Maddy kept her lips tightly sealed as Carter explained the situation to the others. He had switched seats with Mia and was now sitting next to Logan, who was still driving the car, eyes always focused on the long road ahead of him. That left the three girls squeezed next to each other in the back seats, Maddy trapped in the middle, like a sandwich.
"So the police were outside her house?" asked Logan, processing the information.
"Yeah, and I think some officials from FROST as well," answered Carter.
Maddy just watched the dialogue between the two boys in silence, biting her full lip and tapping her fingers against her thighs.
"What did you hear exactly?"
"They said they will arrest all of us because it's against the law to not get vaccinated or something. Then they'll vaccinate us by force most probably, and then FROST will run some tests on us. Oh, and that guy from today, the one I punched? Yeah, I broke his jaw, so maybe he'll want to press charges. He was sent to the school by FROST."
"Great. Anything else?" asked Logan with irony, as if this wasn't already more than enough.
"They..." started Maddy, and everyone turned to face her, hear her out carefully. She shifted uncomfortably in her seat, then said: "They said that the Assistant Director of FROST, Harper Max, I think... They said she wants to speak to my mother about me. So if she wanted to talk to my mum, then we just have to assume she'll meet all of our parents, right?"
"Shit. We're screwed," said Sia, voicing everyone's thoughts in those words of hers.
"So what, the cops are in front of our houses too?" asked Mia.
"I guess so. I wouldn't take any chances. It's too risky to go and see for ourselves," said Carter, who was facing forward. "You guys are lucky I called you before you had gotten to Sia's house."
"That's true. But hey, I wanted to ask you, why the hell did you park my car in the salvage yard, man?"
"I was just there yesterday."
"In the salvage yard? Doing what?" Logan raised a brow at his best friend.
"That's none of your business."
"Well, it is if you had my car."
"Then you shouldn't have given it to me," Carter's lips curved into a gloating half-smile, an unexpectedly friendly one.
Logan scoffed at him, but said nothing.
"Hey... What do you know about FROST?" The question slipped Maddy's mouth before she could make any second thoughts on whether she should ask or not.
"Not much," answered Sia, leaning her head against the front seat where Carter was sitting. "Just that it stands for Federation of Remedial Organisations and Scientific Testing, and that it was set up in London when the virus first broke out. They're the ones who invented the vaccine. They said they'd run some tests on us after we get vaccinated, like Carter said, and conduct some experiments. They have labs all over the world. They basically control the world at this point."
"Why would the police get involved?" wondered Mia out loud.
"I have no idea. And why the fuck would one of the highest-ranking officials of this FROST organisation want to speak to our parents?" added Logan.
Maddy's head was a mess, her mind a maze of entangled thoughts and hovering question marks.
"By the way, you're out of your mind, girl. You really jumped out the window! And smashed the windscreen of a cop car. I mean... I didn't think you'd be such a badass!" exclaimed Sia, elbowing Maddy on the arm.
YOU ARE READING
Smells Like Winter
Science Fiction"Don't touch me, your hands are cold." Maddy Wesley was your typical 17-year-old high school student, a wallflower with excellent grades, a good taste for vanilla ice cream and a normal, somewhat dull life. Until a virus broke out. A virus that brou...
