Wings of the Walker - CoraLee June Page 0,245

long since been abandoned. As with everything in the empire, it was in ruin. Holes in the ceiling allowed the bright moonlight to shine through, and dust covered every spare space. A rusted piece of metal was laying on the floor in the far east corner, and Jacob and Tallis lifted it up, revealing a tunnel beneath.

“It leads to the Zone. It’s how we’ve been sneaking people in and out. It's a couple miles there. Hope you’re ready for a walk.”

I laughed, thinking of all the walking we'd done in the deadlands.

"I think we can handle it," I replied.

As we traveled down the dark and damp hallway, rats scurried by our feet. I clung to Jacob's arm, gripping him tightly as if to prove to myself that he was really here. He kept glancing at me out of the corner of his eye, but every time I caught him, he would go back to looking ahead.

The humid air was suffocating, and with each step we took deeper into the Zone, the more fearful I felt. Jules and Tallis moved like they were familiar with the intricate underground tunnel system. I tried to keep track of the many twists and turns but lost count long before we were halfway to our destination.

"Where will we be staying?" Huxley asked. As expected, he was on the verge of an episode. Huxley felt differently about Jacob than about anyone else due to their past. I knew that there was an added layer of guilt to his protective nature where Jacob was concerned. Hyper aware of his surroundings, Hux was prepared to pounce at the first sign of danger. And after seeing the evidence of Jacob's last five months, the reality of our situation had become abundantly clear. We weren’t safe.

I knew Huxley was blaming himself for what happened. I knew he was on edge, ready to murder someone. Kemper was silent, probably thinking about solutions to Jacob's new disability, and Patrick was smiling, forcing the guilt and sadness at bay to bear the weight of uplifting the group.

I was eager to learn more about what had happened in these last five months. I yearned to understand Jacob’s struggles. It was obvious that he could no longer articulate his words efficiently. When I thought of Jacob, I thought of the smooth-talking, flirtatious man that said all the right things. The scar across his face and the way his shoulders slumped as he tried to speak broke me.

"Are you okay?" I asked Jacob in a whisper. I wasn't sure if, by asking, I was upsetting him. He had been staring at the small tunnels with unease. The rigid way he carried himself had me concerned.

"I'm. I'm worried. The walls." Jacob let out a frustrated huff before digging in his tan pants pocket. Looking over her shoulder ahead of us, Jules then spoke.

"I don't know why you didn't just put in your mindspeak to begin with. It took a team of eight of us to steal that, and you never wear it," she said while rolling her eyes.

I watched as Jacob pulled a shiny device no bigger than a coin from his pocket and placed it in his ear. It was metal and small, looking like a tiny earpiece with a speaker attached.

"I haven't quite figured out how to censor my thoughts, you unfeeling bitch," a monotone, robotic voice said. I snapped my attention to Jacob, and he pointed at the device in his ear. "It's a mindspeak translator," the voice explained. "Basically, I push my thoughts to the device, and it articulates for me. God, you look so fucking beautiful right now."

A broad grin broke out on my face at his compliment. If it weren't so dark, I was sure that I would see him blush. "The only downside is, it seems like all my thoughts get picked up by this goddamn thing. Have your lips always been that perfect? They look like pillows."

Behind me, Patrick and Kemper burst into fits of laughter. "It's like you have your own personal lie detector," Patrick snorted.

The robotic voice then started spewing out a string of vibrant curse words, making even Huxley snap out of his angry mood to gasp at the vulgarity of them. Jacob hurriedly removed the device from his ear, abruptly cutting off the insults shouted by his subconscious.

Once the laughter died down, Jacob took a deep breath while repositioning the earpiece once more. "To answer your original question, since my time in Ethros, small, dark