Read The Creative Fire: 1 (Ruby's Song) for Free Online Page B

had come. Ben stepped aside for them like before, but this time he followed them. He’d been waiting. The care and concern his having waited implied touched Ruby. “Thank you,” she whispered to him as she passed.
    The old red made a hurry-up gesture, his serious dark eyes and the continuing screech of the sirens driving Ruby to pass Marcelle and Onor and lead them to the transport station.
    The sign above the train proclaimed that it would be leaving in two minutes.
    A woman from the crèche named Rebeck cried out, over and over, a soul-wounded sound. A pair of red women helped her toward the open doors, the taller of the two saying, “Surely he just got on the first train.”
    Cars filled and the station emptied.
    As they stepped into the last car, Ruby smelled baby puke and urine when she was sure it should be all oily and clean. The car wasn’t full. One family huddled close to each other near the back. Ben stood near the middle, where he could see everyone.
    The train let off a loud squeal, warning that it would be leaving soon. Its dead-machine voice proclaimed, “Doors closing.”
    Ruby tugged on Onor’s arm, guiding him into a seat. She strapped the bags she and Marcelle had brought into empty seats on either side of them.
    The voice said “Doors—” and stopped.
    The doors slid open and two people stumbled in. The young man’s face was so bloody it took Ruby a moment to identify him. Hugh. Lya, his girlfriend, supported his right side, wincing as he leaned on her. Her face was flushed red with exertion and her reddish-blond hair wet with blood and sweat.
    “What happened?” Ben asked.
    Lya’s voice sounded edgy. “Reds beat him up. We were . . . on our way here and they stopped us and beat him. His skull’s split.”
    So they hadn’t left him alone.
    Hugh groaned.
    Ben held a hand up to calm her, frowning. “Probably just his scalp. What reds?”
    Lya spat her words at Ben. “It could have been murder. If they knocked him out we’d still be there. Missed the—”
    Hugh said, “Let it be, Lya. You know Ben didn’t do it. Let us by so I can sit down.”
    Ben nodded stiffly. “Strap in. I already used most of my medikit, but I’ll look and see if there’s any left on another car after we get going.”
    The train repeated its message about the doors closing.
    Onor jerked his head toward their seats. “I’ve got fix-all and tape.”
    Ben raised an eyebrow at Onor. “Can you handle it?”
    Onor nodded, his face white but his eyes determined.
    The train’s acceleration pushed Ruby back against the seats. Once it steadied, they unbuckled and began to work on Hugh.
    He’d been beat bad.
    Besides the gash on his head, one cheek was red and the other eye was going black. Ruby tore more material from the shirt she’d already mangled for Fox’s foot. She handed strips to Onor and Marcelle, who pressed them against Hugh’s head to stop the blood. After, Onor spread fix-all tape across Hugh’s scalp. Lya clung to Hugh’s hand, her knuckles white. Not a perfect job. Bits of dried blood stuck to Hugh’s hair and stained his neck. Hugh whispered, “Thanks,” his eyes slightly shocky and still full of pain.
    “Keep him awake,” Ben advised.
    “I will.” Lya squeezed Hugh’s arm. A single bruise darkened the back of her hand and she winced from time to time when the train shook. So Lya’d gotten a little of whatever Hugh got.

    Ruby sat back and closed her eyes, too tired to avoid the memory that Hugh’s beating brought up for her any longer. It had been a year ago, but when she let herself think about it, it felt both more distant and more recent, like something so bad it couldn’t have happened at all.
    She remembered walking softly as she snuck down the corridor between habs. She hadn’t wanted her mother to wake up and keep her home. If fifteen was old enough to be on shift after school, old enough to get in trouble, then it was old enough for her to solve her own troubles.
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