Opposite Operators

The group came back covered in blood, falling over each other, and with two fewer people than they left with. 

“What do you mean, he's dead?!” Sirafin’s voice broke.

“I mean he's fucking dead!” Shay snarled, throwing her hands in the air. They were shaking like little sick birds. “That metal thing killed him, and it killed Sharabi, and they're both fucking dead and I have nothing else to tell you!”

Sirafin moved like she was going to hit Shay. Annily jumped up from the crumpled heap she had fallen in to try and stop her, but Sumiru was faster. Thank the stars. Shay was super smart but she was so delicate.

“It's not Shay’s fault,” they said softly. There were tears on their cheeks. 

That scream happened again. It was loud. It was so loud that it sounded almost like it was right outside. 

“Help!” Someone shouted from outside.

Annily knew that voice. She could pick it out of thousands of others.

Delo threw the door open. When it wasn't being operated by the cephalon, the door opened inwards, and two people fell inside. 

“Koris!” 

Annily ran to her brother and tackled the person who was on top of him off him. They rolled across the floor and it took a couple seconds before Annily saw who she had tackled. 

It was her oldest brother, Flis, but– wrong. Had he been burned or something? His mouth, chin, nose, and jaw were a dark silvery color. 

Flis snarled like one of the complex's guard kubrows and snapped his teeth at her. 

“He's lost his mind!” Koris yelled.

Annily tried to roll off him, but Flis was stronger. He wrapped his arms around her and yanked her down. She threw up her arm between them on instinct, protecting her neck, and it was her arm about six inches above her wrist that he sunk his teeth into. 

She screamed. 

It hurt. She had been bitten by a sand skate and a skitterviper and several kubrows but none of it hurt like this. It was worst than poison sumax, worse than a wattlewasp's sting.

“Let her go!” 

Annily kept screaming. Trying to pull away just made the bite hurt more. It felt like his teeth were scraping her arm bones.  

Someone kicked Flis in the head. He jerked back and Annily's whole brain turned white with the pain.

Her older brother had a piece of her forearm in his mouth. She was bleeding all over him. He had bitten right through her Zariman issued jumpsuit and taken a chunk right out of her. 

And now he was rapidly chewing and swallowing it. 

“Hungry,” he gasped, and lunged up at her again. 

Somebody collided with her and knocked her off Flis, knocked the air out of her. Koris, it was Koris. Was he going to bite her too? No, he just grabbed her with both arms and clung.

Shay kicked Flis in the head again, and Delo grabbed his arm and yanked him backwards. Flis snarled like he was an animal and bit Delo’s bicep. 

Shay jabbed him in the eyes with her fingers. Delo punched him in the stomach. 

Flis let go. 

Therine grabbed the front of Flis’ shirt, and between them, Shay, and Delo they managed to drag Flis to the door and shove him out of it. Shay slammed it closed, and Sumiru and a few other people grabbed some of the desks and threw them against the closed door. 

“Annily, Annily, Annily,” Koris whimpered. Her brother was holding her tightly and crying into her hair. 

She wrapped her arms around him in turn. She hadn't gotten to hug him in a long time, since he said he was too old for hugs now, but this didn't feel like a hug. Not really. It felt scared and scary. “Koris, what happened?”

“He killed Garanna,” he said. He was shaking almost as hard as Shay.

Annily scratched at his arms, fire throbbing through her from the gaping wound in hers. “Who killed Garanna?” 

“Flis!” He wailed. “He– Annily, it was– I can't, he–” 

Garanna was just a baby. Their baby sister. Flis loved her, all of them did. He wouldn't kill her. Koris had to be wrong.

“Slow down.” Sumiru squatted down next to them. They had one arm wrapped around Shay’s, carefully helping her to the floor next to them. 

“Start at the beginning,” Shay said. “What happened before you came here?” 

Koris raised his head and looked at the two of them with bloodshot eyes. “Mom and dad were out of the dormizone. Flis was helping me with my independent study and we were watching Garanna. And watching the screens after they announced the test. And then we did the test and I don't know what happened. And something happened to Flis.” 

“Did his face get hurt?” Annily demanded. “His mouth looked all… burned and metal-y.” 

“His skin just started turning like that,” Koris whispered. “He was holding Garanna. I said we should come to get you from class. He was carrying Garanna. Like he always does! We got to Halakko Perimeter and then he said he was hungry and he just ripped her head right off and started eating it!” Koris was shouting now, holding Annily and rocking both of them. 

She clung to her brother's arms. Her shoulder throbbed and ached, and hot blood ran down her chest. 

“His face started turning metal and he lunged at me and tried to bite me, and so I ran!” He sobbed. “I just ran. I left Garanna’s body right there on the ground!” 

Annily’s eyes stung. She buried her face in Koris’ neck and cried with him. 

Someone touched her shoulder. “I need to disinfect that bite,” Sumiru said softly. “We don't know what it could do.” 

“It could turn her into one of those metal things like the one that killed my brother!” Sirafin hissed. “Obviously that's what was happening to him! What if it's contagious?” 

“If it shows any signs of being contagious then we’ll cut off the affected tissue and cauterize the wound,” Sumiru said calmly. “Just like with a horse that’s catching the infestation. Worst case scenario, amputation.”

Annily sobbed. She wanted to say so many things, but she couldn't catch any of them long enough to make them into words. She didn't want to have her arm amputated. She didn't want any of this!

“That's a last resort,” Shay said. 

“I got bit too,” Delo said. “Not quite as hard but it drew blood.”

“We’ll watch them closely. If any of the skin around them starts turning metal…” Sumiru trailed off. 

“If any of the skin around it starts turning metal I'll cut both their arms off myself,” Shay said hotly. “But we don't know for sure that's going to happen.”

Sumiru finished disinfecting the wound and let go of Annily's arm. “I don't see any metal or anything else that looks weird,” they reported. “Tranla, your mom’s a lorist, come look at this. All my experience is with animal bites.”

Tranla was a quiet girl with a very long black braid. She was even gentler than Sumiru when she touched Annily's arm. 

“It just looks like a bite,” she said after a minute. “A messy and painful one but I don't see any metal either.”

“We check it every ten minutes,” Shay said. “Both of them. Until help arrives.”

"How long will that be?" Annily whispered.

"As long as it takes."