The Expatriate-the story of a Prodigy

20. Labeling People By Numbers

He didn't fall asleep this time and instead, just stared at the ceiling, doing his usual habit of thinking and going through his list of to-try list for the next day until the door of Miles seemed to open and in seconds, Thomas was in front of Alex's door. 

 "I see you're comfy. Now we gotta have dinner," "Do you guys cook or something?" Alex asked, quite curious about the direct daily lifestyle of the Raiders. Thomas grinned. "We usually test out the devices we discovered from the abandoned buildings to do the main cooking for us or just cook ourselves. But these days, we uncovered a packet of food pills to last at least 3 months, so we're getting kinda slack on getting our own hands involved these days," "Woah. Food pills," "Yeah, I know. Those are rare, but Canada is somehow one of the main producers of those pills. No big surprise that we found the packet," "Don't you have to tell Lewis?" Thomas gave him a giddy look. "We can have secrets a bit, I think. I mean, not that they let us. Still, we only uncovered a single packet, so maybe if we find dozens of it, we'd have to tell him. Now get the heck up," Alex scrambled onto his feet and they descended the stairs. As they did, Thomas scratched his head, frustrated. "Mile's ok for now. Just ignore him if he bullies you. As I told you before, just show him what you are, and he'll cower away." "Got it," They emerged onto the first floor again and walked to the kitchen right away. Thomas reached into a white and small drawer on the table and pulled out a small cartilage made of plastic, with a red logo of a Candian Food Pill company on it. He started cracking open the thing, then spilled more than a dozen onto the table directly. 

 "You lads and gals, get your asses down here, eat, and then continue doing whatever shitty things you were caught doing as I holler to you to dinner like a bad-ass nanny!" Thomas shrieked his rap in the direction of the second floor, and Alex heard with his ringing ears of shuffles and sighs coming from upstairs. "Guess winning the monthly round as the leader is also the same thing as getting the shitty nomination of becoming a nanny. So what I mean is, just don't take the leader thing too seriously or as your resumé or something," "Got it, sir," Alex rolled his eyes as the others walked out of their rooms and started climbing down the stairs. 

 "Met Lyra?" Thomas asked quickly even before, as Alex knew exactly, someone with a bulky form, probably a grumpy Miles, was half-way down the stairs. "No. I was just so tired," "Oh. I see," "Why are you asking me this?" Thomas bit his lip thoughtfully. "I just noticed some...well, similarities between you two. She's the third one who came as the Raiders after Miles and Mel. She is so serious and erudite like you," "Aren't we all erudite? In the unique way, you know," "I bet. But what I mean here, Lyra makes us feel as if she's the more erudite or the only erudite one among us all," Just then, Miles reached the bottom, grabbed a handful of the pills, then left again. "Gee," Thomas murmured before Melanie stumbled out, eyes gleaming at Alex immediately. "Hey. Guess Thomas already introduced you to those pills," She shot an annoyed look at Thomas, then grabbed a handful of pills also, but didn't leave right away-nor seemed to be ready for that. 

 "What of Lyra?" Thomas asked them both, eyes staring at the stairs. "No footsteps," Alex said, ears tuned. "And here opens a door and timid footsteps..." Alex reported, then reached out carefully to taste the famed Food Pills he had never touched but had done so much research on it in the past out of simple and ample curiosity while Melanie stared at him, fascinated. "Good hearing, he has," He absent-mindedly heard Thomas whisper to Melanie. Alex gathered the pills and dropped them in one swipe into his mouth, then felt a strange feeling in his mouth as the pills started to hiss and give him the feeling of drinking soda, but instead of giving him an overly stinging taste, it gave him a taste that he had never felt before, nor could describe with his vocabulary. But one thing for sure-he liked the sensation. Maybe this was something like 'love'-if those people who had said that love is indescribable were right, of course.

 He was rolling his tongue in his mouth from the sensation when Thomas flashed over to the bottom of the staircase. "He's the new Raider," He said to a girl who had barely reached the bottom. As much as Thomas had somehow made him anticipate her arrival, Alex watched her carefully and his tongues ceased its wriggling. 

 She had brown hair wavering past her shoulder slightly and equally brown, chocolate-brown eyes, then high cheekbones. But what Alex notified himself clearly was her size compared to the others. She was like a normal person, just tall enough, but not too much to look like a Raider-actually, she could have been dubbed small compared to the massive Miles. She was quite hot and could be said so, but she didn't seem to be too proud of herself and simply murmured 'uh-huh' at Thomas, who bit his lip behind her back uncomfortably, then grabbed the last pills with her fingers delicately, as if pinching the metal table. She glanced up, letting her eyes wander here and there in blinding speed that Alex Mars wasn't sure that she had moved her eyeballs that much at all, then she stared straight at him. Not intimidated nor selfish nor about to bring up a wild conversation like Miles nor Melaniee, but purely observable. Simply that. 

 It was only 3 seconds before Lyra frowned, bit her lip, then went upstairs, the pills in her grip forgotten. 

 It was until her door closed that no one left in the kitchen spke a word. 

 "Erm," Alex said. He looked around to see that Melanie was touching her own fingers nervously while Thomas was staring out the long window. Then the boy turned abruptly back to face the others. 

 "Yeah, that's Lyra. Become friends with her if you want if you don't just don't. She doesn't care too much," "So what can she do?" Alex asked, suddenly more interested. Thomas had mentioned that Lyra was smart for sure-he was curious. He didn't notice that Melanie was rolling her eyes and sighing at the scene before leaving altogether. 

 "She's a bit different from all of us," Thomas said, frowning. "Not an ability... I mean, maybe, she does have an ability-only if we can call her bad mental disease as an ability, yes..." Alex's heart beat faster, and he frowned. "Jesus. Mental disease?" Thomas nodded. "Yeah. Just let me explain. She told me when she first came here-I was also serving the shitty leader then too-that she just... has to label everything in sight with-erm, numbers. Usually from the range of 1 to 10, though unique stuff exceeds that range. She doesn't even know why. She said that she feels calm at rest and can move on when she labels everything in sight with those numbers written on her 'eye' shot of the room or anywhere," "What do those numbers mean?" Alex asked, now definitely intrigued by this girl. Thomas shrugged. "She herself muttered that they signify the importance or value of the object. For example, I know this is shitty and my own creation, but tolerate it. Take an example of a bomb. She could have declared it as 1 if it was fake, and 10 or 100 when it was an authentic atomic bomb. See, she's completely useful to us whenever we have little time and have to move on quickly from building to building. Then, she commands us to retrieve the important stuff like advanced car parts or abandoned bombs that might be dangerous an hour before it gets dark, and we obey, though it was an exception today. We just goofed around, obviously. If Lyra hadn't gone back earlier and witnessed me and Mile's acquirement of the 2000s radio, she could have grumbled it was a 1 and left, shaking her head from side to side. Anyway. She knows her own life is tiring, but she just can't live without the habit and she enjoys it-she is the most confident when she spits out the long list of good stuff in one breathe that she memorized in her brain from all those 'eye' shots that she gathered over the day," Thomas walked over back to the cartridge and put it back int the drawer. "Just get the hell up and ask her yourself," "She's not busy now?" "She never is-at least, in the way she phrases it herself. Ah, just don't make me be a representative of her and find out yourself, Alex!" Thomas said, smiling a bit. Alex nodded. "Sure, sure," He stepped away to the stairs and climbed them quietly, trying his best at walking without a sound as the Martyr had taught him. He reached the 2nd floor and counted the rooms and found Lyra's room to be the one to the left of his room, and holding his breath, knocked on her door. 

 There was no answer. 

 "Lyra?" He pronounced her name through his own lips for the first time. "Um, it's the newbie, Lyra. No offense," He was surprised when his talking worked-he heard the springs on a bed jump and shiver as the girl got up and walked tensely to the door. Alex could hear her put her fingers on the doorknob, connecting him to her through the metal, but she didn't seem too determined to yank it open out wide. 

 "I just want to ask you questions, and introduce myself. No offense, I swear once more," Alex said quickly. 

 He heard her take a deep breath and sigh out in frustration before opening the door. 

 "Hey," Alex said, then waved hastily to the room of the girl. "Great. Can we talk in there?" Lyra nodded. "I also have a few questions for you, though I'm more used to finding out on my own," She said. Alex was once more surprised, since she was much different than how she had been just a few minutes before when she had come down for dinner. Her voice was firmer and more confident and she looked much more comfy or something. Maybe this is her original attitude that few detect, Alex assumed and walked into her room. He awkwardly put his butt on a stool next to the bed, while Lyra sat on her bed.

 "So, I heard of your ability," Alex said, waving his hands in perfectly timed gestures, though he wasn't noticing his action himself. He was nervous, after all. 

 "So, um, do the numbers really present the significance of the objects just as you told Thomas?" Lyra nodded thoughtfully. Her brown eyes wandered in a veiled world where Alex seemed to be the only one left out and remaining in Lyra's room. "Um, yeah. Wait, wait, wait. I just really need to find this out right now. Please. It's related to my mind...disturbance or ability," Alex stopped in the middle of thinking up of another question. "Oh, of course. Yeah. Ask me," Lyra bit her fingernails, but Alex was too focused to tell her that biting nails wasn't a thing for Prods on his rule book. "You seem to be ...strange. I mean, a bit unique. I usually label the person I see with numbers according to their personalities or values, and their heights and weights, since all Prods can estimate quite correctly by eye, and, most of the people are 100 to 150. And you...are a 200. And most of the number is not in weight or height but in a category I dubbed 'et cetera' and is not too sure ," She shook her flowing hair at him, concentrating intensely on him. Alex Mars scratched his head. "Um, I don't find a reason for myself to have a good personality nor value...I did a few shitty things before, you know," Lyra gave him a tiny smile. "This is unprecedented, but I should learn more of it-and time only seems like the solution for this. So, let's start our real intros, shall we?" She's so confident, Alex thought. "Great. I'm Alex Mars," "Lyra Cannes," His breathing stopped in his air tube when he noticed this girl had an alive back name which was still hanging on in one piece. "Woah. I also found that we're the only ones who have back names, you know," Lyra didn't nod nor smile at that like Melanie. "Yeah. We all have reasons for changing names, but I just don't yet have the necessary need for it. So, what's your ability?" "Good hearing," Alex Mars deliberately stated his ability with the same words he had said to Miles-he wanted to know what her response would be, if this girl was going to be on Mile's side or Thomas' side.

 She actually grinned at him, involving a set of her gleaming teeth and everything. It was a warm sight. 

 "Wow indeed. Much better than my ability, which you can't call an ability for real," "Hey, have more confidence," Alex Mars reassured her, though he wasn't very confident with his ability of sharing empathy with others. Maybe just superficially, she smiled sadly at her bed. "I always used to hear that advice," She said in a low voice, as if in a word to herself. 

 Unsure of how to reply, Alex stood up and stared at the floor instead of pacing. Curiosity suddenly poked his mind and he whirled back to the girl. "So, what number are yourself?" He asked, eyeing her. Her eyebrows narrowed together. "I do have a specific number of my weight and height of the day which changes each day slightly, of course, but I have never been able to discern the number of my value or sentiment. I seem to be 49 kilos or so, and 59.5 inches-I'm always a bit smaller than the average 17-year-olds, you see-" She glanced up and actually blushed. "Well, so combining the stuff up, I'm 108.5 today," Woah, same age-but more than that, what a skill! Alex thought. "Woah, then what of me...today?" Lyra rubbed her chin, but took no more time than 2 blinks to speak. "Guess you're 54 kilos or something and 63 inches today. And you seem to be around 16 or something on the matter of age. I'm not that exact, you see," Alex grinned for her. "I am 17 and weight and is tall as about the rate you said. You're simply amazing," It was one of the first times he had said the word-since in his before-life, he had always been the amazing and excelling one. And now, actually, he felt great to praise someone else. Lyra bit her lip as if she was also unused to getting praises, then dug deeper onto her bed, staring out the window. "Um, guess I should go now," Alex said after another uncomfy moment. Lyra nodded. "Yeah, just get some rest-since we live kinda tight and you're gonna need it tomorrow," Oh gee, the busier, the better-it'd help me freshen up, Alex thought, then walked over to the door. 

 "Guess I"ll see you tomorrow," He said, and before she could even answer, walked out.

When he returned to his room, he threw his butt back onto the bed and let his eyes close. Though the pills were just sugar, it still made him feel satisfied and warm, and he let the dust he had aroused with his jump to the bed settle on his body. 

 Too tired to think of what had happened over the course of the day, he let himself drift off.

He was woken up by the opening creak of his room door the next morning. Thankfully, he wasn't one of those species of people who would get up and make a fuss over how the hell they had gotten there, like Andrew, and stayed sane as Thomas with an h charged in, eyes alert and a new sweatshirt and jeans on. He gave Alex a face that told him automatically that he was in trouble, then zapped over to the foot of the bed with his Prod-speed, the morning sickness not disturbing his agility, surprisingly. 

 "What did I do wrong?" Alex asked. "It's time to get up, Alex. We start our schedule now. Come on, get in these-" Alex watched as Melanie flashed a hurried grin at him from the doorway and threw Thomas a ball of clothes-a brand new T-Shirt and jeans. Thomas handed it over to Alex in less time than the garments had taken to fly through the air. "Forget of washing," "Got it. Just don't watch me stripped under," Alex muttered and felt the cool air as the door swung shut in seconds right after Thomas' leaving form even before his words could properly conclude. He quickly got safely under the covers and put the new clothes on, wondering where the Raiders had gotten him the clothes. No time to waste wondering those silly questions, he thought and threw himself to his feet and walked down to the first floor, where everyone else was assembled. 

 "Thomas, you should try the metal detector you uncovered last week-you swore to prove its efficiency, huh?" Alex looked up to see Miles smirking at Thomas. For a few seconds, Miles didn't seem to notice Alex, then Alex could just feel the other boy's glance detect his and stiffen. But he didn't look in his direction. He's ignoring me, that massive b***h, Alex groaned in his head. Not that I care, though. 

 He let his eyes wander away and felt the pressure in his veins get lower from the anger induced by Miles as he spotted Lyra, who was staring at the maze of shoes on the ground, immediately making Alex feel as if she was now pulling off his socls to check what kind of odor they had right now. Jesus, she just has to soften down her habit of staring, Alex thought as Thomas retrieved a strange device from amid the series of strange devices in the living room, grinning. "You better should work, y'all piece of Canadian junk. We're trusting ya," He smirked at the thing, then yanked the door open and walked off. The others piled out silently after hin, no one over-excited. Alex caught up with Lyra who was trailing at the end and seemed to be used at doing it all the time. 

 "Hey," He said first. "Hey back," She said, nodding a tiny inch downwards. Her confident stance had dissipated now in her, scattered and uncertain in the morning's coldness as they stepped out onto the path to the road, which was a bit slippery from moisture. Before thinking up of a reply for her, Alex Mars couldn't resist the smile and beam that now rose high in his chest as if making him rise-it was the first realistic and most natural form of water, something he was ready to give anything up for in the desert. And along with a hopeful future, it now moistened his shoes and socks, making him smirk. 

 How could such a daily and natural thing amaze me? He thought, eyes wide in wonder, staring at the ground beneath him, not realizing that Lyra Cannes was staring at him, amazed at his amazed eyes.

 "The moisture amazes you?" She asked, still impressed when Alex looked up. He nodded. "It exists so abundantly here while it was gone when I was at the door of death, at the desert. It just makes me wonder how the world can impress us so easily," He explained. "Oh," Lyra said, and that was all she had to say until they arrived at Thomas' Bugatti Chiron. 

 "That car behind is Mel's," Thomas said to Alex when the group gathered in, pointing at a sleek silver Lotus Evija. "Well, obviously, she also has fast speed, but slower than me and she hates using her ability too often. We had this race to this brand new luxury car center that a great old Canadian navigation system showed us. I beat her and raided the center until I found this babe-" He grinned and leaned onto his Chiron. Melanie snorted. "f**k. Still, the Lotus is equal or even better than yours, Tom," Miles rolled his eyes, then swooped into the passenger's seat of the Chiron. "s**t, you still did lose the race, Mel. Maybe we should race today-since we do need motivation from time to time by competing to get to our starting points of the day faster, don't we?" Melanie rubbed her hand over the Lotus, licking her lips. Alex didn't like the sight as she pressed her fingerprints onto the shiny car proudly. "That's more than I can wish. Lyra, get in, and let's show them a lesson. Wait-Alex, you wanna ride?" She asked, grinning her over-sweet smile at him. Alex narrowed his eyebrows, thinking. Well, int the boys' Chiron, he did have to deal with Miles. On the girls' Lotus, however, he was going to have a serious person to have his ride with, who was Lyra-but also the chatbox Melanie. Plus, the boys, even Thomas, would start calling him a sissy. 

 "You're ours, huh?" Thomas smirked friendly at Alex. Alex shrugged. "I guess-for now," Thomas grinned. "Thank you. And welcome to the wildest ride ever you'll not be even able to experience on the old roller coaster Yukon Striker," "Gee," He murmured. He, fortunately, turned back to the girls one last time before the death game on the car to find Lyra giving him an understandable look. 

 Thomas shoved him onto the Chiron and got in himself. Alex tuned off Miles and turned to the car window to see Melanie push in her key and let the Lotus growl. 

 The Chiron bust into life, groaning a soft roar, then Alex gripped the leather seat, not caring if it would end up bursting up from his strength and pressure. He still didn't wear the seat belt since he wanted to enjoy the threat and speed and he trusted Thomas. 

 Thomas turned on his wheel. "Connect Melanie the b***h," He said. Miles smirked at the window. "Melanie the b***h in front of Driver's house. Connect?" "Yeah. I love the way you impersonate the way I call out shitty people to connect for you," Thomas replied and waited as the beeps took on. Melanie received it immediately. She now looked up from the steering wheel to glare at Thomas from behind her glass. "What?" "An idea came to mind. What if we race and do our job at the same time? LIke, the winner's who gathers up the most new gadgets and comes back home faster. So to sum up, we each go in different paths to pioneer the city directly from home," "You are 3, and we're 2, you fool. It's unfair," "Lyra's a treasure and we have to teach our newbie Alex, right? Doesn't that make it fair enough for you?" Alex could hear Melanie's nod through the phone without needing to look at her through the Chiron's and Lotus' glass. "Right," She disconnected. "Good idea," Miles muttered at Thomas. "Uh-huh. Was just being the leader and pitying the girls. So, let's do this," Thomas grinned, rubbing his hands so quickly that Alex thought he might create fire on them if he kept on doing it for 2 minutes. 

 So the race started, and Alex looked into the Lotus and caught a sight of an unsmiling Lyra in the passenger's seat before Thomas rolled down the window, spat saliva away into the air and even before the saliva droplet could hit the ground, snapped his fingers like the great Thanos as the indicator of the start of the race, and let the Chiron accelerate away, making Alex feel as if his gut was being left miles away with each passing second.