Secret Value of Zero, The by Victoria Halley Read Free Book Online Page A

pick Meke apart and study her. What if he figured it out? Despite the improbability of it, Meke still dreaded the thought.  
    Meke picked up a few small stones and mentally traced their protrusions and dips. Her sense was becoming more exact. These minuscule indentations showed themselves in staggering clarity in her mind, even though her physical eyes couldn’t see them. She threw the rocks away, feeling them bounce until they slid to a stop.  
    As she sat on the campsite’s edges, she tried to ignore the others’ closeness. Everyone chatted around the lamp, eating their food. Meke always wondered what they said, but settled herself into her seat. She wasn’t young anymore. When she was five or six, whenever the other children had let her play with them—a rare, treasured event—she would laugh along with them, not understanding what was so funny. Sometimes, the children would say bad things about her and laugh, and Meke would laugh along in her ignorance. Meke had stopped laughing along after that.
    Meke brushed dirt off her hand and munched on her dinner. Despite all of the varieties of Prosperon GE food, the same bitter aftertaste chased every bite. Meke wondered what it was like, to eat soil-grown food like people did once upon a time.  
    A sharp tingle emerged from behind her. Meke forced her body to still and not to turn around and investigate. Ever since Trove’s questioning stares, Meke had been more careful with her responses to her new sense. Training her body in stillness was contrary to Meke’s entire being.  
    The motion behind Meke continued. As it closed in, she could feel its small, furry shape. Not human. It could be an animal. The idea both excited and terrified Meke.  
    Prosperon, by declaring nature dead, also declared all animals dead. She had only read and heard about these creatures from other people. She had never been close to any actual animal. Bugs and insects lived in a tiny world of their own. Mammals were a different matter entirely.  
    This creature felt like some animals that Meke had seen pictures of. The body was round, but it had a long appendage—a tail, perhaps? Yes, Meke decided, it must be an animal. It moved too erratically to be a robot, which were rare anyway. Also, robots never trembled.  
    Meke wondered animal must need some kind of help. Otherwise it wouldn’t approach a strange human like her. Meke wanted to reach it, communicate with it, but she didn’t want to startle it, so she kept still, breathing lightly. With slow, steady hands, Meke crumbled her food into her palm. Theria glanced back, but seemed unconcerned with the fact that Meke was ruining her food. The others were too focused on their own food to notice anything.
    Meke exhaled and flung the crumbs overhead in one smooth motion. If anyone asked questions, she would say that she hadn’t liked the food. That wouldn’t be a lie either; she hated the spam flavor of these bars.  
    The morsels landed several meters behind her, well within her sense. The small furry body darted away, fading away as it left the periphery of her sense. Meke tried not to feel disappointed. This creature would surely be skittish. Humans rarely, if ever, ventured hereabouts. Still, Meke wanted it to take the gift.
    Meke resigned herself to her lost food and dignity. Suddenly, the creature reemerged into her sense. It crept toward the crumbs, its tail low on the ground. It circled the food several times before sniffing it.  
    The creature had pointy ears and a delicate snout. The shape seemed familiar, but Meke couldn’t place the name. Then she remembered the creature that was called “cat.” Before Prosperon, cats had lived with humans, almost like prized children. Now they apparently roamed free in the wilderness.
    After the cat gobbled all of the crumbs, it darted away, fading into the rocks. Meke smiled and waved an unseen, silent goodbye.

CHAPTER SIX

    AS SHE ate breakfast, Meke crumbled some more food and dropped