Stitch's Arc

Chapter 4 of 5

The red ship filled the clearing behind them. Stitch turned away from it and ran the numbers in his head. He had memorized the coordinates from the foil. They were his only map to his cousin. But the numbers moved. One digit blurred into another. He shut his eyes and grabbed for the fourth one. It slid away. "Lilo," he said. His voice shook. "Numbers going." Lilo dropped beside him in the dark cut between the roots. She still smelled like the run, dirt and sweat. "What do you mean, going?" "Forget them." He pressed the plush duck to his chest. Its frayed edges were soft under his claws. His cousin had chewed those seams. His cousin had left this trail on purpose. "Lose numbers, lose him." Lilo's face went still. She understood fast. She always did. "Then we save them. Right now." Stitch looked around. No foil. No paper. Nothing to write with. The hunters had eyes and machines that could read a signal. Anything glowing would call them straight here. Lilo pulled the sandal off her foot. She scraped a bare patch in the dirt with the heel. "Say them," she whispered. "One at a time. Slow." Stitch spoke the first number. Lilo dug it into the soft ground with her fingertip. He gave the second. Then the third. The fourth one had slipped, but seeing the first three fixed in the dirt pulled it back. He said it. Lilo carved it in. A branch cracked upslope. Voices spread out again, closer. The new hunters were searching. Stitch's hand shook over the duck. He rushed the fifth number and stopped. "Wrong," he hissed. "Wrong one." "Breathe," Lilo said. She put her small hand flat on his. "You know this. Your cousin left it for you. Nobody else. Just you." He breathed. He held the duck and thought of the one who had held it before him. The fifth number came clear. Then the sixth. Lilo pressed each one into the dirt. The full line sat there in the earth, deep and dark. Stitch read it back twice. It matched what was left in his head. Now it lived in two places, not just his slipping memory. Boots thudded closer. Lilo scooped the plush duck into Stitch's arms and stared at the numbers. "We can't leave them here. They'll find them." Stitch nodded. He looked at the line one last time, burning it deep. Then he swept his paw across the dirt and smeared it flat. The numbers were gone from the ground. But they were solid again in his mind, shared now with Lilo. Two heads held the trail. "Both of us," he said. "Both of us," Lilo agreed. The boots crested the bank above them. A light swung down through the roots. Stitch grabbed Lilo's hand. The trail was safe. Now they had to run again.