The Glass City [#Wattys2016]

Part 7

    This is it.  I've arrived at the Glass City.  From up close, I can see that the bubble is actually made of a thick, clear material that I cannot place.  I walk up to the wall, and it shimmers.  I can see the city through it, the people walking, the buildings.  I see my reflection, wavering, as if the wall is a waterfall.  But the reflection isn't me, with my rags I wear for clothes and my dirty brown hair that hasn't been brushed for a week.  The reflection shows someone with healthy skin and a pale blue dress that matches her eyes, my eyes.  I hold a hand out to touch it, and my hand sinks through the clear surface of the bubble's wall, transforming as it does.  My skin, my real skin, shines a healthy pink, and when I pull my hand out, it is gone.  I immerse my whole arm into the bubble, and the same thing happens. I suck in a breath, close my eyes, and step forward.  The material that the wall is made out of tickles me, and I keep walking.  When the tickling sensation stops, I open my eyes.  I am in the Glass City.
Hesitantly, I take off my gas mask.  The air is clean and crisp and easier to breath than outside.  I look down, and I have transformed into the girl I saw in my reflection, back when I was in the wasteland.  I look around, and I see trees, real trees, taller and greener then any I have ever dreamt of.  I cast my gaze to the sky, and it is blue, a brilliant blue that hurts to look at.  I am really here, in the Glass City.
I remember why I'm here.  To get Cass medicine.  Get in, find the medicine, get out.  I don't belong here, and I never will.
I take a couple steps, then break into a run towards the center of the city.  If anyone will help me, that is certainly the place to look.
~ ~ ~ ~
I have reached the center of the city.  People walk briskly, in a rush to get from one place to another.  Why are they rushing?  They don't have a sister at home who has a limited amount of time left to live.  I am looking for a friendly face, someone approachable, when it hits me.  I should talk to someone my own age.  That's when I see them.
A girl who looks to be about my age, walking and holding hands with a younger girl, one who looks identical to Cass.
I almost lose it right there.  It is like I am seeing a mirror image of Cassidy, what she would be like, happy and healthy, if she had been born inside the bubble.  I dash across the square to the girls, stopping them in their tracks.
"Please," I say to the older of the two girls. "You have to help me."  I explain my precarious situation, and tell them about Cass.  I even show them a picture, and the girl nods.
"Follow me," she says, and starts to walk.  She takes me out of the town center, walking at such a quick pace that she scoops up Cass's look-alike and gives her a piggyback ride.  I jog behind her as she explains where we're going.  She claims that her father is a doctor, and that he'll help me.  The girl stops so abruptly that I almost crash into her. 
"This way," she says, and she goes inside the building that we have stopped at.  I follow her in and wait as she places down the younger girl, and then follow her down a long hallway.  She opens a heavy-looking door to a man, sitting at a desk.  He looks up when the door opens, and he stands.  I quickly explain who I am and why I'm here, and he listens silently, yet intently.  I show him the picture of Cass, and he sucks in a breath.
"It looks just like her..." He whispers, and then turns around.  There is a cabinet behind him, with a metal door.  He slips a key out of his pocket and unlocks it.  The door creaks open.  The room suddenly drops a few degrees, and a white mist seeps out of the cabinet.  He hands a box to me, and I open it.  Inside are a silver needle and a vial of blue-green medicine.
"Inject this into the vein in her arm, right here," he says, lightly touching the inside of my elbow.  "That should do the trick.  I wish I could give you one more, just in case, but giving you one is already breaking the law."
I nod in understanding.  "Thank you so much," I say.  "You've helped me more than you know."
He nods, and then leads me into the kitchen, where he gives me a half loaf of bread and a bottle of cold water.  I slip it into my bag along with the medicine, and leave the building.  It's time for me to go home.