by Eliza Green
Anya almost laughed at the scene.
She kicked Lilly as she fed a page into the typewriter. Lilly sat bolt upright, and rubbed her eyes.
‘What?’
‘You need to help me, Lilly. I can’t do this on my own.’
‘I can probably manage an extra ten pages if I don’t look at the keys,’ said June.
Lilly glanced from June to Anya with hopeful eyes. ‘I’m no good. You saw me yesterday. I’ll only mess it up.’
‘So you’re going to sit there all day and do nothing?’
Sheila and Yasmin both watched, amused.
Lilly shuffled in her seat. ‘No, not nothing.’ She looked around. ‘I can help feed paper into the typewriter.’
What else could she do without the skills to read or write?
Anya sighed. ‘Fine.’
Ω
The morning and afternoon passed quickly. June kept her promise and added a few extra pages to the pile, but Lilly soon became bored of her only job. Anya’s final tally was five fewer pages than the day before, even with June’s help. Her hunger kept her from being efficient.
At dinner, they spent their half-points and devoured their half-portions.
Later that evening, Anya sat with the others on their beds as they discussed their dire situation. Typing alone would not secure rotation or a proper meal.
June studied her fingers. ‘I’m not sure I can keep this up. No matter how fast I type, I can’t do more than the forty pages.’
Sheila sat cross-legged on her bed. ‘So, you want to serve those losers?’
‘What other choice do we have?’ said Yasmin.
‘Is there nothing else we can do besides typing?’ said June.
One of the other girls pointed. ‘Yeah, it’s waiting for us behind the frosted glass.’
Anya followed her finger to the boys’ section. ‘What do they have that we don’t?’
Sheila shrugged. ‘I don’t want to find out.’
Her shaky tone caught Anya’s attention. Sheila’s glare hardened when Anya looked at her.
‘Come on, Sheila. I’ve seen the way the boys look at you. Why not try new things?’ teased Yasmin.
‘Shut your mouth, Yas, or I’ll shut it for you.’
Yasmin snorted before looking away.
Anya leaned forward to look at the communal scoreboard. The boys were all on six, except for Dom, who trailed by two. They had no choice.
‘One of us needs to go over there,’ Anya said. ‘We can’t keep living hand to mouth. If there’s an easier way to earn points, it’s over with the boys. You heard the supervisor. They can’t rotate without us, and we can’t rotate without them.’
‘Easier. I like the sound of that,’ said a suddenly cheery Lilly. But not everyone was happy.
Sheila stared at her hands. ‘Well, I’m not going over there.’
Anya looked at the others for support of her plan. ‘What else can we do? I can’t stay here, starving.’
June stood up.
‘I’ll go,’ she said, glancing at a relieved looking Sheila.
‘No,’ said Anya. ‘Please. It was my suggestion.’
‘I really don’t mind, Anya. We can’t expect you to carry this all by yourself.’
Had June always been this confident? Or had Compliance clouded Anya’s judgement of everyone?
Anya got to her feet. ‘It was my idea. I’ll go.’
June sat back down. ‘Okay, but call out if you need us to come over.’
She felt all eyes on her as she crossed the divide. Her cream sandals made no sound on the plain grey floor. She hesitated somewhere in the middle and almost retreated to the female dorm. But she kept walking. They needed to eat.
That and she’d made a promise to herself last night to help Dom and Sheila get off the fourth floor. Dom needed to find his mother. That trumped any stupid Collective-run tests.
She lifted her fist, ready to knock, when the door opened. Ash looked as if he’d been expecting her.
‘I knew one of you would come sooner or later.’ The boy with the sandy hair wore a lopsided grin.
Anya stepped inside but froze when she saw how clear the boys’ view was into the female dorm.
In comparison to the girls’ modestly sized sleeping area, the boys’ room was large, bright and divided into sections by frosted-glass screens. A bed peeked out from behind one of the partitions in a row at the back of the room.
She caught the smell of alcohol in the air. Brown bottles littered the floor. In one section, two boys sat melded into chairs. They both wore headsets that covered their eyes and screamed at something on the blank screen as they swigged from their bottles.
The soft carpet-pile brushed against the uncovered parts of her feet. She wanted to feel the softness against her bare feet, but was all too aware of Ash’s gaze on her.
‘How old are you?’ said Ash.
‘Seventeen.’
He smiled and flashed his straight white teeth.
‘Why do you want to know?’ she said.
‘I’m surprised. You look older than that.’
It wasn’t a nice smile.
‘Yeah, well, this place will put years on you.’
She’d meant it as a joke, but Ash didn’t laugh. The smile disappeared from his face.
‘So, you’re here to serve us?’ He rested a hand on her back and steered her to a cluster of sofas.
Anya squirmed away from his touch. ‘No. I’ve come to negotiate with you.’
They stood by the sofa, Anya refusing to sit until Ash did. His politeness felt too forced, his movements too stiff to relax her.
She looked around the open-plan room, not seeing Dom anywhere. She saw Warren was one of the boys shouting at the screen, trapped inside some sort of virtual reality.
Ash whistled, loud and sharp.
‘Gather round. Someone’s here to negotiate.’
Dom appeared from behind one of the partitions. He rubbed his eyes. They widened as soon as he saw Anya.
‘What the hell are you doing here?’ he barked at her.
She stiffened at his greeting and readied a snappy retort. But the boys closing in on her location made her feel uncomfortable. Their curious gazes drifted from her face to her body to her bare legs.
‘She says she’s here to do a deal,’ said Ash.
Dom stood at the back, arms folded, his mouth straight and tense. Warren had unhooked himself from the chair and watched the show from the back of the group. He smiled at Anya. Her pact with Warren had been made before Dom had counteracted the Compliance in her system and told her everything. Now, his ambitious gaze unsettled her.
Anya took a deep breath. ‘We can’t rotate off this floor and eat. It seems to be one choice or the other. We understand we will earn more points if we help you.’
She was careful not to say ‘serve’.
Ash gestured to the sofa and she sat down, placing her hands on her knees to pin her dress in place. He sat beside her. The rest of the boys stayed standing. Some looked excited, others nervous.
‘We knew it wouldn’t take long for one of you to come,’ said Ash. ‘I’m kind of glad it was you, though.’ He stroked Anya’s hair and she jerked away.
‘Don’t touch me.’
Most of the other boys sniggered. Dom just glared at her. Warren looked angry.
Her heart pounded loud in her ears. This felt too much like a trap.
‘How about you tell me how we can help you?’ She tried to hide the tremor in her voice.
Ash stood and extended his hand.
Anya got to her feet, unassisted. Dom’s dark eyes never left her face.
Ash guided her over to a board where their instructions were written out. He waved his hand over them.
‘As you can see, we earn points for doing practically nothing.’
He was telling the truth. The boys earned three points simply by trying out the VR equipment. It didn’t matter how long they spent on a particular task; their daily po
ints were capped if they carried out the task with another boy. If they avoided the girls completely, they would lose the points they’d worked up. But in order to earn points with the opposite sex, the girls had to make the first move.
Below was a list of the activities which required the participation of both sexes, and an explanation of how the girls could benefit from the shared-points scheme. Some of them were harmless, like joining one of the boys in the virtual world. Other tasks were more menial, like tidying up after a boy you had pledged to for the whole day.
Anya’s cheeks flushed when she read the last item—it drew the most points and guaranteed rotation for both parties.
Ash smiled at her. ‘Of course you’re free to choose whatever you like. My personal favourite is the last one.’ His fingers brushed her neck causing her to shiver.
She glanced at Dom, but regretted it when she saw the hard, focused look on his face. His left leg bounced, like he was a second away from pouncing on Ash.
No, no, no!
She wouldn’t ruin Dom’s chance to rotate.
She grabbed Ash’s hand and twisted it behind his back.
‘I haven’t agreed to anything yet, so no touching. Okay?’ Her words sounded confident, but she was a quivering mess inside. She had to get out of there.
Ash laughed through the pain that he seemed to be enjoying. ‘Okay, okay. Being restrained by a beautiful girl is a turn-on, by the way.’
Anya let go of his arm.
He rubbed his wrist. ‘Talk it over with the others if you must, but you’ll be back.’
Through the frosted window, Anya saw the girls waiting for her to return.
She left the room, not daring to look back.
Sheila leaned against the door of the female dorm, arms folded. ‘So?’
‘They can see us through the glass.’
Sheila unfolded her arms and straightened up.
Anya hooked a finger and stalked past her to the female bathroom, where they all gathered.
She spoke quietly while Yasmin kept watch at the bathroom door. She told them everything they needed to do to earn points.
Lilly looked to be the most scared. June seemed oddly pragmatic.
‘So,’ said June, ‘we have to... you know, have sex with one of them to guarantee rotation?’
Anya nodded. ‘There are other ways to earn points, just not as fast. But not all of the boys look like they want to go that far.’
‘But some of them do?’
Anya nodded. ‘I’d say about half, but some might have been exaggerating for the other boys.’
‘But we can get by with the other, less-demeaning tasks?’ said Yasmin.
Anya shrugged. ‘Maybe. But the last item guarantees rotation.’ She glanced at Sheila, who dropped her gaze. Anya frowned at her odd behaviour.
They talked for a while longer, until there was nothing left to say.
The others left, but Anya pulled Sheila back.
‘What?’ She glared down at Anya’s hand on her arm.
‘I want to talk to you in private.’
Sheila loomed over her. She was the same height as Dom; four inches taller than Anya, and much more Dom’s type than Anya was.
Anya removed her hand. ‘If you decide to go down that road, I want you and Dom to do it.’
Sheila smirked. ‘What makes you think I’m going straight for the main prize?’
‘Because you and Dom are here for a reason and I won’t get in the way of what you need to do.’
Her expression softened. ‘I know. It had occurred to me too. Better to do it with someone familiar, I suppose.’ Anya’s heart twisted at her words. ‘Thanks. I’ll talk to Dom about it.’
Sheila left Anya in the bathroom alone. She tried to get the picture their beautiful bodies entwined together out of her head.
She returned to the dorm ten minutes later. The others were already in bed and the lights were off. Sheila snored gently in the bed next to hers as Anya slid under her own covers. She was about to nod off when a warm hand clamped over her mouth. The feeling alarmed her and she tried to cry out against her attacker. Ash came to mind. Pressure on her shoulders kept her pinned to the bed. But then Dom’s face appeared in her line of sight. She breathed out through her nose and relaxed under his gentle weight. He removed his hands and hooked a finger for her to follow.
She followed him to the girl’s bathroom where an anxious looking Dom paced the length of the stalls.
He turned to her, his eyes blazing. ‘What the hell were you thinking, going in there alone?’
‘I was doing it for the others.’
‘It’s all they’ve been talking about since they first read the instructions, and since you left. I had a plan.’
Anya glanced around the room looking for something.
To her relief, Dom shook his head. ‘The bathrooms are the one place they don’t put the cameras. The showers and the infirmaries, too. I guess they don’t want to hear or see certain things.’
‘Who? The supervisors?’
‘Or the Collective. They ordered this place to be built. It wouldn’t surprise me if someone from Praesidium was watching us.’
Anya didn’t mention she’d seen the cameras track her on occasion.
‘What was your plan?’ she asked.
‘I had arranged with some of the boys to pick the other girls. Then I was going to pick you, so we could work up the points in a safer way. But now a few of them have dibs on you, and I have to choose last because of my weak standing.’
Anya’s pulse was strong but her knees felt weak. She leaned against the sink for support. The thought of Ash ‘choosing’ her sickened her. But she would not go back on her promise to Sheila.
She straightened up. ‘You and Sheila came here together. You need to leave together. I can’t have you risking your progress for me.’
Dom’s expression softened. ‘I can’t leave you behind. I knew that early on.’
He took a step towards her forcing her to take one back. Her body reacted to him too much. She had to keep her nerve.
‘Do you think we’ll rotate soon?’ she said.
Dom shrugged and looked around. ‘Something’s different here. They rushed us on the last floor. Here, they seem happy to let things pan out. They must have strengthened their defences around this place.’ He looked at her. ‘I wish there were some way to predict rotation. We know the lights flicker before it happens, but that doesn’t give much warning to the others. The four of us should discuss strategies sometime.’
‘Four of us?’
Dom smiled weakly and scratched his neck. ‘Yeah, I forgot to tell you. There’s another like Sheila and me, on this floor.’
‘Who?’
‘I can’t say.’
Anya shook her head. It didn’t matter. ‘You need to forget about me. I was never part of your plan. Don’t worry. I’ll make it through. I’ve got a clear head now and I’ve got—’
‘Warren?’
‘Yeah. We sort of made a pact on the outside, to progress together. Wait. How did you know?’
‘Someone on this floor told me. Please don’t trust him. He’s not one of us. I don’t want to see you fail.’
‘I don’t plan to, but I also don’t get to choose who I end up with.’
Dom huffed out a breath. He stalked to the end of the bathroom before turning sharply. ‘If either Ash or Warren lays a finger on you, I swear I’ll—’
‘Trust me, Dom. Please. I can look after myself. Remember why you’re here. You came to find your mother.’
His fingers twitched at his side. His eyes were liquid, pleading. He looked like he might go to her, but he never moved.
‘Anya, promise me you’ll be careful.’ He said it so softly, it broke Anya’s heart.
‘I promise.’ She smiled to reassure him. ‘Remember those self-defence lessons? Now I can put them to good use.’
In three strides, he bridged the distance between them. ‘If anything happened to you, I do
n’t know...’ He clamped his lip between his teeth and closed his eyes for a second. ‘I only just got you, and I’m not letting you go. Do you hear me?’
His thumb stroked her face. His feathery kiss left her skin tingling. Without thinking, she leaned into him.
But Dom was too impulsive. If she wasn’t careful, he’d blow up his original plan to find his mother. She had to put a stop to this. Dom would strategise better if she wasn’t a distraction.
It took all her strength to pull away from him and walk out.
She crawled into bed and hid her face under the covers. Her quiet sobs left her feeling raw and empty inside. What if Dom and Sheila rotated to the fifth floor and she was left behind?
She heard Dom leave the bathroom and stop outside her room.
‘Anya,’ he whispered.
She fought against the urge to look at him one last time, and buried herself deeper. No. She got here alone and she would make it to the next floor without him.
He sighed and left. She heard the door to the boy’s dorm open and close.
Despite Dom’s warnings about Warren, he was looking like her only prospect. His hunger and ambition could serve her well. Together they would rotate. And if the third rebel wasn’t Warren, who was it?
A mild tremor caused by something unseen rattled the bed and stopped her tears cold. It disappeared as fast as it had arrived.
Anya checked Jason’s borrowed wristwatch and made a mental note of the time.
39
After a sleepless night battling her hunger pains, Anya felt weary. The other girls had fared better with sleep, but it was clear they needed to do something drastic. The boys were their ticket off the fourth floor.
They pooled their rations and picked carb loaded foods. But it wasn’t enough. While the boys ate and laughed, Anya and the others returned to their dorm to discuss strategies.