Ground Zero: Prequel to Numbered Series Read Online Free Page B

found it almost immediately, but continued with
her physical examination, just to make sure. There was no point jumping the
gun. Only after she had spent almost ten minutes examining the patient did she
speak.
    “Pancreas,” she said, turning to her Trainer. “A large mass. Inoperable at this point. Presumably cancerous, though I'd need blood tests to be sure.”
    The Trainer smiled. “Very good,” he said, though he'd
obviously been expecting her to do well. “Shall we proceed?”
    Aurelia nodded. This woman was going to die, whether
she injected her or not. And if she chose not to inject, the woman would die in
agony, a long and protracted death. The decision was an easy one.
    The Trainer fumbled in his pocket for a moment and
then pulled out a locked vial. He keyed his personal ID number into the lock,
and it clicked open. He held the vial out to Aurelia, who took it, her hand
steady. Shaking out the syringe inside, she went through the motions of
preparing it to inject the woman.
    There was no need to roll up her sleeve, her arm was
bare. Turning the elbow to allow easier access to the vein, Aurelia paused.
There, beneath the pale skin, was a small but constant movement. Beating, under the skin, like the flutter of a curtain in the
breeze. A pulse. Aurelia swallowed. Who was
this woman? What had she done? Did she have a pair-mate? Was she a qualified
Worker? She had smiled, loved, laughed, cried . And now this.
    “Ms. Cole?”
    The Trainer's voice brought her back to the room.
Aurelia placed the needle on the skin, then in one, smooth movement, pressed down
and through to the vein. Fluidly she depressed the plunger until the syringe
was empty, then withdrew the needle.
    There was silence. A loud, echoing
silence. And stillness. Just for an instant
Aurelia felt that the world had stopped turning. The room was empty. The life
was gone, and all other life stopped for a moment in
grief. Then that moment, too, was gone, and life continued.
    “Well done, Ms. Cole,” said the Trainer, tapping icons
on his screen. “That will be all. Thank you.”
    Dazed, Aurelia left the small room, took the elevator
down to the ground floor, and walked straight out of the main doors of the
hospital. Only once she was outside did she think that she had not even asked
the woman's name. And then she cried.
    She walked home, letting the soft air of the night dry
her face. In her heart she knew that she had done the right thing. This time. But what about the next? Was this going to get easier?
    Her father was waiting. He served her a warm cup of
synth coffee before he spoke.
    “You did it.” It wasn't a question. He knew that she
had, for if she hadn't she wouldn't be there, she'd be wherever it was they
took the Failures.
    Aurelia nodded, letting her cup warm up her stone cold
fingers. She felt cold all the way inside, like she had lost something, lost a
piece of herself by taking the woman's life.
    “Will it be this way every time?” she wondered aloud.
“Will it always be this hard?”
    “I hope so,” said her father, coming to sit beside
her.
    His answer surprised her, and she looked at him.
    “As long as it's hard, as long as taking a life takes
its toll on you, it means that you still consider life to be something
valuable,” he said, quietly taking her hand. “And that's a good thing. It's
when you feel nothing, when injecting becomes as easy as x-raying or fixing a
broken bone that you have to be worried. Because that will mean that you've
lost your humanity. Lost your respect for life.”
    Aurelia smiled. He was right. She should be glad that
injecting was hard. Because then it meant something. She hugged her father
tight, before going, exhausted, to her sleeping pod.

 
    It was their first night alone at the hospital. Year
Nine students worked full hospital shifts for three days a week, and Aurelia
and Marnee had swapped shifts in order to work overnight together. Aurelia
stretched. Her eyes were gritty with tiredness,