Mya
The door opens a few minutes later, and Mom strides into the room, carrying her tablet under her arm. She places it down on the desk, sighing deeply before looking up at me.
"Everything okay?" I ask, scooting up in the leather seat.
"Yeah," she says, chuckling. "Everything's fine. Let's go on downstairs, I need to talk to you and your brother."
She offers me her hand, but I brush her away, pushing myself up using the arm of the chair. With a small smile, she watches me walk towards the door, dragging my feet behind me. If I pretend like I'm in pain, she won't suspect that I went through her things.
Finn's waiting at the bottom of the stairs, sitting in the floor with a book open on his lap. He clambers up to greet us, tripping over his own deer legs. His book tumbles to the floor, spine up, and Mom dives after it.
"Are you okay?" he asks, grabbing both of my shoulders.
"No," I say, frowning and taking a deep breath. "Mom says it's fatal. I've only got a few days to live."
The color drains from his face, and his eyes go wide. His eyebrows disappear into his hairline. With a loud intake of air, he wraps both arms around me, repeating how sorry he is into the skin of my neck.
I pat his back, smirking at Mom. She shakes her head, sighing.
"It's okay, Finn. I've already come to terms with my unavoidable death."
I pretend to cry, wrapping my arms around him and shaking my body up and down. Finn squeezes me, hard, and I break, busting into hysterical laughter. He pulls away, confused.
"Why're you laughing?" he whispers, cupping my cheek as he gazes down at me.
"Your face!" I exclaim, stepping around him and following Mom into the living room. "Did you actually think you killed me?"
Finn mumbles a few words that don't sound clean, and when I glance over my shoulder, his face burns red.
"That wasn't nice," Mom says, sitting down in a chair. I plop down onto the couch, still smirking at my fuming brother.
"Death's nothing to be joked about, Mya," he scolds, joining me but sitting as far away from me as possible.
"Oh, lighten up. It's just a scratch. I'll be fine."
"There was just so much blood," he mumbles, staring at his hands in his lap. He clenches them together so tight the knuckles are white.
"Little baby," I whisper towards him, staring ahead at Mom.
"What did you just call me?"
His voice is low, the same one he used to threaten me on the court.
"That's enough already!" Mom says, exasperated. "You two are ridiculous."
We both fall silent.
"Finn, Mya will be fine. She should sit out of physical activity time for a day or two. Just until I ensure there's no permanent damage. Can you watch her for me?"
He nods, but the muscle in his jaw tightens. Watching me is the last thing he wants to do.
"Mya, you asked me who was on the phone earlier." I hold my breath, scooting to the edge of the seat. "It was President Ashford."
Finn sucks in a breath of air, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees.
"President Ashford called you?" he asks. "What for?"
She sits back in the seat, her shoulders slumping forward.
"Someone is coming to stay with us."
"Who?" Finn and I ask at the same time, glancing at each other. Mom smirks.
"I cannot tell you his name. That's confidential information, but the young man is an anarchist. He has been found guilty for crimes against the government. President Ashford wants me to use him to complete my job."
Finn reaches over and grabs my knee, squeezing it. I wince, but he either doesn't hear or care.
"Doesn't that mean he's immune, though?" I ask, thinking about the stacks of papers. Four immunes. Could this boy be the fifth?
Mom nods, chewing on her thumb nail.
"He is immune. But first, he is a criminal. You have to remember that."
We both nod, but I know Finn's thinking the same thing I am. Another immune. That means we aren't the only ones. How many more people like us are there in the world? A feeling of relief washes over me, and I sink back into the cushions.
"With his arrival, we're going to have to enforce some new rules."
Finn groans, letting go of my leg as he sits back.
"The ones we have are dumb enough," he mumbles, not looking at a scowling Mom.
"They keep you safe, Finn Julien. That's what rules are made to do."
Our house has only four basic rules. They were put into action when Mom moved back to Compound 1, leaving us alone for a majority of the time.
1. Never go upstairs without Mom.
2. Never go outside after dark.
3. Always follow the schedule.
4. Never go outside the fence.
I understand them. I even understand why we have them, but some of them are so blantly obvious that it seems silly to write them down. Of course we wouldn't go upstairs without Mom. There's nothing up there but bad memories. Outside, we face the same problem, but manifested into physical form. The infected.
That leaves the rule about the schedule. Mom says it is to keep us from getting too bored and fidgety, making us prone to getting into trouble. That's why she drowns us in lessons, to keep our minds from wandering, I suppose.
"Two new rules," she says. "One, the spare bedroom is off limits. I'll be turning it into a lab downstairs. That is where our guest will be staying. You're not allowed in there under any circumstances. Got it?"
Finn and I nod.
"Two, don't leave your room after dark. I don't think I need to install locks, but if it becomes an issue, I will."
Finn crinkles his nose at her.
"Don't you have us on enough of a lock down? A lock on our bedroom door would only make it worse."
"I agree," she says, "which is why I won't do it. Until you can't follow the rules. There has never been an issue before; I don't know why there would be now."
Finn nods, face falling. There's no point arguing with her.
After a long moment, she smacks her knees with her open palms, pushing herself up.
"Well, I should get back to work. Go study in your room for the rest of the evening. Do not come out when you hear the truck arrive, understand?"
Finn scowls at her, biting back the words I see building like a geyser behind his eyes.
"Yes, ma'am," I hurriedly say, grabbing his elbow and pulling him towards the bedroom. He follows, mumbling incoherently under his breath.
When the door is shut behind us, I lift my shirt up, reaching into my waistband. The papers fell down my pants a long time ago.
"Digging for gold?" Finn asks, scrunching his nose up as he stares at me.
"No," I snap, "but I found something in Mom's lab I want to show you."
I pull the papers out, then, flattening them against the wall before handing them to him. He looks over the white paper as I explain what I found with the other four stacks. I share how two of them were women, both marked dead, and how the other two were us.
"You think file 6 is this boy that's coming to stay with us?"
"It could be. What does the paper say about Six?"
I might as well give the mystery boy a name. Six seems as fitting as anything else, considering he's from file 6.
"He's eighteen, Indian, and above average height."
"Distinguishing features?"
I pace around the room, scratching my thighs. Under the thin pants are my own 'distinguishing features'.
"Um, he has a birthmark on his stomach."
"Well, there's only one way to find out if he's the one."
Finn grabs my elbow as I pass by him, pulling me to a stop. When I look up, his eyes meet mine, narrowing into slits.
"What you're proposing is going to break like three of Mom's rules," he whispers, taking a step towards me. The overhead lights cast shadows under his cheekbones, giving him a skeletal appearance. Goosebumps roll out over my skin like soldiers, marching to the beat of my pounding heart.
Whether they're from excitement or fear is a mystery to me, and I want it to stay that way.
"I'm aware," I reply, and Finn's face melts into a smile that brings out his dimples.
"I'm down, then. Tomorrow, we introduce ourselves to our new housemate."
At that moment, a new sound filled the empty corners of the room, ripping through the concrete walls and chainlink fence. A truck engine.
Finn motions for me to follow, and together, we sit by the bedroom door, one ear trained on the other side, desperate to hear anything pertaining to Six.
Discussion Question: We already knew that Dr. Julien was working for Ashford to create a 'vaccine', but the vaccine already exists. What's Dr. Julien's read job? Hm... And what's upstairs that Mya's so afraid of?!