Chapter 25
May's company travelled through the night, scouts with torches lighting their way. Mega's pulse, though frequently checked, did not get any stronger and May feared he was bleeding internally. Zed refused to be parted from Mega's side, even when the bedraggled bunch stopped for much needed rests. May led them on, to the city, always hoping to see the end of the trees, but knowing it would be dawn before they would catch their first glimpse of the new city lights.
--
Lex looked up at the big, blockish building before him. The outer doors of the library were formed of heavy wood: a throwback to the building's predecessor that had burnt down during an unfortunate period most architects chose to forget. There was no way they could have broken those doors down, which was the main reason, possibly, that the building had not yet been despoiled.
"Hold the light steady, Lex," Cat commanded as she worked at the arcane lock with her tools.
"So, what exactly are you hoping to find in here?" Lex asked, dubiously.
"Books, my dear boy, books!"
"And they would make a perfect wedding present for Dee and Patch?"
"Some of them would, yes."
"Why?"
"Do you know what they used to teach in this university, Lex?"
"Quite a lot of things, I should imagine."
"Well, yes. But one of those things was medicine and they were good at it too. They had, have, all of the most up-to-date text books and research in here."
"Ah," he said, the penny finally dropping, "you want to get some medical books for Patch, so that he can learn to be a good doctor, Dee can call him a doctor without him correcting her all the time and everyone benefits from the fact he is better at his job."
"Exactly."
The lock finally clicked into place and, with the compulsory complaining creak, the door opened. Following the black clad woman into the inky darkness of the library, Lex shone his torch around and barely missed walking into a full panel glass door.
"Great, there's no lock on these doors," Lex exclaimed as he flashed his torch along the wall of glass doors to where Cat was standing at the opposite end.
"Come here," she said, "I need that light."
Doing as he was told, Lex walked over to her. She was standing next to what looked like a fuse box, mounted on the wall. Once again, she was busy picking a lock.
This is the circuit breaker for the building," she informed him, "once we trip it, we should get the power back on."
Sure enough, inside the box there was a circuit breaker and, after some determined fiddling around, a few lights twinkled on inside the building and the two nearest glass doors swung open of their own accord.
"They're automatic," Cat said, seeing Lex's frown, "They saw you coming."
"Just like you, huh?" Lex joked, before following her through into the building.
"Come on," Cat called, "The medical section is on level 6, although I usually got waylaid in the level underneath it."
"This is level 1 right?"
"No, that's the basement, this is level 2."
"Less stairs to climb, I suppose."
"Yeah. The stairs are just here," Cat said as they turned a corner into a central atrium with a square stairwell spiralling up around a block of glass elevators, "When we get up there you are looking for things like text books on anatomy, surgical procedure, medicine in general; they should all be in two aisles marked 'Medicine'."
"Ah," Lex stopped as they reached the first landing, at level 3, "Problem."
"What?"
"I might need a bit of help with the names thing."
"You don't know how to spell them?"
"I don't know how to read! Never quite got the hang of it when I was younger."
"Ah. Not at all?"
"Nope, well, I know what the letters are."
"I see."
Cat stopped to think for a moment. There was no way she could afford the time to baby-sit Lex. She was equally bereft of the time to return to the mall and find a literate helper for her task. There was only one thing she could do; one ace she could play.
"Take of your pack and sit down," she commanded, indicating some chairs on the landing.
"What's the plan?" Lex asked, obeying.
"If you know the letters, you must have some memory of the ability to read, or at least learning them. We just need to remind you of that."
"How?"
"Just a simple psychological technique. Just relax and listen to me; do everything I say and don't ask questions."
Lex nodded, used to Tai San's weird tricks that usually had much less solid bases than psychology. Locking eyes with him, Cat lowered her voice to a soft, whispering alto, placed her left hand on Lex's head with her thumb resting in the middle of his forehead and raised her right index finger so that it stood halfway between the path of their eyes.
"Listen to my voice. Focus on my finger. Relax. Let your mind go blank. Your eyes are getting heavy, you will soon be asleep. You will hear the sound of my voice and you will respond to me. You will follow my commands. Sleep now."
As Lex's eyes closed, Cat placed her right hand on his head, next to her left, again letting the thumb rest on his forehead. She closed her eyes and concentrated.
"Go back. Back to when you were happy. Where are you? Tell me."
"I'm at the mall."
"What is happening?"
"Zan's pregnant. The antidote worked - I'm well again and I'm gonna be a Dad!"
"Go back further. Before the virus. Where are you now?"
"Standing in a line waiting to be shouted at. Ma'am's laying into another new kid just now; he's kinda shy, he just takes it."
"Back further again. Back to your first year at school. Do you remember learning your letters?"
"Yes."
"What are you doing now?"
"Teacher is drawing letters on the chalkboard. She wants me to spell out the word."
"And can you?"
"I can say the letters, but she wants to know what the word is. I should know. I don't know. I don't know."
"Go a little bit forward, your next year at school. Can you make the words now?"
"Some. Teacher wants me to read a line from a book. I know some of the words but I don't think I am getting the others right. Teacher says I'm stupid. I don't want to be stupid. I don't like this game."
"What are you reading?"
"It's a book with lots of pictures. There are words underneath the pictures."
"Can you remember reading all of that book and understanding it?"
"No."
Cat screwed up her eyes in frustration, but never opened them. She had been hoping she wouldn't have to do this.
"Let your mind go blank. Listen only to the sound of my voice. My knowledge is your knowledge. Hear me," Lex's eyelids flickered in their deep trance as Cat paused, "What do you see?"
"I see the Professor. He's talking to our class, about broken bones. I'm taking notes."
"Look down at the notes: can you read them?"
"Yes."
Cat relaxed her hold on Lex's head.
"Remember what you have learned but not how you have learnt it," she said, opening her eyes and fixing them, once again, on his, "Wake up now: open your eyes and come back to yourself and the present."
Lex slowly opened his eyes to look straight into Cat's.
"What did you just do?" Lex asked, dreamily.
"Like I said," she answered, "just a bit of simple psychology."
--
Tai San had returned to the mall with Angie, leaving Patch and Dee half sitting, half lying on the adjacent bed to Aeryn's, fast asleep, and Cloe and Josh on night watch.
In Patch's office, Josh sat on a bench, with his coltish legs stretched out in front of him, reading an old book. Cloe was asleep with her head resting on his shoulder. He didn't mind, they were good friends now. Besides, as long as one of them stayed awake, that was all that mattered really.
--
Helena slept peacefully, coming to terms with the loss of her leg much easier because the alternative may have been the loss of her life. Paul had returned to the mall with the promise that he and his friends Ryan, Alice and Denver would come back to see her tomorrow. Now, Helena's dreams were filled with sweet remembrances of her hero from the mines and how she wished it could be him coming to see her tomorrow instead.
--
Salene lay awake in her sleeping lover's arms. Pride had been so proud at dinner he hadn't even noticed the pang of pain that had shot across Ryan's face. He hadn't noticed much of anyone's faces for the whole evening, he had been so excited. Faces. So many faces with so much to tell. What was that glance for that she had noticed passing between Jack and Jetta? Surely there couldn't be something going on there, they had only just met. Perhaps that was all it was, a sign of welcome: acceptance and happy meeting. Yes, she thought, that must be it. But what about the mistake she had made later, when she had followed Lex and Cat to Cat's room along the corridor. The girl, woman, had been so like Lex, with the dark to hide her figure and her hair hanging lank around her un-spectacled face. The likeness had been so close. Why had Lex and Tai San risked so much to bring her back here? Had it simply been because of the reasons they had given, or was there more to it? And what were they up to? Salene rarely knew what went through Lex's mind, but she could tell when he was up to something. And what, oh what, had she started with the elections. Ebony was sure to end up one candidate and, the way things had been going recently, she was certain Amber would be another. How would this battle end?
Her head full of tumultuous thoughts, Salene eventually drifted off to sleep, one hand resting, protectively, over her stomach.