Idiosyncratic

  “Vlady’mir!” Dr. Upton shouted.

  Oh’pol jerked on the table, her arms twitching backwards, rotating in their sockets in an unnatural way. Dr. Upton grabbed the straps that hung from the sides of the table and tried to anchor her down. Oh’pol planted her palms against his chest and pushed. Dr. Upton was thrown across the room, grunting as his back collided against the cabinets. He lay unresponsive, knocked unconscious.

  I was backpedaling before I realized my feet were even moving. Oh’pol turned her attention to the gas mask latched to her face. She clawed at it, ripping it off with fierce fingers.

  Her gaze fell on her arm, where her blood was being pushed and pulled in and out of her body. She yanked out the tubes and leapt at the machine that had dared to do this to her. Pounding her fists against it, she dented its metallic frame with just a few hits. When the machine silenced its clicking, Oh’pol let out another growl.

  The sound vibrated into my bones, making me stumble. I fell backwards, again covering my ears with my hands. The glass jars exploded, shards flying out, ripping holes in the leather of the table. Cotton balls, gauze pads, and various colored liquids tumbled off the counter.

  A familiar growl came from behind me. A second later, Vlady’mir plummeted onto my chest. The air was ejected from my lungs as my body went limp from the shock.

  Vlady’mir’s wings were outstretched and his claws were poised in some animalistic fighting stance. He marched off me, his tiny legs making the movement seem more like a trot.

  Oh’pol vaulted for the bunny, but Vlady’mir was faster. He hopped off her hand, side-flipping onto the counter. They growled at each other, both displaying their teeth.

  Vlady’mir dodged Oh’pol’s hands as she swiped at him. Her fingers were poised like claws, and they swung so rapidly I heard the whipping of air. But Vlady’mir was nimble, springing and sliding across the counter. He bounced forward, crashing into the middle of Oh’pol’s chest, knocking her over. She swiped at him, striking the back of her hand against the side of his body. Vlady’mir was a green fluff ball as he rocketed across the room.

  Oh’pol wobbled as she struggled to stand. Her irises were bright chartreuse, clouded by wildness...and they were staring straight at me. Her knees bent as she roared.

  I scrambled to my feet, knowing her war cry was for me. I heard pounding footsteps behind me as I bolted out of the room. I ran back toward the elevator, thrusting my fingers into my pocket and rummaging for the key. Finally my fingers wrapped around it. I was merely a meter from the elevator when I was yanked backwards. Hands gripped the collar of my nightgown, throwing me into the air. I skidded and rolled down the hallway of tanks.

  My legs crashed into one of the transparent walls first, slowing me enough that I could wrap my arms around my head as I careened into it. My world shattered. Only blackness remained.

  “LES’ETTE.”

  A knocking sound entered into my consciousness. I was wrapped in a comforting numbness. Light didn’t reach my eyes. Pain didn’t traipse across or through me.

  “Les’ette.”

  The knocking matched the voice’s urgent persistence, bringing the world closer.

  “Listen to me, Les’ette,” said a female voice I couldn’t place, but she spoke as if she knew me. “You need to get her back into her barricade. She’s headed for a full genetic takeover! She’ll ruin everything if she’s loose when that happens.”

  My mind was spinning with a harsh throb at the center. I creaked my eyes open to see a woman in a HAZMAT suit that covered her from head to toe. Oh’pol’s aunt. Dr. Upton’s wife. Her vibrant blue eyes were all that could be seen clearly behind the bulky gasmask and thick red fabric. She stood inside the tank in front of me.

  “Watch out!” she screamed, pointing behind me.

  I rocked my head backward to see Oh’pol charging for me. I rolled onto my stomach, pushing myself off the ground with clumsy limbs, and felt the gust of wind as Oh’pol slammed into the wall right where I had just been.

  “Oh’pol!” her aunt shouted, waving her hands vigorously through the air. Oh’pol’s attention was on the woman as she scratched and pounded at the wall to try to get her.

  “Oh’pol, this is your Aunt Eye’vee. Listen to me. You came to our home to help, not to destroy everything. Go back to your barricade before you lose all control.”

  Oh’pol’s hand pressed against the wall, planting her palm to it. Sobs fell from her as her body shook and twitched. Her shoulder blades protruded from her body, her scales kept falling off her skin, and her scalp was riddled with missing patches of hair.

  “Betrayal,” she groaned.

  Oh’pol’s fist wound back. She thrust it into the wall, making cracks flare out.

  “Don’t ruin everything. Fight this for your uncle!” the woman screamed at her.

  Oh’pol’s fist rose again, her arm shaking, her resistance waning.

  “You have to fight because you’re my sister!” The words burst out of me before I realized it.

  Oh’pol froze, the truth hitting hard for both of us. Her Aunt Eye’vee gestured at me desperately, urging me to keep going. I stepped forward slowly.

  “We made promises to each other. Promises that bind us together as family.” My voice quivered.

  My heart was breaking, and truth was seeping through the cracks, burning with every drop.

  I can’t do this. I. CANNOT. DO. THIS.

  “You gave me something I don’t want to lose.”

  My chest was burning so much inside. My mind screamed at me to stop, to stitch up the cracks in my heart. I couldn’t attach myself to anyone.

  As I reached out to Oh’pol, I knew I had already crossed that dangerous line in my mind. Oh’pol had me drifting past it without even realizing. I settled my hand on her shoulder.

  Oh’pol’s knees gave way. She dropped to the ground, panting hard and fast. I sank down next to her, pulling her deformed body into me.

  “I want you to stay with me, Oh’pol.”

  Tears slid down my cheeks. I’d never fought for someone so fiercely before.

  I felt something fall onto my arm. I gazed down just as another tiny piece tapped against my sleeve. The white object settled on my lap. My heart picked up pace when I realized it was a tooth. Oh’pol’s teeth continued to fall out, and I didn’t know what that meant.

  “H...help...my...”

  But before she could finish, she curled forward as another deafening growl erupted from her.

  My palms flew to my ears as I tried to keep my senses about me. I needed to get her into her cage before she attacked me again. Just as I was devising a dodging route, Oh’pol’s roar turned to a gurgle. Her body seized as orange pus seeped out of her nose and mouth. The next second, she stopped moving. Her eyes were open and lifeless.

  “Oh’pol?” I whispered, shaking her arm.

  “There was nothing we could have done,” Eye’vee breathed.

  “Oh’pol,” I said more forcefully, wondering why she wouldn’t respond.

  “Les’ette,” Eye’vee called out to me.

  “Oh’pol!”

  My heart pounded erratically. Horror clogged my throat as panic made breathing a struggle.

  “Les’ette,” Dr. Upton whispered from behind me.

  “Oh’pol is dead,” Eye’vee said.

  I gripped my head, trying to process this information. Sobs broke past the obstruction in my throat, releasing a raw, crude scream.

  |Eighteen|

  SILLY, SILLY GIRL, what a dangerous thing for you to have done, I thought as I stared at the empty wooden floor of my room, to love someone just long enough, just fiercely enough to shatter your world.

  I didn’t know if I could ever do it again. Why would I even want to? I honestly didn’t know if the pain, the screaming, burning, gruesome pain, was worth it. Is anything, anyone worth this much agony?

  I sat in silence, contemplating those questions. I played with a loose thread unraveling from one of my navy blue
courier sweaters. My eyes stared right through my black slacks.

  No one came for me. They were too busy taking care of Oh’pol’s body; too busy panicking about something else; too busy to take Oh’pol’s key from me; too busy to notice me using it to slip out. But I had nowhere to go. I wasn’t even legally allowed to be on my own anyway.

  No, my mind whispered as I curled in on myself. I pressed my palm flat against my chest, just over my heart. My chest had been gutted, my heart drenched in gasoline and set ablaze. No. No one is worth this. If I had never met Oh’pol, her absence wouldn’t have damaged me this much. I unfurled my weak, pathetic self, ripping away my emotions as I tore the loose thread from my sweater.

  Marching over to my messenger bag, I turned it upside down, spilling the contents out onto the floor. I packed the essentials: tributes, maps, and a compass. I went to my armoire, throwing as many items of clothing into the bag as I could fit.

  The Orphan Train Gazette lay crinkled next to No’ll’s letter. I stepped over them to grab Oh’pol’s— no—the key from the bed, and headed out of the room.

  I couldn’t stay here, which meant I would have to live life under the radar. It wasn’t really a life at all, but I didn’t care. I didn’t have the luxury to care about anything anymore. I’d rather have a frozen heart than a shattered one. I’d rather not let the world touch me than allow people to hurt me. This was the safest way to live. And if that meant I had to hide among the shadows, then so be it.

  |Nineteen|

  TO AVOID BEING CAUGHT, I decided to use the elevator across Dr. Upton’s property. The fastest way there was through the house. I gripped the strap of my messenger bag tightly as I traveled through the bricked half of the house.

  It was darker and quieter than the other side, as if the wood let the house breathe and see more easily. My footsteps echoed off the brick, running down the corridor ahead of me.

  I had contemplated this many times before, slipping away in the bustle of the train station to live off the black market, ducking the Watchmen for the remainder of my existence. I’d tried to run away once, but No’ll had ruined it for me.

  I pushed past the iron door. My feet sunk into soft mud, the welcome mat for the forest adjacent to the house. I surveyed the approximately one hundred meters of exposed surroundings. It was clear, so I sprinted for the forest.

  I had only traveled through here once before. On one of my ventures for Dr. Upton, a woman became incensed by my stealth. She wanted to apprehend me and turn me over to the Watchmen for being born a defective that dared to breathe in her presence or something idiotic like that. Since I’d been on a mission, I couldn’t wind up getting caught. So I fled. I fled and discovered my second exit route to Dr. Upton’s level.

  Necessity seemed to help me through many difficult times. I guess you don’t realize how resourceful you can be until you’re forced to utilize such a skill. It came in handy plenty of times during my time on the train.

  Maybe I deserved to be caught and turned into a lab rat. Maybe I deserved to be experimented on and picked apart piece by piece. I didn’t believe I’d killed Oh’pol by trying to help her escape like Dr. Upton had accused. I’d killed her in a more sinister way. If I had shut Oh’pol out, she wouldn’t have been compelled to keep me from Dr. Upton’s clutches. He wouldn’t have taken her in replace of me. The guilt started to rise, but I pushed it down and away because ultimately, Oh’pol’s blood was on Dr. Upton’s hands.

  There was a hiss in the air that grew louder with every passing second. I kept running, not knowing what it was, fearing it was something of Dr. Upton’s design trying to ensnare me. I lost traction when the ground started to shake with the squeal of crunching metal. Falling forward, I tucked my chin into my chest right before my skull met the dirt. The world rotated over itself as I tumbled. I was tossed onto my back, which forced the air out of my lungs in a rush. I tried to move, but my need for oxygen left me immobilized. I gasped for it greedily.

  It was between heaving breaths that I noticed the sheen on the leaves hovering above me. The light glinted off the vegetation, revealing a synthetic gloss. My eyes followed a stem to the branch. A few flakes of bark were missing, exposing the iron mechanics underneath.

  I scrambled to my feet, certain Dr. Upton was close to finding me in his man-made forest. I staggered in my steps, but I was still creating distance. I was still drawing closer to the elevator that would deposit me in the middle of the hectic city. I would be vapor once I was in the heart of Nickleby, disappearing in the ocean of mind-prints.

  As I pushed past dense, artificial brush, my feet froze. My breath caught in my throat as I gaped at a massive device that had dented the mechanical ground. Fear didn’t leak into my veins because it was most definitely the source of the commotion, but because it looked like a spaceship.

  |Twenty|

  SMOKE ROLLED OFF THE machine in dense, gray waves. It was cylindrical with a reflective chrome body, held at a slant by the metal trees.

  This monstrosity of a device couldn’t possibly be a spaceship, I thought. And as that preposterous notion drifted from my mind, the contraption started to rumble to life. The ground trembled under my feet.

  Then, the unthinkable happened. A hatch whined open, putting an Astronaut on display. I became more frozen in my stance as I gaped at the Astronaut, who stood as still as me. Its suit was different than the ones on the train had been. This one was white with a chest patch depicting a meteoroid and some label, which read X534, in black stitching.

  My spine was unyieldingly straight; my feet straddled the dirt shoulder-width apart; and my fingers became rigid claws. Breaths came short and quick through my nose.

  The Astronaut started to fall forward but was caught by a harness. It hung in orange straps, head keeled downward. A silver strip ran awkwardly across the helmet and around the bicep. It reminded me of the material I’d seen the Astronauts patching up their helmets with on the train.

  Another hatch opened on the opposite side, freeing a torrent of groans and gasps. A second Astronaut reached out. I could only see its thick, gloved hands flailing for help.

  The first Astronaut stirred at the sound of its companion. The creature fumbled with its harness, falling the short distance to the ground. It tottered on its feet, rounding the spaceship.

  The first Astronaut worked at helping the second, and the gasps ceased. Soon it was hauling its friend out of the spaceship, falling from their combined weight. As they hit the ground, a shattering noise ricocheted among the trees: the recognizable sound of an Astronaut’s helmet breaking.

  My feet began to move toward them as if they had a mind of their own. The first Astronaut continued to struggle, trying to get away, trying to hide. It dragged the second with it as they crawled away from the spaceship. By the time I reached them, they had stopped moving. I saw my terrified face reflected back at me from the first Astronaut’s helmet. My fright only deepened when I gazed at its companion.

  The second Astronaut’s helmet was completely destroyed. Only bits of the mirrored visor clung to the edges of the helmet. A stony face that wasn’t really a face stared back at me. It was just as the man from the restaurant, Sea’bastin, had said. An ashen porous rock made up the face of the second Astronaut. Its suit was white as well, but its chest patch depicted a satellite.

  A sudden pressure around my ankle made me jump. I registered the first Astronaut’s grip just as I toppled to the ground. I pulled my legs into my chest, panic caught in my throat. The first Astronaut kept reaching for me, silently pleading for my help. I gazed behind me and then back at both of them, the first and the second Astronaut—Meteoroid and Satellite.

  What— was I going to bring them to Dr. Upton? If I did that, then they’d just be two more creatures for him to experiment on and torture. But what else could I do? Leave them here to die? Turn them over to the Federation?

  My guts twisted with this terrible dilemma, and I hated myself for wanting to walk away. If I did that, I tru
ly was allowing this world to conquer me.

  If you dive headfirst into the chaos, you have submitted to the depravity of this world. It’s easy to walk away, Les’ette. For a split second, I was in the Bleak Train Station, pressed tightly against No’ll’s side. His arm had wrapped around me, foiling my attempt at running into the departing train.

  My jaw tightened as I threw my fist into the ground.

  “Fine!” I screamed at Meteoroid. “But if you end up being experimented on, that isn’t my fault.”

  The Astronaut’s hand lowered. It seemed relieved.

  An unwarranted selfish thought emerged from a hidden recess of my mind. Do these Astronauts know what happened to No’ll?

  I shouldn’t have cared about any of this, least of all No’ll, but I did. I did care, and that terrified me more than being thrown in front of the Astronauts.

  |Twenty one|

  IF YOU’RE NOT ALREADY dead, No’ll, I’m going to kill you.

  As I rushed through the forest, running back to the very place I was fleeing, that was all I could think about. No’ll, and how much I detested his daft insight.

  “Dr. Upton!” I screamed.

  I was hoping he’d heard the crashing of the spaceship too, and was already headed this way. Or maybe he was hunting me down to punish me for killing Oh’pol. I could have already set off one of the detectors that I was sure he had amidst the faux forest. If Dr. Upton was a crazed madman out for blood, how could I expect to stifle his fury enough to help those Astronauts?

  “Where is he?”

  I heard Dr. Upton’s voice a second before he emerged from behind a tree trunk. His face was numb and serious, more businesslike than anything else. Had Dr. Upton been expecting the Astronauts? Or had he done something to cause their spaceship to crash? Was that why Dr. Upton and Eye’vee had forgotten me so easily?