Extraction: Infinite Hunger

Chapter 79: Happy Birthday

Ash made his way to the courtyard where Alina and Alexis were already waiting for him.

"I’m going on the academy’s field trip this year," Ash said, then scratched the back of his neck and let his hand drop like the words had an associated cost. "Sorry for not telling either of you sooner."

Alexis had two feet dangling off a pull-up bar and looked like she didn’t know how she got up, or how she would get down. "A what?"

"The top students in the academy spend a month away. I made it this year apparently," Ash said.

"So the difference was one round only..." Alina said with a low voice. "Where are you going?" she asked, in her normal tone.

"Somewhere north, I think. A research shack at the edge of nothing. It had coordinates rather than any name." Ash had picked up a brochure on the place after he left the sign up sheet, then set it down after he read the first line of it. "The closest town is a few hours out by foot."

"Then we hold court this afternoon." Alexis spread her hands, then quickly put them back on both sides of her. "A send-off worthy of the doomed."

Alina wasn’t really listening to Alexis like she usually was. She was looking at Ash. More specifically what he was wearing.

"What are you bringing?"

"Clothes."

"Just. Clothes?" she said, pausing between each word.

"These clothes. It’s all I have. They’re comfortable."

Her hand reached without permission and felt the fabric of the hoodie. "It’s made of cotton. You’ll be dead by the second night."

The tips of Ash’s ears went hot. He tugged the hoodie’s cuff over his knuckles and held it there. "I was just going to—"

"Freeze? In the color of dirt?"

Ash’s eyes looked slowly down at the ground. "Fine, but we don’t get anything too colorful."

On the train, Alexis took the bench across from them. Before each stop she declared, "This is our stop," only to be proven wrong by the train conductor relaying the correct stations. When they finally made it to the Aegis Shopping Mall, she declared, "Where heroes are outfitted and credit is destroyed."

"Do you even have money to buy anything?" Alina asked.

"I am buying him morale."

"I’ll take it," Ash said.

As he walked through the mall, it felt different when Lucia wasn’t around. Cart vendors didn’t move themselves; people passing by made involuntary shoulder contact when the walkways got especially busy.

He was mid-count of storefronts when his eyes stopped at the store he had fought a Hollow in. Band shirts, chrome ranks, and a neon sign hummed over the back wall. His eyes went further into the store, seeing the leftover shoe had been picked up.

Two stores down he saw the shop that had personally dressed Lucia. He wondered if they only opened when she wanted them to, but his attention was pulled away by Alina and Alexis going up to the second floor of the mall.

"Art thou coming?"

"I’m coming," Ash said, picking up his feet.

The store they had gone in looked like it sold camping materials to the people who liked the idea of camping, but never actually did. Alina walked in like she knew what she was doing, and an all too happy salesperson was immediately shooed away before selling them on items they didn’t need.

Alina pulled off a base layer from one of the shelves without checking the size, held it up against Ash’s shoulders, then picked one size larger than that.

"You’ll need to wear three layers if you want to survive out there." She began stacking several of the same black colored base layers into his open arms. "The base is what takes the sweat off you. The second one holds in your heat. The third is to stop the wind. You vent before you sweat, not after. If you sweat in that cold, you’ll have a sheet of ice over your skin when you wake up.

"How do you know all this?"

"I read the gear." She pressed her thumb into the seam of a glove, finding the place it would give. "Same as anything. Things tell you where they break."

She made him put the shell on right there in the aisle. It was stiff, and a louder red than anything he owned, and the mirror at the end of the rack showed him someone who didn’t slouch into the nearest wall the way he did. He wasn’t sure if that was the jacket or something else. He got it off as fast as the zips allowed.

"Do you think they sell this in a different color?"

Alexis was building a second expedition out of whatever the store would let her carry. She reached the counter Alina had claimed and laid her finds out like grave goods. "Hand-warmers. Chemical, single-use, the soldier’s quiet friend."

It was a plain box.

"A second pair of gloves, for the hour the first pair betrays us."

Those were actually gloves but they were clearly several sizes too small. She dumped them onto the pile anyway.

"And this." She unfolded a square of silver foil with both hands, reverent. "A survival blanket. It returns ninety percent of the body’s warmth to the body."

"It’s a sheet of foil," Alina said.

"It is hope, in the shape of foil."

Alexis put nothing back. When Alina turned to price the shell, the foil blanket moved quietly off the counter and into the basket Ash was carrying.

When they had finished shopping, leaving the mall with each of them carrying two bags, the sun had already begun to set. They dumped everything in his dorm. Alina looked around for a case to put all the clothes in. Alexis also looked around, though she was more interested in snooping around Ash’s belongings.

"Do you seriously not have a suitcase? What did you come to the academy with?" Alina asked.

Ash had to think about it. "With those," his finger pointing at a set of clothes that were slightly shorter than the rest of his belongings.

His finger pulled back when he felt someone at the door. A single firm knock was heard at the door.

Ash opened the door.

Evelyn stood in the corridor. The cool hallway air met the warmth of a makeshift radiator Alina said was absolutely necessary for him to have with him. At her sides she was carrying an object wrapped in plain paper, creases pressed flat. She held it out in front of Ash.

"Happy birthday," she said.

"It’s your birthday?" Alina said from the ground. "Oh—Hi Evelyn," she said with a slight wave and nervous smile, then tried to disappear into the closet. Alexis was already one step ahead of Alina, her lithe frame folded into a blind spot beside the door.

"I apologize if I am intruding on anything," she continued.

"No—no. It’s fine," Ash said, turning his head to see Alina and Alexis fighting over who could hide in the closet. He shook his head with a smile. "Thanks for remembering."

He hadn’t ever told her it was his birthday.

He hadn’t even told himself it was his birthday.

He had forgotten.

"Do you mind?" Ash said, touching the edge of the wrapping.

Evelyn gestured for him to open it in front of her.

The paper came off clean to reveal an artbook. It was smaller than a regular writing notebook. His hands touched the cover. It felt nice to hold with a leather texture. He opened the artbook up. Each page he touched felt like it had a tooth that caught on his thumb.

"Evelyn." Ash’s breath caught. His thumb pressed into the leather grain of the cover. "Thank you, I really like the gift."

She looked relieved. Ash hadn’t realized her held-door Shade was beating like its own heart until he finally said those words. He hadn’t even realized his hunger was entirely absent when it typically stirred at a whiff of her perfume.

"I want to see what you see out there," she said.

He looked over the book a few times, before finally realizing what she meant by that. "I’ll do my best."

She gave a brief nod, then looked at Alina and Alexis. "One more thing. The research base you are going to has heating. You aren’t living in an igloo."

Blood rushed back into Ash’s cheeks after hearing those words. His anger and frustration were now directed at the two people that had spent an absurd amount of his money on clothes and items he wouldn’t ever need.

The sound of Ash yelling at Alina and Alexis was muffled by the sound of Evelyn’s heels clicking away in the corridor.

He was still holding the book when he started. He set it on the desk first, spine straight, away from the edge. Alina and Alexis were already constructing their defense from inside the closet, overlapping explanations about personal space and reasonable hiding distances. He looked at the book once more before turning to face them fully.