AUGUST IS A FEVER

5

With the arrival of the kids that survived IAAN came their abilities along with them. There wasn't just mind control or the ability to manipulate and create fire and molten lava with your hands - the children who's abilities were later color-coded with Orange and Red. There were others and you were unlucky enough to be gifted the second most dangerous abilities.

To some they might be seen as cool, but from how you saw the PSFs react to finding people like you, having powerful abilities doesn't always mean it's the best. They killed kids like you on sight, or at least that's what you got from just observing the severe absence of Reds over the years at Thurmond, a rehabilitation camp that was treated more like an inhumane prison by the PSFs. You were lucky that Ruby Daly, the girl who sat next to you on the bus, was there for your diagnosis if you could even call it that.

It was right after the bus ride. Right after the boy manipulated the PSF with his mind to shoot herself in the mouth.

The zip tie that held your wrists together would saw into your skin with every step you would take, no matter how hard you tried to prevent it from doing that. For lack of a better way of putting it, it hurt like a bitch.

The girl from the bus walked out from the door that the children were in line for. You didn't know much about what was happening but you knew it couldn't be all too dandy from seeing the expression of bus girl's face. The pit in your stomach settled as you realized you were next in line. The girl glanced at you softly, a small thin smile spreading on her face. It was almost as if a voice said something in your head, telling you it would be okay. The thing is, the voice wasn't yours and you were pretty sure it was the girl's. You brushed off the thought as nonsense as another voice cut off your thinking, a real life voice.

"Go on, it's your turn." Said a nurse with a clipboard in her hand. You hesitated, not knowing what was inside the room she was trying to get you into.

"She said go in." Said a PSF in a stern manner, rifle in his hand. "Don't make this any harder than it has to be, kid." His voice was low and gravelly, full of resentment towards you children.

You glanced up at the man who's mask covered most of his face. It was hard to tell what he was thinking based off of his posture alone. You reluctantly yet submissively walked into the room, the door closing behind you. You saw a doctor and other medical things your eleven year old self didn't know the name of.

"Good morning. What's your name?" Asked the doctor as he looked at his clipboard.

"(Y/n)." You choked out, voice scratchy from not being used in days.

"(Y/n) what?" He repeated, asking for your surname.

"(L/n)." You mumbled loud enough for him to hear. He hummed, typing something on his computer after scribbling some notes you couldn't see onto whatever sheet of paper was clipped onto the clipboard.

"Alright." The doctor said, putting down the clip board. "Can you sit right here for me, (Y/n)?" He said in a soft and patient voice. It was the softest voice you had heard from an adult since your mother was comforting you in front of your house that was the mere bones of the old home it once was. The doctor patted his hand on the seat. For what you could tell, it looked like the seat you would see at the dentist, it reclining back. The dentist always told you to scoot a little further up as you were always a little too low.

You were hesitant but eventually stepped forward slowly.

"I don't have all day." Said the doctor in a tone a lot more harsher when compared to his previous one. He was losing the patience he once had. In fear of being executed like the boy who was spray-painted a large orange X on his back, you complied, quickly stepping towards the seat and sitting down quietly as you waited for instructions to obey.

"Did they have a pre-determined diagnosis for you?" The doctor asked. You felt a pang in your chest.

"No." You lied as the words of the police officer in the ambulance who reported you, echoed in your mind.

"M'kay." Said the doctor. You looked around the room, glancing at the eggshell white walls. Your eyes came across a poster that you couldn't decipher the meaning of.

"What's that?" You asked, hesitantly. The doctor looked at what you were referring to.

"Oh. That." He began. "Well, I suppose it can't hurt to tell you, but I gotta make it quick. Like I said, I haven't got all day."

You nodded as you turned to look at the doctor, waiting for his explanation.

"Since the start of... everything, I'm sure you've noticed some sort of abilities of your own develop, correct?" He asked.

"Like superpowers? I guess I have those, but they aren't so super." You said meekly. The doctor walked over to the poster and with his gloved finger, he pointed to the bottom part of the chart on the poster at a green rectangle.

"Greens. Children who are labeled as such have enhanced intelligence. Name a scientist and they're probably smarter than them. They're the most passive and safe to be around of the bunch." The doctor moved his finger up to the next rectangle of the chart, it colored a bright blue.

"Blues have telekinesis, they can move objects with their mind - with the wave of their hand." You softly sighed in awe at the idea of children with telekinetic abilities actually existing. "They're the second least dangerous." He moved his hand up to the yellow rectangle that was above the blue one.

"These folks are where things start to get tricky. The yellows can manipulate and create electricity. A kid came in here earlier and almost melted my tech. We gotta restrain these kids with gloves, and if necessary, hand cuffs." The doctor said, his finger dragging up the laminated poster to the red rectangle. You suddenly felt heavy, stressed to the point of wanting to vomit. The police officer in the ambulance referred to you as a red. If they were already restraining kids when they were a Yellow, you couldn't bare to imagine what they did to Reds.

"The Reds have pyrokinetic abilities - the power to manipulate and control fire. These kids are either killed or taken to God knows where. Hell, I don't even know." You wanted to cry at that statement. There's no way in hell he could find out you were a red, you couldn't allow it. It mustn't happen.

"Then the oranges. They have mind control and mind reading abilities. These kids... their killed immediately. Too dangerous to keep alive, best off dead." The doctor said. "Now lay back so we could get this over w..."

The doctor trailed off and away from what he was saying, he seemed off. He turned to his computer that held your files and typed something in, the screen going green.

"There's no need for an examination. You're a green, I can tell. Now go on, I've got other patients to diagnose." Said the doctor as you began to stand up and out of the chair with confusion flooding your mind. You weren't a green. It all happened so fast and the next thing you knew you were in some sort of cabin.

You had no idea what just happened but you had a feeling it had to do something with the girl on the bus. It seemed you would be living your life as a Red posing as a Green from here on out.