Chapter 43
Monday, September 22, 2059
24 days to Armageddon
A New Week Begins
Two good nights' sleep. Leo wasn't sure what to do with himself. Monster Trauma had been as dumb as he expected. It almost made him miss Mutant Puppies, but it had been fun watching Lydia on the edge of her seat, actually frightened by the lousy special effects.
When he went to get breakfast, a cellphone rested on the kitchen table along with a baggie containing pieces of his old phone and a note from Mom.
This was the cheapest cellphone I could find.
Try not to break it too quickly.
He picked it up. Realizing he had no idea how to make the thing work, he decided to ask Jason or Lydia for help.
When he got to school, the scary girl from last Wednesday was by the entrance again. This time, she was surrounded by Brick and his cronies.
“Cripple. What happened to your arm, bitch?” Brick shouted, bending over the much smaller girl to push his face close to hers.
That was when Leo noticed her left forearm was missing. The last time he'd seen her, she'd folded her arms across her chest, using her worn leather jacket to disguise this fact. Leo cursed himself for not noticing this before.
No wonder she was so angry.
Today her left arm hung by her side, jacket hanging limp below her elbow. Sunglasses on her forehead kept hair out of her dark eyes as she studied her cellphone, holding it and texting with her one remaining hand.
Leo watched near the school entrance, stomach filled with anticipation and dread. He felt better about his chances against Brick than last time around, but preferred not to fight if he could help it.
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Instead of being upset or scared, the girl seemed amused by the three bullies' attentions. Her lips turned upward in a smile.
“Turn around and walk away,” she said, using her cellphone to push unkempt black hair away from her face. “You do not want to do this.”
She was older than Leo, maybe 14, but her head only came up to Leo's nose. Standing in front of Brick, she looked tiny and fragile.
“I'm so scared,” Brick said, pretending to tremble with fear, “I've never been hit by a cripple before.” He leaned forward and burped in the girl's face.
The girl's response was to pocket her cellphone, and then faster than Leo would have believed possible, she punched Brick in the face.
There was a sick thunk of flesh hitting flesh. Brick stumbled back, falling to the ground, hand covering his nose.
“If you're going to be around me? Get used to it.” She pulled out her cell phone again and started tapping it again as if nothing had happened.
Blood flowed from beneath Brick's hand. “Thad Bidth broge my node!”
Brick's Left Crony, Leo still didn't know his name, rushed Brick and held him back. “You can't fight her! She's half your size, and she's a cripple! The principal would kill us! Tanner, you filmed that?”
“Sure did,” Right Crony/Tanner said, holding up his cellphone.
“We got to post this!” Left Crony said. “We'll title it 'When Wild Cripples Attack!' Next, we find a bunch of cripples. Then we pay them to kick her ass and film it, post it, and make a bunch of money!”
“Thad agually ith a good idia,” Brick said, turning to the girl, “You goang down, bidth.”
The girl's response was to smile and wave as the three bullies left. Brick spotted Leo near the doorway as he went past. “You thil owe me one thoudand dollads,” he said as he stormed by.
Leo approached the girl.
“What?” she said.
“We need to talk,” he said quietly. “You had an implant, didn't you? That's how you lost your left forearm.” He flashed her his own implant.
She put away her cell phone, grabbed him by the throat with her one hand and slammed him against the wall. “So what? You want to rub it in? You got one and I don't. Tell me why I don't turn you in right now?”
Leo's hands strained against her iron grip. How could such a small girl be so strong? “It's okay,” he choked out. “A lot of people lost their forearms before The Change.” He fought to breathe, “but the joke's on the justice system,” breath. “Implant merges with the brain. You can't deactivate it that way, not permanently,” breath. “If you think 'Imp please reactivate and come back online'” breath, “and really mean it—Imp will come back.”
The girl's grip tightened. “That's the biggest load of...” her voice trailed off and her hand dropped away from Leo's neck. She started shaking and breathing hard, like she'd just run a marathon.
Leo gasped for breath. He was glad he'd been right. They'd forced her to deactivate her implant, then amputated her left forearm to be sure, and she hadn't known she could reactivate it. Hence the anger. A lot of people didn't know this before The Change. He wondered how many people had died because of it.
For long seconds, she stared at him. “Come on, let's get out of here.” She grabbed Leo's arm and dragged him away.