The Unaffected

➠1.3

Subject is blond.

"I have a feeling that she is more powerful than we think."

"Really?"

"Yes. We'll need to bring them back for more tests."

He watches their conversation from the doorway, head down. He looks at the paper, and wonders when they'll finally find the subject, the Hundredth, and kill her.

"Do you think she is the Hundredth?"

"No."

✶✶✶

it's midday (or I think it is. It feels like midday) when Ella looks at me and says, "you look tired."

"I am tired," I reply.

"But you look like you haven't slept in ages. And that's all we can do here - sleep." She scowls.

"I... I felt really drained last night. Do tests tire you out, maybe?"

"No, of course not. Did you do something unorthodox during the test?"

I shake my head. "No. At least, I don't think so. I just walked there, did it, and walked back. And then I fell asleep soon after."

"Odd," Ella says. And the conversation stops.

Later, Baby Soldier makes a reappearance.

We're telling each other stories when the door opens and Baby Soldier steps in, holding a chair. He puts the chair on the floor and sits down. He holds a small computer-like object.

"Come to visit?" I ask pleasantly. "I knew you'd warm up to me eventually."

He scowls down at me. I don't like this arrangement, because John, Ella, Tom, and I are on the floor and he's looking down at us while we have to crane our heads up to look at him. It's to make us feel oppressed, obviously. They've planned it out well, down to the cell visiting arrangements

"Right, so I'm here to ask you some questions," he says.

"All of us?" John asks curiously.

He shakes his head. "Just the new one."

"Scarlet," I correct him irritably. (He ignores this as well.)

"Right. Tell me about your life. In detail."

"Well, I was five when the incident happened. Some boy found me and sold me to a monkey trainer, because he thought I looked like a monkey. I was quite ungroomed when I was younger, and had a tendency to ask for bananas. They were my favourite food. I can't stand them now.

The monkey trainer dude realized I was a human immediately, since he was a good deal smarter than the boy, and sold me off to a girl who was dying and wanted entertainment during her last days. So I became the world's youngest, cutest, most fully clothed, banana-loving exotic dancer the world will ever know.

But the girl didn't last long, since she was Affected," I add sadly. I glance at my cellmates, who hold in laughter, and then at B.S. (Baby Soldier), whose face is impassive.

"Well, anyway," I continue. "After the girl died, I jumped into the ocean and swam with the fishies and became a mermaid. But they, too, casted me away, and, uncertain on land, I was caught -"

I feel a searing pain on my cheek, and bring my hand up to touch it. Quickly I draw my hand away, because the pain spreads to there, too. I look at my fingers, which are bubbling with some sort of red liquid: a mixture of blood and whatever was in the lighting, I think.

"That's alien gas," B.S. says amusedly. "That's what the lighting and the reactors on the door are made of. I have this gun," he holds it up, "that I'm more than happy to shoot at you if you lie. And I can tell when you lie with this mini computer. Do you understand?"

I nod slowly, even though giving in to this bastard kills me.

"Good. Now let's start again."

I take a deep breath and begin to tell him my story.

"Well I was five when the incident happened. I lived in a middle class home. My parents died, and my sister, who was thirteen at the time, took care of me for five years." My eyes brim with tears at the memories, and I blink them back. I will not look weak.

"Then a boy found me and took me in to his group a few months after my sister died. I was with them until I gave myself up to save them."

I see a flicker of something other than aggressive wannabe masculinity in Baby Soldier's eyes. What is it?

"The rest you know. Unless you haven't been keeping track of me for the few days I've been here. If you haven't, I suggest improving your system."

"What was the first five years of your life like? Did you have any unique medical cases?"

"No. I was very ordinary as a child," I say. That's a lie. I'm hoping he's bluffing about the lie detector thing. I remember my sister telling me that when I was born there were a lot of complications, and it turned out I had a very rare, extremely acute form of cancer. No one knew what it was. I wasn't supposed to live past two, apparently. But I did. Maybe that's what's different about me, what makes me an Unaffected.

He looks at his computer, and frowns. "Are you sure that's all?" he asks.

I nod.

He stands up. "That'll be all." And then Baby Soldier leaves.

"Did he do that to any of you?" I ask.

Ella and John shake their heads. I turn to Tom. "What about you?"

"No," he mutters.

I look back at them. "Must be a new procedure," I say dismissively. "Where were you, Ella?"

"Hmm?" she asks. "Oh, the story. Well..."

Her voice lulls me into a sort of trance, and I try to block everything out and not worry about the interrogation. It meant nothing, I tell myself.

But I don't really believe that.