Phantom Universe

by Laura Kreitzer

CHAPTER 19: INSTITUTE

  16 years old

  As they fly over the city, Summer is captivated by the sheer size of it. There are only a few tiny windows for her to peer out of, but she plasters herself in front of the closest one, along with Jaden.

  “How cool is that?” says Jaden excitedly while pointing at the top of a tall building where people are gathered. “And that!” She points at a line of hovering cars. Or at least that is what Summer thinks they are—she has never seen much of cities before, so it is harder for her to tell the difference.

  As the hovercraft slows down and lowers in the sky, she notices a large line of people being ushered into a gated building. The green and black uniforms of the Canadian League stick out from the crowd, and she can’t help but notice that the people are being forced forward. Behind her, she finds Gage and pulls him toward the window, pointing to the people questioningly.

  “Ah, yeah. Those are Outlanders being rounded up. They are tagging them and assigning them to their camp,” he explains.

  Jaden and Summer turn to face him and sink into their seats. “Tag us?” asks Jaden.

  A dark chuckle comes from Max, though he says nothing. It sends chills down her spine. Gage and Cameron also stay decidedly quiet. This only makes the anxiety in Summer tighten until she feels at any second the strings to her nerves will snap and lash out. The memories of how she ended up here, in this hovercraft with people she doesn’t know, make her head spin (or that could be her head wound). She’d come to terms with her slavery, and then Jaden just comes waltzing back into her life and everything changes. Though she’s more comfortable with Gage than is normal for her, she is still incredibly weary of him. To her, everyone is a stranger and a threat.

  The hovercraft jolts, and the door to the outside slides open. The whirring engines turn off, and the noises die down slowly. Gage and Cameron immediately stand and start to gather their packs. Summer and Jaden stay seated, wondering what they are supposed to be doing. A woman with bright red hair tied into a knot at the nape of her neck boards the hovercraft. Her cheekbones jut out, and her sharp, black eyes skim the scene like a hawk.

  “Doctor Rose, what are you doing on the landing pad?” asks Cameron in concern. “Is everything okay?”

  “Not exactly,” Doctor Rose says, straightening her white lab coat. “It’s chaos on the streets, and guards have been placed at all the entrances and exits to the hospital. You have to provide an official pass to get past the doors, so I’m here to assign you passes.”

  Cameron and Gage turn sideways, and Doctor Rose pulls out a slim, black metal slab with a screen on it. A thin piece of metal ejects from the device, and she sticks it into Cameron’s ear, waits for a beep, and then removes the long device. She repeats this on Gage. It looks painful, but neither of them shy away.

  “These two have been ordered to go home for the day,” explains Gage as he points his thumb over his shoulder at Paige and Max. “Neither of them are allowed near our patients.” Max shows his teeth in a snarl, but keeps his mouth shut when Gage shoots him a nasty glare.

  “And these two are the patients?” Doctor Rose nods her head in the direction of Jaden and Summer.

  “Yes,” says Cameron. “This is Summer and Jaden. Summer needs fluids immediately—I didn’t have the right equipment in the field for an IV. She also has a head wound that needs to be attended to.”

  Suddenly, stretchers roll into view—or float, because there seems to be nothing holding them off the ground—and stop just outside the hovercraft’s door. Two men and two women in white scrubs wait with the stretchers and have what appear to be high-tech clipboards in hand. Summer’s eyes are wide at the change in atmosphere, and she shakes slightly. Her body is weak, and her nerves are shot. All she wants to do is curl up in a corner and sleep for a week. Or two. Gage approaches her carefully, his eyes appraising her, and then she can see resolution solidify in his eyes. He leans over and lifts her from the seat with no effort, as if she is a bag of feathers. This stuns her, so she doesn’t even try to struggle with him. Plus, struggling can lead to punishment. He places her on one of the stretchers with such tender care her thoughts waver. Gage won’t punish me. Right?

  “I feel silly asking this, but what’s your last name?” asks Gage as he holds out his palm for her.

  “Waverly,” she writes.

  “Doctor Rose,” Gage calls out, and the doctor comes to his side. “This is Summer Waverly. She’s an Outlander found dehydrated and starving on the beach—ship wrecked.” His voice lowers, and he turns away from Summer. “She’s been tortured for years. She was a slave in the past, so please be careful with her.”

  Doctor Rose gasps, and her hawk-like eyes soften as they glance down at Summer.

  “She has really bad anxiety, and she won’t speak. From what we can make out she hasn’t spoken in several years, so don’t expect responses. Sometimes she’ll write in my palm, so I imagine if you needed her to, she could answer your questions on an Astropad.” Gage pivots and glances down at her. His hand brushes her cheek tenderly. “Please take care of this one, and don’t let the guards or staff of this hospital treat her like an Outlander.”

  “My staff is purely professional, though I don’t know what I can do about the guards.”

  “You take their names and give them to me if they’re unprofessional in any way,” says Gage seriously.

  Cameron helps hoist Jaden onto the other stretcher. “Is this really necessary?” Jaden complains, but then sees one of the male nurses. “Never mind. Will you be the one taking me to my room?”

  There is a soft chuckle in reply.

  “That one, on the other hand,” Gage says with a laugh, pointing at Jaden, “will talk your ear off.”

  “Neural implants?” the Doctor asks with a slight smile, changing the subject and getting straight to business. Summer can tell she is a no-nonsense kind of woman and admires the quality. Plus, she is a woman in a powerful position. Doctor Rose’s situation is very attractive to Summer, who, despite how weak she is, has enough energy to swell with jealousy.

  “I don’t think it’ll be a wise idea with Summer—” his voice lowers “—not with the psychological damage she’s incurred. If her thoughts are transmitted using the neural implant on accident . . .”

  “Her anxiety could peak and cause a heart attack,” Cameron finishes for him. “Possibly Catatonia.”

  “You always bring me the best cases, Resident Steen,” compliments Doctor Rose. “Now let’s get off the landing pad before anyone realizes we have Outlanders up here.”

  “Is it really that bad?” Gage asks.

  “It gets worse every day.”

  The people in scrubs begin to strap Jaden and Summer onto the stretchers. When the first strap over Summer’s chest tightens, her heart starts to pound, and her body begins to shake uncontrollably. Her mind begins to flash back to a similar scenario when she was being tortured once. She knows struggling only makes it worse, so she closes her eyes and holds her breath, hoping it’ll all be over soon. Gage said he wouldn’t let her get hurt, but he is standing right there, not doing anything to stop them as she is strapped down.

  Two of the people in the white scrubs cart off Jaden as Cameron follows closely behind, answering Jaden’s many, many, many questions.

  Gage notices Summer’s heavy breaths and reaches for her hand. Her eyes fly open and stare into his green ones, hypnotizing her again. “This is just to make sure you don’t fall off,” he explains as he fiddles with one of the straps. “Once they get you into a room they’ll be taken off, okay?”

  Summer nods, but her breathing only becomes rougher until she feels like she’s suffocating. As she gasps for air, Gage quickly unbuckles the straps, and she breaks free. In an upright position, she seizes his hand and writes in his palm, “Please don’t let them hurt me.”

  She can’t help her anxiety. It’s deeply rooted in her mind, no matter what anyone says. She’s heard the trust speech before from crew members on the C
osmos who lashed out anyways. Only Landon has kept this promise, and now he’s lost. Maybe even in the past still.

  Gage exhales a deep breath as Doctor Rose comes into view. “This is a lot worse than I thought,” she says.

  “You probably haven’t seen a case this bad before,” he agrees dejectedly.

  “Summer? Can you lie down for me? We won’t strap you in, but we need you to lie down.” The doctor’s voice is so sure.

  Gage places a hand on Summer’s shoulder and pushes her just enough for her to finish the action and lie down.

  She looks up into the blue sky and watches as different kinds of hovercrafts race across it. Her concentration is more focused on Gage and the Doctor, though, as they talk about events and news, even though she doesn’t understand some of the subjects they discuss. The guards check everyone except for Summer as they pass the doors into the hospital. On the other side of the doors, a machine is pressed against her wrist, and something stings her. She grits her teeth and holds up the inside of her wrist to her face to see the damage. It looks like a tattoo with her information on it.

  SUMMER WAVERLY

  Blood Type Error

  DOB 06/08/2194

  Genetic Code 000000

  No allergies

  She rubs her fingers over her name and stares up at Gage. The device that gave her the tattoo begins to beep angrily. Doctor Rose reaches for Summer’s wrist, and Summer jerks away automatically. The Doctor stops abruptly and looks between Gage and Summer, a baffled expression on her face.

  “Let me,” offers Gage. He gently takes Summer’s wrist and turns it so he can read the information. “That’s weird. It says she has no blood type, her genetics code is 000000, and that her date of birth was in 2194.”

  The two exchange curious glances before they look down at Summer, like they were wanting her to answer.

  “The Ballistor is never wrong,” the doctor argues like saying it will make it true. “The date of birth is wrong on all the Outlanders, I’ve noticed. But the other stuff—this is very abnormal.”

  “Perhaps we should try it again? Or maybe use another tester?” suggests one of the women in scrubs.

  “Perhaps,” says Doctor Rose, her face a mask of confusion.

  They continue into the building and enter into a tiny room. Summer doesn’t understand what is going on as they all just stand there. Then the woman in scrubs who spoke earlier says clearly, “Third floor.”

  For a second it feels like the floor is going out from under her, then the doors to the room open, and they cart her out and into a hallway full of people who whiz past. She’s not quite sure what just happened, but she’s positive this is the whitest place she has ever been. Or seen, for that matter. The ceiling is rounded above her, and there are no lights that she can see, yet the place is bright. It’s like in the cave—she can’t find the source of the light.

  They take a turn and enter into another room. Summer is incredibly nervous over another drastic change, but can see Gage’s face. It’s the only thing keeping her relaxed, and she isn’t quite sure how she feels about that. She still doesn’t know him that well.

  “This is your room,” he tells her while helping her sit up.

  Everything is white or metal, very few colors. With Gage’s help, she lowers herself off the stretcher and goes to look out the window. Before she reaches it, Doctor Rose scuttles across the floor like a scampering squirrel and presses a button that immediately turns the window into another white wall.

  “It’s better if we focus on your recovery and less on what’s going on outside,” Doctor Rose says nervously.

  The Doctor looks around Summer to the two people in scrubs and says a bunch of technical terms that she doesn’t understand. They rush out of the room, Doctor Rose on their heels. The door clicks shut behind them, and now Gage and Summer are alone. They both stand awkwardly in the room.

  “You might want to put this on,” Gage finally says and points to pile of clothing. “There’s a bathroom behind you.” He grabs the clothes and holds them out for her. She only hesitates for a minute before she reaches out and takes them from him.

  After changing into what looks similar to scrubs, she exits the bathroom to see Gage sitting in a chair next to her hospital bed, his hands a teepee, as if in prayer. He glances up and gestures for her to sit on the bed. Her bare feet leave prints of moisture in her wake, her nerves wound even tighter. Though her breathing is more even than before, she is still taking deeper breaths than normal to keep it under control. She perches on the side of the bed and tucks her long, blonde hair behind her ears, crossing her legs awkwardly.

  “I can’t stay long,” says Gage slowly. “But I will stay until they hook you up to the fluids you need through the IV. And if the Jackerion isn’t holding, they’ll have to replace that and it can be painful.” He pauses while his eyes search her face. “Listen, it’s going to hurt, but they aren’t doing it to hurt you—it’ll be to help you. You have no reason to trust me, but I’m asking you to anyways. Please. They only want to help.

  “They will probably want to check out your scars too. If you feel uncomfortable, Cameron will be here to help. Jaden is in the room next door, also.”

  Summer nods, and the room fills with uncomfortable silence. Gage leans forward and his hand engulfs hers—she doesn’t flinch and they are both surprised by this. “Are you okay?” he asks sincerely.

  She shakes her head sharply twice and Gage sighs.

  “I don’t know what to do,” he admits. “We have to get you better, first of all, but once you are . . . I don’t want you to go to the Outlander camp.”

  Though the Outlander camps seem like this horrible place from how everyone’s reacting, she has been through a whole lot of splash. How could the camps be any worse than everything else in the past? What can they do to her that hasn’t already been done? But Gage can’t grasp this concept, so he worries which only makes her more tense.

  He lets go of her, and his hands tangle in his blonde hair as he makes a frustrated sound, placing his elbows on his knees. “You have me contemplating committing treason so I don’t have to take you to one of the camps.” His words come out angry, and he jumps to his feet. He paces at the end of the bed, muttering incoherently.

  Summer’s not sure what to do as she watches him, her eyes going back and forth with each of his turns. She wants to tell him she’ll be all right, that it’s not a big deal for her to go to the camp, and that she doesn’t want him to do anything that will get him in trouble—because she knows how awful punishments are.

  He stops, facing the door. “I’ve got to go,” he suddenly says and strides from the room. The last thing she sees is the back of his head as he zigzags through the crowd outside. Then the door slides shut again.

  Summer stares after him, wishing she would have done something, or said something, to make him stay. Instead, she only watched him walk out. Now she’s all alone in the room, upset over Gage’s abrupt departure, and scared of what will happen next. She’s never felt so alone in her entire life.