Chapter 18

”I’m sorry!” Emma said. She appeared thoroughly shaken by what had just happened.

”Don’t apologize,” Sophie replied wearily, “It was not your fault.”

They walked away from the hotel, without knowing exactly where to go. The prospect of another next meal seemed even more distant now.

Suddenly she felt a hand on her shoulder and spun around, alarmed.

”Sophie,“ a familiar voice said.

”Lukas!” she exclaimed.

He looked worried, but didn’t show the sort of panic she would expect if he really believed they were infected.

Sophie didn’t know what to do: it was useless to try to run, especially with Emma.

”I saw you yesterday, but you ran away,” Lukas said.

”Ah... yes... “ she replied, playing for time, “I must have mistaken you for someone else.”

“What happened yesterday morning?” he asked, confused.

For a fleeting moment Sophie thought it was incredible that only a little more than one day had passed since she left the medical centre. The last thirty-six hours felt as long as her whole life.

”The police took Amanda, and you were gone,” Lukas went on, “Then your photographs appeared everywhere, and they said that you were infected. But I know you're not, you were screened before you came to work! And I know that neither Lemaire nor Amanda are: I screened them myself. Now the medical centre is closed, and I have no job,” he added, sounding plaintive.

”I'm sorry. I don’t know exactly what happened,” Sophie admitted.

”You know that the police are looking for you? They questioned me as well, but I didn’t know anything. What have you done?”

“I don’t know!” she could only repeat. “It’s... it's all a big misunderstanding, OK? I think we should hide somewhere until everything comes clear.”

Lukas nodded: “I understand. I think you should go home and stay inside for a while.”

“Yes, but... to be honest, I don’t know where to go. I cannot go home.”

He stared at her, puzzled: “Why not?”

Sophie resisted the urge to roll her eyes: “Because that’s the first place where the medical police would look for me,” she explained.

”Ah, right, I didn’t think of that,” Lukas commented. “If it happened to me I wouldn’t have this problem. I just finished moving and haven’t changed the documents yet. No one knows where I live! Cool, right?”

Sophie stared at him.

”Um, OK then, good luck! Stay in touch, alright?” Lukas gave her a friendly pat on the shoulder. “Goodbye, Madam Lemaire.” he added.

He obviously had no intention of helping them.

Sophie knew she should be relieved even just because he didn’t seem to believe the official version and didn’t look like he was about to call the police, but she still felt slightly disappointed.

”Look, young man, I don’t want to sound inappropriate,“ Emma interjected when Lukas had already almost turned to go away, ”but Sophie and I are in trouble and we really need somewhere to stay. Could you let us stay at your place for a couple of days? Only until Thursday. We would be immensely grateful.”

Lukas appeared surprised. As a matter of fact, he and Sophie had never been close enough to hang out together outside work hours.

”But yes, of course!” he said, regaling them with one of his dazzling smiles. “I just didn’t think about it... “

Sophie realized that she had been holding her breath the whole time.

”It’s not far from here, follow me!” Lukas told them, evidently brimming with enthusiasm.

The good news was that the apartment really wasn’t far off. The bad news was that during their short walk they had to stop countless times to greet all the people who knew Lukas, which turned out to be quite a lot. A couple of times he even lingered to chat, and Sophie was pretty sure that at some point he was about to introduce them, but luckily stopped just in time.

Apparently he found the notion of discretion hard to grasp.

When they finally stepped into his flat on the twenty-sixth floor, Sophie felt the weight of the day’s fatigue crush her. Lukas’ flat was very similar to hers, even though he didn’t have the bathroom or the salad seedlings. But it was much more orderly than hers, and the furniture looked of better quality and a lot newer.

Besides, Lukas appeared to be very well-stocked on food supplies: after a portion of tuna and potatoes and a cup of instant barley, Sophie felt much better, and Emma looked a lot sprightlier.

Sophie started to feel that maybe, just maybe, they would be alright.

Lukas chivalrously announced that he would leave the bed to Emma, so he and Sophie settled on the floor with blankets and pillows. Normally it would have been too early to go to sleep (it was only six p.m.), but Sophie felt exhausted. If she hadn’t been so hungry, she would surely have fallen asleep while she ate. Her eyelids seemed increasingly heavy.

When she woke, the room was dark except for the bluish, intermittent light from the TV. Sophie realized she had fallen asleep on the floor in the middle of the room. Someone had covered her with a woollen chequered quilt while she was sleeping.

She yawned and ran a hand through her hair, finding it dishevelled and sweaty. When was the last time she took a shower?

Emma was asleep on the bed, as was demonstrated by her heavy and regular breathing. Lukas was sitting cross-legged on the floor, with his back to the bed, and watched TV with great concentration.

Sophie recognized the show, one of the many reality show where the protagonists had to survive in a hostile environment, a wasteland near the quarantined areas, eating grasshoppers and other crap the mere thought of which made her feel sick.

”Lukas,” she whispered, careful not to wake Emma.

Lukas looked up at her: “Hello!” he smiled. “How are you?”

“Fine,” she said, dully.

Actually, as her mind awakened from the deep sleep, she felt the now familiar pang of anxiety that clawed at stomach. She was still on the run from the medical police, together with an old, slightly scatter-brained lady, with no directions except a vague indication to meet a stranger two days hence.

Great. Just perfect, she thought bitterly.

”Look,” Lukas said, pointing at the TV, “It’s my favourite show, ‘Beyond Europa’. Do you know it?”

Sophie got up and moved to sit next to him: “I have seen it a few times.”

“In this episode the participants must build a hut during a tornado. It’s said that they are very common in those places.”

Images of people trying to fix shrub branches together, while a violent storm raged all around them, flickered on the screen. All the competitors were covered with mud and looked really miserable.

”Maybe next year you could sign up for it too.” With his beautiful smile, Lukas would be the perfect candidate, a natural public favourite. “You could win and go live the good life in the first ring.”

The grand prize of those shows was very lucrative - an exorbitant amount of credits and a new life in a luxurious villa in the first ring, so many people tried their fortune.

As far as she was concerned, however, Sophie did not want to get out of Europa under any circumstances.

Lukas was of the same opinion, actually: “No way!” he exclaimed. “Better you than me. I don’t want to have to live off spiders for a month.”

“Really? I thought they were your favourite food,” she joked.

“Of course, but only city spiders. Like the one next to you.”

Sophie gasped: “Where?!”

Lukas laughed, then lowered his voice so as not to disturb Emma: “Just kidding! You should have seen your face.”

“I don’t like spiders,” she admitted “They have too many...” she shivered “legs.”

He laughed again, as if she said something very funny.

“Ah, Sophie... “ he said “I didn’t know you were so much fun outside of work! How come we never went out for a beer or something?”

She shrugged: “Dunno. It just never happened, I guess.”

Maybe she was not the kind of person who made friends very easily, she thought. When she was little, most of the people in her life were adults, Grandma and her friends for the post part. Sophie was used to having a lot of privacy and space, and even at school she had struggled to bond with her classmates.

When her grandmother was gone, Sophie had been catapulted into a completely foreign world, where the other children were everywhere, noisy, intrusive, ready to make off with her lunch or the few belongings she had brought from home.

It had been a shock.

Then, the few people with whom she managed to establish some kind of relationship (the kind girl who had the bed next to her in the dorm or the laconic canteen operator who allowed her to hide in the kitchen when she was chased by a gang of children) always disappeared, transferred to other facilities or perhaps gone to meet a worse fate, when the plague raged in the streets.

Beyond the mandatory work interactions, furthermore, it was easy to be alone in Europa: the social gathering places were few and tightly controlled by the institutions.

Gradually, the habit had become routine, and breaking it was increasingly difficult.

The person she liked best was Amanda and... thinking about her, Sophie felt a lump rise in her throat again.

Once again wondered if Amanda was still alive, and once again she was too scared to give herself an honest answer.

“Did you see how they took Amanda away?” she asked Lukas.

He didn’t say anything for a while. ”Yes,” he answered at last, “It wasn’t nice to look at.”

“Do you think...?”

Lukas sighed: “I don’t know,” he admitted. ”Listen, Sophie... why do you keep running away?” he asked.

She stiffened: “What kind of question is that? You saw...”

“Yes, I know, but... well, you know how it works with the police, don’t you? Those who are sent out on the raids are fanatics, people who are used to kick doors down.”

Lukas turned and looked into her eyes: “I know a person, a family friend. She's in the medical police but she is not.... no, wait, let me speak!” he exclaimed, when Sophie began to shake her head.

“Lukas, no!” she exclaimed, standing up. “You don’t understand... you ... You weren’t there...”

“I saw what Amanda looked like when they took her away.”

“There! How can you still want to have anything to do with those people?!”

“Because this is bigger than me, you and Mrs. Lemaire put together! If we talked to a reasonable person, someone trustworthy...”

“There are no trustworthy people!” Sophie snapped, in a louder voice than she intended.

Lukas said nothing for a moment, then threw up his hands in surrender: “I’m sorry! It was just an idea. Please, come back and sit.”

She sat down on the floor again. They remained silent for a while.

The TV station broadcasted an interview with President Hartmann, in which he spoke of the efforts made by the police to contain the possible new cases of the plague.

”The episode is over. Want to watch another?” Lukas proposed.

”No... I think I'm going to sleep,” she muttered.

She wasn’t really that sleepy, but she didn’t feel like staying there with him any longer.

”Ok. Good night,” he said.

Sophie lay awake for a long time, watching the TV lights reflected in Lukas’ eyes.