The Acceptance (The GEOs Book 1)

by Ramona Finn

  “For the Cure!” R.L. Farrow said.

  “For the Cure!” the audience echoed. That was my cue.

  I made my way to the aisle in a daze.

  A hush fell over the audience. The next part of the ceremony was one of reverence. As I made my way toward the stage, members from all Unions reached a hand toward me. It was a symbolic gesture—in a world that avoided contact for fear of disease, those chosen for the Acceptance were a sign of good luck. The community looked to us for their survival, and for the survival of their children.

  We were encouraged, though not required, to reach out and touch the hands we passed. A symbol of how the Cure would be returned to the community through us—whether or not we survived.

  The throngs of bodies leaning in toward me were overwhelming, so I focused on Kev, who was still making his way up to the stage. He turned one way and then another as he made his way forward, touching as many hands as he could reach with a wide smile across his face.

  I shoved my hands into my pockets instead. Suddenly, I wanted nothing more than to run back to my room and hide under the covers. Too late for that now, I thought.

  Each of the chosen stood on the stage, shoulder to shoulder, in the order that their names had been called. R.L. Farrow motioned to his son Ben. It was time to greet the chosen and welcome them into their time of transition.

  The room spun and my stomach churned. I wondered if emptying its contents on stage would be seen as a bad omen. Maybe they’d have to cancel the rest of the ceremony. At least that way I could come clean about the hack in private. Maybe they’d go easy on me if I confessed.

  “Welcome to Transition,” a voice sounded out, pushing the proverbial abort button on my mental breakdown. I looked up to see the face of none other than Ben Farrow. The blood rushed from my face and I sputtered something I could only hope was close enough to “Thank you” to be intelligible. He really was handsome, even up close.

  “Tylia Coder, I’ve got a good feeling about you. I think you’re gonna make it through the Acceptance.”

  He knew my name. Ben Farrow knew my name. Viv was gonna keel over from jealousy when I told her. Ben took his place beside me at the end of the line as his father closed the ceremony. The position was another symbol, with the Farrows on each end, keeping the chosen safe.

  Except that wasn’t what was really happening at all.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The ride home was a blur. I was just thankful that the chosen had been released before the rest of the population so that we wouldn’t have to battle the crowds to get back to our living quarters.

  My dad was waiting for me when I got there. Though he’d had to stay behind to look after my mother, whose condition had deteriorated rapidly since Wallace had gone missing, he’d no doubt watched the Acceptance Ceremony aired live on our screen (in lieu of The Cure).

  “Tylia Coder, I can’t believe you would do something so stupid,” he said in a harsh whisper as he rushed the door. “What will your mother think when she finds out?”

  “Geez, Dad, back off!” I threw my hands up in the air, protecting my personal bubble. “She’ll be proud I was chosen.”

  “Chosen, my ass. Don’t think I don’t know that you hacked the system. You had to—there is no way they’d have chosen your profile.”

  I should have known better than to think I could outsmart him.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, attempting to play it cool. Maybe he didn’t know for sure that I’d hacked the system. Maybe he just suspected.

  I pushed past him into my room. I only had a little while to pack my things. For the next ten days, I’d be preparing for the trials of the Acceptance. Training started immediately.

  “Do you think I don’t know my own daughter?” he demanded from behind me, standing in my doorway. “You forget how hard we had to fight just for you to be born!”

  I sighed. This was a story I’d heard a million times. My parents hadn’t been allowed a parenting permit until their late twenties, and were now noticeably older than my friends’ parents. It hadn’t been for lack of trying, but because of political red tape. The population growth in their youth had hit the maximum capacity for our wing of the Geos just before their application had been turned in. They’d been denied eight years in a row before I was allowed to be born.

  “Seriously. Sneaking out late at night? Trading all the yen you’ve been saving—yes, I knew you were saving it for your mother.” He waved a hand in the air and sighed. “Ty...”

  I turned back to look at him and saw that his eyes were the kind of tired that sleep couldn’t fix. Looking into them broke my heart. “I’m sorry, Dad.” I swallowed the tears that were making my voice crack. “What was I supposed to do, let her die?”

  “You weren’t supposed to take her place, that’s for damn sure!”

  “I’m not! Look, I know you’re worried. I get it, I do. But you don’t know everything. I can do this. Besides, it’s not that much different from you logging into her terminal and working her shifts.”

  “That’s different, Ty. We have to eat.”

  “Yeah, and when I win this thing, we’ll all eat better than we ever have. Don’t you see? It was the only way.”

  I shouldered my bag, noting the time. I didn’t want to leave things this way, but I’d been given specific instructions to meet the Geos shuttle at an assigned time, and we’d spent all my farewell time arguing.

  “I’m sorry you’re so disappointed in me,” I said, even as I raised my chin indignantly, trying to keep the tears that were forming in the corners of my eyes from rolling down my cheeks.

  Before he could respond, I pushed past him and out the door. He didn’t follow me. Out in the hall, I made a quick detour into my parents’ room. My mom was sleeping, and I kissed her on her forehead as gently as possible. Praying I wouldn’t wake her. When I hurried back out and toward our front door, my dad still hadn’t left my room. There wasn’t anything else to say, though. I just had to survive.

  The shuttle station was eerily quiet when I arrived. Quieter than I’d ever experienced, with only a handful of breaths whispering down the tunnel. I didn’t know what I’d expected. No one but the chosen would be traveling at this time of day. Still, the way the echo of my footsteps bounced off the stone walls sent a shiver down my spine.

  I scanned my transport waiver—specially assigned to me by Ben Farrow himself at the end of the Acceptance Ceremony. The terminal chimed cheerily, “Welcome, Chosen,” and the screen flashed as I made my way through the turnstyle.

  There was no shuttle. I leaned over the edge of the platform and peered down the tunnel before looking at my watch. What if I’d missed it? To the best of my knowledge, no one had ever failed to board before. I was mortified as I realized I would go into the history files as the first competitor to miss their train. What an embarrassing legacy.

  And then another thought occurred to me. What if I hadn’t missed the shuttle? What if they hadn’t even sent it? Maybe they knew I was the hacker, and instead of sending transport, a shuttle full of EFs was on its way? I could just imagine the shuttle doors opening up, releasing a flood of EFs to trample me into submission. I’d never escape.

  The sound of iron grinding against iron brought me to my senses and a shuttle I’d never seen before came to a halt in front of me. Unlike the run-down, grimy metal of the typical shuttle, this one showed off a pure white shell and glimmered in the dim fluorescent lighting. The doors opened smoothly, and a burst of warm air rushed over me. It was heated!

  Stepping into the shuttle car was like stepping through a portal to another world. The inside was as clean as the outside, and twice as warm. I sank into the nearest seat, marveling at the scent of freshly applied disinfectant—something I’d only ever detected in Medical. Is this what being an Elite is like? I wondered. If so, I could get used to it.

  I sat in silence as the shuttle moved through the tunnels. It stopped now and then, presumably to pick up ne
w passengers, though I could never see them through the window and none of them ever made their way to my car. Maybe we each got our own private escort? While the Acceptance Ceremony was highly celebrated, what happened afterward was considered sacred; as such, it hadn’t been disclosed. Even the training was top-secret. Everyone who was chosen would now live tucked away in a restricted wing of the Geos until they were ready for the Acceptance.

  The shuttle’s brakes squealed. Slowly, we came to a stop. I looked out the window, expecting something new and exciting, but was disappointed to find that this platform wasn’t much different from the others I’d seen, save for the fact that it was cleaner and better maintained.

  The shuttle doors opened and I stepped over the threshold, noting that I wasn’t the only one on the platform. Several of the others were doing the same as I, stepping out of the protective bubble of their individual shuttle cars. I was right about us having been separated, but it looked like I was the only person who’d had an entire car to themselves. From the next car down came Kev, along with a female farmer I didn’t recognize. He smiled and waved in my direction. I returned the greeting awkwardly as I moved toward them.

  We were soon joined by two doctor apprentices, a boy and a girl who introduced themselves as Sorel and Jade. Sorel was tall with jet black, wavy hair, and Jade, true to her namesake, had striking green eyes.

  “This is Cassie.” Kev motioned to the girl he’d arrived with. Her hair was cropped short against her neck. A style that made sense given her occupation, but I couldn’t help but wonder how she kept warm enough in the Geos. Maybe the farmers had better temperature control than the coders did.

  “Were your cars heated, too?” she asked Jade, who nodded. “Isn’t it lovely?”

  “Yeah, mine, too,” I offered. “A girl could get used to that!”

  “A guy could, too,” Kev chimed in. “I wonder if everything in the Labs is heated like that.”

  “Guess we’ll find out,” I said.

  “I won’t.” Jade bit her lip, fiddling with her long black braid. “I’ll be the first to die, for sure.”

  “Hush, you.” Sorel nudged her with his shoulder playfully. “I told you we have nothing to worry about—it’s going to be fine. Besides,” he said, looking the rest of us over, “we’re obviously the smartest ones here.”

  So, that’s how it’s gonna be, I thought to myself. My fists balled up at my sides. Before I could open my mouth (and inevitably land myself in trouble), a voice boomed out from behind me.

  “Who is ready to get this par-tay started!”

  Jade jumped. Cassie shrank away. I turned to see two broad-shouldered young men in EF trainee uniforms.

  “That eager to look death in the eye, huh?” Sorel postured. “About what I’d expect from a couple of EFs.”

  I couldn’t believe my ears. Doctors had almost the same social standing as EFs. Closer than any of the rest of us, anyway. Hearing Sorel refer to them with such disdain both shocked and amused me.

  “Death? We’re eager for adventure!” One of them clapped the other on the shoulder. “This here is my brother Jason. I’m Jax.”

  My eyes went wide. Brothers? Having more than one child in the Geos was a rare occurrence. It was hard enough to get a license for one kid, let alone two.

  I scanned the two of them. They shared so many features, from their dark eyes to their chiselled jaws. As I began to piece the information together, Jax caught my eye and winked. “We’re twins.” The way he flashed his bright white teeth at me when making the declaration turned my stomach. I made a mental note not to get caught alone with either of them.

  Jade didn’t share my caution, however, and continued to engage them in conversation. “Maybe an adventure for you! You both have weapons training. The rest of us are probably doomed to die a slow, painful death in the Above. Especially me.”

  The melodrama that soaked her words was so thick that I could almost imagine how each dripping word would suffocate under the weight of it. It made me choke, but on laughter that I hoped I’d camouflaged well enough as a cough. I couldn’t believe I’d had to change my survival score to get into the Acceptance, only to find that this band of idiots was somehow more compatible with the surface than I was.

  A chiming sound over the speakers interrupted us. “Welcome to training,” a computerized voice chimed. “Please make your way from the platform to the main greeting area.”

  A set of green track lights lit up the stairwell in front of us. We stared at it, then each other. Finally, Kev spoke up.

  “Well, guess we go this way.” He put an arm out, stepping aside so I could walk past him. “Ladies first.” His smile was genuine. Kev might be just a simple farmer, but somehow I got the feeling that he was the only one in this whole group other than me who had any sense. At least he was more approachable than the others.

  I took his cue, brushing past a very disappointed Cassie, and led the way.

  The stairs were made of white, polished stone that reflected the light much better than the dark, carved walls in the other wings of the Geos. They led up to an octagonal room not unlike the atrium. Except, here, a dome-like glass ceiling rose up above the carved stone, revealing true sunlight.

  The others oohed and aahed as they craned their necks to see their first hints of the Above, and I feigned the same admiration so as not to give myself away. I needed them all to believe that this was my first time seeing the Above.

  In my mind, I heard a ghost of Wallace’s voice. “The honest-to-God sky.” Even though he’d been to the Above—the surface, as he’d called it—he still hadn’t lost his reverence for the sky.

  Across the white-walled room, an elevator dinged. Its doors opened to reveal Benjamin Farrow, clothed in a silken white kimono. Staring directly at us, he spread his arms out in greeting.

  Chapter Sixteen

  “Welcome to the Acceptance!” His voice carried well, as one would expect from someone with his authority. “I will be your guide as you go through training. Our first order of business will be getting you settled into your new homes.”

  He turned and walked toward one of the adjacent walls. It rose with a great woosh, and a gust of warm air rushed outward as it revealed a long corridor. It was unremarkable, save for one detail: It was lined with mismatched, salvaged doors.

  The first door was on the right. It had a rustic look to it, being made of old wood and sitting on an iron track. Such a thing was almost never seen in the Geos. Materials like wood were hard to preserve in the damp tunnels. This one seemed to be sealed in a resin, and I couldn’t help marveling at the sight of something so rare and precious.

  “Farmers’ quarters,” Ben explained as he pushed the door aside. The others gasped in shock over the fact that such a relic would be chosen for a farmer. We peered into the room, which had two bunks, an enclosed bathing room, and a small hydro tower. Ben closed the door and continued on to the next door. This one sat on the left side of the hall.

  The second door sat on a single hinge and was adorned with the image of a long staff with two ropes weaving around it. At least, they looked like ropes until you got to the top, where they both seemed to have eyes and a mouth.

  “Hmm,” I muttered at the curiosity.

  “They’re snakes,” Jade said. “This was a medical symbol used by doctors before the Virus.”

  “Well done, Jade,” Ben said. “You are correct. This room is for those of you from the Medical Union.” He flashed her a smile that made my face flush with envy, and I started at the realization that I was jealous. Not just because Jade had known something that I didn’t, which was bad enough. Doctors looked down on just about everyone, and I’d have loved the opportunity to prove I was smarter than her. No, I was jealous that Ben had been impressed.

  Viv must really be getting into my head, I thought to myself, disgusted. Shake it off.

  We moved on to the next set of rooms. These two sat directly across from one another. On the left was a large metal door with
a thick glass window that I recognized from historical records as the kind used in prisons before the Virus, and mine.

  Of all the doors, it was the most odd, plastered with the images of people I’d never seen before. There was a small man with a mustache riding what looked like a snake with legs, and a woman in a poofy dress. Next to that was a poster that reminded me of the upper Geos, all angled and falling apart, and then one where all the creatures seemed to be made from various kinds of stone squares.

  “Retro games,” Ben explained to me. “My father thought the coders would get a kick out of the old posters.”

  Behind me, Jax snickered.

  Great. Not only had Jade made a better impression, but now I looked like I didn’t even know my own history.

  I’d have locked myself straight into my room if Ben hadn’t continued first.

  “As you’ve all probably guessed by now, your living quarters reflect your Union’s history before the Virus. They’re meant to be a reminder to you, and to all who follow you, of what you will be working to achieve as you go through training. I can’t promise that any of it will be easy.” He paused there, and locked eyes with me. “But I’m sure you’ll all do a fine job.” My face grew hot, and I hoped he couldn’t see the color rushing to it.

  The others shifted uncomfortably in a way that told me I wasn’t the only one who felt like I didn’t belong here. If they only knew. But, no, I couldn’t trust anyone here with my secret. Not even Kev. I resisted the urge to glance his way as Ben Farrow continued his introductory speech.

  “You should unpack and rest. Training usually begins first thing in the morning, but we have extenuating circumstances this round.” He looked each of us over individually, and for a minute I worried he’d be able to read the guilt all over my face. I suppressed a sigh of relief as he moved on. “Due to the hack, you will all undergo additional testing tomorrow to confirm your identities.”