MAD

chvpter 19

Barden Compound - Hawkesbury River

Stage ONE Reproduction Facility (Post Abduction) - [DAYS LEFT: TWO]

...

Barden Hall swarms with people, however they steer clear of our little group as we await our turn to access the food dispensary machines.

"I'm so bummed I got kicked off logistics," Elias groans, his arm strung over my shoulders.

Teacup barks a laugh, "You should've known they'd catch you trying to steal the gate code."

Reid and Thaila watch Hito's table in the distance, their shared disinterest in Elias's story only making my stomach grip. The Prince of the Yakuza finally decided he wanted to meet me, tonight.

"I swear that supply gate is the only way out, though. Serious, on my heart. I swear." E avows.

"Yeah, we believe you, anyway. Vi, you never got to finish. What are War tribes?" Teacup quizzes me for the umpteenth time, her wonky teeth giving her smile a cute nature.

"War tribes are dangerous. There's cannibalism, slave trade, Zero trade... Scorpius had two good friends who were taken in so that's why he was there, but he's from Holders Bay where it's more drugs and sex." I answer, keeping my voice low.

"What is Zero trade?" Teacup gulps, and I crane my head to look down at her, Elias's megalithic arm weighing heavier against the back of my neck.

"Do you know what a Zero'd manic is?" I ask, observing when she picks at the eczema patch beneath her eye.

Beside me, Thai's face pales slightly like she's reliving a memory, but it strikes me as an odd reaction. How does she know what a Zero is? The tension that expands from her is tinged with grief, and I catch it when she glances at Reid. She grows uncomfortable with my attention, so she looks at the Yakuza soldiers seated throughout Hito's little territory stake in the Hall.

"Wait, there are types of Manics?" Elias balks.

"No, they're all Manics."

"What?" Elias scoffs, adjusting his arm atop my shoulders. The only thing missing from this picture is a dart pegged between his lips.

"Ok, imagine if someone gets M.A.D they also get this, this timer that's ticking toward Zero." I tug my top up slightly, revealing the tattoo on my right flank. It's a portrait of a woman with two zeros in her eyes, "When their timer hits zero they go Zombie."

"Fuck, when did you get that?" Elias tries to get a better look at the tatt but Teacup shoos him off, taking the hem of my shirt so she can get a better look. She doesn't seem too concerned with the fact that I have a tattoo of a zombie, and instead places her cold, dry fingers to my skin in awe.

"Wow." She peers. "What is M.A.D?" Gisselle adds, "Like, what really is it?" She drops my shirt, looking up at me.

"Uh... The bombs from the Unfinished War were a new generation of Radioactive weaponry-."

"Lost me." Elias shrugs.

"Ok," I inhale, "They made this bomb. Anywhere it hit, was uninhabitable for a month-."

"I thought radiation was unsafe for centuries-." Teacup starts to ask.

"But it's a new bomb," Elias catches.

I shake my head, "Ok. I'll start again. M.A.D didn't come from the bombs. The bombs caused this thing called R.V.I, a radioactive pathogen that fused with a disease that already knew how to consume human DNA. In a small enough dose, the human brain can change it's cell pass over-."