“But I feel fine,” Brian said, glancing up from his watch.

“Yeah, that’s kind of the motto of the day,” Leah snapped. “Obviously, how you feel is not an accurate indicator of your current state of health.”

“So what, are we all seconds from death?”

“I didn’t say that. We’ve survived thus far, right? What’s one more unexplainable condition?”

Noah looked around. “Somehow, missing a pulse all of a sudden seems a lot more strange than everything else combined. There’s a big difference between having a low heart rate, even a weirdly low one, and suddenly lacking one altogether.”

“I would have thought it would feel different,” Brian said. “I mean, in a bad way. Seeing how a person kind of needs a functioning heart to survive. What’s it doing in there anyways, just sitting like a useless lump? I don’t tolerate lazy vital organs.” He knocked his chest sternly like he could start his heart back up through sheer discipline.

“I do feel a little different, though,” May said.

Noah glanced at her and nodded. “You can tell something’s missing. You expect a pulse, and when it’s not there, you kind of sense the reverse of it, like a ghost of a pulse.”

They all sat quietly, trying to feel what he described. Sophie looked around at them awkwardly and scratched her neck.

“So, if your hearts have all really stopped, how are you all still alive? Or am I missing something?”

Leah shrugged. “I wish I knew.”

All of a sudden there was a commotion from the direction of the housing units. They looked over to see a small army of campus health workers stream around the side of the building and run at their various top speeds towards them. They all wore lab coats and respiratory masks, both of which were lime green. A couple of them carried emergency rescue stretchers.

“Lay on the ground!” one of them barked as they approached.

“Are we being arrested?” Brian asked, looking confused.

“I thought there were only four of them,” Noah heard one of the health workers mutter.

“Which of you has the Wager? Please step aside,” the initial guy said impatiently. Sophie backed away with her hands in the air and a bemused glance at the four friends.

“Please lay on the ground,” he repeated, stepping closer. “You don’t have much time.”

“Much time for what? I think you’re more worried than you need to be, here,” Leah said, waving her hands placatingly, even as she lowered herself onto the grass beside the picnic table. Noah and Brian shrugged at each other and did the same. May was already lying on the ground, her head tilted to the side to stare at the health workers with an entertained smile.

“Your heart rate has just hit zero,” the first guy said gravely as a couple of the other green-suited workers knelt beside them and started dutifully performing chest compressions. Two others went between them, confirming they had no pulse. “We need you to be in a prone position so you don’t injure yourselves when you lose consciousness.”

The four of them stared at him from the ground for a couple seconds.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“Is that going to happen soon, or…” Brian said eventually.

“Er, yes,” he said, looking unsure. “Very soon.”

“Did nobody actually tell these people what our situation is?” Noah asked his friends, his voice jumping each time the guy pressed his chest. “He seems genuinely worried for our lives. We're not actually in any danger, right?”

The man currently performing CPR on Noah was unbothered by his words, his eyes fixed intently straight ahead as he pressed in a steady beat. Noah didn’t feel anything, of course, and he lay there wondering when someone would realize that something was amiss. This guy clearly didn’t mind that he was doing chest compressions on a perfectly conscious and apparently unconcerned student.

“Look, how about we just all make a field trip to Dr. Jansen’s office? Maybe you’ll be more willing to listen to her when she says that all this is unnecessary,” Leah said, pushing away the worker trying their best to restart her heart. She stood up, ignoring their protests, and glared at her friends. “Get up, guys. This is a waste of time and you all know it.” She rounded on the health workers. “Take us to the health center. Use the stretchers if you want, I don’t care.”

“Miss, please lay down-”

“Put the stretcher down and I’ll get on that. Then you can take us to the doctor.”

The worker hesitated, unsure how to respond. He seemed unsure as to how Leah was still upright and conversing with him and was perhaps wondering if he had somehow found the wrong group of students. Eventually he gestured for the workers to cease their resuscitation efforts and for the rescue stretchers to be laid out beside each of the prone students.

Noah’s vision lurched as two workers lifted his body onto the metal frame and strapped him down. He turned his head to watch Leah brush aside the people trying to help her, laying on the stretcher herself and folding her arms calmly behind her head with a smirk.

In short order they were being carried across the field.

“Bye, guys!” Sophie called cheerfully, settling back into her seat at the table to watch them leave.

Noah propped himself up on an elbow and waved. “See you.”

She shook her head slightly, and then they were around the corner and she was out of view.

Noah frowned at her response. She still ostensibly had a fifty percent chance of survival, but she had already given up. Sighing, he relaxed back onto the stretcher and closed his eyes. With his only sensory input being the muffled shuffling of feet all around them, he suddenly felt as though he were floating in an empty void. It was odd to know that he was being moved and jostled through space, yet be informed otherwise by all sense of touch. The feeling of being adrift in space grew stronger as his mental image of the environment around him faded. Eventually he decided he didn’t care much for the sensation and he opened his eyes. His surroundings fell reassuringly back into place.

By now they had been taken to the front of the building. A few campus vans were parked along the curb with emergency lights strobing, painting the entire area in flashes of red. As they approached, two of the workers stepped forward to open the rear doors so that the stretchers could be carried within. Noah was lifted into the vehicle and set on a long bench along the wall of the van. May was brought in right after him and set on the opposite bench. She seemed fascinated by the entire situation. When they made eye contact she gave him a grin.

There were four workers in the back of the van with them, sitting on each side of their stretchers.

“I don’t suppose I can sit up now that we’re in here,” Noah said.

The workers exchanged glances. “It’s best you don’t,” the one sitting by his feet answered gruffly. “It’s starting to look like this was all a false alarm, but I’d rather be safe than sorry under these circumstances.”

“So what, did you all get alerted by our wristbands, or did you get a call from Dr. Jansen?”

The worker gave him an amused look and tapped a small radio clipped to her shirt pocket. “I don’t know about any wristbands. We were alerted by campus security of the emergency.”

So Dr. Jansen must have called security, who called these guys. I guess it’s no wonder some information got lost in transit.

“I wouldn’t say that it was a false alarm,” Noah said. “It’s just not much of an emergency. From my perspective, anyway.”

“You had no pulse,” one of the workers by May’s stretcher said coldly. “I tested your heart rate myself. Nothing else makes sense, but the one thing I’m sure of is that you’re absolutely right that it was no false alarm. I’m just praying we get you to the health center before your body starts reacting like it’s supposed to without a pulse. You’re living on borrowed time right now.”

“Well, I must have gotten quite the fat loan.”

The worker chuckled shortly. “So it seems you have.”