Boy X by Dan Smith

shutters.
    Arms stretched in front of him like he was diving into a swimming pool, Ash burst into the sunlight. As soon as his fingers touched the grass, he tucked in his head and tried to roll, but was moving faster than he realized. Instead, he landed in an undignified heap, his legs flipping over so he came down hard on his shoulder and landed on his back.
    It didn’t matter, though. He was out.

22 hrs and 02 mins until Shut-Down
    A sh stared up, seeing not darkness, and not the blank walls of the research facility, but the expanse of a huge blue midday sky, dotted here and there with only the slightest wisp of cloud. He saw the endless greens of the trees and smelt the life around him, but couldn’t enjoy any of it because his shoulders were aching from the fall and his foot was in agony from the cuts.
    â€˜ ¡Increíble! ’ Isabel said. ‘You moved so fast. How did you do that? I’ve never seen . . . Madre de Dios , you’re bleeding.’
    â€˜Mmm.’ Ash sat up and squinted against the sun to see her.
    â€˜Are you OK?’
    â€˜I think so.’
    â€˜And you can hear me?’
    Ash looked at Isabel and blinked in surprise. ‘Yeah. I can. That’s weird. I can hear fine.’
    â€˜And you moved so fast. How did you do that?’
    â€˜I don’t know, I just . . . It doesn’t make sense. A few minutes ago, I was deaf and now . . .’ Ash turned his head this way and that, listening to his surroundings, picking up the chirrup of insects, the birds in the canopy, the distant grunt of something hiding in the forest. If anything, his hearing was even better than before. He could pinpoint a sound and focus on it with more control and less effort.
    He sat up further and grabbed his foot, holding it with both hands and twisting so he could see the sole. There was blood all over it, and when he wiped it away more oozed from several large cuts.
    â€˜It looks bad,’ Isabel said. ‘Can you walk?’
    Ash winced as he picked out the glass. It hurt like hell, but he didn’t want to tell Isabel that. She was tough and he wanted to be tough too. ‘I’ll be fine.’ He removed the binding from his other foot and stood up. Pain shot through him in sickening waves. Trying to take his mind off it, he looked over at the helicopter lying crumpled at the far edge of the clearing. ‘We should check that out.’
    â€˜I think they didn’t survive.’ Isabel turned away, not wanting to see the broken vehicle.
    â€˜You don’t know that. They might have survived. And if we’re going to catch Cain and Pierce, we’ll need some help. Maybe they’ve got supplies we can use. You know, afirst-aid kit or something?’
    All around, the forest was alive with alien sounds; whistles and calls and creaks and chirps. The whole place hummed, like it was singing its own song. There was movement too. Everywhere Ash looked there was something to draw his eye, and he had to control it the way he controlled what he listened to and what he could smell. It was as if he had to learn to use his senses in a different way, trying not to be distracted by everything.
    Limping closer to the helicopter, he sniffed the air, tasting aviation fuel, burning electrics and the hint of blood lying beneath it. He allowed himself to hear the gentle sounds of ticking, the quiet groan of metal expanding and settling into place under the heat of the sun.
    â€˜It didn’t catch fire,’ he said. ‘Maybe they got out.’ Every helicopter he’d ever seen crash in a film had exploded in a ball of fire, so maybe this crash hadn’t been so bad. Maybe the pilot had escaped.
    He picked his way around the wreck, studying the helicopter as if it were a felled beast. The tail boom was lying close to the tree it had hit, tangled with what was left of the electric fence. It occurred to Ash that whatever they had been trying to keep out