The Wounded

My heart broke for him.

Matt ushered me from the bed and pulled the curtain around them.

I still gripped the paper in my hand. I wanted to find Rosa, but I needed to get Orry’s treatment organized before I did anything else.

“G6...” I said to Matthew, waving the paper in front of him like it was made of gold.

Matthew smiled. “PD deficiency. Of course!”

I pulled up my sleeve. “Take as much as you can,” I said, flopping down in a chair.

Matt already had a needle in his hand.

To think, all he needed was a transfusion and to never, ever touch a can of fava beans again. He would have to be careful about too much vitamin C as well. I sunk into the chair and let some of the stress escape my wound-up body. My universal donor blood tracked slowly up a tube. I was the vaccine, the solution.

I was lost. Actually lost. In a stupor, I had dragged my sorry feet through several tu

I slapped the stone with my palms in anger, mossy green slime staining my fingers. I had to find my way out of here, I needed to find Rash and the others, tell them what was going on, and then I needed to spend whatever time I had left with Orry, with my family, before it all disappeared.

I picked a direction, cursed, and started walking.

*****

Long shadows crept up the walls, people talking and jogging towards me. Each voice was high with emotion, accents clashing and words not making sense. It didn’t make sense because they sounded jubilant.

“You go to the hospital. Here’s the list. They just need clean blood bags and needles still in their sterile wrappings.”

Someone gruff and familiar said, “She can’t be too far away. That girl just has to stand still somewhere, and trouble will find her. But the boy will want to see her when he wakes.” Gus.

I was beyond confused, but the words sounded good together. They glowed on the page in my head, when he wakes. Those words were golden and sparkling. I felt myself being pulled to the sky, that string I was attached to trying to make me dance.

They finally collided with me, a few monkeys scampering around their feet. Gus saw me, stared at me, and then he did something I’ll never forget. He laughed. I peered into the yellowing enamel like his smile was a specimen to be studied. His eyebrows drew together, and then he grabbed both my shoulders and shook me with force.

“She did it,” he said.

I winced a little at the resemblance to Cal when I looked into his eyes. But this wasn’t Cal; this was Gus. Harsh, stoic Gus who loved Orry like the rest of them did.

My lips were trembling, my whole body rattling like a wooden door in a storm. “She… did?”

He nodded. “The boy will live.”

The boy will live.

Something snapped gently inside me, a door opening and filling me with floodwaters.

The boy will live.

Gus didn’t wait. He quickly explained his mission and ran past me, telling me briefly how to get out of this maze. “Just follow the monkey,” he said, tsking and clicking his tongue at one of them. It left the others and came to sit at my feet. I looked down at its ugly, pinched face, its yellow eyes bobbing like twin moons in its head. It blinked stupidly at me. I rolled my eyes.

“Ugh! Well, lead the way,” I said.

It yawned, opened its mouth, and let out a small screech before galloping off in the opposite direction to the others. I followed, lagging, but dripping in excitement, grief, and dread.

Thank you, Apella. Thank you so much.

*****

Joseph and I held hands, standing over Orry. His tiny body thi

I said a selfish prayer. Orry stay, rest. Don’t let the best of me go with you. I know it’s selfish, but I need you to live.

I watched Matthew add another bag of Joseph’s life-saving blood. I imagined the shreds of exploded blood cells being replaced and propped up by the healthy, plump, new ones. I thanked Apella over and over in my head as it tracked like syrup, dripping slowly down. I told Alexei how sad I was for him, for her, for Hessa. I lost track of it when it went into his tube, but I knew it was going in. I wished Deshi were here. I thought of Hessa and how lucky he was that he didn’t get sick. The relief was momentary when it dawned on me like the slap of an ice-covered branch, leaving stings and prickles in my cheek. There were so many children that would get sick. Every child created after Este took over could get sick. All of them could die. I remembered the cans of beans from when I lived in the Woodlands. It was a staple, and now it was a steady danger that would turn every baby into a ticking time bomb.

I covered my mouth. Joseph looked up at me with concern, his eyes finally warming me, the gold solid, heated like the sun. The feeling reinvented itself to be something bigger, brighter after what we’d been through. “He’s going to be ok,” he said.

I nodded. I could almost see the repair going on inside Orry. The blood cells inflating like balloons, bouncing off each other, and pumping stronger.

Joseph’s arm grasped at my waist and pulled me close, until only a sliver of light pierced through the gap between us. I didn’t look at him. I gazed at my son and, through him, I could see other sons and daughters, babies dropping, seizing, and dying. It made me sick.

I put my hand over his, tapping it gently. “What about the others? They’re not going to be ok, are they?” I said.

I think he went to say something comforting, and then bit it back. He frowned and shot out the truth like a brick through a window. “No, they won’t.”

Each time I watched the blood drip down into Orry’s IV, I saw them fall. I saw the White Coats scrambling to catch them, their hospital full of convulsing children. My mothering instinct spread wide like the wings of an eagle. I wanted to fold all of them under me, protect them, shelter them from the searing hospital lights, keep them warm and safe. But from here, I could do nothing.

I ticked my fingers against my leg, counting down a plan.

*****

We ate greedily, sitting cross-legged on the infirmary floor. Joseph and I couldn’t remember the last time we ate. So it was a cacophony of snatching fingers and wiping crumbs from mouths. Alexei joined us, and he seemed surprisingly ok. He held Hessa in his lap and joined in the conversation. Maybe it was the wait that had sent his mind spiraling so deep down a hole that we couldn’t reach him. Even though he would miss her, love her forever, at least now there was an end point. That end point was the tip of the rope, one he could use to climb out and find a new begi

Every now and then, someone would hop up to check on Orry. His vitals were strengthening, but he hadn’t woken up yet. Matthew said it could take a while. I was so anxious to see those fu