The Institute

by Kayla Howarth

CHAPTER ONE

  Kneeling over his seemingly lifeless body, I clasp one of his hands in both of mine. His breathing is shallow and gurgled, and blood is coming from his ears, nose, and mouth. If someone doesn’t come and help him soon, he’s not going to make it. But no one will come. No one is stupid enough to get involved, apart from me. With any luck, someone nearby heard the crash and cared enough to call an ambulance. That would be lucky for Jax anyway, not so much for me.

  I shouldn’t be here. I never should’ve got involved, but what was I meant to do? Keep walking, pretend I didn’t see the smoke, and leave Drew and Jax to die? I couldn’t just run away, but now I’m wondering if it was a wasted effort. Jax is dying right in front of me, and I can’t do anything to stop it.

  Drew’s unresponsive. He’s conscious, but I think he’s in shock. He sits on the other side of his friend, staring blankly at the wreckage that was his car.

  As I look around at the scene before me—a burnt car, two bloodied teenage boys, and me, covered in dirt and smelling of smoke, I have the urge to run. That’s what I should’ve done in the first place. I’m not Defective, but when you live in the world I do, that doesn’t matter. Any kind of inexplicable stunt is considered suspicious. A smallish seventeen-year-old like me pulling two boys—one of whom is on the rugby team at school—from a burning car? Yeah, that would be considered suspicious.

  If I leave now, maybe no one will even know I was here, other than Jax and Drew. As I try to slip my hand from Jax’s, he grasps it tighter and coughs as he tries to talk, startling me. I didn’t even realise he was conscious.

  “Stay. Please,” he says between gasping breaths.

  Now I have to stay. I can’t leave him here to die alone. I should’ve just caught the train instead of walking home from Ebb’s house. Why didn’t I just catch the train? It would’ve been easy. It’s the easiest way to get around this town. Actually, it’s the easiest way to get around the entire country.

  Now that the west coast is uninhabitable, our city is pretty central to everything. Even though the local trains around Eminent Falls are substantially slower than the bullet train out of the city, it’s still less than ten minutes from Ebb’s house to mine. But no, I had to walk today because of my foul mood and the heat—I didn’t want to sit in a train car next to a sweaty, smelly stranger.

  Jax coughs again, and it makes me feel useless, as if I should be doing something. The distant sound of sirens fills my ears, and I sigh in relief.

  “They’re on their way, you just have to hold on a little bit longer,” I plead with him.

  He doesn’t respond though. I can’t tell anymore if he’s breathing, and I can’t help but think the worst has happened … he’s already gone.

  Of course, something like this would happen now when I finally feel like we’ve found a town we can settle down in. We’ve been here for three years, and I think that’s the longest we’ve stayed anywhere, other than when we lived in the city with my aunt. Things seem to be a lot calmer here. It’s one of the last farming towns left in the entire country. Since the proliferation of laboratory-grown foods, the organic, fresh food industry has become something of a luxury.

  People seem to be more laid back and relaxed here than people in the city. Eminent Falls is somewhat secluded from the rest of the country, and that’s what I like about it. Even though small towns are notoriously gossipy, I find it easier to fit in here. When we were living in the city, I just felt like there were more eyes that could stare at us and try to figure out our secret.

  Shilah fits in well here, and it’s easy for him to stay out of trouble. Dad likes it here, too. We have our own farm, and he only has to deal with people on weekends, which is when the council closes off the main street of town for the local produce market. Dad isn’t exactly what you would call a people person, so the arrangement works in his favour.

  Eminent Falls is the first place in a long time that feels like home and not just a place to get by for a while. Now we’re probably going to have to leave.

  The relief I felt when I heard the sirens immediately dissipates when I see the police car following the ambulance and a sedan with the Institute logo on the side following the police car. Why are people from the Institute here, have they already come to take me away? I didn’t even do anything! I’m not Defective.

  I move out of the paramedics’ way so they can tend to Jax, but I don’t know where to stand, so I start walking towards the crowd of people who have suddenly gathered now that the authorities are here. Hopefully, I can blend in and then sneak away.

  A voice startles me. “Excuse me, Miss?”

  Damn it.

  I turn to find the police officers approaching. Everything inside me is screaming at me to run, but I know better. They’ll come looking for me and will probably discover Shilah instead.

  “So what did you see here today, Miss … uh, what is your name?” the taller policeman asks me as the shorter, pudgy one stands with a pen and notebook, ready to take down my answers.

  Make up an answer, lie. Oh, who am I kidding, I’m not quick enough to think on my feet.

  “Allira.”

  “And your last name?” the short officer asks, annoyed, as if it should’ve been a given they want my full name.

  “Daniels.”

  “Can you shed some light for us on what happened here this evening?”

  Even still fresh in my mind, the details of what just happened are hazy. Everything went so quick, my brain hasn’t had time to process it all. I need to answer carefully, but I don’t know how to say I got the boys away from the car without arousing suspicion.

  “I … I didn’t know what to do, I just knew that they needed to get away from the fire,” I stutter.

  A woman’s voice comes from behind me. “I’m sorry, did you just say you got the boys away from the car?” The voice belongs to one of the people from the Institute. I realise I have to be even more cautious of what I say, being within earshot of them. I go to answer, and my mouth opens, but no sound comes out.

  “Actually, she didn’t do anything,” Drew says, rubbing the side of his forehead. It’s the first time I’ve heard him speak all day. “She just kept Jax talking and conscious until the ambulance came. She tried to, anyway.”

  The woman from the Institute nods as if she believes him but then walks over to the burnt car. She glances at me and then back at the car.

  Yup, now would be a good time to leave. The ambulance just left with Jax, and part of me wishes it were me in there instead. Did I just wish to trade places with a dying guy? Am I really that desperate to get out of here?

  “Is that all for now? I really should be getting home, my dad is probably worried,” I say. He won’t be. He’ll still be down on the farm, but they don’t know that.

  “Of course, Miss Daniels, we can give you a lift if you like,” the tall policeman offers.

  “Thanks, but I’m really not far from here, I’m sure I’ll be fine on my own.” If Dad happens to see the police car, he’ll jump to all the wrong conclusions, and I can’t deal with that, not after today.

  “Are you sure? You’ve had a pretty traumatic afternoon, I wouldn’t want you to go into shock on your way home,” he insists.

  “I can walk her home,” Drew offers, and my gut pinches.

  The officer turns to Drew. “I don’t think that’s such a great idea. You should really get looked at by a doctor, too. Actually, both of you probably should if you were close to the car when it was on fire. You could have smoke inhalation.”

  “I feel fine,” I respond. Although, my chest does feel quite heavy, and I’ve been trying not to cough because it feels like I have a razor blade stuck in my throat, but I’m definitely sure I don’t need to go to the hospital. I wasn’t in the car when it crashed, and more importantly, I hate hospitals, needles, and sick people. Just the thought of it almost makes me want to faint.

  “Me too,” Drew says.

  “At least let us drive you b
oth home.”

  There’s something about the way the police officer is insisting, the way his eyes are screaming at me to get in the car, that makes me say yes to the lift even though I really don’t want to.

  Both officers help Drew and me into the car, and we pull away. The Institute staff starts tidying up the accident scene as we leave. Why are they cleaning up? You’d think the police department would be responsible for that. I almost ask why, but I’ve drawn enough attention to myself for one day.

  I settle back in my seat, but it’s hard to get comfortable with Drew sitting next to me. We go to school together, but we’ve only ever had one conversation, and I’d rather forget it. I glance at him from the corner of my eye. He has a pretty nasty gash on his forehead from the crash. Maybe he should be going to a doctor instead of home. Even with the messy forehead, he’s intimidatingly good-looking.

  Recalling how stupid I was the day he transferred to our school a couple of months ago, I can’t help but cringe at the memory. Falling over in front of everyone was embarrassing enough, but getting tongue-tied and flustered when he tried to help me up just made it worse. No one has ever done that to me before, and because of that, I’ve avoided him ever since. Not that it’s been hard to do that since school went on break six weeks ago.

  I’ve never experienced feelings so conflicting before. I spent most of my time at school just hoping to see Drew and talk to him. But whenever I’d get even remotely close to him, my nerves would get the better of me, and I’d make an excuse to leave, berating myself later for chickening out again.

  I’m thankful that Drew covered for me about the accident, but I can’t help wondering why he did it. He’s hiding the fact that I actually pulled him out of the car and pulled Jax away from in front of it. Jax mustn’t have been wearing his seat belt when they crashed because he was on the road when I found him. Why is Drew lying to them, protecting me?

  “I feel really dizzy,” Drew says before slumping forward. I think he’s passed out.

  The officers put their siren and lights on as they pull into my driveway.

  “Sorry, we’re going to have to take him to the hospital. Are you okay from here?”

  “I’m sure I can manage,” I say. I’m glad they won’t be escorting me to the door, but they’re in my driveway—there’s no way Dad could miss this spectacle.

  I walk in the front door as Dad comes through the back.

  “Shilah!” he yells out, his voice strained and panicked. It’s typical of him to assume it has to do with Shilah.

  “No, Dad, it’s me,” I say, my voice low and quiet, filled with guilt.

  His face turns from confusion to worry when he sees what state I’m in. My hair’s messy and smells of smoke, my face and clothes are covered in dirt, and my hands are bloody.

  Dad rushes over to me. “Are you okay? What happened?” He lifts my hand to examine where the blood’s coming from, but it’s not my blood. It’s Jax’s.

  “There was an accident.”

  “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine.” I don’t know what to say, how to tell him I screwed up.

  “Allira, you’re scaring me, what happened?”

  Sighing, I take a seat at the dining table and start to explain. “I was walking home from Ebbodine’s house. I went to see her mum because …” I start tearing up.

  “Because you miss your friend,” Dad says for me. He sits opposite me, slumping in his seat. “I know it’s been hard on you. She went missing, and you didn’t get to say goodbye.”

  “Just like Mum,” I mumble.

  “It’s okay to miss her, you know that, right?”

  I don’t know whether he’s talking about Mum or Ebb right now, but it doesn’t matter. I miss both of them. My mother and best friend disappeared out of my life without a trace, and no one knows where they could’ve gone. Although, after eight years, I’ve become accustomed to missing Mum. Ebb’s disappearance only happened a month ago and is still fresh. When I think about it, my chest tightens and my throat feels raw.

  I nod. “I didn’t see what happened today, but Drew from school crashed his car, and it somehow caught alight. Drew was trapped inside, and another boy from school, Jax, was thrown from the car. I know I should’ve run. I know I shouldn’t have helped.”

  “You what?” Dad’s head snaps up from the table. “What were you thinking, Allira?”

  Yup. This is the reaction I was expecting. “I don’t know, I really don’t know, but I couldn’t just run away. They would’ve died.”

  Dad’s silent for a moment. His jaw is hardened but his eyes are soft, as if he’s trying to decide between yelling at me and consoling me.

  Tears have started cascading down my cheeks.

  “I just don’t understand how you didn’t think about how this could go badly for you or your brother.” His voice is quiet, disappointed. “We don’t live in a world where selflessness is appreciated, Allira, you know that.” He stands from the table and starts pacing back and forth. “We’re going to have to move again. You know that, don’t you?”

  I nod. As the reality of what’s happened sinks in, and the seriousness of the situation becomes clear, I can’t help but mentally kick myself and think, What the hell did I just do?