by Mark Tufo
"When we get out of here, I will never take my privacy for granted ever again," Emily said, resting her towel over her shoulders. "I bet this is how they treat prison inmates."
Virginia nodded grimly. "At least the ones who happen to have the wrong eye color."
Emily nodded her agreement. Her face went painfully sober as she suddenly questioned aloud, "I wonder if I'll still be able to work as a cashier associate at my booth? Deviants don't work as cashier associates."
Virginia suddenly had to apply the same question to her own job. Had so much changed about her that she was now no longer qualified to handle one of Communications-Corp's switchboards? She and Emily looked at one another as the same question hit them both at once: Would they be able to convince anyone, including their loved ones, that absolutely nothing about them had changed other than their eye color?
"My fiancé hates deviants!" Emily said, the reality of their situation finally sinking in. "My life is ruined!"
"My husband isn't too fond of them, either," Virginia said, denial forcing her to add, "I know he loves me, though, and I know my kids love me. I know that won't change."
Emily began to cry.
"Don't cry, sweetie," Virginia said, her throat knotting up. "Everything will be okay. You'll see."
Emily shook her head. "No. I don't think it will." She stood and turned.
Virginia reached for Emily's shoulder, but she brushed her aside. She watched as Emily walked in long strides, almost in slow motion, toward the medical associates standing in front of the bathroom door. Virginia wanted to get up and run after her, but she felt frozen where she sat, knowing deep down that there was nothing she could do. She watched helplessly as Emily signed her life away.
Emily turned back as she passed through the door, her eyes haunting as she gave Virginia one last pained smile. She crossed the threshold and the door closed behind her.
And then she was gone.
Virginia grieved silently as Olaf, a friendly older man, exited the bathroom and got dressed.
He hurried up to her, his hair and beard still dripping. "Where's Emily?"
Virginia looked down. "She left."
Olaf sat down, his body flushing. "Where did she go?"
Virginia turned back to him, the tears streaming from her eyes speaking louder than any words she might have to offer him.
"But why?" Olaf asked, his eyes welling up. "She was so young! She had her whole life ahead of her!"
Virginia shook her head, wishing that she had tried harder to hold Emily back. "I couldn't stop her," she said, trying to amend the memory of it in her mind.
"Damn it all!" Olaf cried, going to his bed and lying down.
Virginia surveyed the room, unsure how much longer she would be able to handle being there herself. There were now exactly four men and four women left, including her. She wondered if the medical management was simply counting on the group to give up, one by one, until no one remained. Perhaps those who persisted were doing nothing but prolonging the inevitable.
Virginia watched the camera sweep back and forth, flipping it off once as it passed over her.
The showers turned off and the medical associates left the room. The locks clicked shut. The last of the men dried off and got dressed. No one else seemed to care that Emily had given up. Few even seemed to notice that she was gone.
The locks clicked back open, and one of the medical associates who had just overseen the showers returned with the manager and two security associates. He had an order from Corporate, just downloaded onto his handheld computer.
"After due consideration, Corporate has decided to give you two options." The medical associate cleared his throat, glancing down at his computer screen. He punched in a code, bringing up the downloaded file. "Corporate is interested in a study on live subjects infected with what we have named retrovirus HD-1, to study your antibodies and develop a vaccine. All those not interested in participating in the study will be euthanized."
Virginia and Olaf glanced over at one another in disbelief.
The medical manager stepped forward. "We'll need your signatures on the appropriate forms, so if you could all come forward in an orderly manner."
Olaf winked at Virginia, then suddenly sprang out of bed and grabbed the man in the next bed over. He yanked the man to the ground and put him in a stranglehold, and then braced himself for the security associates' attack. "I'll see you all in Hell!"
Olaf's attack put the entire room into a panic, and the medical associate ran into the center of the room in an attempt to back up Security. The medical manager tackled a woman who ran ahead of Virginia in an attempt to escape, and by the time he turned to secure the door, Virginia and three others had already scattered.
The medical manager slipped out the door and locked it, making a mental note to let out his personnel as soon as the building was secure. "Security breach!" he yelled, running after a young man who was unfortunate enough to have slipped out last. The manager stopped at an emergency alarm station, catching his breath as he sounded the alarm.
"I need backup here!" the manager yelled as he chased the young man to a dead end. He tackled the young man, knocking him off his feet, and all nearby personnel moved to assist in his capture.
Virginia slipped unseen into an unlocked utility closet. The small room had a washer and dryer, bins of dirty laundry, and cleaning supplies arranged on open shelves. Knowing the search for her would be thorough, she considered her hiding places. If she simply knelt behind the dryer she was sure to be found, and the same likely went for hiding inside the hot machine. She hurried to the vent to the central heating duct, but found it tightly secured. She snatched a putty knife from a nearby shelf and used it to pry off the screen, then carefully slid off the vent and slipped inside the tight area, slamming the vent back into place behind her.
Virginia quietly wriggled back a few feet, then froze as she heard the closet door open. She heard the security associate step through the room. The man checked the washer and dryer, and then poked through the piles of laundry. Virginia held her breath and closed her eyes as he peered through the vent, straining to see as far into the shadows as he could. After only a moment, the associate moved away from the vent and left the room. Virginia took a deep breath as the door shut behind him. She waited a few minutes to ensure he hadn't left just to get reinforcements, and then she worked her way back up to the vent.
She looked around the room, trying to determine whether she had any chance at escape. There didn't seem like any way out. She could dig through the dirty linen on the chance that there was a pair of scrubs hidden in the bin, but she didn't think that would be very likely. Even if she did find some type of medical associate uniform, her eye color would give her away before she could get down the hall.
She slid back as the door opened again, and she could just see into the closet as a sanitation worker came in with a rolling mop bucket.
The skinny young woman pushed the bucket into a corner and began a load of laundry with a groan. The washing machine was loud as it filled with hot water, the sound echoing through the narrow duct.
Virginia slid back up to the vent, getting a better look, and she realized that the sanitation associate was a deviant. Without another thought, in one quick motion, Virginia knocked out the vent and slid out of the duct. She slammed into the surprised young woman, pinning her against the far wall and covering her mouth.
"I need your help!" Virginia cried.
The sanitation associate nodded, and Virginia slowly let her go.
"You have to get me out of here!" Virginia continued. "I'm being held against my will!"
"You're one of the virus victims?"
Virginia hadn't expected such a question to come from a sanitation associate, and she gave the deviant a suspicious eye. "How did you know?"
The young woman moved to a bin of clean sheets, picking up as much of the unfolded pile as she could hold. "Get in."
Virginia got into the bin, and the
young associate dropped the pile of sheets over her. "Sit tight." The young woman dug into her pockets, pulling out syringes, test tubes, and a few other objects she had stolen from the medical offices, and stuffed them under the pile. She finished loading the washing machine and then deftly rolled Virginia and her laboratory supplies out of the closet.
She rolled the heavy bin to a service elevator and quietly accompanied the load down to the basement. She rolled the bin to the folding piles at the end of the corridor and lugged the laundry off Virginia.
"Thank you so much!" Virginia said, climbing out of the bin.
"It's the least I can do," the deviant said. She extended her hand. "I'm Anne."
"Virginia."
They shook.
"Do you have anywhere to go?" Anne asked, checking to make sure that no one else was in the vicinity.
"I plan on going home."
"Do you think that's wise?" Anne collected the laboratory supplies, wrapped them in a pajama top she snagged from a laundry pile, and then stashed them behind a trash bin.
Virginia shrugged. "Where else would I go?"
Anne found a piece of scratch paper and a pen, and wrote down shuttle and walking directions to a remote location. She handed it to Virginia with a smile. "Ask for Ray." She shoved Virginia behind a pile of laundry and tried to look busy as a sanitation manager crossed the far corridor and then disappeared around another corner.
Virginia took the piece of paper. "How do I get out of here?"
After a moment of thought, Anne quickly wriggled out of her uniform and tossed it to Virginia. She kicked off her shoes. "I'm not sure it'll be a perfect fit, but it's all I've got." She began to dig through a utility drawer until she came across a roll of duct tape.
Virginia squeezed herself into Anne's uniform and forced her feet into the tiny shoes.
Anne tossed Virginia the duct tape and her shuttle pass, then crossed her wrists behind her back. "I can't look like a willing participant in this."
Virginia bound Anne's wrists behind her back and wrapped the tape around her ankles.
Anne dropped onto a pile of clean pajama tops. "The parking garage is down the hall to your left, and then up one floor. Now, tape up my mouth and get out of here."
"Tape your mouth?"
Anne gave a frustrated huff. "You want to make it look authentic, right?"
"Are you sure someone will find you?"
"Positive." Anne glanced down to the end of the hall, looking nervous. "Will you stop wasting time?"
Virginia reluctantly slapped a piece of tape over Anne's mouth. "Thanks again." She hurried down the long hallway, pocketing Anne's shuttle directions as she took the stairwell up to the garage. She found a direct shuttle line to Housing.
She took a long, deep breath as the shuttle rolled away from the platform. She wondered if any of the others who had escaped were also able to get away, hoping she wasn't the only one. She wondered how many more people would find themselves in her situation before Medical-Corp was able to come up with a vaccine or antidote, if either was even possible.
Virginia couldn't reach Housing quickly enough, and she gazed through the window at the heavy rain as the shuttle lurched along its track. It was dark and grey out, and heavy clouds blocked out the early evening sky.
She knocked on her front door, nervous but excited. She assumed George and the kids would be home, given the time, and her heart sank when she knocked several times and no one came to the door.
"Hello?" Virginia knocked again. "It's me!"
The door cracked open across the way, and Judith peeked out. Virginia turned, and Judith quickly shut the door as she noticed Virginia's deviant eyes. Virginia stood in the center of the hallway, unsure what to do. She decided to knock on the Rockwells' door just as William opened it, Judith huddling behind him.
"I don't have my key," Virginia said.
"You're dead!" William said. He couldn't stop looking at her eyes.
"They lied!" Virginia began to cry, more due to panic than the despair also seizing her.
Judith remained behind the safety of her husband, eyeing Virginia suspiciously. "I think we should call for a security associate!"
"It looks like Virginia," William said.
"Where is my family?" Virginia cried. "I just want to see my family!"
"They've been gone for a couple of days," William said.
"What do you think you're doing?" Judith slapped William on the shoulder, and she slammed the door shut.
Her gut telling her that security associates would soon be on their way to clear the floor, Virginia hurried to the stairwell. She passed a young woman slowly helping her young daughter up the stairs.
The little girl looked over Virginia and smiled. "Mommy! Look at her pretty eyes!"
The woman scowled at Virginia, yanking the girl up into her arms. "We don't talk to deviants, Angie," the woman scolded, and then the two disappeared through the door to the second floor.
Virginia hurried out of the building, running down the halls toward the shuttle garage. She dug out Anne's directions from her pocket. The shuttle changes led to an area where Virginia had never been before, but she wasn't sure if she really had anywhere else to go. Using Anne's pass, Virginia boarded the Line 270 shuttle, sat down, and closed her eyes.
Chapter 97
IF CORPORATE HAD any idea where George's file had been misplaced, its managers had taken their time tracking it down. By the time George had his release process work ready to sign, he found himself cheated out of another entire day. That the managers rushed to get his processing finished now was of little meaning. He'd been forced to miss two days of work, but he would have to wait until Monday to find out if he still had a job.
He now owed Police-Corp close to twenty thousand in fines, on top of what he owed Housing for the Rockwells' broken window. If he defaulted on his payments, even once, there would be a warrant for his arrest and he would ultimately end up owing the system even more. George had a difficult time covering the family's expenses as it was, and there was no question that either Shelley or Kurt would have to be moved back into the Mart Education System on their current budget. The knowledge that he had to make this choice, and immediately, made him feel like hope truly had left his world for good. One of his children would be doomed to a life of impoverished monotony, and there was nothing he could do about it.
He weighed the potential in each of them as he took the stairs down to the Safe House. Based on their grades, they both had the intelligence to work middle management. He had already invested in Shelley for several years, Kurt having been in the Corp Education System for only three. Shelley's status as a woman would limit her positions, however, given Corporate America's views on family values. No doubt Shelley would be encouraged to marry early into her adulthood, and only to take a part-time job if she planned to have children. Kurt could take any job, no matter when he started his family. Moreover, unlike Shelley, he had dark brown eyes. The boy had more options.
George found the office he had been directed to, a dim room packed with rows of chairs and distraught, displaced people. He went up to the secretary associate. "I'm here for my two kids," he said through the Plexiglas security window.
The secretary associate pointed through the window, to a small computer anchored to the wall. "Fill out the form and have a seat."
George filled out the short form, identifying himself and his two children. He signed his name in the signature box, then found an empty chair as far away as he could possibly get from the rest of the sorry people in there.
From the looks of the room and all the people in it, George expected to wait at least an hour or so, and he was pleasantly surprised when Shelley and Kurt emerged from a back room only a few minutes later.
Kurt ran to George, coughing and sobbing between tearful fits, while Shelly sauntered over to him slowly and angrily. George picked up Kurt and offered Shelley a refused hug, and then the three left together and caught the shuttle back to Hous
ing. The rain picked up and the shuttle moved slowly, threatening to stall every few yards. The three remained silent despite the ridiculously long ride, waiting to get home before discussing their confinement.
"How could you get arrested like that? Do you have any idea how boring the Safe House was?" Shelley began as they entered their cold, dark apartment. "It was hellish!"
"Try a jail cell for two days," George replied, turning on the kitchen light.
"It was like we were in kid-jail!" Kurt said, needing to be a part of the conversation.
Shelley went to the wall heater and turned it on, and the three huddled as close to the grill as they could without being burned.
"Are we having chicken nuggets for dinner tonight?" Kurt asked.
Shelley nodded, although her face looked tired and bitter. "Just let me warm up a minute."
The news about Shelley's education ate at George more and more the longer he sat with it. Telling Shelley would not be easy. He practiced in his mind what he would say to her, finding no way to buffer the actual blow. He turned to her, deciding that further procrastination would get him nowhere.
"I owe a lot of money because of what I did." He looked down, unwilling to see her face when he told her: "I can't afford to put you through Corp school any longer."
Shelley took a deep breath and moved to reply, but then sealed her lips and stormed across the kitchen. She pulled a package of pre-breaded chicken nuggets from the icebox and arranged them in a glass baking dish, unable to hide that she had begun to cry.
"I'm really sorry, sweetie," George said.
"So I'm supposed to go to Mart school?" she asked, not turning around. She put the chicken nuggets in the microwave and set the timer.
"Would you rather I move Kurt instead?"
"Move where?" Kurt asked, surprise and terror in his voice.
"Nowhere," George reassured him.
They all knew about the gang problems, the drugs, and the violence that occurred in the Mart Education System. Still, there was heavy tension over the unspoken question: Why had George chosen Kurt over her?