Hope in Ruins Book III: The Fountain and the City of Salt

Chapter 2: Where Is Home?

MICA

Mica sat in the Unseen medical bay under a humming and blinking machine. This was her life now: being scanned and studied and drained of blood for the greater good of Nova and the Unseen City. The Burned better appreciate her sacrifice. That morning, after their whispered conversation through a cell door, Stephen had led her to the medical bay for more tests.

She closed her eyes against the harsh lights of the medical bay above her and tried to keep from shivering. It was unusually cold this morning. Dr. Henderson had summoned her early for a battery of tests while Stephen sat in a corner, watching. He wasn't shivering.

Dr. Henderson sat looking at the computer terminal on the other side of the room—she had been there for the past hour. In the quiet and cool, Mica had begun to doze. Suddenly the doctor was by her side, adjusting knobs on the machine orbiting Mica's head, pulling her out of her light sleep. She looked better this morning. Less red and damp, more like she was just tired rather than terrified. Mica understood why she was terrified of her, though.

"Stephen, go get Hannah and Miranda," Dr. Henderson said without looking at him. "Please?" she added.

Mica felt something harden deep in her throat. She hadn't see Anda since the meeting yesterday after she found out that Anda had killed Peter. Mica wondered how she was. No one had told her. All they had said was that she was sleeping.

"I'm supposed to stay with Mica," Stephen said. "Can you send one of the assistants?"

"They're not in yet."

"Can't you use a comm?"

"Hannah isn't answering. Please, I need to get these tests done before we can go. We'll be right here, promise."

A sudden flash of anxiety flicked through Mica.

Go where?

Stephen's staff tapped against the stone as he stood up. "Don't go anywhere, got it, Mica?"

"Hmm. Actually, I think I'll go take a stroll down the mountain and then head south for the winter."

"Just stay here and be nice," he said as he tapped his staff out the door. His Guide roused from his sleepy post outside the medical bay and followed him. The door clicked shut, locking her and Dr. Henderson inside.

The doughy doctor stood fiddling with the knobs on the machine with trembling fingers.

"I get why you're scared of us," Mica said. "Hell, I am scared of us. Ben does crazy mind shit. I act without thinking, and Anda..." she stopped. No one was supposed to know about Anda and Peter, not even Dr. Henderson. "Where is Ben, anyway? I thought you were doing all of this because of him?"

"You have to help me," the doctor whispered, ignoring her question.

"I'm trying to—I'm letting you run all these stupid tests, aren't I? And where's Ben?"

"No. That's not what I mean," she said and glanced over her shoulder at the locked door.

Mica caught her breath. Dr. Henderson was scared, but she wasn't scared of Mica. "Help you what?" Mica asked.

"Escape." She turned to face Mica with wide and drooping and frightened eyes. Her fingers trembled, and she clenched them together to steady them. It didn't help.

"You're safe here."

"They haven't told you, have they?"

"Told me what?" Mica wondered if she knew about Anda.

"What I'm really doing here."

Mica thought of the Watcher the Unseen had in some secret lab, about Aaron and Stephen's parents and their work. "You're trying to cure the Burn," she said carefully, not wanting to say too much for once in her life.