Grunting at her inability to keep her hands to herself, I shut and lock the door. “I need to fix the hole before the sun goes down.”
Odessa says nothing while following me into the kitchen. I know the tools I need are in the basement, and I also know she might lock me inside. Unlike with the bedroom, I don’t know of a secret exit.
I consider having her join me in the basement so she can’t pull any tricks. Her expression makes me think she wants to start trouble. Possibly, the change is beginning, and she hopes to force me to kill her.
If that’s her plan, I figure we best get it over with, so I leave her alone upstairs. I know I can break through the door, but she doesn’t lock it. Odessa stands at the top of the stairs and watches me the entire time. Rather than attempt to lock me inside, she looks relieved when I return.
Or maybe she’s thinking something completely different. While I’m not a robot, I do lack the skills to read her well. I’d never needed more than a cursory understanding of human emotions. My feelings remained stifled while the needs of others never interested me. Now I have Odessa trailing me, and I can’t figure her out.
Chapter Thirteen
Odessa
Quill uses the plank from my bedroom window to block the exit. I stand nearby and watch his back. He doesn’t ask me to help. I don’t think he even wants me at his side. Quill says nothing when I follow him outside. He rarely says anything, so I don’t take his silence as a slight.
“Have you ever tried getting the attention of the people in the sky?” I ask while he works.
“No doubt when they look up, they see the real sky. Their world has the real sun while ours only has the reflection of their sun. We don’t have the moon or stars to light our sky, so our nights are pitch dark.”
“We could still try to contact them.”
“What would be the point?”
“They could help us.”
“How?” he asks, setting the plank against the house. “If you saw people in the sky, waving for help, how exactly would you help them?”
“I don’t know. They could get us help.”
“From who?”
“I don’t know.”
“Do you know what your problem is, Odessa?”
“No, please share, Quill.”
Hearing my annoyed tone, he frowns at me. “You react without thinking things through, and your instincts are poor.”
“So I should do what instead?”
“Examine a situation carefully before reacting. Your logic seems stronger than your instincts. Also, don’t allow your emotions to control your decision-making.”
Crossing my arms, I’m irritated by his arrogance. He might be smarter and stronger… Well, I guess, he gets to be arrogant, but his words still sting.
“You said the highway ends in darkness. What about going through the woods?”
“I tried that on the other side of the highway. There’s no exit if that’s what you’re wondering.”
“What’s it like on the other side of the highway?”
Quill stops working and glances back at me. “More Death Dealers. They’ve created family units. Packs, I guess, from a predator’s standpoint.”
“Why don’t they come to this side of the highway?”
“They do. That’s why I set the traps.”
I hear arrogance in his answer. He’s pushed back the barbarians with his superior skills. I don’t blame him for feeling pride in his abilities. They’ve kept us alive so far.
“Do the woods end the way the highway does?”
Quill doesn’t answer immediately. He’s examining his work on the plank.
“It’s a loop. On the first day, I walked from morning to night. Then the next day, I noticed a familiar looking tree with old markings in it. I added mine before walking the entire day again. The next day, I passed the same tree. I realized I could walk a hundred years through the same patch of woods.”
“So this place has borders.”
“I think of it as a cube.”
“When you were in the woods overnight, did you see the wolves?”
“It was too dark to see them. I heard them, though, but I didn’t know what they were. I climbed a tree every night so they couldn’t reach me. They were gone in the morning.”
“I wonder if you slept in the same tree every night.”
Quill frowns at me as if I’m mocking him. I don’t know what he sees on my face, but he returns to his work.
“Were you scared when you spent the night in the tree?”
“Fear is a physical reaction to the mind. Control your thoughts and you won’t feel fear.”
I reach out and poke his stubbled cheek. He frowns at me again. This time, he’s genuinely hostile.
“I’ve told you to stop touching me.”
“I’m sorry. I was just remarking at how lifelike you seem. You know, for a robot.”
Quill’s angry eyes lose their emotion, and he cocks an eyebrow. “Tell me about the man you killed.”
His words are a punch in the gut, just as he intended. I step back and think about John.
“He wasn’t as tall or muscular as you, but he had beautiful blue eyes.”