Glitch

Twenty-One! Rash-O-Rama

Let me make it in time.

The door opens to reveal two figures in a white clothing, standing by the counter, exchanging low whispers.

The bigger figure turns around to spot me and yells, "Carmine!"

I stop approaching them just as he waves at me to halt in my tracks. "I can't tell if you have the rashes so stay right there!" Aki, I think, grabs a jar full of disinfecting liquid and sprays it all over me. "Protective measures."

The smaller figure walks up to him, standing beside him closely. "Hey."

Peyton? "Hey. What are you guys wearing?"

"Overalls. Protective measures." Aki says, making sure to stay away from me as far as possible.

"You guys are... okay?" I don't intend for it to come out as a question but I have a right to question their immunity.

"As long as we keep wearing these clothes I made." Aki answers, gesturing towards Peyton. "I came here early in the morning way before the epidemic broke out, to work on the potion I told you about yesterday. I was meaning to fetch needed items here in the Labyrinth, but I ended up getting stuck here when they closed off the portal to the City. So I made these because I suspected the reason to be those rashes breaking out."

Was I the only one not considering a possible outcome like that?

"Besides, neither of us touched Kyle." Peyton chides in. "We most likely won't be getting the disease anytime soon. But you..."

"I'm more liable to have the disease." My hands start to shake, my vision gets blurry and my heart beats at abnormal intervals. I force myself to remain calm and breathe in deeply. If I had rashes, they would have broken out by now. Especially after my visit to the clinic. "Why am I not showing any signs? Am I asymptomatic?"

Aki rubs his chin, taking a step closer before shuddering and moving back a little. It takes an entire dialogue with himself before he comes within an arm's reach of me, his eyes slowly run over my body. "I don't think you're asymptomatic, and I can't say for a fact..." His tone rises a pitch, both excitingly and nervously. "But you might be immune."

The information although up-lifting, does not sit well with me. Not having the disease now doesn't mean I wouldn't have it later. But if indeed I was immune, that would explain a lot.

"If you don't show any symptoms between twenty-four hourglass turns, then I have to announce you immune." Aki looks up to his screen, accessing some information. "It's just been two hourglass turns and thirty five cycles."

I still have time left. I exhale in relief, my attention drawing to our environment. I hadn't seen Kyle in the clinic. "Where's Kyle? I didn't see him anywhere."

"He's under isolation in the City." Peyton says, her tone a little angry. "They wouldn't let him come here after the epidemic started. They claimed to be treating him in the City right before they closed the portal."

"Didn't the epidemic start from inside the City? From him?" I ask Aki.

A knowing look crosses his eyes, then he rubs the back of his neck. "I don't think it started from the City."

"What do you mean?"

"Rashes are the first thing Alchemists learn. It didn't start from Kyle. If it started from him, everyone in the City would have it by now." He says then breathes out sharply. "Kyle was just a host for the rashes to spread."

"But how would the disease have ignited from inside the Labryinth? The villagers didn't have the rashes until he came for patrol last night."

"He didn't show any symptoms till yesterday morning. Obviously someone had it before passing it to him and I have reasons to believe it was someone from the village. I may be wrong... but that's just what my instincts tell me."