March City: Rebellion of the Gifted [Book 2 | Complete | Fantasy/Sci-fi]

Chapter 19: Sick Weather

"What's the weather like over there?"

Mina scowled, not appreciative of Rale's poor taste in jokes. He shoved his hands into his trouser pockets and leant back, grinning back at Mina through the dimmed, electromagnetic-charged glass. He seemed quite content with himself: clean-dressed and -shaven, colour in his cheeks, a mischievous sparkle in his eyes. Mina, on the other hand, knew she must have seen better days. Ever since the screams in the night had started, she'd barely gotten a wink of sleep, and self-care had dropped majorly in her priority list when there were so many distressed and sickly students. Her dark brown hair had been in a thick plait behind her head. It now puffed out with volume like Jenny Allan's, but matted and messy, not elegant and shapely like the doctor's. Last time she'd looked in a mirror, she had well-established dark circles sat under reproachful hazel eyes. Her mouth turned down at the corners. How gleeful Rale looked.

"If you're just here to gloat, then bugger off elsewhere." Even her voice was hoarse and strained.

"You're sounding quite tired. Are they not giving you rest there?"

"There's nothing to do but rest here," she snapped. How many days had it been since she was locked up in here, abandoned, forgotten? She'd lost count. She'd counted all the people that passed, day in, day out. She'd counted the nanocarbon mesh-covered air vents on every wall of every chamber, through which filtered one-way air was pumped. "Unless you're one of the sick ones. Then you do nothing but scream and shout and try to blow the place up."

"My condolences." He couldn't look any less sorry. "I can't imagine being in your shoes. I'd probably have shot them all by now. Wouldn't you?"

She scowled. "Trust you to say that. They're one of us. Just because they're sick doesn't mean you can treat them less. Everyone here already does. Don't you spit on them as well."

"They're happy to do just that here, spitting on us all." Rale wrinkled his nose. "You should just see how they looked at your precious sister and the other Users who're out there right now, when they left. Like gum that got stuck to the bottom of your shoe. Wish we didn't have to work for douche canoes like these, but, eh, what choices do we have?"

"We had a choice. We just didn't choose properly," she said scathingly. They should have stayed at the shopping facility. They were caged rats there; they were caged rats here, too.

"You'd rather people behind you scream and bounce off the walls in that shopping facility instead?" Rale raised an eyebrow. "I mean, it doesn't matter to me either way. I don't have to babysit the riff-raff, but I thought these were your friends."

"I thought you guys were, too, but I guess that's too much to ask. You enjoying your freedom? Enjoying the sunshine and the fresh air? Enjoying going wherever you pleased, doing whatever you pleased? Because I'm certainly loving hearing all about it."

"As if we get that freedom." Rale laughed. Mina's hands curled into fists and she fought the temptation to phase through the wall — not that she could — and punch him in the jaw. "We're just Lira's little dogs, licking the asses of the people here to get some crumbs. Ask any of the lot that got dumped here recently. They'll corroborate."

"Hmph! My ability could be of use, too, but nobody cares. Evia, Dion, Heti — plenty of us are fine but we just twiddle our thumbs as the days go by whilst you guys get to frolic in glory."

"What honestly do you think we're doing with our free time, Baby Transformer?"

It seemed Rale was intent on getting on her nerves.

"Better stuff. 'Cos there's nothing going on here."

Everything about Rale irritated her, from his smug grin to the knowing way he pushed his specs up his nose to the raised eyebrows. He poured out some guff about how hard he was working and how difficult life was on the other side of the glass, bur Mina didn't take any of that in. Of course he would give some pathetic excuse as to why he got the privileges none of them did on the other side. He behaved the same as them, just as normal, but Mina and the others had no choice but to come to Candra, and then had no choice but to be isolated like this. It was a smack in the face for the alleged freedom they gained for breaking out of March City. And throughout all of this, Ari hadn't shown her face. Rale gave her some rubbish about Ari being on a mission to find the cure, but wasn't the very reason they were overruled from staying in the shopping facility that this place had a cure? And now they didn't?