Well, I did not reach the other Dyad team that I have in my arsenal. The Daxton twins. Teagan and Gage. I'm sure they'll pop up eventually. Actually, Dechlan even only got a mention in this drabble.
Also, as I mentioned in Day 17, I'm still fiddling with the format, so I drop from that journal-esque style into my regular style about halfway through. Don't worry about missing the transition-- you won't be able to.
Drabble Challenge: Day 18 - summer
Word Count: 1,247 Minimum Goal: 1,080
The sun had barely risen that next morning when there had been a faint knock at the door. Somehow, I hadn’t been surprised to hear it. Even during my short stay that far, the people in that facility hadn’t seemed like the type to let a moment slip by them.
It’d been Mr. Boyce with their short translator man. There’d been understanding in his eyes as he looked over the unused bed and the blanket I had left on the floor. He hadn’t even had to ask; I just told him that I had considered his request and that I was willing to give it a shot. If people like me were the only shot we had at stopping these creatures from stomping across the globe, then I was ready, for the most part, to do my part.
He hadn’t acted triumphant or smug; not that I’d been expecting it. Mr. Boyce had merely nodded then asked if I could stay put for a few hours longer while he did a bit of paperwork. Then we would get down to the matter at hand.
I’d been more than willing to do so. My body, although not completely addicted to the stuff, was craving the bitter taste of alcohol across my tongue to dull my nerves. It wasn’t hard to resist, but had been making me tired, so after the two Dyad Program men had left, I returned to the half-bowl chair to stare out the window. It had been summer at the time. I’d been able to see flowers and greenery for miles, and yet it had felt wrong.
We’d been in the middle of a fight for survival—a war, really—and that thought didn’t mesh very well with the beauty of the Canadian countryside that had been on display before me.
After a fair deal of time and a short catnap in warm sunlight, another suited escort and the translator had been outside my temporary apartment to bus me around the large compound to where Mr. Boyce was.
I had quickly realized that I was in better shape than I’d thought was possible as I kept pace with the long-legged strides of the escort, while the translator was forced to wheeze along behind us.
Mr. Boyce, accompanied by a small cluster of assistants, met us at the crossing of two long, white hallways. They’d been preparing the initial stage of choosing a handful of compatible candidates and were now ready to begin.
As I had fallen into step with Boyce, he’d explained what the first step was going to be. We had to find someone that I could connect with on a very basic level before any type of enhancement could be brought into the mix. He hadn’t provided many details onto how they would figure out my level of connection with my potential Dyad partner, but I was informed that the both of us would perform a series of small tasks together.
Quite honestly, I’d surprised myself with how relaxed I was towards the whole concept. Maybe at that point it still hadn’t sunk in. Whatever it had been, it’d kept me from running for the hills and that was enough of a start that I was thankful.
It’d turned out to be more of an addendum than I thought it should’ve been, but Mr. Boyce also explained that all the candidates I would be working with would also have had a twin at one point in their lives—but no longer. It could’ve been from natural causes when they were young, or very recently at the claws of one of the invading creatures. He’d made it clear that the ones who’d lost their sibling recently were the ones I was least likely to make a connection with.
Being a Dyad team meant you were closer to each other than you ever had been to another person, or ever would be. And losing that… losing that took away a part of who the remaining twin was. The loss had driven some mad with grief until the program’s leaders had been forced to step in and make them forget what they had lost before it killed them.
I hadn’t told him, but my stomach dropped when he told me about that part of it. It would be like losing Jane, just a hundred times worse. Nausea had swelled in my throat at the thought of it. She had been everything. Her death had almost caused mine as well, and I hadn’t had a connection to my sister like I would have to my partner in this Dyad program.
I’d felt wooden when the time came to meet the first of the candidates he’d put together in those few short hours. I could hardly recall her later beyond that she’d been short and had had a cute smile.
Jandy sat down on the bench, drinking deeply from the water bottle she’d been provided with and feeling the sun beating down on her back. She’d been out doing Mr. Boyce’s small tasks with different people since late morning. The man himself had left long ago to attempt to his many duties, leaving her in the hands of her translator and one of his numerous female assistants assigned to take care of all those pesky little details. Thus far, judging by the look on Miss Chase’s features, she wasn’t connecting with anybody in the way she was supposed to.
Which wasn’t really her fault. Jandy had attempted to get to know the other young women who she’d been spending that brief period of time with, but it was hard. There was the translator, and either she couldn’t relate to them or they looked at her like the last person they wanted to be stuck with. Jandy couldn’t blame them for it either. With short-cropped hair and the cherry blossoms inked into the skin on her right forearm, she didn’t make the friendliest picture.
Tilting her head back, she squinted at Macy Chase, who was busy tapping information into her tablet.
“What next?” She questioned, dark brown gaze drifting to the translator who stood nearby, dutifully waiting to transfer her words to the supervising woman in English.
As usual, the string of words that spilled out of Miss Chase’s mouth made no sense. Jandy tried to come to terms with the fact that she was going to have to learn English and listened to the translator when he spoke.
“Mr. Boyce instructed me to try you with one last potential partner that he thought of a short while ago. He should be arriving shortly.” While the translator spoke, Macy had already returned to her work.
“Mr. Boyce will be arriving or he as in, the next one isn’t female?” Surprise colored Jandy’s voice. The reasoning had never been explained to her, but she’d been able to determine by herself why they would be aiming to get her partnered up with another woman.
“Desperate times call for desperate measures, Miss Sparks,” Macy Chase’s words came through the short man. “Dechlan Scott lost his brother two months ago during an attack in Russia, but we need to get more Dyads in the field or else we, as a race, are going to get wiped off the face of the planet.”
Jandy paused, then nodded once. She took another swig from her water bottle and settled lower on the hard bench to watch across the track field until Dechlan Scott showed up.
Again, if there's any confusion, feel free to double-check with me. Perhaps by that point, I will both have a brain and my sisters and I will have developed stuff in general a bit more so that I may actually be able to answer questions without a whole bunch of "well, uh, we haven't exactly gone over all that yet". Heh.
Now I need to sleep, if my system will allow me to. I love pizza, but my stomach hates it. Especially bought from pizza places, like Papa John's or wherever. Siiiiigh.
Ad astra per aspera.
To the stars, through difficulties.
I'm mostly intrigued by Dechlan Scott, and eagerly await his introduction. :)
ReplyDeleteAndI am very glad to hear it. ^.^ Today's drabble will have him in it, have no fear.
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