Toxicly Yours

Chapter 5 Episode 5

The memory of our father saying his goodbyes before being hauled off to the incinerator was clear in my mind, because that’s what happens when you treat patients with mutations under the table. I wonder what the punishment would be for marrying one?

It couldn’t have been much worse than the one he got. Coral lowered her face and took a few steadying breaths. “I shouldn’t have said that. I’m sorry.” The fight left her slowly. She’d always reacted strong and fought hard, but loved harder. It was something I wished I could do without drawing attention to myself.

And it also wasn’t in me to hold it against her. “It’s going to be okay,” I promised like I’d done a thousand times before. I wasn’t about to start lying now.

“What’s the plan?” Coral asked, wiping the tears from her face.

The plan. “I know it’s not ideal, but we’ll head to the outskirts of the Fringes and lay low for a while until we can build a life out there. I’ll get another job. There’s always work for a good cook. We’ll find a place to live, but we need to go now before they put a block on our identification cards.”

“On mine,” she whispered. “No.” I reached for her hand, hating the direction her gears were spinning as she began to pace again.

“It’ll only be my card that gets revoked. You don’t have whatever this is,” she paused to motion to her body and looked back up with a fire in her eyes, “so I’ll go and you can stay here. You’ve already done enough for me.”

“Stop it.” I pulled her to my chest. It wasn’t that long ago she fit snugly in my embrace, but now she was all legs and arms, standing a few inches taller than me.

Still, I’d promised to always protect her and it didn’t matter how big she got. “You’re my little sister. I don’t care what those DNA tests say. The same blood runs through us both. If you don’t belong here, neither do I. Whatever happens, we stick together.”

We breathed in sync for a heartbeat or two until I felt her relax. “The Fringes.” She sniffed. “Is there nowhere else we could go? Even with this newfound situation of mine, I’m still not sure we’re cut out for that crowd.”

I pressed my face against her shoulder and laughed at her attempt at a joke. Man, if this wasn’t the most messed up day. “Well Dad seems to think we belong in the toxic wastelands.” I chuckled. “At least in the Fringes we’ll stand a chance.”

“Wait. What do you mean?” She pulled away to look at me. I sighed, instantly exhausted and we hadn’t even started yet. “He left a note with this cryptic message and coordinates to an area in the blast zones of no man’s land with your mother’s name on it.”

“We have to go there.” Coral’s eyes were wide and her voice increased to an excited pitch. Curse science. I hadn’t meant to get her hopes up. “Coral, it’s a joke. We can’t go out there. Everyone knows there is nothing left but radioactive fallout and death.”

“But why would Dad tell us to go if we couldn’t go?” She turned her palms in the air and stared at me.

“Technically, he didn’t tell us to go. He left a paper with an address…” My voice trailed off as Coral screeched, rushing out of the kitchen.

“Where is it?” she cried. “The note? It’s in my purse.” I followed after her as she spilled the contents of my bag over the floor. “And you’re going to pick that up.”

“In a minute.” She waved her hand in the air, reading the three lines on the page with an intensity reserved for a placement test. When she glanced back up, her face was full of childlike hope.

I took a step back. “Don’t even think about it.” Her bottom lip jutted out and began to tremble a bit. “Sage…” “Absolutely not.” I shook my head. “The last time I checked, there was only one adult alive in this family, and I’m making the grown-up decision to keep us both in the land of the living.”

“I hate to tell you this, but an hour ago I was just another normal girl and now I’m apparently a mutant. There’s a good chance Dad is trying to tell us something. Like maybe more of what we thought

was a lie.” Coral shrugged.

She had a point. “Why don’t we shelve this thought for now and we’ll do some more research when we get to the Fringes.” I reached out to take the page back.

She held it over my head, dancing away. “Oh because there is a database and library out there. Sure.” She rolled her eyes. “Please, Sage. Let’s go check it out. What’s the worst that could happen? We can always come back to the Fringes if it’s really as bad as they say out there.”

Frowning, I caught ahold of the paper. But how could I say no when for the first time since she’d heard the news, there was real joy on her face again?

I’d spent most of my life doing everything to make this silly girl smile. “Fine.” Coral screamed as she crushed me in a hug. “This is going to be so crazy.” “Hurry up and finish packing.” I laughed as I shoved her down the hall, hoping this wasn’t a horrible mistake.

Because the idea of going to the toxic wastelands sounded really, really stupid.

Something big was going to happen. I knew it in my gut. The only time I didn’t trust my intuition was when I dated Jeremy and look how that turned out. A part of me wanted to stop driving and make Coral understand that we shouldn’t rush into this, but it seemed like the more I resisted the idea, the more everything felt wrong.

Coral sat on the passenger seat of the KIA with her face pressed against the window, lost in her own thoughts as we pulled out of the parking garage. The back row was packed with everything we could stuff inside and the trunk had the plants that couldn’t be left behind.

I gripped the wheel tight as we drove away from the apartment complex and toward the business district, thankful that the directions I’d printed led through the northern gate because I didn’t want Coral anywhere near the research facilities down south.

The sun was just setting and the streets were lighting up as the crowds began moving onto the conveyer belt walkways. Entertainment in Ethica began after dark. While the city was coming alive, we were sneaking away in the shadows.

Surprisingly, I was calm and numb, drawing on an inner strength to keep the vehicle steady as we left it all behind.

Our lives behind. Potentially life itself behind as we headed into the toxic wastelands. Okay, maybe I wasn’t as calm as I’d like to believe, but for Coral’s sake, I’d fake it. “How are you doing?” I bit my lip as we approached the gate’s guard tower. There were only two vehicles in front of us and the authorities were taking their time as they talked.

“I’m fine.” Coral pulled her knees to her chest and rested her chin on top of them, but she was picking at the hem of her pants near her ankles with an anxious fury.

My fingers drummed against the steering wheel. What is taking so long? Citizens were allowed outside the city walls even though most of them never set foot in the Fringes. It wasn’t illegal to leave even if the entertainment they went there for was. We weren’t prisoners; history has shown

that isolated utopias breed doubt and suspicion. Plus, it was a good reminder that there were haves and have nots to show citizens all the things they could lose.

The city walls were only there for protection against the horrors of this world. Monsters. Mutants. I looked at Coral who was busy shoving earbuds into her ears as some cheesy pop song played through the speakers.

Finally, the vehicle in front of us passed through the well lit gate and into the darkness beyond. I powered down the window as the guard waved us forward.

“Where are you two going tonight?” His blue tinted LED flashlight swept over our faces as I dug out my identification card from my purse.

It’s none of his business. We’re still citizens until tomorrow. That thought kept my hand steady as I handed over the card and nudged Coral to get hers out. “I’m taking my sister to visit our distant cousin.”

“How distant?” He arched an eyebrow as Coral reached past me, thrusting her card into his hand.