The Tides That Bind Us [AfroFuturism]

Uprooted

Zaharah awoke from the dead as she always did. With a start. The blue-back lights inside the chamber wavered, distorted by her post-humus stupor. Her smart skin hummed and tingled against her skin, the nodes warm. Dr Will had said something about the vibrations being a healing frequency first observed in purring cats or whatever.

The chamber lid hissed opened, allowing the bright white light to pierce her eyes and the cold air to bite her skin. Dr Will stood over her with a cup of steaming coffee. If all else failed in the Entochamber, she could always rely on him being at her side with coffee when it was through. He offered her his free hand and helped her sit up. "Any dizziness? Nausea?"

She shook her head. "Just a little groggy." The coffee cleared some of the fog from her head and fought back against the cold seeping into her skin. Even after a yeah and a half of these sessions, the after-effects still made her feel like garbage. But because her treatment had been experimental, she'd have these sessions for the foreseeable future.

Somewhere else. The thought made Zaharah's stomach turn over. Dr Cyan and Will had been with her from the beginning. They knew her, inside and out, in the literal sense. She couldn't imagine anyone else on the other side of the chamber. She didn't want anyone else.

"Is it done?" The Director asked. She sat cross-legged in front of the screens, scrolling through her cell.

The whir of the chamber disappeared as Dr Cyan shut it down. "Can I do my fucking job, please, Aleesha?" She pulled a stool up to Zaharah, blocking Director Sanders from sight. "All right Zaharah. Anything you want to talk about? Issues with your diet?" Her tone had done a one-eighty, from scathing and sharp to soft and almost motherly.

"Uh... no." Zaharah shook her head. "My diet's fine."

"What about the dizzy spells, the numbness?" She turned the screen of her tablet on and scrolled through.

"Yeah, it happened a few times this weekend." She hunched over and rubbed her eyes. "They weren't debilitating. Just annoying."

"Scans are normal as far as I can see." Dr Will said. "It could be stress related."

You don't know the half of it. Zaharah shrugged a shoulder. "Exams are coming up and I've been scrambling to finish my portfolio." And Cammi has been playing mind games with her. And Dwight had been lying to her. And she was confused and angry and tired.

Dr Cyan patted her knee. "All right. Go ahead and get dressed."

Zaharah grabbed Skorpi from the table and made her way across the cold tile to the bathroom. She felt the Director's eyes on her back, and her feet itched with the urge to run in. And slam the door shut. And lock it and bar it. And climb into the vent and escape to another part of Denden.

She settled for a less suspicious casual stroll, and eased the door close, but still locked it. The thin metal barrier couldn't protect her from the Director, but it gave her a moment's solace. She turned on the sink and ran warm water over her hands. The thought of going out there to face the Director made her heart stutter, but she couldn't stall. Her class started at eleven and who knew how long their little meeting would take.

Even now Zaharah could make out her muffled voice filtering through the door as she exchanged words with Dr Cyan and Will. Likely discussing her fate. The UEC was an island much like The 700, except stationary. It was a coalition of several European states formed after the rise as a refuge for those displaced by the sea. Now it was a bastion of research in medical, biological and cultural advancement.

Zaharah had researched the art institute there, considered applying, but the students who got in there made her look like a hobbyist. She didn't even bother. Even if the Director could work a miracle to get her in, she wasn't ready to relocate, to start over.