Sweet Sick Teen 57

She half-listened, half-sleptwalked her way to her destination, barely listening to a word. She was certain that there was something in that food that was affecting her thought process, but really, it was because her body was so tired. It wasn’t used to relying on someone else to carry the burden of the load for her.

Before she knew it, she was in the interior of a brightly sparse room. She hadn’t paid much attention to her surroundings, not even noticing when they’d gone inside, but there was something in the far corner that attracted her attention.

“Is that a shower? Can I use it?”

“Certainly, but - ”

“Thanks!” And she unashamedly started stripping her ratty clothings off in front of the Samaritan, not caring a whit for modesty. All that mattered was washing away the muck and grime that’d accumulated on her body for -

The force of the water that sprayed from the nozzle was overwhelming, and almost knocked her off her feet. It was almost as strong as the Washroom in the Lopsided Hotel. But after getting over the shock, she gratefully scrubbed off the filth covering her body, finding great pleasure underneath the water pressure.

Once she was satisfied, she blindly reached for a towel, and one was dutifully placed in her hand.

“You certainly enjoyed that.”

“I did!” She remarked. Then she looked around. “Where’re my clothes?”

“You don’t need those filthy rags anymore. These should do nicely,” the Samaritan said, handing over freshly folded clothing.

Drying herself off, she put them on. The new clothes snugly covered her form perfectly. Her old clothes hadn’t fit for months, and this was a welcome change. Once on, she saw they were the same colour and texture as what the Samaritan was wearing. A perfect match!

That was when she noticed they weren’t alone. There was a procession of men and women all wearing similar clothes, standing idly and at attention, looking at the Girl with great interest. She wasn’t too concerned, figuring they all came to see her. She must be more popular than she thought!

Before the Girl could greet any of them, the Samaritan guided her to a mobile chair. “Why walk when you can ride?”  She sat back and allowed the pleasure of being ferried along to wash over her, the vibrations from the floor feeling very soothing against her skin.  “You don’t have to worry about anything. Here, you shall be safe.”

She could believe it. As she examined the interior scenery, there were numerous passageways, loads of curtained windows, and rows of people standing at attention. And lots of nozzle stations! These guys were certainly serious about hygiene. That was the third showerhead she’d seen, unless they were going in circles.

As her eyes focussed, the Girl noticed that all the people standing in the hallway weren’t waving at her because their hands were occupied. They were all carrying something in their arms that didn’t register at first, until she recognized what it was.

“What’s with all the hole punchers?”

“Protection.”

“From who?”

“From those who would steal lives less worthy than ours. Consider this - there are still over ten billion people on the planet. Not long ago, the number was ten times that. Our suicide rate is in the millions, and we still have a population explosion problem.”

“Uh... yeah?” This was heavy stuff to handle all at once, and she wasn’t sure how to react.

“And yet, despite that decimation, humans still continue to put multiple animals and plants into extinction. If necessary, we’ll dive head-first and sacrifice ourselves if it means saving an animal from dying an early death, or offer ourselves as food so they can feast on us if there’s no sufficient meat supply nearby.”

These guys were more fastidious than she expected. “Why would anyone attack you?”

“Haven’t you been listening? We’re devoted to protecting all life - including rare animals, especially new lifeforms that haven’t been born yet. I have no idea what manner of creature will pop out once your gestation period’s through, but it’s important that we look after it until another suitable mate can be found.”

“Another...?”

“It wouldn’t do to have the tyke be the only one of its kind. If need be, we’ll track down and identify the creature who impregnated you in the first place. Any idea who the father was?”

“I’d rather not talk about it.”

“Understandable. Sore subject. No matter. It should be easier to identify once the thing’s born. After that, we can just simply cross-reference its notable character traits with other known species. Of course, it’ll be a problem if it portrays macroscopic features consistent with smaller life forms such as bacteria.”

“You save viruses too?”

“Oh sure! The latest vaccines may have wiped out Malaria and Rabies out of existence, but that’s no excuse to let them go extinct just so we can live comfortable lives. If anything, we need to cross-breed further in order to make sure that later generations will produce superior lifeforms that’ll live within us with all its ill effects included.”

The Samaritan pulled back a curtain on the wall that wasn’t just decoration, revealing multiple cold canisters with viruses in them. “To that end, we’ve been stockpiling multiple diseases long thought to have been wiped out. All it’ll take is a simple broken canister for them to spread out and multiply their kind a thousandfold. And the best part is, they’re totally harmless to animals.”

“Uh-huh”, she agreed, intending to slink away, but was caught by the collar by her gracious host, who dragged her from behind, continuing his presentation, not caring whether his reluctant audience was listening or not.

“Just as you hold new life within you, our bodies are little more than mere vessels for containing age-old viruses to live in. Just as the planet is overrun with life, we all hold lives within ourselves. These ever-changing adaptative hosts dwell within us, living lives whose existence we can barely even conceive. We have to be stronger than the viruses, but not so strong that we completely eradicate them in the first place.”

The Girl was barely listening at this point, trying to breathe through her tight collar being pulled back against her throat. For people who were so devoted to life, they were astoundingly carefree about it. There were several more iterations of “As you can see...” showing the backwards view of the facilities before the Samaritan dragged the Girl to a secluded room.

“You’ve had a long day. You need some rest.” And then he left.

Coughing for breath, she examined her surroundings. It was a simple windowless room with a single entrance and bed. The only other decorative piece of furniture was a comfy chair and a side table, both of which took up too much room, leaving very little space to move around. While she was grateful for the safe lodging, she was worried about these guys’ philosophy. Outwardly, it sounded noble, benign even. But a closer look showed a fanatical devotion to life that wasn’t human.

And those showerheads - they weren’t really open-space showers as she thought, but eyewash stations for washing away chemicals. That would probably make more sense.

She peeked outside the windowless room through the front door. All eyes standing at attention suddenly swivelled towards her direction, and she quickly shut it close. The level of attention paid to her was more than a little alarming.

Now that she thought about it, weren’t there two guys from behind who tilted the bench she was sitting on so she’d be able to get off her duff? How long had she been watched?

She examined the clothes she’d been given. They were an exact fit. It wasn’t stretchy fabric, but tailor-made. The only way that was possible was if they knew her exact measurements. And that was only by obsessing over every iota of her on a regular basis.

Ironically enough, even though her clothes were form-fitting, the shoes they’d chosen didn’t fit her swollen feet, so she had to stand on top of them and shuffle around. Not that there was much to see anyways.