Excerpt: The Planter's War

The first thing that I encountered when I came to was a pounding headache that made the edges of my vision blur in and out. The memories of the cloth came back like a vine encroaching on my throbbing brain. Chloroform.

I took a shuddering breath, and then another. After being captured and chloroformed, a blue hospital cot was the last thing that I expected to end up on. Much less, I had not expected to end up in a room filled with many rows of blue hospital cots, all an obnoxious blue, all void of planters.

The final thing that I noticed was that I wasn’t alone.

He sat on the edge of my cot, staring at me as If I had just about seven hundred heads, give or take a few. He sat there so non chalantly that I just about wanted to scream. Unfortunately, that would not have done any justice to my headache.

Besides, he was good looking. And he was staring at me.

Of course, at the moments when you need to speak with at least a smidge of intelligence, you end up losing your mind and speaking some form of gerbil-eese.
I pressed a shaking hand to my temple, and spoke some gerbil for him. “What are you doing?”

He shrugged again, so non-chalant. Did he not realize I’d been captured? Did he not understand gerbil? “watching you.” He answered. Apparently, he was quite fluent in both gerbil and annoyance.

“Well… don’t.” I said, appalled. Who just stated that they were staring at someone?

“Sorry,” He didn’t avert his eyes. Which, might I add, were quite intriguing. They were the oddest shade of yellow … not gold, yellow… that I’d ever seen in my entire sixteen years of existence. They were just a shade darker than the yellow of a cat’s eye, but infused with black, like little starbursts of darkness. “I’m on strict orders.”

I gaped at this strange yellow eyed boy. “From who, your mother board?!”
He rolled his cats eyes, and laughed a little. “I see that we know how to use sarcasm.”

“It wasn’t sarcasm.” I growled. “It was a carefully calculated guess.”

“Then you obviously know how to use carefully calculated guesses.” He grinned in that really laid back way that he had, again making me want to scream my head off at him. I didn’t, though. I just seem to be nice like that.

“Who – who are you?” I stammered. I’m very fluent in gerbil. “Where are we, and why are you sitting here?”

“I’m B.”

“B.”

“B.”

Okay. It was an … odd name. I’d never heard one like it. It was as if he was
abbreviating it for something, but he didn’t continue. No last, and no full name. I let it drop.

“I’m sitting here because I’m on orders to watch you until you wake up.” He continued in answering my long stream of questions.

“From your mother board.”

He ignored that. “That’s usually my job here. Watch the newcomers until they wake up.”

“I pulled myself into a sitting position, then pulled my knees to my chest and rested my chin on them. “Where is here? What do you mean by newcomers?” When he didn’t answer immediately, I continued. “I was … chased.” There, it was out.

He nodded. “Yes. That’s usually how it happens.” He sighed again, then closed his eyes. “This isn’t my job, to explain this.”

“Then who the hell’s job is it?!” I said, finally pissed. I took a breath, trying to calm myself.

“I’ll get her. Just don’t lose your head.” He pulled a small black walkie talkie off of his waistband.

“I was chased, knocked out, and now I’m awake in a place I don’t know. I have the right to lose my head.”

He raised his dark eyebrows at me before he pressed the green talk button on his walkie talkie. “It would be so much simpler if you didn’t, though.”

“I’m not simple.”

He sighed, and then pressed the little green talk button.

“Hey, Miff. Your sister’s awake.”