Peony cringed. “Ew.”
Cinder laughed. “All right, I get it. I won’t make you guys push the car home.”
“Whew, you had me worried,” said Peony. She smiled because she hadn’t really been worried and flipped her hair off her shoulder.
Cinder’s eye caught on something—a dark spot below Peony’s collarbone, visible just above the collar of her shirt. “Hold still,” she said, reaching forward.
Peony did the opposite, panicking and swiping at phantoms on her chest. “What? What is it? A bug? A spider?”
“I said, hold still!” Cinder grabbed Peony by the wrist, swiped at the spot—and froze.
Dropping Peony’s arm, she stumbled back.
“What? What is it?” Peony tugged on her shirt, trying to see, but then spotted another spot on the back of her hand.
She looked up at Cinder, blood draining from her face. “A…a rash?” she said. “From the car?”
Cinder gulped and neared her with hesitant footsteps, holding her breath. She reached again for Peony’s collarbone and pulled the fabric of her shirt down, revealing the entire spot in the moonlight. A splotch of red, rimmed with bruise purple.
Her fingers trembled. She pulled away, meeting Peony’s gaze.
Peony screamed.
Chapter Five
PEONY’S SHRIEKS FILLED THE JUNKYARD, SEEPING INTO THE cracks of broken machinery and outdated computers. Cinder’s auditory interface couldn’t protect her from the shrill memory, even as Peony’s voice cracked and she dissolved into hysteria.
Cinder stood trembling, unable to move. Wanting to comfort Peony. Wanting to run away.
How was this possible?
Peony was young, healthy. She couldn’t be sick.
Peony cried, brushing repeatedly at her skin, the spots.
Cinder’s netlink took over, as it did in moments when she couldn’t think for herself. Searching, connecting, feeding information to her she didn’t want.
Letumosis. The blue fever. Worldwide pandemic. Hundreds of thousands dead. Unknown cause, unknown cure.
“Peony—”
She tentatively reached forward, but Peony stumbled back, swiping at her wet cheeks and nose. “Don’t come near me! You’ll get it. You’ll all get it.”
Cinder retracted her hand. She heard Iko at her side, fan whirring. Saw the blue light darting over Peony, around the junkyard, flickering. She was scared.
“I said, get back!” Peony collapsed to her knees, hunching over her stomach.
Cinder took two steps away, then lingered, watching Peony rock herself back and forth in Iko’s spotlight.
“I…I need to call an emergency hover. To—”
To come and take you away.
Peony didn’t respond. Her whole body was rattling. Cinder could hear her teeth chattering in between the wails.
Cinder shivered. She rubbed at her arms, inspecting them for spots. She couldn’t see any, but she eyed her right glove with distrust, not wanting to remove it, not wanting to check.
She stepped back again. The junkyard shadows loomed toward her. The plague. It was here. In the air. In the garbage. How long did it take for the first symptoms of the plague to show up?
Or…
She thought of Chang Sacha at the market. The terrified mob running from her booth. The blare of the sirens.
Her stomach plummeted.
Was this her fault? Had she brought the plague home from the market?
She checked her arms again, swiping at invisible bugs that crawled over her skin. Stumbled back. Peony’s sobs filled her head, suffocating her.
A red warning flashed across her retina display, informing her that she was experiencing elevated levels of adrenaline. She blinked it away, then called up her comm link with a writhing gut and sent a simple message before she could question it.
EMERGENCY, TAIHANG DISTRICT JUNKYARD.
LETUMOSIS.
She clenched her jaw, feeling the painful dryness of her eyes. A throbbing headache told her that she should be crying, that her sobs should match her sister’s.
“Why?” Peony said, her voice stammering. “What did I do?”
“You didn’t do anything,” said Cinder. “This isn’t your fault.”
But it might be mine.
“What should I do?” Iko asked, almost too quiet to be heard.
“I don’t know,” said Cinder. “A hover is on its way.”
Peony rubbed her nose with her forearm. Her eyes were rimmed in red. “You n-need to go. You’ll catch it.”
Feeling dizzy, Cinder realized she’d been breathing too shallowly. She took another step away before filling her lungs. “Maybe I already have it. Maybe it’s my fault you caught it. The outbreak at the market today…I-I didn’t think I was close enough, but…Peony, I’m so sorry.”
Peony squeezed her eyes and buried her face again. Her brown hair was a mess of tangles hanging across her shoulders, stark against her pale skin. A hiccup, followed by another sob. “I don’t want to go.”
“I know.”