Insight

Chapter Thirteen: The Anti-Truth

"Everyone sit back down, please. I'm sure he'll be fine." The megaphone guy said. "We have to have our meeting and then we'll release you to get your dinner."

People who had stood up from their wheelchairs to watch what had just happened dropped back into their seats and the noise level slowly started to rise again. The megaphone guy was gesturing wildly to one of the Nurses who was gesturing back and I was sure the megaphone was going to fly right out of the guy's hand. After about a minute of this, the Nurse turned and stormed away and the guy raised the megaphone back to his face.

"Quiet down. The meeting will be relatively short and then you guys can have your dinner. If any of you read the itinerary, then you'll know that we were supposed to allow you to have some activities and explore after you eat, but due to extenuating circumstances, unrelated to any recent events, and because you're all still in wheelchairs, we don't have anything set up so after dinner, we advise you to remain in your cabins or in the Camp Store before it closes. We're redoing the itineraries for the next couple weeks to accommodate the ridiculous number of you that think physical exertion is cool, and tomorrow we'll set up some activities and have the first club meetings.

"Again, we implore you to report to the Infirmary immediately if you feel ill. While Eir isn't completely capable to handle the mass of kids there currently, we've flown in some other experts to deal with this crisis."

The Dining Hall suddenly burst into life, the kids going from uninterested to terrified in a matter of seconds.

"Crisis?" a girl at the table next to me screamed. "Is there an epidemic?"

"Is this related to the bad batch of Intermediate?" someone else yelled.

"Am I going to get sick like those kids? Are we all going to die?" Panic took hold of the crowd and Nurses were straining to keep order. I saw the Nurse who had been conversing with Megaphone Guy a second ago shaking her head.

"Calm down!" Megaphone Guy yelled into his megaphone to no avail. The noise kept rising and it looked as if there was going to be an outbreak of mass hysteria. I, myself, felt a tightness in my chest that I interpreted as fear.

Finally, after yelling somewhat calmly for the kids to quiet down, Megaphone Guy got fed up and screeched, "No one is going to die, the outbreak is completely unrelated to those kids, shut the actual heck up!"

This worked, though someone did yell out to ask what was going on. "There is a flu-like virus going around, unrelated to the bad batch of Intermediate and unrelated to those kids."

"Then what did happen to those kids? Why did that happen?"

The megaphone guy's eyes widened in confusion. A Nurse rushed over and whispered in his ear. "I'm told that those were the only two kids who took the Anti-Serum. As you all know, the Anti-Serum has dangerous side-effects-" Megaphone Guy's voice faded out to be replaced with a ringing in my ears. I was barely aware of my entire table turning to look at me or Nurse Allison hurrying over to me. The Anti-Serum did this? I'm the one that's going to die. My mind started racing. I didn't even have a life to begin with. I have no memory of anything. I'm going to die as a shell of a person. Useless. I was useless in my life. My friends will only remember a confused body. Not a person.

I was shaken out of my thoughts by Moxy squeezing me. She had put her arms around me in a hug and I hadn't even noticed.

"Syany!" came a whisper from my right. "Syany, can you hear me?"

I turned to the whisper to meet Nurse Allison's eyes.

"Syany. he was lying. I'm not sure why. You're the only person in the past three camp sessions to have taken the Anti-Serum."