Chapter 5 5

The cafeteria smelled of grease and disinfectant.

Aden stood in the lunch line. He didn't take a tray. He didn't take food.

He reached into the bin of cutlery.

He grabbed a heavy, tarnished, silver-plated spoon. He slipped it into his pocket.

He scanned the room.

The parasites were clustered at tables near the exits. They were watching the doors.

Elise was sitting at a round table in the far corner. She was alone.

No one dared to sit near her.

She was drinking from a red thermos. It wasn't juice.

She saw Aden. She raised an eyebrow, challenging him.

She expected him to cower in the shadows.

Aden took a breath. He was tired of being afraid.

He walked past the tables. He didn't go to the dark corner.

He walked straight to the floor-to-ceiling windows on the south wall.

It was noon. The sun was blazing.

Aden stepped into the beam of light.

He sat on the window ledge, bathed in sunshine.

Elise stood up. Her chair scraped loudly against the floor.

She stared at him. Her face lost its composure for the first time.

She waited for him to burn.

Aden stretched his legs. The sun felt good. It warmed his bones.

He pulled the silver-plated spoon out of his pocket.

Elise walked toward him. She moved fast, but she stopped just outside the patch of sunlight.

She flinched as the edge of the light touched her shoe.

"What are you?" she hissed. "Daywalker? That's impossible. Only the Progenitors..."

Aden looked at her. He held up the spoon.

He put the bowl of the spoon in his mouth.

He bit down hard.

SNAP.

The metal sheared off.

He crunched loudly. It sounded like he was chewing on gravel.

Elise's face went from shock to disgust. Her nose wrinkled.

"Gods," she said, her voice dripping with contempt. "You... you eat metal? What kind of silver-eating freak are you?"

She looked at him like he was a cockroach.

"I thought you were a threat," she scoffed, regaining some of her composure. "You're just a scavenger. A genetic mistake."

Aden swallowed the metal. It slid down his throat, warm and energizing.

"You still want to meet at the field, Princess?" he asked.

Elise's eyes flashed red. "Don't call me that. I can still gut you, sunlight or not."

"Try it," Aden said.

The intercom beeped.

Wooooop. Wooooop.

The emergency alarm. It was a sound that drilled into the skull.

"Lockdown. This is not a drill. All students seek cover immediately."

Boom.

The floor shook. Dust fell from the ceiling tiles.

Through the window, Aden saw a plume of green smoke rising from the industrial district a few miles away. The chemical plant.

"What did you do?" Elise asked, looking at the smoke.

"Me?" Aden stood up.

In the cafeteria, the students who were infected stood up in unison.

It was perfectly synchronized.

They stopped talking. They stopped moving.

Then, they opened their mouths.

A shriek tore through the air. It wasn't human. It was the sound of tearing metal and screaming pigs.

Chaos erupted.