The Unknown

xli. kyle

"How far are we going, Kyle?" Shaun called impatiently. "I think we've put enough distance between us and the city."

We had walked through the darkness until the eastern horizon bled red with the rising sun. Then we'd stopped for a few hours and slept, only to awaken and continue onward for hours more.

The morning air was brisk, the grass speckled with dew that gradually soaked through my shoes. Excitement and unease twisted in my stomach whenever I eyed the vast expanse of freedom before us.

When Kyle stopped and turned around for the first time in hours, the sight of him struck me. He looked alarmingly pale with a sheen of sweat on his forehead. The tenseness in his expression, eyes tight and brows drawn together, immediately told me that his unexplained episodes of pain had returned.

"We head south, I think," he said rigidly. "As far as we can go, until it gets warmer. It's our best shot at survival."

"Maybe we could even find another city," Zara added. Her words were punctuated by labored breaths from our nonstop hiking. "They won't know we're fugitives, right?"

"Doc and I talked about that sometimes," said Kyle, rubbing at the scar on his palm. "If they find out we're not citizens, we'd likely be taken into custody. There are so many questions about how they'd react to us—"

"But if worse comes to worst, we could sneak in and steal food or supplies, just like at our city, right? I think it'd be advantageous to stay near a civilization as a safety net," she stated, sitting down on the trunk of a fallen tree.

"That's a good point..." Kyle trailed off. 

His eyes became unfocused, overwhelmed by pain. He sunk slowly to the ground, lowering his head into his hands. 

Matt glanced at me, confused.

Shaun, with a knowing look in his eyes, stepped forward. "For now, I guess we'll have to live like the ancients—hunting and foraging. We might as well get started. Matt, do you know anything about edible plants?"

"Yeah, they put us through a survival course in the military."

We split off in opposite directions. Matt and I located some sumac berries and started picking. I popped a few into my mouth, the tart, acidic taste swirling over my tongue, and swallowed, desperate for the rush of sugar into my bloodstream.

"So...what was that?" Matt asked, a crease between his eyebrows.

"Most of us have had strange symptoms," I explained. I'd been trying not to think about it, but my brain had already started to connect the dots. "It started with Kyle getting these crazy nosebleeds. Then my tears burned like acid, and later, my eyes went entirely red with broken blood vessels." I paused to focus on picking the berries, a shiver rippling through me.

Eventually, I continued in an impassive monotone, "Something happened to us all as children. We were altered. Our DNA is different from yours—different from any normal, healthy human..." I trailed off, unnerved by my own words. "And we have no idea what that means for us. What the repercussions will be."

Matt was staring at me like he had no idea what to say.

"You...keep at it," I told him. "I'm going to go check on Kyle."

I stood and marched back to our makeshift camp. But it was deserted.

"Kyle?" I called out, followed by a moment of heart-stopping silence.

At last, a breathless voice to my left said, "Hey." 

I followed the sound to discover Kyle propped against a tree, his head lolling weakly to the side. He surveyed my anxious expression, then added, "I'm fine. A-okay," in a drunken sort of tone. His eyes slid shut, and a wave of pain seemed to pass through his body with a shudder.