Free Ordinary (Anything But) by Lindy Zart Page B

negatives.
    “Why are you doing this to him?” she whispered, aching for the boy unconscious and in pain.
    “There is no choice in the matter. He must be kept like this.”
    She turned to Nealon. “Why?”
    He didn’t answer. Instead he turned to the window. “See the grayness around his form?”
    “Yeah. It’s from the lights. They’re too bright.”
    He glanced at her. “Look through another window.”
    Honor frowned at him, but moved down the hallway. A girl sat on the bed, staring at the floor. Her hair was blond and long. She had her arms wrapped around herself as she rocked forward and backward. There was a layer of gray outlining her whole being, deeper and more substantial than what had been around Christian. It looked thick, tangible. No amount of light could trick the eye like that.
    “What is it?”
    The girl’s head shot up. Her eyes were strange, shifting from blue to a shimmery gray. The look on her face pierced Honor with fear. It was vengeful, hateful. Honor stumbled back, bumping into Nealon, who righted her.
    “Her turning is almost finished,” he said into her ear, dropping his hands from her arms.
    “What?”
    He nodded to another window. On it went. Each figure was lying or sitting or standing, all turning. Into what, Honor was scared to ask. Different shades of gray surrounded them, like an aura, some denser and darker than others. Most of them wouldn’t look at her, but the ones who did, she wished they hadn’t. Their eyes were creepy, gray but almost shiny silver—unnatural eyes. Nealon waited for her in the middle of the room, not speaking. Honor went to him, feeling sick and confused. She didn’t understand. What was wrong with all of them and why were they keeping them locked up? They were all young, around her age. Some had looked tortured, some had been unconscious, others angry, a few simply resigned.
    “There’s som ething wrong with your lights,” she announced, though the words rang hollow. Honor didn’t even believe them, not after seeing what she just saw.
    He inclined his head. “Follow me.”
    Honor hesitated, not wanting to leave Christian. She paused by the window to his room. His head slowly turned, the gray aura darkening with each passing minute. Christian looked directly at her with his shimmery eyes and she flinched under his intense gaze. There was pain in his eyes, but also strength. Defiance. She told him with her eyes how terrible she felt for him. His look cooled and he turned his head away, back to facing the wall. Honor swallowed, feeling stricken. He blamed her. They all did. She’d seen it in all of their peculiar eyes. They viewed her as the enemy, just as she’d viewed Nealon not that long ago. She wasn’t sure what to think of him now.
    “ Come along.”
    Honor followed him up the stairs. The stairway was dim and cold as she hurried her steps, the sound of their shoes echoing on the cement floor. She had no idea what was happening to the people down below, but Honor understood enough to know what she’d seen was life-altering, creepy, and abnormal. She was chilled on the inside, dazed even. Stuff like that wasn’t supposed to happen, except in movies and books. It wasn’t real . Only it was.
    ***
    “A biochemical toxin was accidentally released over most of the United States in the early nineteen hundreds. There was an incident at a government lab that was kept concealed, but the effects were staggering. It was in the air and it traveled widely. They called it the UD virus. No one knew about it. It wasn’t talked about to the masses. People continued to live and work as they always did, unsuspecting of what was inside them.
    “It didn’t directly affect the people exposed to it, but it went into their DNA, became part of them. It adapted . Any of their offspring had a good chance of inheriting it. People moved to other countries, traveled, procreated, unknowingly spreading the virus. It’s everywhere now. All over the world.”
    Honor