Rats: Shai's Story

Vaccination

The horrible taste never seemed to leave Brodhi's mouth. His throat was dry and every time he swallowed the taste caused more bile to rise in the back of his throat. Both he and Sawyer were emptying the contents of their stomach, which had quickly turned to a green colour, all over the floor. It seemed to disappear into the floor. Little did they know that Cendrowski and Kirby were examining it to see how well their vaccine was working.

Brodhi hit his shoulder on the ground hard when he toppled over. It felt like he had been on his hands and knees vomiting for hours. He wished that there were a clock somewhere. He didn't know if it was night or day. He didn't even know how many days have passed since they came to the hospital. When he passes out he doesn't know how long he is unconscious for.

Brodhi lied on the ground as his muscles ached. He heard Sawyer groan as he toppled over onto the ground. He had been trapped in this room for what felt like forever with Sawyer, and he knew nothing about him.

"Who's Eden?" Brodhi asked him hoarsely.

He could hear Sawyer heavily panting near him. Brodhi has one through spurts where he the air felt like it was pressing down on his chest making it difficult to breathe. Both of their bodies were sprawled out across the floor. The cool tiles provided relief to their burning hot flesh.

"She's my little sister," he said between deep breaths. "Lynn? She your wife?"

"My girlfriend," he told him. Sawyer assuming that they were married meant he wasn't from the Slums. Rats never got married. He couldn't be a Brighty, they wouldn't experiment on one of their elite this way. He had to be a Grey. "Juno is my baby."

He started chuckling at himself. A pain spread through the muscles across his chest.

"I have a baby," he said still with a slight chuckle. "I don't even know what she looks like. It would be a she, wouldn't it? Juno's a girl name, right?"

"Yeah, Juno would be a girl's name," Sawyer agreed with him. "Is that why you're here? For your baby?"

"Kind of," Brodhi said raising his stiff arms up into the air. He stretched them up over his head and felt relieved and in pain at the same time. "Lynn was terrified about giving birth, especially after my mom died. Cendrowski told me she could give birth in the hospital and I was willin' to help him. I wouldn't have if I knew this is what happened."

Brodhi swallowed and his parched mouth filled with a disgusting flavour. He couldn't remember the last time he had drank anything and he was craving a sip of water. His throat burned with every breath.

"What about you?" he asked.

"Hmm?" Sawyer moaned. He was obviously off in his own train of thought.

"Why are you here?" he repeated.

"I've spent most of my life in hospitals," he told Brodhi. "I had a lot of medical problems. Couldn't breathe, hear, see, or heal right. If I were a Brighty everyone would be bragging about how they fixed me, but because I'm a Gray all my family got was bills. We lost all of our money and were almost kicked out to the Slums until I met Cendrowski. He offered both my sister and I jobs. We thought we were saved. Apparently not."

Brodhi couldn't stop thinking about Lynn or Juno. He wanted to know what she looked like. If she had Lynn's red curls or his dark coarse hair. He wondered about how tiny she must be right now. If those doctors have her in a room with this Virus, like Brodhi and Sawyer were trapped in, there would be no way her tiny body could withstand that. He had to get out and get his family before one of them died.