Kor

Chapter 3

I wasn’t entirely sure what happened next. I figured it out later, piece by piece, because at the moment the pain was too much to leave any room for logical thought processes. He must have plunged the metal device into my side. Everything was fire. Fire and pain. Someone was screaming, the most blood-curdling sound I’d ever heard, an ear-piercing thing that tested the very limits of a human’s vocal capabilities, but I couldn’t figure out who it was making the awful noise. I probably couldn’t have found the words to shut them up anyway. It was almost surreal, like there was too much pain for a single mind to handle, and so I felt oddly removed. But the pain was still there. It was everywhere. I was the pain. There was no fire under my skin, the fire was my skin. My brain did not burn because my brain had always burned, an open flame.

It didn’t end, but it did lessen. My removed mind seemed to find its way back into my body, where everything was screaming at it, shouting its anguish. My ears didn’t seem to be working, and yet everything was so loud, every cell complaining. Where was I? I couldn’t remember. Agony was the only thing that registered for an eternity. Eventually my senses seemed to turn back on; I couldn’t tell if it was because they’d recovered or because they suddenly realized they should be making sure I had the ability to avoid any more torture. Where was I? Oh; the ground, lying in the dirt, dust in my mouth and eyes. My body was crumpled painfully, bent in unnatural positions from its collapse, but that pain was nothing at this point. My mind was numb from pain. There wasn’t room for any more.

Air. I probably needed some of that. I’d been breathing, but it was far too shallow and uneven. My motionless body suddenly shuddered, arcing under a late wave of agony, and my lungs gulped in as much air as they could as soon as my face was out of the earth. I was abruptly very aware of everything. My heart beat fast, a little fluttery from shock, but strong and almost in time. My body twitched at random, but I could feel every bit of it, and it felt ready to respond when I needed it. A soft whisper reached my ear, the only sound I’d heard apart from my own screams. What was it? A soft sob? Yes, someone’s voice had hitched, breaking the silence. One of the little kids.

My mind, previously disoriented, was now kicked into high gear. All those kids! Those little kids, already scared to death because they’d known what to expect. I hadn’t. Now that I knew, I couldn’t possibly leave them alone for a second, even in unconsciousness or inattention. They needed someone, because for them, everyone was already gone. I found my arm and slid it underneath me, then did the same with my other. Everything had to be worked separately and focused on completely, but at least everything worked. The tiny boy who had first spoke to me on the bus burned behind my eyelids as I slowly and unsteadily rose to my feet. After concentrating on my eyes, I managed to swing them into focus. It was pleasing to see the raising eyebrows of surprise on Gouger’s otherwise expressionless face. 

Gouger smiled, an unnerving thing. He really did look as if his face wasn’t used to so much emotion. He started a slow, sarcastic clap. “Very good, thirty-seven. This is exactly why you get to be my favorite number. That would have killed a regular person. And even another Kor would have been unconscious for at least a day, unable to stand for possibly another week.” He leaned forward, which seemed a strange thing to do since he was now several feet away from me. I must have fallen and rolled away, or had a seizure or something. Gouger dropped his voice, leaning in further. “Thirty-seven is a very, very lucky number. You get to do all sorts of things the others don’t. But all your new privileges can wait for another time. Today, you are just another number.”