The Infection

Chapter 12~Sage

After retrieving my supplies from Ivy and locking her up in the place for young humans, I marched toward the lab, taking purposeful strides. Feeling powerful and independent now that I was alone, I reached for the door handle and swung the door open in one dramatic swoop.

"Ow, fuck," the door shouted. I hurried to the sink and began to wash my hands before realizing that doors don't usually curse at me.

Whirling around, my hands dripping, I scanned the room. Sure enough, there was a person standing next to the door, massaging her forehead vigorously. She looked up at me, her face contorted into an expression that could only be described as the love child of the fake smile that frequently accompanies greetings and formalities and a look of pure, agonizing pain.

"Well?" she asked, raising her eyebrows. "Aren't you going to apologize?"

"For what exactly?" I asked, feigning lower-than-average intelligence in order to stall long enough to figure out who she was.

"You hit me with a door, Sage. That usually warrants an apology."

I frowned. "How do you know my name? And how'd you get in here? And-"

The girl shot me a glare. I decided that from now on, it was absolutely necessary to do the precise opposite of what she told me to do.

"I'm not apologizing for something I didn't do on purpose," I said, crossing my arms in front of my chest. Realizing and resenting the fact that Ivy seemed to be rubbing off on me, I placed my arms firmly at my side. "Deal with it."

"Well, then, I'm not telling you who I am."

"I have zero interest in knowing who you are."

"Good, because I'm not telling you unless you apologize."

"Well, I'm not going to."

"Okay, then."

"Okay."

Just then, the door swung open again. For the second time in the past two minutes, the door slammed into the girl, this time hitting her shoulder.

If I wasn't dead inside, I would've laughed.

To my surprise, though, the door didn't send her sprawling. It instead ricocheted right back, and Ryder was barely able to slip through before it slammed shut.

"Sage, what's taking you so long?" he asked, anger creeping into his voice. "I sent Shawna to get you fifteen minutes ago!"

"Well, I wasn't here fifteen minutes ago."

Ryder's glare shifted from me to the girl, who had made the intelligent decision to move away from the door. "Shawna, you should've looked for her," he said. "You should've told me immediately that she wasn't here."

The girl, Shawna, rolled her eyes. "She doesn't go anywhere except this room, the house, and the basement. I figured she'd come back eventually, and if she didn't, you'd see her before I did, so I waited. And here she is."

I was frustrated to find that this logic was sound. So, it seemed, was Ryder.

"Why did you need me, Ryder?" I asked.

"Because a prisoner attacked his cousin last night. The cousin hit him over the head with a rock and knocked him out, and we were able to tie him up. You can experiment with cures on someone who we know is Infected. The cousin is in a solitary room, too, in case the Infection is transmitted from one person to another through contact."

My jaw dropped. "We know he's Infected? For sure?"

"Yeah."

Wordlessly, I grabbed my supplies and rushed out the door, flying around the corner and into the bright sunlight. I started across the grass, but I only made it halfway to the house before I heard a familiar voice call my name.

"Sage! Sage, wait up!" called Ivy. "Where are we going?"

"We aren't going anywhere. I'm going to test cures on an actually Infected prisoner who tried to kill his cousin," I told her, jogging now. She chased after me. "How did you manage to escape from school?"

"I said I was gonna pee myself so they took me to the bathroom and I climbed out the window. Why can't I come with you?" she demanded.

"Because it's dangerous and I don't want you to be murdered by a lunatic."

"I don't want you to be murdered by a lunatic either, but you're going," she protested. "It isn't fair."

"Ivy. Stop whining. Go learn about plants and sunshine with the rest of the little kids. It's time for the grown ups to do grown-up things," I said, mustering up every bit of patronizing adult that I could. It was difficult, seeing as I'm the exact opposite of patronizing.

Ivy was fuming. Her cheeks were pink and her hands were clenched into fists. Images of lab coats and scrubs hurrying past without noticing I was there flooded my brain. I felt a twinge of guilt.

"I'm sorry," I said, but I wasn't sure if it was audible.

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A/N

Heyyy, sorry it's a short chapter but I wanted to update. 

What do you think about Shawna? Honestly, I think she's great because she stands up to Sage and gives some of her sass back to her. 

Do you think Sage finally figured out the cure? I hope so, because between me and you someone Infected is in camp..

-BelievingInDaydreams