The Anomaly Affliction

Twenty

When we return to the truck, Cage and Nova are laughing together about something, while Vic and Harrison are starting a fire with a lighter and a small pile of fire starters. They must've got them from somewhere else in the warehouse, or from a factory.

"I wish she'd burned with it," Nova is saying to Cage. "I hated that old cow."

"Me too," Cage agrees. "I should've done it when I knew she was in there."

They give me a nod and a small smile when X and I approach the truck, and Harrison stands up to greet us.

"Ah, you're back," he says. "What'd you get?"

X drops all of the water bottles onto the floor, and I do the same with the food. Vic hurries over to us and he and Harrison crouch to look through the food I got.

"Not bad," Vic says.

"It's good." Harrison looks up at me. "Well done, Violet."

All three of them carry the items over to the truck. I go to sit with Cage and Nova, who are still laughing.

"You missed a spot," Nova says excitedly. "Why didn't you do the B building?"

"I didn't want to hurt anyone," Cage replies, shrugging.

Nova looks at me. "Violet, we're just talking about how my good friend Cage Rivers ended up out here."

She pats him on the back and he looks at the floor sheepishly.

"What did you do?" I ask him.

"Well..." He rubs the back of his neck. "I may or may not have set fire to one of the buildings in my school."

I guess I look taken aback, because he continues: "It was a dare. You know how it is with teenage boys. Especially teenage boys who want to keep their popularity. And hey, no one got hurt."

"I mean," I say with a shrug, "That's good, I guess?"

"I went to the same school," Nova adds. "I was eleven. I'd just joined the school and suddenly a building was on fire. That was before I realised how shitty the place was."

"I didn't even think it was a shitty place," says Cage. "I just did it for the hell of it."

"It's funny, that, isn't it?" says Vic. He's crouching next to the fire and sticking a long skewer through the skinned body of the fox that we killed this morning. I try not to flinch as I watch him.

"What?" asks Nova.

"The way that people do things and feel things without really understanding why."

"What would you know about it?" jokes Cage. "You understand everything."

"I didn't back then. Why did I do what I did? I didn't hate Nacoma. I didn't want revenge from the district."

Vic holds the skewer over the fire and the fox starts to burn. The smell of cooking meat starts to linger in the air.

"Some context for you, Violet," Vic continues, staring at the meat. "Crimson District. 2062. I was fourteen. A bit of a child genius, and a cocky little sod. I wanted money. I didn't want to wait until I was older to get a job and earn money, because I felt like I didn't need to. I was clever enough already. So, after a lot of work, I - are you aware of the term 'ransomware attack'?"

I think back to learning about cyber crimes in school. If I'm remembering right, a ransomware attack is where a person's computer becomes inaccessible until they pay money to the person behind the attack.

"I think so," I reply.

"Well, I did one. I managed to force about fifty percent of the people in the district not to be able to access their files on their computers, unless everyone payed 100 credits. And I was rich, for a while, until the Guards turned up at my door. I guess you can't underestimate how technologically advanced the authorities are."

Of everyone so far, hearing about Vic's crime surprises me the least. If anything, I'm almost impressed. How did he manage to do something like that at fourteen? When I was fourteen I was doing nothing with my life.

And now...now I'm out in the wilderness, relying on criminals in order to survive. I've just turned sixteen, I've managed to evade a compulsory part of life in my home, and I haven't talked to the girl I love in days. I don't know when I can go back, I don't know when I can see her again, I don't know how long I'm going to be out here for.

I wish I knew more than I did.