They struggled again to pull the door when they made it to the third floor. They fell into the hallway, off-balance and disoriented from exhaustion and the squeal of the alarm mounted just overhead. Thankfully, N302’s door was open a crack and 62 heaved a sigh of relief that they could push it open with their elbows, instead of trying to work the knob with their toes.
00 rushed over to the bot, yelling at the microphone to turn the alarm off.
N302> UNABLE TO REGISTER AUDIO COMMAND. PLEASE REPEAT.
00 screamed again to shut the alarm off, getting the same response. Finally, he threw a nasty look at 62, then peeled his palms from his ears and pounded on the keyboard.
U> Shut off the fire alarms!
N302> REQUEST RECEIVED. ALARMS WILL BE DEACIVATED IN 30… 29… 28…
U> Turn them off now! Please!
The numbers of N302’s countdown hastened, but it wasn’t until after the zero was displayed that the squeal of the last alarm was finally halted.
“Thank you!” both Boys yelled at the microphone. Although 62 knew that the alarms were off, there was still a ringing in his head that wouldn’t quiet.
N302> THE RADIO SIGNAL HAS RECEIVED A BROADCAST.
“We know,” 62 said as 00 picked up the handheld radio, turning the volume up so he could hear Parker’s voice in the speaker.
N302> THE ALARM WAS SUCCESSFUL?
“We heard you all the way up the mountain,” 62 complained.
N302> IT IS AN EFFECTIVE SYSTEM.
“You can say that again.”
00 shushed 62 and pointed angrily at the keyboard, indicating that if 62 had anything else to say to the bot, he should type it. 00 pulled the radio to his mouth and pressed the transmission button.
“We hear you loud and clear.”
Parker’s voice cut through the static. “Good! I’m glad to hear your voice. I was beginning to wonder if something was broken.”
“Sorry, we were busy with something, so it took us a minute to realize you were on the radio,” 00 replied.
“What were you doing?” Parker asked.
00 and 62 looked at one another warily. “Counting chickens,” 00 answered.
There was a long pause, then Parker said, “But you only have two of them, and one of them is a rooster. Doesn’t seem like something that needs counting.”
62 touched the transmission button and blurted, “We just wanted to make sure. Sunny told us we can’t eat any more eggs until some chicks hatch. We were checking to see if any showed up yet.”
“Oh, good! I’m glad you’re all planning ahead. More chickens mean more meat. And if I remember right from his classes, chicken is one of 62’s favorite foods,” Parker joked.
“It isn’t horrible,” 62 agreed in an awkward voice. “So, uh, was there anything else you wanted to say?”
“There is. I’m afraid I have bad news. I saw Mattie a couple days ago. She’s up at the hospital, pretty sick. I got out of quarantine this morning and came straight here to tell you. Would you believe that the connections all held up well? I only had to replace a few wires that had come loose. This baby started right up.”
“That’s rotten news about Mattie,” 00 answered, trying to act surprised. He looked at 62 with a grimace.
“We might not have known without the call,” 62 said, covering for his friend. Although Parker knew about 62’s dreams, he wasn’t sure the teacher understood the full scope of what he could do in them. “Thanks for the heads up. Blue is heading out today. He wants to see her.”
“What do you think is wrong?” 00 asked.
Parker cleared his throat, making the static warble on the line. “Rain says Mattie’s bones are weak. They’re doing the best they can to make her comfortable. I’ll send her word that Blue’s coming. That’ll make her feel better.” There was a long pause on the line, then Parker asked, “Say, do you think Sunny will come with Blue?”
62 gritted his teeth. Even if Sunny wanted to go, Blue had already been gone for hours. “I’ll have him ask her, but nothing’s changed, so don’t count on her turning up.”
“I wish she would,” Parker said wistfully.
“Us, too,” 00 said. “The Oosa really hurt her.”
Parker’s voice sounded sad. “Not just her, but it sounds like maybe they hurt Mattie, too. They aren’t saying anything for sure yet, but the symptoms she’s having are the same as what most of the little Oosa kids get. Not many of the kids who come from an Oosa intervention make it. Mattie’s been an inspiration to all of us. She’s proven that anyone can make a difference, no matter where they come from.”
“Do you think she’ll get better?” 62 asked.
Parker didn’t reply right away. When he spoke again, it was as if he hadn’t heard the question. “Well, that’s all for now. I’ll call back again tomorrow. When I call back, I’ll stay on the line as long as possible, just in case you miss my first attempt.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that. Now that we know what to listen for, there’s no way we’ll miss your broadcast,” 00 said.
“Are you staying in the radio room, just listening for the signal?”
“Something like that,” 00 answered, giving 62 a sidelong glance.
“That might be a good job for Sunny,” Parker answered thoughtfully. “Smart thinking, you two. Well, I’d better get off this thing. I’ll try to be back at about the same time tomorrow.”
“Okay, we’ll talk to you then,” 62 said. He’d not been brave enough to ask Parker if he thought Mattie would get better a second time. He was afraid of knowing the answer.
Parker’s voice disappeared from the radio’s speaker, replaced by the soft sound of lulling static over dead air.
N302> YOUR FRIEND IS DYING.
“We aren’t sure what’s wrong with her,” 62 said hastily into N302’s microphone. “Hopefully she’ll get better and be back at the library soon.”
N302> NO. SHE IS EXHIBITING DELAYED SIGNS OF TOTAL BODY IRRADIATION. PROGNOSIS: FATAL.
“How do you know?” 62 grumbled. “You’re not a doctor.”
N302> I HAVE ACCESSED THE ABBREVIATED JOURNAL OF MILITARY MEDICAL RESEARCH AS CURATED BY SIR ALEXANDER FLEMING. I HAVE ANALYZED THE SYMPTOMS AND BASED ON PREVIOUS CONVERSATIONS RECORDED IN MY ARCHIVES, THE FEMALE, MATTIE, DOES APPEAR TO BE SUFFERING FROM FATAL TOTAL BODY IRRADIATION.
“Thanks,” 62 said, tears welling in his eyes. He wanted to hope that Mattie was going to mend up and get better. But the fact that she’d stayed behind both times Parker and Rain had come said a lot. A bitter lump swelled in 62’s throat and he pushed himself away from the table, standing in the middle of the room with his eyes closed. “Thanks a lot.”
CHAPTER 39
After the first radio call from Parker, there was a unanimous decision to disconnect most of the fire alarms. 00 and 62 figured one alarm per floor was quite enough to hear N302’s notifications. The Boys climbed around the building, undoing most of the connections they’d worked so hard to put together the week before. When the message that Blue had arrived in Hanford came several days later, it did so without making 62 feel like he needed to rip his ears off.
Once they got over their excitement to be hearing from Blue, everyone’s hearts sank. The message he had to deliver wasn’t good. Blue had made it to Hanford in record time; just two and a half days. But then came detox and a brief quarantine, and although Rain did her best to keep his tests moving, Blue insisted she could have gotten him through faster. When the staff finally determined it was safe enough for him to see Mattie, he’d found her lying in a bed, face pinched and breathing shallow, uneven breaths.
“I tried to hold her hand, but it hurt her too much,” Blue whispered over the static of the radio. “Rain said her bones are dying.”
“Her bones are what?” 62 stammered into the radio transmitter’s microphone, sure he misunderstood. “Say that again?”
“They’re dying,” Blue stated angrily.
“But how can someone live without bone
s?” 00 asked.
“I don’t think they can,” Blue answered.
The air hanging on the line went quiet. 62 slumped down in his chair, overwhelmed with sadness and worry for his friend. Mattie had done so much for them. He felt useless sitting at a radio box so far away from her. He wracked his brain for something he could do to help. He wanted to go racing across the desert, wanted to get to Hanford even faster than Blue had managed. He desperately wanted to see his friend. But he knew if he went back to Hanford, there would be nothing but trouble when he arrived.
“Do you think Auntie can get me permission to come to the hospital?” 62 croaked finally. She was the only Woman on their side. The only one with enough clout to make a difference.
“I’ll talk to her and find out,” Blue answered. “Although, I’ve gotta be honest, everyone I see here treats me like a criminal for having gone with you guys. I don’t know how Parker and Rain deal with the dirty looks everyone gives them. They’re even talking about where they should send us when the Men need to use the jailhouse for the Oosa’s next visit.”
“Where to send us?” 00 asked with a surprised gasp. “What’s that supposed to mean? Why wouldn’t we just stay here?”
“They don’t want us brainwashing anyone into thinking we’re decent people, I guess.”
“But, where would we go?” 62 asked.
“I’m not sure they’re too concerned with where we’d go. Just so long as we don’t come back to Hanford, and don’t stay at the jailhouse. On the bright side, it’ll be a few months before the Oosa come back, so we don’t have to worry too much right now. Plus, we have the radio room. We can always move up there. I just figured I’d let you know that’s what people are talking about when they think I’m not listening.”
“Well, if they’re planning on getting rid of us, they’re probably not going to let me see Mattie, no matter what Auntie says.” 62 smacked the table with the palm of his hand. “What’s wrong with all those people? They hate people who are different. They keep sending people to the Oosa. Sunny’s afraid of what they’ll do if they find out what’s happened to her. Mattie’s got, what, melting bones? They’ve already forced us out of town, and still they’re worried about us? Why don’t they worry about the Oosa? They’re the real problem.”
“I don’t know.” The signal seemed to waiver, a thin whine overtaking the line for a moment before it faded into the background. “I’ll talk to Auntie. Maybe we can sneak you in or something, though I don’t know how we’d get into the hospital without every doctor in the building chasing us back out again.”
“Are you going back to see her?” 62 asked. He couldn’t help the pleading tone of his voice that made his words warble with worry.
“Yeah. Tomorrow,” Blue answered. “Parker’s going with me.”
“Please, tell her to hang on. Tell her I miss her. Tell her…” 62’s voice cracked and though he moved his lips, the words stopped coming.
“I will,” Blue promised.
They said their goodbyes and 00 turned the volume down until they couldn’t hear the static any more. 00 and 62 sat in silence, both staring at the box that had delivered such rotten news. The computer clicked and dinged, pulling their attention up from the quiet radio.
N302> STATISTICS SHOW THAT THE SITUATION WILL NOT IMPROVE IF THE FEMALES CONTINUE TO HELP THE OOSA.
“We know,” 62 said in a low voice. “But what are we supposed to do about it? Blue can try to talk to Auntie, but I don’t see what good that’s going to do. It sounds like they’re already planning for the Oosa’s next visit, and even though we’re out in the middle of nowhere, we’re still in the way.”
N302> THE LOGICAL ANSWER IS TO GIVE THE FEMALES PROOF OF THE DAMAGE SUNNY HAS SUFFERED.
“I agree with you,” 00 said. “I think we all do. But how are we supposed to get her to do that?”
N302> I DO NOT HAVE SUFFICIENT KNOWLEDGE OF FEMALE HUMAN NATURE TO PROVIDE A SOLUTION.
62 couldn’t help but laugh. “Us either!”
CHAPTER 40
Sunny locked herself in her room after the Boys told her about Mattie’s condition. They could hear her crying from out in the hall, but she wouldn’t open the door no matter how they pleaded. It wasn’t until the next day that the Woman finally emerged. She found the Boys sitting by the radio, playing a game with N302.
Once again, Sunny seemed to be disappearing before their eyes. 62 couldn’t remember when she’d shared a meal with him and 00. Had it been the day Parker left? He doubted she was making special trips to cook when they weren’t paying attention. Her cheeks had caved in below her eyes, and dark patches wound their way over her cheekbones. She shivered, even in the warm light filtering in through the window, curling in on herself as if she were wrapped in an invisible blanket.
The Woman cleared her throat. “That’s why they take us, you know.”
“What’s why?” 00 asked.
“This thing that’s happening to Mattie. It happens to their people, too. They get sick, and the sickness clings to them until they die, brittle and broken.”
“What do you mean?” 62 asked. “You really think Mattie caught her disease from the Oosa?”
Sunny shook her head. “No, not quite. It’s not only their disease, it’s all of ours. But they get sick more often than we do, and they don’t live as long. The doctors I saw there were all younger than I am. The nurses, hardly older than you. When the doctor who worked on me noticed my gray hairs, he told me they were a mark of greatness. A sign of long life that’s nearly unheard of within the Oosa.”
“I thought they were more powerful than us,” 00 said, puzzled. “That’s why they take Women, even if no one wants to go.”
“Power has very little to do with age. They have more technology. That makes them stronger. Their weapons outnumber and outperform ours. The few Hanford has are castoffs from the Oosa. They let us have them to protect ourselves from coyotes and bobcats, but that’s all they’re good for. The Oosa have great armored Machines they ride inside of, and weapons so large they can’t be held by a single Man. But, for all their weapons and tech, they can’t match our long lives. That’s why they come for us. They hope we’ll help them unlock the secret to beat the sickness.” Sunny hung her head. “It’s a secret we can’t tell them. We live because we don’t die easily. The Oosa die young because they don’t live easily. It’s that simple. They keep coming because they hope by studying us, and by bearing children through us, they can unlock a fountain of maturity that doesn’t exist.”
62 wrinkled his nose. “How old are you, Sunny?”
“I’ll be twenty-six when the summer comes,” she answered.
“In Adaline, I knew Men who were ancient. White hair everywhere. Probably twice as old as Auntie, even.
“Don’t exaggerate,” 00 said, rolling his eyes. “They couldn’t possibly be twice as old as her. She’s been around for ages.”
“Still,” 62 said slowly, “why do the Women keep going back to the Oosa, if they know their babies will probably get sick? If they’re all so young, why not just tell them no?”
“The guns,” Sunny answered sharply. “They’re quick to use them. When I was younger, we had a year when no one wanted to go. The harvest had come late that season and everyone was needed to collect food before it wasted away in the greenhouses. As soon as the council told them that we couldn’t spare anyone, they shot at us. Several people were hurt. Two Women were killed. They took who they wanted in the end, and then they left. They sent back the few who would bear children, and kept the rest.”
“But why send anyone back at all?” 62 asked. “Why not bring all the Women to live with them? Or, why don’t they live here in Hanford, if they think where you live is better?”
“Because we’re poisoned,” Sunny shrugged. “They know Hanford is surrounded by radiation, and no matter how hard we try, we end up living in it. The doctor who kept me told me he was afraid of me. Afraid of the radium in my bones. They don’t want us living
with them, because they’re afraid we’ll make them die faster. They won’t live in the desert for the same reason. We’re trophies to them. Immortal and disposable all at the same time. They’re in awe of us for being able to survive, but also curse us for being able to age.”
N302 clicked its components and made a light tinkle sound from its speaker.
N302> PERHAPS HANFORD’S HUMANS WILL OUTLIVE THE OOSA. THEIR EXTINCTION WILL STOP FUTURE CONTACT.
Sunny laughed. “It should be that simple, shouldn’t it? But they’ve been stealing us away for two generations. There doesn’t seem to be an end in sight. There are so many of them, their short lives don’t matter. It’s like rabbits, you know? A jackrabbit may only live six or seven years, but bear fifty offspring. The math makes it clear. A single Human life can easily be extinguished by the hunger of a thousand hares. And, so it is with us and the Oosa. We survive only because the Oosa allow us the space to, whatever their reason.”
N302> THE OOSA ARE A DANGER. THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE RISK. PLEASE ADVISE INSTRUCTIONS FOR CEASING FUTURE CONTACT.
“I wish there were instructions,” Sunny said, patting the side of the Machine. “But we’re no match for them. Besides, there are a lot of people in Hanford who see the benefits of helping the Oosa.”
“Like Joan,” 62 said, casting a glance at 00. “During my trial, she acted like it was her mission to give them what they wanted, so they’d keep helping Hanford.”
Sunny nodded. “Yes. Most of us believe that it’s a sacrifice, to offer ourselves to the Oosa. Not only do they bring us food and supplies, but it’s also a way for us to have children. Without them, our mothers would have never been born. By helping them, we have a chance for a new generation of Women.”
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