Kill School: Slice

by Karen Carr

  “I’m sorry,” Burke says. He thinks I’m crying.

  I shade my eyes to block the light.

  “You shouldn’t be,” I say.

  “You are my responsibility,” Burke says. “If anything happens to you, I’m going to…”

  I cut Burke off with my hand. “I know. You’re going to kill him.” I try to laugh, but wince in pain instead.

  Another figure appears next to Burke. My vision is blurry. It doesn’t matter. By the colors the man is wearing, I know it is Mr. Wassillie. He’s the last person I want to see right now.

  “Well, good evening Aria,” Mr. Wassillie says.

  I roll to my side and grimace as I try to prop myself up with my elbows.

  “Evening?” I ask.

  “You’ve been sleeping on and off all day,” Burke says.

  “Burke has been by your side for the majority of it,” Mr. Wassillie says. He sits at the edge of my bed with a Flatpad. “Unfortunately learning to kill makes people very aggressive. We’ve sequestered Erwin and Mal for a few days. With some counselling, they should be able to join you in your cabin again.”

  Burke stiffens and straightens his shoulders.

  “I’m not taking them back,” Burke says.

  “You have no choice,” Mr. Wassillie says.

  Burke steps closer to Mr. Wassillie, towering over him on my bed.

  “I’m not doing it. Send him to someone else’s cabin or his blood will be on your hands.”

  Mr. Wassillie arches his back away from Burke, putting him uncomfortably close to my legs.

  “I’ll see what I can do,” Mr. Wassillie says. He turns to me and taps my knee. “In the meantime, rest up Aria. We’ll have you back in your cabin tomorrow if you are feeling better.”

  Mr. Wassillie jumps from my bed and disappears behind the curtain before Burke can say anything else. Just then, Mateo walks by and smiles when he sees me awake. Following him, is a nurse with a cart of food trays.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Mateo stands in front of my bed with his hands in his pockets as the nurse brings over a food tray. She is a large woman, perhaps almost as tall as Burke is. And she’s friendly. I can tell by her smile.

  “I am Nurse Smith,” the woman says as she places the tray on a table next to Burke. “I’ll be taking care of you for your short stay.”

  She touches Burke’s shoulder in a familiar way.

  “Sweetheart, Can you make sure she eats this?” she asks.

  “Sure thing, Smith,” Burke says. He tips his fingers to his brow in a mini-salute.

  Nurse Smith points to a jam cake on the edge of my tray.

  “Chef made some Randalin for you, Burke,” she says. “It was meant for your snack in the morning but I snuck a piece for you now.”

  Burke looks both embarrassed and excited when the nurse points out the Randalin. His grin is so cute that it makes me scrunch up my own nose.

  Nurse Smith picks up another tray.

  “Is your friend awake yet?” she asks Mateo.

  Mateo shrugs and steps behind the curtain on the far side. Shortly after, he pulls the curtain open.

  “Now she is,” Mateo says.

  Vanessa lies in the bed next to me. Her arm is in a sling, her forehead is bruised, and her left eye is swollen.

  Nurse Smith hands Mateo another tray and leaves us to eat our dinner.

  Vanessa and I sum up our injuries, making sure the other one isn’t hurt too badly. When we are finished with our roster of injuries, including Burke’s hands, Mateo and Burke press us to eat.

  “Chicken soup.” Burke says, as he pushes my tray forward. “Needs to be eaten hot.”

  A hot bowl of chicken soup sits on the tray. Chicken seems to be the food of choice in camp. The smell makes my mouth water.

  “Yummy,” I say. I try to smile, but it makes my ribs hurt. Instead, I say, “Ow.”

  Burke touches the sheets above my ribs.

  “Bruised ribs will hurt for a while,” he says. “Believe me. I’ve had a few. You are lucky they weren’t broken. Erwin was not so lucky.”

  I raise my eyebrows.

  “You broke his ribs?” I ask.

  Burke grins. “Just a couple. On each side. He’ll be easy to take down if he tries something else. Left and right side. Just a touch should send him keeling over. Remember that.”

  Burke and Mateo continue the conversation, sharing memories from their childhood while Vanessa and I eat our chicken soup.

  Mateo begins, telling us about his three brothers and two sisters. They live in a big home on the other side of town. He starts laughing when he tells us about the amount of forms his parents had to fill out when his mom was pregnant with his youngest sister. We are only supposed to replace, two kids for each family.

  “They were at the post office every day for a month after she was born,” Mateo says. “Those old ladies were furious with us. A life for five lives doesn’t make them happy.”

  Burke tells us about his two sisters, one younger, and one older. I had no idea he had any relatives, let alone relations so close. I watch his silky blond hair drop in his eyes as he talks and wonder if they look like him. A girl version of Burke would be beautiful.

  Burke tells us that he hasn’t seen his sisters in a very long time and has no idea where they are. He remembers the oldest one teaching them to skate on the most beautiful lake by their house. Burke picked skating up right away, but his sister took longer. His family used to fish on the lake in winter and swim in summer.

  “The water was freezing,” Burke says with a laugh. “Even in summer the lake was only partially melted. That lake is one of the reasons I took this job. I’ve been trying to find it again.”

  Burke finishes the last of his Randalin and sits on the edge of my bed.

  “Vladimir and I are thinking of taking off in the summer to see if we can find the lake,” he says. “I can’t go far enough north during my short camp breaks.”

  “Take me with you,” I say dreamily.

  Our eyes lock and Burke’s lips curl, making me blush all over my body. Was I seriously inviting myself along on Burke’s adventure?

  “You’d be awfully cold,” Burke says. He’s grinning at me as if he’s imaging me shivering. “Hiking around the mountains looking for a lake isn’t for a city kid.”

  “A city kid?” I frown. “I’d do fine. I like the cold.”

  “City kid,” Burke says again. His smile is genuinely affectionate.

  “You can’t go, Aria,” Vanessa says. “You have to finish high school with me. We still have two more years.”

  Burke rests his hand on my ankle.

  “I wouldn’t take her away forever.” Burke’s talking to Vanessa, but he’s looking at me. “She’d be back by fall.”

  He’s seriously thinking of taking me with him. The thought of being in the middle of nowhere with Burke makes me feel warm and tingly, even though we would be hunting for a frozen lake. He would keep me warm. I’d cuddle in his arms and make him hold me all night.

  “We could take my mom’s PRT,” I blurt out.

  “City kid,” Mateo says. “PRT’s don’t operate that far out. Where would they get the circuit?”

  Everyone laughs at me. PRTs only work inside the magnetic circuit. I bet they can’t even work in Kill School. I laugh at myself. Vanessa and I cry out in pain causing us to laugh more. Someone from two beds over yells at us to shut up. We’re not supposed to be having fun.

  Nurse Smith walks over to us with a stern look on her face and a Flatpad in her hand.

  “Others are trying to sleep.” She taps her Flatpad. “Anyway. Visiting hours are over, kids. Aria and Vanessa need to sleep.”

  Burke removes his hand from my ankle and shakes the cake crumbs off his shirt.

  “Promise to take care of them?” Burke asks as he stands.

  “Of course, Burke,” says Nurse Smith. “For the tenth time. I will take care of them all night long.”

  “See you in the
morning,” Mateo says. He kisses Vanessa on the forehead.

  “Can you scoot our beds closer together before you go?” Vanessa asks. “That way, Aria and I can talk easier.”

  “You shouldn’t be talking,” Nurse Smith says. “You should be sleeping.”

  Vanessa pouts. She looks so cute and sad that Nurse Smith agrees. She helps Burke and Mateo move Vanessa’s bed closer to mine. The metal bars on each side of our beds are now touching.

  Nurse Smith points to Burke and Mateo.

  “Now you two have to go,” she says.

  By the look in Burke’s eyes, I have a feeling he’s probably going to sleep outside the infirmary. Nurse Smith pushes both of them toward the door.

  “I’ll see you in the morning, Burke,” Nurse Smith says. “I’ll have more Randalin for you. You can visit the girls after our appointment.”

  After Burke and Mateo leave, Nurse Smith makes sure that Vanessa and I are comfortable by covering us with warm blankets and giving us extra pillows. She brings us apple juice on Vanessa’s request and a cup with ice on mine.

  Vanessa sticks her hand between the metal bars of the bed and grasps my fingers. We stay that way, looking at the ceiling, for several minutes.

  “We have matching bruises,” Vanessa says.

  I turn toward her. She smiles with her eyes. Her injuries make me furious with Erwin and Mal all over again.

  “Maybe they’ll let us in force now,” I say. “We can tell Yip we were practicing on each other.”

  “I wish Mal had killed me,” Vanessa says.

  “What?” I ask. I don’t think I’ve heard her right.

  “I wish Mal had killed me,” Vanessa repeats.

  “How can you say that?” I ask.

  Wishing someone dead was one thing. Wishing yourself to be killed is something else entirely.

  Vanessa furrows her brow.

  “I don’t want to die,” she says.

  She takes a deep breath and props herself up on an elbow.

  “That’s why I have to die. You know what I mean?”

  I shake my head. “No, I don’t. I want to fight. I’m not going to let anyone kill me. What do you mean?”

  Vanessa gives me a disappointed look, lays on her back again, and continues.

  “It’s like when you have to take a test or go to the doctor. You just want to get it over with as fast as possible. I know someone is going to kill me. Let’s face it. I’m an easy target. I don’t want to die. I’m scared to death of dying. That’s why I wish I was already dead.”

  I don’t respond to her right away. I don’t know what to say. I don’t want to be dead, but I am not scared of dying. The thought of dying doesn’t make me want to give up. It makes me want to live. It makes me want to learn how to defend myself and how to slice.

  “You are stealth,” I finally say. “You are sneakier and trickier than any of them. You will get them with your poison darts before they even know you are there.”

  “But I can only kill one person,” Vanessa says, and then quickly adds, “I don’t want to kill more than one. One’s enough. Believe me. Maybe I can make the rest sick.”

  “That’s a great idea,” I say. “Put some frog blood into their soup. Poison their muffins.”

  Vanessa rests her leg on the metal bar between us. Her toenails are painted turquoise. I wonder if her mother painted them for her, to match her dress. She’s watching the ceiling fan dreamily. She turns to me again with a mischievous grin.

  “Aria, once we kill our tokens we can go into hiding,” she says. “Maybe we should go with Burke. You and me, Mateo, Shah, and Demi. If everyone gets turquoise tokens, we only have to hide until we are eighteen. Until we are out of their kill zone.”

  “That’s not a bad idea,” I say. Except, in my case I would have to kill a Regulator. I would have to disappear forever.

  Vanessa and I fantasize more about running away with Burke. She’s excited about being on her own, without any parent to control her. I get that her mom must be very strict. That’s why I’ve never seen her outside of school.

  “Do your parents ever let you out?” I ask.

  She twists her hair around her finger and sticks it in her mouth.

  “You know Burke talks a lot about you,” she says, changing the subject to one I don’t want to talk about either. “I think he has a crush on you.”

  “No way,” I say. My cheeks get hot. I turn away from Vanessa so that she can’t see me blush.

  I’ve seen how Burke cared for the girl in the mountains, the one that had to kill her sister. I’ve seen the way he cares for the other campers. It’s his job. Part of me knows we have something special, but it’s not rooted in attraction.

  “I think you have a crush on him too,” Vanessa says.

  “Are you kidding?” I say. I cover my face with my hands and shake my head. I’m not good at talking about boys. It’s too embarrassing. Especially Burke.

  “What’s it like?” she asks.

  “What’s what like?” I ask.

  “Having a boy as handsome as Burke attracted to you,” Vanessa says. There is no envy in her voice, just genuine curiosity. I glance at her. Her eyes are heavy, as if she is having trouble keeping them open. Maybe she won’t remember our conversation.

  “You think he’s attractive?” I ask.

  “Are you kidding?” she repeats my words from earlier. “Everyone thinks he’s attractive. Well, except Mateo.”

  Vanessa and I keep talking about Burke. During our conversation, Vanessa’s voice gets softer and softer. Finally, when she doesn’t answer a question, I know she is asleep. I watch the ceiling for a long time before I drift off on my own.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Burke is a no-show in the morning, so Vanessa, Mateo, and I walk over to biology. My bruised ribs make my movement very slow, but I manage to walk across campus on my own. By the stares and consolatory comments, everyone has heard what happened to us yesterday.

  Mateo, Vanessa, and I enter the biology classroom and sit at our station. Jack and Matthew come over to check on us and to tell us that Demi is already plotting revenge. Apparently, she’s good at that. Professor Hammerschmidt ignores us as he works on his terminal. With no sign of the cadaver, I hope we are not going to do any more dissections today.

  Professor Hammerschmidt stands and clears his throat to get our attention. His eyes hover on Vanessa and then me before resting on Erwin’s empty stool. He lets out a sigh as if he feels sorry for Erwin and not us. I sit on my hand to avoid clenching my fists.

  “Would anyone like to guess what we are going to do today?” Professor Hammerschmidt asks.

  “Dissect Erwin,” Jack shouts. Matthew laughs.

  Professor Hammerschmidt’s eyes narrow as he makes his way over to Jack and Matthew’s station. He pulls Jack’s earlobe.

  “Maybe we should slice this off,” Professor Hammerschmidt says. “Would you find that amusing?”

  Jack rubs his ear as Professor Hammerschmidt makes his way to the door of the classroom. Instead of closing it, he asks us to stand.

  “Today we are going on a field trip,” Professor Hammerschmidt says. “Up to the Mothers Aide Research Pavilion. Of course, most of it is off limits, but I have arranged for us to be special guests of Regulator Krish. Some of you may not know Regulator Krish is an esteemed research scientist, himself.”

  Professor Hammerschmidt beams with pride as we line up in front of the door. Vanessa, Mateo, and I pack in closely with Jack and Matthew as we follow Professor Hammerschmidt down the hall.

  To reach the research pavilion, we have to go outside, to the rear of the science building. Professor Hammerschmidt takes us to the tower opposite the one where Burke and I did our sneaking. We enter the building and walk through an arch with the words Mothers Aide Research Pavilion above it.

  The building smells sterile and moldy at the same time. I can tell it’s ancient by the layers of peeling paint and the worn-out floor. We pass the spiral staircase tha
t must lead up the tower and enter a glass-walled lab on the ground floor.

  A woman in a lab coat hunches over a microscope. Several dozen monkeys sit quietly in cages against the wall. One monkey is strapped to a chair so that he can’t move. A metal clamp encircles the monkey’s head and her scalp is red and hairless. Everything in here makes me want to leave immediately.

  “Katsumi, we are here,” Professor Hammerschmidt says.

  Katsumi turns around and pretends to be surprised to see us. She gives us a well-rehearsed speech about how the monkeys are helping us with science. This is a bust. I won’t find any more information here.

  While Katsumi continues to talk, I step back toward the door. I want to do a bit of poking around to try to discover Regulator Krish’s lab. I step quietly out the door before anyone notices I am gone.

  Luckily, I am only wearing the white shirt and not the turquoise vest of my uniform. The pants, however, have a long turquoise stripe on each side. I hope that I can keep everyone looking up at my face. Maybe the bruises will distract them.

  I take several tentative steps toward the stairwell. Trying to be stealth with a bruised rib is near impossible. I make it up two flights of stairs and have to lean against the wall to catch my breath. Someone has written Barstow Sucks under a cracked light.

  I decide to stop climbing stairs and explore the hall of offices and labs on this floor. Walking down the quiet hall with my bruised face and messy hair makes me realize how out of place I am. This place, with its polished floors and sterile white paint, oozes scientist. When I see a lab coat hanging on a hook in an empty lab, I slip inside the door.

  I grab the coat and put it on just as someone else enters the lab.

  Crap.

  I turn around to greet the brunette scientist I encountered on my stealth excursion with Burke. Double crap.

  “Hey,” she says. “You’re the woman in the bathroom. What happened to your face?”

  The woman extends her fingers as if she’s going to touch my bruise. I back away and swat her hand automatically. She frowns.

  “Never mind,” she says. “Facial regenerations can be a bit rough sometimes. We’ve all been through it. Are you doing research over here now?”