Page 66 of Death of the Author

Zelu really disliked this woman. How dare she laugh when she had no idea what Zelu was going through? “You don’t know what it’s like to be me,” she said darkly.

Wind stood up breezily, bringing her mug to the sink. “Come hiking with me. If you don’t, you’ll just end up on your phone and start looking at bullshit.”

Zelu blinked, realizing for the first time that she hadn’t given the stupid film, the media, any of it a thought since she’d woken up. She’d just been eating a delicious omelet, being annoyed by Wind, and staring at the weird desert. “Damn... you’re right.”

“So let’s go,” Wind urged. “We won’t walk anywhere too uneven.”

Zelu didn’t have any hiking clothes, but Wind had plenty. When they came back into the main living area in their sportswear, they found Msizi and Marlo setting up a temporary office on a table with their laptops. Msizi looked up and smiled when he saw Zelu dressed in Wind’s T-shirt and shorts.

“Don’t take her anywhere difficult,” Marlo said.

“Of course not. I’m taking her down the easy path,” Wind replied as she grabbed sunscreen from a cabinet. “Maybe when the technology improves, we’ll try the tougher stuff.”

Zelu scowled at her.

“Oh, relax, Zelu,” she said, rolling her eyes. “You’re too sensitive.” Before Zelu could respond, she turned back to Marlo and Msizi. “All right, we’re going.”

Zelu gave Msizi a look that saidCan you believe this woman?As she followed Wind out.

“Have fun,” he called with a wink.

Wind informed her that the beginning of the trail was a five-minute walk away, but when they reached it, the path looked just like all the land around them. The only difference was that there were fewer rocks. Zelu’s exos made crunching and grinding sounds as she hiked, but it didn’t feel as jarring as when she walked on concrete. It was about 10 a.m. and with the overcast, the eighty-five-degree temperature and strong breeze felt quite pleasant.

“How far are we going?” she asked after fifteen minutes.

“Why? Are you winded?” Wind said over her shoulder. It wasn’t her words that annoyed Zelu; it was the chuckle afterward.

“No, I’m not ‘winded,’ Wind. I’m just asking because of the sun.”

“It’s overcast.”

“For now.”

“Why are you so negative, always focusing on the worst?” Wind asked, bounding onward and forcing Zelu to keep pace. “Look at your life. You’ve written this crazy novel that has somehow caught the zeitgeist. I read it myself; it’s brilliant. Youdidthat. You’ve got these two-hundred-thousand-dollar robot legs because you’re Zelu Who WroteRusted Robots. The film adaptation of your novel came out two nights ago. So what if you’ve been ‘canceled’ on an app? You were sticking up for yourself—isn’t that worth it? Plus, social media isn’t the real world.Thisis the real world. So, Zelu. What. Is. Your.Problem?”

“Why don’t you stop talking,” Zelu muttered. “I don’t even fucking know you.” She felt a rush of frustration as she tried to push away the truth of Wind’s words. She couldn’t take them in, she couldn’t sit with them, she wouldn’t.No, she thought.Just no.

Wind didn’t turn around, but her voice carried toward Zelu on the breeze. “Yet I’ve cooked you two meals you’ve loved, prepared a room to your liking, and read your novel.”

Zelu gritted her teeth. The hike went on, and they continued to bicker like this for the next two hours. Zelu thought it would never end; her skin was coated with a sticky film of sweat and dust, and she wassotired. Then they reached the cliff. Zelu hadn’t even realized they’d been walking uphill. Her exos had performed flawlessly.

“Whoa,” she whispered as she slowly stepped toward the edge. The desert spread before her with such strength that for a moment, she felt dizzy with a rush of vertigo.

“Check this out,” Wind said. She was already standing at the edge, looking down.

Zelu stopped a few feet back, afraid to go any closer. The drop was probably more than fifty feet, and only cacti and scrubs padded the ground below.

“Come closer,” Wind said.

Zelu shook her head. “I’m scared.”

Wind nodded and turned back to the view.

“I’m...” Zelu didn’t know why she felt the need to extrapolate. “What if my exos malfunction and they keep going when I mean to stop?”

“Have they ever done anything like that before?” Wind asked, her back to Zelu.

“No.”

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