Crossed Worlds

Chapter 4: Positive or Negative?

Anna and Jade sat perched on the brick wall outside of Zoe's house, waiting for her to walk to school; she was running late, as usual.

"So, tonight's the night," Anna nudged her best friend. "I really do wonder what they will say."

Jade thought about the Wild One Awareness meeting taking place that evening and shuddered. The sickness had already started to set up camp in her stomach, both due to just having to listen to whatever nonsense they had to say, and because of lying to James. She liked him, he was a good listener and seemed genuine, and here she was attending a group that was entirely against him. It felt wrong.

"I dread to think," she sighed.

"If you get up and start a protest in the middle of their rant to us all, I will have to laugh," Anna giggled at the thought.

Jade began to imagine it herself and joined in on the laughter. Maybe she would have to save a protest for her third or fourth WOA meeting.

"I swear you girlies get here earlier every day!" Zoe was applying lipstick as she rushed out of her house. They got there the same time each morning, yet she always said this. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing, Zo," Anna made the wise choice of not alerting Zoe to the possibility of Jade rebelling, just to save themselves from another lecture.

The three girls made their way to school, their smiles widening as the sun began to appear, warm on their cheeks - a rare occasion. It instantly improved Jade's mood, making her realise that attending this group didn't define her. She could use it however she wanted, and she was going to use it to prove to herself how backwards Being beliefs are.

At the gate, strange men and women in blue jumpsuits stood with blank expressions, armed with a metal device in their hands.

"What is this?" Zoe had stopped, causing the other girls to come to a halt with her. "Can we...can we turn around?"

Jade and Anna were speechless. The three of them edged back behind the corner, peering out slightly to watch other students approaching.

A boy from the year below was stopped by one of the men, as tall as he was wide. The man took his arm with a gloved hand, and placed the metal technology in front of it. A small syringe, glistening in the sunlight, shot out of it and into the boy's arm. He audibly squealed. The man did not flinch. He checked the device's screen, nodded, then pushed the boy along ready for the next.

"What the hell was that?" Anna was whispering in fear.

Zoe straightened out her mini skirt and relaxed her shoulders.

"Let's just go and do it," she said. "I mean, come on, it must just be some kind of necessary procedure. If that boy can survive it, so can we."

Zoe turned on her heel, and with an aura like hers, you had no choice but to follow.

A stern looking woman grabbed her by the arm, and the same wide, solemn man from before grabbed Anna. Jade was left with a skinnier person, who looked far less scary than the rest. An apprentice at being a terrifying, mysterious jabber, apparently.

"Stand still," he said.

Jade let him take her arm and winced as she felt the needle pierce her skin. It felt as if it sucked up her cells and then retracted. The young man shielded the screen from the sun and frowned.

"Rick? Can you come and check this one?"

Anna and Zoe were already on the other side of the school gates, watching Jade anxiously.