“Oh, I don’t?” She realizes her sarcasm is lost on him. “No, I don’t live here. Which brings me to—”
“What’s that like?” Markus asks, sounding a bit out of breath. “I’ve heard that the Unchipped get all the best food. What did you have for breakfast this morning? What do you do all day and night?”
Kaarina dodges his piercing but friendly gaze. She shrugs and says, “I eat what I can find. Mushrooms and dry bread, mostly. Not exactly culinary treats if you ask me.”
“And where do you work?”
It’s a fair question, but it still makes Kaarina laugh. “Staying alive is a full time job.” She bites her lip so she won’t tell Markus about the bloodthirsty Unchipped that lurk around the woods. After all, in Markus’s eyes, isn’t Kaarina one of them? She can’t scare him away. Not when she’s this close to getting what she needs. “I take care of sick animals, horses mostly. The barn I live in has cats and rabbits and dogs as well. I make sure nobody goes hungry, though at this point, they’ve pretty much figured the lay of the land.”
Markus’s wide eyes drill into Kaarina. “What else? Do you swim? Climb trees? Do you visit the old amusement park?”
Is this how the Chipped envision her life? Sports and Ferris wheels?
“I have a few paperbacks I like to read. But at this point, I already remember every word by heart.”
He stares at her in awe for such a long time that Kaarina thinks he’s returned into the augmented reality and started binge-watching some movie about scavengers that ride roller-coasters and fine-dine in fancy restaurants.
After what seems like a long time, Markus snaps out of his trance.
“That must be something else, having so much freedom. And your barn sounds like a great place to live.” He stops gnawing on his thumbnail. “Anyway, I should get going,” he says. He gives her an awkward bow and turns to leave.
“No, wait!”
Without thinking, she steps onto the blue tiles to block his way, then doubles over at the surge of pain in her head. Markus grabs her arms and gently walks her backwards, until she sits firmly on the park bench again. The AR-glasses lie abandoned on the tile road, with a sizable crack across the visor. He has dropped them when hurrying to help Kaarina.
“Are you okay? Wow, I had no idea that’s what… that’s how…”
Unsure how to finish his sentence, Markus sits down next to her. He twists his hands awkwardly, then crosses them over his chest.
“I’m okay, it’s all right. Those sons of bitches just zap me like a motherfucker.”
His eyes widen in shock. Is it because of the curse words or the fact that she’s uttered them? When he bursts out laughing, Kaarina half expects him to fall off the bench. The power of his laughter shakes his body. She can’t keep her lips from twitching too, and soon she’s laughing along with him, lulled into a strange emotion she’d forgotten a long time ago.
“Man, you both crazy. I’m outta here.”
Bill leaving reminds Kaarina of the task at hand. She turns to Markus, who is still trying to collect himself.
“Listen, I do need your help with something. I have a… friend, who’s fighting an infection. He desperately needs antibiotics. You can probably guess that I don’t have any CC’s. But I do have something you may be interested in.”
From her hoodie pocket, she pulls out a small, furry object: a brown rabbit’s foot.
Soon after The Great Affliction, people stopped believing in God and saints, Heaven and Hell. Suddenly religion was no longer a thing. The CS has taken over. People also started to find comfort in ideas like good and bad karma, or objects like crystals, healing minerals, and lucky charms. There are only two things the Unchipped can use to barter with the Chipped: talismans like this rabbit’s foot, and animal meat.
“A rabbit foot? Wow, I haven’t seen one of these since I was in kindergarten…” Markus takes the foot from her, turns it around in his hands, then hands it back to her. “But I’m afraid I don’t believe in magic or luck or higher powers. You should keep your foot, save it for a rainy day.”
“You’re not going to help me then?”
“For a hairy piece of good luck? No, that’s not what I want from you.”
Eyes still locked on Markus, Kaarina shoves the rabbit foot back into her pocket.
Alarms and red flags, that’s what she should be seeing right now, but for some reason her gut isn’t sending her any warning signals. Maybe she should tap Bill, ask him for advice. But she already knows what her telepathic companion would say. He’d call Markus a potential psycho, a possible rapist, or alternatively, a serial killer.
He could be right, of course. It’s not unheard of. Though people do feel better, thanks to the chipping, the daily antidepressants, and the Happiness-Program, there are still plenty of mentally unstable individuals out there, blending in with the rest.
Kaarina holds her gaze steady. Without the medicine, Rocky is as good as dead. The infection is already making it hard for him to breathe. With a slight shake of the head, she says, “The rabbit foot is all I have to give. Nothing else you see is for sale.”
His smile is shy, nothing like a sociopath’s smile. Although, how would she know? She’s the crazy person here, not him. She’s the stranger in a strange land.
Markus gets up from the bench and breaks the silence. “Tell you what. How much do you need?”
Relieved to focus on a math problem instead of wondering whether she’s about to get raped, sliced and gutted, Kaarina counts with her fingers. Math’s never been something she excels in. Triple-checking and counting the amount seems like a good idea.
“I need two hundred pills. And it must be doxycycline.”
“Wow! What does this animal have? Sepsis?” When Kaarina doesn’t reply, Markus continues his rant. “And to need that amount of antibiotics, he must
