by Susan Gates
Dr Moran came back at last from the other room. ‘It’s OK,’ he told Toni. ‘He’s Immune.’
Jay’s mind was spinning with questions. But the most important one concerned Dad.
‘Will my dad be Immune too?’ he asked.
‘Not necessarily,’ said Dr Moran in that brisk, chilly way of his. ‘Blood groups are very complicated. You could have inherited AB Rhesus negative blood from either parent, or neither. I’ve no time to explain and, frankly, you wouldn’t understand if I did.’
Dr Moran strode away. Jay decided, I don’t like him.
‘My dad’s got a lot on his mind,’ Toni said apologetically. ‘Come on. You can meet the others now.’
They followed Dr Moran to a room kitted out like a laboratory, with computers, microscopes, test tubes, centrifuges and all sorts of other equipment. The five other Immunes were sitting on lab benches, some looking through microscopes or staring at computer screens.
Jay’s spirits rose. One was a child and one an old man. But the other three, two men and one woman, looked fit enough. That would make six of them along with Toni, Dr Moran and himself.
‘The Cultivars have got my dad,’ said Jay. ‘They’ve taken him to the Research Station. Toni said you’d help me rescue him.’
Dr Moran shot a look at Toni. ‘Well, I’m afraid she had no right to say that.’
‘Will you help me?’ pleaded Jay.
‘No,’ said Dr Moran.
Jay couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He appealed to the others. ‘I thought you were some kind of resistance group, freedom fighters!’
‘We are,’ said one.
‘But you’re all just sitting around!’ screamed Jay. ‘What happened to fighting back?’
‘We are fighting back,’ said Dr Moran. ‘We’re fighting the plant virus. We’re very, very close to a vaccine.’
‘But my dad needs help now!’ said Jay. ‘Toni, please!’
Toni said, ‘Dad, can’t we help?’
‘You know that’s not possible.’ Dr Moran turned to Jay again. ‘I’m sorry about your father. But if he’s an Immune, they’ll have already killed him. And if he’s not, they’ll infect him with the virus. And even if he was still alive and still human, we’re in a race to save the whole human species. One man’s life is of no account.’
Jay felt rage boiling inside him at the idea that his dad was of ‘no account’.
‘You sick, evil, cold-hearted creep!’ he yelled at Dr Moran. He whirled round to Toni. ‘You tricked me!’
‘I didn’t,’ protested Toni. She seemed almost as anguished as Jay. ‘I really thought we’d be able to help.’
‘You’re all pathetic cowards!’ Jay yelled at the Immunes.
The woman gave him a sad, kind smile. ‘We understand your distress,’ she said, ‘you poor child.’
Jay turned on her furiously. ‘I don’t give a toss if you understand. It’s help I need! Go to hell. I’m going to rescue Dad on my own.’
‘No, you’re not,’ said Dr Moran. ‘You’ve no idea what a powerful enemy we’re up against. Cultivars are a global power, not just in this little town.’
The two Immune men got up from their benches, moving towards Jay.
‘You have to join us,’ said Dr Moran. ‘Give your blood to help our research into a vaccine.’
‘Get off me!’ yelled Jay as the two Immunes took his arms. ‘You can’t keep me here!’
‘Dad,’ begged Toni. ‘Just let him go. Please.’
‘I can’t do that,’ said Dr Moran. ‘He knows where we’re hiding. He could tell the Cultivars.’
‘What?’ Jay shouted. ‘I hate them! I’m not going to tell them anything!’
‘You might not be able to help yourself,’ said Dr Moran. ‘We’re within days of finding a cure. Lock him in the boiler room.’
Jay was taken away, struggling, shouting and protesting.
Chapter 14
Jay hammered on the boiler room door and yelled to be let out. No-one came. When his voice was hoarse and his knuckles bleeding, he sat down on an upturned crate in the dim yellow glow of a single light bulb and looked around. Metal pipes snaked off in all directions. They’d once carried heat and hot water all around the science building. But they were cold now, unused.
The only door was bolted on the outside. There were no windows.
Jay’s mood swung wildly between white-hot anger and black despair. The Immunes were supposed to be on his side. Instead they’d treated him like the enemy.
‘When I get out, I’m going to kill them all. Then I’m going to kill those Cultivars,’ Jay raged to himself, as tears of helplessness ran down his face.
The door opened and Toni came in, carrying food and drink. She closed the door behind her.
Jay smeared the tears off his face and called her an ugly name. ‘Get away from me. You lied to me.’
Toni put the food and drink on the floor. ‘Shut up and listen.’
Jay slumped down again on the crate. ‘Say what you want. I’m not listening.’
‘I didn’t trick you,’ said Toni. ‘I really thought they might help. Look, I know you’re angry. But… I’ll come with you tonight to rescue your dad from the Research Station.’
‘Oh yeah,’ Jay said scornfully. ‘That would be great! We’ll wander in there, just the two of us, defeat the Cultivars and get Dad out. What planet are you on?’
‘I know the layout of the Research Station,’ said Toni.
‘What?’
‘My dad used to work there,’ said Toni. ‘I went there, loads of times. When the other scientists became Verdan, they started doing all these dodgy experiments trying to create the perfect plant/human hybrid. Dad resigned in protest.’
Jay didn’t care about Dr Moran. ‘Can you really get us into the Research Station?’
‘Yeah, I think so,’ said Toni. ‘Provided the Cultivars haven’t changed it too much.’
Jay stared into her eyes.
‘You can trust me,’ said Toni. ‘I’m not lying to you. I didn’t before either.’
Jay knew he’d got no choice. ‘All right.’
‘OK,’ said Toni. ‘But you’re going to have to do what I say. First, we have to wait until dark to rescue your dad.’
Jay knew she was talking sense. ‘OK.’
‘And now,’ said Toni, ‘you have to tell my dad that you’ve changed your mind. That you realize he can’t risk his mission to save the human race to rescue one man, even if he is your dad.’
‘No way!’ said Jay, glaring at her.
‘If you don’t, they won’t let you out of this room. How are we going to rescue your dad then?’
Jay stared at her. ‘Why do you want to go with me?’ he asked her. ‘You don’t even know my dad. You’ve only just met me.’
‘Because I’m sick of being here in this dump,’ said Toni, her voice shaking with rage and frustration. ‘I’m sick of having my blood taken, day after day. Dad says a vaccine is the best way to fight back. But I want to do something. I feel like a lab rat. I’m going crazy cooped up down here!’
Her eyes were blazing, her fists clenched at her sides. She seemed so intense, so full of passion, that Jay couldn’t doubt her.
‘OK,’ he said. ‘I’ll do what you say.’
‘Just make my dad believe it,’ said Toni. ‘And then, when it’s dark outside, we’ll sneak out of here. If your dad’s in the Research Station, we’ll find him.’
It wasn’t too difficult. The Immunes were good people. They felt guilty about locking him up. Jay apologized. He said he knew he’d been selfish. That Dad might have to be sacrificed for the greater good.
The Immunes were very understanding. One said, ‘We know it’s awful. But the human race is facing its greatest crisis ever. We’ve all got hard choices.’
Another said, ‘When we have a cure for the virus, your dad will be at the head of the queue.’
To spare Jay’s feelings, they didn’t add, ‘If he’s still alive.’
‘He works all the time,’ said one of the Immunes. ‘He doesn’t even seem to sleep. That man’s a hero.’
Jay nodded in agreement, even though he still thought Toni’s dad was a cold-hearted creep.
Toni told the other Immunes, ‘I’ll just show him around. OK?’
As he and Toni left the room together, Jay whispered, ‘Think they suspected anything?’
‘No, you did great.’
‘When will it be dark outside?’ Jay asked.
‘It’s dark already.’
‘So why don’t we go?’ fretted Jay. ‘What if your dad locks me up again?’
‘He won’t,’ said Toni. ‘He’ll work all night, shut up in his room. But we can’t get out of here until the others go to sleep.’
‘When will they go to sleep?’
‘Soon.’
‘But what about my dad?’ Jay started to argue.
Toni whirled round, her eyes blazing. ‘Stop going on about your dad!’ she snapped. ‘Think you’re the only one here who’s lost someone? We’ve all had people we love go Verdan, or get killed. You know Ellie and Jake, who died? That woman you were rude to is Ellie’s mum.’
Jay flushed. ‘I didn’t know,’ he muttered. ‘I’m sorry, I never thought…’
‘Yeah, well, think now,’ said Toni, stalking off.
* * *
Jay found her again, in a little cupboard-sized room next to the boiler room where he’d been imprisoned. He warned himself to shut up and hide his impatience. But Toni seemed to have calmed down. She was standing next to a tray of plants on a bench.
‘They need more light,’ said Toni. ‘Some comes in daytime, through that ventilation grill. But it’s not enough. And Dad won’t give me a sun lamp for them. He says we can’t waste electricity on non-essentials.’
‘What are they?’ asked Jay, trying to sound interested.
‘Carnivorous plants,’ Toni told him. ‘I’ve got sundews, pitcher plants, Venus fly traps. But look.’ She brushed a sooty spot off a leaf. ‘They’ve caught this horrible fungus called black spot. It’s the most deadly plant fungus there is. It spreads like mad. You can’t stop it. It’ll kill them, eventually.’
A shocking image slammed into Jay’s mind. It was Teal, her skin covered in fuzzy white fungus, spores puffing from her mouth when she tried to speak. The image vanished in a split second, leaving him trembling.
‘My absolute favourite is the Venus fly trap,’ Toni was telling him. She pointed to a plant in a pot. It had leaves hinged in pairs like clam shells. Each leaf was the size of a penny and fringed with spikes. The leaves were green on the outside, and red as raw steak inside.
‘You hungry?’ Toni crooned to the Venus fly trap, as if it was a pet dog or cat. There was a lazy blue fly crawling along the bench. Toni’s hand darted down. She pinched it between her thumb and finger, lifted it up and fed it to the fly trap. Instantly two leaves sprang shut around the fly, the spikes holding it in like prison bars.
‘The leaves have got little trigger hairs on the inside,’ said Toni. ‘Soon as they feel prey moving, they snap the leaves shut. Clever, isn’t it?’
Jay could hear the fly’s buzzing whine coming from its leafy trap, see its legs sticking out between the spikes. Suddenly, he found himself paying attention. Repelled but fascinated, he peered closer at the struggling prisoner. ‘Now what happens?’ he asked Toni.
‘The fly gets dissolved to soup. Really slowly. And the plant absorbs its nutrients. Yummy! Then when it’s finished digesting, the trap opens again. And all that’s left of the fly is its shell.’
‘The plant eats it alive?’ said Jay. ‘That’s disgusting.’ He reached out a finger to trigger another trap.
‘Don’t do that,’ warned Toni. ‘If you trigger the traps too often, they die. It uses up all their energy.’
‘How does this one work?’ asked Jay, pointing to another plant. It had slender, trumpet-shaped traps, with little hinged lids on top.
‘That’s my pitcher plant,’ said Toni. ‘When a fly crawls in, the lid closes. Then the fly slips down into a pool of water…’
‘Don’t tell me,’ said Jay. ‘It gets dissolved to soup.’
‘The plant drowns it first,’ said Toni. ‘Then dissolves it. Some pitcher plants are big. They catch rats.’
‘Gross.’ Jay shivered. ‘Doesn’t anything ever escape?’
‘No,’ said Toni. ‘Once they’re trapped, they’re dead.’ Then she reconsidered. ‘Except wasps, sometimes. I’ve seen a wasp bite its way out of a pitcher plant, just munch through the walls and fly away.’ Toni flapped her arms to show the wasp flying to freedom.
Jay frowned. ‘Carnivorous plants are really creepy.’
‘No, they’re not,’ Toni protested. ‘They’re amazing. They’re top plant predators, awesome killing machines. My mum hated them, though, specially after she turned Verdan. She said plants shouldn’t eat meat, they shouldn’t catch and kill things…’
Jay stared at her, forgetting all about carnivorous plants.
‘Did you say your mum is a Verdan?’ he asked.
Toni nodded. ‘She wasn’t Immune like me and Dad.’
‘Did they force her to?’
Toni gave a bitter little smile. ‘No way. She bought into the whole Verdan thing. She was one of the first to get her virus shot.’
‘Did you want to get a virus shot too?’ asked Jay.
‘Yes,’ said Toni. ‘It would have been beautiful, if it had worked. Saving the planet, all Verdans living in peace with no wars…’ She looked embarrassed. ‘That sounds like a stupid dream now.’
‘No, it doesn’t,’ said Jay, fervently. ‘Don’t say that. I believed it, same as you. I tried to get a shot.’
‘I would have, but Dad took my blood for research and found out I was Immune. Then we had to go into hiding when the Cultivars started saying all Immunes must be killed.’
‘They’re the ones that spoiled it all!’ said Jay. ‘The Cultivars, the Immune Hunters. Viridian.’
‘My mum’s a Cultivar,’ whispered Toni.
‘What?’ said Jay.
‘When she turned Verdan, Dad took me to live with him. Mum wasn’t interested in me any more.’
‘My gran was the same,’ Jay burst out. ‘It was like I was a stranger.’
‘Then Mum moved to the Research Station, became a Cultivar. Dad said I mustn’t see her again. He said she’d betray us if she knew where we were.’
‘She would have done,’ Jay told her. ‘She definitely would have done.’
Suddenly a dazzling light went on in his brain. ‘Wait a minute! That’s why you want to come to the Research Station, isn’t it? It’s not about rescuing my dad. It’s about seeing your mum again.’
‘I still want to help you get your dad back. Honest, I do. And I am sick of being down here. So I wasn’t lying…’
Jay interrupted, more brutally than he meant to. ‘Forget her! OK? She doesn’t care. She’s not your mum any more, she’s a Cultivar. If she sees you, she’ll tell the Immune Hunters.’
‘I know,’ Toni answered, in a small, quiet voice. ‘But I still love her. I can’t help it. I know I can’t even let her see me. I just want to see her, from a distance. See she’s all right.’
Jay sighed. He said, more gently, ‘Getting food wasn’t the reason you left the basement, was it? That was just an excuse. You went looking for your mum, didn’t you?’
Toni nodded. ‘I thought I’d see her at that big rally. All the Cultivars were there. But she wasn’t. Why wasn’t she there, when all the others were?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Jay. He felt a sudden sick, chilly twist in his guts. ‘Has your mum got a Cultivar name?’
‘Yes,’ said Toni. ‘She chose it herself. It’s Teal.’
Chapter 15
Jay’s horror must have show
n on his face, because Toni said, ‘What’s the matter?’
Jay knew he should tell Toni the truth, that her mum was dead. But he also knew he wasn’t going to. If there was no hope of finding her mum in the Research Station, Toni might give up on the whole plan. And Jay needed her.
I’ll tell her later, thought Jay guiltily.
Out of the blue, he said, ‘My mum’s dead.’ He’d almost said, ‘My mum’s dead too,’ but he stopped himself just in time.
Toni said, ‘That’s awful. Did the Immune Hunters kill her?’
Jay shook his head. ‘She died years ago, in a motorbike accident. I never met her.’
‘What, you mean, you don’t remember her?’
‘I never met her,’ said Jay. ‘She was pregnant with me when the bike crashed and she got fatal head injuries. I was born by Caesarean section, then they switched off her life support machine.’
Toni said, ‘I don’t know what to say.’
‘You don’t have to say anything,’ said Jay. ‘It was a long time ago.’
He didn’t even know why he was bringing it up now. Yes, he did. It was to show Toni that he sympathised, that he knew what it was like to lose a mum, and that she would survive it.
Except, Toni didn’t know that her mum was dead, because he hadn’t told her.
Jay’s nerves felt so raw and twitchy he couldn’t stay still a second longer. ‘Let’s go,’ he said. ‘They must be asleep by now.’
Toni went ahead to check. She came back to Jay and whispered, ‘OK.’
They crept past a door with a sliver of light showing underneath.
‘My dad,’ mouthed Toni. ‘Working.’
They tiptoed through the lab to the basement exit and let themselves out into the dark world outside.
The night sky was beautiful. The sky over Franklin was clear, dark blue and crowded with stars. Without light pollution, they could see the constellations, and even shooting stars, whizzing across the sky with fiery tails.
While Toni stared upward, Jay ran ahead through Franklin High’s overgrown playing fields towards the Research Station. All around was a deep, hushed stillness – no traffic sounds or police sirens or planes. Toni and Jay seemed like the only living creatures in the whole landscape.
