World-Mart (11 page)

“My fiancé hates deviants!” Emily said, the reality of their situation finally sinking in.  “My life is ruined!”

“My husband isn’t too fond of them, either,” Virginia said, denial forcing her to add, “I know he loves me, though, and I know my kids love me.  I know that won’t change.”

Emily began to cry.

“Don’t cry, sweetie,” Virginia said, her throat knotting up.  “Everything will be okay.  You’ll see.”

Emily shook her head.  “No.  I don’t think it will.”  She stood and turned.

Virginia reached for Emily’s shoulder, but she brushed her aside.  She watched as Emily walked in long strides, almost in slow motion, toward the medical associates standing in front of the bathroom door.  Virginia wanted to get up and run after her, but she felt frozen where she sat, knowing deep down that there was nothing she could do.  She watched helplessly as Emily signed her life away.

Emily turned back as she passed through the door, her eyes haunting as she gave Virginia one last pained smile.  She crossed the threshold and the door closed behind her.

And then she was gone.

Virginia grieved silently as Olaf exited the bathroom and got dressed.

He hurried up to her, his hair and beard still dripping.  “Where’s Emily?”

Virginia looked down.  “She left.”

Olaf sat down, his body flushing.  “Where did she go?”

Virginia turned back to him, the tears streaming from her eyes speaking louder than any words she might have to offer him.

“But why?” Olaf asked, his eyes welling up.  “She was so young!  She had her whole life ahead of her!”

Virginia shook her head, wishing that she had tried harder to hold Emily back.  “I couldn’t stop her,” she said, trying to amend the memory of it in her mind.

“Damn it all!” Olaf cried, going to his bed and lying down.

Virginia surveyed the room, unsure how much longer she would be able to handle being there, herself.  There were now exactly four men and four women left,
including
her.  She wondered if the
m
edical
m
anagement was simply counting on the group to give up, one by one, until no one remained.  Perhaps those who persisted were doing nothing but prolonging the inevitable.

Virginia watched the camera sweep back and forth, flipping it off once as it passed over her.

The showers turned off and the medical associates left the room.  The locks clicked shut.  The last of the men dried off and got dressed.  No one else seemed to care that Emily had given up.  Few even seemed to notice that she was gone.

The locks clicked back open, and one of the medical associates who had just overseen the showers returned with
the
manager and two security associates.  He had an order from Corporate, just downloaded onto his handheld computer.

“After due consideration, Corporate has decided to give you two options.”  The medical associate cleared his throat, glancing down at his computer screen.  He punched in a code, bringing up the downloaded file.  “Corporate is interested in a study on live subjects infected with what we have named retrovirus HD-1, to study your antibodies and develop a vaccine.  All those not interested in participating in the study will be
euthanized
.”

Virginia and Olaf glanced over at one another in disbelief.

The medical manager stepped forward.  “We’ll need your signatures on the appropriate forms, so if you could all come forward in an orderly manner.”

Olaf winked at Virginia, then suddenly sprang out of bed and grabbed the man in the next bed over.  He yanked the man to the ground and put him in a stranglehold, and then braced himself for the security associates’ attack.  “I’ll see you all in Hell!”

Olaf’s attack put the entire room into a panic, and the medical associate ran into the center of the room in an attempt to back up Security.  The medical manager tackled a woman who ran ahead of Virginia in an attempt to escape, and by the time he turned to secure the door, Virginia and three others had already scattered.

The medical manager slipped out the door and locked it, making a mental note to let out his personnel as soon as the building was secure.  “Security breach!” he yelled
,
running after a young man who was unfortunate enough to have slipped out last.  The manager stopped at an emergency alarm station, catching his breath as he sounded the alarm.

“I need backup here!” the manager yelled as he chased the young man to a dead end.  He tackled the young man, knocking him off his feet, and all nearby personnel moved to assist in his capture.

Virginia slipped unseen into an unlocked utility closet.  The small room had a washer and dryer, bins of dirty laundry, and cleaning supplies arranged on open shelves.  Knowing the search for her would be thorough, she considered her hiding places.  If she simply knelt behind the dryer she was sure to be found, and the same likely went for hiding inside the hot machine.  She hurried to the vent to the central heating duct, but found it tightly secured.  She snatched a putty knife from a nearby shelf and used it to pry off the screen, then carefully slid off the vent and slipped inside the tight area, slamming the vent back into place behind her.

Virginia quietly wriggled back a few feet, and then froze as she heard the closet door open.  She heard the security associate step through the room.  The man checked the washer and dryer, and then poked through the piles of laundry.  Virginia held her breath and closed her eyes as he peered through the vent, straining to see as far into the shadows as he could.  After only a moment, the associate moved away from the vent and left the room.  Virginia took a deep breath as the door shut behind him.  She waited a few minutes, to ensure he hadn’t left just to get reinforcements, and then she worked her way back up to the vent.

She looked around the room, trying to determine whether she had any chance at escape.  There didn’t seem like any way out.  She could dig through the dirty linen on the chance that there was a pair of scrubs hidden in the bin, but she didn’t think that would be very likely.  Even if she did find some type of medical associate uniform, her eye color would give her away before she could get down the hall.

She slid back as the door opened again, and she could just see into the closet as a sanitation associate came in with a rolling mop bucket.

The skinny young woman pushed the bucket into a corner and began a load of laundry with a groan.  The washing machine was loud as it filled with hot water, the sound echoing through the narrow duct.

Virginia slid back up to the vent, getting a better look, and she realized that the sanitation associate was a deviant.  Without another thought, in one quick motion, Virginia knocked out the vent and slid out of the duct.  She slammed into the surprised young woman, pinning her against the far wall and covering her mouth.

“I need your help!” Virginia cried.

The sanitation associate nodded, and Virginia slowly let her go.

“You have to get me out of here!” Virginia continued.  “I’m being held against my will!”

“
Y
ou
’re
one of the virus victims?”

Virginia hadn’t expected such a question to come from a sanitation associate, and she gave the deviant a suspicious eye.  “How did you know?”

The young woman moved to a bin of clean sheets, picking up as much of the unfolded pile as she could hold.  “Get in.”

Virginia got into the bin, and the young associate dropped the pile of sheets over her.  “Sit tight.”  The young woman dug into her pockets, pulling out syringes, test tubes, and a few other objects she had stolen from the medical offices, and stuffed them under the pile.  She finished loading the washing machine, and then deftly rolled Virginia and her laboratory supplies out of the closet.

She rolled the heavy bin to a service elevator and quietly accompanied the load down to the basement.  She rolled the bin to the folding piles at the end of the corridor and lugged the laundry off Virginia.

“Thank you so much!” Virginia said, climbing out of the bin.

“It was the least I could do,” the deviant said.  She extended her hand.  “I’m
Anne
.”

“Virginia.”

They shook.

“Do you have anywhere to go?”
Anne
asked, checking to make sure that no one else was in the vicinity.

“I plan on going home.”

“Do you think that’s wise?” 
Anne
collected the laboratory supplies, wrapped them in a pajama top she snagged from a laundry pile, and then stashed them behind a trash bin.

Virginia shrugged.  “Where else would I go?”

Anne found a piece of scratch paper and a pen, and wrote down shuttle and walking directions to a remote location.  She handed it to Virginia with a smile.  “Ask for Ray.”  She shoved Virginia behind a pile of laundry and tried to look busy as a
s
anitation manager crossed the far corridor, and then disappeared around another corner.

Virginia took the piece of paper.  “How do I get out of here?”

After a moment of thought, Anne quickly wriggled out of her uniform and tossed it to the Virginia.  She kicked off her shoes.  “I’m not sure it’
ll be
a perfect fit, but it’s all I’ve got.”  She began to dig through a utility drawer until she came across a roll of duct tape.

Virginia squeezed herself into Anne’s uniform and forced her feet into the tiny shoes.

Anne tossed Virginia the duct tape and her shuttle pass, then crossed her wrists behind her back.  “I can’t look like a willing participant in this.”

Virginia bound Anne’s wrists behind her back, and then wrapped up her ankles.

Anne dropped onto a pile of clean pajama tops.  “The parking garage is down the hall to your left, and then up one floor.  Now, tape up my mouth and get out of here.”

“Tape your mouth?”

Anne gave a frustrated huff.  “You want to make it look authentic, right?”

“Are you sure someone will find you?”

“Positive.”  Anne glanced down to the end of the hall, looking nervous.  “Will you stop wasting time?” she asked impatient
ly
.

Virginia reluctantly slapped a piece of tape over Anne’s mouth.  “Thanks again.”  She hurried down the long hallway, pocketing Anne’s shuttle directions as she took the stairwell up to the garage.  She found a direct
s
huttle
l
ine to Housing.

She took a long, deep breath as the shuttle rolled away from the platform.  She wondered if any of the others who had escaped were also able to get away, hoping she wasn’t the only one.  She wondered how many more people would find themselves in her situation before Medical-Corp was able to come up with a working antidote, if that was even possible.

Virginia couldn’t reach Housing quickly enough, and she gazed through the window at the heavy rain as the shuttle lurched along its track.  It was dark and grey out, and heavy clouds blocked out the early evening sky.

She knocked on her front door, nervous but excited.  She assumed George and the kids would be home, given the time, and her heart sank
when
she knocked several times and no one came to the door.