Chapter 129: Chapter 129 - Rumours
Second day.
Iyisha woke already tense and carried it with her into the screening zone. The place felt different now. More uniforms. More rifles. More military layered into the space like a warning that hadn’t been spoken aloud yet. Orders came faster. Movements were tighter. The line crept forward under the weight of people who could feel it too.
Something was wrong.
At Mikey’s table, a metal container was set down with a dull clink. He lifted the lid and frowned.
"What’s this powder?" he asked.
The man shifted, eyes flicking between them. "I use it to clean my teeth."
Iyisha felt it before anything else happened, a cold tightening in her chest.
Mikey raised the UV lamp and swept it over the container.
The powder glowed green.
The color spread across the surface, steady and unmistakable, reflecting off the metal and up his gloves.
Iyisha froze.
"I don’t know why it’s like that," the man said quickly, his voice cracking as he took a step back.
The military moved immediately.
Hands slammed him to the ground, boots scraping as they forced him down, his shout tearing loose and echoing through the fencing. Panic ripped through the space, sharp and uncontrolled.
"Check him," Phillip snapped.
Mikey was already moving, sweeping the UV light over the man’s body.
The hem of his underwear lit up.
Bright along the stitching. Uneven where the fabric had been handled.
Iyisha was moving before she thought about it. "Cut it."
A blade flashed. Fabric tore. The man screamed as guards hauled him upright and dragged him away, his voice breaking into raw sound that carried down the corridor until the gate slammed shut.
The zone did not stop.
Iyisha stayed with Mikey, Phillip, and Mira as they turned back to the table. Mikey laid the strip of fabric down carefully. Even without the light, it looked heavy, darkened where something had soaked in.
Mira leaned in and scraped at the cloth with a metal stir.
A paste clung to it.
White. Chalky. Wet.
Iyisha’s heart pounded hard enough to make her dizzy. "What is that."
Phillip swore under his breath.
Mikey’s jaw tightened. "Fuck."
Mira stirred it again, slower now, watching how it smeared. "Powdered teeth," she said quietly.
Iyisha stared at her. "Teeth."
Mira nodded once. "Ground. Mixed with liquid. Enough to transfer."
Iyisha swallowed. "Is this another way to infect someone."
Mira met her eyes. "Yes."
"This is the first time I’m hearing about this," Iyisha said, disbelief slipping through.
Mira exhaled, tired in a way that went past exhaustion. "Second time we’ve caught it."
Mikey slammed his hand into the table. "The first time Frankenstein was here," he said tightly. "He inspected it himself."
"That fucking asshole," he shouted toward the corridor where the man had been dragged.
Iyisha stood there, blinking, the glow burned into her vision even after the lamp was shut off, the noise of the zone pressing back in around her.
"Why," Iyisha muttered, the word slipping out before she could stop it, her mind snagging on the impossibility of it, on the fact that someone had chosen this on purpose.
Phillip looked at her, his expression hard, tired. "There’s a group that believes the virus is God’s truth," he said. "They think it’s meant to happen."
"They’re crazy," Mikey added flatly, not looking at her.
Mira didn’t comment. She scraped the last of the paste into a sealed container, wrapped it carefully, methodical as always, then locked it down and tagged it without ceremony.
Iyisha lifted her eyes to the line beyond the fence.
Some people looked shaken now, shoulders hunched, eyes darting, fear written plainly on their faces, but they didn’t dare step out of line, knowing leaving would only draw suspicion. Others leaned forward instead, impatient, eager, as if whatever waited inside the zone was something they wanted to reach quickly.
Phillip followed her gaze and sighed. "I’ll ask Cyborg to halt incoming," he said, already sounding like he knew the answer. "But the route doesn’t stop. People come in with supplies. Fuel. Food."
He shook his head once. "So we check everything."
Iyisha nodded, pulling on a fresh pair of gloves as the next person was called forward, the weight of the line pressing in on her chest, because whatever faith or madness was driving this, it wasn’t done, and it wasn’t far away.
"Will Frankenstein check that?" Iyisha said, her voice low as she glanced at the sealed container in Mira’s hands.
Mira didn’t even look up as she finished locking it. "No," she said. "Frankenstein’s not here."
Iyisha frowned. "Not here?"
"Pennsylvania," Mira replied. "Called in half a year ago. Never came back."
Iyisha blinked. Half a year. She tried to picture him, the name carrying weight even for someone who had never met him. "What does he look like?" she asked. "He’s the one who made those... moving torsos, right?" The memory surfaced unbidden, severed zombie feet in stockings walking around that cursed club.
Mira nodded. "That’s him."
"Jesus," Iyisha muttered.
"He’s a genius," Mira went on, finally lifting her eyes. "A dangerous one."
She leaned closer, lowering her voice until it barely carried over the hum of the zone. "I heard he’s not just studying the virus anymore."
Iyisha’s brow creased. "What do you mean."
Mira hesitated, then said it anyway. "Evolved humans."
Iyisha blinked. "Evolved?"
"Rumors says," Mira said quickly, her voice lower, though her tone didn’t fully dismiss it. "People who don’t just resist the virus. People who fight it off change instead of turning."
Iyisha stared at her. "That’s the first time I’m hearing about that."
Mira let out a quiet laugh, thin and skeptical. "Yeah. Because if it were real, the military would already be hunting them."
"Hunting them?" Iyisha echoed.
"Of course," Mira said. "If someone can survive it, change from it, they’d be priceless. Or dangerous. Or both. They’d want to lock them down, study them, maybe cut them open until they figured out why."
Iyisha absorbed that slowly. "They could be the cure."
Mira shrugged. "Or the next weapon."
Iyisha nodded, the idea settling uneasily in her chest. "That would be terrifying," she said honestly. "And hopeful. At the same time."
"If it were true," Mira added, "we wouldn’t be hearing it as gossip. Everyone would be hunting them down."
Iyisha smiled faintly at that, the kind of smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. "Still," she said, softer now, "if something like that exists... maybe humanity isn’t done yet."
Mira met her look and gave a small nod. "I know. It sounds too good to be real."
Phillip’s voice cut through the moment. "Enough talking. Let’s move. Next one. Faster."
They both straightened instinctively.
Iyisha pulled on fresh gloves, the brief flicker of hope already tucking itself away where it couldn’t interfere with her hands. She stepped back to her station, face composed, posture steady, even as her mind kept circling the thought she couldn’t quite shake.
Evolved humans.
Rumor or not, the idea had taken root.
And in a world like this, hope comes in many forms.
