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"Orange!" I heard one of them yell into his walkie-talkie "We have a situation at the e--"

It wasn’t until after they had rounded us back up and had the boy with the broken face on the ground that I dared to look up And that I began to wonder, dread tickling uplike that Or if everyone around me was there because they could cause someone to hurt theh my head--not me, theyof hollowness at the center of my chest as one of the soldiers took a can of spray paint in hand and painted an enore X over the boy’s back The boy had only stopped yelling because two PSFs had pulled a strange black mask down over the lower part of his face--like they were

Tension beaded on h the ca As alked,kids heading in the opposite direction, fro white uniforms, with a different colored X marked on each of their backs and a number written in black above it I saw five different colors in all--green, blue, yellow, orange, and red

The kids with the green and blue X’s were allowed to walk freely, their hands swinging at their sides Those with a faint yellow X, or an orange or red one, were forced to fight through thechain connecting thee smears had the muzzlelike hts and dry air of what a torn paper sign had labeled INFIRMARY The doctors and nurses lined the long hallatching us with frowns and shaking heads The checkered tile floor became slick with rain and mud, and it took all of my concentration not to slip My nose was filled with the s alcohol and fake lemon

We filed one by one up a dark cement staircase at the back of the first floor, which was filled with ee Not a Red

I could feeldeep in the pit of ht when she pulled the trigger, or the mass of her bloody hair that had landed neare I couldn’t stop seeing Graht She’ll coet me She’ll come, she’ll come, she’ll co that tied our hands, and divided us again, sending half down to the right end of the freezing hallway and half to the left Both sides looked exactly the same--no more than a few closed doors, and a s but watch the rain pelt that tiny, foggy pane of glass Then, the door on the left swung open with a lohine, and the face of a plued man appeared He cast one look in our direction before whispering soroup One by one,they had in common aside from their white coats was a shared look of suspicion

Without a single word of explanation, the PSFs began pulling and pushing kids toward each white coat and its associated office The outburst of confused, distressed noises that erupted fro buzzer I fell back ontoif I would ever see those kids again

What’s wrong with us? My head felt like it was full of wet sand as I looked over my shoulder The boy with the broken face was nowhere, but his h the caht we had Everhart’s Disease? Did they think ere going to die?

How had that boy made the PSF do what she had done? What had he said to her?

I felt a hand slide into h for irl--the saave ainst her skull, fra a pink scar that curved between her top lip and nose Her dark eyes flashed, and when she spoke, I saw that they had cut the wires on her braces but had left the lued to her front teeth

"Don’t be scared," she whispered "Don’t let the of her jacket said SAMANTHA DAHL It stuck up against the back of her neck like an afterthought

We stood shoulder to shoulder, close enough that our linked fingers were hidden between the fabric of my pajama pants and her purple puffer jacket They had picked her up on the way to school the sao, but I reht with hate at the back of the van they had locked us in She hadn’t screah the doors now caray sweaters and shorts in their hands Instead of falling back into our line, they were et a word or questioning look in

They don’t look hurt I could sht have been rubbing alcohol, but no one was bleeding or crying

When it was finally the girl’s turn, the PSF at the head of the line forced us apart with a sharp jerk I wanted to go in with her, to face whatever was behind the door Anything had to be better than being alone again without anyone or anything to anchorso badly that I had to cross et thelea span of checkered tile between the PSF’s black boots and my mud-splattered toes I was already tired down to ht before, and the scent of the soldier’s boot polish sent

And then they called for me

I found myself in a dimly lit office, half the size ofwalked into it

"Narayover it

The white coat’s face appeared fro er of sliding off his nose with every quick h, and he didn’t so ainst the closed door, trying to put space between me, the man, and the machine