Elodie wanted to run until Westfall was nothing but a distant haze, but she would only be able to go so far.The Key had locked down the city at the threshold of Zone Seven.And for good reason.
Astrid cocked her head.“You think one of those soldiers is Rhett?”
Elodie squinted at the image, but it was no use.With their shiny KeyCorp–redHazmat suits and black weapons, the soldiers resembled a swarm of ladybugs.“I hope not.I don’t want him anywhere near that kind of stuff.”
“Even if he is, they have such intense sanitation procedures that there’s no way Rhett could get infected.”Astrid’s gaze slipped to something out of Elodie’s line of sight before she continued.“Key soldiers are always safe.No one fights against them and no germs can get to them.It’s pretty much a no-riskjob.”
The scene on the bridge froze and dissolved into the gray hold screen before blinking white.Elodie opened her mouth to speak, but the Key’s red logo unfurled across the small box in her vision.
Astrid resumed twirling the ends of her glossy ponytail.“You gettingthis?”
Elodie nodded as a woman strode into view, but it wasn’t Holly.The woman’s hourglass hips swished hypnotically as she took her place.She clasped her slender,earth-brownhands in front of her hips and locked her hazel eyes on the camera.
“Good morning, citizens.By now, I am sure you have heard about the attack onourcity.”
Elodie’s brow furrowed.“She sounds so familiar...”
“Like Holly?”Astrid let out a slight grunt of admiration.“That’s Blair Scott.The hottest thing since VR.Like,Icarus-too-close-to-the-sun hot.Blair developed Holly’s new coding, and as a signature, used her own vocal pathways in thenew-and-improved Holly.”
Elodie adjusted her beanie, hiding her grimace behind her hand.She barely noticed the other pedestrians racing by in either direction.The thought of creating a weirdvoice-twinmade her skincrawl.
Blair continued.“Eos is trying to shake us, but they will fail.Westfall and its citizen are stronger than their hate.While we do not yet know how the attack on Tilikum Crossing happened or why, this is what we know for certain—
“You.Are.Safe.”Her tender smile lifted her round cheeks but stopped short of her eyes.Those remained unchanged—smooth and fierce.
“Mere moments after the attack, the Key Corporation activated Westfall’s intense containment protocols, and we are pleased andthankfulto be able to say that our city is one hundred percent free of any infective agents, and no one outside of the immediate attack zone was exposed to any pathogens.”
Elodie released a stored breath and scooted out of the way as a group ofbutton-down-clad men approached.
“Another win for the Key!”one of the men cheered as they passed by.
Had Elodie really been standing in the middle of the sidewalk like a dolt?Mentally, she shook herself and continued her walk to her office building as she resumed listening to Blair Scott.
“We are safe, and we owe that safety to the Key, and the more than five decades of work they have put into protecting us.That is why we know for certain that the corporation is truly the key to health, the key to life, and thekeyto our future.”
Recognizing the end of a Key Corp message, Elodie focused on ending the feed.“Doesn’t it bother you how they’re always saying that?The key to our future.It’s creepy, right?”she said as Astrid’s image expanded to fullsize.
Astrid shrugged.“It might seem a little intense if it wasn’t true, but isn’t it just a fact?I mean, if it wasn’t for the Key, we wouldn’t even be here.Our species would have died out foreverago.”
“Fifty years ago,” Elodie corrected.
“Since you and I have only been here for seventeen, it might as well have been forever ago.”Astrid punctuated with a flick of her ponytail.“Either way, we’re alive because of theKey.”
“You’re totally right,” Elodie said, more to remind herself than in response to her best friend.
The gray stretch of pavement beneath Elodie’s feet abruptly changed torust-redbrick when she reached the front of the MediCenter.“I’m at work.I’ll call you after,” she said, suddenly remembering she could finally remove her hat.She yanked it off her head and stuffed it into her backpack before shaking out her dark curls.Instead of cascading around her shoulders in beautiful waves as she’d imagined, her wet hair splatted against her shoulders in two damp clumps.
Astrid’s eyes widened for the zillionth time that morning.“Is your hairwet?”
Elodie scooped her hair off her shoulders, leaving behind two wet shadows across her top.“I took a shower.It’s no big deal.”If she’d had more time, she would have taken another one after her nursing lesson.She needed a real shower after that nightmare; needed to feel the steaming torrent of water against her skin.She needed to feelclean.
“Hmm.”Astrid pursed her pale pink lips.“I don’t want to say it’s weird, but, you know,” another shrug.“It’s weird.”
“You’reweird.”Elodie batted down her insecurities with a forced chuckle.
“Thank you much.”Astrid grinned, straight and shiny.“Hey, even though everything is good now, don’t take the MAX home.Take a Pearl.”
Elodie snorted.“Yeah, maybe I’ll think about it in twenty years when I’m head of the nursing department.I get that you work with your genius dad, but us normal people don’t make thousands of bits each year to go spending on fancy Pearl rides.”
