Escape

Chapter 12

"I'm sorry, but what is that?" Elizabeth pointed in disgust at the test tube.
"What is that? Dude, how can you not know! Everyone with Hydroswell should know about this!" James exclaimed.
Oh no, this was bad. Elizabeth's face turned sour and she scowled.
"How do you kids know I have the Hydroswell?" She asked, poison dripping from her words. She was going to murder us for that. Or maybe her airheaded lifeguard friend.
"This girl at the pool told us," James explained, which earned him a gasp.
"The one at the Bishan District Swimming Complex?" Elizabeth asked just to be sure. James nodded despite my frantic warnings not to.
"That idiot! I told her not to do that! It was a secret. She is brainless. We were friends!" Elizabeth shrieked. I am sorry to say this but that woman was eccentric and a bit wrong in the head.
When she calmed, she sat down on one of her black fur chair and murmured to herself, "Okay Lizzy, deep breaths, deep breaths. They want to help you, not kill you,"
ONE THOUSAND HOURS LATER
Elizabeth took an extremely long breath and finally, she said, "Okay so what's your deal?"
"What's my deal? It's easy. For this liquid that will slow down the development of your virus, you-" James pointed his index finger at Elizabeth, "give us information."
Elizabeth furrowed her eyebrows, deep in thought. She took very long to think, we were getting tired of her. This woman was slow as heck.
"Okay then," she replied as James rubbed his hands in glee. I nodded at Zoey and Jaelyn. So far so good.
Elizabeth finished the liquid in a mouthful and told us to all sit down. Thankfully she did, as my legs were getting numb from standing around.
Elizabeth clapped her hands as if she was going to tell a story. I stifled a giggle threatening to escape from my mouth.
"I never went anywhere near water," she said, "So I think it must be from the water that Grayner sells. I always drink his water and use it to cook stuff in my kitchen. I haven't asked him yet though. Right after my cheeks turned red, I approached the Council. There were rumours of a virus spreading and one of the symptoms is swollen cheeks. I suspected it right then. Anyways, Renay's got the virus. I knew there had to be something up when she disappeared for so long." I looked and Jaelyn, Zoey and James. They nodded at me. No matter how stupid the Leader's decision was, we still had to protect Renay and her family. If the secret got out, the world would be in chaos. We had to break it to the others slowly. I took a deep breath and started, "I want you to do a favor for us, Elizabeth," Elizabeth just nodded her head blankly, "share this thing with your friends. Tell them that the Hydroswell is true. Let more people know about it. Spread the word. But never. Never ever let this get into the press. The consequences will be unimaginable." Elizabeth thought for a long time like usual and then she nodded her head. She held out her pinkie and said, "I promise." I locked my pinkie around hers a nodded gratefully. Things around here is going to change. Hopefully, we are not too late.
Rinco
They held there for a long time and things were getting awkward. Vanessa and I decided to leave the room through the trapdoor just to make a little escape. We stood there panting.
"I knew there was something going on between those two!" I exclaimed. I could not help but break into a fit of uncontrollable giggles. Vanessa did the same.
"Who ships Erniera?" she said, which made us laugh even harder.
Laughing, we were, but something inside me broke. I was jealous all over again. Emmiera might be at the peak of her romantic life, but I was dumped aside like a piece of trash. Just because of that memory.
"You okay, Rinco?" Vanessa asked as I clutched my platinum blonde hair.
"Yeah I'm fine," I lied but she saw right through me.
"You'll get over this.. He'll come running back to you in no time." she placed her hand around my shoulder. Warm energy surged through me, giving me a little hope.
"You think?" I said.
"You bet. I know people, Rinco. He's not the kind of person who leaves someone he truly loves."
I nodded as tears rolled down my cheeks again. But it did not hurt like before. I was touched that among this haze of pain and confusion, there were people who cared.
-------
We went out of the room. The next thing that happened was unimaginable. It was mind-blowing. No one would have thought we would be out so quickly. A young woman right there approached us. We got ourselves ready with our weapons. She had this grey mask around her eye and she was holding her clipboard. She smoothed her lab coat and took off that mask. I almost screamed. Standing there was the ex-Leader Mica Vise. Seeing the shocked look on our faces, Mica nodded gravely. "Put down your weapons, and I mean all of you. All of you have proven worthy and now you're going somewhere safer," she said. I shuddered at the word 'safer' as it was horribly dangerous in here. Safer did not seem like a good option. Oh well, it was better than nothing at all then.
"Well, we have terminated all the obstacles. You are safe to go down like normal people now, except blindfolded." Mica pulled out nine blindfolds, one for each of us. I looked at Vanessa and we nodded. This was it. The moment we had been waiting for. Sometimes, we had to take risks to get what we wanted. I took the blindfold from Mica and put it around my head. I held out my hand.
"Take me to this place," I whispered. I could hear others doing the same.
"Okay..." Mica said, "here we go,"
Has a lot of things happened while we were in the house or I simply did not know of this technology, I did not know. How does one feel like she was being pulled through ice? I shuddered as the cold wind pierced my skin, like many daggers were being thrown at me. We were spinning, spinning through thin air.
And then it stopped. We were thrown downwards. I could not breathe. I was drenched. Drowning. My life was at stake. This was not right. What is happening? I could not help but pull off the blindfold that was covering my eyes. Water stung my eyes and I could see the rest's blindfolds already off. Mica pointed to a handle right at the bottom and gestured for us to swim towards it. Pulling my arms, I tried very hard to do so. I could feel my lungs screaming for air.
But I made it.
We opened it and fell into a chamber. Again, we were miraculously dried. Mica opened a door that was in front of us which led us to corridors. All too white corridors. I tried peeking into one and what I saw scared me. The room had a few scientist dressed in the same lab coat as Mica. They were running around, carrying test tubes. A lifeless body lay on one of the chairs. They were running experiments. I took a closer look at the test tubes and saw blood . There was blood in the test tubes. They were running human experiments! It did not feel right. I did not dare tell Mica to clarify though. We were brought to this room. Where all of our family members were.
"Dad!" I practically squealed as I hugged him.
"I was scared you'd wouldn't make it," my father whispered.
I did not answer. What we were going to go through later was another stage.
Over at the other side, I heard a choked voice. It was Ernest.
"You lied to me," he shook his head his sadly.
"I had to, Ernie, I had to." His father replied. Ernest kept shaking his head. As my dad pulled away, I snuck a peek at Jonathan. His parents were there, and so was...A chestnut-haired girl with black eyes. Her fingers rang along his face as she whispered something. Jonathan put her hand down and brought her to a corner. I could not help but follow.
"Rinco where are you..." my father started but I gestured to him not to worry. I had to see what was going on between those two.
"Félicien, listen, I have to tell you something," Jonathan said.
"Tell me anything, babe," she said, batting her eyelashes. This act made me gag.
"I love someone else," Jonathan said.
Félicien's stupid eyes turned big.
"What who? Who is that! Tell me now!" She held Jonathan by the collar.
"I don't know whether she still loves me. I hid things from her, a lot if things, actually. You know, Félicien, I hid stuff from you too," he replied nonchalantly.
"Like what? What did you ever hide from me?" She asked like a madwoman. I could not help but wonder, what was he hiding?
"You wanna see it? Okay...here we go,"
He pulled up his sleeve slowly and carefully. He took off something that covered his hands. Was that... fake flesh? His arms... I recognised it as the waterproof prosthetics. The truth hit me. Jonathan had no arms. This did not deter me away from him. I wanted to know him more.
"Anndddd..." Jonathan pulled up his pants. Also prosthetics.
"HOW COULD YOU HIDE THIS FROM ME?" Felicien was hysterical now.
"I was born this way. My parents told me to hide it. They thought I was a freak," Jonathan explained. Felicien just scowled. I had to say something.
"Sometimes, people don't just love you for who you are," I said simply. Felicien's eyes widened.
"Who is this girl?" She asked Jonathan, pointing at me in disgust.
"My girlfriend," Jonathan said, putting his arm around me and walking off.
While doing that, Jonathan talked.
"I missed you. It couldn't go on. I knew you had to be mine," he said, which melted my heart into a huge pink blob.
"The feeling's mutual," I said and for the first time again I felt whole.
Chapter 12
Eryn
It was the end. It was really the end. Singapore had the virus. People screamed. They ran out as the water turned black. A Hydroswell victim just lost his life. Now many more will.
A few days after telling Elizabeth to do just that, we spent a Sunday at the beach. It was very busy and crowded. They were having some event on open water swimming.
That was when a shrieking, swollen teenager ran straight into the sea. Yes he was shrieking.
"Water! I need water!" He was screaming. The events played vividly in my mind, against my will.
He drowned in the water. In contrast to the white sandy beach, the black water looked like charcoal. Everyone was too late. Their reaction times was just too slow to escape from the water.
Back at the hotel, we were shaken. We tried to draw a diagram of which countries were affected by the contamination of the South China Sea. The thing was? Many. All the oceans were linked together. There was no way only one country would be affected. The virus would spread through the world, just in some countries, it would be in smaller quantities.
"We can go home now, you know," Zoey held out a bottle of swirling black water. The water swirled slowly, almost stopping, but still full of life. The virus was ready to kill.
"What would we tell Mica?" I asked.
"I don't know whether the news had spread to her yet, but I think we have to tell her the truth," James replied, too tired to punch me in the arm. I liked him in different ways, he looked cute. Wait a minute...did I say he was cute? What? I could not have a crush with my brother's best friend! I pushed that thought to the back of my mind as I stared at the big, black map we colored of the world.
———
We went back to Missle a day later and requested to meet Mica. An appointment was scheduled immediately.
Whan Mica heard the news, she literally threw up. Like for real. She looked worse than me when I had motion sickness. Her whole face turned green and all the food was dumped into the bin at the corner of the room.
"I'm sorry...but WHAT THE?" She shrieked.
"It's true, Dr Mica," I said.
"I can't," Mica held her head and stomach, walking out of the room in pain.
When she was gone, we were left stunned.
"Did you know that she would react like that?" I asked James and he shook his head.
"She took that really hard," I commented.
"Yeah," Zoey muttered. Mica the Calm, going crazy over something, was not seen everyday.
"What are we going to do about that?" Jaelyn asked. This time, I did not have an answer.
We settled in a sofa together and turned on the daily news which Mica obviously was not watching.
"THE DAILY SCOOP OF ICE-CREAM!" The news reporter announced in an all too cheery voice. Then she put on a sober expression.
"I hate my job," she muttered and I was sure that wasn't intended for everyone to hear.
She cleared her throat and started, "This has been a secret the Leaders have kept from us for very long. It is finally out. The secret, and the virus. Right here in Singapore, about 60,000 of the population has been infected. In Vietnam, already 13,000 people have succumbed to the virus and counting..." I switched off the TV and sighed.
"Maybe we should just give up," I said, slouching in the sofa.
Hearing this, James  frantically waved his hands.
"Nononono," he cried, "you absolutely must not give up! This. Everything. It is a test the world is setting for us. Do you want to get an A for this one?"
I considered his words. Great metaphor, James. I have never thought of our situation from this perspective.
"Okay, so maybe we shouldn't give up yet,"
James agreed, "Yeah like how I shouldn't give up on you."
"What?" I asked.
James realising his mistake, replied hastily, "Um no, I meant I shouldn't give up on the situation." He nodded as if to assure himself that it was true.
His hand lay on top of mine, and for a second, I felt as if we had something special.
Maybe it was not as bad having your brother's best friend as a crush. Maybe I should not give up just yet.

Rinco
Life in Missle, how can I describe it? I mean, it was great knowing that I was immune and all, passing the test with flying colors. What actually shook me was the news of the virus spreading through the world. Here at Missle, we were underwater. If we open the door, those who were not Immune would be infected.
We were working to find a cure for this. So far, we were not making any progress. I met Eryn one day at the Human Experiment room. We were lab partners.
"Hi," she said, and I could tell that she was nervous. I immediately brought up my views.
"Atrocious, isn't it? Having to experiment on this innocent girl," It was right. She was drugged first, to put her to sleep. Our next step was to inject her with the virus. Eryn shrugged.
"We have to do it, don't we? It's for the good of the world."
I stared at her in bewilderment.
"What did you say again?" I asked.
"Its for the good of the world," Eryn replied nonchalantly.
I opened my mouth wide. Eryn, my best friend, who strongly believed in human rights, saying this? What the heck was wrong with her? Was she brainwashed?
With shaking hands, I took the syringe.
"I'm sorry," I whispered as I plunged the needle into the girl's arm. That was another life lost today. I had no power to stop it.
______
The girl's name was Gryer (Grai-yer) Gryer, from the less-developed cities. It was a nice name. Sweet.
By giving up their daughter, their family got extra food for that year. It was pretty evil. We were supposed to spend a few months observing her and how her symptoms developed.
At night, I lay by her bed, hearing her screams all night. Each shriek was another tear in my heart. It kept hitting me that I was the one who did that to her. I was the one who inserted the needle into her flesh. That morning, I started a conversation with her.
"Do you miss home?" I asked her.
"Not really," she replied.
"Why?"
"My parents don't love me, they want to kill me for money," she told me. I was not surprised.
"How would you like it if you got a few more days to live?"
She considered this for a while. As she already knew her fate, there was no way to reverse it, but what if we bought her some time?
I hoped that when we find the cure, Gryer would still be alive.
"It'll be good," she finally said.
"Then I have just the thing,"
It was illegal to do it, and I knew that it was. Eryn was out hanging out with James. I think there was something between them despite her insisting that they were just 'friends'.
I checked the medical cupboard and just nice, there was a blue vial there. I opened it and handed it to the girl.
"Here," I said. Trusting me, she drank it.
"Will I ever be cured?" She asked. Not knowing what to answer, I put my hand on her shoulder.
"We'll try our best," I replied.
But sometimes I wasn't so sure.
———-
"You...wait a minute what?" Eryn screeched as I revealed to her what I had done. I looked at her smugly. Eryn was not amused. She thought otherwise.
"This is very serious! Do you know how much trouble we can get in? Forget about trouble, this is delaying our quest for the cure." She turned away and I could tell that she was hyperventilating. Since when did Eryn turned down an adventure. Sighing, I faced her.
"Gryer could be dead fast, do you want that?" I asked threateningly.
Eryn considered this for a while.
"C'mon, don't be a doof," I urged.
Reluctantly, Eryn shrugged and said, "Okay so I'm in. What's the plan?" In low voices, we discussed. When we were done, I could see a slight smile past Eryn's face.