The Silent Army

“What kinds of things?” I asked.

“Things they forgot.”

“Like what?”

“Things they were made to forget.”

That got my attention, a lot.

“What does that mean? ‘Made to forget’?”

He looked at me, his eyes trying to focus. They went from being out of it to being a little bit scared. Tears shone in those old eyes of his.

“They make us forget,” he said, his voice quiet.

“Forget what?” I asked, but his eyelids were coming down. His eyes still looked scared as they closed, and he eased back in the chair.

“Old man?”

His mouth opened a little, and he started to breathe deep and slow. He was out.

Damn it.

I took the glass from his hand before it fell and threw a blanket on him. Zombie was short-lived; he’d wake up in an hour or two and I’d send him home.

I leaned back on the couch and took another hit from the whiskey bottle, listening to the old guy snore. Wachalowski said the shit that happened before I left never stopped, and I knew now that someone had been messing with my head. Someone had been making me forget. That’s what Buckster meant. He knew something.

I called Wachalowski on the JZI, and he picked up like he was waiting for it.

I think I might have something for you, I said.

What?

I’ll send you the recording I took, but long story short, I think he’s mixed up in something just like you said. Don’t hold him, though.

Why not?

Because he’s looking for a friend, I said. Someone he can bring in, and he just found one.

What makes you think he’ll trust you enough to do that?

I watched him sleep. He was relaxed now and the fear was gone from his face, but I knew what he’d been trying to say, and I knew what scared him.

I just found out we have something in common.

Zoe Ott—La Madre Emergency Ward

I made one of the policemen tell me where they were taking Karen, but I didn’t know what to do. I froze up in the hallway. I stayed there until the sirens went away and people went back into their rooms. I never realized until then how attached to her I really was.

When I finally did move, I went out into the rain without even going back to my room. I got on the subway, soaked from head to toe, and sat there, numb, the whole way over. The emergency room was completely packed. Some looked sick, and some were bleeding. They looked like they’d been there a long time.

There was a big line to get to the front desk. I managed to make my way through the crowd and cut in front of the first person. He looked like a biker with big, tattooed arms.

“Hey!”

“I need to know where Karen Goncalves is,” I said. The woman behind the desk looked at me over her glasses.

“Ma’am, please step to the end of the line.”

“Yeah, end of the line, bitch,” the biker said.

“I’m not checking in. I just need to know where—”

“Ma’am, I cannot help you until you step to the end of the line and wait your turn like everyone else.”

I looked back at all the angry faces. The line went to the door, and that didn’t even count all the people in the waiting area. Half of them were standing because there was no place to sit.

“Bitch,” the biker guy said, “get to the end of the line before I—”

I stared in his eyes and he trailed off as the room turned bright around me. All the color in the room faded away, until the only colors left were the ones rippling above everyone’s heads. There were so many people that they all started to merge together, but his was red and orange. His was angry and violent. Usually I eased them back, turning them to a calm blue, but not that time. That time I contained them and forced them back.

“Before you what?” I asked. It was like someone else said it. He just stared at me, his face going slack.

“Before you what?” I asked again. He just stared, mouth hanging open a little.

There’s no time for this. I need to find her.

I looked past him and pushed the next few people in line until they just stared too. I turned to the woman behind the desk.

“Tell me where she is.”

The woman’s eyelids drooped and she started tapping on her computer. She looked down at the screen, reading something there.

“She was admitted through the ER. She’s currently awaiting emergency surgery.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means the available ORs are full and she’s being kept stable until—”

“Where is she now?”

“Third floor. East wing.”

I walked away and took the elevator up to the third floor, where I followed signs to the east wing. It was crowded up there too. In the hallway there were gurneys parked in rows along the wall. There were people lying on them, but none of them was Karen.

I started trying the rooms along the hall one at a time. The first room had an old man in it, lying on a gurney and not moving. He looked dead. The next room had a fat, middle-aged woman with an afro.

“Are you a doctor?” she whispered. I shut the door.

One door down, a man in a dark blue jumpsuit was standing outside. He had a black case in one hand and was leaning against the wall, watching a little screen he had in his other hand. When he saw me heading toward the door next to him, he started to say something, but I cut him off.

“Are you a doctor or a nurse?”

“I’m a technician.”

“Then leave me alone.”

He went back to looking at his little screen. I opened the door and went in.

The room was dark. There was a gurney in there surrounded by a bunch of machines. One of the machines was beeping slowly.

“Karen?”

She didn’t move, but one of her eyes opened a little and looked over at me. It was her.

“Karen, shit …shit …”

I turned the light on so I could see her. Her face was all purple, red, and black. Bandages covered one eye, and under a big piece of bloody gauze, her nose looked flat. The one eye that could still open had tears in it. The white part had turned red.

“Zoe,” she said, her mouth barely moving. Her jaw was broken and some of her teeth were gone. I thought I was going to be sick.

“Don’t cry,” she said, but I couldn’t get control of myself. My hands were shaking.

“Karen, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” I said, wiping snot away.

“It’s not your fault.”

It was my fault, though. I knew it would happen. From the first time I saw her, watching me from behind him