Ordinary (Anything But) (9 page)

Nealon looked at the wall behind her. “He was being watched.” His eyes slid to her and away.
“Just like you were being watched.”

Honor frowned. “Why were we being watched?” As soon as the words left her mouth, she knew. There was only one re
ason why they would have been; their parents. One of Christian’s parents had the virus, and so did one of Honor’s. She should have figured that out about five minutes ago. Being told she could see things others couldn’t and actually realizing she had some UD virus in her hadn’t exactly clicked until then. That meant for the last two years people had been watching her, since she’d turned sixteen. Honor had never known, never suspected. Chills went up and down her whole body. Her mother or her father had been able to see the UD? And they could still see them, if it was her mother.

“Which one?”

He didn’t even pretend to misunderstand. “Your father.”

Tears stung her eyes and Honor slumped against the wall. She choked out, “My father could see people like this?”

“No. It can go either way, depending on the person’s genetic makeup.” She stared at him, uncomprehending. Nealon sighed. “Your father
was
one of these people.”

Her ears rang and her vision blurred. Everything she’d known, everything she’d thought she’d known, was gone, just like that, just from a few sentences. “How is
any of this possible?” Honor whispered. How was any of it possible? How could people die and yet not? How could people be able to see things others could not?

“Balance
. It’s all about balance. Good and bad, those with the virus, those without, those on one end of it, those on the other. Balance is necessary in all things in life, or
un
life, if you want to get technical.”

She stared at him. Nealon wasn’t being cruel or boastful. He was stating facts in an unbiased way. Her dad, her
dad
, had died between the ages of sixteen and eighteen? Yet he’d aged like any other person. She hadn’t even noticed, had never thought his appearance strange. Sure, he’d looked good for his age, but so had her mother. Honor shook her head, trying to dislodge the untruths that were true. Had her mother known? No way. Honor knew she couldn’t have.

“I never…he was so normal.”
             

“As I said, most are. Others…” He shrugged one shoulder.

Honor straightened. She had to know, she had to know all of it, even if it hurt to know, even if she didn’t want to know, and she didn’t. “Others what?”

Nealon gave her that blank look of his. “I need to show you some more things.”

***

The church was a maze of reconstructed rooms and hallways. Honor could have easily gotten lost within it and would have if not for Nealon leading the way. They passed by kids dressed in the white clothes she had on and others in regular clothing. They turned their attention to Honor as she walked by. She didn’t look at them.
Honor looked straight ahead and pretended she wasn’t being stared at. Her body was numb; if only her brain could be the same.

“What’s with the white clothes?” she asked, pulling at her shirt.

Nealon didn’t look back as he said, “Newbies are in white. You’ll get your clothes back after all testing and lab work is done.”

Honor’s footsteps faltered. “What testing and lab work?”

“Fingerprints, blood will be drawn, a physical exam is necessary. It’s required of all newbies.”

“So if
newbies
are dressed like this and the…undead or whatever are too, couldn’t we somehow get mixed up? How do you know who is who? Other than the whole locked up thing. What if one of them got loose somehow?” It felt like she was talking about a rodent or something. Honor didn’t like that analogy.

“Remember,
Honor, glowing eyes and gray aura.”

She’d forgotten. How could she have forgotten that? “Still, they could escape.”

“The chances of that are slim.”

“But not improbable.”

He ignored that. “A GPS chip the size of a pencil eraser head is placed under the skin in their neck below the left ear. They are monitored at all times, always. A monitor bracelet is also on the right ankle of all UDs. An alarm is sounded if they go outside the designated perimeters.”

“They have those forever?”

“The GPS chips, yes. The monitor bracelets come off before they leave.”

“How long are they here?”

“Until the turning is complete and they are stabilized, usually one week to two.”

“Couldn’t they just cut it out of their neck?”

Nealon looked at her. “They are unconscious when it is placed. And if they do cut it out, they are eventually found and terminated. Always.” Honor turned her eyes from his unwavering gaze. He spoke of their deaths so unfeelingly. Nealon also made it sound like it happened from time to time. It chilled her, made her remember Agent Nealon was a dangerous man.
Don’t forget it, Honor.
“Any who violate the laws are disposed of. They know this.” He continued to stare at her until she gave a jerk of her head.

She was silent as they walked down the seemingly endless hallway, finally asking, “How long am I going to be here?”

“A week without leave. After that, you may go home, if you wish. You’ll still have to check in weekly and make a report. If there is any kind of disturbance, you will be expected to report sooner. There is also training three nights a week and all are required to attend.”

“I can’t stay here a week! I have school and work and…my mom and sister.” She swallowed. What must they be thinking? They had to be freaking out.

“The school has been notified. You’re sick. Ryder will pick up your schoolwork and bring it here.”

“Who notified the school?”

Nealon stopped before a door at the end of the hallway.
“Your mother.”

Honor went cold. He was lying. “My mother wouldn’t do that just because someone told her to. What gives?”

Nealon glanced over his shoulder at her, pushing a button on the wall. The door clicked and unlatched. He pulled it open. “Your mother knows, Honor. Why do you think she’s been so understanding?”

She swayed on her feet, the hallway sinking in around her and turning dark for a moment. Everything, it was getting to be too much. Her mother
knew
? How had she been able to keep it a secret for so long? How had her father? Honor felt like she hadn’t known her father, she felt like she didn’t know her mother. The secret they’d kept, it was astronomical.

Nealon stepped through the door and motioned for her to follow. “All with the UD virus are registered in a system. A waiver must be signed by any who procreate with a UD carrier. Your mother knew there was a chance you would be born with the UD virus. She is extremely grateful you are one of us and not them.”

Us, them; they were all people. It didn’t seem right to separate them, categorize them, and put them into groups. None of them could help what they were; they had no control over it. She hesitated outside the door. “So you’re saying there’s this secret society running around that no one knows about, but actually they do? That makes sense.”

“We do what we can. Come inside.”

The room was large and white with brown carpet. Honor was thinking it was about the only room in the place with a carpeted floor. A dozen or so desks were set up in rows of two. Each table had a laptop computer on it. A handful of people sat at the desks, the clicking of their fingers on the keyboard the only sound. It made Honor think of swarms of insects. One wall was a map of the world with red dots spread out over it. Most of the dots were in the USA. Filing cabinets took up another wall and it smelled like stale coffee in the room. Another wall was monitors that flashed over different areas of the building. That explained the cameras she’d seen below. Honor watched the monitors, wondering if they were in the showers and bathrooms and the room she’d slept in. The thought made her stomach turn.

“Pick a desk. Sit.”

Honor grabbed the chair nearest to her and fell onto it with her hands clasped together in her lap. The chair was cold and hard and uncomfortable. Nealon pulled a chair over and sat beside her. She smelled his aftershave and longing trickled over her. It reminded her of the way her dad used to smell. Jeremy Rochester had even looked a little like him, but had been shorter and bulkier. Also, his eyes had been gray. Honor started. Of course they had been. She wondered if that had been natural or from the virus. Had her father’s eye color changed at some point?

“My dad’s eyes were always gray. Were they really, or was that from the virus?”

Nealon glanced at her. “People with gray eyes can be UDs, but not always. Sometimes people just have gray eyes. Only we can see the glow to them, the silver shine. To people unaffected by the virus their eyes are simply gray.”

She nodded; her throat unusually thick.
Her dad had been a barber, which Honor had always thought was way cool. Such a simple man, with a simple, happy life, and it had all been a façade. He’d owned his own shop downtown and had even had the red and white swirly pole out front. When she was younger she used to hang out there while he worked, watching his fingers and scissors create hair magic. He’d loved to laugh, to smile, and she had been so very glad he was her dad. Her eyes stung and Honor swallowed, drawing a deep breath in through her nose. Honor felt betrayed somehow, even though she knew she wouldn’t have understood, couldn’t have. How could he have been so happy with such a terrifying, epic secret? She just wished…she wished he was around still to explain it all to her. Honor wished he was around—period.

“Rochester.
”

She turned her head. Nealon’s expression didn’t change when he saw her face, but there was something in his eyes, briefl
y, that made her uncomfortable, something like empathy maybe. She didn’t want it from anyone. She didn’t want it from him. Honor thought of Christian and how he’d looked at her when she’d stared him down. Had that been why? Had he felt the same as she did now?

Nealon opened a laptop, his fingers merging with the other clicking going on in t
he room. He brought up a video and angled the laptop so she could see the screen better. “This is Robert Collins.”

The video was old, grainy. There was no sound to it. It showed a tall, thin young man with long straggly black hair. He wore holey jeans and a tee shirt. He paced in a room, similar in looks and size to the ones below. The gray aura was not visible and Honor wondered if that was because his image was on film. He was agitated, upset. His face lifted to the camera,
his eyes glowing silver. Honor sat back, uneasy. It was like he was staring right at her, but that wasn’t possible.

“This video is from the mid-nineteen nineties. Things were handled…differently then. His turning was only recently complete.”

The man perched on a chair, his feet on the seat of it and his back against the wall. He appeared to be waiting. She kept her eyes on the screen as she asked, “Different how?”

“They were let out almost immediately after the initial turning. Now we keep them longer for observation to make sure they are mentally sound.”

“Why are you showing me this?”

“Keep watching.”

Honor did. Her eyes were locked on the screen. Most of her didn’t want to look away, but the more sensible part of her did. She knew something bad was going to happen. Why else would Nealon show it to her? It was like watching a horror movie and being unable to turn away even though she knew she’d regret it.

As she watched, the man tensed, and then slowly stood. Shadows moved beyond the camera. His face twisted into a mask of something ugly, something scary, and he snapped the neck of an approaching woman without hesitation.
The motion took less than a second. She was standing, and then she was dead. Her body fell to the ground, limp and unmoving. He looked down at her, his chest heaving, and then shot out of view. Honor continued to stare at the fallen woman, willing her to get back up. She didn’t. Honor felt woozy, lightheaded, and still she couldn’t look away. The image was burned into her eyes, never to be unseen. Did she really just watch a woman get murdered?

“That was his mother. He killed his younger brother and sister next. They’d come to take him home. He took out three of our people before he was finally put down.”

Honor closed her eyes. When she opened them, the laptop was closed, pushed away to the edge of the desk.

“Some don’t adapt
. Or if they do, it doesn’t last, for whatever reason. Sometimes the bloodlust happens right away, sometimes years from when they turn. Something doesn’t merge right, something changes as they age. They lose control.
Something.
We don’t know everything about the UD virus, just enough to keep ahead of the situation.”

“Bloodlust?” she whispered, her stomach roiling.

“The urge to kill. That’s the threat the UDs carry. At any given time during their existence, they can snap. Then they must be taken out. That’s why we’re around. Balance. We observe them, and when and if they go bad, we take care of it. That’s the most interesting thing about the UD virus. That it would turn some undead and it would turn others into their sentinels. The universe tends to keep all things balanced, even chaos. That’s why you’re here, Honor. To help keep things balanced.”