Lex Thomas - Quarantine - The Saints

The white room was a pool of two-foot-deep water. A folding table had been laid on its side and duct-taped against the other side of the doorway, and towels had been stuffed under it to keep the water from flowing out. Another table sealed up the doorway to McKinley on the other side of the white room. The water’s surface reflected the bright ceiling and the white tiled walls. Water poured down in continuous streams from the eight hoses of the sprayer contraption on the ceiling. Saint boys and girls in their underwear cavorted in the water. Some floated around on inflatable mattresses. Gates and Pruitt stood in the middle of the room. Gates wore mirrored aviator sunglasses that shined with the same bright white of the rest of the room. He was shirtless and he’d cut his pinstripe suit slacks into board shorts. A tie was wrapped around his head like a headband, with the knot off to the side. Pruitt was the only person who was fully clothed, with his trousers rolled up above his knees. He had his giant hands on his hips, and loomed over Gates.

“Why do we have to talk about this now, Pru?” Gates said. “Can’t it wait till, like, a group powwow or something?”

“Dude, we haven’t had a powwow in I don’t know how long. When’s the last time we even all ate together?”

“I don’t know.”

“Months. Since before we got Sam. No matter what was going on, we used to all at least gather around the campfire and say what’s on our mind.”

“What do we need a campfire for? The lights are on.”

“You know what I mean,” Pruitt said.

It was weird seeing Pruitt upset. He never talked this much. But it was a big enough event to keep Gates occupied, and that was what Will needed. He’d never get to the cafeteria if he got sucked into Gates’s orbit. Will pulled off his shoes and socks and rolled up his jeans to his knees.

“Party pooper,” Gates said to Pruitt.

Pruitt poked Gates with a fat finger. “I don’t have a problem with having fun, I got a problem when there’s no time for anything else.”

Will stepped over the table dam and into the pool, hoping to walk out unnoticed, but Gates saw him right away.

“There’s the guy! Get over here, Will! Isn’t the water great?”

The water was freezing cold against Will’s skin.

“Pretty great,” Will said.

Gates walked toward Will.

Pruitt threw up his hands. “So, is that it? I’m just supposed to walk away now?”

Gates ignored Pruitt, keeping his eyes on Will. Will sloshed toward the school. He couldn’t get cornered.

“I’m heading out,” Will said. “Be back in a bit.”

Will sped up a little, the drag of the knee-high water was slowing his stride.

“Where you going?” Gates said, sloshing through the water to meet Will in the middle of the room.

“I… just need some air.”

Gates got in Will’s way, and Will had to stop. Meanwhile, Pruitt tromped back into the processing facility.

“Hold up. I forgot to tell you. There’s these three Pretty Ones I met. They want to party with us tonight.” Gates slapped Will’s chest. “They’re jonesing for a little more Gates and Will.”

Will laughed. “I’m gonna pass.”

“You hear what I’m saying, right? They want to party. They’re sure things. And they’re hot.”

“I’m not really in the mood tonight.”

Gates looked annoyed for a moment, but he shook it off with a smile.

“Yeah,” he said. “You’re right. Girls can wait. Some other night. What should we do instead? Want to go break some windows?”

“Uh… not really.”

“Yeah, that sucks,” Gates said, then gasped. His eyes lit up. “Forget it—I got it! There’s still a little gas left in the motorcycle, let’s take it on one final joyride through the halls, let every gang hear it fuckin’ rumble. Whattaya say?”

“I just—”

“Then, we torch it. You’d love that.”

Will snapped. “I don’t want to right now! All right? Will you let me go?”

Gates said nothing. Will thought Gates was staring at him, but all Will could see was the dual reflections of his own frustrated face in the lenses of Gates’s shades. The pause went from awkwardly long, to crawl out of your skin long, but then Gates raised his hands in the air and stepped out of Will’s way.

“Do whatever you want, I don’t care,” Gates said.

The room had gone quiet again. Will couldn’t get a read on whether it was okay with Gates that he was leaving or not.

“All right. Later,” Will said.

He kept his eyes forward, and walked the last few feet to the steel doors to McKinley, then stepped over the table dam. Will continued on, into McKinley’s front foyer. The leakage from the white room had spread into a giant puddle that covered most of the foyer’s burned and warped floor. He heard the party ramp back up behind him.

“Oh shit!” he heard Gates say from the white room. “We should ask for a shark!”

“I’M HERE TO SEE LUCY.”

A Slut with long, red feather earrings sneered back at Will through the cracked-open door to the cafeteria. She looked at him like he was a homeless man trying to wander into her art gallery.

“She’s not here.”

“I don’t believe you,” Will said.

“Go away,” the Slut said, and started to close the door. Will stopped the door with his foot and leaned against it. The Slut grimaced as she pushed harder.

“What do you want?” Will said to the Slut.

“What?”

“From the parents. What do you want me to get for you?” Will said.

The Slut didn’t hesitate. “A teepee. Twelve footer,” she said.

Will wrinkled his brow, “All right… weirdo. I’ll make it happen.”

“You better not be lying.”

“I’m sure you’ll kill me if I am. Just let me in.”

The Slut stepped back from the door and opened it for him. Will walked into the cafeteria. He didn’t get more than three steps before a bunch of Sluts had him pressed against the wall and were going through his pockets.

Out came his weapons. A Swiss Army Knife, with five blades, that Gates had gotten him. His new Maglite. The chain he kept wrapped around his forearm to make his punches heavier. The brand-new hatchet he kept stuffed in the back of his pants. They even found the razor blade he kept taped under his belt.

“I’m gonna need all of that back.”

“Depends if you behave yourself or not,” a big Slut said, and gave him a cheap slap in the crotch. Will winced. He would have fought back but he couldn’t screw up his chance to see Lucy.

They shoved him forward. He couldn’t believe how clean it was in the cafeteria. They walked him through a door on the other side of the dining room. Will knew the Sluts had claimed a full hallway of classrooms off the cafeteria, including a small student lounge, but he’d never been inside.

They led him into the triangle-shaped lounge. All of the plastic covers over the fluorescent tube lights in the ceiling were transparent red. The light they gave off was so dim Will had to work to see people’s faces. He felt as if they were all at the bottom of a glass of red wine. Sluts lounged in well-preserved, plushy love seats and cushioned chairs that populated the space. Any of them could have been Lucy in the deep red of the room.

Seven angry girls, all with pale skin and dark lips and thin eyebrows that slanted down toward the bridges of their noses, followed him as he walked. He passed pretty girls who seemed dead inside. Some of the girls had dates, guys interspersed in the group. Will peered at the dudes. Some ignored him, others casually tried to hide their faces, and then there were the ones that scowled at him until he continued walking past their girl, then they went back to not caring. A skinny girl with a red bob growled at him like she wanted to kill him. A Slut with black lipstick and a train track of gold safety pins pierced through her left eyebrow screwed up her face at Will and flipped him off. He didn’t let any of it shake him. He was a man on a mission.