The tent was illuminated by large plasticky windows sewn into the pitched roof. There were about a dozen health workers garbed in full safety attire and respiratory masks, each with their own small table to sit one-on-one with a student. Noah was immediately aware that all but two workers were uninfected.
Another soldier stationed just behind the entrance pointed Noah towards the far end of the tent, where a worker was disposing of some kind of small plastic tube left over from whomever she had just finished helping. She dropped it into a waste bin and looked up expectantly for the next student. Meeting eyes with Noah, she gestured impatiently for him to hurry over.
“Hello,” she said as he nervously took a seat.
Noah almost greeted her in kind, but decided against it before he could open his mouth. He hadn’t been so close to an uninfected person since last night, at least not without a blindfold. Not trusting himself to be able to close his mouth after a greeting without flesh between his jaws, he opted instead to give her a friendly nod and a smile.
The worker’s mask hid her expression as she reached into a box under the table and pulled out a small plastic tube. She fit it snugly into a black device with a green-tinted LCD screen and four red oval buttons, and handed the contraption to Noah.
“Take a deep breath and exhale through the tube,” she instructed. “It will test if you are carrying the viral dust infection.”
Noah’s heart sank. He gazed down at the device helplessly. Maybe I could just pretend to be able to breathe, he thought.
But that would be counterproductive. He was here for a cure, and if they didn’t know that he was infected, they might very well send him on his way without treatment. It depended on whether they had a kind of immunization that everyone would receive as a preventative measure, or if it was a corrective process that they would only bother to provide to those currently ill.
Deciding he would rather not risk it, Noah set the device down on the table in a slow, deliberate motion and swallowed. He opened his mouth.
“I can’t breathe. I already know I’m infected.” He couldn’t bring himself to meet her gaze, too afraid that it would trigger a lapse in control.
The worker smoothly reclaimed the device. “Ah, you must have been one of the first to fall ill to be displaying such developed symptoms. That’s alright, you’re not the only one.”
Noah risked a hesitant glance up just in time to see her raise her hand. A soldier soon appeared at her station.
“Infected,” the health worker said brusquely.
The soldier, a woman wearing a full face mask and so many layers that he genuinely had no idea whether or not she was infected, nodded and jerked her head for Noah to follow her away.
Noah rose to his feet with one last wistful glance towards the health worker and let the soldier guide him to the back of the tent. He looked across the stations and saw all three of his friends were currently speaking with their health workers, presumably explaining their inability to take the test.
Then the soldier pulled aside the draping cloth covering the tent’s exit and led him outside. A different soldier entered the tent at the same time they were leaving. Noah guessed he was tasked with the same duty as the soldier currently leading him away, and was returning to pick up another student in need of an escort.
His thoughts were soon distracted by the dozens of people moving back and forth between the tents and the line of buses idling along the road. Each and every student was accompanied by a soldier, regardless of which bus they were destined for.
Noah glanced back as he was led closer to the road, hoping to catch sight of his friends, but they had yet to appear. The motor of the bus he was approaching suddenly roared to life, making him jump. Is it about to leave?
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The soldier gestured for him to enter the vehicle. Noah looked back again with increasing anxiety, unwilling to be separated from his friends. His escort noticed him dawdling and narrowed her eyes behind her thick visor. “Get on the bus, kid.”
Noah looked around frantically. He had no idea how many seats were left on the bus, but he didn’t want to risk that there were only one or two. He noticed a couple students approaching from behind with their own escorts.
Noah surreptitiously stepped on his shoelace and dragged his other foot away, unknotting the laces. “Just give me a sec to tie my shoes.”
The soldier stared down at him in exasperation. “Can’t you do that on the bus?”
“That would be a safety hazard.” Noah picked at his laces like he was struggling to remember how to tie a knot. A kid hesitated behind him, waiting his turn to board, but Noah looked up and gestured graciously towards the bus. “Please, don’t mind me. Go right ahead.”
The student stepped in with a shrug, followed by the next five arrivals. Noah’s friends were still nowhere in sight.
What are they doing, exchanging their full family histories with the workers?
The bus’s engine rumbled in a steady hum as more and more students stepped past his crouching form to climb the steps into the vehicle. Noah began to wonder if he was worrying over nothing. Clearly, the bus had plenty more seats to spare.
He was flipping one of the laces mechanically back and forth, stealing impatient glances over his shoulder towards the tent where he knew his friends still remained, when the soldier standing guard beside him suddenly yanked him to his feet. “I don’t know what nonsense knot you’re trying to tie, but you can finish it on the bus.”
She carried him to the door by the scruff of his neck and deposited him on the first step of the vehicle.
“Keep an eye on this one,” she told the driver.
The man behind the wheel looked down apologetically at her. “Sorry, ma’am, but the bus is at capacity. You’ll have to find another shuttle.”
Noah grinned triumphantly as the soldier harrumphed and dragged him off the vehicle. “Look what you’ve done,” she grumbled as the bus pulled away.
“Sorry,” he said happily. He finally caught sight of his friends bursting out of their tent and staring around wildly until they noticed him, and he waved to get their attention. The three of them brightened at the sight of him and just about hauled their escorts in his direction.
“What took you all so long?” Noah asked as they fell into place at his side.
“Some girl took a bite out of her health worker,” May sighed. “Everyone had to freeze until the soldiers tranqed her and carried her out.”
“Oh,” Noah said, trying not to feel jealous.
His soldier looked between the four of them and just shook her head with a look of sudden wry understanding.
They followed their guards to the next available bus and climbed aboard with no fuss.
“Look into how to tie a knot, eh?” the soldier called teasingly over her shoulder.
Noah’s friends looked at him questioningly, so he pointed at his untied laces and shrugged. “She’s really bothered about my shoes for some reason.”
There was no shortage of available seats on this bus, and they easily found space for the four of them to sit as a group. As they took their seats Noah nearly tripped on his loose shoelace, to his great embarrassment.
“Careful,” Leah warned, smirking.
Noah glanced around sheepishly and bent down, finally getting around to actually tying his shoe. He picked up his laces and tried to loop them around each other, only for a frown to crease his face. He’d forgotten how difficult it was to complete such intricate tasks. He stared down at the laces sitting like two limp white noodles in his numb hands, the prospect of maneuvering them into a knot seeming completely laughable. He settled for shoving the laces beneath the tongue of his shoe. As he patted it into place, pleased with his work, he noticed that he’d picked up a bit of blood on his shoes at some point.
He picked at it uncertainly for a moment before deciding it didn’t really matter. His shoes were already red, anyway; the blood was barely visible.
He straightened back into his seat. The bus was filling up quickly. Everyone on board, including the driver, was infected. Noah felt a conflicting mix of disappointment and relief at this realization. At some point he had become able to recognize that it was in his best interest to leave people alone, no matter how delicious they might appear, but that didn’t stop him from wishing there was an easy way to satisfy his hunger. He missed the days when he could eat a meal without causing a crisis.
He settled back and gazed listlessly out the window as they pulled away from campus grounds. Maybe the treatment will include lunch.