World-Mart (19 page)

JOB
allocation testing had been a breeze, and Shelley was sure that she would be given the option of any Mart job she wanted.  Still, she couldn’t help but wonder why her life had to take such a dramatic turn.  She had been a good kid, so why her?  It just didn’t seem fair that her life should change so drastically, so quickly.  She felt tired and overwhelmed, and she feared she might never get used to all of the exhausting changes that she had no choice but to incorporate into her new weekly routine.

Kurt waited for Shelley in the garage, just outside the hall to his building, about a yard from the usual security associate.  He turned and just happened to see Shelley approaching.  He smiled, hurrying to her side.

“How was school?” Shelley asked, quickly leading Kurt to their shuttle track.  She looked around, hoping no one she knew was in the vicinity to see her.

Kurt shrugged, his mood suddenly going sullen and quiet.

“What happened?” she asked, already knowing that Kurt was in some type of trouble.

Kurt dug into his backpack, and then handed a small slip of paper to Shelley.  “My teacher says you need to sign this.”

Shelley read the notice, which requested parental permission to reprimand Kurt by any necessary means for refusing to do his class work.  The class associate
add
ed that she had tried taking away privileges, putting him in the corner, and even explaining to him the consequences of failing out of a Corp class, but he still refused to look at his work.  The class associate also noted that Kurt had become disrespectful and violent, and she would begin paperwork for suspension if the notice wasn’t signed and returned immediately.

“You know what this means, don’t you?” Shelley asked Kurt.

“What?” Kurt asked.

“Your class associate wants permission to spank you in class, because she doesn’t know what else to do with you.  Do you want to get forced out of the Corp Segregate, too?”

He shrugged.

She handed the slip back to him.  “Dad has to sign this.”

He returned the slip to his bag.  “I’m not letting some stupid class associate spank me.”

“You’ll stop misbehaving, and then
you won’t
have to worry about
getting spanked
!” Shelley said, taking Kurt by the hand to hurry him along.  “Dad gives you the Corp life and you just piss it away!  What is your problem?  Why can’t you behave?”

“You’re not my mom!”  Kurt broke free from Shelley’s grip, and then darted off into the crowd.

“Kurt!”  Shelley ran after him, but she lost his trail quickly.  She stood near the center of the shuttle garage, unsure where she should go from there.  “Kurt!” she yelled again.

The crowd of students and parents surrounding her became one giant blur.  She could no longer see any individual faces, only a sea of people standing between her and Kurt.  “Kurt!” she tried again.

She spotted Charlotte and ran over to her.  “Charlotte, have you seen my brother?” she asked, the panic visibly emanating from her.

Charlotte looked around.  “I haven’t seen him.  Are you okay?”

“He ran off!” Shelley cried, still searching in all directions.  “He got mad at me, and then he was gone!”

Charlotte looked at her watch.  “I’ve got a little time.  We can cover more of the garage if we split up.  Meet me at the bench in front of the Line 120 Shuttle track in twenty minutes?”

Shelley nodded, and then the two went off in opposite directions.

Shelley went from one end of the garage to the other, seeing no sign of Kurt anywhere.  She grew not only increasingly fearful for his safety, but she was also extremely angry with him for putting her through such unnecessary panic.  It would take every bit of restraint within her to keep from spanking him, herself, when she finally did find him.  Why did he have to make life even harder for her and their father, when things were tough enough as it was?  Why couldn’t he just return to the sweet, well-mannered boy he was before all of this?

Shelley flagged down a security associate, giving him Kurt’s description and begging for his assistance.  He imputed an alert in a local database, informing all security associates in the vicinity that there was a missing
little
boy.  The associate waited for a response, but no reports came back.

Shelley made another sweep of the garage, even backtracking as far as Kurt’s classroom to look for him there.  He seemed to have disappeared.  She went back through the garage, searching through the crowds, crying and cursing.  She made her way to the Line 120 Shuttle track, hanging her head in defeat, praying th
at
Charlotte
w
ould have better luck.  When she saw Charlotte waiting for her, with Kurt nowhere in sight, she felt her throat quickly knot up.

Charlotte put a hand on Shelley’s shoulder.  “I’m sorry.”

Shelley shook her head, giving herself permission to cry.

“You’ve done everything you can,” Charlotte said.

“What am I supposed to do—just go home without him?” Shelley said, distraught.

“What more can you do?  If he doesn’t want to be found, he doesn’t want to be found.”  A glimmer came to her eyes.  “I think you should come with me.  Dean’s friend
is
having a party tonight.  You two would totally hit it off.”  Charlotte turned as she heard the Line 120 Shuttle slowly come in.  “You can always leave if you get bored.”

Shelley shook her head.  “I can’t go anywhere until I find Kurt.”

“You’ve got security looking for him.  For all you know he’s already halfway to Housing by now.” 

Shelley heard someone call her name, but who and from where she could not tell.  She turned to Charlotte.  “I think he just called
for me
.”

Charlotte gave her a concerned grimace.  “I think you need to let the guard associates do their job—and you need to take a few hours to
relax and take care of
yourself
.”

Shelley saw a woman who looked ridiculously similar to Virginia, and she nearly choked.

Charlotte waved her hand in front of Shelley’s eyes.  “Shelley?”

She turned to Charlotte
,
a contrived smile
stretching across her face
.  “Yeah?”

“Are you coming?”

Shelley surveyed the heavy crowd once more,
took a deep, thoughtful breath, then decided aloud,
“Yeah, I’m coming.”

Charlotte smiled.  “I knew you’d come around!”

Shelley and Charlotte boarded the shuttle together.  Shelley took one last look through the crowd before the doors closed, and then she sat down beside Charlotte as the shuttle began to move.  Shelley knew that a party was the last place she should be going to right now, but at the same time it felt good knowing that, just for tonight, she might let go of every responsibility she had accrued, go off to God-knew-where, and raise a small bit of hell.

Even still, she could not get Kurt off her mind.  She hoped that he had boarded the shuttle to Housing, causing her to search needlessly long after he had left.  Hopefully, he was home, safe, waiting for their dad to get home to try his hand at making macaroni and cheese.  And if he didn’t go home, then what?  Would Kurt really run away?  Shelley considered how out of character such a move would be for a timid, anxious child like Kurt, but then weighed the fact that she was stepping out of character, herself, as she traveled beside Charlotte to party with thieves and black market thugs.

Shelley fought a hot wave of nausea as a flood of second thoughts suddenly hit her.  How would she be able to live with herself if Kurt turned up missing, hurt, or worse?

“How’s it going at the Mart school?” Charlotte asked, pretending it was no big deal.

“It’s not so bad,” Shelley said, embarrassed to be talking about it in public.  She looked around, surprised that no one nearby seemed to be interested.

“What are the Mart guys like?”

Shelley shrugged.  “I haven’t really met anyone yet.”

“You’ve been there a week and you haven’t met anyone?  They’re all going to think you have a chip on your shoulder or something.”

“I’m pretty sure they already do.”

Charlotte nodded her sympathy, and then fell silent for a few minutes, sensing Shelley’s discomfort.  “Dean’s friends will totally dig you,” she finally said with a smile.  “Loosen up a little.  We’re going to have a blast.”

Shelley gave Charlotte her best attempt at a smile, her anxiety growing as the shuttle slowed and Charlotte stood.  She followed Charlotte through the garage, to the tunnels leading to the beach path.  Both girls had on heavy jackets, the weather having become cold and the sky grey and angry.  It was much cooler outside than it was in the halls, but the girls stayed warm enough by moving quickly.  They spoke little through the long trek, both of them winded and ready to collapse by the time they finally reached the beach.

The beach was cold and windy, and gusts of sand kicked up here and there as the two moved past steep dunes in search of Charlotte’s meeting spot with Dean.  A few other people already stood there waiting, it seemed, and Charlotte ran ahead to introduce herself.  Shelley slowly followed behind her, reservations still swimming in the back of her head.  She stopped as she got a good look at them.  “Charlotte!”

Charlotte tried to back away as she also realized that the three people waiting for Dean were deviants.

“Did you come here to play, little girl?” one of the deviants asked.  He brandished a long knife and a serious face.

Charlotte darted off toward the north, hoping she might outrun her attackers long enough to reach Dean on his sand-cruiser.

The deviant with the knife pointed to Shelley and tapped his friend.  “Don’t let the bitch get away!”  Two of the deviants went after Charlotte, while the third began toward Shelley.

Shelley shot for the cold ocean, giving herself the last resort of trying to out-swim him if he should get too close. 
He slowly closed the gap between them, however, and soon she could hear him right behind her.

The familiar sound of the sand-cruisers had her waving her arms as she ran
.  “Help!”

The deviant gained on Shelley, tackling her to the wet, sandy ground.  The remnants of a wave rushed in and sent near-freezing water over both of them.  She fought to get up, but the deviant shot a punch straight to her eye, knocking her back.
  He threw himself on top of her, pinning her down.

Another wave went over them, and Shelley struggled and choked as the salty water rushed over her face.  She dug her nails into his arms, fighting him as he attempted to remove her shirt.  He slapped her across the face, stinging her lips, and she fell back with a shriek.

He pulled up her shirt, stopping at her head so that it now served to both blindfold her and pin her arms over her head.  She writhed and kicked as the man kissed one of her breasts.

Then, suddenly, he was off her
.
  Shelley screamed as someone dragged her from the waves.

“It’s me!” Charlotte said, helping Shelley with her shirt.

Dazed, Shelley
watched as Dean fought the deviant in the shallow waves
.
  Dean surprised the deviant with a knife to the stomach, and gutted the man with a single, forceful move.