Moxyland

Kendra

It’s not a toothpaste commercial. The Inatec building is clinical, military, with double doors for gurneys leading past wards and theatres, the corridors painted a cool mint, and rows of metal cages like you see at the vet, all standing empty.

‘Prisoners out on parole?’ I say to defuse the silence bristling under the hum of machinery and the muffled clop of our shoes on the polished floors.

‘Ha.’ Andile snickers. Dr. Precious sniffs daintily.

I persist. ‘Kinda creepy, though. Where is everybody?’ But what I’m really thinking is, where are the dogs?

‘Sunday, babes. Or are you on a different schedule? Ah, here we are. Come on.’ He makes scooting motions with his hands towards a small theatre with a biohazard sign on the door. There is a cubicle to one side, with a curtain the same colour as the walls, a catscan machine and a sonogram, and other equipment I can’t readily identify.

Dr. Precious goes over to a metal basin outside and starts washing her hands methodically. Andile holds open the curtain for me. They’re both so tense.

‘Put on the smock, please.’ His voice has taken on a flavour of detached authority.

The cubicle barely has enough space to manoeuvre. I fold my clothes on the bench and reach for the green smock hanging on the back of the door. ‘Front or back?’

‘Doesn’t matter,’ says Dr. Precious. ‘It’s procedure for the scan. You can put your clothes back on when we do your blood work.’

‘How serious is it, doctor?’ I call out from the cubicle, fastening the gown at the back. ‘Am I heading for the big kennel in the sky?’

‘Really, babes,’ Andile says, aggrieved.

‘Can’t say until we’ve got the results.’

‘I wouldn’t stress it too much, babes. Dr. Precious already put in a request for the vaccine from head office, so when it gets here, we can do everything at once.’

‘When?’

‘When what?’

‘When did you put in a request on the vaccine? I didn’t hear you.’ I throw open the curtain, ignoring the undignified vulnerability of the smock.

‘When Murray phoned me from the gate. I called it in immediately,’ snaps Dr. Precious.

‘Babes, you have to chill out. You’ve been through a hell of a time, but we’re on your side. Now take it easy. I’m not the doctor here, but you don’t seem to be showing any of the symptoms. I’d say your sponsorship has paid off.’

‘Can you sit up here, please?’

‘I think… I know. I want it out. Now. Get it out.’

‘Out? Babes, you know it’s permanent. You agreed to that. Got your DNA signature on that.’

‘It’s not permanent in the dogs.’ I am near hysteria and I don’t quite know why. I feel like I’m no longer in limbo. As in, I’ve hit the water and it’s closing over my head.

‘Different technology, I told you before. The Aitos are on a more basic system. It wears off in the dogs because it’s pure tech, the nanobots have a limited lifespan. Maybe ten years before they wear out. Your nano is much more sophisticated. It latches onto your own cells as a power source. It reproduces itself.’

‘Andile. I can’t do my job if she doesn’t cooperate.’

‘Babes.’ He opens his hands, but I know he’s not the one armed with the syringe. I get up on the table, obediently, and push up my sleeve for the good doctor. She straps a blood pressure sleeve over my wrist, shoves it all the way up to my bicep.

‘Pump your fist for me, please.’

‘What happens to the dogs afterwards?’

‘They put them out to pasture.’

‘So you can’t adopt? Or use them as guide dogs or something?’

‘I’ve never heard of—’

‘Impossible,’ says the doctor. ‘It’s our intellectual property. It’s very closely guarded. They put the dogs down.’ She sees my face. ‘But don’t worry, they don’t feel anything. Just a prick. Then it’s over.’

She positions the needle against the crook of my elbow. ‘Make a fist for me.’ Normally, I look away, even though I don’t mind needles so much, but this time I’m watching as the slim metal head bites into my skin.

She pulls back the plunger a fraction, so that blood swirls into the chamber, like ink in water.

I look up and see that she is watching me intently. ‘See,’ she says, ‘just a little prick.’

Still holding my gaze, she pushes the plunger all the way in.

The world tilts to the right, and then everything swarms up to meet me in a surge of claustrophobia. Suddenly I’m scared. I struggle up through the tightening darkness, sealing in on me, like the crush of water.

‘Don’t fight it.’

My eyelids flutter, letting in snatches of light like a strobe, snapshots of movement. Dr. Precious pushes my shoulders, holding me down. Andile’s mouth twitches. He looks away. I can’t keep my eyes open. I can’t move my arms. I try and push up, through the dark, which is wide open, too open, so I’m drowning in it, fighting.

Then calm.

It’s just like diving.

Following the bubbles up, knowing that soon I’ll break the surface.