No Time To Bleed

About a half an hour later I was cleared to the main population after Thorough Cleansing.
Whatever the hell that meant.

The airport seemed to be quiet at the moment, people sitting in waiting chairs with tables of hot food nearby and guards at every door. The carpets were deep blues and ticket checkout desks seemed to be reserved for locating people.

I went up to the desk and the woman smiled at me. “How can I help you?”

The worst they could do was say no, right?

“I’m looking for someone under the last name, Brown?”

She raised her jet black eyebrows. “What’s the first name? Are you related to this person?”

“Oh no! First name is Ryant?”

She typed in on her portable computer and came up with nothing. “I’m sorry we don’t have that person in our custody. Would you like me to ask one of the guards?”

A guard? “No thank you. It was just a friend of mine that I was looking for…”

I turned around and itched at my arm. They had taken some of my blood samples after Brett Wiggins had left.

And where the hell was Clarissa or Kevin or Cece or Aliah?

After that, I walked around for a while, scanning the faces of all the people there for anyone potentially recognizable. There were families of people, huddled together and reading bedtime stories to kids. I hadn’t even realized it, but the world outside had turned to a lonesome black.
The snipers in towers had brought our beams of searing light to search the darkness.

“You’re new here, right?” A girl next to me said. She appeared to be about my age. “My name’s Antoinette.”

I looked to the girl. She was short, an inch less than my 5’4” with warm toned skin and the silky waves to match. She wore jeans and Eyes Set To Kill band tee shirt.

“Where’d you get the tee shirt? They gave you that to wear?”

Antoinette shrugged. “Most of the teens here trade clothing. There’s a hotel in the airport they let us stay at and there’s washing machines there too.”

A trading system for clothes? Sounded gross if the washing machine part hadn’t been added in.
I chose to ignore her and just start scanning faces again. She didn’t seem to let my evasiveness go easily.

“You’re pretty, you know that?”

I chuckled and smiled to her.

“Is this you hitting on me?”

Antoinette shook her head. “No. Just trying to be nice. You and your buddies caused quite a stir when you came in. That one girl practically beat that guy's face in and no one does that.”

“That one girl you’re talking about, her name is Cece.” I didn’t know why I was defensive. I guess it was the fact I wasn’t used to new interaction of this kind.

“Well, Cece, you’re friend. She came out of examination about a half an hour ago. I know where she is if you want to find her.” My teeth went together in my jaw as Antoinette wrapped a finger around her shoulder length black curls. “Is it a deal or are you just gonna keep on looking around for your friends aimlessly?”

I rolled my eyes. “Alright. Show me where she is.”

We walked down a long patch of waiting chairs. TV’s churned above with the first news of anything I’d heard in the longest while.

Cannibalistic Outbreak Rages Through Southwestern Town: Global Stock Trading Company Comes To The Rescue

“Do these televisions play all the time?” I asked, eyes scanning upward.

“Pretty much. You learn to drown them out after a while though. Some of the little kids can’t sleep with them on though.”

“So, they don’t even turn them off at night?” I said

“No. They want to control our minds of course.”

Mind control? I thought the our state was infested with zombies?

“Here we are.”

We’d made it to the food court which was a large circular hall with a glass skylight above. The entire skylight showed a sky full of blinking stars. We eased our way into the area's Pizza Hut area and I was disappointed not to smell baking bread and tomato sauce in the air. The seating arrangement was basically one of a cluster of chairs and couches moved from other places.

“Alright, kids, listen up!” The group turned and darted their eyes at me. “This is Jasmine. What’s your last name?”

I felt my heart skip a beat and I shook my head. “Oh no. I don’t give out my last name to strangers. “

A boy in the crowd scrunched his face.

“That’s weird.”

Cece stood up as I put my hands against my hips. “Well, I can punch your teeth in so then you won't be able to speak.”

The smile left the boy’s face and a few people laughed at my remark.

“Jasmine, calm down. That boy’s nice. He gave me his mp3 player.” Cece said.

I looked at her like she was smoking weed.

“Are you on crack? This could be a tracking device!” I snatched the mp3 from her and she shrieked.

“Hey! I was listening to that! I threatened to kill you once, don’t make me do it again!”

The group laughed again and the boy who I’d already decided I hated stood.

“Okay, hand it over. I don’t want my baby to get hurt.”

“Baby?” Cece and I looked to him, bewildered as we spoke at the same time. “Baby?”

“My name’s Kyle by the way and I practically live music.”

He plucked the mp3 out my hands and I crossed my arms over my chest again. Cece jabbed me in the side and I was wondering what the hell had gotten to her. Kyle was still staring us down, placing a hand under his jaw

“Kyle, sit down. These girls don’t want you undressing them with your eyes.” Antoinette griped.

Kyle had dirty blonde hair with streaks of black moving throughout. Around his neck was a large pair of headphones fit for a DJ. Eventually he sat down and Antoinette turned to us.

“Don’t mind my brother. He has the sexual drive of a cow on Viagra. It gets old after the first five seconds. We’re both adopted.”

“Boo! You’re just jealous I get more girls than you!” he cracked.

“Kyle, how many times do I have to tell you? The correct term is bisexual you moron.”

She began to rub her temples and Cece giggled madly.

“You guys are funny." she said. "We’ll need to hang out when all this madness are over.”

We all eventually migrated to the remaining seats available in the group of about twenty teenagers.

“Are all of you guys the only teenagers in this place?” I asked.

Kyle shook his head and slung his arm around the jet black haired girl next to him. “Nah. We’re just the cool one.”

“Kyle, name one thing about you that's even remotely cool. Could it be the bedazzled female genitalia you hide in your pants or the labor inducing music you listen to?

“Why are you showing off in front of the new girls? You’re just jealous they like me more.” He stuck his tongue out at his sister.

Eventually she ended up yanking his hair and shoving his head into the table before seething quietly in her chair. The group around got silent and Kyle rubbed his head.

“So how long have you guys been here?” Cece asked, bewildered.

A girl with jade green eyes and Italian features answered. “For about a week. They evacuated all the people who got here first. We all milled in from the town a few days after the outbreak. They said they’re containing us until they’re positive we’re not infected.”

“But, that’s stupid. You become one of those things in like a few minutes after you’re infected. Why would they keep us if we’re sane?” I debated.

“Because we’ve seen what’s happened out there." Antoinette said. "Those sick bastards want to cover it up.”

The group got suddenly silent again and Kyle whispering fragrantly at his sister until her temper popped again. She within seconds she departed from the group.

“Uhh, what’s your sister’s deal?” Cece asked.

Kyle rolled his eyes. “She’s got all these crazy ideas about Lexicon. Says she say them doing weird stuff to people that came in with us. That they're evil, etc.”

“How long ago did you and her come here?” I asked.

“About about 4 days ago. Those guards treated us like crap, a lot like they did you guys. But, ever since then they’ve been completely nice to me.”

“Do you have any idea where they take pregnant people?” Cece questioned. “We have a friend that’s pregnant and we haven’t seen here since we got in.”

“They’d take her to the infirmary. That’s on the first floor of the hotel, but you might have a hard time with that.”

“Why?”

Kyle looked ill equipped to give an answers and the boy next to him spoke. “They keep dead serious lockdown on the pregnant people for some reason. You’re only chance of seeing your friend is sneaking in and that’s impossible.”

I swallowed and internally cursed. We’d just gone through hell to get Aliah away from the Psycho Family, now she was trapped by Lexicon. Talk about damsel in distress.

“Excuse me.”

The entire group went silent again as a voice from behind ushered us.

“Hey, um, what’s up? I thought you were in the infirmary after what happened last week.” Kyle uttered.

“I need to talk to her.”

The voice sent shivers up and down my spine. It couldn't be him.

“Who? The new girl?” Kyle pointed to me.

“Yeah.”

Kyle looked to me. “He wants to talk to you.”

“Hey Jasmine.”

The voice was said the words right into my ear this time and I couldn't help the heat that crossed my cheeks. So I swallowed the lump of cotton in my throat, turned to the boy, and responded in a tiny voice

“Hey Jesse.”