Outbreak by Tarah Benner

Author:Tarah Benner
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub, mobi
Published: 2015-07-13T07:00:00+00:00

seventeen

Harper

It takes a long moment for Shane’s words to sink in.

“You mean . . . the board had them killed?”

“It could have been the board, or it could have been the Fringe Program Committee. Who knows?”

“But how could they get away with that?” Blaze asks, glaring at his father in disbelief.

Shane throws his son a derisive look as if to say, “Are you really asking me that question?”

“Seriously,” I say. “How did they explain a new baby to people without accounting for the parents? There’s the medical ward staff, the Institute, the child . . .”

Shane shrugs. “Think of it this way: Two people enter the compound with a baby in the middle of the night. Nobody knows they’re coming or what condition they’re going to be in.

“Someone from the Fringe Program Committee meets them in postexposure and rushes the baby straight to the medical ward for an exam and observation. The parents think that’s a good idea. They’re told they need to wait there to fill out some paperwork. Your parents probably never even made it to the medical ward.”

That floors me. It seems too medieval to be true.

“They just killed them on sight?”

Shane nods. “It was easier that way . . . no one would ask questions. Once the baby was declared healthy and passed off to the Institute, the Fringe Program Committee would make a note in its file that the parents died of radiation poisoning or influenza a few weeks after entering the compound. Maybe the committee would tell the medical ward that they found the baby on the Fringe. Who’s going to ask questions? They have no reason to believe it isn’t true.”

It sounds ridiculous, but Shane is right. I never questioned my parents’ death. I believed my guardian in the Institute when she told me they died a few weeks after arrival. She probably never even knew it was a lie.

“How long did this go on?” pipes Blaze. “It can’t have been widespread. Someone would have gotten suspicious.”

Shane shakes his head. “It wasn’t. The Fringe Program didn’t last. Only a handful of kids were brought in each year during the pilot program. The funding dried up twenty years ago, and the board just chalked it up to another failed experiment.”

“Why do you say that?” asks Blaze.

Dread settles in my stomach.

“Later, they found out that those children weren’t as healthy as children born in the compound. They were exposed to too many toxins and high levels of radiation, which put them at risk for all kinds of health problems. Not to mention they were — How should I put this? — not part of the compound elite.”

Shane spits out the last two words with uncharacteristic contempt.

“Compound elite?”

“You have to remember that the compound’s founders were a bunch of eugenics nuts. They screened themselves for disease and genetic deficiencies before signing on. They recruited across the genetic spectrum to add diversity to the herd. And when the second wave of people came to the compound, only those with top-notch genes were even considered.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.