Cured (34 page)

“
Can’t you
two try and be a bit more respectful?”

“Jett started it!” Felix argued with a cheeky
grin at Jett.

“Jett is a child! You are just acting like
one!” she snarled before darting off to catch the others.

I turned to Jett, “Tough break bud. I thought
it was a great performance”

“What is that meant to mean?” Felix asked
me.

“Jett has a soft spot for Ell.”

Jett blushed
deeply, “Nah I don’t!” he argued, although he kept his eyes trained
on the floor.

“Oh well I guess I have a bit of competition
then.” Felix laughed and jabbed Jett in the side lightly with his
elbow.

Jett smiled,
“Naw, you can have the brunette. I hear blondes have more fun.” He
turned to me with a wink and I shuddered involuntarily.

“
Give me a
call
when you’re a little older,
kiddo.”

Jett nodded solemnly, “I will wait for
you.”

Felix sniggered and I stomped on his toe.

“You’ll be waiting a while Jett, mate, I hear
our Avery has her eye on Theo.”

Jett snorted,
“Theo? The giant one? HA! I am a better catch than him. Aren’t I,
Avery?”

I ruffled
Jett’s curls and smiled down at him affectionately, “You are a
fantastic catch, Jett.”

He blushed again and beckoned for us to
follow him along the passageway.

“So where are we going exactly?” Felix
asked.

“You guys are on the lunch shift.”

I stopped still and Felix walked straight
into the back of me, “Jeez Ave, what’re you doing?!”

“
I have never
cooked,
” I said. We always used a
Wallscreen to instantly conjure up meals at home. All except for
home baking, which tasted much better cooked fresh by our
maids.

“We don’t cook down here!” Jett said. “Where
do you think we would ever get the resources to cook for so many
people? We are in the middle of a desert.”

“So how?”

“
Same as
you,
” Jett said proudly. “We have a
WallScreen.”

“But WallScreens are monitored by the Alphas.
They must know you exist if you keep ordering huge amounts of food
to the same isolated location?”

Jett tapped
his nose, “We’ve got people on the inside,” he said in an
exaggerated whisper, before stopping in front of a dead
end.

He rapped the
wall in a pattern to reveal the keypad, and plugged in a code. The
door opened to reveal a room similar in size to the dining hall,
and containing the same four tables that were usually arranged in
the square shape during meals.

“
WallScreen,
on,” Jett said and the far W
all flickered
to life. “Good day Jett, good day Avery Rose, who is your other
companion, please?”

It struck me as odd that the Wall knew me
considering it had never met me before. Usually each new Wall
required an introduction by its user. I wondered if it had facial
recognition and could remember me being on the News. Although, if
that were the case, it would also know Felix.

“Hi, I am Felix Fidus.”

“Good day to you also, Felix. What can I do
for you? Ah I see it is your usual lunch ordering hour. Perhaps you
would like to place a meal order?”

“
Yes
please,
” Jett said, before turning to us.
“Dom never lets me order food, because he says we will all get
obese eating meals that I order.”

“
I am under
instruction to ensure each meal has the required nutritional value
and caloric intake for each diner,” said the Wall.

Jett groaned, “Dom has been messing with the
settings again to make us more healthy. I hate it when he does
that. Can't we just have a treat meal today Wall?”

“Sorry Jett, I cannot disobey my own
settings.”

“
Fine. Then
can we please just have some beef burgers and fries?” He turned to
Felix and I, “Are you guys good with that?”

I nodded
vigorously, suddenly wishing I had eaten breakfast rather than
tossing it at people.

“
That meal is
Avery Rose’s favourite,” said the Screen, “But there must also be a
side salad and a fruit platter for dessert.”

“
Ew.
” Jett wrinkled his
nose.

“Might I suggest that you leave the table
before the fruit is served?” said the Wall.

Jett’s eyes lit up. “Great idea!” he said.
“And I will hide my salad and feed it to the dogs later.”

“I am going to delete that last sentence from
my database, Jett. I know nothing of your whereabouts during
lunch.”

The
S
creen continued to speak but I had
stopped listening. Not only did the Wall know who I was, but also
my favourite meal. My stomach began to seize up, a reaction that I
was beginning to realize was a warning signal. It usually meant
something bad was about to happen. I couldn’t shake the feeling,
but I chose to ignore it for now.

Jett turned to us. “So that was the easy
part. Now the food starts coming out and we have to lay it all out
on the tables.”

The
W
all began to produce the meals, and the
three of us struggled to keep up, taking the plates and setting
them out on the dining tables. Finally the wall shut down and the
plates were set.

“Now we wheel the tables out.” Jett said
whilst keying another code into the pad, causing the whole wall to
roll up, giving way to the empty dining hall.

We rolled the
dining tables into their usual square shape and placed glasses at
each place setting. Then Jett pointed to the keypad, “001FAB
Circle,” he recited.

I jabbed at
the keyboard, and a loud bell sounded, chiming five times before
echoing off the walls of the room for a little longer.

There was a
moment of silence, then the pounding of feet started off quietly,
but became louder and louder. The stampede stopped abruptly and the
roller door opened to reveal a hundred smiling faces. They all
moved at once to take their seats, and before everyone was sitting,
they began to dig into their burgers, disregarding table manners
and ignoring their cutlery altogether.

I smiled at
the messiness of it all and took a seat, picking up my burger and
examining the thick meat patty, dripping with grease, that was
layered in cheese and condiments and pressed between two soft white
buns. I took a huge bite and had to suppress a groan of pleasure. I
was sure it was the best burger I had ever tasted. I looked over
for Felix’s reaction and laughed out loud. His burger was gone and
he was already shovelling his fries into his mouth by the
handful.

“
Wha?”
h
e said, mouth full of potato.

“Nothing, you gross pig.”

He kicked me under the table and I smiled. It
was good to have him back.

Chapter 31

Once we
finished our main plates, I looked over to see Jett push back his
chair quietly, and creep from the room. I quickly stood and dashed
after him, praying that I hadn’t been seen. I was intrigued by his
reference to dogs earlier, and wondered how they could possibly
keep animals in the caves. I ran to catch him and he spun
around.

“
I wasn’t
going anywhe-” he
started to make a case
before realizing that it was only me following him, “Oh. It’s you.
Want to come see the dogs?”

I nodded and
we walked side by side down the tunnel. As we neared a dead end I
heard a muffled growling followed by a whining howl. I frowned.
Dogs didn’t howl like that. Jett keyed the code into the access pad
and the door unrolled. Behind the door was a wire fence that
reached from the floor of the room to the ceiling. The animals were
huddled in the far corner, leaning over something. They looked up
when we entered and began to slowly pace in our direction, leaving
a bloody carcass behind. I covered my nose, the stench coming from
the dead animal’s corpse was overwhelming.

Jett looked at me and laughed, “You get used
to it after a while.”

“How do they live down here? And how do you
feed them?”

“
WallS
creen, on.” Jett ordered the
Wall as a response to my question.

The
W
all flickered and greeted Jett and me
politely. Then Jett ordered ten raw steaks and two bowls of double
chocolate chip ice cream with whipped cream and caramel
swirl.

“I heard dogs are lactose intolerant?” I
joked.

Jett looked at me seriously, “The ice cream
is for us.”

I laughed, and the ice creams appeared from
the wall. I took one of the massive glass vessels and its
accompanying plastic spoon, and took a huge mouthful. We sat in
silence as we ate, me savouring each spoonful of the rich
chocolate, and Jett scoffing down the ice cream as though it were
his last meal. He had nearly polished off the dessert when he began
to jump around wildly, holding his head and dropping the glass bowl
on the ground, where it shattered.

“Jett?” I asked.

He was
yelling, “Ow, ow, ow!” And rubbing his temples.

“Brain freeze?” I asked him with a grin and
he nodded, still holding his head. I reached out and began to
massage his temples, in the same way I did my own when I got
headaches. He instantly relaxed, sighing happily.

“
That
better?” I asked him.

He didn’t reply, just closed his eyes and
grinned. After a while I stopped.

“Hey!” he said. “What makes you think you can
stop?”

“
Your brain
freeze is gone,
” I said.

“No it isn’t!”

“I have been massaging you for over ten
minutes. Brain freeze barely lasts two.”

He picked up
my sundae and began to scoop overflowing spoonful into his mouth.
“Now I have another brain freeze,” he said with a cheeky smile. I
laughed and shoved his head playfully.

Jett turned
to the wall and retrieved a handful of steaks. The dogs came even
closer, snarling and salivating. I crouched down to get a better
look at them. They were far too big for regular dogs, and their
ears too pointed. They were all pale grey in colour with long
straight tales and large paws. As they approached the fence I saw
that they all had the same amber coloured eyes and I took a step
back.

“Jett, these are not dogs.”

“Yeah they are.”

“Nope. They're wolves.”

Jett squinted his eyes. “They're trained.
That makes them dogs.”

I laughed,
“Actually it doesn’t. The two species are very different. Wolves
are naturally more destructive and their bites are nearly
impossible to escape.” I examined the creatures. “Another
difference is that wolves are impossible to train like a normal
domestic dog. They can’t learn tricks by incentive, or be treated
as domestic pets. They’re wild.”

Jett looked
confused for a moment, “But watch this…” he typed another code into
the keypad and a section in the center of the cage swung open. I
stood still, careful not to look any of the animals in the
eye.

“
Jett close
that gate,
” I whispered without moving my
lips.

Jett chuckled and sat on the ground, legs
crossed and holding a steak out to the pack of wolves. The animals
crouched onto their forequarters, ready to pounce.

“JETT NO!” I screamed and leapt at him, just
as the first wolf lunged. I collided with the animal’s body in the
air and we fell to the rock floor. I hugged my arms tight around
its neck, concentrating on keeping its neck secure and its teeth
away from me.

The wolf easily broke my headlock and looked
me dead in the eye.

“
Jett, run!”
I managed to yelp, my voice choking up with fear. I closed my
eyes.

Then the dog leaned in, its furry face
pressing up against mine, and its wet nose tickling my cheek. It
licked the length of my face in one big slurp and I opened my eyes.
I looked over at Jett who was watching with an amused smirk.

“
Shut
up,
” I said, pointing at him, as the wolf
continued to lick my face sloppily.

Jett started to laugh,

“You were so scared!” He held his stomach and
rocked back, laughing hard, “You should have seen your face! You
thought you were going to get eaten!”

“
Shut
up,
” I said again with a
scowl.

“You dove in front of me, Superman
style!”

“To save your life!” I argued.

“Yeah. To save my life from a fluffy puppy
dog.”

“Shut up.”

We spent a long time feeding the dogs and
letting them lick us all over. I knew they were wolves, they had
the physical appearance of wolves. But Jett was right; they acted
like dogs and were absolutely tame.

“Jett, where did you get these dogs?”

“They have been here forever.”

“What do you mean?”

“
The day
before our Leaders planned to escape from Olympia and find a new
home, my family was attacked. My parents were killed by the Alphas
when I was a new baby. They found me and decided to take me with
them. We have had the dogs ever since I can remember, and no one
has left the compound except for Leo, and Leo hates the dogs. So I
guess we have had them since we first moved here.”

“Leo?”

“Yeah our two Leaders are Leo and Dom. Dom is
a bit of a killjoy, but Leo is great. You’ll love him. He is really
strict though. Won’t let anyone into the compound. The last people
we let in…” His voice trailed off.