I barely recognized them. Their mouths and jaws had expanded to puffy, cushion-like things, to the point where I could hardly even make out their chins. As if that weren’t bad enough, what looked like red, burning blotches marred every inch of their skin, which the nurses hadn’t even told me about. A thick sheen of sweat coated their faces, and their eyes werebloodshot and half-closed, as though they were barely conscious.
My knees weakened and I dropped to the sofa. The phone slipped from my hands as my tears returned full force. I couldn’t stop them, and I sobbed and trembled for fifteen minutes.
I had just… never seen my parents so sick before. They rarely got ill back in the jungle. The worst I had seen my mother was when she got a fever four years ago, but even that had been gentle compared to this. And I had never witnessed my father with anything worse than a mild flu. They were always strong and vibrant. Bea’s and my backbone. The ones to look afteruswhenwegot sick. For them to be lying there practically paralyzed, their arms and legs broken, and now withthis…
It was all too much. And I wanted nothing more than to rush over there and hold them in my arms. Pull them close to me and cry them better.
But, of course, crying wasn’t going to make anyone better. It wasn’t going to help anything.
It was just wasting time.
Forcing myself to stand, I headed upstairs to the bathroom to splash my face with cold water. I stared at myself in the mirror, willing my strength to return.
It took another fifteen minutes for my tears to stop, but finally a feeling of numbness set in, and my mind became focused on nothing but the burning need of the hour: I had to get them out of there.
I couldn’t shake the feeling that if I managed to transfer them to that swanky Beauchamp Hospital, they’d get better—and way faster. At the very least, they’d stop deteriorating so fast. It was much larger and cleaner. Literally everything aboutit was superior—from the equipment to the building. They were incomparable.
But how I was going to do that was another matter.
I gripped the phone and quickly swiped away the photos so I didn’t have to look at them again, a cold determination coming over me. I had been planning to call Anna this morning anyway about my employment, and now that call seemed all the more urgent and vital.
I had to get her to help me somehow.
I took a moment to drink some water, adding some moisture to my parched throat as I tried to mentally prepare myself for the call. I wanted to sound calm, collected, not like I’d just been crying. I needed to be professional.
I scrolled to Anna’s number in the address book, and, after giving myself another few seconds, pressed dial.
I clenched my teeth, pressing the phone back to my ear and hoping it wasn’t too early. I couldn’t stand to wait.
To my surprise, she picked up after two rings. “Hello?” came the familiar voice. It was a little muffled, as though her mouth was half full.
“Hey, Anna,” I said, a surge of hopefulness rushing through me. “This is Tani. Tani Lockwood. I hope I’m not disturbing you?”
“Oh, Tani, hi,” she said, sounding pleasantly surprised. “I’m just having breakfast, but it’s okay. How are you doing?”
I inhaled. “Um, not great to be honest. Well, I meanI’mokay but I’ve got a big problem involving my parents. As you know, they’ve been staying on the islet while their broken bones heal, and until I hit the minimum balance needed to bring them over to my island. But a few days ago, they contracted a serious fever from one of the other patients and I’m… I’m worried. I-I was wondering if there’s any way I could get them transferred over to the hospital on Founders’ Isle.” I glanced quickly down at my ring and brought up my account balance. “I’ve got just under 2,000 coins in my account. Would that be enough? I could pay the hospital directly.”
There was a long pause, in which Anna stopped chewing.
“Hmmm,” she said after a moment. “I doubt it. If this is an unknown virus then it will require the attention of Beauchamp Hospital’s seniormost medics and specialized treatment. Neither of which are cheap. And the hospital won’t admit them unless you can prove you have the funds for a potentially lengthy treatment.”
My grip tightened around the phone, my palms growing sweaty. “What… What kind of money are we talking about here?”
“I doubt the hospital would take them in unless you can show your account has at least 5,000 coins. The treatment could turn out to be less—it just depends—but the hospital needs to be confident that you have the funds to pay, whatever the outcome.”
I exhaled. 5,000 coins. That was over double the amount I currently had and even if by a miracle I did manage to scrape it together quickly, by the sounds of it, their treatment was going to wipe out all the coins I’d earned so far, setting me back weeks.
But, of course, that didn’t matter. The stupid coins were imaginary anyway. Yes, it would take me longer to get us living together again, but right now, the only thing that mattered was my parents getting better.
“Okay,” I said. “5,000 coins. Do you have any suggestions for how I can get that together extremely quickly? You said I could call you for career advice, and to be honest, this is a moment when I’m pretty desperate for it. I must get my parents the best treatment possible, as soon as possible. I’m worriedwhat even another day will do to them where they currently are.”
I heard a soft slurp on the other end of the line, and then Anna’s mouth returned to the speaker. “You know,” she said, her tone suddenly thoughtful, “it’s actually interesting that you’ve called me about this now, because I’ve recently started looking to take on a mentee.”
I frowned. “Mentee?”
“Yes, mentee. As you know, we’re scaling our outreach efforts, which means we also need to expand our workforce in the outreach department. One of my numerous responsibilities is recruitment, and I’ve decided to start taking on protégés every once in a while, to personally train up and help fast-track their career. We lack qualified personnel for managerial roles, in particular, skilled officers to plan, lead and organize expeditions, and so forth. And while we used to always fill those roles with founders, as we expand the program more and more, we’ve been on the lookout for fresh blood recently. Settler blood in particular,” she added.
“Oh, I see,” I replied, absorbing her words. “Why’s that?”
