Miles Apart: Part 3

  Miles

  ?

  Crunch. Shhft. Gravel slid under her boots.

  "Miles?"

  Miles rubbed his face into his knee while the coat bunched at his legs, squishing his stomach. Didn't matter. It didn't make him small enough.

  "What's Zax doing?" Emi's gaze had drifted away from him and over his shoulder.

  Behind him, a figure dressed in grey dashed from another timber pile, creeping quickly across the ground and disappearing behind the entrance's covered walkway.

  Freaking favored. Not now. Emi started inching away, focusing on the airport.

  "The building's not clear yet, is it?" Miles asked her, scraping his foot into the dirt.

  Scaling the building's wall, Zax reappeared, gripping the window pane. He held a shiny object. Crash. Within seconds of the glass shattering, Zax swung from the frame and pivoted inside.

  Dumbass. If he had to go off doing his own thing, he could at least wait for their signal. The scanner hadn't cleared them.

  Emi looked confused, too. She stared at her phone and muttered, “He shouldn't be going in yet."

  Tup. Tup. The bow tapped against his palm. No duh.

  //Ping//

  Emi's phone chimed. "Ah. That was him. He said he's going in..."

  "He told you that AFTER he went inside?"

  Glaring at Miles, Emi's eyes darkened and brows shaped into a sneer, "He'll be fine, Miles. He knows what he's doing."

  Shouldn’t have expected anything different. She was always protective of Zax. Neither Emi nor Zax was thinking clearly. It could still be a trap.

  Emi pulled out her phone's antenna to speak to the radio again, "Hey, Digit. Master here."

  "What is it?—Over."

  Emi sighed and turned the phone away from her, "Zax went in." Sh. Static hissed. She shook the phone and smacked it against her palm, as if that would help the connection.

  Then the speaker boomed, “Are you — fucking serious?!” Miles couldn't help but flinch. Emi did too, and she held the phone away from her while the Vocate carried on.

  "I said not to go until… told you to! The scanner isn’t… done yet. For fuck’s sake—"

  Emi scrunched her face, eyes starting to glisten.

  What the hell was going on? That prick was yelling at her like it was normal, and she was just taking it?

  Miles clenched his jaw. Before he knew it, he'd grabbed Emi's wrist and pulled the phone to his mouth, "We're going in too. Fuck your scanner."

  "The hell—is that Miles?"

  Emi paused, wiped her eyes, then stared directly into Miles's eyes, as if she were finally seeing him. "Of course it was."

  His chest tightened, and he forgot to breathe.

  Damnit. Stop staring.

  The kid's static voice droned on while they both waited for him to say 'over'.

  Emi touched the side of her head like she was trying to curl her hair behind it, and raised her voice to interrupt the Vocate's monologue. "Hey, asshole."

  "What do you want—over?"

  "Are you done crying like you've lost your tits? I need you to tell Garrett that we need all of the fuel from the barrels for this one. And don't snap at me again, or you're getting a new nickname."

  She lowered the phone, then lifted it again. "Over." She slammed the antenna down.

  That was... fire.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  Emi exhaled through her nose. Her shoulders finally dropped. She turned back to Miles and her big, bright eyes met his. Thump. Thump.

  "Your lead," she said.

  Miles kicked a rock across the ground.

  Your... lead.

  Damnit... well, he did tell the Vocate they were going in.

  "Yeah, sure–I’ll make sure it’s clear."

  Miles stepped around Emi toward the timber stack, low to the ground as wind whipped reeds into Emi’s back and sides.

  She only raised an arm to block the reeds, but it worked. “I’m sure it is. Zax wouldn’t go in if it weren’t safe to follow.”

  "Right." Zax was the last person Miles would worry about with his ability to immobilize Supra with a sneak attack before Miles had a chance to pull an arrow. That didn’t mean it wasn’t reckless. If there were Supra inside, no one would be there to stop Zax from overdoing it.

  Miles stepped backward in the direction of the southern timber stack. Emi got closer to follow.

  "By the way, I trust Zax to clear that building more than I do that Vocate's stupid scanner," Miles said. He gripped his bow and positioned himself toward the woodpile at the next checkpoint.

  "You think—" Emi's voice quieted as Miles moved quickly away until all he could hear was the crunching of gravel.

  The timber pile seemed to wobble as he bounced on his feet. Thup. Thup. Steps that weren't his. Damnit—Emi was on the move already? Miles quickened his pace, quiver slapping his back, and when he reached the stack, he grabbed the wood, twisting around to hide behind it.

  Breathing harsh and heavy, Miles turned to Emi. She was closing in fast. Shit.

  Backing up to make room for her, Miles dragged gravel under his boot until his heel hit a rock, and he started to stumble. Freaking timber pile. Freaking airport—

  Red.

  Flash. Then gone.

  It was on the airport roof, whatever it was, right above the window that Zax broke into.

  A camera, maybe?

  Didn’t appear to be a Supra cam. Those were clunky, always blinking, and obvious.

  Emi skidded, gravel grinding under her feet as she stopped beside Miles. She coughed, pulling down her mask.

  "I freaking hate these things." Her mask hung from her ear awkwardly, and her mouth gaped open, breathing roughly as she spoke.

  "Same," Miles said, but he kept his on.

  The airport roof went dark again. Normal. As if there wasn’t a light flashing at all. Had he imagined it?

  Suddenly, light from the broken window brightened the room, and Zax appeared. His hood down, his yellow hair glistened, and so did a long metallic pole he waved in the air.

  "Steel?" Miles asked.

  Emi stared in Zax's direction, biting her lip and scratching her cheek. "This is it..." she whispered.

  Did she know it was here?

  “Em, what is this place? The steel, no Supra… And I swear I saw a light on the roof. Like there’s a camera up there.”

  She was silent, staring forward as if she were deep in thought, then turned to Miles with a serious expression, “It’s an old building. “If someone were watching it now, the steel wouldn’t still be there. It would’ve been stripped already.”

  “Hmmm” Miles muttered.

  “Trust me.” Emi said, her big eyes shooting through him. She didn’t even look at the roof when she said it.

  Miles sighed. “I trust you.” He scanned the shadows in the room Zax had just left, waiting for another red blink.

  But none came.

  Then.

  Emi dropped her head on Miles' shoulder.

  For a moment, his heart pounded in his ears, and without thinking, he leaned his head against hers. She smelled faintly of wood smoke. Her warmth — smell —it was all so familiar.

  “I’m kind of excited. When was the last time we found something like this?” she said.

  Miles exhaled slowly, his hand crawled across his lap and curled beneath hers. “You mean a dead wasteland? Or a vacant building?"

  Emi was quiet. Shit–did that offend her…?

  “This might be a great place for a vacation.” Miles said. Hopefully that would lighten the mood. .

  Emi snorted, jostling his shoulder with her laugh, "If you want to vacation here, be my guest. There’s no food for miles, so you might have to eat dirt.”

  Emi’s hand was much smaller and rougher than Cass's. He squeezed it and rubbed the scabs on her fingers with his thumb — an instinctive twitch.

  "Are you saying you won’t come with me and eat mud pies every day?” Miles asked her. Stupid. Even though he was joking, it still sounded wrong.

  His shoulder shook again, but Emi made no sound, until "That actually sounds nice. I could use a day away from it all... with you."

  The wind chilled Miles’s face, and he swallowed. “I’d like that.” He picked her hand up and brought it to his lips, but his mask was in the way.

  Smiling, Emi started smacking him on the lips in soft pats. It was playful. Intimate. Miles smiled, but her fingers hit harder when his lips curved.

  She snorted again. "You forgot you were wearing a mask. Pay attention, you goober." She patted him softly on the cheek once, hand cold from holding wet reeds, then slid her hand down to his chest.

  "You caught me," Miles admitted. She was so close to him, it was like they were cuddling. Back at home, holding each other, without a care, instead of preparing to strike an old, seemingly innocent airport.

  “Well,” Emi started.

  He reached around her, hand skimming across the soft cotton on her back, stretching around her waist.

  Thunk.

  “Let’s get going,” Emi said, already moving, her head clobbering Miles’s and clipping his ear.

  Fuck. His ear burned, head throbbing as Emi stumbled away. She looked back at him, pink-cheeked, then quickly turned to the airport.

  She pointed at the window. “See—you.” She lowered her hand. “See you up there.” She must’ve felt her mask on her cheek because she reached up like she didn’t know what it was, then fixed it to her ear.

  A grin spread too wide across Miles’s face. Couldn’t wipe it away.

  She anchored to the ground, then took off, following the path Zax had taken toward the airport. Her steps steadied into a rhythm, coat shifting in the wind.

  With smooth precision, Emi deadlocked herself to the wall and climbed to the window.

  Shit. Cass. He’d waited too long. He was supposed to tell Emi. Tonight.

  When was he going to have a chance?

  Zax was back in the window and pulled Emi up through the frame when she grabbed the pane. Wait. No. That should be Miles.

  Thup. Thup. Miles was moving before he knew it. The red blinking was gone again like it was never there. Emi and Zax both disappeared from the window. Shit. Shit. They were going to leave him behind again.

  Didn't Emi care? She had no idea what Miles was dealing with just to be around her.

  Red. A flash.

  There it was again on the roof. At least he wasn’t insane. It still felt wrong, even with Emi’s explanation.

  Miles slowed when he reached the wall, stopping cold and watching the window, but nothing moved. His cheeks burned, chest tightening. Shallow breaths left him as he paced back and forth.

  Right. Like if he told her everything about Cass, like that would have fixed anything or made it better. She'd leave him then, wouldn't she?

  Thwump. Miles kicked a rock.

  "You coming?"

  Above him, Emi was leaning out of the broken frame, looking down at him. His heart stopped again. She had waited for him after all.

  "...Do you want me to? Or would you rather you and Zax take care of it?"

  "What are you talking about? Get your butt up here."

  Miles sighed, then grabbed a niche in the wall and started his climb.

  *** Character-specific extras included in post author's note*

  The Girl returns in the next one.

  Thank you for reading!

  [Extra]: Miles Says: