Cured (26 page)

“
I remember
the one,
” I murmured.

“Really?!” Ellina asked excitedly, “Tell us
about it! What is it like? Is there dancing? And what do we
wear?!”

I shrugged, not wanting to dwell on the
topic. Suddenly feeling down, and homesick for the first time since
I left the comforts of Olympia, I lay down and rolled over,
blinking back tears. Who would have thought I would miss my
uptight, too-perfect mother? But the pain in my chest suggested
that I did. And my father. Even though I rarely saw him, I admired
the man. He always seemed more human than my mother, not attempting
to cover up any flaws in himself, or in me. He voiced his true
opinion rather than what was expected of him, and he always stood
up for what he thought was right. A tear rolled down my cheek and I
wiped it away angrily. I didn’t want to cry. I would be fine. I
scolded myself for being so pathetic before drifting into a deep
sleep.

Chapter 26

A strong
sense of déjà vu hit me, as my eyes blinked open. The aircraft
hovered over our campsite again and the whirring noise had awoken
me. Theo and Ellina were nowhere to be seen, but Felix lay beside
me, his hand touching mine lightly. I wondered, briefly, if he had
fallen asleep holding my hand. When I drew my fingers away from his
he jerked awake. He blinked groggily, looking around and then up to
the sky, groaning at the sight of the aircraft.

“
Why are we
always on the earliest flight?” he whined, sitting up. “Where are
the others?

I shrugged and got to my feet. “What are we
going to do with Meatloaf?” I asked.

“
I don’t
think they will let you take him…” said Felix.

I smiled at him, “I have the upper hand here.
I can come clean at any time, and tell the Fields our secret.”

“
How will
that help exactly?” h
e asked with a
frown.

“
The Alphas
will look ignorant, flawed and, well, stupid. It’ll look like I’m
confessing of my own accord, and like they never even knew I had
fooled them,” I explained.

Felix
grinned, “Sounds like fun.”

I nodded and
went over to where the animal lay on the ground. “Wake up,
Meatloaf, you’re about to come on a bit of an adventure,” I said as
I stroked his back. A tap on my shoulder made me jump, and I turned
to find Theo, wet hair dripping in his eyes. I swooned a little
bit, before slapping his arm.

“Could’ve woken me for a bath too!”

He chuckled
and shook his head, “Oh no,” he said. “I refuse to wake Sleeping
Beauty unless absolutely necessary, you’re scary in the morning,
Ave.”

The aircraft landed.

“
You’re not
taking Meatloaf,” s
aid Theo
incredulously.

“
I
am,
” I argued. “You said yourself that
the bull is a later task. Meatloaf might fit the description. We
could save a whole lot of time, remember?”

He was silent
for a minute. “I guess they don’t have much choice but to let you
take him, do they?”

I smiled,
“That is exactly what I told Felix.” I took Meatloaf’s reigns and
led him towards the aircraft with Theo, Ellina and Felix following
close behind. We boarded the ship. Now familiar with its layout,
and headed straight for the room we had travelled in on our last
flight. The door was locked. The ship’s voice boomed over the
speakers.

“
Welcome
back
, Newbies. Today we will be
travelling to the destination of your next task. You may have been
expecting we travel to the famous Halfway-Banquet, however due to
the fact that your next task is situated in a location
inappropriate for a dinner party, your banquet will be held at the
end of the tasks instead. The flight will take ten hours. It is
currently 7am, meaning we will arrive at the destination at 5pm.
You may use the day as you wish. Your GPS watches are currently
downloading a map of the ship, which will show you the location of
the aircraft’s many amenities. Take the elevator now to travel to
the second level of the ship, where you will remain for the
duration of our journey. Enjoy.”

We looked
around for an elevator, and I noticed the wall to our left slowly
splitting in two, giving way to a large marble elevator. We stepped
inside and I towed Meatloaf after us. There were no buttons to
direct the lift, but when the doors closed, the elevator began to
move.

The doors opened into a long hallway, and
Theo switched his watch on, projecting a hologram of the second
level of the aircraft. The first door opened into a long swimming
pool, the second onto a movie theatre, and the third onto a
gymnasium. We drifted down the hallway, swinging doors open at
random, our awe only growing with each new room.

“
This place
is amazing,” s
aid Ellina. “Is this what
your house is like up on Olympus Ave?”

“Not quite this flash…” I was having trouble
digesting our surroundings. The place reminded me of home so much
that I was close to tears.

“I am going to the spa. I’ve never been to
one before! And we are in serious need of some beautifying!” Ellina
grabbed my hand and tugged me, hard, down the hall before I could
protest. I would have preferred to go back to bed, or lay in the
hammock under the artificial garden I had seen behind door eight,
but I wasn’t about to dampen Ellina’s excitement.

“
As long as
we stop somewhere to drop Meatloaf off first.”

“We will be in the food court!” Felix shouted
behind us as we hurried down towards the Garden Room.

Ellina rolled her eyes, “No surprises
there.”

We entered door seven and walked into a
beautiful rose garden setting. The room was a rich green from the
foliage that filled the space, tall trees with broad canopies meant
that the walls and ceilings of the room were hidden, giving the
appearance of a real overgrown secret garden. There was a pond
surrounded by rocks and a colourful flowerbed with a small tree
next to it. I tied Meatloaf loosely to the trunk, and he gratefully
began lapping up the water.

Leaving
Meatloaf in the garden, we walked to door nineteen, which promised
the Spa room. It was a huge space, decorated to look like the
rainforest, and accompanied by recorded bird noises. The room was
set out in a circuit, with massage chairs first in the line-up of
treatments. We sat down and plunged our feet into the tepid water
at the foot of the chair. The sides of the chairs closed in,
moulding to my body shape. The chair began to move. Rollers within
the cushioning pressed on my muscles, starting out easy and light
before gaining pressure and working on my knots. Four robotic arms
extended from the chair, and began washing, scrubbing, massaging
and buffing our feet. The arms then moved up and started on my
hands. A hologram extended from my armrest, requesting that I
choose nail polish colours. I picked a dark purple for my toes and
clear for my fingers.

Once the
chairs were finished polishing us they shut down, and Ellina and I
stood, making our way to the next stage of the circuit. Two baths
were built into the floor. We stripped into our underwear and
clambered in. The bath instantly began to fill with a thick brown
substance, and I squealed as it covered my skin. It was freezing.
To my delight, the mud bath didn’t last long, and once the bath had
washed us down with soapy warm water, we moved on to a pair of
massage tables. I wondered if masseuses would be doing the
massaging, or whether it would be another robotic treatment. I lay
face down on the padded table with my face pressed into the
breathing hole in the headrest and I sighed, relaxing into the
table’s luxurious mattress. My question was answered when a case
extended form the side of the table, shutting me in a sunbed-like
enclosure. I twisted my head to look up and the roof of my
container just as hundreds of wires shot down form the lid and
attached themselves all over my body. I let out a gasp as the wires
began to rotate and press; resulting in the most stimulating
massage I had ever received. Once the machine came to a stop, the
lid retracted and Ellina jumped off her bed, moving towards the
facial stations. I didn’t move. I resolved to stay on this massage
bed for the remainder of the day.

Countless
massages later, Ellina dragged me from my bed. “Stop being boring,”
she moaned. “One can only have so many massages!”

“
Speak for
yourself,
” I grumbled as she tugged me
towards the exit of the spa.

We re-entered
the hallway and Ellina brought up her map hologram. “I’m hungry,”
she said. “What about you?”

My stomach rumbled in reply and she led us to
the twelfth door.

Upon entering the room, my knees nearly
buckled. In fact, the only thing stopping me from crumbling to the
ground was Ellina’s arm linked through mine. I had entered
heaven.

“
Why’d we
spend so much time on those stupid, overrated massage beds, again?”
I asked breathlessly.

The room was
a massive square, and running around the outside was one long
serving table covered in every type of food I had ever seen, plus
many that I didn’t recognize. The food was divided by country of
origin. I immediately made my way towards the Italian section.
Grabbing a plate I loaded it high with the most delicious looking
carbonara I had ever seen. I missed pasta. Having filled my plate
so high that nothing else would fit on it, I grabbed two pieces of
pepperoni pizza in my free hand, cheese dripping from the edges,
and carried it all into the center of the room where there
stretched a long dining table. I sat at the first seat I reached,
and a knife and fork already lay waiting. I looked around for
Ellina and saw that she had only filled half her plate so far.
Unable to wait for her, I disregarded all table etiquette, mentally
apologizing to my mother, and dug into the pile of pasta before
me.

By the time
Ellina joined me I was basking in food heaven, still shovelling my
way through the pile of carbonara. She had chosen to fill two
plates, with a range of food from around the room, but was just as
hungry as I was, and dug into her red curry from the Indian
section. She let out a groan of pleasure and I nodded in agreement,
finally laying down my fork and starting on my first slice of
pizza.

We finished eating and I rolled off my chair
and onto the floor. Ellina remained in her seat.

“
I might go
get another plate,” s
he said and my
stomach writhed at the thought of any more food. Damn Prime
digestion.

Ellina went
to refill her plate as I continued to roll on the floor, holding my
stomach. I heard a male voice but couldn’t manage to pull myself
from the ground to respond.

“
Where have
you guys been?” I asked from the floor, expecting either Theo or
Felix to be standing over me. I heard a high-pitched giggle and
froze. I had assumed that the male voice was one of my friends
returning, but I knew that laugh and it didn’t belong to either of
the boys. This time I gathered enough energy to right myself.
Towering above me were Axil and Cecilia. They held hands as they
looked down on me condescendingly. I stayed cross-legged on the
ground as I greeted them.

“Hey guys, how’s it going?”

Cecilia rolled her eyes and began to examine
her cuticles, whilst Axil continued to smirk at me.

“
Why
are you lying on the ground?” asked Cecilia,
still examining her nail beds.

I couldn’t tell her I was in a food coma,
because Primes never got full. Instead I smiled at her sweetly, “I
didn’t want to get used to the comfort of a bed again, since we
will be going back to task conditions soon.”

“
You guys are
ahead of us. How did you get so far ahead?” she asked.

“
Yeah, Miss
Avery Rose Optime, what’s your secret?” Axil asked, crouching so
that he was at my height, and moving his face uncomfortably close
to my own.

I shrugged,
“Felix and I know the area, I guess. Makes it easier.”

Axil snorted.
“Typical,” h
e spat, as he stood from his
crouch and walked over to the buffet. Cecilia didn’t
follow.

“You know we can still catch you, right?” she
sneered.

“I am sure you will, Cecilia.” I said.

“
I am not
kidding. Axil and I have a plan. We will beat you and we will be
the next royalty of Olympia. We are gonna knock your parents off
their throne.”

I nodded, “Good luck with that.”

Irritated at
my lack of reaction, Cecilia flipped her hair off her shoulder and
spun on her heel, striding towards the food. Ellina finally arrived
back.

“
What just
happened?” she asked, gesturing in the direction of Axil and
Cecilia.

“
The usual
threats and squinty looks,” I said with a shrug. “I wonder why they
hate me so much.”

Ellina wriggled in her chair and bowed her
head, mumbling a reply. I examined her face, which she was careful
to keep neutral,

“
You know why
they hate me, don’t you?! Spill Ell. Why do they hate me more than
you? And I know isn’t just because of my bratty act at the training
sessions because you got over that pretty quickly…”

Ellina
frowned and stuffed her mouth with potato salad rather than
responding to my interrogation.

“
No amount of
potato salad is going to help you. I’m still going to force you to
answer my question, Ellina,” I threatened, and Ellina
gulped.