Cured (38 page)

Theo tried to
get to his feet, but his leg gave way and he collapsed back to the
floor. Dom pushed me onto his Segway and climbed aboard behind me.
He stood with the front of his body pressed against my back. I
shuddered. He kept hold of my arms, twisting them so tight that I
felt like my muscles might tear.

“Avery!” Theo yelled, trying to clamber to
his feet again before his leg gave out again.

Dom started the Segway and sped the distance
back to the white room. All the while Theo cried my name. I wanted
to reply, to reassure him, but I couldn’t manage to open my mouth.
We reached the white room and Dom wrenched me by my arms over to
the chair. He shoved me into the seat and started on the straps,
trapping me, tightening the restraints until they were cutting into
my skin.

Then he left the room. I heard his Segway
start up again and accelerate into the distance. I wondered where
he was going. Was he leaving me to die here? I closed my eyes. I
didn’t really care. My body was numb all over, and my tears had
dried. I wouldn’t cry again, I had no more tears.

The buzzing of the Segway grew fainter, but
it never disappeared. I wondered what Dom was doing. Surely he
couldn’t still be in the tunnel, it had been over ten minutes, and
the tunnel wasn’t that long. I frowned, concentrating on the
whirring sound. It was becoming louder again. He was returning. I
braced myself as the sound stopped outside the door of my cell. Dom
stumbled into the room, dragging Theo along the ground by one arm.
He let go of Theo’s arm. Why wasn’t he trying to get away?

“
Theo
, go,” I said, my voice dull.
I had no energy.

Theo didn’t move. Dom walked over to a handle
on the wall and opened a large cupboard. I couldn’t see the
contents of the storage area well from the chair but there were a
number of devices and bottles filling the space. Dom found some
more restraint straps and tied Theo up. Theo made no move to resist
Dom’s rough manhandling. His head lolled to one side. His leg was
sitting in a pool of blood.

“Let him go.” My voice was still robotic and
emotionless.

Dom was silent.

“He is dying.”

Still silence.

“He needs help.”

Nothing.

Then Dom
pulled two bottles from the cupboard and walked them over to me. He
stood in front of the chair, facing me.

“
I actually
liked you kids,” h
e said. “I am sincerely
sorry it has to be this way.”

I tried to
kick him, but my restraints held me back. Instead I growled; the
sound was low and animalistic.

“
I mean it
Avery. I am especially sorry about Jett. I was fond of that boy.”
His voice sounded choked up. I almost believed him.

“
You killed
him,
” I spat.

“
I
know,
” he said, and his voice wavered. He
paused and took a deep, shaky breath. Then he was quiet for a
moment, pulling himself together. When he met my eyes again, any
emotion that had momentarily surfaced had been wiped from his face.
Stone cold. His eyes were concrete grey and his jaw clenched. He
held the two bottles up.

“
Euthanasia,”
h
e said.

I remembered the word, but I still wasn’t
sure what it meant. “What is it?” I asked a final time.

“
Euthanasia
serum. Instant death. I am going to kill you,” he said, “All of
you.”

Theo groaned from his position on the floor,
but Dom ignored him and continued.

“
I want you
to know that I am not killing you out of malice. It is honestly the
last thing I want to do. I will resent myself for it forever. I
already do. Every time our existence is discovered I end up going
through this, and I hate myself. Don’t you wonder why I am like I
am? I am bitter, lifeless excuse for a human being. Killing people,
innocent or not, sucks the life from you. It vacuums you out until
you are a shell. Empty. I am empty. But I do it because I have to.
For the greater good.” His voice was shaking now.

“Our last guests turned out to be traitors.
We had to kill them or we would have been discovered. Then our
whole compound would be murdered. We couldn’t have that. I thought
you might be innocent. I thought if I could have you teach the
kids, you would be able to prove yourselves, prove that you were
innocent, before Leo came back. But then I found out you were
training the dogs. Why would an innocent person be training the
dogs in secret?”

He took a
breath. “And when you watched the speech, when you saw my reaction
to it, I knew you saw my fear. When I followed you and saw that you
were trying to gather your friends, I knew you were trying to
escape. An innocent person would not try to escape.”

He held up
the larger bottle of the two. “This in an anesthetic. Once I inject
you with it, you will have twenty seconds until you are
unconscious. Then I will inject you with this one,” he gestured to
the smaller bottle. “It is a euthanasia serum. You will die without
feeling a thing.”

He walked to the cupboard and found two
syringes.

“We are innocent.” Theo’s voice was a raspy
whisper.

“
I wish I
could believe you Theodore.”

“
We want to
overthrow the hierarchy. Avery was training the dogs to fight on
our side against the Alphas. We agreed to train your people so that
you could help us fight.”

Dom laughed,
shaking his head. “You sound exactly like the last intruders. A
very similar backstory. A shame really. I though you would have
come up with something a little more imaginative.”

“
Not a
story.” Theo gasped. “It’s true. Right Avery?”

I stayed silent. No matter how much we
argued. No matter how we pleaded our case, it was over. He would
never believe us.

Dom slowly
filled the syringe with the anesthetic. He hovered the needle over
my arm.

Theo finally
fell silent, giving up on his last attempt at saving our lives. A
crackling noise came from Dom’s pocket and he lowered the needle,
frowning. He pulled the black device from his pocket. It was the
same communication object that Jett had used when we first arrived
at the compound.

“Dom?” came a voice from the device.

“Yes. What is it?” Dom asked into the
speaker.

“
Turn on the
WallS
creen News. Now.” The anonymous
voice’s tone was urgent.

Dom frowned
and put the communication device back into his pocket. “WallScreen
on,” he said as he filled the other syringe with the euthanasia
serum.

The Wall
switched on, already tuned in to the news channel. Regina was back
on her usual stage, although no crowd was surrounding her. “Hello,
good people of Olympia.” she said. “As you all have recently been
told, four of the Newbies went missing during their initiation
tasks.” She cleared her throat, “Well the good news is that two of
those Newbies have been found.” She cleared her throat again. “Erm,
the bad news, however, is that one of the two Newbies, is not in
fact a Prime.”

My eyes widened. Oh no. Theo writhed on the
ground. His leg had lost a lot of blood, his face was pale and
drenched with sweat. Regina gestured to the side of the stage,
where a guard was escorting Felix towards Regina.

“
Felix Fidus
evaded the Cure, and attempted the tasks while still human. He has
been caught, and he will be Cured. Humans cannot complete these
tasks. Ever. There is no point in copying Felix’s actions. If
anyone does so, he or she will be caught and then punished. As you
can see, we will now Cure Felix. He will then be imprisoned and
detained in isolation for a minimum of two years.”

Regina’s
voice was lower than usual, threatening. “Felix?” she said and an
enormous man dragged a struggling Felix into the frame. His
expression was pure terror. A silent tear ran down my cheek. Regina
handed Felix a pill.

Felix kept
his lips tight together. The man holding him must have been a
Labour Norm. His biceps were enormous and had thick veins running
through them. He grabbed Felix’s jaw and yanked it down, forcing
his mouth open. Then he tipped Felix’s head back until he was
facing the sky. Regina dropped the pill into Felix’s throat and the
guard used his other hand to squirt a bottle of water into Felix’s
mouth. The guard clamped Felix’s jaw shut, and stood, holding him
in position for a moment. I was holding my breath. This could not
be happening. Not to Felix. My Felix.

Chapter 34

I watched
Felix’s throat intently. The camera zoomed in. I prayed for Felix
to hold on, to spit the pill out, anything. A further minute
passed. Finally, Felix’s Adam’s apple moved in his throat. It
inched upwards, before lowering back down. A movement that made my
stomach drop. Tears streamed down my face. My throat was seized and
my breathed was ragged. Felix. My Felix. Had been Cured.

I turned back to the screen to see Felix’s
reaction. He fell to the floor, still for a moment. His eyes were
closed. Slowly, he opened them. He climbed to his feet. He didn’t
smile. His eyes weren't twinkling. They were dull, lifeless.

“How do you feel, Felix?” Regina asked.

“Fine.” A monotonous, robot voice.

“Can you tell me what the sum of seven and
nine is please?”

Felix frowned. His mouth contorted with
thought. Then he shook his head. “No….” he said. “No I cant.”

Regina’s
mouth turned upwards slight, battling the anti-aging serum. “Good,”
she said, her sickly sweet voice returning.

I stared at the ceiling. Felix was a Norm. My
Felix. A lifeless robot. I let my arms fall, dangling from my
sides. My whole body went slack. I didn’t care what happened
anymore. Dom raised the needle again. He had a frown on his face,
but said nothing.

He plunged
the needle into my arm and pressed the syringe down slowly. The
liquid released into my vein. I felt it pulsating through my arm.
Black dots began to mar my vision. Heaviness overwhelmed me and my
eyelids sunk.

“Avery?” Theo whispered, but I barely heard
him.

“
Avery?!”
shouted another voice. It was familiar. I frowned, battling the
exhaustion that was consuming me. I used all my remaining strength
to lift my head to find the new speaker. My eyes fell on the man
who had said my name. I felt betrayal. Hatred. Surely I was
hallucinating. My head fell back to the chair’s headrest. All my
energy had been used. The anesthesia was winning.

“Leo.” Dom said, turning to the man that had
entered the room and said my name. The needle was extracted from my
arm, its contents buried deep in my veins.

Leo. I looked
at the man. Revulsion, anger, agony overwhelmed me. Leo. The name
swam around my head. My thoughts were sluggish. Apolleon. Leo. My
father. My father stood in the doorway. Watching me die. I was
being murdered by my own father. I wanted to scream. Wanted to ask
what he was doing. And why. But the darkness took over, and I was
gone.

To be continued...