The Innocence Device by William Kowalski

Author:William Kowalski
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FIC055000, FIC031000, FIC050000
Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
Published: 2014-09-01T00:00:00+00:00

EIGHT

Chago wants to go home, where he feels safe. But he knows if he sits there and stares at the walls any longer, he will go crazy with worry for Jim-Jim. Not to mention Corazon. So he wanders back up West Avenue, trying not to meet anyone’s eyes. There is hardly anyone here. The streets are empty. Everyone is at the center. Even the shops are left open and unmanned. He could take what he wants right now. But stealing is wrong. Even from Krios. And it’s very dangerous. If he’s caught, he will be killed.

Chago sees two men talking on a corner. As he passes, they stare at him. He doesn’t look back. Both of them are carrying large automatic rifles. Krios’s men.

“Hey,” says one.

Chago ignores him.

“Hey!”

He stops.

“Yeah,” he says.

There is a long moment of silence.

“Isn’t it great to be free?” says the man.

Chago nods.

“Yeah,” he says. “Great.”

“You don’t look happy.”

“I’m happy.”

“How come you’re not downtown with everyone else?” asks the other man.

“Not feeling well,” says Chago. “Gotta go home.”

“You got papers?” says the first man. “What’s your id number?” They start walking toward him.

“I’ve got death-row fever,” says Chago. “You better stay away from me.”

The men freeze and back up.

“I should shoot you right here,” says the second man, raising his gun. “Spreading that filth around the city? You know you’re supposed to stay in your house until your symptoms are gone.”

“I thought we were free now,” says Chago. “I thought we could do what we wanted.”

He sees their thumbs move as they undo the safeties on their weapons.

Chago turns and runs.

The gunfire spatters on the road behind him as he makes it around a corner. He doesn’t stop. He knows they won’t come after him. They’re too afraid of catching the fatal illness that can wipe out a whole neighborhood in days. But they might remember his face. He’d better be careful for a while.

The guards of JustiCorps would never have just shot me down in the street, he thinks. They would have put me in quarantine. They never killed people for no reason.

He keeps running as fast as he can until he makes it home.

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