“It doesn’t hurt.”
“Haven’t seen weapons like that in a twenty years. You must’ve been fighting ghosts.”
“I don’t even feel it.”
“If it’s going to take that long, I sure should hope that it doesn’t sting even a little bit. That’s fair, right?”
“How long have I been here? It’s got to be a couple weeks.”
She laughs, good and long at this, like it’s the best joke in the world. “My, my, they must have you on something I can only imagine. Honey, you’ve been here about fifteen minutes and you’ll be discharged in another five.” She sweeps aside the curtain and then jabs a long metal tube into my arm.
“Jesus Christ,” I say, startled by the pain. She takes the syringe out and gives me a look over.
“Well I sure hope you’re not one of those Rapture sorts. You look like such a nice boy. Some of those nameless folks are, and I wish they’d keep that nonsense to themselves.”
“What?” But she’s already gone. I get up, feel better than I ever have. The hospital is a single, sprawling floor, all made out of gleaming black stone and steel. I touch the wall; it’s soft. I jump back and do it again. Like a blanket. When I get to the desk, the receptionist smiles and asks for my scan card.
I reach into my pants, empty, and tell her I don’t have anything.
She says all right, but she’ll need to do a bio scan. I nod, but a room across the hall draws my attention away, and her explanation of how she’ll have to call someone fades behind me. I hear strains of a familiar voice, low, measured, just holding on, tears about to break through the stoicism.
“Come on,” a woman says, “just hang on for a little bit longer. It’ll be all right, they’re getting a shipment from New Chicago later today.” But the man, the one in the bed, just gives her a weak smile, speaks so soft that I can’t hear. I bang against a table and the girl’s gaze turns towards me.
Those eyes, they’re always the same. But the voice, it’s kinder. Less world-weary. Only a hint of vengeance.
“Hello, Damien,” she says, “I’ve been waiting for you.”
So have I, Kristine. For too long.
THE END
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The Rapture: A Sci-Fi Novel Page 12
