Chapter Three

Shenanigans happen as the Virtue Workers close in on Mark's school.

Chapter Three

He was sitting in a stark white room with nothing in it except for the plastic chair he was sitting in. There was no door, no windows, nothing at all to distinguish from the whiteness. Mark sat there, completely alone, unsure what to think. How had he gotten here? In a room with no doors or windows, how did one get placed in here? Where was the light coming from? There were no fixtures or lamps.

As these thoughts ran through his mind, Mark noticed a sound. He couldn’t place where it was coming from, or even what it was, but he heard it. He got up from the chair, walking around the room, trying to place where the sound was coming from. It sounded like it was coming from beneath the floor. Mark got down on his hands and knees, crawling around from wall to wall. He could hear it more clearly; it sounded like… he struggled to place where he’d heard it before. Running water. That was what it sounded like. But how was he hearing it? As he’d noticed already there was nothing in the room, no air vents, no holes, nothing that would allow sound to seep through. And yet, he heard it clearly. In fact, it seemed to be getting louder…

He didn’t realize that water was rising up from the floor until it had already covered his hands. He stood up, bewildered. Where was it coming from?

Nowhere, it seemed. The water magically emerged from the floor, and before Mark knew it, it had filled most of the room up to his chin. “Help!” he desperately screamed, “Someone help me!”

There was no answer. How would someone have helped anyway? No one could get into this room.

The water had risen past his head; he treaded water, yelling, but no one came to help. The entire room was now full. How had it filled so fast? He could feel his lungs straining, trying to hold in oxygen, but it wasn’t working. Pretty soon, he would run out of air. He was going to-

Mark gasped and sat up in his bed, breathing deep, heaving breaths. A dream, he thought, It was just a dream. But it had seemed so much more vivid than a normal dream.

He looked at his alarm; it was only three minutes until he needed to get up anyway. Might as well get up now. He walked into the bathroom, feeling significantly more awake than he normally did. As he got in the shower, he thought about what Mrs. Tillens had told him yesterday. That was no surprise; he’d thought about it right up until he’d fallen asleep as well.

Mark had always dreamed of Triggering a Virtue [as I believe I’d described extensively already], but he had never in his wildest fantasies imagined Triggering Fluidity. Why would he? He knew nothing about it except it had something to do with his body; neither Mrs. Tillens or Mrs. Evert had ever said anything about it. Apparently it was rare, which excited him, but the Bureaucracy hunted anyone who had it. Why was that? Maybe it was too powerful to be trusted.

Mark thought about his thoughts [an intriguing prospect, if you ask me], trying to pinpoint his stream of consciousness at the moment his Virtue had activated. He remembered in the locker room he had obstinately told himself he would not let Tyler/Travis beat him up. Almost subconsciously, he let his emotions mirror what they had been during the incident.

He felt something happening in his arm. He looked and saw that muscles had bulged out from his arm. He was so shocked he nearly fell out of the shower. He stared at the unfamiliar bulges in his arm. Experimentally, he moved his arm. It moved more quickly and easily than it normally had.

Was that the secret of Fluidity? Could it change how his body looked and functioned depending on his thoughts?

He thought about some other possibilities of how he could change his body, but stopped when he felt a strange pushing sensation from his chest. He realized that he had been thinking about women. Even though he was alone, he blushed; apparently he had nearly changed his body to a woman’s.

The thought intrigued Mark, albeit an embarrassed sort of intriguing. He could shift his body into whatever he wanted, even a woman’s. Did it have to stop there?

Mark thought about the biology unit in Science they’d done a while ago. What kind of animals had they studied in the reserve they’d gone to in a nearby town? There had been a number of different things. A memory came to Mark, a memory of the sun going down and a giant flock of something had flown through the trees. The rest of the class had huddled around their guide, but Mark hadn’t been as scared. He’d wanted to know what they were. The guide had explained that they were the only flying animals that weren’t birds or insects. What had they been called?...

A yawn interrupted his thoughts. It was one of those body-shaking yawns that you couldn’t help stretching around for. Mark yawned, stretching his wings and enjoying the feel of the water on them.

Wait, WINGS?

Mark inspected his body. He had sprouted brown, wiry hair all over his head. He could feel large ears on his head, and strangely, his eyesight level had drastically fallen. His arms had flattened and lengthened into leathery wings.

He had, in conclusion, changed into a human-sized bat. The question was, how did he change back? Mark tried to imagine himself as a human, thinking about his appearance.

His body started writhing, the hair shrinking, his wings turning back into normal arms, his ears reverting to normal size. The process wasn’t instantaneous; Mark could watch the process. It took a few minutes, but pretty soon he was back in his own body.

That was… interesting.

“Mark! Are you up yet?” His mom called from downstairs.

Mark jumped, trying to think about something else. His mom could hear his thoughts and worked at the Bureaucracy. Mrs. Tillens’ warning was still fresh in his mind; he could not let anyone affiliated with the Bureaucracy learn about this. He thought about the reserve itself instead; let mom think that he was simply reminiscing about a field trip a while back.

“Mark, stop thinking about reserves and come downstairs,” she called. Well, at least it worked.

[It’s interesting to note that this technique works a lot more than anyone would think it would. Usually telepathy entails “mind reading” or some nonsense like that, but Insight works specifically with recent thoughts. People with Insight can’t read any thoughts that have already been replaced with something different, so Mark’s tactic is a useful one. I, of course, can get past it with deductive reasoning, but we’re not talking about me right now, are we?]

Mark got out of the shower and dressed, still thinking about the reserve. Only when he was sure she was no longer probing him did he let his guard down. He could always tell when she was watching his thoughts; he could feel some kind of pressure on his mind when she did. He had never taken particular notice of that advantage until now.

He came downstairs and walked into the orderer to get his morning meal. The machine scanned him and gave him a plate full of fruit. That was it.

“The orderer seems to be giving you a lot of fruit lately, Mark,” his dad noted, “Maybe it’s malfunctioning.”

Or maybe it recognizes that my body is much more fluid lately, Mark thought. It was probably trying to give him more nutrients to bolster his body. Still, he couldn’t tell his parents that. So he just nodded.

He felt the pressure of his mother’s Insight again. Remaining calm, he thought about how tired he was.

“Oh, Mark, stop thinking about that,” she chided, “It’ll only make you feel more tired.”

He nodded again, not trusting himself to say anything without giving himself away. The rest of the morning was uneventful; he got his school things together and followed his father out to the transport.

“You were awfully quiet today, Mark. More than you normally are,” his father said, sounding concerned.

Mark wasn’t sure what to say. His father was Common, but Mrs. Tillens had said not to tell anyone about Fluidity; someone with Insight or Administration could probe their mind, trying to dredge up answers as to what Mark and his father had been talking about. If the Bureaucracy came after Mark, wouldn’t the first people they interrogated be his parents? He couldn’t take that risk.

So instead, he told his father, “Just the usual, I suppose. Another girl in my Bureaucratic Studies class triggered Attachment yesterday, and I guess it got to me.”

His father sighed. “Mark, you’ve got to stop worrying about this; all it will do will make you more depressed. You can’t know that you’re Common until you turn twenty-one. That means you still have four more years to Trigger something.”

“And what if I don’t?” Mark shot back, getting frustrated, “What if I end up like you?”

His father frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Even with both you and mom working as hard as you can, we still barely make ends meet. If I Triggered a Virtue, especially a rare one, I could go work for the Bureaucracy and help make a living!”

What was he saying? He was basically lying to his father; he knew for a fact he would never work for the Bureaucracy because it was them who hunted people with his Virtue. He’d never be able to help his parents in the Bureaucracy. He’d have to go into hiding, work some place no one else would. Why was he painting such an optimistic future that he knew would never happen?

His father looked hurt and sad, and Mark couldn’t stand the sight of it. Forget  Administrators; Mark needed at least one person who knew the truth.

“Actually, dad,” he said quietly, “I’m not being honest with you.”

His father was confused. “How so?”

“I Triggered a Virtue yesterday and didn’t tell you.”

“Mark, that’s wonderful!”

“But it isn’t! I Triggered the Virtue of Fluidity, dad; my Bureaucratic Studies Teacher says that the Bureaucracy hunts down people with it. Is that true?”

His father sat there, stunned. “Y-you Triggered Fluidity?” Now he looked on the verge of tears.

“Yes.”

“The Chief help us…” his father whispered, “Mark, do you realize what this means?”

“Dad, answer my question!”

His dad took a deep breath, but it sounded more like a suppressed sob. “Yes, Mark. Your mother doesn’t tell me everything she learns at the Bureaucracy, but she’s told me about this. We don’t know why, or for how long, but the Bureaucracy makes it a rule to track down every single Fluid in the world.”

So it was true, but no one knew why. Better change the subject. “Do you know what it does?”

“Yes, your mother studied it at some point. It’s a shape-shifting Virtue, Mark. It allows you to manipulate your body. With it, you can turn into any animal, reshape your human body into however you want it to look. I don’t understand why the Bureaucracy hunts it; the advantages it would give are enormous. But they don’t use them, Mark, they only hunt them. Most think any Fluids they find are executed.”

There it was, the fate Mark would find if the Bureaucracy caught him, as well as a confirmation of what he’d already suspected Fluidity could do.

“Dad,” he said urgently, “You can’t tell anyone about this, not even mom. It’s her duty to the Bureaucracy to report any Fluids, right?”

His father was horrified. “Yes, but we’d never do that to our own son!”

“It doesn’t matter! You can’t even think about it around mom or anyone else with Insight or Administration, because they’ll be able to read your thoughts! Good Chief, I can’t believe I told you about this, it’s too dangerous!”

An uncomfortable silence ensued. “Mark,” his father finally said, “I won’t tell her. I’ll keep this a complete secret, if you want.”

Mark hugged him as the transport came up to the school. “Thank you, Dad,” he whispered. They got out of the transport and went their separate ways into the school.

Mark saw Christine walking on the ceiling again.She waved at him, then lurched toward him as she redirected her gravity sideways. Mark didn’t worry about her crashing into him; he knew she had more skill than that. As she got closer, she fell back to the ground. She stood up, dusted herself off, and said, “Hi Mark! Care to talk about what happened yesterday?”

“Not here,” he said quietly, “Later, when there aren’t any people around.”

She looked confused, but thankfully didn’t say anything else. That was something he’d always liked about Christine; she never really questioned it when Mark was acting strange. But what was he doing!? He had just resolved not to tell anybody else about Fluidity, and now he was planning to tell Christine about it!

“Actually, Christine,” he said, “There’s nothing really to tell. Mrs. Tillens knew that we were eavesdropping on her and scolded me for it.”

He could tell that she didn’t believe him, but true to her behavior, she dropped the subject. They walked quietly to Mrs. Merrol’s room.

As he walked in, Mark froze.

Who was that? He was certainly someone Mark had never seen before. The man was dressed much the same way Adrian had been yesterday. Did that mean he was Virtue Worker? The thought filled Mark with dread. He had only told his dad about Fluidity, and that had been only minutes ago; the Virtue Worker couldn’t possibly have heard about it from him. But who?
Mrs. Tillens said that Adrian would be interrogated by Administrators. Maybe he hadn’t been able to withhold as much information as he could have. Maybe the Virtue Workers were coming for Mark.

Stop it, Mark said, forcing himself to act nonchalant, You don’t know if they’ve identified you or not, so you can’t give yourself away.

He adopted his normal bored-at-school look as he plopped down into his seat, pulled out his tablet, and began reading. They were still studying classic dystopias in English; Mrs. Merrol had had announced at the beginning of the unit that they’d be moving backward through the timeline; they’d started with pre-Bureaucracy dystopian novels written for teenagers, like Divergent or The Hunger Games. Mark hadn’t enjoyed those very much; what kind of disturbed person wrote about children killing each other or society split into factions? It defied logic; things like that wouldn’t happen in the Bureaucracy.

He tried to listen to Mrs. Merrol and the Virtue Worker’s conversation, but it was hard to make out over all the students talking to each other.. Could he covertly make his ears grow slightly larger?

The thought had no sooner crossed his mind than he felt his ears enlarge ever so slightly; the students became louder, but so did Mrs. Merrol and the Worker.

“-conducting a census at your school, Mrs. Merrol,” the Virtue Worker was saying, “Would you kindly list everyone who has shown talents that may be a Virtue? We need to make an accurate prediction of how many Virtues we can expect this year.”

“Well, I heard that Amy Chapman Triggered Attachment yesterday…” She said.

“Yes, Agent Tullenson already reported that,” the Worker said impatiently, “We mean people who haven’t Triggered or haven’t been reported Triggered yet. Anyone like that?”

Mrs. Merrol shook her head. “Not that I can think of, and I notice a lot of things with Enlightenment.”

“Very well,” the Worker said, sounding slightly frustrated, “We’ll ask some of the other teachers as well. Thank you for your time.” He walked out of the room with the other students staring at him.

“What was that all about?” Cameron asked from the back of the room.

“Oh, just the annual Virtue Census,” Mrs. Merrol said, although she looked worried, “Nothing to worry about. Now, did all of you start reading Brave New World like I asked?” The class groaned. “I know, I know, it’s unrealistic, but we need to read it anyway.”

Mark zoned Mrs. Merrol out after that.

So the Virtue Workers were after Mark; they just didn’t know it yet. They obviously knew that the Fluid was at the school, but thankfully it looked like Adrian had managed to withhold Mark’s identity.

There was a Virtue Worker, albeit a woman this time, in Science. She was asking Mr. Klein about something.

“Has there been any strange happenings at school? Strange things happening with people’s bodies, for instance?”

So they were asking more questions this time. Mark knew for a fact that Mr. Klein suspected him, so he was very surprised when Mr. Klein said, without so much of a glance at Mark, “Not that I’ve seen, ma’am, but I must admit that I don’t see everyone. I’m not Omniscient, after all.” He chuckled at his own joke.

[The nerve of him! Insinuating that I would automatically know every single happening at a place in an instant.

What? I wouldn’t; it would take me a good five minutes to figure everything out.]

The woman was obviously frustrated. “Thank you for your time,” she said stiffly, and walked out in a huff. The students watched her leave.

“There seem to be a lot of Virtue Workers here today,” Mr. Klein noted, “Did someone Trigger Prescience or something?” They all shook their heads. “Well, let’s get back to work everyone! You should have your crucibles heated up by now.”

Mark and Adam shuffled to finish their experiment. It didn’t go too badly this time; Adam only got burned once, but he healed instantly. Mark was über careful this time so he wouldn’t draw attention to himself. Even with all his efforts, Mr. Klein still approached him after class.

“Mark,” he said quietly, almost whispering, “I’m sure you saw the Virtue Worker earlier.” Mark nodded. “Well, I need to tell you one thing: be careful.”

“I know,” Mark replied, “Mrs. Tillens told me all about Flui-”

“SHHHHHH,” Mr. Klein said hurriedly, “Don’t even say the word! You don’t know how many of the Virtue Workers have the hearing variety of Perception.”

“Alright, but I do understand the implications of it. I’ve been trying to stay innocuous all day.”

“Good,” Mr. Klein said, somewhat relieved, “Keep doing that. It’s the only way you’ll stay safe, but they’ll find you about eventually, kid. They always do.”

Mark frowned. “How do you know about it anyway?”

“What, you think you’re the only one who’s ever Triggered it?” Mr. Klein snapped angrily. It was the first time he had ever raised his voice at Mark.

He realized that. Mr. Klein sighed and said, quietly again, “My brother Triggered it a while back. He knew what it was and came home from school that day terrified for his life. We managed to hide him for two months, but the Workers found him eventually. It had just been the day before that he suggested we run off, try to get somewhere where no one knew us. I’d refused because I didn’t want things to change. How very naive I was… Maybe you should do that, Mark. Run before they catch your scent!”

“I believe it’s too late for that,” a voice said.

They spun around and saw the Virtue Worker from earlier walking in, a grim smile on her face. “Did you really think you were alone?” she asked, “I may not have Perception, but Enlightenment is certainly good enough to hear through a thin door.” She looked at Mark in triumph. “So you’re our Fluid. I must admit, you were the last person we suspected, but then again, that’s what you were trying to accomplish, wasn’t it? Oh well.”

At that moment, another person burst through the door, tackling the woman to the ground.

It was Adrian. “Go!” he cried, struggling to keep her down. She may not have had a physical Virtue, but she seemed to be very physically fit anyway.

Mr. Klein pushed Mark into the back room, locking the door behind him. “You need to get out of here,” he hissed, moving Mark to the door at the other end, which opened out into the hall, “Do you know how to use it yet?”

“A bit. I managed to turn myself into a human-sized bat in the shower this morning.”

Mr. Klein stared at him.

“What?” Mark asked.

“Nothing, it’s just an interesting image. So you know that you just have to think of something and you can turn into it? Good. Make sure to keep your clothes with you; they won’t transform with your body.”

“I already realized that, but thanks.”

“Do you remember the unit on marsupials we did? Manipulate whatever body you’re in to have a pouch so you can carry them with you. Now go! The other Workers will have converged on this point by now.”

Mark nodded and dashed out into the hall, pulling off his shirt as he ran. He ducked into the bathroom for a moment to undress the rest of the way and to think of what he could change into.

He knew that he could change into a bat, but could he become a normal sized bat instead of a human-sized one? He willed his body to change into a small bat.

His body writhed and shifted, and when it settled, he looked in the mirror and saw that, while he was a smaller bat than what he had been in the shower that morning, it was still larger than a normal one. His body was about the size of someone’s head, which was much larger than normal.

Apparently my body can only compact so much when I change, he thought. Oh well, it would have to do.

[The reason that he couldn’t become as small as he wished was that his cells couldn’t magically vanish and reappear. He could manipulate and shift the cells in his body, but because of the Law of Conservation of Mass, he could neither create nor destroy cells. There is, of course, a way to bend this rule a bit, but Mark hadn’t learned it yet and I don’t want to spoil it for you.]

Mark inspected his wings to make sure they were fit for flight. To be honest, the thought made him a bit queasy; he’d, of course, never tried flying before, but this was no time to worry about it. With his improved hearing, Mark could hear someone running fast down the hall toward him. He quickly jumped off the sink where he’d been standing (Did bats stand? It was more like he’d been balancing), and flapped his wings quickly. He managed to hold himself up, but he had to keep moving forward because bats couldn’t hover like some birds could. He perched on the door handle and listened. The footsteps had slowed down, but were still approaching. He guessed that the woman with Enlightenment had deduced that this was where he’d run. Well, just because she knew where he was didn’t mean she was expecting what he’d do.

Mark jumped off the handle just as the woman opened the door. She flinched as Mark flew right past her head and back out into the hallway. She growled in frustration as Mark desperately flew away. Someone was at the door, holding it open as they stared at Mark and the woman in confusion. He was probably wondering why a woman was growling at a giant bat and why a bat was in the school in the first place. Mark took the opportunity and flew through the door and out into the courtyard.

The students mingling as they went to their classes screamed; they had never encountered bats outside a reserve before. Mark swooped and swerved around them as they frantically ran away or tried to smack him out of the air. He flew upward, curving up to land on the roof of the building. He changed back into a human, making sure to only peak his head over the edge of the small wall on top of the school. Only the maintenance workers were allowed up here, so he was probably safe for a bit.

[Logic like that makes me cringe. Did he really think that the Virtue Workers would be stopped by school restrictions? Honestly.]

Mark saw another Virtue Worker burst out of the school behind the woman. She was looking around, squinting in concentration. She whirled around and looked up at the roof, exactly where Mark was standing.

“There he is!” she cried, pointing.

The other Virtue Worker wasted no time. He backed up a few feet, then ran and jumped twenty feet up, right up to the wall. Mark backed up, nearly tripping over himself in shock. The man smiled and said, “So you’re our Fluid. Well, might as well get this over with.”
He lunged forward and punched Mark on the cheek. The force was much greater than any other punch Mark had ever received; that and the man’s jump made it obvious that he had Alacrity.

Why did a Virtue Worker have Alacrity? As far as Mark knew, all Virtue Workers had Enlightenment to help deduce what a new Virtue was.

Then it dawned on him. The Virtue Workers most likely had people with Alacrity for this very purpose, to catch rogue Fluids and bring them in.

Mark’s body shifted without him even doing it; apparently it automatically healed without conscious thoughts. That’d be useful; Mark didn’t know enough about how the body worked to consciously heal it properly.

Mark wondered what to do. The Worker seemed to be taking his time now. He most likely hadn’t noticed that Mark had healed. Maybe Mark could do what he had done with Tyler/Travis: focus on one overpowering thought and let his body do the rest. As the Worker dashed forward at an inhuman speed, Mark tried to focus on a single thought, much like what he had been thinking when Tyler/Travis was about to punch him.

I will not be taken by the Bureaucracy.

His body shifted automatically as the fist was descending, but Mark watched what happened this time, instead of blacking out like he had with Tyler/Travis. The man punched at Mark’s head, but his neck shifted to the left until it rested on Mark’s shoulder, taking his head with it and dodging the punch. The Virtue Worker fell forward, not meeting the expected resistance. Mark’s head snapped back into place and he tackled the worker, his arms and legs growing longer until they had locked around the Worker, holding him tightly. The Worker thrashed around, trying to get up. Slowly, Mark’s entire body began to squeeze the Worker, blocking off his air supply. He held on desperately as the Worker tried to break free, but eventually he stopped as his brain shut down from lack of oxygen. Mark let go when the man was unconscious; Virtue Worker or not, he wasn’t going to kill anyone today.

He stood up, brushing himself off. He stayed away from the edge of the building, not wanting to draw the female Worker’s attention again.

“Nicely done,” said a voice from behind.

Mark spun around. Adrian had just come through the maintenance entrance. He didn’t look good; there were bruises on his face and he walked with a limp.

“They brought someone with Capacity,” Adrian said, looking at Mark’s shocked expression, “Lucky I have Alacrity, or else I would have gotten more injuries.”

“What do I do now?” Mark asked, the hysteria of what he’d just been through setting in. He started to tremble and shake.

“Sh,” Adrian said, holding Mark, “Calm down. It’s understandable that you’re in shock, but we can’t focus on that right now; we need to find someplace for you to hide until we can get you out of here.”

“Hide?”

“Yes. The Virtue Workers are homing in on your location, so we can’t take you anywhere you’re ever likely to go.”

Mark looked around; he had a pretty good view of most of the town from here. He pointed at the one place in the town where trees still grew. “How about there? If I hide in the Forest Reserve, they wouldn’t be able to find me among the rest of the animals.”

Adrian nodded. “That’s a good idea.”

“Do you have any idea how long I’ll have to wait in there?”

“I’m afraid not. I’ll have to go into hiding, too; the Bureaucracy will be after me for obstruction of justice.”

“Justice!?”

“Well, their definition of justice anyway. Now, you’d better change and go; I won’t be able to stay here much longer and I really don’t need the image of you naked ingrained any deeper into my brain.”

Mark blushed. “You got me there,” he said. He changed back into the bat and flew off to the Forest Reserve.

Adrian stared at the bat as it flew off. Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small Omni-ring. He set its coordinates and contacted the Director of the Virtue Workers in the area.

“Your progress, Agent Tullenson?” A deep voice growled from the Omni-ring.

“Carson has begun to trust me fully. He is currently hiding in the Forest Reserve here, but it would be inadvisable to chase him; if I am to gain full access to the Guidance’s base, he must believe me truly antagonistic to you.”

“Understood. Proceed, but with caution.”

Adrian nodded, even though the Director couldn’t see him. He switched of the Omni-ring and descended the maintenance entrance back down to the ground floor, where Agent Hunt sat waiting.

“Well?” she demanded.

“Gabriel is up above; Carson knocked him unconscious.”

She nodded. “Did Carson tell you his destination.”

“He did, but the Director and I agree that it is inadvisable to go after him if I am to infiltrate the 2051. Your orders are to wait for my signal.”

Hunt looked extremely angry, but knew that arguing was pointless; the Director had given his orders, and that was final.

They retrieved Gabriel up above and departed for the Virtue Worker offices.

[Don’t you just love it when a traitor is discovered in your midst?]