A Heaven for Toasters

CHAPTER 16: Bad News

6:47 p.m.

As soon as Captain was away, I sank back into my bed. I hoped I wasn't lying when I told him I would be ready to join him.

Leo pushed my head forward with tender fingers, fluffed my pillow, and gently let me down again. "How are you? Really?"

"The truth?" I focused on my body, my attention jumping from limb to limb. There was a fog in my head and every part of me felt leaden. "Tired," I confessed. "And I ache all over. Feels like a zoomer hit me." The worry lines deepened on his face. "But much better than before," I hurriedly added. "And you still haven't told me how I ended up here."

He pulled his chair and sat down next to me. "When Guide found me, the paramedics had just arrived. I left Captain with them and followed Guide back to where he had left you. He was genuinely worried about you." Leo took my hand into his. "So was I."

My breath caught. I squeezed his warm fingers, holding on to his touch as if my life depended on it. "Then?" My voice sounded hoarse.

He placed his other hand over mine like he was holding an injured bird. "I came through the wall, staying under the opening until I could find you. As I've told you, I have a number of sensors. At first, I couldn't locate you but then you were there, under a bush."

"My metasuit's battery died out."

"I figured as much. The place was crawling with drones and the robodogs. I realized that, if I could see you, so could they. So I came and got you out."

I looked him in the eye. "You came and got me out." I loved how simple he made it sound, like he was invulnerable to the dogs' machine guns. I gave him another squeeze. "Weren't you afraid?"

He turned his face away. "I was." He paused for a long moment. "Of losing you." His voice was barely a whisper.

I thought I had misheard. It felt like he had just crossed an invisible line, a line separating friends from... what exactly? What could an android ever be to a human? That's not the right question, I scolded myself. The real question is, what could Leo ever be to me? I had no idea. But I was increasingly eager to find out.

He jerked himself away, swiftly releasing my hand. "Sorry, I shouldn't have—"

My doctor walked into the room, interrupting us.

Leo jumped to his feet and walked to the far end of the room, his back turned to me. He ran his fingers through his hair.

"Hello again," the doctor said and continued without waiting for an answer. "So, how are we doing?"

Not now! I stared at Leo's back while I struggled to focus my attention on her, the turmoil in my head distracting me. "I..."

Again, she ignored me and did the holographic brain thing, squishing and turning my brain around until I started feeling nauseous.

"When can I get out?" I asked, more to make her pause her incessant zooming in and out than anything.

It worked better than I hoped. She turned off the projection and stared at me for a moment like she was judging how much to tell me. "I'll be honest, Miss Pensive. You were poisoned by a toxin we've never seen before. We have no idea what it is or what kind of plant produced it. Our only guess is that it was bioengineered. The thing is, we can't seem to be able to combat it."

My eyes opened wide. "What? But I feel much better."

Leo hurried to my side, his face flustered. "That can't be right."

"I'm sorry, I should have been more specific," she said. "In a sense, this toxin works like a virus. It targets your cells and takes over their DNA, forcing them to produce more toxin. All our attempts to neutralize it have been met with limited success."