Silver Part 6

2002

Sometime around noon one of the people staying at the church drove a hovercar into the back parking lot. It drew just about everyone who was there at the time; personal hovercars were still only a few years old so it was rare when someone scored one. Tori ran over before the car's support posts were even down, hastily tying her hair back and pushing up her sleeves in anticipation of getting under the hood.

"Tori and her one true love," Surge commented to me before walking over at a much more leisurely pace.

I laughed. I had little interest in cars myself but could appreciate a passion when I saw one. I came out to the parking lot to watch. The guy who'd driven it up—a kid of seventeen or eighteen—was bragging about how he'd managed to swipe it, and in broad daylight no less, while Tori and a few others were checking over its engine.

While I was watching I felt a light tug on my braid and I looked around. "Hey Jimmy. What's up?"

"Momma yelled at me," he said.

This wasn't unusual, Erin being who she was and Jimmy being who he was. "She did? Why?"

He shrugged and leaned against my hip. "She's just being bitchy. Can I hang out here with you?"

"Sure, as long as you don't pull my hair again."

"Okay." I knew that would last until the next time he wanted my attention.

I leaned against the post behind me and draped my arm across his back. It was my left, so I had to watch to make sure it was doing what I wanted it to.

"Did they really mess up your arm?"

"Yeah, but it's working okay now."

"What'd they do to it?"

"I don't really know."

"At all?"

"What I've been told I don't understand. Why are you asking?"

He sighed. "Momma won't say what they did to her. She just says she doesn't want to talk about it."

"I don't blame her. It was probably pretty scary."

"But she's okay now, right?"

"She seems to be."

He looked up at me. "She is, isn't she? I mean, they didn't . . . they didn't do things to her, did they?"

I looked down at him. "You're really concerned about her, aren't you?"

"Yeah," he admitted, "but she won't tell me anything. She won't even talk to Mike, and she tells him everything."

"I don't think she wants to think about it. You can understand how that is, can't you?"

"Yeah."

"But listen, she told me they didn't do anything but run tests, so I'm sure she's all right."

". . . Okay."

There was a soft scraping noise and a moment later Silver swung over the side of the porch roof and dropped to the ground about ten feet away. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and walked over to the hovercar, and stood a little apart from the group around the open hood.

"Eddie?" Jimmy said.

"Yeah?"

"Why was Silver on the roof?"

"Maybe he likes it on the roof."

"Why?"

I shrugged. "Maybe he just does." Maybe because nobody else goes up there, I added mentally.

The guy who'd swiped the car had removed the license plates and was back to bragging. Silver watched him for a moment, then went over to the front of the car and edged his way in. He leaned over and reached in under the hood. After a moment he straightened, and then walked over to the guy and handed him something small. He said something I didn't hear, and then walked off to the side off around the corner of the church, pulling out a pack of cigarettes as he went.

The guy didn't look happy. Tori said something and shook her head, but he still looked annoyed. He threw whatever it was Silver had handed him down and crushed it beneath his heel, and then shooed everyone away from the car.

"What was that all about?" I asked Tori as she and Surge walked by.

"He forgot about the ID chip—that's what Silver pulled out," Tori explained, looking annoyed. "Now he thinks Silver was showing him up. I tried to tell him he didn't mean anything by it but now he's being an ass and won't let any of us near the car." She folded her arms and stomped inside. We followed.

"Chill out, Tor," Surge said. I could tell he was trying not to laugh. "That's not the only car around."

"But it was a hovercar, Surge! Do you know how many chances I get to look at a hovercar?"

"Not many, I'm guessing."

"Once before. Once." She dropped down to the edge of the stage and fumed. "And I couldn't get under the hood then. Damn him."

"Damn who?" I asked as I sat down nearby. Jimmy sat down next to me. "That guy who scored the car or Silver?"

"Both of them," she said. "No, I'm not really mad at Silver," she amended, "although it didn't help that he took off like that. It would've been better if he'd stuck around."

"What'd you expect?" Surge asked.

Tori sighed. "That he'd run off like that. But still—oh, hell. Never mind."

"Maybe you'll get to look at it again later," I offered. I was finding her reaction amusing and I couldn't look at Surge or we'd both start laughing.

"What's so special about a hovercar?" Jimmy asked.

"What's so—Jimmy, it hovers," Tori said. "Do you think a regular car's engine can make things hover?" She went on to explain, in simple terms, what it was that made a hovercar's engine so special. I stopped paying attention.

Jimmy was starting to sound genuinely interested while I was becoming less and less interested, so I left him with Tori and Surge and went to find Erin.

"Where's Mike?" I asked her when I found her in the back room by herself.

"Out. Getting some stuff we need," she said. "Did Jimmy go and find you?"

"Yeah. He's with Tori right now," I said as I came in and sat down on the floor. "She's telling him about cars or something."

"That figures," she said dully. She didn't seem to have been doing much of anything; she was just sitting there looking out the window.

"Erin, are you sure you're all right?"

She gave me an annoyed look. "Yes, I'm fine. Why does everyone keep asking me that?"

"Gee, I dunno—maybe because we're worried? I know," I continued when she looked like she was going to retort, "you said they didn't do anything to you."

"And they didn't," she insisted. "Just scare me half to death and treat me like a lab rat," she added quietly.

"I know the feeling. But you're taking it out on the rest of us." I tried to keep the annoyance out of my voice.

"So what if I am?" she snapped. "I'm not like you. I can't just shrug things off and forget they ever happened."

"I wish I could forget things that've happened," I snapped back. "Just because—" I stopped and sighed in exasperation. "Look. Jimmy's worried about you and so are the rest of us. It'd be nice if you didn't bite our heads off for it."

"Fine."

Erin closed her eyes and sighed. "Sorry. But you can't blame me for being touchy. That place. . . ." She looked out the window and shook her head.

"I know."

After awhile I went back out to the main hall. Erin followed a few minutes later.

Late in the afternoon it started raining and everyone was back inside by evening. Silver had tucked himself away in a little raised nook that must have once held a statue. He wasn't being as standoffish as he sometimes was—he even chatted with me for a minute or two when I went over there—but it was clear he was trying to not be noticed. I left him alone and went to get some of the food Mike had brought back. Mike was sitting with Erin and Jimmy, but he seemed distracted and wasn't in a mood to talk. Even Jimmy seemed to have caught the general mood and was sitting quietly for once. I mussed up his hair before I left and was relieved to see he had enough of his usual temper to complain loudly and bat at my hand.

I sat down at the end of a pew to eat. Before long Tori sat down next to me with her sandwich. "Any ideas for what we do now?" She asked suddenly.

"No," I said around a mouthful of food. "Why are you asking me?"

"I dunno. You seemed like the one to ask?"

I frowned. "Well, I don't know. I don't know what we should be doing or even if we should stay here."

"But where do we go?" She sighed and angrily tossed the sandwich wrapper to one side. "This really sucks, y'know? Why can't things ever be simple?"

"We don't get 'simple.' We only get lesser levels of Hell."

She snorted. "I'd be happy with Purgatory. Hey Jess—where'd you get that?"

Jess sat down next to us and happily held up the piece of chocolate she was eating. "Silver gave it to me. I already ate my sandwich," she assured her sister.

"What did you go and bug Silver for?"

"I wasn't!" she insisted. "I just saw he had a candy bar and then he asked me if I wanted a piece."

Tori glanced at me and I shrugged.

I finished my food and sat back to watch people. This old church wasn't very large and there was getting to be a fair number of people, which was one reason I wanted to leave. A lot of people in a small space tended to bring out tempers, and that was trouble I didn't want to deal with at the moment. My attention was drawn to a group of five or so guys, including the one with the hovercar. They'd gotten into a case of beer and it was starting to show.

"I don't like it here," Jess said abruptly. Tori and I both turned to her. "People are mean."

"I know it's not like The Pit was, Jessi," Tori said, "but it's all we've got right now. We'll find something better." Jess was still looking upset so Tori pulled her into a hug. "We'll find something, I promise. Things'll get better."

"That's what you said when Mom left," Jess said into her sister's shoulder. I didn't know the details, but Tori had told me that their mother had been mentally unstable ever since their father was killed in a car accident, and that one day she had just up and left, leaving her two daughters without any family and without a place to live once their manager realized there was no one to pay for their apartment. Tori and Jess were both so cheerful most of the time that it was easy to forget that they'd been through a lot. Right now Tori couldn't do much more than hold her little sister and make promises they both knew were probably empty.

Some commotion distracted me. It looked like Silver had gone to get some food and had just come back to his nook. He was holding a soda I'd seen him drinking earlier and wiping his mouth as if he'd just spit some out. He was giving a hard look to a couple guys who were standing nearby and snickering; they were two of the guys who had been drinking.

Silver dropped the soda can and started for the food again, I suppose to get something else to drink. One of the guys made a casual grab for his shirt. Silver easily avoided it, but stopped and turned toward him anyway. The guy made another grab, which Silver also avoided.

I had made my way to that side of the room by now, although I was still about ten feet away. I grabbed Tim—who had been nearby—and asked him what happened.

"They put some beer in his soda," he said, intent on what was happening. "Not much, but I guess he didn't like it."

"Why?"

"They don't like Silver." From his tone it seemed he didn't disagree. "They think he's got a bad attitude, acting like he's better than everyone. Trying to show them up."

The two guys had moved up to block Silver's path. They were both older and bigger than he was, but I found myself more worried about them. Silver was calmly, if coldly, staring back at them, not looking the least bit intimidated.

Two more of the drunk guys had circled around and were coming up on Silver from behind. Silver made no sign of knowing they were there, but as soon as they started to make a move he elbowed the first one in the gut. The second one managed to get hold of his sleeve, but just as he did Silver grabbed the front of his shirt and threw him back, into the wall. The sleeve tore, half of it coming off in the guy's hand.

The first two tried to take advantage by coming at Silver while he was taking care of their friends. It didn't work; Silver punched one in the gut and kicked the other guy's feet out from under him. I think the entire fight lasted maybe five seconds.

Silver looked at them detachedly for a second, then turned away. Before he could go anywhere, the guy he'd thrown into the wall lunged at him. Silver's hand shot out and caught his wrist, his grip enough to make the guy gasp and drop the blade he'd been holding.

Everyone was staring by now. For a few second the only movement in the room was the guy's futile attempts to pry Silver's fingers off his wrist. Then Silver simply let him go, walked back to grab his windbreaker, and headed for the door.

I caught up to him and grabbed his arm. Or rather, he let me grab his arm. I didn't have any delusions that I could stop him if he didn't want me to. "Where are you going to go?" I asked him in an undertone. Enough people were talking and moving around now that we weren't likely to be overheard.

"I don't know," he said from beneath the bill of his cap. "Somewhere that's not here."

"It's cold outside! And it's pouring down fucking rain!" I hissed.

"That doesn't matter." He looked up at me then. His expression was subtle but I could see he was more upset by this than he'd been letting on. "I told you I don't like people." He said softly. He pulled his arm out of my hand and left without any further explanation.

I watched after him for a few moments, stunned, then turned and found Tori standing behind me. Her hand were folded against her mouth and she was looking out the door with a worried look on her face.

"Do you think he'll be okay?" she asked me in a small voice.

"If anyone could be it's him." I sighed. "Fucking hell."

"Fucking bastards."

Mike wandered over, looking thoughtful, and like he didn't care for what he was thinking. "He really is a freak," he mused.

"What?" Tori and I both said.

"You saw that." He jerked his head at the four guys, who had picked themselves up and were looking none too pleased. "You can't tell me that's normal."

"Oh geez," Tori said angrily, "you're going to condemn him for being good in a fight?"

Mike glared at her. "No, not just for that."

"What aren't you telling us, Mike?" I asked.

He hesitated, looking to the side and shoving his hands in his pockets. "I saw Jake today."

"You what?" Tori said just as I had been about to.

"I don't think he knew I was there. He was pretty far gone. He was babbling to himself. He kept saying something about the 'little freaky silver-haired lab rat,' and something that sounded like 'they'll get him back,' and some other stuff." He gave us a significant look. "Don't you get it? Silver's one of their test subjects. That has to be why he's so weird. Who knows what they've done to him."

"So what's you're point?" I asked, trying to act like I didn't have a knot in my stomach. It was one thing to have vague ideas along those lines; it was quite another to have someone else spell it out.

Mike glared at me. "He's connected to them, just like I was trying to tell you before. We never had any trouble at The Pit before he showed up."

"He was there for a long time before anything started happening."

"So? That doesn't mean he couldn't have been part of it. I'm not saying he did it on purpose," he said, sounding like that was exactly what he thought, "but they put a homing chip in your arm, didn't they? Maybe they've got some way of tracking him."

My hand automatically went to the cut Silver had made just above my elbow. "I still think you're assuming too much, Mike."

"Maybe. Maybe not. I know you've developed a soft spot for the little freak," he said with some disdain, "but I'm glad he's gone."

Mike walked off then and I stood there chewing my lip for a good while. When I looked over at Tori I found her biting the cuff of her sleeve, looking as if the world had just played a nasty trick on her.

"Do you believe him?" I asked her.

She turned to me. "Do you?"

"I don't know. I don't want to, but—I don't know."