Doppelganger Girl Read online

  “But here’s the thing,” Jane continued. “When we left, we told everyone we were coming back, and for most people, taking six years to do it … well, they’re probably wondering if we’re going to keep our word.”

  “You’re thinking about Tate, aren’t you?”

  “Well, I did tell him I’d be back, and I didn’t think it would take this long … I want to see him again.”

  “I miss him too … but listen,” Evelyn said, turning and putting her hand on Jane’s arm, “if anyone can survive in the slums, it’s him. He has the same nanite technology in him that I have. I’m sure he’s fine … and I’m sure you’ll get to see him soon enough.”

  Jane nodded, the unsure nod of someone trying to convince themselves of something they want desperately to believe but can’t. “About that, I want to ask you something. Do you think you can start outfitting one of the shuttles with the Leap Frog?”

  “Sure. Why?” Evelyn asked, nudging Jane’s shoulder and giving her a mischievous grin and a head waggle. “The council said they don’t want to go back.”

  “I know, but I don’t really care what they think,” Jane replied, returning the waggle.

  Evelyn smiled. “Yeah? Well, neither do I.”

  “What?” Jane asked, a note of mild surprise in her tone.

  “I’m already working on it. That’s what I was doing last night.” Evelyn stood and walked over to the manifold she had been working on earlier.

  “I thought you needed time to think,” Jane said, standing and walking to join her.

  “I did, and I remembered who my family is. You and Marcus, your mom and dad, and Tate. I’m not going to let Mrs. Vandergaast stand in the way of our family. So I pulled a bunch of parts from the Leap Frog on Vista, and I’ve been trying to install them on this shuttle. I’m not quite finished, but I’m close, and when I’m done, we can use the shuttle to leap back and forth from here to Earth.”

  “That’s great, Evie!” Jane gave Evelyn another hug, pulling away just a second later. “You know, you forgot someone on that list … of your family.”

  “Who?”

  Jane’s grin widened. “Joseph.”

  “Joseph,” Evelyn repeated, smiling, and a split second later, she felt a pinch in her chest. “Oh no!” she added, running to the ramp to look out of the shuttle bay toward the lake.

  “What?”

  “It’s Joseph … I was supposed to meet him at the lake.”

  “You better wear a swimsuit this time, young lady,” Jane said, a more serious tone in her voice, no doubt matching a serious expression on her face, if Evelyn had turned around to look. “If I find out you went swimming in your underwear with a boy, I’ll lock you in your room until you’re old and wrinkly.”

  Evelyn felt the sadness of missing Joseph creep over her. The disappointment of letting him down—of missing out. She sighed. “You don’t need to worry about that, Jane … it’s too late. I’m sure he’s already gone.”

  FORGIVEN

  The breeze that had been completely absent earlier was beginning to brush away the humidity, giving some welcome relief to the stifling heat of midday. Even so, Evelyn didn’t benefit from it much as she sprinted toward to lake, hoping to still find Joseph.

  Running past the few people out in the sun on the road leading through town, Evelyn rounded the corner and glanced out to the shore ahead. It was empty. Not only was Joseph not there, but it was obvious he and the rest of the group had gone off to another part of the lake, surely to get away from their parents’ prying eyes.

  Evelyn slowed to a walk, looking up and down the beach and further to the forest on the north side of the shore. There was no sign of any of them. She stepped to the edge of the lake and, kneeling, splashed some of the lake’s crystal clear, cool water on her face.

  Evelyn stood and looked around. She wanted to go look for them—for Joseph—but the thought that it might make her look too eager or desperate froze her feet to the sand. She felt her stomach knot, and the longer she stood there, the more stupid she felt. The heat grew in her chest, frustrated at not being able to think clearly. Then after what seemed like an eternity of arguing with herself over it, she let out a huff and stomped her way toward the tree line. Joseph will be happy to see me, she told herself, remembering Jane’s words … He’s family.

  The tree line along the lake’s edge wasn’t more than a few hundred yards from the beach, but Evelyn realized she hadn’t even ventured this far from camp since they had arrived. She had been too busy with programming agribots, analyzing atmospheric and agricultural data sets, and trying to repair the power generator to take any real time to explore. As she approached the edge of the forest, she could smell the hint of pine in the air from the evergreens, and the musty smell of the rich earth, rock, and grasses ahead.

  Evelyn smiled as the excitement of exploring something new grew inside her. Just as quickly as the sensation came, it fled, as she worried about what might be lurking in the woods. She glanced quickly over her shoulder at the settlement, perhaps hoping to see a reassuring face in the distance waving her onward, but there was no one. Rolling her shoulders, and taking a deep breath, she turned back and cautiously stepped into the trees, acutely aware of all the sounds around her, including those she was making as she rustled and cracked her way through the trees along the water’s edge.

  After plodding along for a while, and stopping occasionally to listen for sounds of the others, Evelyn started to feel her chest and shoulders relax. Maybe it was the fact that she hadn’t seen anything to make her jump, or the realization that animals tended to run off at the sound of humans tromping through their space, but with each step, she grew more comfortable with being alone in the wilderness. Minutes later, she came to a slight break in the trees, opening to the lake beyond and a field of granite boulders, which must have slid down from the mountains, on her right. Wanting to see if the view was any better from down there, Evelyn climbed over the boulders, hopping from one to the next until she came to the lake.

  The view was spectacular, and Evelyn had to remember to breathe as she took it all in. She had gone maybe a mile from the start of the tree line and could see the tents and wood shanties of the settlement far in the distance. Behind her the ridge rose gradually, majestically, to mountaintops that disappeared into the gray-blue skies above. She couldn’t see the other side of the lake from where she stood, and to her left the trees jutted out far enough that she couldn’t see but a few hundred yards. She stood still, listening for any sign of Joseph, but heard nothing.

  The clear water below the rock on which she stood seemed to be much shallower than the beach near the settlement, and Evelyn realized she could probably walk twenty or thirty feet out into the lake before the water level would even reach her knees. Thinking she might be able to see further if she was away from the shore, Evelyn worked up her courage, sat on the rock, peeled the work boots and heavy socks off her feet, and lightly stepped into the cool water.

  The sensation of cool wetness on her hot, sweaty, and partially blistered feet was overwhelming. If it hadn’t been for the nagging worry over what might be in the water with her—a persistent worry of hers, she was noticing—she might have decided to sit for a while and let the water wash away the swelling. Instead, she didn’t bother stopping as she waded into the lake.

  By the time the water level had come above her knees, she was easily fifty feet out from the boulders, but in getting out that far, she realized that she was actually standing on the edge of a granite shelf. Just a few feet beyond, there was nothing but blackness as the granite ended and fell away. Evelyn had no idea how deep the water was—she still hadn’t spent any time studying the lake—but given how clear the water was and how dark it was, it could have been thirty feet or three hundred feet to the bottom. She had no way to know.

  Evelyn looked up from the watery blackness toward the tree line to see if she could get a glimpse of what was beyond. She still wasn’t far enough into the water to be a
ble to see. She listened for sounds of the others and inched her way a little closer to the edge.

  As she moved, she looked deeper into the water and noticed a shimmering in the darkness and then saw thousands of the tiny fish she had seen on her first day swim up from the deep, weaving in between and around her legs. They were beautiful, and Evelyn saw her smiling reflection in the water as they danced around her. Hypnotized by their sensual movements, Evelyn stared unblinking and stood unmoving for a few moments, watching the fish.

  As suddenly as the thousands of fish came, they left. Evelyn figured they were again bored at their discovery. Watching them race off along the rock ledge, she felt the water swirl around her legs with the abruptness of their departure.

  Still smiling, Evelyn looked back at the blackness of the deep water and immediately felt her bowels go weak at the sight of the shadow below her. Her chest constricted and her breath grew short. Whatever was swimming down there was too deep for her to see, but even from where she stood, it was easily ten feet long and thick around the middle. It immediately brought to her mind the pictures she had seen of bull sharks on Earth. Not wanting to find out if it was, and feeling a panic start to rage through her gut that heated her face, Evelyn turned back toward the shore.

  Not a second later, Evelyn felt her feet slip out behind her, and she winced in pain as her shin crashed into the granite. As she plunged feet first off the edge, a new wave of panic consumed her at the thought she was heading straight for the beast in the darkness below.

  Kicking and clawing, Evelyn saw the surface of the water slip further away as she sank into the cold. Images of being dragged to the bottom by the shadowy beast filled her mind. She felt something bump into her leg, pushing her sideways. She screamed through the water. Kicking harder, she felt the tips of her fingers touch the edge of the granite shelf. She grabbed madly at it, her fingers unable to get any traction on the slippery rock. Out of air and unable to think, she felt another bump on her leg, and not a second later, she felt someone grab her wrist and yank her out of the water, her knees crashing into the granite as she came to the surface.

  Grabbing madly, she pulled herself up, and as she came out of the water, she saw the face of her savior. The look of panic on Joseph’s face reverberated off her own.

  “My God, Evie—”

  “Run!” she spat, coughing, standing, and sucking air into her burning lungs. Without stopping to think, she grabbed Joseph’s wrist and pulled him through the thigh-deep water toward the shore.

  “Joseph—run!” she said again, feeling like the weight of the entire lake of water was working to slow them down.

  Coming to the rocks on the shore, breathless and realizing she was sobbing as tears ran down her face, Evelyn let go of Joseph’s wrist and climbed up onto the rock.

  “Evie, are you okay?” she heard as the noise of them splashing their way to safety died in her ears. She felt him gently place his hand on her back, and she immediately felt a soothing calm wash over her—the feeling of safety.

  “Evie!” he said again, the obvious tone of worry causing him to yell at her.

  “There’s something out there … in the water,” Evelyn said, looking at Joseph and still trying to catch her breath. He was as soaked as she was, running his hand through his wet hair to pull it out of his face.

  “What?” he said, raising his eyebrows, the worry in his voice not getting any lighter. “What was it?”

  “I don’t know, but it was big … really big,” she replied, rolling onto her hip and looking out over the deceptively tranquil waters.

  “Is that what pulled you under?”

  “No,” she said, her face flushing a little. “I slipped and fell in.”

  “Well, did it do that to you?” Joseph asked, pointing at her legs, a grossed-out look on his face.

  Evelyn looked down at her legs, realizing as she did that she was in a lot of pain. Both of her knees were skinned and oozing blood down her calves. Wincing as she looked at the blood, she touched her knees. It was another first for her—skinned knees—something she had completely avoided by not having a real childhood and having spent her whole life on a space station. Fortunately, it didn’t look like more than just bad scrapes to her.

  “No,” she replied, again feeling her face flush, a little embarrassed to realize that she had done more damage to herself than the big fish in the lake had. “I did that trying to get out of the water.”

  “Geez, Evie,” Joseph said, slapping his forehead and lying back on the rock, “you gave me a heart attack.”

  “Sorry, Joseph,” she replied, realizing her knees weren’t the source of all the pain she was feeling. Remembering she smashed her shin into the rock when she first lost her balance, she rolled a little further and glanced down. Evelyn didn’t know what she expected to see, but what was happening to her leg was definitely not it.

  Unlike her knees, which had been scuffed by the rock, the granite had cleaved a gash down the front of her leg, deep into the tissue. But where she would have expected to see a gaping wound with blood running everywhere, she saw silver. It was like liquid metal had settled into the space where her leg was cut, and it shimmered and moved and pulsed, and she felt it pulling on her muscle tissue, like it was holding her leg together.

  The fact that Evelyn realized what was happening didn’t keep her from being completely shocked by what she was seeing. It also didn’t keep her from feeling like she was going to vomit at the sight of it.

  “Well, you don’t see that every day.”

  Evelyn looked up. Joseph had propped himself up on one arm and was staring at the silvery smear on her shin with a look of amusement or wonder—Evelyn couldn’t really tell which. Quickly she tried to cover it with her hand. Gently he leaned toward her and, taking her hand, peeled it away from the spot, peering intently at her wound.

  “What is that, Evie?”

  Evelyn looked at Joseph, who was still riveted at the sight of her leg. He wasn’t disgusted, even though he probably should have been. “It’s the nanites. They’re trying to knit the cut back together, like sutures.”

  They both stared at the cut, and as they watched, the shimmering metallic liquid in her leg seemed to shrink and tighten. Evelyn tried not to wince, but she couldn’t help it. It hurt, probably as much as if a doctor was doing the stitching. In less than a minute, the only thing remaining of the gash was a thin hairline of silver where the cut had been, the nanites having pulled the flaps of her skin back together.

  “I didn’t know you could do that,” Joseph said, glancing up at her with a “wow” look on his face.

  “I didn’t either,” Evelyn replied—and really, she didn’t. Even though she had programmed the nanites, she hadn’t programmed them to do that specifically. The nanites were designed to link together, like miles of wires throughout the body, allowing the brain to communicate better with the body. In Tate’s case, the nanites broke though scar tissue in the brain, making it possible for his body and mind to work as it was meant to. Even Joseph had nanites in his body, but in his case, they replaced the nerves in his lower back, which had been injured somehow when he was a child, allowing him to walk normally.

  The nanites in Evelyn’s body, however, were designed to do more, but not this. It was like they had taken it upon themselves to protect her. Not her scuffed knees, as they were still red and bloody, but those injuries also weren’t life-threatening. Her leg, on the other hand, was serious enough that the nanites obviously wanted to spur the healing along.

  A shiver ran up Evelyn’s spine at the thought that maybe the nanites weren’t as concerned with saving her as they were with saving themselves, given her body was their host. She quickly tried to put the thought out of her mind.

  “Can I do that?” Joseph asked, looking up at Evelyn with raised eyebrow.

  “I don’t know, Joseph, but let’s not find out,” she said with a little laugh of relief that her leg appeared to be okay. The pain the nanites were causing her h
ad subsided somewhat.

  She leaned back on her palms and smiled, noticing Joseph’s mossy-green eyes had found something else to focus on other than the cut on her shin—her thigh.

  “How did you know where I was?”

  Joseph’s head snapped away from her leg, a hint of pink in his cheeks, no doubt realizing he had just been caught staring.

  “Oh,” he said, sitting up, “I was trying to sneak up on you. We were swimming on the other side of the point there,” he added, motioning to the cluster of trees Evelyn was trying to see around when she had waded into the lake. “I figured I’d go back to camp to see if you had changed your mind about coming along, and that’s when I saw you wading into the water. I thought I’d sneak up behind you and scare you, but before I had a chance, you disappeared under the water. I ran out to where you were, and saw your hair under the water, so I grabbed for something and pulled.”

  “Thanks, Joseph. I don’t know what I would have done without you. And thanks for coming to find me in the first place.”

  Joseph smiled his crooked smile, and then it softened as he looked out over the water. “Did you … not want to come out with me?”

  “What?”

  “Earlier … you didn’t meet me … Did you just not want to go … with me?”

  Evelyn felt her heart pinch at hurting Joseph’s feelings. “Oh, no,” she tried to answer quickly, “I did want to go, but I had a horrible night last night, and then I was working on some stuff this morning, and … and I just forgot.”

  Evelyn watched the stab of disappointment in his eyes, and she wanted to cry for how she felt. “I’m sorry, Joseph … really, I am … and as soon as I realized I missed you, I tried to find you, but I didn’t know where you went.” She paused for a moment, hopeful that he might say something. Looking down at her hands, she said, almost to herself, “I’m just really sorry.”