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Chapter One
Kevin Garin’s little sister didn’t bother with hellos when she picked up his audio call.
“Mom’s meds still aren’t here.”
Garin pinched the bridge of his nose with his free hand and kicked the door shut behind him. “When were they supposed to be there?”
“Last week.” Beaty’s voice tightened and Garin pictured her thin lips pursing into a point.
“Did you call?” Garin threw his duffel onto the bed of his borrowed room. The space was small and sparse, but not cramped, and he’d slept on a lot worse things than the mattress his bag bounced on.
“Yes. Last week when they didn’t arrive.”
When Garin didn’t reply, Beaty huffed.
“I swear, Kev, I called last week, but they’re still saying they’re concerned about the payment.”
“I believe you.” Garin unpacked his clothes and arranged them in the chest of drawers against the wall. He’d checked, double-checked, and triple-checked he had the funds, but the pharmaceutical company still didn’t like the amount of money they saw in his account. They could do math. They knew the money they pulled out for his mother’s meds was greater than the money going in every month. But that was his problem to solve, not theirs. “I’ll call them.”
“I’m sorry, Kevin. I know you’re busy.” The tablet beeped to alert Garin of the incoming video feed request, and he accepted the feed and propped the tablet on his pillow. His younger sister’s big blue eyes gazed out at him.
Like always, Garin’s heart panged to think how few times he’d seen those eyes in person. “It’s fine, I’ve got it.”
“Are you sure?” Beaty bit her lip.
Garin glanced at the clock in the screen's corner. He and Dominic Turner had arrived at the new research station on the edge of Qesha’s Dead Zone thirty minutes ago already. He only had a few more minutes to arrange his own quarters before he had to return to Dom’s side. “Yeah, I’m sure. I’ll call as soon as I finish today’s shift.”
“Okay.” Beaty’s sigh blew static through the tablet speakers. The Dead Zone’s interference messed with communications even from within the research center. Whatever else that place messed with, no one knew. If Garin had his way, Dominic Turner wouldn’t set foot on the same continent as the poisonous stretch of land, but the Turner brothers were as stubborn as they came. “If you say so.”
“I do say so.” Garin pulled his toiletry case from his bag and stowed his empty duffel under the bed. “Can you put Mom on?”
“I think she went out, actually.” Beaty’s background shifted as she stood from her chair and walked across the spacious living room to the hall of bedrooms. Garin paid for the apartment, but he knew its layout more from the background of video calls than from the handful of times he’d set foot in it himself.
“Out?” Garin paused halfway to the bathroom. His mother didn’t go out.
“Yeah.” Beaty nodded, and the creak of a door whispered through the tablet speakers. “Yeah, she went out while I was grocery shopping. I think to meet an old friend.” She turned her big blue eyes back to Kevin. “Those new pills are amazing, Kevin.”
“Wow.” Garin shook himself and brought his tablet and toiletry case with him into the small, attached bathroom. “That’s…that’s wonderful.”
And worth every penny. The cost of the daily pills didn’t exactly fit into the family budget, but if after only a month on them his mother had already regained the energy, the motivation, the will to go outside and to meet people… He’d find the money.
“You have to come see her, Kevin.” Beaty closed the door and leaned her back against it. “When you get a chance, I mean. But, Kevin, she’s like I remember her.”
Garin lined up his toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, and mouthwash, all in their proper order in the medicine cabinet. He wasn’t so sure Beaty had any memory of their mother from before their father died. It was over twenty years ago. She’d only been five. He’d only been eleven, so he wasn’t sure even he remembered it properly. “Don’t get your hopes up too high, Beaty.”
Beaty looked down. “I know.” Garin felt a little guilty at her downcast expression, but he knew it was nothing near how badly he’d feel if the meds stopped working. Or if he stopped being able to pay for them.
“How are the boys?” Garin changed the subject as he placed his razor, shaving cream, and deodorant on the bottom shelf of the medicine cabinet. After a quick scan to see everything in its place, he closed the mirror and put the bag under the sink.
“They’re good.” Beaty padded farther down the hall.
“They in?” Garin leaned back against the hard sink and gave his full attention to his sister.
Beaty peered to her left, then to her right. Garin knew from the positioning of the ceiling light above her that she stood outside the rooms of their two young brothers, the twins Ethan and Lucas. “No, I think they went to Horowitz Labs, actually. They had interviews.”
“Interviews?” Garin straightened up. “For jobs?”
Beaty gave him a look. “Yeah, obviously, Kevin.”
