Children of the Plague

Chapter Sixteen: The Other You

Chapter Sixteen: The Other You

Bright electric light filtered through Lanni’s eyelids; a harsh welcome back to the waking world. Struggling to move, she slid her left arm across the cold metal surface beneath her. Even the slightest movement required heavy concentration, but her body gradually obeyed. She found herself sitting on the edge of a metal table, like the ones in the morgue on police shows.

Sounds were distorted and distant, and a fuzzy, sleepwalking sensation clouded her head. A husk woman cowered in the corner, staring alternately at Lanni and the palms of her hands.

She hopped down from the table and padded to the door, bare feet slapping on the tile. The door had no knob or handle, but through her mental haze, she recognized the simple amplified light trigger that controlled the magnetic lock.

A part of her found it very odd that she knew how to operate such a thing, but she traced a few lines on the blank pad, rotated the black, quarter-sized hemisphere about twenty degrees and slid it to the right. A light blinked on the control panel, and the door swung inward.

The room beyond was well-lit by more electric lights in the ceiling. No dim, flickering, bulbs, like in Tina’s infirmary room, these were strong and steady. As before, it was exactly as she expected it to be, but still very strange.

Stepping purposefully into the large, high-ceilinged room, Lanni had to make herself stop and look around. Her body seemed to be acting on force of habit since her mind wasn’t giving it orders. She had to clear her head. She had important work to do.

Large green boxes, the sort that would hold rocket launchers and high-tech weapons in an action movie, were stacked throughout the room. There were four stacks of eight boxes, plus one outside each cell door. Several individual boxes were scattered in various locations, as well.

Directly across the rectangular room, Mitch stood beside a wheeled cart with a police-style collapsible baton. Another husk woman crouched in front of him, eating what appeared to be a thick sausage.

A chime rang, and the husk tensed. It backed away from Mitch, still holding its meal protectively, but no longer eating it. Mitch extended his baton with a snap of his arm, and stepped closer, eliciting a frightened growl from the cowering creature. A second chime starting dinging, lower in tone than the first, and a circular area of the floor beneath them glowed red.

The husk screamed as Mitch advanced on her, raising an arm protectively over her head while clutching her food with the other.

“Drop it,” Mitch commanded. He struck without hesitation, repeating his order between blows. The husk fell into a fetal position, screaming every time he struck her, but she didn’t relinquish her prize.

Lanni watched the brutal scene in calm silence, but blow by blow, her calm dissipated. The continuous violence was like bright sunlight burning her mental fog away, shocking her from her stupor. Her pulse quickened, and the fog lifted, taking the odd sense of familiarity with it.

I’ll show him a thing or two with that baton.

“Mitch!” She didn’t care that he was a fully grown man and still two hundred plus pounds. Much of it was fat, anyway. He was probably the last chubby guy on the planet.

Startled, he spun to face her, ignoring his victim. It wasn’t until that moment that Lanni realized she was standing in her underwear. But that couldn’t be helped now.

She couldn’t tell if his surprise was in seeing her out of her cell, or if it was because she was mostly naked, but either way he stopped beating the husk. He stared at Lanni like a deer in headlights, his baton dangling at his side.