17

Evazee stood next to Zulu and admired his handiwork. “If the high priest thing doesn’t work out, you can go into construction. This looks good.”

A quick smile cracked his face, followed by a frown.

“I’m sorry, that’s not funny. It does look much better though.”

Zulu had found a bunch of weeds growing nearby with leaves as tough as leather, but bendy like rubber. He’d used the leaves to lash all the walls together and create a makeshift hinge for the door. It swung open and closed with ease. He’d tested it all by leaning on the outside wall with his full weight.

Evazee’s heart nearly stopped. She imagined the structure coming down on top of the old lady and Sam like a house of cards. But Zulu had leaned and pushed, and the structure had stood.

He’d also laid a new layer of leaves over her holey roof. He’d split the topside of each leaf from the underside, using the sticky sap to glue multiple layers of leaves together. The sap would gradually harden to a solid resin that would stop any leaks.

The old lady came out blinking like an owl. She nearly fell out the door as it swung back easily instead of needing a hard shove. Her eyes misted over as she saw what Zulu had done. “How can I thank you?”

“No, thank you.” Zulu grinned.

Evazee patted his arm and shook her head. “There is a way you can thank us.” She led the way back into the shack. Half shocked at her own boldness, she reached for the dark bottle on the shelf. “Please don’t drink any more of this.”

“But it’s good. It does good.” The old lady’s face puckered up into creases of distress.

“No, no it’s not. Can I show you?” She didn’t wait for permission, and she had no idea if this was going to work or not, but she had to try something to stop this woman and her son from drinking serum.

She let herself out and tipped a few drops onto one of the plants that Zulu had harvested root leaves from. Nothing. The old woman came shuffling across the dirt and hunched over even further for a closer look.

“Well?”

“Let’s just give it another minute. I don’t know how quickly it will take effect.” Evazee began to wonder if she should have poured out more. She was just considering it when the old lady’s patience ran out.

She plucked the bottle from Evazee’s hand and shuffled back towards her house muttering.

Sam stood staring at the tree hardly blinking. Evazee gave him a hug. “I’m sorry, Sam. We have to go.”

Sam stubbornly refused to budge. He shook his head once and kept eyeballing the tree.

Evazee rubbed his head in farewell and motioned to Zulu. It was time to leave.

They collected the other two off the dusty street and started walking.

Evazee had no idea where to go or why. As they walked through the slums, Evazee saw signs of the serum. Empty bottles lying around, some people leaned on their broken walls, drinking from the bottles openly. They were all hooked on this stuff. What would it take to get them all free? This was impossible.

Zulu rubbed his hands on his shirt as they walked. Then he started rubbing them on each other, seeming more desperate as they went.

Bree clucked her tongue at him, “You’re making me itchy just watching you. What are you doing?”

Zulu held out his hands towards her. “Leaf sap. Too sticky to wipe off, itchy now.”

Evazee shut her eyes and stuck out her hands as if she were trying to navigate her way out of a giant maze. She scratched her chin. “I’m sure there’s a river close by here. Let’s see if we can find it.”

Bree crossed her arms over her chest and tapped her foot faster than a foot should move. “It’s probably not a good idea to ask the only one here who used to live in this neighbourhood. That person wouldn’t have a clue where to find what you need.” She coughed behind her hand and stared off into the distance.

“You know where to find water?” Evazee asked. Her cheeks were hot. She should have remembered that Bree used to live here.

“It sometimes moves around, but it should be quite close. I know because I used to avoid it.”

~*~

Kai sat in the cell, studying the walls, the floor, the locked door all by the light that came from him. Lab Coat had untied him from the gurney and bullied him down the stairs and into this cell. He hadn’t denied it though, and the panic in the man’s eyes had spoken volumes.

So Kai had been shoved into this locked room and apparently forgotten. They could try and lock him in, but that didn’t mean he’d be as meek and submissive as a lamb. There was no time for this nonsense. He ran his fingers along the floor, along the join where the floor met the wall. He shut his eyes and let his Affinity kick in.

The room glowed green, and he took a moment to let his eyes adjust.

A quiet click and the door slid open just enough for a man to slip through. It was a Lab Coat—Elden and Bree’s dad.

Kai stayed on the floor, arms looped around his knees, torn between the desire to bash the man on the head and run, and stay put and perhaps have some of the puzzle unravelled.

The man seemed aware of the possibility of having his head bashed as he approached Kai with his hands up. “I’m here to talk, and I don’t have much time. Hear me out.”

Kai waved to a spot on the floor.

The man frowned but sat down anyway. “You can call me Dr S. I’ll get straight to the point. Elden doesn’t know that I’m alive.”

“Neither does Bree.”

Pain flashed across the doctor’s face, but it was gone in a moment. “They can’t know that I am.” His watch beeped. He reset it and took eye drops out of his shirt pocket. Two drops in each eye then he tucked them back in his pocket and blinked a few times. With a sniff, he sneaked a sideways glance at Kai’s face and sighed. “My death was staged to protect them. The work I’m doing here is of the utmost importance and because of that, I have some powerful enemies. It was the only way I could protect them.”

A pit of anger lit in Kai’s belly, a slow burn of rage fuelled by his helplessness to free Bree, to see her whole. This man was clueless.

“I’m sorry, but in your opinion, what do you do here that is so important?”

Lab Coat leaned back on the wall and his face lit up. “Serum development. We’ve just made a huge breakthrough. Huge. Up until now, the serum has worn off within hours. But I think we finally have a permutation that will be permanent. A single dose will alter the user on a DNA level that won’t dissipate over time.”

Kai’s spit dried up. “And you think this is a good thing?”

Dr S. seemed taken aback. “Yes, of course. Obviously. How can you ask that?”

“Wait, back up a moment. To your knowledge, what does your serum do, exactly?”

“I can see that you’re a serum user yourself. Do I honestly have to describe this for you?” He shrugged and carried on. “Our serum is designed to integrate all parts of a person. To firstly wake up the spirit, and then connect mind, body and spirit to function in unison. Can you imagine every person on the earth functioning at their highest capacity? The world would be a very different place.”

The way the man’s face glowed, Kai could tell he believed every word of the sewage coming out of his mouth. Someone had short-circuited his brain.

“Have you ever tried the serum you create? Injected it into your own veins?”

“Well, no. I’m not allowed. But my field agents have told me some incredible stories. I’m part of changing people’s lives forever.” He deflated, and a hint of pain twisted his forehead. “I know it must be hard for you to understand how I could leave my family.”

“Lie to them.” Break their hearts. Mangle their insides. Betray them in every way.

“You’re right, of course. But surely you can see that this is bigger than me, bigger than their feelings. I wouldn’t abandon my own flesh and blood for anything less than this. I’m part of recreating the world as we know it.”

Affinity zipped through Kai’s veins, quickening his heartbeat. When he looked up, the doctor’s head lit up in a solid helmet of green light. Even his eyes lit up green as if he were a cat in the dark under torchlight. Someone had done a dirty on him. This would take some delicate handing.

“Doctor, I can see you believe in what you do. I don’t know how to break this to you, but you’ve been lied to.”

~*~

Bree pushed through between two bushes and waved her arm towards the sparkling expanse of water. “There you go. Not too far from where I remember it.”

Zulu ran to the edge, knelt down, and plunged his hands into the water, sighing with relief.

“Are they feeling a bit less itchy now?” Evazee pushed past the bushes and stopped at the sight of the water. The sparkling ripples made her tummy flip. Not long ago, she would have been the first one in, but now? Who knew what would happen? She settled down against a tree trunk and watched Zulu’s face.

He kept plunging his arms in, even though the stickiness would have washed off on the first rinse. His face lit up as he allowed the water to dribble through his fingers. He chuckled and dipped his head under the water. Then he sat up with a gasp and shook the water off his head.

Bree sat next to Evazee, frowning at Zulu. “He’s enjoying this way too much, don’t you think?”

“I know, right?”

Paintbrush stood next to them for a moment, then she took off at full speed and bomb-dropped into the water, splashing Zulu. He guffawed a deep bellow laugh and scooped a handful of water over her head. She shrieked with laughter.

“The plant. It died.”

The voice came from behind and Evazee spun around, ready to jump up and fight.

Sam stared at her with wide eyes, and he clutched the serum bottle from his Gran’s house to his chest. He stumbled forward on wooden legs, bewilderment all over his face. “The plant is dead.” He held out the serum bottle pinched between two fingers. “Please. Take it.” His foot snagged a root, and he tripped. The bottle flew out of his hand, uncapped in midair, and spun. Liquid poured out in a trailing arch and landed on Bree.

“Bree! Go wash it off, quick.” Evazee leapt to her feet to help her friend.

“My eyes. It’s in my eyes.” Bree waved her arms around like a blind person swatting at bees.

“Wait, I’ll help you.” Evazee put an arm around Bree and they shuffled to the water together. As they got closer to the bank, Evazee’s foot slipped on a slick rock. She landed with a thump, pulling Bree down with her.

Bree slipped from her grasp and slid unceremoniously on her bottom all the way into the river. She spluttered as she rinsed out her eyes.

Evazee sat on the bank, catching her breath, keeping an eye on Bree to make sure she was fine.

Without realizing it, Bree had switched to using both hands.

Zulu and Paintbrush had quieted down and settled in the shallows to watch Bree too.

Sam pushed back onto his haunches, and tears gathered along his lashes.

Bree rubbed her hair in the water, rinsing out serum. Every movement was smooth, and her hand worked normally. Healed, so effortlessly, so easily, she hadn’t even realized it.

The dropped serum bottle lay sizzling on the rocks. It was the hiss that drew Evazee’s attention. The last bit of serum ran out the bottle and down the rock freely, heading towards Zulu’s hand.

“Zulu! Watch out!”

Zulu turned and instinctively scooped a double handful of water from the river and tipped it on the serum. It hissed and steamed, Evazee couldn’t tell if the serum was burning up the water, or if the water was dissolving the serum.

Bree waded back to the bank and climbed out, plonking herself down next to Evazee.

Zulu and Paintbrush followed, all crowding around while Bree checked to make sure that no serum had missed the wash.

“Your hand...”

Bree stopped moving and sat as still as a deer.

“I think it’s working again.”

“It’s not possible.” Bree tucked it back on her lap the way she had been doing for months. She eyed it and shivered.

Evazee found a round stone and tossed it at her friend. “Incoming.”

Bree ducked sideways but reached up with both hands. She caught the rock in her once-damaged hand. The skin was smooth and whole and the fingers closed around the stone with the same strength they’d had before her run-in with the darKounds.

She threw the stone at the river and got to her feet. “This place isn’t safe. We should get going.” She pushed off the dark brown dirt and made her way back to the path.

The others followed in awed silence.

Halfway to the path, the dust at Evazee’s feet swirled in miniature sand tornadoes. The wind was picking up.

“This is weird. I don’t remember there being wind the last time I was here.”

Bree tucked her arms over her chest, hands in her armpits.

Evazee couldn’t see her damaged hand to check if the change was still there. She also didn’t feel free to reach out and take Bree’s hand to check.

The wind picked up, gusting around them with intention.

“I don’t like this. Can we leave, please?” Bree shuffled closer to Zulu, tucking herself in between him and Evazee.

The wind pumped faster now, whipping Evazee’s long hair into a tangled mess and pushing her along the path faster than she’d intended walking. With a loud snap, the wind shifted direction and sucked them backwards.

Evazee grabbed Sam. “Fill that bottle with river water. Make sure your Gran drinks it every day. Go, now!”

The buffeting force was too strong to resist so the friends let it take them, struggling against the awkwardness of it all.

“This is not natural wind. Guys, hold hands. Quick.”

They reached for each other as the wind kicked up a notch. Zulu grabbed Ziqi as the swirling began. The wind twirled around them like water down a plug hole, and their feet lifted off the ground.

“What is happening?” Bree yelled, shrill and high above the sound.

“Hold tight. Don’t let go.” Zulu sounded calm enough, but Evazee knew him well enough to know that he wasn’t.

Faster now, the wind pumped, spinning them in midair.

They hung weightless, and then dropped like a bag of bricks off a roof. They hit the cold stone with an oof.

A single clear chime rang out and Evazee knew exactly what had happened.

Somehow, they had passed the test of the arch. The task set for them was complete and the arch had brought them back.

Back to a basement full of Zulu’s people, angry and ready for trouble.