Chapter Four

Mia

Two months passed.

And man, did the world change. 

Faith started talking to me more, which was a miracle in itself. I didn’t know she was capable of being nice, to be honest. I’m still not sure what was going through her head at that point, but she gradually began to talk to me. 

Confession time: I really liked the way her voice sounded. 

About a month after, people started getting sick. Apparently, in Elysium, the flu is about as sick as anybody gets. So when a mass of people suddenly came down with a  cold, the government was on high alert. Faith and I found this extremely weird, as in the Slums people got all sorts of strange diseases from the rats, but we went along with it. We waited for the symptoms to die down, but they never did. 

Instead, in the middle of a lesson, Josiah (who’d been sick for about three weeks) had a seizure. 

This is something new in Elysium. I’d never seen one, I’d only heard of them, but people got scared. More sick patients started having seizures and nosebleeds, and then the discovery was made. 

Elementals and Mentals were immune. 

At that point, it was a total mystery. But one by one, the people with a Time, Substance, or Physical Ability caught the “Plague” and started having seizures. 

And then Josiah and others went into comas. 

I didn’t know what happened to him after that, but I figured he was dead, because others were dying. 

Essentially, there was an outbreak of something. 

There was on night, around the time where people were really panicking, that I remember quite well. Faith and I were sitting on my bed in my room, and she didn’t have to be there, but for some reason, she chose to be. “Why aren’t we getting sick?” I’d asked her. 

“I’m an Elemental,” she told me, not looking at me, but staring out the window. She rarely looked at me when she spoke, but that was okay. If she was turned away I could see how her hair fell neatly around her back and how her eyes seemed to get this far away look to them like she was always dreaming. “You’re a Mental. That means we’re immune, remember?”

“Yeah, but why?” 

“I don’t know. Does it matter?”

Maybe that was why we fought often. I needed to know things; she needed to do things. 

I’m still not sure why, but the image of her staring out at the moonlight just stays in my mind, even now, and I know I’ll never forget it. 

About two weeks after that is when it happened. 

The ironic thing, in my opinion, was that the sun was high in the sky, birds were flying and chirping overhead, and everything just seemed so peaceful. It didn’t look like anything was wrong. 

 And I wasn’t even the one to hear it. 

“What was that?” Faith was suddenly yelling, jumping up from the yard we were sitting in, outside the Perkins’ house. It wasn’t our house. It would never be our house. 

“What?” I asked, staring up at her. She looked really mighty and impressive, silhouetted against the sun. 

“I heard a scream…”

Then I heard it, too. An ear-splitting howl tore through the air, but it wasn’t a regular scream; it was many cries, all in the same tone, in the same key, at the same time. “It’s a war cry,” Faith realized a second before I did. 

And then a man was racing down the street, and when he saw us, he changed his course to approach us. We both backed up out of caution, because the man’s front was drenched in blood and his veins were almost black as night. I knew he would Change in a matter of hours, or the next time he fell asleep. 

“He’s a guard,” Faith whispered, as if the realization was haunting. I didn’t understand until she elaborated, “Look at his uniform. He’s a guard to the Cage.”

“How’d he get here?” I asked. In case you’ve forgotten, the Cage is where all of the Changed - all of them - were kept, the single door guarded by about ten men, all with Physical Abilities to make them stronger. “Did he go through the Factory…? Why is he not at the Cage…?”

“Please!” we heard as the guard came closer, staggering like a great weight was on his shoulders. “Please, they’re coming…”

Before he even got to us, he collapsed on the ground, and it was only then that we saw the knife sticking out of his back. 

“Who’s coming?” I asked, just as another cry split the air in two; but I had been right the first time. It wasn’t one scream, no, it was many. 

“Wait a second,” Faith whispered, doing nothing to help the guard - but, to be fair, neither was I. “If you’re supposed to be guarding the Cage…who’s guarding it now?”

Faith and I both looked at each other as realization dawned on us slowly. “The Changed,” I whispered, but Faith already knew. We could hear them coming - the ticks and hisses of their language drifted through the air until they reached our ears. It wasn’t a pleasant sound. 

I always knew it would happen. The Changed were finally breaking out. 

“I see one,” Faith said, standing up and backing away from the guard. “C’mon. Let’s go!”

“We can’t just leave him!” I cried. I knew the guard was done for, but still - he was a human being. He probably had a family. Just because he came from Elysium didn’t mean we should treat him badly. But Faith was right - I could see several Changed making their way down the street, some of them going into houses, dragging people outside and swarming them, probably hoping to Change them. 

“We can’t help him!” Faith yelled. Some of the Changed had seen us, and they were running over, snarling, and making clicking noises that I couldn’t understand. 

“But-”

“Mia, come on!” Her hand closed around my wrist and yanked me away from the guard. He was probably already dead, but I still didn’t want to just leave him in the middle of a street. But then I remembered. 

“Mr. and Mrs. Perkins,” I gasped, pulling out of her grip. “They’re still inside.”

“We can’t help them, either!” The Changed were closing in on us, but I wouldn’t let anyone die when there was something I could do to stop it. “Mia, why do you care?”

“I just do,” I stated, and then - as hard as it was - I turned away from Faith and ran into the house. I heard her cry out behind me, but I didn’t look back, and she didn’t follow me. It hurt, but I didn’t stop running. 

“Mr. Perkins!” I yelled as loud as I could, slamming the door behind me. “Mrs. Perkins! We’ve got to go! Now!”

The growls of the Changed intensified from outside, and I knew I had to leave, but I couldn’t find the Perkins’. They weren’t responding, either. But they couldn’t have gone anywhere. 

I ran upstairs, finding their bedroom, and rushing through the door, but I stopped as soon as I saw them. Mrs. Perkins was on the floor, her body shaking and convulsing - Mr. Perkins was lying beside her, his eyes closed, and I wasn’t sure if he was breathing. The Plague had taken them both out. I was here for nothing. 

After a few hard breaths, I managed to turn away from them, and I booked it out of the house. Maybe I could even catch up to Faith. But as I landed on the bottom stair, the door to the house flew open, and it wasn’t Faith. 

One of the Changed burst through the door, hissing and clicking. It saw me instantly, its black eyes zooming in on my face. There was nowhere for me to hide. Another Changed followed the first one, and like lightning, they were next to me, grabbing at my wrists. One of their fingernails scratched my hand before I managed to gather my wits and run, faster than I ever had before. 

“Stop!” I yelled, finding myself in the kitchen. “Please, stop!” I couldn’t tell if they didn’t understand or they just didn’t care, but they kept coming. A few more piled in through the open door and they began moving like a pack, searching for the best way to take me down. 

There was one window in the kitchen, and I knew it was my only hope. The latch was already undone, so I yanked it open and began climbing out of it, fingernails already scratching at my legs. One of them almost grabbed me before I hauled myself out of the window and fell into the yard below. 

My ankle twisted on the landing but I got up anyway, desperately trying to find the best way out. Some of the Changed were trying to claw their way through the window, but they were unsuccessful at it - too many wanted out at once. I picked a direction and ran before they figured out how to leave. 

The pain in my ankle intensified but I kept going, ignoring the stinging in my whole body. Maybe I could catch up with Faith. I blindly turned corners, unsure of where I was going - everything looked the same in Elysium. 

Except, I picked the wrong corner and ran right into the arms of a Changed. 

I yelped and it snarled, surprised to find me there. Immediately I tried to get away but it recovered its senses first, holding my arms tightly and pulling me towards it, not letting me go. It yanked me forwards and towards more clicking sounds and I knew I was done for. It was taking me to more Changed. 

We turned a corner, and even though there was nothing I could do I kept screaming, hoping someone would hear me, but there was nothing. Nobody came, not even Faith, but I didn’t expect her to. 

More Changed appeared and circled me. I had Mental powers - that meant I couldn’t be Changed. It was just impossible. But what would happen to me? I tried to use my Mental powers, just to see if it would effect them negatively, but I couldn’t concentrate. Too many bodies were around me and I couldn’t see, I couldn’t see…

Blackness surrounded me, literally and figuratively, as someone pushed me to the ground and my eyes closed. 

*****

“Mia. Mia. Wake up!”

I groaned, light coming through my eyelids. Even in my state, I could tell that voice apart from anyone - they’d caught Faith, too. “Thought you were better than me,” escaped my lips quietly, and although I regretted it, she didn’t appear to take it personally. 

“Yeah, well,” she sighed. I opened my eyes to find her sitting next to me. We were outdoors, in a field of sorts, and a few other people were around us, talking in hushed whispers. But I could still hear clicking. I turned my head and saw masses and masses of Changed, roaming around, but mainly staying around a large fire. I could see a forest about half a mile out, and large walls the other direction. 

We were on the other side of the Cage. The one that had opened, freeing all of these Changed. 

“What are they doing with us?” I asked, my eyes fixed on the Changed. They looked so happy, so free, I couldn’t be scared by them. 

“I think,” Faith said slowly, “I think they want us to Change.”

I couldn’t help it - I gave a little laugh. “Um,” I scoffed, “We can’t. Elemental and Mental people can’t Change. It’s just how it is.”

“No,” Faith said slowly, “Not before, anyway.”

I narrowed my eyes, sitting up so I was level with her. “What do you mean, before?”

“The Plague, Mia,” she said quietly, like she was afraid to say those words, like she didn’t want them to be true. “The Plague. We didn’t get sick. Neither did the other people here. But all the guards who were at the Cage did - and there was no one left to guard it, so they all got free. And now, the Changed want everyone else Changed. I think.”

“We still can’t Change.”

“Yeah, but, think about it. The Elemental and Mental people were immune to Changing, permanently, at least. And the Plague didn’t make us sick. But we still got it. It still must have done something.”

Realization dawned on me and I really wish it hadn’t. “We can Change now?”

Faith nodded grimly. “They’re going to keep us here. Then they’re going to starve us of the Life Source. And then, we’re going to Change, and there will be no one else left.”