The woman scrutinized her screen and then me. “Santiago Perrin-Rogers registered with the Atlanta Division of Living Persons roughly three months ago. I can’t tell you anything more than that.”
My heart leapt at that information. Santiago had made it–I knew he would.
“Are you sure about that?” Cipher said and slid a sparkling sapphire ring in her direction. I had no idea where he’d gotten it, must have been something he’d scavenged along the way. “Maybe you could give us his last-known address?”
She shot him another annoyed look but pocketed the ring and said, “He was assigned government housing at Prosperity Tower on Walton Street.”
“Thank you, ma’am, you’ve been very helpful.” Cipher said politely, though I wondered if he was being sincere.
“We’ll need to do a full medical exam and bloodwork panel before we can issue him his identification.” The woman then addressed me, “Do you know what vaccinations you’ve had?” I shook my head. She huffed and asked me another question but I couldn’t hear her because she’d moved away from the counter to retrieve a clipboard.
“Well?” she asked impatiently.
“He’s hard of hearing,” Cipher said, “And asthmatic, so an inhaler would be great.”
“We’ll need to run some tests.”
“Do what you need to do, but I’m staying with him as his plus one.”
The woman scowled, but I was grateful to have Cipher with me. He informed the rest of our crew what was going on, and I dug my fingers into one of his numerous belts to hold onto him as the woman led us through a maze of hallways to another area of the building that looked more like a clinic. Here there were more nurses than police officers, and everyone looked really, super busy. A nurse led us to a private room and told me to undress so the doctor could examine me. She gave me a thin cloth gown to put on instead of my clothing, which was weird and embarrassing. After I’d changed, Cipher offered me his leather jacket to wear while we waited. It smelled like campfire and pine needles, and I missed the woods already.
“I see now what you mean about cities,” I said to him. Even the bright lights were giving me a headache.
He ruffled my hair. “When we’re done here, I’ll find you something good to eat, better than racoon kebabs.”
“I like racoon kebabs.”
“Yeah, you’re pretty easy to please.”
Our easy banter lifted my spirits enough to endure the doctor’s examination. The doctor poked me all over, even squeezed my balls and told me to cough. I looked to Cipher to see if this was some kind of sick joke, and he only nodded with a smirk on his face. “What are you looking for?” I asked the doctor.
“Lumps or swelling,” he said. “Any tenderness?”
“It’s kind of a tender place.”
He massaged my sad little shriveled up sac, and I squirmed under his impersonal, gloved hand. Finally satisfied, he nodded and typed up his report on a tablet. That was how phones used to work too, but ours died a long time ago, so we could only pretend.
“You have Internet here?” Cipher asked the doctor.
“Government and social services have limited access at certain times of day. We have to preserve the bandwidth. But citizens have electricity, access to broadcast radio and television, and running water within the city limits.”
He had said it so casually, as if it were nothing. Growing up, I hadn’t realized how isolated we were or how difficult it was to survive. Several other families had moved to one of the bigger cities early on, but my mom chose to stay. Would she still be alive today if we had left? Would my brother and I still be together?
“You have asthma?” the doctor asked.
“Yes, sir.”
He made me blow into a machine to measure my lung capacity. Afterward, he said. “I’ll put in a request for an inhaler, but it might take a couple weeks to arrive.”
“What about a hearing aid?” Cipher asked.
“You’d have to see a specialist for that. Appointments can take years, but I’ll put him on a waiting list. I’m going to recommend some vaccine boosters and a tetanus shot. Meningitis too, since you’ll be living in close quarters with others. Ever had Lyssavirus cuniculus?”
“What?” I asked and not because I didn’t hear him.
“Rabbit Fever,” Cipher said.
“Yeah, a couple months back. I got over it, except for not being able to hear in one ear.”
