Waterproof (20 page)

“So why not make them work? How is this punishment?” The words came out of my mouth, but I don’t know why I said them. Jackson cleared his throat, although it sounded more like he was trying not to puke.

“Would you want to be in here?” Todd asked.

“No, I’d rather be dead.”

“I think it’s for research or something,” Sam cut in. His eyes lit up as he brushed his hands over the clear part of the box. “See these tubes? They’re keeping him alive.” Suddenly, he jumped up and scrambled on the top of the box where all of the tubes congregated. His gun clanked against the surface, but he ignored it. Lifting the plastic corrugated tube cover the individual wires, he winked at us. “Check this out.”

Sam wrapped his hands around the tubes and squeezed. I didn’t understand what he was doing at first, but then the person began to twitch. It was barely noticeable
in the beginning; just a head tick and a small shoulder movement. But then the body started to convulse. It thrashed wildly about, banging every part against the glass and thumping as loud as a panicked horse trapped in a stall.

“What are you doing?” I yelled.

Todd turned his back to the display. “This is why he likes to be assigned here. He’s sadistic.”

The body continued to thrash but I couldn’t watch anymore.
“Stop!”

Jackson moved so quickly, Sam didn’t see him coming. With stunning accuracy, Jackson jumped and grabbed Sam’s arm all in one movement. He yanked the disgusting mercenary to the ground, releasing the tubes and allowing the body to go back to normal.

Or at least as normal as it could get.

“Fuck, man!”
Sam climbed to standing and rubbed his shoulder. “What was that for?” I noticed something deadly in his eyes.

“We aren’t supposed to harm them,” Todd said
, saving us again. “I tell you that constantly.”

“Who gives a shit about them? They’re only here taking up space!” He waved his good arm around the room.
“As soon as they’re done. They’re
done
.”

I steadied my feet while Jackson pushed to his. “How did you pick that one?” Jackson whipped his head around so
fast, I thought it would fall off. I tried to convey my meaning with just my eyes. I don’t know if he got it or not.

Sam continued to rub his arm and avoided
looking at Jackson. “There’s a master catalog in the command center. But I just randomly pick…uh…picked this one.”

What a creep.
“How’s it sorted?” I asked.

“By capture date, sex, age…who the fuck knows. That’s beyond our job.” Sam
tossed his gun over his shoulder. “Well since you both suck,” he turned to Jackson, “especially him, I’m going back to my best friend, Dean.”

We didn’t speak until he left. “Come on, I’ll show you the rest,” Todd said quietly. “Just do your best to ignore him and this should go by quickly for you
guys. Sam’s one of a kind.”

“I’ll say,” Jackson grumbled as we followed Todd through the stadium of broken bodies.

Somewhere in here were our friends and my heart ached for them.

TWENTY

Vivienne

Someone slapped me.
Okay, not really slapped, but a hand definitely tapped my face. Over and over.

“Is she awake yet?”

“What did she give her?”

Both voices were male, but I only recognized one. Another slap stung my cheek before I opened my eyes.

“There she is,” the strange guy said.

“Vivienne?”
Riley asked. He snapped his fingers in front of my face. “Are you okay?”

I groaned. “I will be when you get your hand out of my face and he stops slapping me.” I focused on the man in a lab coat standing behind Riley. “Who are you?”

He smiled and held out his hand. “I’m Dr. Erik Zohan.” I shook it, not really knowing why. “Are you feeling better?” His short, light brown hair, bright blue eyes, and glistening smile set me at ease. He didn’t look old enough to be a doctor.

I brushed my hands through my hair and felt
my bandage catch before the pain set in. I ignored it the best I could. “Yeah, just a little dazed. Did I pass out?”

“Slept, I think,” Riley said, then turned to the doctor.
“Unless she gave her something.”

“Who?”
I asked, still moving a little slow.

“No, she didn’t,” Dr.
Zohan said. He pushed his thumb and forefinger against my eyelid to look at my pupils, his bright penlight searing my vision.

I tried to swat him away. “Dr…”

“You can call me Erik,” he said, still examining me.

“Erik, I’m fine. She probably took too much blood.”

Erik and Riley exchanged a look I couldn’t interpret before Erik smiled at me. I scowled.

“What?” I asked.

He laughed before shaking his head. “Nothing.” Then he looked behind him at Riley and nodded. I think Riley blushed a little.

“Can I please talk to Riley
, alone?” I asked, annoyed at the silent conversation going on between them.

“I want to show you something,”
Erik said, then quickly added, “Riley’s coming with us.”

“Yeah,” Riley said. “Remember what you asked me about before?”

I didn’t know if he was referring to the blood drinking or finding my friends, so I nodded slowly.

“I’ve asked Erik to explain all of this to you,” Riley smiled.

“Why?” I asked. Suspicion was a necessity considering the way I’ve lived the last five years of my life.

“So that you know and you can make the right choice,” Riley said, albeit a bit cryptic
ally.

If he thought I would chose to stay in this city and give up everyone I loved, especially Zach, then he had it all wrong. But if this little excursion helped me get one step closer to finding Max and Zach, then I needed to play along.

“Okay.”

“Okay, what?” Erik asked.

“Okay, I’ll go with you even though I don’t know why you’re being so nice to me.”

Erik laughed. “We aren’t all mercenaries, Vivienne.” He raised his eyebrows. “Besides, Riley said you were worth the risk.”

He wasn’t much older than Riley, and it was clear to see a close friendship between the two of them. Despite the lab coat and doctor status, Erik seemed to mean his words, even if I didn’t understand the comment.

Riley extended his hand and helped me off the table. Reluctantly, I followed, believing they didn’t mean me harm and hoping this would help get me closer to Zach. We left the hospital bed area through a steel door Erik opened with a code. The sterile scent continued to follow us through a short hallway and into a glass-walled laboratory space.

“What is this?” I asked, stunned at the sight.

“This is my lab,” Erik beamed. “Well, not mine exactly, but my father built it after his research breakthrough and I run this part now.”

Microscopes, glassware, and bubbling chemicals inundated the place. At least twenty other lab coats filled the room, each busy with their own task. Some used pipettes to move a tiny amount of liquid into little pieces of plastic. Others stood next to machines doing who knows what.

Like a kid in a candy store, Erik’s face lit up as he grabbed my hand and pulled me over to one of the
largest microscopes I’d ever seen. With a quick glance at Riley, I let him drag me through the lab.

“Here, look.” Erik pushed me closer to the eyepiece.

“What am I looking at?” I asked.

“Just put your eyes up there and tell me what you see.”

Giving him a look, I sighed and bent forward. I remembered using microscopes in my biology lab, but they didn’t look anything like this. Squinting to get my eyes to adjust, I finally got the machine to focus. And I had no idea what I was looking at.

“You see it?” Erik asked, suddenly right next to my ear.

I jumped back and he smiled. “I don’t know what I’m looking at.” The mass of squiggly red lines and maze-like structures meant nothing to me.

“It’s our salvation,” Erik said.

I huffed. “Salvation? You’re being a bit dramatic, don’t you think?”

He laughed and looked at Riley. “You’re right, I like her.” Turning his gaze back to me, he continued. “It
’s the Aquarius gene.”

He acted like that should mean something, and a tiny part of me felt
bad for not understanding what he meant. “What?”

“This,” he pointed to the microscope, “and this,” he lifted a paper with a bunch of lines on it, “
will make us strong enough to survive our new world.”

Confused, I raised my eyebrows and looked around the lab. I had no idea what Erik was talking about but when I saw a scientist open a storage freezer filled with dark red vials, I started to panic.

Riley’s hand on my shoulder startled me. “Don’t you see?” he asked me.

“See what?” I couldn’t pull my gaze from the freezer.

“You don’t have to live like a deserter anymore.”

Erik laughed and drew my attention. “What he’s trying to say is that we found a way to beat the water shortages.
Forever.”

I swallowed and felt the blood drain from my face.
“How….how? By drinking blood?”

This
time, both Riley and Erik chuckled. “Did you tell her?” Erik asked his friend.

Riley shook his head. “Nope, she already heard the stories while she was on the run.”

I hated that they were having a conversation like I wasn’t standing right next to them. I started to back away. “I don’t know what you both find so amusing, but harvesting blood from thousands to feed a few is not something to laugh about.” My voice squeaked and tears built behind my eyes. “They’ve captured my friends and you’re standing here laughing about what will happen to them. To me! What’s wrong with you?”

I tripped over my feet and fell toward one of the counters. Almost knocking a set of glassware to the ground when I caught myself, I quickly jumped back to my feet and pulled my hand away from Riley when he tried to catch me. “Don’t touch me.”

“Vivienne,” he said, hurt painted across his face. “I just want you to understand the science behind what’s going on here. It’s why I came back. Because there is a way to survive here with me.”

I shu
ddered at the way he assumed I’d stay here with him.
With
him like a couple. Friends or more, I had no intention of staying. But instead I said, “Then explain it to me.”

Erik beckon
ed me back over to white board where he’d watched us in silence. “How much do you understand about the human body?”

I sighed
and rolled my eyes. Erik smiled, pulled the cap off a marker, and drew a circle.

“Okay, well basically, we’re made out of
sixty percent water.” I felt my heart speed up again until he shook his head. “Relax, it’s not what you think.” He picked up a tiny vial of liquid off the nearby table and held it out to me between his thumb and forefinger. The container was about as big as a bullet. “Water is meant to travel in and out of our cells freely as a way to move nutrients and other essential minerals throughout our body. But about twenty years ago, someone discovered there was actually a protein that made the channels water could pass through. Then the specific gene coded for making those channels was identified. Make sense so far?”

I nodded and he smiled again. He used his finger to erase parts of the circle on the board and filled them back in with two parallel lines designating the channels. At least, I think that’s what they meant.

“Now, for the most part, we all have these Aquaporin proteins-”

“The what?”
I interrupted.

“The proteins that make the channels,” he explained patiently. “Some people don’t have them at all, and that causes lots of medical problems. But some people have excess proteins.” He jabbed the marker against the board, making a bunch of blue dots inside the red cell. Erik was a good teacher. “And we recently discovered that those extra Aquaporin proteins can be harvested. Well, actually my father discovered that.” He dropped his head.

Harvested. Like blood harvesting? “Where do you get them from?”

“Blood, of course.”
Then Erik saw my face. “Without killing anyone though.” He drew another picture of a stick figure human with a line coming out of its arm and that line connecting to a set of three stick figures on the other side. “You see, we can transfer the high protein blood into those who have the regular levels of proteins and over time, their body begins making extras.” He shrugged. “Eventually.”

“So you are harvesting blood?” I asked.

“But not like you think, Vivienne,” Riley cut in. I almost forgot he was standing there. “It’s a way to boost our bodies into needing less water. Like a forced evolution.”

“People with increased Aquaporin proteins have cells that are more efficient at utilizing water
,” Erik explained. “Meaning, they require less water in order to survive and function normally.”

“Why aren’t we just figuring out a way to make clean water?” I asked.

Erik smiled, obviously pleased with my interest in the science. He turned and wrote a chemical formula on the board. “Do you know what this is?” I shook my head. “It’s Caesium-137 and our water, both fresh and salt, is completely contaminated with it now.”

“And we can’t clean it?”

“No, not for several generations anyway.” He reached up and pulled down a large sheet of paper from a roll above the white board. It was a map of the United States and several red circles were drawn over it. “This is where we are,” Erik said, pointing to one of the circles in Tennessee.  “This is Oasis One. See the river?” I nodded as he pointed to the Mississippi. “We diverted the water before the nuclear wars, so most of it was able to be contained before it got too contaminated. We have storage tanks here and here.” He pointed to an area north of the city. “But it’s not enough. We have nearly a hundred thousand people here and we get more every day.”

“You mean collect?” I mumbled,
then realized what he said. “A hundred thousand people live here?” I couldn’t fathom this fact. Forever, we’ve been told all the cities had been destroyed.

“In California, we have Oasis Two,” Erik continued, ignoring my question. “They’re working on the food gene there.”

“Food gene?” I asked.

“We can make our bodies more efficient in storing and utilizing water here, and they’re trying to figure out how to do
the same with essential nutrients.” He smiled like that was the coolest thing in the world.

“And they’re collecting blood to do that too?” I snapped.

Erik put his hand on my shoulder and I glared down at it until he moved. “This is good, Vivienne. It means that our children will have a real chance at surviving in this world. And with the rest of the world racing to do the same, we’ve made some really great breakthroughs.”

“So, let me get this straight. You find the people with extra proteins, take it from them, and put it into others, right?” I rubbed my temples. “How do you choose? Who gets to be the super-human?”

The guys both laughed. “There’s a system for that too,” Erik said. “But in terms of who has the proteins? Right now, we just test for it and then ask for donations.”

“Like a blood bank?”

“Yes, kind of like that,” he confirmed. “And those that get the extra proteins and meet certain other criteria are the ones chosen to further our existence.”

I looked at him in stunned silence. “Like a breeding colony?”

He shook his head. “I wouldn’t call it that exactly. It’s more like population control.”

“And that sounds better?” I shouted. Several of the lab coats turned and stared at me.
“Who gets picked for this lucky task? And how much blood do you need to give to someone before they’re body starts making their own proteins? And what do you do with all of the deserters?” My chest constricted and my breathing sped up. All of this information was simply too much for me to handle.