“Don’t look so pale,” Isaura laughed, swinging the blade at me. I stepped back, moving away and just out of her reach. She stumbled and cackled inching towards me, pushing me towards the right, back into the room with the rotting flesh.
“I’m not afraid to die.” I fought back, my foot sweeping her on the floor and my hands fighting for the blade. I ignored the searing pain as I gripped it. She’d done something, cursed it or made it impossible for me to touch without it burning through my skin. I didn’t care. With the blade in my hands I plunged it into her chest. I had no choice. Her body twitched and convulsed. I pulled the bracelet from her wrist and secured it on myself. “How do I get home?” I asked her. I wasn’t expecting an answer, honest or otherwise.
She didn’t respond. Her eyes stayed open but she was gone. I pulled the dagger out, wiping it clean before taking it with me. Standing, I glanced around the room moving further away from the decaying bodies.
The elevator dinged and I saw men in white protective gear stepping out, carrying more corpses. “You can’t be down here!” One of them shouted at me.
“I’m sorry. I got lost.” It wasn’t entirely a lie. I was lost, beyond anything they’d ever imagined.
“Have you been vaccinated yet? Please tell me you have.” Perhaps the vaccination quarantine was in order. All families were required to become vaccinated during 2225. Slowly, they dished the doses out. First to the young and elderly. Then to people like me.
“I don’t, I don’t know. I’m not from around here.” It was the truth. I’d been exposed though. There was no way the Red Plague had passed me without leaving its wrath unless I was still protected from a vaccine through many generations: I doubted it. That was what Isaura had meant when she’d told me I’d die here. She brought me here to kill me, to let the Red Plague do it.
“Come with us.” The man wasn’t much older than me. He wore an oversized suit in a blinding white that covered his entire body, and gripped my arm. His voice was muffled as he spoke. “Quickly. It won’t take long for it to ravage you inside and then out if we don’t act now.”
I didn’t fight him. I knew what it meant. I would be like everyone else. Unable to conceive. The choice taken from me like it had been taken from the entire population. Was that how I had been able to be born? Had my mother’s family not been inoculated? I may never know.
Reluctantly, I followed the stranger to the elevator and down to the basement. I shuddered as we headed down, the cool air causing goosebumps to rise on my flesh. I’d been there once before and had been held against my will. I didn’t know what if anything they intended of me after the inoculation but I would have to go home. I would never stop trying.
“How’d you get here?” he asked through the mask. The elevator sounded and we stepped off, walking the length of the basement. It hadn’t changed.
“It’s a long story. I was taken hostage,” I breathed wondering if he believed me. I was covered in blood.
“We’ll have to give you a decontamination shower and new clothes after your injection.”
“Thank you.” I glanced down at the jewelry, the bracelet that would send me home. “I need to keep this on,” I told him showing him the cuff on my arm.
“Sorry, ma’am.” he shook his head. “All of it has to be burned. Sent to the incinerator. It’s all filled with the contagion.”
I bit my lower lip, thinking a way out. I’d have to act fast. The biggest problem was knowing how to use the bracelet, how to activate it to go home.
“This way,” he informed me, leading me into the room where I’d been held captive, sedated and drugged. I took a tentative step inside. The room was laid out differently. Two cots sat just above the floor and a chair was against the wall. The room was painted a light shade of blue. It was almost calming. “Have a seat.” He gestured to the chair. “She’ll be right in with you.”
I sat down. The man didn’t budge, making sure I couldn’t run off. He was right about one thing. I needed the vaccine before there was more cause for concern.
CHAPTER 23
The injection wasn’t pleasant, but I’d suffered far worse things back home. The nurse who had administered it had been surprisingly pleasant. She didn’t ask where I came from, only wanting to know that I was okay now. I assured her I was fine.
The man who had watched over the door left and she showed me towards the showers at the end of the hall. “Just down that way. They’ll dispose of your clothes and give you something new to wear.” I walked inside the women’s shower area. I put my clothes in the hazard waste as I stripped down, leaving the metal bracelet on my wrist. I would keep it until they told me otherwise. For now I’d pretend it was forgotten.
I stepped forward and the water turned on. The sensors triggered by movement weren’t equipped with temperature or pressure controls. The system had the water hot and forceful, washing away any trace of blood on my skin and contamination. I closed my eyes, the burns on my hands and arms were scalding under the fire. Grateful for my privacy I imagined the pain away, wished it away and watched my body begin to heal. There were slight marks, evidence of the burns but the boils and intense searing pain diminished.
I found a bottle of soap against the wall and reached for it, washing my hair and body clean. The soap burned worse than the boils or the hot shower. I stepped out and further into the next attached area where towels were lined up. I grabbed two. One for my hair and the other around my torso. I tried to stay warm and dry off quickly. I found clean clothes lined up and slipped on the gray scrubs thankful for the drawstring to accommodate my smaller waist.
Stepping further through the bathroom, several women guards stood on patrol. I headed out, prepared to go past them as they held out an arm stopping me. “Back in there!” They pointed to the showers. “The bracelet can’t go with you. You could risk contaminating other people.”
My eyes widened in horror and I ran back the direction I came, seeing their guns, knowing I’d have little chance of leaving the other direction. I ran through the showers, the automatic setting turning on as I scrambled by, barely getting wet. I plunged past the guard and towards the elevator, hitting the button repeatedly.
“Miss! You can’t go in there!” I heard another voice as I glanced behind me seeing two armed guards following after me.
The elevator door shut before they had time to stop me. I hit the button for the seventh floor. It was dangerous but I didn’t have another choice. The elevator ascended and I shut my eyes, my right hand touching the bracelet as it was secured to my left. I thought of home, of Joshua and of the life I wanted with him. I thought of Isaura gone, of the future, the world I was from, and of the one thing I couldn’t explain but could feel, love. The elevator dinged and I stepped off seeing guards pointing their guns at me on the seventh floor. Behind them, Joshua and Janessa were being held, their hands behind their back handcuffed. They were hostages. At least I’d made it home.
CHAPTER 24
“Where is she?” Fabian demanded keeping Joshua and Janessa held at gunpoint. He was running the three-ring circus. I felt my stomach somersault and I turned my head, vomiting on his shiny black shoes.
“Dead,” I answered. “Hence the shower,” I gestured to my new attire. “She’s also dead in 2225 if you must know. Now let Joshua and Janessa go!” I demanded. “I did your dirty work, I killed her for you.”
“Olivia, no,” Joshua shook his head and frowned. Was I not supposed to confess to what we’d done? I’d done it. I wasn’t afraid of a jail cell or the consequences. Some people deserved to die. Maybe it wasn’t my choice to make, but it had become my choice when Isaura had taken me, drugged me, and then tried to kill me again.