was nothing to discuss. So far, it had always worked.
So far.
“Tellme,” he said.
“Tellyou what?”
“Thefuture. You see the future, don’t you?”
“No.”
Heshook his head. “I saw it. The fork in the path? Itwas exactly as you said it would be. And my first instinct was to take the rightpath, as you said I would. And I would have done that, if you hadn’t warned me.”
Ilistened to him without saying a word.
“Andon the way back, when we came to the fork again, I went and checked the right pathquickly. I was just curious. And do you know what I found?”
Ishook my head, not trusting my voice.
“Afresh mudslide. The path was completely gone.”
Hetook a short break before continuing. “I reckon if we took the path in themorning, we would have been dead. Yousaw the future.”
Ilowered my gaze and said, “But you are still alive.”
“So?”
“So,it is not the future,” I looked back at him, trying to keep my voice calm. “Itis one possible and most likely probability, depending on the current course ofevents. This is what Senthiens do. This is our ability.”
Heleaned back a bit. “Why didn’t the Jumpers tell us about it?”
“Theydon’t know.”
“Whatabout other Descendant species? Do they also have some… abilities?”
“Yes,most of them do. These were targeted DNA changes to express or inhibit certainphenotypes and characteristics. And our society is built on the diversity ofour different abilities.”
“Like?”
“EachDescendant species has a role in the society. Booleans do science, Loreans developtechnology, Zlathars… keep order, and Senthiens process information and—predict.”
“Thefuture?”
“Thepossible future paths, yes.”
“Whatelse have you seen?”
“Whatdo you mean?”
Heleaned in toward me, almost touching my knees with his. My breathing instantlysped up.
“Didyou see yourself coming to Earth?”
Ilowered my gaze. My Visions had showed
