Nathan looked down at the white bedspread. Even he was perceptive enough to recognize that the reaction I got from the other scarb wasn’t a good one. “Saki and some of the others were talking last night,” he said. “I guess what you did is pretty unusual, but they said it does happen.” He set the shoestring onto his lap. “I’m a little freaked out, though.”
“About me glowing?” I guessed.
“No, not that. That’s cool. I don’t see how it’s any different from me having wings or horns or anything. Scarb are all different. Saki says it has something to do with how the Origin spores react with our DNA. But everyone else seems to think that your little light show is a big deal. I heard them talking about the queen, you know, that Emerald woman?” I nodded. “There’s talk that she exterminates scarb who don’t comply with her.” His voice dropped. “I’m worried about you.”
I took his hand. “Don’t be. I’ll be fine.” I wasn’t sure if that was true, but I wouldn’t let him worry. I tried to laugh it off. “It would probably be stranger if I suddenly started blending in, scarb or not.”
He grinned. “That’s true. No matter what you mutate into, you’re still weird.”
“Thanks, Nate.” I rolled my eyes and gave a half-laugh. At least I have you.
“But Saki did say they’re coming up with a plan.” He brightened some. He really trusts her. “Something to keep you ‘under the radar,’ whatever that means.”
I wondered what it could be, too.
Nathan squeezed my hand. “Tell me you’ll follow their plan, though. Okay, Cat?”
I didn’t like agreeing to something before I knew what it was, but Nathan had me in a tight spot.
“Okay,” I said.
“No, not just ‘okay,’” he continued. “You have to promise, promise that you’ll do whatever they say. No standing out or being a punk to authority. You have to stick to their plan. To keep you safe.”
I was surprised by his reaction. “All right.”
“Promise.”
“Fine, I promise.” What am I getting myself into? I squeezed his hand. “Look who’s getting all protective suddenly? Is this a bit of a role-reversal?”
I thought he would laugh, but his face stayed serious. “This is a dangerous place, Cat. I was wrong about what I said yesterday. Derrick talked to me and helped me recognize some things. I thought that now that we’d become scarb, we were safe. Now I realize just what a messed-up, crazy world this is. And we’ve only just gotten here. We don’t know the rules. I don’t understand everything. I also think maybe you shouldn’t worry about finding Ray—”
Before I had a chance to respond to that, Gray called from the other side of the door.
“Come in,” I said.
Gray turned to Nathan. “Saki says the trainers are ready to take us to the atrium.”
“Flying lesson,” Nathan explained to me.
I sat up quickly. Iva is a flier. She might be there. There was no way I was not going to look for Ray, even though it made Nate worried. “Can I come?”
Gray shrugged. “Fine with me, but you’ll probably have to ask Saki first.”
Is she my babysitter now? I laced my boots up over the combat pants I’d been wearing ever since our battle with the scarb. Mrs. Weatherstone and Officer Reynolds had opted to wear some of the scarb clothing, long tunics over slacks for the men and flowing robes for the women. Nathan and Gray wore special shirts with slits sewn into the back to accommodate their wings. Others like Derrick, Jorge, and Travis had to wear the worker uniforms because their old clothes no longer fit their new size, but my old human clothes still fit and suited me just fine. I needed to find a way to clean them, though. Maybe I can go get the rest of my clothes back in Rimerock, I thought. I wonder if there are any humans left there at all. Maybe the colony wiped them all out once they captured us. Thinking they might all be gone made me sad. The island had been such a place of refuge. If any humans are left, would they try to fight me? Would I have it in me to fight back?
Saki was writing something in a notebook at the little table in the center of the great room. Officer Reynolds opened the door opposite of mine and came out stretching.
“Cat,” Saki said, using my real name for the first time. I guess she’d given up on me wanting to change it. None of us “new recruits” had changed our human names. “How are you?”
“I’m good.” I walked over to her. “I’d like to go watch Nate and Gray at their lesson today, if that’s okay.”
She hesitated, putting her notebook down. Her violet eyes pierced me. “Iva won’t be there,” she said, as if she guessed my real intention for going.
My tiny bubble of hope popped. “I just want to watch my brother.”
“Fine,” Saki asked. “But Jack will go with you.” She waved her hand toward where the long-legged man was standing in the hallway. “When you’re through, you’ll go with him to the laboratories. We’ve decided that’s where you’ll work now.”
You’ve decided, have you? I felt anger rise up in me, but Nathan caught my eye from the other side of the room. He shook his head. The plan. This must be it. I promised him. “Great,” I did my best to fake a smile, but spending the day with Jack stuck in those rooms full of dead bugs sounded like the worse kind of torture I could imagine. Emerald exterminates those who oppose her. I swallowed. I’d just have to suck it up.
“To the atrium, then,” Jack piped cheerfully, but I had a feeling his cheer was more for show than actually genuine. He seemed about as happy with the arrangement as a pig heading to the slaughter house.
Nathan and Gray were genuinely excited about it, though. “I might not be a hundred percent sold on this place,” Nathan whispered to my thoughts as we headed up a long spiral staircase from the marble castle-looking room, “but I’m still a flier. I can’t wait to give these babies a try.” He flapped his thin wings.
“You’ll be breathing in my dust,” Gray boasted with a wave of his wings. He and Nathan trash-talked each other the entire way up to the atrium, and I mostly tuned them out. The training room was the highest point of the colony, we spent at least twenty minutes climbing straight up the stairway. Finally, the stairs opened to a flat level with a high ceiling. We passed rows of exercise equipment and even a bunch of jumbled bars and rock walls that looked like some kind of obstacle course. There were yoga mats and several sparing rings. My limbs ached to get in one and let loose like Ray and I used to. It’s been so long since I punched someone in the gut.
“This is where our soldiers train,” Jack announced with obvious pride.
I looked around at all the empty treadmills and barbells. “So where are they?”
“Out fighting,” Jack replied, as if that was the most obvious answer in the world.
We came to a large pair of doubledoors. Jack pushed down on the handle and swung it open. The atrium was full of scarb, most of them swooping and gliding through the air. The ceiling was impossibly high and peaked in rock. Large windows with no glass or covers cut into the rock wall to the right, letting in natural light and fresh air. Fliers zoomed in and out of the windows like pigeons in a cathedral. More scarb were on the ground as well, some talking in small groups, others stretched on blue mats. There was no red-haired flier. I’ll keep looking, Ray, I vowed.
An attendant greeted us with a clipboard in his hand. He had a wide face and strong jaw and wore a whistle around his thick neck. Before he said a word, I was calling him “Coach” in my head.
“I’m Cyrus,” he said with an outstretched hand. “One Who Flies With Clouds.” Two large gray wings beat behind his sculpted shoulders. “You must be my new students.” He eyed the boys and looked down at the clipboard. “Nate and Gray?”
“Yeah.” The boys nodded.
Coach Cyrus inspected them from head to toe. “Well, you’re young, that’s for sure. Let’s see what you can do in the air.”
Nathan and Gray shot each other excited looks, but Jack scow
led. “Protocol states that these two newly Changed won’t be ready for flight for at least another three weeks.”
Cyrus returned Jack’s hard stare. “Let me be the one to determine that. I’m a flier after all, scientist.”
That seemed to put Jack into his place. He didn’t address his complaints to Cyrus directly, but muttered them under his breath to my thoughts. If Cyrus heard them, he didn’t give them any mind. More than ever, I wished I had taken Derrick up on his offer to teach me how to block out others’ thoughts and conceal mine. Too bad I had to turn glow-worm last night and pass out. I moaned.
Cyrus led us along the far right wall to some athletic benches. “First, we’ll test your wing strength,” he told the boys. A blonde-haired assistant with three blue lenses and one brown one came over. She attached little probes that sent data to her medical equipment onto Gray’s wings. I didn’t miss the little wink Nate gave her as she put the probes on his wings. “Give them a good flap,” Cyrus instructed. The equipment measured the strength of their wings, and Cyrus recorded this onto his paper.
“That’s good,” he concluded. “Impressive, even. How long have you been Changed?”
“Just eleven days,” Jack answered for them.
“Excellent,” Cyrus jotted that down as well. “Let’s hop up there,” he pointed to a small ledge in the rock wall, “and give them a first go.”The ledge was at least thirty feet up.
Though the floor was padded with blue gymnastics mats, I still worried about Nate and Gray. What if Nate drops straight to the ground? He could break every bone in his body.
“Their bones are hollow,” Jack told me smartly, as he had obviously overheard my worrying. “Yes, they break more easily than ours, but it also makes them lighter, more suited to flight.” The boys started climbing up the rock wall after their trainer. “Note the points on their shoulders.” Jack bobbed his finger at each of the boys’ shoulders. “They also help make their bodies more aerodynamic.” I hadn’t noticed it much before, but he was right. Their bodies had become more pointed and altogether sleeker. Coach Cyrus motioned them away from the wall and toward the drop.
“Isn’t he going to give them instructions or something first?” I asked, feeling my worry rising.
“It wouldn’t do them much good,” Jack told me. “The trainer’s approach is much like that of a mother eagle: take the chicks up high and let them fall.”I was appalled. He should at least tell them how to move their wings or something. It’s not like Nate’s ever done anything like this before.
“Scarb wings are weak at first, a ‘gift’ from our human heritage,” Jack went on as the boys now put their toes over the edge. “It takes tremendous effort and persistence to build the strength necessary for flight. Most fall flat on their faces the first twenty tries, breaking their noses and jaws repeatedly.”
My mouth fell open. “And you’re telling me this right before they’re about to jump?”
I was about to yell to Nathan to wait, but it was too late. He swung his arms back and launched himself off the ledge. Gray right there with him. For a moment, their bodies seemed to be suspended in the air, like some invisible force was holding them there. But then gravity took hold, and they began to plummet head-first toward the ground. I saw the look of terror on Nathan’s face. He waved his arms, but they did nothing to slow him. I knew if I blinked, he’d be on the ground in a crumpled heap. Gray hit, falling like a rock and making a sick thud on the mat. Nate managed to get his wings open, at least, and they slowed his descent enough that he was able to do a ninja roll to soften the impact when he hit the ground. He and Gray lay flat on the mat.
“Oh, my goodness!” I cried, cupping my hand over my mouth and running toward them. Gray let out a moan, but both boys pulled themselves to their feet before I got to them.
“Are you okay?” I did a quick scan of Nathan’s body for any bones sticking out of his skin or gashes on his face. His arms, legs and nose were surprisingly blood and gore-free. Gray sported a red welt on his forehead, but other than that, he was allright, too.
“I think I won that one,” Nathan beamed.
“Hardly,” Gray retorted.
“Let’s do it again,” Nathan said with a fat smile. The two of them were climbing back up the wall before I could say another word.
“They are stupid, really stupid.”I put my hands on my hips and wondered where my brother’s common sense had gone. The next five tries ended much the same, a tangle of limbs smashing into the mats. More bruises and a bloody nose, but none of that seemed to dampen their spirits.
“I actually got some lift that time,” Gray boasted.
“Yeah, right before crashing,” Nathan shoved him. “Besides, that blonde chick wasn’t looking at you, her baby-blues and honey-browns were on me.” He tapped his chest with his thumb.
I knew it was a lie. The assistant was preoccupied with untangling a knot in her hair. Besides, she was like, ten years older than them. Most of the scarb were older than us. I’d only seen a few that would really qualify as teenagers, but they might have just been really small. There were no children. Saki told us that none survived the Change.
Nathan and Gray climbed up the ledge for a sixth time. Coach Cyrus still offered nothing in the way of instruction. He looked rather bored, in fact. “It’s time to fly,” Nathan said while Cyrus wasn’t watching, and he jumped before Gray could. Instead of flapping his arms like a wild man, he tucked them into his sides. His body fell about five feet when his two thin wings unfurled to their full six-foot length, causing his body to glide forward instead of dive.
He let out a whoop. “I’m flying!” he shouted as he glided forward about forty feet. He was doing fine until another flier dove down too fast in front of him, causing a whoosh of air to unsteady the balance of his wings. He flapped them frantically to try and straighten his course again, but the momentum sent him spinning, arms and legs flying like a windmill. Within seconds, he was a moaning pile on the ground again. I didn’t even bother to run to him, and sure enough, he managed to pull himself back onto his feet.
I expected him to show some sign of distress, but instead his fist shot triumphantly into the air. “I can fly.”
“No, son,” Coach Cyrus’ voice rang out. “That was gliding. Not flying. It’s a good start, though.”
“Gliding not flying,” I heard Nathan repeat mockingly. “Well, it’s still better than Gray can do.”
I laughed.
“I think it’s time we get to the laboratories,” Jack said crisply from my right. I had almost forgotten he was still here. I could’ve watched Nathan all day. I didn’t want to miss his first real flight—that would be like missing a baby take his first steps—but I remembered my promise to Nathan. I had to follow the plan.
So, I sulked after Jack and took one last look as Nathan climbed back up the rock wall. Sure wish I was a flier. At least I would have something fun to do.
“Oh, don’t be such a complainer.” Jack rolled his eyes like I was an annoying four-year old he couldn’t shake. “Maybe the labs will be more interesting than you think.”
That was about as likely as Jack deciding to skip work and take a holiday to Cancun. But he did surprise me when he said, “Origin just told me he wants to speak to you again.”
Chapter Seventeen
Assets
What do you say to a beetle? Do you ask it about the weather? How the underside of a leaf looks when it rains? If it’s ever fallen in love? What would humans think if they saw me gazing into the tank of the tiny bug? He was sleeping in the crevice of a dark rock. Would they think I’m crazy?
“I want you to organize these files,” Jack instructed me from the other side of the room, where stacks of papers were piled haphazardly on the counter. “Saki’s been on my case about them for weeks now.”
I can’t imagine why. I groaned at the mess. He showed me how to put the papers into piles according to the labels on the top left corner of each. The small
white clock on the wall above the door ticked away three arduous hours as I put ‘Subterranean Pterourus glaucus’ in one, ‘Black-winged Melanoplus bivittatus’ in another, and so on. Pictures of tiny blue spiders and the underbelly of a ‘Woolly Bear Caterpillar’ dotted the pages, along with both typed and handwritten notes. Jack spent the entire time looking at slides under a microscope.
I grew more and more impatient every minute. Nathan was learning to fly somewhere high above, everyone else in the colony seemed to have important work to do, and I was stuck down here in the stuffy lab, being babysat by a grumpy old scientist. Is this Saki’s idea of keeping me safe? Hiding me away from everyone and boring me into submission?
“That’s exactly her plan,” Jack answered.
Oops, I forgot about him being able to read my thoughts.
But since the topic was open, I thought I might as well keep it that way. “Why?”
“You are young, naïve, and ultimately a threat to the colony,” he answered, like it was a line out of text book.
Me, a threat? I thought about the night before and my light show. A lot of the other scarb had seemed threatened, but, I didn’t understand why. I wasn’t trying to hurt anyone.
“We would have sent you to extermination a while ago, if you hadn’t possessed certain …abilities that are valuable to the colony,” Jack went on while putting a new slide onto the stage of his microscope. Jack and I might not have liked each other very much, but at least he was straight with me. So I’m a threat. But I still didn’t know why.
“Abilities? Like what?” I demanded, putting my hands on my hips. If there was something keeping the colony from killing me, I wanted to know what it was.
He peered at me with one yellow eye and then returned to his slide. “I think it’s time you got back to your work.”
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