Part 7 (1/2)
The CITs peered at me.
”Who's that?” Marco asked. He was shaking water from his s.h.a.ggy black hair. His shoulders didn't rival Evan's, but they dwarfed mine.
”Owen, from the Hyenas,” said Lilly.
”What are you doing here?” Evan asked me. It looked like he was scowling.
”He's one of us,” said Lilly.
”One of us?” said the other girl. ”He's only been here, like, a minute.”
Lilly gathered her hair and squeezed water from it. ”Yeah, well, duh, Aliah. He's got 'em.” She tapped at her neck.
”That kid?” asked Aliah skeptically. She was smacking on a piece of gum, her face a fine art piece with dark flicking lashes, a little silver nose stud, and tiny eyebrow ring all accenting smooth brown skin. She looked me over. I figured I knew the verdict. But then she just shrugged and said, ”Okay.”
”Wow,” Marco added. He was studying me like I was something foreign, but interesting, at least for the moment.
”You lied yesterday, didn't you?” asked Evan, peering at Lilly. ”You told the doctor he was only down on the bottom for, like, three minutes.”
Lilly started bouncing in the center of the trampoline. ”Yep. It was eleven, actually,” she said with a smile. She glanced back at me and added, ”But I had my eye on him.”
I felt a little surge at hearing that, She had her eye on me... She had her eye on me... but tried not to give away that I was thinking about it. I had to seem cool, collected. but tried not to give away that I was thinking about it. I had to seem cool, collected.
Lilly meanwhile shot up into the air, her body long, painted silver by the MoonGlow, then twisted and knifed cleanly into the water.
I was still standing unevenly by the edge of the raft. ”You guys all have...”
”The gills.” Aliah made a motion toward her neck, fluttering her fingers playfully. ”Cool, huh? We're a new race.”
Marco was still peering at me, an eyebrow wrinkled. ”But none of us got them until our second or third year year here. How did you get them in, like, two days?” here. How did you get them in, like, two days?”
”I don't know,” I said. ”But what... I mean, why-”
Lilly shot out of the water behind me, landing on the raft and making it buck. I staggered, but managed not to fall. ”Relax, Owen,” she said, and threw a wet arm around me. I felt her skin against my shoulder, the hairs of her forearm briefly against my ear. I tried to stay still, to play it cool. I glanced at Evan. He was watching this. Lilly went on, ”We'll explain everything.”
”Everything we know know, anyway,” said Aliah.
”Right,” said Lilly. ”But here's all you need to know tonight. Number one, you're going to be fine.”
The trampoline rocked, causing Lilly's hip to lean against mine. Fine... right.
”Now that the gills have set, you can use both them and your lungs without a problem,” Marco added.
”Okay,” I said.
”Number two,” said Lilly, ”you've got gills because of this place this place.” She swept her hand to indicate the lake, the dome.
I wanted to stay quiet, to just be cool with everything, but questions popped out anyway. ”What does that mean?”
”Like we even know,” muttered Aliah.
”We do know a little,” Lilly snapped. ”There's something about this place that's caused this reaction in us. Caused us to change, but we don't know what. And number three, you can't tell any of them them what's happened to you.” what's happened to you.”
”Who, you mean, like, the adults?”
”Especially Paul,” said Marco.
As Marco was saying this, Evan got up and started bouncing. He flipped into the air and dove into the black with barely a splash.
”But he knows about my wounds,” I admitted.
”Yeah,” said Lilly, ”he knew we had the wounds too, when they started a couple years ago. There were five of us who got them first. The other was Anna. Her gills set the fastest, and when she showed them to Paul and Dr. Maria, they started doing all these tests on her-”
”Tests that made her sick,” added Aliah, sounding bitter, ”but the more sick she got, the more tests they wanted to do. They said it was to make her better, but she said it was like Paul was looking for something, trying to figure something out, but he wouldn't tell her what....”
”And then she was gone,” Lilly finished.
”What do you mean, gone?” I asked.
”Like one day she just didn't come back to our cabin, and Paul told us that her condition had gotten worse and she'd been sent to the hospital over in the city for advanced care. And we haven't seen her since.”
”Can't you ask someone to find out?” I asked. ”Like, your parents or something?”
”Ha, parents,” said Marco.
”What?” I asked.
Lilly's face softened, like her eyes had increased a size. ”None of us have parents. We're all Cryos,” she said. ”Aren't you?”
”No,” I said. ”I'm from Yellowstone Hub. I live with my dad.”
”He's the first non-Cryo to have the symptoms,” Aliah said, looking seriously at the others.
”That we know of,” said Evan.
”Anyway,” said Lilly, ”there's n.o.body we can ask about Anna. I mean, we tried, but Eden runs Cryo House, just like they run camp. Just like they run the whole city.”
”Mama and Papa EdenCorp,” added Aliah.
”We've asked people about Anna: our house guardians, hospital directors. n.o.body ever knows anything,” said Lilly. ”b.a.s.t.a.r.ds,” she muttered to herself. ”She was my best friend.”
I felt a little tremor of nerves inside me. ”So, are you guys being tested, too?”