Defect - By Ryann Kerekes Page 0,27

what’s happening, why he called me here, why he’s been reading my file. “Why am I here? Did I do something wrong?”

“We have things to do today, so I asked Kane to take over training.” It’s too quiet, the tiny room too full of him. “I’m taking you to get your chip,” he says.

“Oh.” I blink. That’s all? That’s why he brought me all the way here?

He sits down on the edge of the bed and begins lacing up his boots. “Besides, we’ve got a big test coming up that will be important for the rankings. We need to make sure you’re ready.”

I wonder why on earth he’d be helping me.

He finishes lacing his boots and stands in front of me again. “I’m your instructor, Sterling. That’s my job,” he says, reading my expression.

“Oh.” I shake my head, clearing away the distrust in my thoughts. I guess that does make sense, but then I think about it a second longer and remember the night of the obstacle course. “If you’re so concerned with how I’m performing, why’d you leave when I fought Bryce?”

He looks down, the confidence draining from his face. “Come on. Let’s go get this over with.”

***

I follow him back to the hospital. I can tell by the way the ground slopes upward that that’s where we’re going. My stomach becomes a mess of nerves. Will drops me off in an exam room and leaves to find a nurse. I sit down on the exam table and let my legs dangle from the end. He returns a few minutes later with Susanne. I’m relieved it’s her. I don’t ever want to see the head nurse, Dorie, again. Thinking of them reminds me of Willow and her life that’s been thrown away.

“You’re a bit pale.” Susanne places her fingertips on my wrist and watches the clock. “Nothing to worry about.” She pats the top of my hand.

I was nervous before I saw the needle, but now my pulse spikes. It’s bigger than I expected and glints under the florescent lights.

She examines my wrist, her fingers prodding for the right spot. “Just a quick sting,” she says. Will leans back against the wall, looking bothered. He must not like needles any more than I do.

Susanne brings the needle to my wrist and I feel it dig its way under my skin. She drives it deeper, and I begin to feel woozy. Then she pushes the plunger down and I hear a click as the chip is deposited under my skin.

I look down and see a raised bump nestled in between the pale blue veins on my wrist. On Sam it was barely noticeable, but on my thin arm, it seems to stand up and demand attention.

“All done,” she says.

I hop down from the table and take a second to be sure I’m okay to walk without stumbling, then follow Will from the room.

My fingers keep going to the bump in my wrist. Coupled with the tattoo on my other arm, I feel marked, less like me somehow. But everyone has them around here, Will included, so I guess I fit in somewhere. “You still haven’t told me what we’re doing today.”

Will turns around to face me. In the narrow hallway, we’re too close. I can smell his skin, see his pulse jump in his neck, but neither of us takes a step back. “Have you ever fired a gun, Sterling?”

I shake my head.

Will leads me to the supply room. I step inside and the woman behind the desk motions me forward. I scan my barcode at the strip of blue light on the side of her data terminal. She studies the screen for a moment, then scurries away to the rows and rows of shelving behind her. I see her moving between the aisles, selecting articles as she goes.

I wonder what my barcode told her. Surely the basics: female, height, weight, but was there more? Does she know about my failed mindscan? I decide it doesn’t matter. There is little privacy here. It must tell her my shoe size too, because she moves to a row of government-issued gray running shoes and carefully selects a pair from the end. Anything will be better than the one size fits most cloth slip-ons I’ve been wearing.

She comes back with a stack of new clothes, underpants, the running shoes and folded sheets for my bed. I tuck the underpants in between the sheets and meet Will in the hallway.

“Go change. I’ll meet you