Chapter 8 #2
It’s not right. She can’t imagine leaving all these people behind. It feels like they’re giving up on them, like they’re running away.
Guardians are spaced around the platform in the center of Port Ro, keeping watch as groups of families and friends huddle together.
Several people are crying, one woman’s face red and splotchy as she continues to shout someone’s name and point toward the entrance.
A Guardian is standing next to her, shaking his head and speaking gruffly.
Kit looks away, her stomach knotting. She still hasn’t spotted her brother or her dad, and she worries that it might already be too late for them.
That they may have somehow contracted it on the way to Port Ro, or that they were stopped on the way in at the first Therm checkpoint.
She worries that they will be split up forever, that her father or brother will be left to waste away on Lumaria while everyone else runs.
When Kit looks up again, her eyes are drawn to a glint of silvery blonde hair in the latest group of people entering Port Ro.
She gasps without meaning to. Task. He’s still here too.
She supposes she should have expected that, given the situation with the ambassador, but it didn’t occur to her that he’d be here, in this specific station, with the mass of panicking people.
He says something to the group, gesturing for them to take a seat on the cement floor, and then turns to Nevis, who is working nearby.
Kit almost wants to walk over, to make an excuse to talk to Nevis just so she can stand next to him for a moment.
She feels a pull towards him in a way that makes no sense, especially because he’s been such a colossal asshole every time she’s seen him over the last two weeks.
Snap out of it, Kit. She can’t be fixated on him right now, not when she’s looking for her family, and certainly not when she needs to be ensuring all the Lumarians in Port Ro are free from infection before boarding. She forces herself to focus, getting back to her task.
She turns towards a group of people she’s not yet tested, gathering fresh test kits and pulling on new gloves.
Although they’ve taken the temperature of every Lumarian citizen that passes through the doorway, it’s not a perfect system.
Even if they have a fever, it doesn’t necessarily mean they are infected; if they don’t have a fever, it also doesn’t mean they’re not infected.
The virus has not presented in a rational way.
They need to test everyone that comes through the entryway again.
Kit has been assured by Luminary Ellsworth that the blood test is accurate, and Kit is skeptical of this claim, but she’s not about to argue with Lumaria’s top infectious disease specialist.
She stops in front of the group of six people sitting close together on the floor. A man with dark brown hair looks up at her, his forearms braced on his knees. “Kit?”
“Finn,” she says, stopping herself from stooping down to hug him. Her heart squeezes in her chest. Hugging him would have been appropriate before, when they were together. Not anymore. She settles on reaching down for a handshake, which feels awkward.
“I’m so glad to see you here.” He offers her a small smile, and it feels so familiar.
Almost like they could slip back into what they were.
It’s odd, how he feels a bit like a stranger now.
How after spending three years of your life with someone, sharing your secrets, your fears, your family, it could simply end. Like a thread being severed.
“You too.” She says it because it’s polite, not because it’s true.
It would be so much easier for her to never have to see him again, to avoid the painful feeling in her chest when she looks at him.
To skip the anger that still manages to bubble up to the surface months later, to quash the what-ifs, to stop her brain from spiraling down a rabbit hole.
She loved Finn, deeply. But it wasn’t enough and it didn’t matter.
“This is Zara and Pius,” he says, gesturing to the man and woman sitting next to him. The woman sits to the left of Finn, her reddish-brown hair pulled back in a clip, and the man sits to his right, clean-shaven, clad in a leather shirt, pants, and boots. “Friends from the university.”
Kit nods, wondering where his parents are. She wants to ask, but also doesn’t, because she’s not sure she can stomach the answer.
“Nice to meet you,” she says. “I’m Kit. I work at the Center. And I guess here, for now.”
“Brave work,” Pius says, his eyes scanning the room behind her. “We’ve heard a lot about you.”
Kit blushes, nodding. “Hopefully good things.” Finn had mentioned his work colleagues to her a handful of times, but she’d never met them. His immediate family, yes. But for so much of their relationship, they had eyes only for each other. The outside world didn’t seem to matter.
“Of course,” Finn cuts in, frowning. Kit shrugs, not sure what version of events he might have told his friends.
“Are you doing alright?” she asks, trying to regain her composure. She has a job to do, and with the ship’s estimated time of departure only an hour from now, it’s critical that they finish testing everyone.
Finn nods. “I guess as well as can be expected.”
Part of her doesn’t want to, but Kit crouches down next to him, making eye contact, trying to avoid the gaze of his friends. “Your parents? And sister?” she whispers.
He shakes his head, swallowing audibly.
“Oh, Finn,” she says. Trying not to think about the fact that the same thing could be happening to her brother and her father as they speak.
He shrugs, his mouth turning down into a slight frown. “Not much to do.”
Kit stays silent in her crouch, her mind working through possible solutions. This is a man she loved once. Still loves. His family too. And they’re going to be left on Lumaria to die. There must be a way to take them along. Maybe to sequester them and study them, along with the ambassador?
“Let me talk to Luminary Ellsworth,” Kit says.
She doesn’t know what she can possibly say to convince Ellsworth to allow more infected people on board when the point of the ship is to carry non-infected passengers to a place free from the pandemic, but she also cannot believe that Luminary Ellsworth would give up this easily on finding a cure.
“Don’t get my hopes up,” Finn says, a wry smile on his face. Kit looks at him for a moment longer, trying to pack away her resurfacing feelings. She’s not sure if he’s talking about his parents or about something else.
“I’ll do what I can,” Kit says. “In the meantime, I need to test you all.”
Kit’s managed to connect with Luminary Ellsworth on her Prism, but she can tell she’s stressed and only half paying attention to her.
“Luminary Ellsworth, it’s his family,” Kit says, trying to walk away from the fracas to a quiet alcove of the ship port. “We could sequester them on the same floor as the ambassador. I could take care of them all, and that would give me three additional subjects for research.”
“Kit,” she sighs. Kit can almost hear her scrubbing her hand across her face.
“I hear you. But if I make the decision to allow one person’s parents to get on board the ship, how am I supposed to explain that to everyone else?
We’d be creating a situation ripe for unrest, and in a confined space, no less. ”
“I understand that,” Kit says, trying to stay calm.
She really thought if she just begged enough, she might be able to convince her.
She paces back and forth in the small, shadowy alcove, pressing the Prism between her ear and her shoulder while she reclips her hair off her neck.
“But you have to agree that having more subjects to test on would speed up the progress.”
“I do agree,” she says, and she sounds frustrated. “It’s not up to me to make the call, though. If you can get the Head of Magical & Infectious Disease on the line and get him to okay it, then I’m all for it. Until then, this is the situation.” Her tone is firm, leaving Kit little room to argue.
There is absolutely no way she is going to be able to get the Head of Magical & Infectious Disease on the line. He knows Kit, but they’re not friendly, and the only way she’d be able to make it happen is through…
“I might be able to,” Kit says, anxiety trilling through her. She needs to call her dad. “I’ll call you back.”
Kit ends the call and immediately dials her father’s number, looking out at the sea of people.
Nevis is running about, looking harried.
Kit really should be out there helping her, not in this corner trying to make a miracle happen.
If this doesn’t work, she tells herself, she’ll call it a day. She’ll have done what she can.
Her dad answers on the first ring. “Kit, are you okay? Are you with Knox?”
“I’m okay,” she answers automatically. “And no, Knox isn’t here. Do you know where he is?”
“He should be coming to Port Ro. I told him to go there an hour ago.”
It feels like a stone is sinking into Kit’s stomach. “He’s not here.”
“Shit,” her dad swears, under his breath. “They’re stopping everyone for testing at multiple points throughout the city. Final temp test before they enter the ship stations, to be followed by a blood test before boarding. If he got stopped somewhere on his way…”
“I’m sure he’s okay,” Kit says, though she is far from sure of that. “Look, Dad, I need a favor.”
Kit can hear him talking to someone in the background, likely the minister himself. His voice is muffled, but she can make out his lilting cadence. He comes back. “Sorry, what, sweetheart?”
“The Head of Magical & Infectious Disease. Can you put me in touch with him?”
Her dad chuckles. “You want me to put you through to ID? Right now?”