by S. C. Ransom
“OK, I’ve got the drugs. Let’s get them in him!” I said as I dropped to the floor next to Aria.
She opened her eyes slowly and looked at me. I remembered reading a book once where someone was said to have “dead eyes” and never really understanding what they meant, but looking at Aria’s face it became clear. All the life, the emotion, the fight – everything was gone.
I rocked back on my heels.
“Are we too late?” I whispered.
She just turned her head away. I looked down at my friend and reached over to touch his head, to say goodbye, to wish I had been quicker. I was expecting him to be cold, but he was very, very hot. I grabbed his hand and found a weak pulse.
“He’s not dead! Come on, we can still help him!”
“It’s no use. Once they get to this stage they always die.”
Aria’s voice was flat, beaten. I tapped Will on the cheek to try and get a response.
“That might have been the case before, but it isn’t now. Come on, I need your help. COME ON!”
Finally Aria seemed to snap out of her trance-like state. Carita hovered around, nervously watching everything. I looked around. The tin mug that Lance had brought earlier was nowhere to be seen.
“I need water – some in a cup for drinking, some for more sponging. Is Dane still outside? Can he get something quickly?”
Carita shook her head, biting her lip. “I’ll go. Dane will have gone to report back to the Farmer. I’ll be back in a minute,” she called as she turned and ran down the corridor.
The carrier bag I’d brought from home was beside me on the floor. I tipped everything out of it.
“Let’s get the temperature down,” I mumbled, wishing that Nan was with me.
He was unconscious so there was no point in giving him a tablet.
“What can I use?” I asked myself out loud.
I sifted through the packets, finally spotting something that looked like a fat pen. Nan must have added it to the bag. It was an emergency pre-filled syringe, the type that you just had to press on to the skin and it delivered the jab. Without worrying about anything else I stripped off Will’s shirt. His skin was burning hot under my fingers as I found the right bit of his upper arm. As I was about to shoot the needle home I looked more closely at the writing on the side. Adrenaline.
“No!” I shouted, throwing it aside. That wasn’t what I needed. I picked up some more of the packets, thinking hard. There were capsules and chewable tablets, and bottles with powder in to mix up to give to children. There was nothing I could give him without water. I sat back.
“What’s wrong?” asked Aria. “Why are you waiting?”
“I need water, and I need it now! Tell Carita to hurry.”
Aria leapt up and ran to the doorway. I turned back to Will, frustrated that there was nothing that I could do. There was a damp cloth next to him, so I laid it on his chest, hoping that it would feel cool to him.
“Come on, Will,” I urged. “Hold on. I’ve got the medicine for you – just hang on while I work out how to get it in you.”
I wished that I could move him to somewhere more comfortable than the stone floor. The thin cloth he was lying on was next to useless. I knelt down next to his head and stroked the hair back from his face, then rolled his shirt up into a ball and put it under his head.
“Fight, Will, fight!” I whispered. “I can’t bear the thought of losing you. You mean too much to me.”
“I’m here! Where do you want this water?”
Carita was back with an old-fashioned glass bottle full of water, a small cup and a bowl, with Aria right behind her. She brought them over to me and I sat up quickly, reaching for the medicines. I found some capsules of the amoxycillin and dropped the powder from inside into the water, scanning the leaflet in the dim light to check the dosage information. I did the same with some paracetamol capsules too. I had no idea if I was supposed to mix them, but there was no time to waste. Then I stirred it all with my finger, trying to get as much as possible dissolved.
“Right, you two try and sit him up a bit,” I said, absently-mindedly licking my finger. “Yuk! That tastes vile. I guess the taste might bring him round if nothing else does.”
Between them, Aria and Carita hauled Will up into a sitting position. “What do you need us to do now?” asked Aria nervously.
“Just keep him steady while I try and get some of this medicine into him. Ready?”
As they lifted his head up, Will’s eyelids fluttered.
“Come on, Will,” I soothed. “Here, try this.”
I touched his lips with the cup and he opened his mouth. I carefully tipped in some of the mixture. He immediately jerked his head back and spat it out.
“Hey, Will, don’t do that. You need to drink this.”
I held it up again and he tried to move his mouth away.
“I mean it! You have to take it now.”
His eyes opened a tiny crack.
“Bossy,” he croaked, but opened his mouth and drank the rest of the medicine without complaint, only grimacing once it was all finished. He opened his eyes again and slowly focused on me. “You came back. Thanks.”
“No problem,” I said, smiling. “Just keep taking the medicine and we’ll be out of here in no time, I promise you.”
There was a slight flicker at the corner of his mouth before his eyes closed and his head sank back down on to his chest. I motioned to the others to lie him back down again. Aria smoothed the hair off his forehead as she made him comfortable.
“Is that it? Does he get better now?”
“Not that quickly. He needs more water, so we have to keep getting that into him, and we have to keep him cool. If we’re in time his temperature will start to come down in the next few hours, so the only thing we can do is wait.”
“And all this stuff – where on earth did you get your hands on this?”
Something told me not to say anything, just in case someone was listening. If the Community knew that Nan had a stockpile of prescription medicines they might be ruthless in getting it off her.
“You need to know the right people,” I said vaguely.
“Now Will is all right, can you help Reilly?” Carita reached out towards me, hope on her face at last.
I rummaged in the pile of medicines, reading the sides of the packets until I found the one I wanted.
“This one is for babies. The bottle has powder in it. Fill it up to the line with clean water and give it a good shake, then feed him two of these tiny spoonfuls three times a day,” I said, reading the leaflet and fishing out the spoon from the bottom of the box.
“Thank you, I’ll take it to him now. One of my friends is looking after him for me. I didn’t want to bring him in here.” She gave me an apologetic smile.
“Does anyone else need medicine right now? Do you want to take more?”
“No, Reilly is the only one who might be sick at the moment. The Farmer will want to see this before anyone else has any, I’m sure.”
With Will comfortable, all we could do was wait. Aria and I sat and watched Will, taking it in turns to sponge him down. It was slow going though, and nothing we could do was going to hurry it up. Hour after hour we sat there, barely speaking. Eventually Carita arrived back with some food, a mostly tasteless sort of stew, but as none of us had eaten for hours we ate it greedily. I tried not to think about what the slightly stringy meat might be. Shortly after that we could hear a distant bell ringing.
“We heard that before, Aria. Is it some sort of lights-out warning?”
She had started on another round of sponging, trying to help keep Will’s temperature down, but paused and turned towards me.
“Yes, that’s the warning to return to the sleeping quarters. People don’t walk around while we are sleeping; it’s not allowed.” She looked around our room. “I guess they’re not going to make us go to the dormitories. The Farmer told me earlier that I can stay here with you two.”
She looked at
Will for a moment.
“We may be winning, Lily. He seems quieter, don’t you think?”
She smiled at him briefly and sponged his shoulder tenderly. It was almost heartbreaking to watch, and I had to swallow hard, unable to speak.
Along with the stew, Carita had brought a tiny candle so that we could watch Will in the dark. It had only been lit for a moment before all the overhead lights blinked out. Aria was still next to him, sitting on the floor with her chin resting on her knees.
“As you’re stuck here now, Carita, why don’t you and Lily try and get some sleep?” said Aria. “I’ll look after him for a while.”
“There’s no way I’m going to sleep. I’m far too wound up,” I said.
“Well, lie down and rest then. Who knows what’ll happen tomorrow?”
She had a point, so I stretched out on the hard stone floor, and as I shut my eyes I felt the need to sleep crashing over me like a wave. Within seconds, I was gone.
Lily is asleep at last. She must need it; she’s been up for hours and hours. Days maybe. I still don’t know what she did to get the medicines, I think she’s worried about talking in front of some of the others, but they’ve all gone now. Everyone is asleep apart from me. Even Will.
He is lying almost motionless on the thin sheet. He always seemed so strong but I’m not sure that their medicine was in time. Despite what I said he doesn’t look any better to me, but then he’s not dead yet either, so we have to keep trying.
In the dim light of the candle I can see the outlines of Carita and Lily, and I think about the events that have brought us all here together. And I think about Dane and his new plan for Lily. I can’t believe that he had the nerve to suggest it, or that the Farmer would actually approve it. If the drugs work though, what will they do? With the right drugs we can save the babies, and won’t need new Breeders from Above. Will Dane – and the Farmer – let her go? The questions go round and round my mind for ages until I hear a noise. Carita is waking up.
“Hello, Aria. Let me take over for a bit. I was able to get some rest earlier so I’m not so tired now. You must be exhausted.”
“I’m all right for a while.” I nod towards Will, who looks nearly dead in the flickering light. “Do you think he looks any better? I’m not sure I do.”
“It’s impossible to tell in this gloom. How long was I asleep?”
“Not so long. We’ve got ages before the lights come back on.”
Carita stretches and looks over at Lily, who is sleeping up against the far wall.
“Good, she looks as if she needs the rest.”
“Lily said that we’ll have to give him some more medicine in a bit, but I can do it. I don’t think we’ll need to disturb her.”
“How does she know all this stuff?” Carita whispers to me. “It’s as if she was a Breeder and had a child of her own.”
“She told me that she had baby brothers – twins – and that she used to help her mother with them.”
“And where on earth did all the medicines come from?”
“I don’t know. I remember her telling me that Nan had a lot of medicine, but why would anyone have all this?”
“Who is Nan?”
“She’s the woman Lily lives with, but she’s not a relative. Apparently that’s very odd up Above. All her family have moved away, or that’s what Will told me. I think they left her behind and she went to live with Nan, and all Lily’s old friends now hate her.”
“Oh, she must be upset about that. Is she Assigned to Will?”
“I don’t think so. I did ask him that and he just looked uncomfortable. I think it’s time for the next dose of medicine, don’t you?”
I had only heard the last few sentences, but it was clear that Aria and Will had been talking about me. It was also clear that the thought of being with me wasn’t something he was enthusiastic about. I swallowed hard as an unexpected surge of emotion overwhelmed me.
They were leaning over Will, giving him the antibiotics that I’d left out and looking at him as if he were the most important person in the world. Just like Mum used to look at the twins. The thought slipped out before I had the chance to squash it, and a tear of self-pity suddenly dripped on my cheek. I had no idea why my own parents preferred my brothers to me, or were so ready to abandon me and move to the other side of the world. When I’d suggested staying in London to do my exams I didn’t think for a minute that they would agree with me. I thought they’d want me with them, helping with the boys, being a family. But I was wrong. Mum had leapt at the idea and before I knew what was happening my stuff was at Nan’s place and my kitten had been rehomed. I’d barely heard from them since they’d gone – a few Skype calls on the computer and that was it.
Everything finally slotted into place, and everything I felt that I knew and understood blurred slightly. It all made sense if what Dane said was true. If I was adopted wouldn’t my parents prefer their own biological children? Was that man really my father? What would my life have been like if I’d stayed? I couldn’t imagine growing up under the rules and constraints of the Community.
Nothing about who I was and where I belonged made sense any more, and I felt an icy hand clutch at my heart. I was utterly alone.
Watching Aria tenderly looking after Will was too painful, and I didn’t want any more responsibility. I curled up into a small ball on my side and let the tears flow silently until I cried myself back to sleep.
It must have been quite a long time later when I woke. The room was nearly in darkness, the candle burned down to a tiny stub. Across the room I could see Aria slumped up against the wall, sound asleep. Carita was curled up next to her. Will was lying perfectly still in the middle of the room.
I struggled up, instantly awake, and scrambled over next to him. He looked peaceful in the shadows, the dark smudges cleared from under his eyes and the sheen of sweat finally gone. I had been too late with the antibiotics.
Will was dead.
I couldn’t find it in myself to cry; he looked so much better now his long battle was done.
Rocking back on my heels I took a deep breath. I couldn’t believe that I was never going to talk to him again, never going to feel his kiss. I had to get back Above to tell his mum, as I’d promised, to let her know that her brave son had died trying to help someone else. I had to escape. I turned back towards Will to say goodbye, to memorise his face before I had to leave it forever, and suddenly the tears came, blurring my vision. Unchecked, the hot, fat tears streamed down my cheeks, and I sat next to his body for a while, weeping silently for my friend. Finally I leaned over to kiss his forehead, and a tear dripped on to his cheek from mine.
He twitched. Stunned, I wiped my eyes and looked closer, leaning over and stroking his cheek just once. He stirred, and opened and closed his mouth a couple of times, before giving a distinct snore.
“We did it,” I breathed to the sleeping room. “We saved his life.”
Since returning to the Community I’d come to a strange sense of acceptance. It was pointless to try and come between Aria and Will – all I would do was make both of them hate me. We’d been through so much together, and if that was how it was, so be it. I didn’t know how much time any of us had left and it seemed stupid to waste any of it.
The candle was practically burned out when Aria stirred. As she sat up I motioned to her to be quiet because Will was asleep. A broad grin spread across her face.
“Really? Is he honestly all right?” she whispered, looking between Will and me.
I nodded, my hand hovering over his. But I couldn’t bring myself to touch him so I let it fall back. “He’s sleeping like a baby.”
“I can’t believe it. I’ve never seen anyone recover from the sickness. I wish we’d had those medicines before.”
She turned and shook Carita. “Wake up,” she hissed. “The medicines have worked! You must see if Reilly is better!”
“What?” said Carita. “It really works? Let me see!”
Jumpi
ng up she leapt over towards Will, placing one hand on his forehead and feeling for his pulse with the other. Without waking up he shook her off and turned over, exhaling heavily.
“It works,” she breathed, picking up one of the packets of pills and turning them over in her hands. “Reilly is going to live.”
“I hope so,” I said. “Why don’t you go to him?”
“It’s curfew until the lights come on. None of us would dare to walk around in the dark.”
As she spoke there was the sound of a distant bell and the light bulb hanging from the centre of the room started to glow dimly.
Carita stood up immediately.
“I must go. Thank you, Lily, for everything – for saving my baby.”
“Here,” I said, jumping up and handing her a bottle of Calpol. “Take this too. If he gets a temperature, give him one small spoonful, no more than two times a day. He shouldn’t really have it until he is two months old, but it’s worth you taking it now, just in case of another emergency.”
“Thank you.” She turned to Aria and the pair of them held hands for a moment. “I hope that I see you again, sister. Fight hard.”
Aria nodded, her bottom lip caught between her teeth. “Look after Reilly. Keep yourself safe.”
They dropped hands and nodded at each other, then Carita was gone. A single tear ran down Aria’s cheek and she brushed it away quickly.
“The Farmer will be here soon. We must be ready.”
“What do you mean?” I asked. “What do we need to do?”
“We have to save our lives,” she said simply, gathering the boxes of antibiotics together and giving them to me.
As we spoke, Will stirred, turning back over and sighing. Finally he opened his eyes. His skin was no longer that horrible grey colour but a healthy pink, and his still-damp hair was sticking up in all directions. To me he looked absolutely gorgeous, and it was all I could do not to reach out and touch him.