Proud Machinery

CHAPTER NINETEEN

"So, um, this is my house," said Kess. "As you can see, it's, um, a house."

"It's... nice," said Elias. "Nice cat."

"That's Giant. He's mostly Priya's."

They'd just climbed out of Elias's car, which he had parked on the street. Giant had leaped onto the car the moment it had stopped and was now lolling on the metal roof.

"Is there a reason we're not going in?" asked Elias.

"Before Mom and Dad left they told Priya she wasn't allowed to have boys over while they were gone."

"What did they tell you?"

"Nothing. They didn't think it would be a problem with me."

"So I can come in, then."

"I guess it's kinda silly to be worrying about their approval at this point anyway." She frowned. "I call them every other day at least. I lie to them every time. They'll be home week after next."

There was a package on the doorstep, but Kess ignored it when she saw it was addressed to Priya. Inside, Kess wasn't sure what to do. Boy-over. Boy-over. She had a boy over. Granted, they were there for non-romantic reasons.

"You were the first Blue," said Elias. "We're positive about that, right?"
"As positive as I can be. And Priya was the first Red I'm pretty sure. Me and Priya were infected, but no one else in the whole town of Woodburn was as far as I know. So whatever got to us, there's a good chance it came from this house."

"Do you or your sister have friends in this town?"

"Priya does, but her best friends are all away for the summer, and the rest of them she hasn't hung out with since school got out, mostly because of Danny. None of Priya's friends are acting unusual as far as I can tell from online."

Elias nodded. "Are we sure it spreads on contact?"

"For the Blues I'm pretty sure. Priya's boyfriend Danny and his friend Lorraine got it first after me, and they know me, and from there it went to Danny's coworker, and then to that guy's cousin. Always to people who know each other and have contact with each other."

"It's funny," said Elias without laughing or smiling. "Becoming a Blue or Red sort of compels you to hang out with each other, right? So once the first people are infected they spend less time around other people and the rate of infection slows."

"I don't know whether Redness spreads the same way. They seem to get new members differently. We wake up in the night and go out to meet new people where the signal tells us to, but apparently they just randomly bump into each other and then stick."

"Water," said Elias. "You and your sister could have gotten it from the water. Or... Did you get any mysterious packages or envelopes full of powder or anything before you started to turn?"

"No. Maybe Priya did." Kess looked back at the front door. "Priya just got a package. Should we get it and see what's inside?"

"I don't see what a package now would have to do with anything."

"Or maybe it was in our food." She moved into the kitchen. Opened cupboards. Peered inside a cereal box. What was she expecting to find in there? "Oh, chocolate!" She pulled a thick, oversized chocolate bar from the snack cupboard. "Do you want some?"

"Sure."

She broke a piece of chocolate off for Elias and then leaned against a counter, nibbling at her own. "This was dumb, wasn't it?" she said. "There's no way we're going to figure out where the machines came from just by looking around here."