Stark White: Chapter Two

I stared at the House’s interior. I’d only been here once before, and that had been on my registration tour.

Salmon walls and a cream ceiling. Huge doorways and infection detectors that made the air taste like iron. Bleagh.

Oh, and there also were a few thousand screaming people running around and waving their arms.

The Stars were trying to form a sort of order, but it didn’t look as if they were getting anywhere. Star Isabel activated the microphone app on her TOUCH5. “Ladies! Gentlemen! Please!” she bellowed.

Despite my current state of fear, and, as a result of the madding crowd, panic, I envied the TOUCH5 Isabel had in her hand. All the students were given a standard TOUCH, but the advanced versions had better Othernet connections, apps like the microphone app and the radar app, and more advanced messaging units. They were rumored to have an app that produced a holographic screen when activated--but that was probably just Delilah making things up again.

Other Stars joined Isabel in coaxing the crowd to calm down. My back against the wall, I watched the Stars--Isabel, Alanna, Lucas, Caleb, Lydia, and Jozef--try to round up the students. The initiates were actually doing most of the running/screaming--but there were about one thousand and ten of them. The rest--the hardened trainees--were either crying quietly or huddled in corners. I was sitting alone with my back to a salmon-pink wall, tasting the nasty air and staring blankly out at the hassled Stars.

The smallpox virus had returned--and it would be nearly impossible to remove, unless the scientists had made some sort of breakthrough, and that hadn’t happened yet. The smallpox epidemic had taken two-thirds of the world’s population away--including everyone’s family here. That was why we were all here to begin with. Once it appeared, it would stay. And it would leave only with a miracle.

The scientists at the Care Center were working to find a cure and they’d made progress. Now, the kids who had gotten sick had a one out of ten likelihood of surviving. This was a big difference from four, five years ago, when over half of the world’s population was in serious danger. But this wasn’t ordinary smallpox. You’d get the blisters much earlier and they would be huge, the size of thumbnails, covering your body. If you were lucky you got external blisters, and you died quickly enough. If not...they’d form on the inside and soon burst, contaminating your bloodstream with smallpox particles that would spread, and soon you’d die with a broken heart. Literally--the smallpox blisters would grow so big inside your aorta that your heart would explode.

Star Lydia finally stepped up onto the podium and shouted, “Students! Please, settle down! There is nothing to be afraid of!”

That did it.

We all stopped making noise and stared at her. Even I was startled out of my reverie and looked incredulously at her. There was everything to be afraid of.

Star Jozef's calm voice boomed from his TOUCH5 into the vast hall. "Order, students. Order. Archery and Knife Majors, line up against the wall to my right. Sword, Spear, and Staff Majors, against the wall to my left. The rest of the students, please arrange in rows on the floor, initiates in front. Thank you."

No one argued with Jozef. We all snapped to and rushed to our places. Clara found me--since she hadn't graduated from the beginning classes of defense yet, she wouldn't be joining the people lining up against the walls--and we sat down in the middle of the room behind a terrified-to-the-point-of-shaking initiate girl who was clinging to some of her initiate friends.

Alanna--a tall, black-haired woman with nice eyes--stepped up to the podium. "Hello, students. I'm glad to see you all got the message on your TOUCHes. Please, do not be concerned by what you read. Our scientists are handling it efficiently and successfully, and the brave patients are, as we speak, being healed by the best of the best."

Under my feet, where the hospital chambers were, I swear I heard a faint scream of pain. Clara's face went white. Neither of us believed Alanna for a second.

"For now, however, we all need to stay in this hall for the best safety. As you all know from our drills, it may take several days before it is safe to step outside once again.

"Tonight you all will sleep here. We will provide sterilized blankets for warmth and brand-new cleaning supplies--such as toothbrushes, toothpaste, and towels--for each one of you. Have no fear. We estimate it will be only about two or three days before it will be safe to return to the rest of the Care Center."

Alanna looked around at the anxious faces. "Star Caleb will take your questions."

As Caleb stepped up to the podium, nearly everyone's hand shot up.

"Are we all gonna die?!"

"Who are they treating? Are they about to die?!"

"How are we gonna survive?"

I leaned over to Clara.