“Drugs?” Lillie managed to get out. Her head had never ached like this before. She closed her eyes, but it didn’t help. Very rarely had Lillie gotten sick at all, and then she always threw it off quickly. Good immune system, Uncle Keith always said.
Uncle Keith…
When she opened her eyes, a second bed floated beside hers, and the room was full of people.
“Maglev!” Rafe said, ducking to crawl underneath the floating platform. “Has to be! The floor has superconductors woven into it, right, Pam?”
“Get out from there, Rafe,” Pete said. “The floater isn’t important. It’s not the right way, just a necessary machine. Just relax, Lillie.”
“Mike?”
“He’s still at breakfast,” Madison said. “You want me to go get him?”
Answering was too much effort. Pete easily lifted Lillie from her bed to the platform. Somewhere behind her headache and wheezy breathing, Lillie was glad she was dressed. The platform floated out of the room, Pam and Pete on either side, the others trailing behind in concern or excitement.
“Go eat breakfast,” Pam told them irritably.
“Do we still have school?” somebody called.
‘Yes! Of course!”
The platform floated Lillie through commons, through the garden, to a far wall. Lillie made herself turn her head to look. The wall was closed seamless metal… until Pam touched it. It began to open.
Pam said something sharply to Pete in a language Lillie had never heard. He answered impatiently, “Not outside here!” Lillie floated through the wall.
She scanned everything, ignoring pain, knowing she would have only a few seconds. Sure enough, the drowsiness struck and she was asleep.
But not before she’d seen a totally alien place, and a monster flowing toward her.
CHAPTER 11
She woke in her own room, Sajelle and Pam beside her. She felt wonderful.
“Hey, baby, you awake?” Sajelle said fondly.
“Yes.” Lillie sat up. There was no weakness, no grogginess. She felt she could run a marathon. “What was it?”
“A virus,” Pam said warmly. “Acquired, latent until now. We haven’t seen it before. We added it to the genetics library.”
“You’re a library all by yourself,” Sajelle said, grinning.
Madison breezed into the room with a huge bunch of yellow and pink flowers. “Lillie! You were right, Pam, she woke up just when you said. These are for you, fresh from the garden.”
Lillie took the flowers. They smelled incredibly sweet.
“Mixed the genes myself,” Madison said proudly.
Rafe and Jason entered hesitantly. Pam, Lillie noticed, scowled briefly at Rafe, then replaced the scowl with a pleasant smile. Jason said, “The princess awakes!” He made a low sweeping caricature of a bow.
Rafe said, “You okay, Lillie?”
“I’m fine.” She swung her feet off the bed. Her body felt bursting with health. “Where’s Mike?” Suddenly nobody looked at her.
A tiny cold chill hit Lillie’s spine. “Where’s Mike? Is he sick, too? Did I give him my disease?”
“Oh, no, Mike’s fine,” Madison said, still not looking at her.
Jason said, “He’s still in the showers. He was going in when I was coming out.”
From Sajelle: “You’ll see him in class. Right after breakfast.”
Breakfast? Lillie said, “But… but you were all going into breakfast when I went into the hospital.” A memory tugged at her, something strange and monstrous… it was gone. “Pam, did you cure me that fast?”
Pam laughed. Madison said, “She doesn’t realize! Lillie, you’ve been gone ten days!”
Ten days.
Pam saw her face. “It’s all right, Lillie,” she said reassuringly. “It just took that long to remove every trace of the virus from your body. But you’re fine.”
Madison added, “And Emily’s going to help you catch up on what you missed in class.”
Ten days.
Lillie said slowly, “I’d like a shower, too. Before breakfast.”
Pam laughed again. “Lillie, we returned you perfectly clean!”
“I’d like one anyway. Sajelle, you, too?” She caught and held Sajelle’s eye.
Sajelle understood. “That’s where I was going. I’m grubby as hell.”
“Well, be quick,” Pam said. “Class starts soon. Lillie, we’re so glad to have you back.”
She left, trailed by everyone except Sajelle. It seemed to Lillie that they were all very eager to leave.
She and Sajelle walked to the showers, undressed, stuffed their clothing into the instant-cleaning slot. Lillie turned on the water hard and said quietly to Sajelle, “What’s going on?”
Sajelle said uncomfortably, “Nothing going on.”
“Sajelle, please. I need to know.”
Sajelle scrubbed herself vigorously, her eyes fixed on a spot on the wall. “You been gone ten days, Lillie. Every day Pam and Pete say you doing fine. And you sure look fine now. But while you gone…”
“What?”
“You going to know anyway, I guess,” Sajelle said resignedly. “Mike took up with Sophie. They sleeping together.”
Such a sharp pain went through her that Lillie was astonished. It actually felt like a physical piercing.
Sajelle said, “I’m sorry, baby. He’s just no good.”
Lillie said mechanically, “Yes, he is.” And then, in anguish, “He couldn’t wait for me?”
“Guess not. Aw, Lillie, don’t cry.”
“I’m not crying.” And she wasn’t. She didn’t feel at all close to tears. Just that sharp, breath-stealing pain in her chest.
Sajelle said, with a transparent effort to distract here, “What did you see in the pribir hospital?”
“Nothing.” Only there was a memory, a glimpse of… gone.”
“You out the whole time, then?”
“Yes.”
“We’re glad to have you back, girl.”
“Yes.”
Sajelle shut off the water. “Come on, Lillie. Let’s go. You need to eat. He isn’t worth it, baby. Get dressed.”
Lillie couldn’t eat. She put a few spoonfuls of food into her mouth, but the action was as mechanical as dressing had been. She followed Sajelle to class, let Sajelle seat her at a table with herself, Alex, and Bonnie. They were all self-consciously enthusiastic about her return.
At a far table, Mike held hands with Sophie.
It doesn’t stop, Lillie marveled. The pain in her chest didn’t lessen or increase, it just went on at the same level, swamping everything else. In class Lillie couldn’t handle any of the equipment. She just sat, hands folded in her lap, while the images Pete was smelling to them formed, unheeded, in her mind. Pam frowned at her in concern.
It went on the same all day. Every once in a while Lillie thought, I’m still breathing. It was an abstract thought, without force. Mike didn’t care if she was breathing or not. So neither did she.
After dinner she went to her room instead of to the garden with the others. She sat on the edge of her bed with her hands folded in her lap, staring at nothing. Sajelle and Rebecca came in.
Rebecca said, “Lillie, you have to stop this.”
Sajelle snapped, “You ever had your heart broke, Becky? I don’t think so.”
“But look at her! Lillie, you’re not… you’re barely…”
Yes, Lillie thought, but said nothing.
Rebecca started to chatter desperately. “Well, at least let me tell you what’s been going on while you were gone, Lillie. You won’t believe it! Jason—you know he tomcats around, in a different bed every night, thinks he’s God’s gift to girls not in couples…” She stopped, looking stricken.