I take it back. I don’t like him.
“A chicken did that to you?” I try to joke, but it comes out a little sour. “Why didn’t you bring it home for dinner?”
He lets the canvas fall back down to hide the scar, unfazed by the stupid tease. “Razor-wire trip line. It set off a mine and brought in a bunch of Reds. Sole dragged me back into the trees while the rest of our unit pounded it out. A lot of them didn’t make it through.”
“Doesn’t sound chicken to me.” Howl matches his light tone, the whole story seeming even harsher when told so offhandedly. “More like she saved your life.”
Kasim shrugs again, a twinge of disgust crossing his face. “Menghu is the only way to go. Protect the Mountain, kill Reds. Sole is such a waste. If she’d stayed behind a gun sight where she belongs, more of us would have come back from that forest that night.”
“You wouldn’t have.”
“Maybe. You two going to practice tonight?”
The abrupt change of subject throws me, but not so much as Howl answering, “I don’t think I will. Too many pretty girls laughed at me before. I have to meet with Root tonight, anyway. I doubt we’ll be done before it’s over.”
“What pretty girls?” I ask. “Everyone here is coated in muck.”
Howl smiles at me, cocking his head. “Something about grass stains and mud just does it for me, Sev. Forget to brush your hair once in a while and we can talk.”
Kasim’s laughing too, and I feel my face go red. But Howl tweaks a few stray strands of hair behind my ear that have escaped my braid. “I’m glad you didn’t end up using the knife method on yours. Even clean, you look pretty good.”
Pulling me aside, he continues, “I need to check in with Dr. Yang. Are you okay on your own for a bit?”
I smile and nod, face growing even warmer at his arm around my shoulders. He squeezes my arm, nods to Kasim, then starts back the way we came.
Kasim walks with me toward the dormitory, leaving the silence between us intact until we get to the steps leading up to Menghu quarters. “So you and Howl really are . . . something. That’s new, for him.”
I ignore the skip my heart gives at what he is implying. “You like him?” I ask. “He’s nice-looking, I suppose, in a rough sort of way. You have to remember that he isn’t used to washing his own hair, though.” Change subject. “So, practice tonight? What is it? Self-criticism?”
He tilts his head and shoots me a shrewd look, but he doesn’t press any further. “Not a chance. Out here we criticize each other, and do it as loudly as possible. Tonight is dance practice.”
“Dancing?” The fire dancers I saw back in the City come to mind, but somehow I can’t see Kasim on board with the pink leotards. I suppose I’ve seen pictures of men stomping around the fire from First library history books. Maybe that’s what he means. “How did that get started?”
Kasim’s mouth opens into a wide smile as he stops on the landing outside the dormitory, his teeth white against his sun-dark skin. “A performing company got stuck here with all the other refugees when the Influenza War started. They organized dancing to keep people moving, keep them from feeling helpless and depressed and all the stuff that creeps up on you when you’re locked up underground. Runaways from the City found their way in here, and it became . . . this. The Mountain.” He gestures to the room, the ceiling. The telescreens and the solar-powered lights. “People who knew how to run the electric systems came, we figured out how to grow food inside, and now we’re strong enough to fight back against the City. And we’ve kept it up, holding dances and competitions. Helps the Menghu blow off steam, with missions and training all the time. General Root says it keeps us human.” His smile is so large and warm, it makes me want to grin in sympathy. To take some of the burden. “You up for it?”
Give this place a chance, Howl said. Despite the fact that everyone already knows my name, I can still have a new start here. Even if it is stomping around a fire. “I’ll come. Will Cale and Mei be there?”
“Are you bunking with Cale and Mei? You’ll like them. Most Menghu go, even if it’s just to watch. I’ll teach you the basics, if you want.”
When I nod, he opens the door for me, then runs down the stairs, waving when he gets to the bottom. It is hard not to like the boyish spring in his walk and the fact that he manages to wink at two different girls before disappearing from sight. I like that Howl likes him, but his disgust for Sole leaves me with an odd taste in my mouth.
• • •
Cale allows me to follow her to where the Menghu dance together, but skips a step ahead of me the whole way so I have to trail an arm’s length or more behind her as if I have some sort of mange. Which, if she’s one of those literal types who doesn’t understand jokes, Howl did mention skin diseases. She disappears the moment we enter the room, leaving me to stare in shock as men and women dance by me. Each pair is locked in a tight embrace as if no one is watching. The women snap their heads back and forth, turning with their partners in perfect synchronization.
I see Kasim from across the room and wave. He immediately comes over and pulls me to the side of the floor, attempting to show me how to dance. It’s hard to concentrate since just standing near all the intertwined couples has my eyes glued to the wooden floor, but that doesn’t stop him from twining around me like a cat begging for its back to be scratched.
The only consolation, after an hour of trying to escape, comes when Howl turns up to save me from Kasim’s constant reassurances that, yes, we really were supposed to be standing this close.
“Can I walk you back to the dorms?” Howl’s nondescript T-shirt is now hidden behind a Menghu jacket, but instead of tigers, the collar boasts two black squares, just like General Root’s.
“You’re working with Nei-ge?” I ask, pointing to the squares at his collar. “I didn’t know you’d be important here, too.”
“If your mother weren’t so famous, I probably wouldn’t even talk to you.” He pulls me toward a set of unfamiliar stairs, taking us higher and higher until the walls become panes of foggy glass, the rooms unlit behind them. Opening the first door we come to sends a rush of hot, humid air swirling out around us, and sweat prickles across my face and neck.
“What’s this?” I ask as he leads me into the dark room.
“This”—he flips on a light and poses dramatically in front of a line of low green plants, red peeking out from beneath the jagged oval leaves—“is where they keep the strawberries.”
CHAPTER 23
THE NEXT MORNING, I WAKE to artificial light drilling into my eyes, my internal clock trying to kill itself since there’s no sun to tell me what time it is. Cale’s and Mei’s bunks are empty. Messy, too, the sheets gray in the middle, as if the Menghu couldn’t be troubled to change them very often.
Paper rustles loudly in my ears as I put a hand up to my aching forehead. There’s a note taped to my hand.
Don’t let them take you to Yizhi. All the tests they want are voluntary, so they won’t force you. And then, like it was an afterthought, scrawled almost so I can’t read it: Leave your ID card in your room. Enjoy the soap. It took some arguing.
There’s a package of brown waxy squares under my bed. And a box full of little white envelopes. Mantis.
I hug my arms close around my torso, feeling chilly. It’s like Tai-ge’s warning from the day everything went bad in the City. But opposite. Don’t do what they say.
As I pull my black T-shirt over my head, the door opens and a young woman wearing a white coat steps in. “I’m here to take you down to Yizhi. Dr. Yang’s orders.” She turns back out into the hallway. “Follow me, please.”
I crumple the note in my fist, feet fused to the floor. She looks over her shoulder, eyes twitching down toward the birthmark on my cheek. Waiting.
“I . . . can’t.” I look around the room for inspiration. “Dr. Yang . . . mentioned that he needed to talk to me about something this morning before the tests.”
She flashes he
r arm in front of the telescreen just outside my room. “They have you scheduled for the hospital.”
“Well, I’ll check in with him first. If he changed his mind, I’ll come right down.”
The Yizhi looks from me to the screen, then shrugs. “See you in a bit, then.”
I let out the breath trapped in my lungs as I watch her walk away. When I stick my head out the door, the hallway is empty. After going back to grab my ID card, I flash it in front of the telescreen and a square filled with blue and green bars pops up, the colors marking mealtimes, an afternoon orientation meeting with my section captain, and an hour of service down in the Core. Everything is scheduled down to increments of five minutes to allow for the time it takes to walk between destinations.
The morning hours are marked red, a little message popping up to inform me that I am currently delinquent for a very important appointment in Yizhi.
A shout of laughter rings up the hall, backed by a monotone drone of many voices chattering all at once. Cale and Mei stroll around the corner, fronting a mess of noisy and very dirty Menghu. Mei smiles when she sees me, but Cale just brushes by me into our room.
“They have you training yet?” Mei glances at the telescreen, but I pull my card away from the black expanse and am silently grateful when it goes dark before she can get a proper look.
“Yep. Training. With you guys.” I follow Mei into the room and throw my ID card on the bed. Cale eyes me as she finger-combs her hair back into a ponytail, though it’s still a mess after she is done. She doesn’t do anything about her black T-shirt and canvas pants, still creased with yesterday’s dirt. Maybe even last week’s dirt.
“I bet Captain Lan will be happy to see you,” Mei says. “We had a couple of guys go missing last week. Still don’t know what happened to them. You can follow us down. It’s easy to get lost at first.”
Captain Lan? That sounds familiar for some reason. I bite my lip, not sure how to respond to Mei so unemotionally informing that some of her unit is probably dead out in the forest. “Um. Thanks? I’m still a little turned around on where things are.”
Cale rolls her eyes. “I still can’t figure out how you got here without Red tire tracks on your forehead.” And with that, she walks out. What is her problem?
Maybe a good prank would warm things up between us. She could be like Tai-ge, needing a good reason to smile. I wonder how she’d take a good short-sheeting? I haven’t seen any spiders down here to put under her pillow. . . .
Mei stifles a laugh at what must be a perplexed expression on my face. “Cale’s a little tough on the outside, but she’s great once you get to know her. Couldn’t ask for a better trainer or friend.”
“Does she have a personality under that thick skin?” I tap my lips thoughtfully. “When, exactly, was the last time you heard her laugh?”
Mei rolls her eyes. “Give her time. She doesn’t adjust to change easily. New people means old friends aren’t around anymore. It’s part of life here, but it isn’t easy.”
She smiles sympathetically at my less-than-enthusiastic expression. “Stick close to me and I’ll help you if I can. Just keep your head down. We’re gearing up for Establishment next week, so you’re in for a rough time.”
“Establishment?”
“Nine years since your mother started running Mantis to the Mountain,” Mei supplies, stuttering awkwardly when she catches my warning look. “We were just an infected-free safe haven before she came here. So we celebrate.”
Mei leads me down four flights of stairs to a high-ceilinged indoor track circled with stadium-style seating. The air feels heavy and used, as though thousands of people have breathed it in before me, leaving it wet and diseased. But I find a vent, clean air streaming down into my face. The dirt-encrusted Menghu I just saw flooding the hallway upstairs are running laps, catcalling one another and racing up and down the lanes. I start around the track after Mei, my tight muscles gasping with relief at just being able to run with no heavy pack and no one chasing me. My ribs, which used to twinge every other moment, aren’t even complaining anymore, the bones finally fused together again. The sharp squeeze of stress that wrapped around my brain after Howl’s note eases a bit.
A young man strolls down from the upper level of chairs, arranging himself in one of the seats just above us. I can’t see his face from across the track, but his outline is familiar, even at a distance.
Helix.
A worm of fear and revulsion crawls up from my stomach into my throat. He’s the captain of my unit? Jogging to the edge of the arena, I break away from the Menghu who are slowing their warm-up to form ranks and kneel down against the barrier between the track and the seats. Maybe down here he won’t be able to see me.
His skin is a few shades lighter than the dirt-dusted brown I remember from Outside, hair still wet from the morning’s shower. His Menghu coat is unwrinkled and immaculate, buttoned up to his chin. Straight as a board, he stands and folds his hands behind his back.
“You’re slow this morning,” he says to the assembled group. “The boys upstairs are considering us for a special assignment, but you’ll have to do better than this to land it. I’ll meet you down to the training rooms in ten minutes.” Helix nods for the Menghu to start, but instead of walking back up the steps, he glances over the edge to where I am hunched against the wall.
I duck down a little farther.
Helix doesn’t come down, but waves to catch Cale’s attention. She skips up to him, climbing up into the stands with a cute little smile, all the poison from back in our room clamped behind her teeth.
“Stuck on him like ticks on a cat.” Mei appears next to me, mimicking the lilting speech I remember from the Third Quarter.
I keep my eyes on Cale, who is now giggling like a little girl. “Doesn’t look like he minds.”
“He’s just full of himself. Captain Lan doesn’t mess around with regulars. You have to earn a rank before he’ll even look at you twice.”
“Rank?” I catch myself covering my brand and drop my hands to my sides.
Mei grabs my hand, eyeing the star-shaped scar. “Just ranks. It’s not a life designation. Fourth, huh?”
I snatch my hand back, instinctively checking her hand for marks. “What do you know about Fourths? Are you from the City too?”
She shakes her head, turning her hand so I can see it clearly. Blank. “Not really. I was born in the Hole. Got shipped out to the farms when I was two. Didn’t need a brand to know who was a traitor out there, I guess.”
Cale and Helix are now watching us as they whisper back and forth. I pull my attention back down to Mei, trying to ignore the crawl of their eyes against my skin. “How did you end up here?”
“My shift leader killed our guards. We escaped and ran across a Menghu patrol, and they brought us back here. Couple of the girls tested positive for SS, though, so they didn’t make it in.”
“They don’t let infected in at all? Ever?”
“Of course not. Anyway, I’ve got to go. See you in training.”
Helix jumps down from the platform, eyes on me. I look back to Mei, hoping for an excuse to run away, but she’s already taking the stairs two at a time, pushing through the flow of green and black uniforms. I start to follow, but Helix cuts me off before I can escape.
Hand on my shoulder, he guides me over to one of the seats, his sharp smile squirming through me. “Aren’t you supposed to be over in Yizhi, Sev? Everything okay?”
Cale sits a few rows back, staring down at me.
I pretend to drop something so I can tug away from Helix’s sweaty grip on my shoulder. “Fine. Everything is fine.”
“They transferred your supervision from Howl to me. I’d like to get you on a training schedule with all the other Menghu, but I can’t until you get all of your testing and immunizations done. It isn’t safe to have you running around with my soldiers until we’re sure you aren’t sick.”
“Howl says all that stuff is voluntary.”
&
nbsp; Helix clasps his fingers in front of him. “Letting you live here is voluntary, Sev.”
I look down at the floor. Is Helix threatening me? He knows I’m infected, that I can’t survive Outside without Mantis. Why would Howl tell me to duck out of these tests and risk being booted out if there wasn’t a reason?
Will Helix drag me to the needles himself if I don’t jump to follow his command?
I feel Cale’s stare locked on to the back of my head, as if she’s attempting a telekinetic lobotomy. What if there’s something more to the appointment in Yizhi? Something dangerous Howl hasn’t told me yet because he doesn’t want to frighten me?
Helix’s hand is on my leg. “You’re making a rough transition, Sev. They would have hurt you back in the City. Killed you.” He shakes his head. “I can see that you’re afraid, and you don’t have to be.” His finger touches my chin to make me look at him, and I jerk away. His face is still hard beneath the smile, as if it’s a mask, covering his fangs.
The hand on my knee moves a little before he stands. Like it’s meant to be a caress.
I scoot away again, looking up to meet Cale’s cold stare. Maybe if I puke on Helix’s shoes, he’ll go bother her. She doesn’t blink as she returns my gaze, and if looks could kill, I’d be on the dinner menu.
“I’ve asked Cale to keep an eye on you. She’ll make sure things go as smoothly as possible.” Helix extends a hand to help me up, blinking back annoyance when I ignore it. “There’s no reason to be afraid of anything here in the Mountain.”
No reason? The image of Helix on top of me, slamming my head into the ground, shivers through me. “Thanks. I’ll, um . . . I’ll go right now. I don’t need Cale to take me.”
I walk back up toward the dorms, a discordant arpeggio strumming down my spine when I catch a glimpse of someone in a white coat following me. I run around the corner and sidestep through an open door. Two men wearing Yizhi white walk past.
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