Toxicly Yours

Chapter 2 Episode 2

Coral was going to lose her s**t. I inhaled another steadying breath and urged my little car to go faster. The city gardens on the opposite street called to me like they always did. The officials were the only ones with windows that overlooked the manicured beauty while the rest of our dwellings had to settle for holograph screens, but we were free to visit the gardens whenever we wanted.

My fingers itched, aching to touch the tiny rosebuds that would be forming now in early spring. I wanted to stop and say goodbye to the memorial trees grown from the ashes of our loved ones. I’d find peace if I could take a walk through the only place that was able to fake the sensation of the natural world we’d lost. There were a few things I’d miss about our city, but none so much as that.

Tears welled in my eyes as the reality hit. I was really leaving. Except in all my wild

nightmares about this day coming, never did I imagine having to drag my sister with me.

There had to have been signs I missed. She would have told me if she’d known. I mean, she knew everything about me and we didn’t normally lie to each other. She had a temper, but so did I. It wasn’t too far out of the ordinary. She fought against the regulations, but what teenager hasn’t? Sometimes she could be possessive and didn’t like to share…

I wiped my tears and chided myself, knowing I was stretching to find signs that I knew nothing about. The information we had on mutants was probably useless. Anything gleaned from the research facilities was on a need-to-know basis and the propaganda they fed us in school was as outdated as the Bio-Clense years.

I’d long ago learned to question everything they taught. That’s what happens when you don’t meet standard assessment scores and live with the fear that someone will find out you don’t belong here. There has to be a normal range of temperament to make a perfect society.

And Ethica was perfect. It was safe and clean and afforded its citizens a good way of life. I punched in the code to the parking garage as fear pinpricked my skin. The Fringes weren’t that bad, right? People survived out there. My phone chimed with a notification as I drove my car into its spot and an instant mini-heart attack had me reaching for my oils again. But Dr. Bradley wouldn’t lie…

Would he? This was a hell of a day. With the calming scents filling the car, I swiped the lock screen picture of Coral graduating Kindergarten with her cute buckteeth and skipped over the missed notifications from Meg. Roy had sent a text from work, telling me to cover for the line chef tonight. Like normal, my free time wasn’t valued because I didn’t have their fancy certificates.

I hovered over the response button, thinking of some excuse to give him that wouldn’t get me fired. I’d busted my ass trying to get this position in the Horston Millennial Kitchens, even though I worked with a bunch of pretentious jerks.

Another slap of reality. It was all over. Everything I’d worked for. The life I’d created for Coral and me. There was a moment where I wanted to lash out and tell him we weren’t pure enough to set foot in his kitchens; tell him exactly where he and the rest of Ethica citizens could go, but that might set off a chain of events that cost us time.

And time was something we didn’t have anymore.

“Coral!” My voice came out more frantic than I intended as I pressed my palm against the reader that opened the door. Don’t scare her. I had this under control. If I stayed calm, she’d be okay.

Our apartment was dark. The television was off and the computer screens were blank. Normally, I’d enjoy the silence, but now it was causing my pulse to race. She should have been home from school already.

“Coral,” I called again, softer this time, as I made my way to her room. The door was open, bed half-made, piles of dirty clothes on the floor, and the holograph posters of bands she loved hanging on the wall were all dimmed to the power saving cycle.

Tears burned behind my eyes as I entered her sacred space. I’d tried for years to make her life normal and give her everything she was missing. Having two dead parents didn’t exactly give us the best start. There were a million times I failed. But standing in her room now, the unashamed room of a teenager, I knew that I’d given her as normal a life as I could.

Funny how I could only see that when it was hours from being ripped away. Taking a deep breath, I clenched my fists at my sides. Think of ice water. I had to control the emotional spiral before anything stupid happened like blacking out again. It’d been years since I’d lost control like that, the control I’d worked my whole life to maintain as I white knuckled an illusion of normal. That’s how we hide our differences, my father’s voice was an echo of the past. Don’t give them anything to hurt you with. And this was how I’d kept my sister safe.

The sister who should be home right now. Don’t panic. I hurried back to the living room to grab my phone while memories of the past taunted me. My father’s face as he hovered over the bowl of ice water, plunging my hands in again as he repeated the words, “If there’s ever a time when I’m not here and something happens, you run. Don’t trust science. Don’t trust Ethica. Don’t stop until you are outside the gates.”

I’d been fine with that plan as a naive child, not realizing the only other industrialized cities were more than a thousand miles away and unless I wanted to take my chances in the toxic wastelands, I was resigned to the Fringes that existed just outside Ethica’s ruling control.

The Fringes were where the outcasts lived–those not civilized enough to live under the luxury of Ethica’s protection. I could survive it if I had to, but it was no place for a teenage girl.

Too bad there wasn’t another choice. In the morning she’d have a lock on her identity, barring her from air travel and revoking her citizenship. I had to get her out of here before the authorities arrived and carted her ass to the research facilities near the southern gate where I’d never see her again.

I’d die before that happened. I yanked my phone from my purse and skimmed past the unread texts to tap on my sister’s name while rushing back down the hall. The phone continued to buzz against my ear as I pulled two suitcases down from the closet. Her voicemail greeting picked up. I kicked the door closed behind me.

“Hey Coral. This is serious. I need you home right now. Call me back like immediately.” The suitcase fell open as it hit my bed. I was really going to miss my bed. Unshed tears filled my eyes again as I started shoving clothes into the suitcase. There were so many things we were going to need. I had a camping bag packed with a canvas tent that was already in the back of the car. Perks of being prepared to run at a moment’s notice.

But now that I had a little bit of time, I realized how many things I wasn’t ready to let go. My herb plants on the balcony would have to come with us. They barely got enough sun as it was and I couldn’t just let them die. I wanted my pans that I’d scored from second hand shops. I’d never find trusty ones like them again. There was the cast iron skillet with ceramic coating that always smelled of onions and the dented ten-gallon aluminum pot…

I glanced down at my suitcase, wondering if they’d fit. Stop it, Sage. This wasn’t the time to be sentimental. I’d take the pans and my custom kitchen knives.

The skillet and butcher’s blade could double as weapons. I swallowed hard at that thought. The stories about the Fringes were bad, but I’d visited a few times and come back alive. Sure, the crowd was rough. Why else would Ethica not let them in? But no one attacked me in broad daylight. There were the less desirable establishments that people frequented for entertainment not sanctioned by Ethica law, but we’d steer clear of those and hopefully remain safe.

Still, I wasn’t going out there unprepared. I raced to the kitchen, checking my phone to see if I’d missed Coral’s call, and sent her a text in case she’d see that first.