by Tracy Korn
"How…?" he gasped, shaking his head at me. "How are you good?"
"I don't know," I said, not even remotely winded. "I was just wondering the same thing."
"You were…ahead of me," he panted. "Most of the way."
"I don't know how," I said again, confused because not only was I not winded, but I felt like I was just getting started—like that run was about as hard as stretching after first getting out of bed. "We need to talk to Jen and find out what she really gave me."
Max straightened and gave me a quick nod as we started walking the rest of the way to Raphael's Tea Shop.
"Caught on fire... I guess that's why the lady at St. Agnes's wouldn't tell us anything," he said.
"How does that even happen?" I asked. "We need to talk to Mr. Warren and find out what went down."
"Maybe it's on the feeds," he added, and I tapped my temple until I heard the news playing in my ear.
"Filter for Portland Prep," I said, hoping this would weed out all the regular horror stories that happen in The Grind on a daily basis, including, but not limited to those Feral attacks and Red Fever.
"Well?" Max said impatiently.
"There's nothing." I shook my head, then looked at him. "How could there be nothing?"
"Maybe that kid didn't have everything straight," he said, clearly scrambling for an explanation. "Let's just follow up with Jen, and then we can worry about this."
We walked for another five minutes or so before coming upon Raphael's Tea Shop again. The front counter was abandoned when we first walked in, but Jen almost immediately poked her head through the curtain and motioned for us to follow her.
"How do you feel today?" she asked, eyeing my arm as we walked down the corridor to her examining room.
"Better than I probably should," I answered after a beat. We walked through the beaded curtain into the chrome-covered examining room a few seconds later, and Jen motioned for me to sit on the metal gurney. I did, and she reached for my arm, her eyes darting to mine the instant she saw the bite was gone. Her dark, feathery brows knotted as she quickly looked at my other arm, then at me.
"What happened?" she asked.
"We were going to ask you the same thing," Max said with a sigh. "What kind of antibiotics did you give her yesterday?"
"Some jicambi bark enzyme." Jen shook her head. "It's just a boost to the immune system for a week or so, but it wouldn't have completely healed the wound like this."
"Would it boost her speed, too?" Max raised an eyebrow at me. "And her lung capacity?"
"Uh, no," Jen said, now looking even more confused. "OK, what happened?"
"Just what Max said," I answered. "I woke up this morning, and the bite mark was gone. We had to run from a messed up situation just before we came here, and I was really fast, also, not even a little out of breath. That has to be from the hiccup bark enzyme or whatever, right?"
"Jicambi bark," Jen corrected, but then shook her head again. "And no, that doesn't sound related. But, I don't have another theory other than it's because your test results are off the charts. Have you been feeling particularly aggressive lately?"
"What?" I said abruptly. "I mean, I've felt a little edgy, but there's been a lot of stuff going on."
Jen crossed to the counter and brought back a handheld tablet. She entered a button combination, and a hologram of scrolling data started populating.
"This is your resting oxygen level," Jen said, pointing to a bar on the graph chart. "And this is a normal resting oxygen level," she added, pointing to a blue, horizontal line that ran a good inch below the top of the bar.
"Damn, Halls…" Max's eyes widened. "Your levels are like somebody who's about to be attacked by a tiger."
"Or like a tiger who's about to attack someone." Jen glanced quickly from Max to me. "Halsey, you've heard about Red Fever on the feeds?"
I narrowed my eyes at her because the air in the room suddenly started to feel thick and heavy.
I nodded. "It's what's causing the violence outbreaks—the people going Feral," I finished, stopping just before launching into how my uncle thought it was all just a media overreaction so no one had to talk about the pent up hostility and oppression of people in The Grind.
"Right." Jen gave me a flat smile. "Well, since The Citadel doesn't seem to think it's a major concern, some of my colleagues and I have been trying to isolate the cause, but we haven't been able to find anyone with active symptoms who wasn't already irrationally violent—Feral." She nodded slowly this time, a resigned conciliatory nod as if to say, you understand, don't you? In the same moment, two vacant-eyed, very tan men came into the room, and all the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.
I got to my feet, but two men shut the door behind them.
"Max, let's go." I started walking toward the door, my heart pounding like a hammer in my chest. Jen turned away from me and took a long syringe off the table at our side just as one of the men grabbed Max and the other grabbed me.
"Hey!" Max struggled.
"I only need to run a few more tests, Halsey," Jen said as the man wrestled me back to the gurney. "I won't even charge you for the treatment of the bite."
"Stay away from me!" I shouted. Max kicked a rolling metal table at the man holding onto me, but it just ricocheted off his leg and clattered to the ground.
"Jen, what are you doing!?" he shouted, but Jen didn't acknowledge him.
"If you struggle, this is going to hurt," she said, reaching for my sleeve.
"Jenifer Kwan?" a tall woman loudly announced, her dark hair cut in a razor line at her chin. Everyone stopped moving.
"You can't just come in here and—" Jen started to protest, but two cylindrical Sweeper droids hovered behind the woman and immediately drew laser tracks on Jen and both of the men restraining Max and me.
"Miss Kwan," the tall woman started. "You're under arrest for illegally dispensing medical services. Sam here will read you your rights, won't you, Sam?" She tilted her head toward the Sweeper droid that was currently centering a red guiding laser on Jen's forehead. A second later, the light pulsed, and Jen fell to the ground.
"Miranda rights uploaded," the metallic droid next to the woman said, its male voice surprisingly calm. It moved toward Jen and lifted her off the floor in a suspension field, which looked like a blue cocoon of light. She'd be out cold for the time it took them to put her in a cell. I'd seen this go down too may times in The Grind.
"You two go jump in the bay," the woman said to the men, narrowing fiery green eyes at them. To my surprise, both men let go of Max and me immediately to follow Jen and the droid floating her out of the room. The other droid stayed with us, but it turned off its laser.
The tension in the room got thicker in new the silence, and I was terrified she was going to arrest us, too, for receiving unauthorized medical treatment.
"Look, nothing happened here," Max spoke up." Jen was just getting started. We didn't break any laws," he continued. And he was right, as long as he meant we hadn't broken any today.
"It would make my life much easier if I could just haul you in, but—"
"Run!" I gave Max a quick look, and we both darted out of the room.
"Halsey, stop! You're on the radar now!" the woman called after us.
A wave of panic ran through me at her words. I didn't know what she was talking about, but she had Sweeper droids listening to her, and she just put Jen in a custody bubble, which meant she was with the police, and there was no way in hell I was going to pay a twenty-year legacy fine, plus whatever else they would charge for the treatment Jen gave me. I'd take my chances in The Grind.
"Go! Go!" Max shouted as we made our way up the winding corridor, through the curtain, and finally, out to the street.
We ran as far as we could in the opposite direction of Raphael's Tea Shop, but it soon became clear we had no idea where we were running to until we found ourselves in the southern parking lot of Portland Prep. Several cars were parked outside the baseball diamond,
and it looked like the coach was hitting fly balls to the outfielders. Max and I leaned against the brick wall of the school. Again, he was winded, but I felt like I had only walked a few steps.
He shook his head at me. "What the hell just happened?" he asked, though the question seemed rhetorical. A million non-rhetorical questions flooded into my mind. What did she mean by saying I was on the radar now? Did they know who I was? And then there was the matter of what crazy biology was currently playing out in my body.
"I don't feel sick," I said out loud, as if trying to take inventory of myself." I don't feel violent—Feral—whatever they want to call what's happening out there."
"You're not Feral," Max said, still trying to catch his breath.
"I'm a little more impatient and edgy, but that's just because of graduation and trying to get into The Citadel, and then I forgot these internship applications until—"
"Halls…" Max gripped my upper arms. "Take a breath. Stop trying to rationalize everything. You're not Feral. Jen never said you had Red Fever. She just wanted to test for it."
"Why did she have those men try to keep us there then?" I protested. "She said my oxygen levels were crazy. Maybe that's why I'm not out of breath when we sprint halfway across town. What if I turn into whatever happened to Lauren, Max? What if—"
Max cut me off. "OK, look…" He let go of my arms and held up his hands for emphasis, his hand still bandaged from yesterday. "Jen gave you that super-shot after Lauren bit you, so if she was contaminated with Red Fever, it looks like you're fine. Being fast and healing is probably just an unexpected result of the shot."
"Jen would have guessed that," I reminded him. "She said the shot wouldn't have healed the bite mark so fast."
"She could have been wrong, Halls." Max shrugged. "She's a Grind medic—all her equipment and medicines are scavenged. There's a big margin for error," Max assured. "She's all we've got, but you have to take everything with a grain of salt."
He smiled a little at me, and for the first time, I took a deep breath and actually felt myself relaxing until I remembered the officer.
"OK, but that officer knew my name, Max. What if she comes after me?"
He looked at me without an answer for several seconds, but finally took a quick, deep breath and shook his head. "If she wanted to arrest you, she'd have had that droid chase us down."
"No, that doesn't make any sense," I argued." Why wouldn't she arrest me too? It's just as illegal for me to get Unauthorized treatment as it is for Jen to dispense it."
"Technically, she didn't catch you getting any treatment in there, Halls," Max lowered his chin and nodded. "We were trying to get out of there when that Sweeper patrol arrived."
And that made enough sense for me to relax the rest of the way. I blew out a breath. "OK…" I said, nodding.
"Good. All right, Jen said that injection would super-charge you for a week, right? So just ride it out. If you feel anything weird, we'll figure it out then."
I agreed, nodding again several times to cement the idea in my mind. "But one last thing…that lady said I was on their radar now—does that mean they'll be watching me?"
Chapter 9
Max had to work both Sunday shifts at Mr. Burke's grocery, and I used the time to clean every square inch of my house to avoid going outside.
What the officer at Jen's had said about being on the radar, whatever that meant, was still haunting me. In fact, if today weren't the day I found out if my Citadel and internship applications were accepted, I probably would have found a way to stay home.
I maneuvered to Mr. Warren's room hoping to find Max on the way. Everyone in the hall was buzzing with chatter in groups of twos and threes, but Max wasn't anywhere to be found. I was afraid I would crawl out of my skin—maybe literally—if I didn't find him soon to tell him what had just happened.
Mr. Warren came into our homeroom a few seconds after I did, so I took a deep breath and made my way over to ask about Lauren. If any of what was happening to me had something to do with her, I needed to know.
"Mr. Warren!" I said, making sure my sleeve was pulled down over where the bite wound on my forearm used to be.
"Halsey, how are you feeling?" he asked once I got closer, but then raised his voice over the noise in the class. "Everyone, please take your seats so I can distribute your codes!"
"I'm OK, thank you, but how's Lauren?" I asked, and though I know he heard me, he didn't answer for several seconds. Finally, he nodded at me slowly. "She's no longer with us," he said hesitantly.
"What?" I whispered, in disbelief that maybe the little girl outside her house on Saturday was right. Mr. Warren nodded again. "It seems she was exposed to a neurotoxin of some kind, but there were complications at the hospital."
"Is it true that she caught on fire?" I asked too abruptly and instantly regretted how callous I sounded. Mr. Warren's eyebrows flinched in surprise. "Sorry, I'd just heard…" I trailed off, unsure how to recover from the outburst.
He cleared his throat. "They're still gathering details," he said neutrally and gave me a nod, which was the clear teacher signal that the conversation was over and I should take a seat. I gave him a sheepish smile and turned into the sound of my name being called from across the room. Max started waving me over as Mr. Warren announced for the class to find a seat again.
"Could I have everyone's attention, please? I have some unfortunate news," Mr. Warren said over all the conversation. He went on to tell us that Lauren Stover had passed away over the weekend due to complications from a sudden illness, and that the counselors would be available all day for grief support.
Another round of buzzing conversation filled the air, and he quieted everyone down again. There was also no good way to transition into the rest of the announcements for the day—specifically about the report on internship and Citadel acceptances—so Mr. Warren just gave everyone a few minutes to process what he'd just told us.
And just like that, life went on. There should have been more. I was no fan of Lauren's, but still, there should have been more. There should have been more regarding the Feral attacks, even if they were just in The Grind. About Red Fever and how it caused The Wasting sickness. Why didn't we know for sure how it was caused? Why wasn't everything quarantined until we did know? Why did nothing matter unless it happened behind that stupid Citadel wall?
I forced myself to calm down as Mr. Warren started handing out our college and career login codes, then sent us to the gym to enter them into the reader booths they'd set up since not everyone in The Grind had an ocular communication lens. The only reason I had one was because my uncle had a friend who used to work for the Department of Communications…before he was caught handing out free OCLs to his friends.
I heard snippets of conversations about Lauren as I was about to message Max again on the way to the gym, but he caught up with me before I could.
"Halls! It's true," Max blurted, barely waiting for me to acknowledge him. "Brian told the Neanderthals the same thing that little girl said. Lauren just caught on fire as they were taking her out of the ambulance to go into St. Agnes's."
"But how?" I asked, as he led us out of traffic to the side of the hallway. "People don't just spontaneously combust like that," I said in a lowered voice.
Max shook his head. "They don't know how. Her family is blaming the paramedics just like that kid said. They're talking about suing the hospital," he added, rolling his eyes. No one in The Grind had the cash for a lawyer, and no one would risk using legacy credits to pay for one, so threatening to sue was about as far as that would go.
Max and I took a right turn to avoid one of the puffing sanitizer machines and headed straight out the side door. We already had the codes to access our reports on our OCLs, and finals, even the graduation ceremony, had been at the beginning of this past week, so there was nothing else to do at school anymore now that we had our application results. These last few days were all about what we were supposed to do with the rest of our lives, but
right now, after confirming what happened to Lauren, I didn't know how much longer that would be for any of us, and no one was even talking about it.
I rubbed the spot on my arm where the bite used to be, suddenly more worried than ever. I looked up at Max.
"What if Lauren infected me with something and it's only held at bay temporarily until the stuff Jen gave me wears off?" I asked, not that I thought Max had the answer, but because I had to get the question out of my head before it took over all my thoughts.
He met my eyes as we walked. "Maybe we can find another Grind medic. I'll ask around," Max said. "And by the way, somehow, Jen paid her fines. I saw her going into the tea shop this morning."
I gaped at him. "How could she possibly have that kind of money?"
"Maybe she paid with legacy credit," Max said, shrugging one shoulder.
"No way. That would be like, twenty years minimum."
"I don't know, but she's out. The woman who arrested her dropped her off."
"Why would she do that?" I asked. "She had Jen red-handed administering Unauthorized medical services."
Max shook his head, and I stared down the dirt path in front of us as it wound around to the front of the school. Jen had tried to get me to stay in that examining room by force if necessary. She wanted to run tests, or so she said. Why would the same officer bring her back the next day? It didn't make sense.
"OK, Are you ready to do this?" Max held out the little card with his code on it as we made our way to the curb and took a seat. All we needed to do was look down at it, and our reports would load in our field of vision, so I nodded and pulled my card out of my pocket.
"We go at the same time—double blink for external projection," I said, and once he agreed, I started counting. "One…two…three…"
I glanced at the square, blotched design on my card, then double blinked to project everything in the file into my external view. I quickly scanned through the internship application results without even reading them, needing to find the decision from The Citadel. Finally, I saw the crest with the Old English letter C in the center at the top of their announcement form.
