The Yellow Pill Read Online Free Page B

backwards, his foot hooking into the exhaustion pipe and suddenly his arms
were waving for balance instead. He came to a stop at the bottom, metal and debris slower at settling around him like miniature waves, gleaming
and sharp. Frey could see he would never walk again.
    Before Jin could
grab her, she slid down the side, going as fast as she dared. She ran towards
the unmoving heap and saw that he was still breathing… barely. He was going to
be dead very soon.
    She kneeled next
to him just as he opened his eyes. They were grey, and full of pain. There was
blood on his face, but his eyes were clear and stayed right on hers. His lips
moved, and at first there was no sound. Then it came in a whisper so silently Frey
had to lean in to hear him.
    “They wanted me
to forget…” big tears rolled down his dirty cheeks. “They exiled me… put me here… they-they are watching.” His hand crept towards his chest. Frey took
it on impulse and placed it on his slightly moving ribcage so he wouldn’t have
to struggle, but his fingers continued to grope at his neck. “Do not let them…”
    The man’s head
rolled to the side, his grey eyes going dull as the breath left him.
    Frey knew he had
been crazy, and crazy people said strange things. But still… She pulled his
blue collar to the side to check for a necklace, but there was nothing there.
As her hand went over the fabric she felt something solid and hard seeming to
come from within the collar. The fabric was incredibly soft to her touch, the
tiny, white ornamental stripes almost invisible as
they were so delicate. Her fingers snagged at the shirt.
    Looking around
she saw a shard of glass. Frey could hear Jin calling her name together with
the sound of him sliding down the hill. She hurried to cut a small opening,
pulling out a white object. It was tiny and compact. It was also crystal white
and sleek.
    The first thing
that hit her was how much it reminded her of the container from the drop…
    Frey slid it into
her pocket just as Jin grabbed her good arm hard and yanked her hard to her
feet.
    “Stop running
away like that! You like giving me heart attacks?” He half yelled,
refusing to let her arm go as if he was scolding a little child.
    Frey swallowed
her initial response, seeing that his anger came from worry. She sighed and
smiled to herself, not able to be angry with him for getting worried about her
all the time. “Yeah, yeah. Sorry, Jin.”
    Frey looked over
her shoulder at the dead man. The dogs and rats would be feasting on him before
long.
    Frey felt Jin’s
heavy hand on her head as he sighed as well. “Well, whatever. Come on. We might
still find something useful.” He nodded towards the body. “You search him?”
    “Yup. Nothing,” she
said, already walking away from the scene, Jin following. Keeping Frey out of
trouble seemed to be Jin’s number one mission. It meant she couldn’t show him
the strange object. He would see it as a threat and get rid of it, and she
wasn’t about to let that happen. The tips of her fingers gave it one last
curious caress before slipping it into a pocket within her bandana.
     
    The sky was getting dark fast and the digital stars
became visible while Frey and Jin made their way into the big market. You could
walk through it for half the night and not have seen all the junk that was
being traded here. The steam and noise of China Town was more intense than
normal, the sea of bodies even thicker and the smells like an explosion in the
nose, both foul and strangely intoxicating.
    Bloody love the
night markets.
    Those who
couldn’t get a good spot for their stalls on the main street hung their wares
from the windows, small neon signs luring people up dark, crooked stairways.
Frey tended to avoid those.
    Beggars and street
rats were shoved to the very edges to leave room for everyone else. The extra
signs and lights made the whole of China Town light up in spite of the
surrounding steam and fog. It was messy and smelly,