The Inadequate Experiments, Sian Webster [whitelam books txt] 📗

I shook my head. “Nothing. Just thought I saw someone. Come on.” Part 1; Impulsivity - 4. The Inequity Endemic

 

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. My nostrils were assaulted with the smell of hard, worn leather, musty cloth, aged paper, and old ink. As my eyelids opened, I let my gaze travel up and down the bookcases, across the shelves stacked with books I loved so much.

“This is probably my favourite place here.” I said, turning around to see a look of awe plastered on my twin sister’s face.

“There’s so… so many.” She practically gasped, her eyes wide.

I smiled to myself. “This is the first place I talked to Oliver properly, too.”

Her brow furrowed slightly. “You Soul Mate?” She asked. “And Calliope’s brother?”

I nodded, a small laugh coming from my mouth. “I… I didn’t really like him at first. I thought he was an asshole.” I said, dropping into one of the bean bags at the base of the bookshelves.

“Why did you think that?” Rose inquired, sitting down on the bean bag across from me.

I shrugged. “Well, we used to go to school together when we were little, before he got into acting and was pulled out. We were never introduced properly, and we never actually spoke at all, so I guess the Watch figured it didn’t count as us meeting if we just knew of each other. I never knew his name, but he was always throwing pencils at me during classes. I thought he was bullying me – a lot of people did it, so it wasn’t far-fetched that he would be doing it too. I hated him for it.”

“But… he wasn’t really bullying you, was he?” She asked.

I laughed. “No, no. He… When we first sat down to talk properly, I mentioned it, accusing him of bullying. But he said… he said he always had this feeling. He didn’t really know how to describe it. It wasn’t a logical ‘I want to marry this girl one day’ or ‘this girl is my Soul Mate’ feeling. It was kind of just a slight curiosity, like he cared for me from afar and wasn’t sure why. He said he would do it to try and get my attention.”

Her brow furrowed. “It sounds almost like he – somehow – subconsciously knew.” She commented. “It’s a curious thing.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Well, Oli has always been… different.”

Rose’s eyes lit up. “Is he like us? Is that why Calliope is like us?”

I shook my head. “He’s… no. He’s not an Untouchable like us, but I wouldn’t say he’s your average Normality either.”

“How so?”

“He… well, he—” I stopped myself. I hadn’t even told Tia about Oliver’s Depression. I found myself not wanting to tell Rose before my best friend knew, even though she was my sister. I sighed. “Sorry.” I told her. “It’s not really my secret to tell.”

She shrugged slightly. “That’s okay.” Then, “Do you ever wonder what would have happened if the two of you had been introduced properly back then? When you were little?”

I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath. “All the time.” I muttered. “I feel like a lot of this would have been avoided. No fights, no Inequity, no getting kidnapped by the Scientists, no—” My hand flew up to my temple, and I felt myself gasp as pain lashed across my forehead.

Rose’s brow furrowed and she leant forward on her bean bag, covering my hand with hers. Her hand was cold against my burning skin. “Sera? Are you alright?” She asked, slowly removing my hand from my brow.

I nodded, rattled. “I’m fine… just a migraine. They tend to come out of nowhere ever since…” I trailed off as she interrupted me.

She said a word that sounded foreign to me, a word that distorted as my mind tried to register it. “Who is he?” She repeated the word – a name, I guessed – but I still didn’t understand.

The pain in my temple had become a dull ache, but it was still there. “I… I’m not sure.” I muttered.

She gave me a perplexed look. “You were the one who said the name, Sera.” She said slowly.

I found myself staring at the ground, trying to remember the name I couldn’t recall saying. I wracked my brain, but there was nothing. So I told Rose all I knew, all Calliope would tell me. “When we were taken by the Scientists… they said I had Inequity. They did… something. Messed with my memory. I… I don’t remember a lot about why I was there at all. I just remember saving Oliver and… and finding out about Mum.”

She raised her eyebrows. “Finding what out about Mum?”

I met her eyes. “When she was younger, she was a Scientist. We were her entrance experiment – to create life from a single gamete and implant an artificial chromosome through which we could be evolved further than normal human beings. That’s how we’re Untouchables.”

“Incredible.” Rose muttered.

I sighed. “I didn’t think so. I got leave from the Compound to talk to her about it. I… I said a lot of things I regret. She died before she could tell me about you.” I said softly.

Rose placed her hand on my shoulder. “Is that why you’re living with Oliver and Calliope right now?” She asked. “Because you can’t bear to go home?”

I nodded. “I feel like I don’t belong there. I hardly feel like part of their family.”

She gave me a sympathetic look. “You should go back to them. They’ll be worried. And you’ll probably feel better, too.”

I looked away. “Yeah, that’s what everyone else says.” I muttered.

“Sera? Are you up here?”

I jumped as Oliver’s yell reached my ears. I dragged myself from my bean bag for my feet just as he walked around the corner.

“I’m here,” I told him, reaching for his hand. I nodded over to Rose, still sitting down at the base of the bookshelves. “This is my twin sister, Rose.”

His eyes were curious as he took her in. Then he plastered a smile on his face. “I’m Oliver, Sera’s Soul Mate. It’s nice to finally meet you.” He held out the hand that wasn’t holding mine.

Rose scrambled to her feet and shook it. “It’s nice to finally meet you, too. Sera’s told me a lot about you.”

Oliver raised his eyebrows at me. “You have?”

I turned to Rose. “I have?”

She nodded, laughing. “You didn’t notice?”

I shrugged.

“Well,” Oliver said, “we should probably get going. They just announced a full school assembly over the PA. I had a feeling you guys wouldn’t hear it up here. Good job I came to check.”

My brow furrowed. “A full school assembly?” I asked. “We’ve not had a full school assembly for…” I stopped, trying to remember the last time we had one.

“At least two years.” Oliver finished, nodding. “Tia said the same thing. So I gather it’s important.”

“They only normally happen when outside parties want to talk to the students.” I said, a sinking feeling appearing in the pit of my stomach. “This… this could be bad.”

Oliver’s eyes widened in realisation. “This could be very bad.”

* * *

The woman paced back and forth on the stage at the front of the school hall, her brow furrowed in what seemed to be frustration. Her dark hair was pulled back harshly into a strict pony tail, her eyes glinting in the florescent lights. She wore a black blazer fastened a little too tightly over a plain white blouse and black dress pants.

Dr Mangan was almost unrecognizable without her white lab coat.

As I recognized her, my breath caught in my throat, and I had to force myself not to stop walking in the middle of the hall so I didn’t block the path of at least two hundred other bustling students behind me. Sensing my discomfort, Oliver squeezed my hand.

As we sat down in the middle of the audience – I was grateful I wasn’t forced to sit near the front – Rose muttered, “She didn’t tell me she was coming here today.”

“This is bad.” I said through gritted teeth.

“It’ll be fine,” Oliver tried insisting, “what’s the worst she can do in front of all these people?”

I laughed humourlessly. “I don’t think we really want to find out.”

“She wouldn’t do anything here, surely.” Rose sided with Oliver.

“I wouldn’t be too sure.” I muttered under my breath.

At the front of the room, the Scientist cleared her throat. A hush settled over the large crowd, though whispers floated through the air. Despite not being dressed in Scientist attire, there were still people in the room aside from me who recognised her as the head of the New York Compound. The air was sparking with anticipation in the form of excitement and fear.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Dr Mangan began, “I thank you for allowing me to come here and talk to you all. I’m grateful for this chance to… talk with the future of the human race.”

I hoped I imagined the glance she directed at me towards the end of her sentence.

“Now,” the Scientist continued, “I imagine many of you have heard… whispers, rumours, or the like, about the endemic which is currently spreading across much of America.”

Muttering spread through the hall.

“Endemic?” Oliver said under his breath, clearly confused.

“However, I’m here today to tell you that the endemic sweeping the country as we speak is not only easily cured, but entirely preventable. Which is what I’m here to talk to you about today.” Dr Mangan looked out at the audience with an almost sly smile. “As I’m sure many of you know, Inequity is a disease which causes a person to dislike their Soul Mate, eventually leading them to insanity.”

My breath caught in my throat, and I felt Oliver stiffen beside me. I felt Rose glance at me, but I refused to meet her eyes, transfixed on the Head Scientist at the front of the hall.

“Aside from this major factor,” Dr Mangan went on, pacing back and forth on the stage once more, “there are other symptoms of the disease. These include irritability, headaches, irregular sleeping patterns, and loss of interest in previous hobbies. What I wish for all of you to do, is report to your school nurse if you or one of your friends is showing two or more of these symptoms. It is crucial that we stop the disease before the brain is affected.” She stopped walking. “This disease is contagious to all those who have met their Soul Mate. It is a fast moving virus. It attacks the brain and the nervous system. And it has the capacity to wipe out thousands.”

The hall is almost silent. My eyes scan the room, many other people doing the same. I don’t have to search their thoughts to know what everyone is doing; singling out the few people in the younger grades who haven’t met their Soul Mates. Determining who is safe from Inequity.

“Do remember,” Dr Mangan said, “that this disease can and will be stopped. At the New York Compound we have the facilities to cater for patients in the thousands at our correctional facility, where we observe them in order to gain more information about the disease. During their observation, the patients will be treated, and hopefully cured of Inequity. There is nothing for you al