Chapter 5: Betrayal

We were on the road for about 2 weeks, by the time we finally found a place to 
settle down. We had traveled from place to place, getting money and to keep us 
from killing each other. I had run out of clothes to find or steal, so I found 
myself wearing Krit's fatigue pants and a black tank top. Krit pulled to a stop 
in front of a rather quaint looking structure. It was a Bed and Breakfast, I 
thought those didn't exist anymore. Krit stopped his bike and parked it out 
front. We walked into the place.
"Your turn," he said.
We had a system. He would get us jobs and I would get us a place to stay. I was 
the better one at both things, but he felt he had to do something. A woman in 
her late 20's came out of the kitchen and smiled warmly at us. She walked over 
to us.
"Can I help you?"
"My brother and I need a place to stay for a bit." 
"How will you be paying?" she inquired looking us up and down.
"We are both much stronger than we look. We are willing to trade labor for a 
place to rest for a few days," Krit said.
"I need some new workers. My old ones were killed recently in a gang thing. You 
aren't in gangs are you?"
"No," I replied, we are only genetically enhanced government creations, I added 
silently to myself.
"You can stay in room 711," she said handing Krit a key.
I could see his hesitance and took it from her, smiling.
"Thank you for your hospitality."
"It's up the stairs at the end of the hallway. Rest your heads tonight and 
report for your assignments at 9:30 tomorrow morning."
Krit grabbed our duffel bags, which we had acquired in the past two weeks from a 
bus depot, and followed me to our room. It wasn't very big, but definitely much 
more decent then that we've had in the past year. It had two beds, a television, 
and a window that I could get onto the fire escape and to the roof. Krit put 
each of our bags on separate beds. He looked over at me and walked to the window 
to stand beside me. He put his arms around my waist and rested his chin on my 
shoulder.
"Whatcha looking at?' he asked sounding like a 5 years old.
"The view," I replied loftily.
"You always need a view," he mumbled and kissed my temple.
I swatted him away playfully. Krit laughed and backed off.
"Wanna go out?" he asked turning on the television and flopping onto my bed.
"Nah," I replied grabbing my bag, "I'm beat."
"Okay," Krit said and rolled off my bed. He opened his bag and pulled out a 
clean pair of sweat pants.
He changed into them quickly as I proceeded to slip into a pair of sweatpants 
and a loose gray tee shirt. I put my bag on the floor beside my bed and crawled 
under the covers. I checked the clock on the nightstand it read 2200.
"How long are we staying?" I asked out loud.
"We'll see," Krit said.
I closed my eyes and listened as Krit's breathing steadied as he fell asleep. I 
closed my eyes and allowed myself to fall into the welcoming embrace of sleep. 
The next morning I woke up at 0700 and looked around the room. Krit was still 
sleeping; he wouldn't rise for another hour or so. I grabbed my clothes took a 
shower. The nice hot water was extremely relaxing, and there was a good supply 
of it. The suburban towns, like this one, didn't get much of a damage control 
from the pulse. The cities were hit the hardest. I changed into a pair of loose 
black jeans and a black muscle tank top. I walked downstairs and found the 
innkeeper making breakfast. She smiled warmly at me as I entered the kitchen.
"The guests like to sleep late on Sunday," she said and handed me a plate of 
breakfast.
It was the most food I had eaten in the past three days. Eggs, bacon (crispy, 
too!), pancakes, and real orange juice. I ate up taking my time and talking to 
the innkeeper, whose name was Miss. Julian Angelic. 
"This is great," I said.
"You said that already," she said laughing.
I had yet to pick up on the whole small talk thing.
"Oh," I said blushing.
"How long will you and your brother be staying?"
"We don't know. By the way, I'm Kai and my brother is Krit."
"You two look like you could be twins, only he looks much older."
"He's 21, I'm only 15," I explained and took another sip of juice.
"What happened to your parents?" she asked.
I almost choked on my breakfast, "What?" I coughed.
"I'm sorry. Do you not like to discuss it?"
"No. It's okay, it was just unexpected," I apologized.
"What was?" Krit asked as he entered the kitchen wearing jeans, a gray muscle 
tank, and his fatigue shirt over it the buttons open. 
"She asked about our parents," I said.
Krit nodded, but I caught his hand making the sign for plausible deniability, or 
bluffing as he called it.
"They died when I was little. I was only 4 when they disappeared. Krit and I met 
in an orphanage and he's been like a protector for me ever since."
"That is so sweet," Julian whispered, smiling at Krit.
Krit didn't return the woman's flirtatious gestures and concentrated on his 
breakfast.
"We should get to work," I said giving Krit a reason to sneak away, "What do you 
need for us to do?"
"There are a few odd jobs around the house and we need someone to do some 
shopping. I made up a list."
"I can go to the market and pick up some supplies," I offered, "Krit can help 
out around here."
I smirked at the look of death Krit sent me. It was obvious this woman liked 
Krit. She handed me a list and some money.
"Its down on Main Street. There's a bag boy there around your age. His name is 
Kevin, you should meet him," she said.
"Okay," I said and grabbed Krit's jacket from the coat rack.
"Hey-" Krit began.
"Bye," I called as I left the B and B.
I walked down the streets until I found Peterson Market. I walked inside and 
glanced at the list, the stuff as pretty basic. I walked throughout the store 
and picked up various items and tossed them into the basket. I brought the items 
up front and put the basket down. An elderly man began to ring up my purchases. 
I glanced at the bag boy, who was probably Kevin. He has short dark-blonde hair 
and soft brown eyes. He was about 5'7" and maybe 135 pounds. That's what I could 
get from observation alone. Overall, he wasn't bad looking. I chose to ignore 
the way he looked me over.
"Are you new in town?" the elderly man asked.
"Yeah. I'm staying at the Angelic Bed and Breakfast," I said.
"Really?" he said, "I'm Frank Peterson and this is my grandson Kevin."
"Nice to meet you. I'm Kai," I introduced myself.
"That'll be $15.86," he said tallying up the price of my purchases.
I paid him and stuffed the change in my pocket. I grabbed the two bags easily 
and was about to leave when a voice stopped me.
"Here. Let me walk you home," Kevin said.
He took one of the bags and opened the door for me. I fought the urge to roll my 
eyes as I walked onto the street.
"Thank you," I said as we began walking down the street.
"What brings you to a town like Silver Hills?" he inquired.
"It was there," I replied.
"Uh huh," he said slightly confused, "Are you going to go to school here?"

"Maybe," I replied, "It's still extremely new and my course of action is 
unknown," I explained without thinking.
"Oh," he said, "it's a nice school. Silver Hills is still in good condition 
since the pulse."
We walked in silence for the rest of the way, I REALLY needed to work on my 
communication skills.
"This is it," I said as we stepped up to the front porch of the B and B.
"I was thinking-maybe tonight we could go out to dinner and I could show you 
around town. Meet the kids our age."
I was surprised to say the least.
"Maybe. Julian should have your number. I'll call you?" I suggested lamely.
"Okay," he said smiling.
I took the bag from him and walked inside. I laid the bags on the counter and 
began to unpack them. I found out where they went and finished quickly when I 
heard a crash from upstairs. I ran as fast as I could, which basically got me up 
there is three seconds. I ran into Krit and my room and found Krit lying on the 
floor in the grips of a seizure.
"Damn it!" I swore and dug into his bag. 
I retrieved his Tryptophan pills and grabbed two of them. I pushed them into 
Krit's mouth and forced him to swallow them.
"Kai? Is everything okay?" I heard Julian's voice from the other side of the 
door.
"It's fine," I called back as Krit stopped shaking and opened his eyes.
"Okay," she called back and I heard her footsteps as they retreated down the 
hallway.
"Are you okay?" I asked.
"I'm fine. It was just a seizure," he said standing up slowly.
"You're almost out of pills," I commented.
"I can get some from the hospital today."
"Okay," I replied.
"Meet the bag boy?" Krit asked amused.
"Yea. He asked me out on a date," I replied casually.
"Did you accept?"
"Not yet. I told him I would call him."
"Are you going to?"
"What do you think? He wants to go to dinner and show me around town?"
"Depends. Ms. Angelic offered us a permanent room here. We can stay in Silver 
Hills for good and work here. You can go to school and make friends. Live a 
normal life, like you wanted."
"Do you want to stay? Or are you just going to leave me here?" 
"I'm staying if you are," Krit responded.
"I'll enroll tomorrow morning," I said.
"About this date…" Krit said as he held the dog tag that I wore around my neck, 
"Don't let him be your reason for not going."
"Zero has nothing to do with me considering not going out with Kevin<" I 
countered although we both knew it was a lie.
"You might have fun," Krit said and left the room after gulping down another 
pill just in case.
I walked downstairs and looked up the Peterson's number. I picked up the phone 
and dialed the number hesitantly.
"Hello?" said a female voice.
"Hi. Is Kevin there?" I asked.
"Just a second," she replied.
A moment later I heard Kevin pick up.
"Hello?"
"Hey. It's Kai," I said sounding like an idiot.
"Hey," He said perking up.
"Tonight isn't good, but I'll be enrolling into the school tomorrow. You can 
show me around then," I suggested.
"It's a date," he said, "I have to go help out at the-"
"Store," I finished, "I'll see you tomorrow."
"Bye Kai," he said and hung up.
I hung up the phone and felt a pang of guilt. I wasn't betraying Zero by 
agreeing to this, he was in Manticore and I was on the outside. I wasn't 
betraying him, but why did it feel as though I was. 

Authors Note: Julian and the Peterson's are my own characters. Silver Hills may 
or may not exist in my mind its a town in Southern California. Please R and R