Eugenia part 31

Read part 30 here!

Julie spent the rest of the night practicing keeping her hand steady as she drew tattoos over and over again. Emma kept her company by playing the piano loudly when she started to drift off. Eventually, they both fell asleep, but it was amusing to watch. After putting the girls to bed, I spent the night on the couch with Decklan. We didn’t do anything, just lay in each others arms.

I woke up the next morning with my head on Decklan’s chest and his arms wrapped around me. After briefly considering staying there until he woke up, I decided to untangle myself and start breakfast. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust him… I just didn’t trust the situation.

He woke up late, grabbed a piece of toast, kissed me on the cheek, and ran out the door. Jon reminded him to pick up our outlier friends before turning to me. Andy chuckled as I blushed under Jon’s curious inquiries, so I retreated with Jon’s laptop to my room to start making a list of possible outlier locations.

When Decklan finally got home that night, he brought all three outliers and the items Julie had requested the day before. After a few more trials on paper, Julie taped their arms to the counter (“To keep them still”) and began to draw.

We were all impressed at how well the fake tattoos came out. After letting them dry, we rubbed them, testing their durability. No smudges. With a relieved cheer, Andy took Suri, Micheal, and their new documents back to Malia’s. It would take at least a week before someone from the local government came to check out the new employees. Until then, they were just excited to have something to do.

Luke and I started pooling our resources the next morning as Jon and I cooked breakfast and Julie doodled nearby, glancing over at Luke often.

“I don’t know why anyone would try living up north in the colder climates,” Luke told me, examining his three American atlases. “I mean, the only reason the three of us stayed up there was because Suri was a native and knew where we could hide and how to deal. But no one else was last seen up there, right?”

“Yeah.” I spooned eggs onto a plate and handed it to Julie. “Go wake Emma up.”

“Where was the most common ‘last seen’ location?”

“Midwest. I think they have lower security standards or something. Emma, could you pour water for everyone? And go get Andy up, he has an early lab this morning.”

“Right. So more than likely, they’ll migrate further south.”

“Make sure you’re looking at low altitude, too. It’s hard to grow stuff in the mountains, especially because they’re often a lot colder areas.”

“Good point. But if they go too far south, they’ll die of heat stroke from being outside so often.”

“Or they’ll just be really miserable. And too much sun is not conducive to crops, especially when watering will be sporadic.”

“Ok. Hey, thanks Julie.” Luke downed his water in one gulp as Decklan and Andy emerged from their rooms. “So I’m thinking we should plan a road trip.”

“A what?” Decklan asked, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and accepting a plate from Jon.

“A road trip.” Luke repeated patiently. “I’m thinking we could try to find some of these people on our own.”

“That sounds like an awful big leap of faith. Even if we’re in the right area, how are we going to find anyone?”

“I was thinking we could use the radio again. I mean, it added three to your arsenal already. And we don’t know that some of our other outliers didn’t hear it.”

“But Jon was fired…”

“Yeah, but listen. The night we stayed at Malia’s, Michael was messing with the old radio she had. Suri likes having music to fall asleep to. But we stumbled across this radio frequency that was pretty interesting.”

“Interesting how?” Jon sipped his coffee and sat down at the table with us.

“They were finishing up for the night, but from what we caught, it sounds like they change what frequency they’re on every day.”

“There could be explanations for that.” Jon said doubtfully. “It could be a mystery story broadcast- I remember those from when I was a kid. They’d read a bit of a mystery story and then give you a clue as to when and where you could hear the next bit.”

Luke shrugged. “Didn’t sound like a mystery story broadcast to me.”

“Do you know the frequency?” I asked, reaching for Andy’s small radio.

“Not exactly, but I remember the last two digits. It was something 3.2,”

Decklan rolled his eyes and nudged Andy. “Do you want a ride today or not? We gotta go.”

Andy shoved the rest of his breakfast into his mouth and grabbed his backpack. “Let us know if you find anything. See ya tonight.”

The five of us waved and Luke spent the rest of the morning tinkering with the radio.

“Meg, can we go draw on walls again?” Julie asked around lunchtime.

“What do you mean?”

“Remember when we tagged Ian’s house?”

“Oh. Right. I don’t think we can risk that, sorry.”

“Why not?”

“Security has gotten tighter around the city since my interview. There are cameras we may not even know about. It wouldn’t be very good for our cause if we got caught while vandalizing city property.”

Julie frowned at me and turned away. “Coward.”

“What did you call me?” I nearly dropped the grilled cheese I was making on the floor.

“I called you a coward. Where’s your sense of adventure?”

“My sense of adventure would be of more use alive-”

“Got it!” Luke yelped. “C’mere, listen.”

Glaring at each other, Julie and I crowded around the radio with an excited Luke. Jon had left for more “job interviews” an hour before, and Emma was taking a nap.

“…back to Outties-”

“That’s what they call the broadcast. ‘Outties’. Like ‘Outliers’-”

“We get it, Luke. Shhh!”

“…and it’s our call time now. A half hour of uninterrupted listener phone calls! Alright, caller one, you’re on the air. What’s you name?”

“Kale Orson. I’m 26 and I’m proud to call myself an outlier.”

“Ah, Mr. Orson! It’s been a while since you last called in- we were worried you’d been caught!”

“Not me, Sam. I’ve just been traveling.”

“Traveling? Where to?”

“New Diego, of course. Speaking of which, what’s your opinion of the Meg Carroway interview? Do you think it’s real?” The three of us exchanged surprised looks.

“Well, Kale, I’ll be honest, at first I was skeptical. But if you’ve been following New Diego’s local news, like I’ve taken it upon myself to do, you’ll notice that they’re adding hidden cameras by the hundreds. Someone over there is getting nervous. If their local government thought it was a fluke, I doubt all this extra security would be necessary.”

“I completely agree. And since I’m one of the people she called out before the broadcast was cut off, I figured I may as well make an effort to help her out.”

“A risky move. How’s that been going for you?”

“Well, I won’t tell you that traveling these days is easy for people like me, but it’s going. Slowly.”

“Meg, you gotta call in!” Julie grabbed the pink cell phone I was still using.

“But I don’t know the-”

“Best of luck to you, Kale. Let us know if you find our young revolutionary. Remember, listeners, if you want a chance to chat with me, Sam, call 1-000-234-8871 between one and one thirty, eastern standard time.”

Luke was already dialing the number. When it started ringing, he shoved it in my hand.

“Next caller, you’re on the air!” I could hear the slight lag between the radio and my phone. “Name, please!”

“Hi, Sam. My name is Meg Carroway.”

Continued in part 32!

WOW long chapter.