I used to call them cruel beauties.
Faith groaned and struggled to sit up. Her whole body felt like it was on fire, and she slumped back down defeatedly.
"Faith, do you remember what happened to you last night?" the woman asked, her razor voice sending a shiver down Faith's spine.
"Nng…I was…following this group of uglies to the ruins. I just wanted to see what they were doing. Then I-"
"Do you remember who was in that group?"
Faith stirred lightly. "Sh-Shay….some boy she called 'Stretch'. Four others."
Dr. Cable nodded, smiling softly, as softly as a Special could. "Yes, those tricky little uglies. It seems they've acquired outside friends. Dangerous friends."
"Why does everything hurt?" Faith whined.
Dr. Cable pressed a button on the side of the bed. The bed rose Faith up into a sitting position, and her head lolled over to the side. She almost screamed at the sight of Dr. Cable, a beautiful woman with the face of a she wolf.
"While you were riding after them, you crashed into a tree branch and fell to the forest floor. You must have been quite a distance from them since they didn't turn to help you.
"They don't know me well anyways." Faith turned away from Dr. Cable.
"Well, Faith. I want to make you an offer. Your birthday is tomorrow, and your surgery will take a lot longer with that broken arm."
"Broken?" Faith whipped her head back around and looked down at the cast on her arm.
"You broke it after your fall." Dr. Cable raised up a syringe full of repair nanos.
"We can fully repair your wounds with these nanos. When that's done, you're going to do something for me so you can wake up all perky and pretty tomorrow."
Faith closed her eyes. Right now, she wanted to sleep.
"You're going to take this tracker, and follow those uglies to the ruins again. At the rendezvous point, destroy the tracker. We will be there in only a few minutes."
"And then what? What happens to them? To me?"
Dr. Cable smiled again. "You will become pretty, and they will be sent back to their dorms. Their birthdays aren't for another few months."
"And their so-called "outside" friends?"
"That is for us to know and for you to not worry about." Faith felt a sharp poke on her arm and the world was clouded in darkness.
Cruel beauties. Protectors. Swift and silent. Amazing.
Faith woke up in her bed, fully dressed and pain free. She sighed when she saw the note and tracking device on her nightstand. The hospital hadn't been a dream after all.
She remembered what Dr. Cable had told her to do. She had to betray the uglies so they could capture their "outside friends".
Faith stretched and groaned. The sun had just begun to set, and she knew Shay and her crew had to be boarding out to the ruins in a few hours. She decided to go early.
I took a deadly leap of faith.
Faith had never truly seen the ruins until now. There were actual skeletons inside of those Rusty land cars, buildings that loomed big and creepy-making. They reminded her of shadowy tree branches that used to give her nightmares as a littlie.
'I just need to stay low and out of sight. Would have been nice to have a sneak suit.' She thought, as she hid herself at the very bottom of one of the old skyscrapers. After she was sure no old parts of the structure could fall on top of her, she leaned back against a giant gray rock, and picked up a much smaller one to smash the tracker with when the time came.
Faith exhaled, and began to watch the skies.
After what she felt was at least three hours, she finally saw the crowd of hoverboards. She was too low to the ground to hear them though. She decided to wait at least another hour before she would set off the tracker. She was sure Dr. Cable wanted all of the uglies to be there, plus the outsider.
'Only another hour.' She thought.
Then, she saw the single hoverboard cruising towards the skyscraper. It had to be the outsider.
Faith placed the tracker on a flat piece of ground, then raised the rock up to smash it. She hesitated, wondering if what she was doing was really right. She didn't know those uglies very well, and they'd probably hate her for ruining their fun.
'Dr. Cable said the outsiders were dangerous. Shay said they were going somewhere called the Smoke. Doesn't sound safe to me.'
With a small grunt, she brought the rock crashing down on the tracker. She smashed it a few more times to be sure that it was thoroughly totaled.
With her deed done, she rushed away on her board, leaning forward as much she could without falling off. Whatever happened, she no longer wanted to be a part of it.
When she got to the forest, a swarm of Specials flew past her, all smiling cruelly as they closed in on their catch. Faith shuddered, and continued back to her dorm. Tomorrow was going to be a huge day for her. After all, she was turning sixteen.
We don't want to hurt you, but we will if we have to. That was the mantra.
"Good job, Faith." Dr. Cable greeted her as she climbed back into her bedroom window. Everything had been cleared out of her dorm, her bed stripped of its sheets, closet empty, bathroom squeaky clean.
"Where's all my stuff?" Faith asked quietly.
Dr. Cable smiled widely, revealing every single one of her sharpened teeth. "It's 2:30 AM. June 25th. Happy birthday, Faith."
Faith glanced at her holo-clock, which sure enough, read 2:30 AM. She sighed tiredly and sat next to Dr. Cable on the mattress. "Happy birthday to me."
"A hovercar will arrive for you in twenty minutes. You'll be very pretty, very soon Faith." Dr. Cable stood with her hands in the pockets of her lab coat, and swiftly walked out of the room.
Faith sat on the mattress, deep in thought. She was thinking about what kind of dress she'd make with the hole in the wall. Maybe something with lots of flowers and sparkles.
She sat there, planning pretty outfits until she heard the room ping her.
"A hovercar is waiting for you, Faith." The room told her. With one last lookaround, she picked up her interface ring and duffel bag, then walked out of her dorm room for the last time.