VIRUS

Chapter 7- Siji

    Hamada sat in my room for a while after that. She didn't talk. She just sat. I kept expecting Amelia to show up, but
that never happened. I sat across from her on my mattress. I let her sit on the blankets and sheets I never put on the
bed. They were all folded up, so they gave the effect of a pillow. The silence eventually killed me, and I had to say
something.

    "Are you alright, Hamada?" I asked quietly. I suppose it was a stupid question. She had a virus that had never been
discovered before, one that never let her get a moment's rest, one that woke her up in the middle of the night so it could
talk to people. But I didn't know what else to say. She remained silent, staring at her hands. I couldn't tell whether her
face had emotion or not. But I suppose it didn't matter.

"You can talk to me, you know." I was trying to be comforting. But at that she shot her eyes up at me, glaring with red anger.

"How could I?" she spat, quieter than I expected with that look. "You don't know what I'm going through. You don't know what it's like to be feared for being different, being the outcast people try to accept. It's hideous."

I didn't know how to respond to what she had said. But I suppose what she had said was valid. I didn't know what she was going through, and quite frankly, I didn't want to. But I swallowed that part of myself and met her with what I hoped was kindness.

"I won't treat you like that." She scoffed, her eyes unmasking. I could see all the pain she carried in those eyes then. There was so much of it.

"What do you mean?" she retorted. "You already do. You joined this place so you could kill viruses. You said it yourself."

"What's that got to do with you?" I asked without thinking. She rolled her eyes.

"It's like I said to you," she said with a cold stare. "With a story like that, you don't join the army to help. You join to destroy. And I know deep down you want to kill me. It may not even be that deep down."

"Who said anything about killing?" I shot back. "You're my friend!" She scoffed again.

"Oh, please, you barely know me! All you know is that I'm another target on the battlefield. And when it comes to the killing thing? Even Amelia knew you wanted to kill me."

"I don't think of you as another target on the battlefield!" I shouted. "I think of you as a human being who needs help!"

"Oh, so you're desperate to help the enemy, now, huh?" she shouted back. "I know what the others have been saying. 'Don't trust a virus, we can't trust her'. You all think I'm deaf! You all think I'm just this pathetic demon who's off growling somewhere! Well I'm not! I walk around this place just as you do, so don't think that I won't here the bullshit you say!"

A tear dripped down her face.

She was shaking.

Silence took over us. I didn't know what to say, and she was out of things to shout. Her wall is broken, I thought.

"Hamada," I said eventually. She covered her face with her hands, wiping away her tears. But she didn't leave. She just sat. I wondered what else she could have to say. Or maybe she wanted me to say something specific.

"I'm sorry," I spoke quietly. "That wasn't fair of me." She still sat there, staring off into nothingness. Time passed, just the two of us waiting for the other to speak. Or perhaps we were both waiting for her to speak. Eventually she did, but in a voice so quiet and broken you could barely tell it was her.

"You all think I'm this strong girl because Amelia made me strong," she whispered. "Maybe that's right. I don't know. But have you ever stopped to think that maybe I'm strong because I've been broken too many times? That, maybe Amelia is just as bad for me as she is for you?"