The Acceptance (The GEOs Book 1)

by Ramona Finn

  I hadn’t been able to see his face clearly from beneath the shadow of the wrap, but now that his full face was exposed, I realized his eyes were a color I’d never seen before. One that reflected the brilliance of the sky when the sun was high in the heavens.

  Maybe he wasn’t a Rej at all. Maybe none of them were. They were nothing like the mindless killers we’d been warned about by Farrow Corp. Maybe they were something new.

  I didn’t know what to do with his gesture of revealing himself to me. It seemed to have caught his companions off-guard, as well, as they had paused their work and were staring, as if waiting to see my response.

  “My name is Tylia,” I said.

  He smiled, and my goosebumps returned. “I’m called Skylar Two.”

  I thought it best not to tell him my first response, which was that that was a very odd name. Instead, I motioned to the scarf, which he’d folded and set on his knee. “Why do you wear that?”

  He chuckled, and called over his shoulder, “This one’s curious!” The others mumbled amongst themselves and I thought I caught one of them chuckling as they went back to their work of packing up the meat for apparent transport.

  “Well, I suppose there’s no harm in you knowing some of our customs. Especially since...” he shrugged.

  “Since what?” Since they were going to kill me anyway? I felt my anxiety bubbling back to the surface.

  “They’re a custom, really,” he said. “Back from the days when we thought we could avoid transfer of the Virus. And then, when society fell and the land was barren, these protected us from the wind.” He motioned to his face. “Obviously, there is some risk still, if we aren’t vigilant. Windstorms still happen from time to time, and not all of the surface has recovered as nicely as this area. That’s why we hunt here.”

  “So, you just avoid the places the Virus lives now?” I asked, thinking I ought to guide the conversation to information I could use in the future. If the Rejs had a map of the contaminated areas, it would give me a huge advantage in the Acceptance.

  Skylar Two shrugged. “We don’t really need to anymore. Most of us are survivors, and those who aren’t have a good chance of surviving exposure when the time comes.”

  When the time comes for what? I wanted to ask, but thought better of it. Wallace had warned me about getting caught up with the Rejs. Still, this one didn’t seem so bad—at least not yet.

  “You seem... different than I expected,” I said. Wallace had taught me that bit, about trust. If avoidance wasn’t possible, my next line of defense was to prove I was trustworthy. “They’re less likely to kill you if you don’t seem like a threat,” he’d said. I swallowed hard at the memory.

  “Different how?” he asked, and I was afraid I’d stepped over the line.

  “Well, it’s just that... I mean, I was told...” My speech lagged like a poorly coded terminal.

  I was taken aback by his ability to take everything in stride.

  “We need to go,” one of his companions said, unwrapping her own covering to reveal her face, which was as beautifully sculpted as Skylar Two’s. “The carcass will attract predators. Leave your stray and let’s go.”

  Skylar Two shook his head. “They’re not strays, Donalt. They’re people just like us.”

  “No, they’re not just like us.” She motioned toward me. “She has tech. They always do. It’s a crutch. They don’t know how to survive without their precious machines.”

  I sat up straight, raising my chin defiantly. “You don’t know what I can and can’t do.”

  “This one’s got spunk!” one of the others called out, shouldering a pack of meat as he and his companion unveiled themselves. Donalt was the only woman in their group.

  “Go ahead, then.” Donalt met my indignation with a challenge. “Chuck your tech.”

  I checked the tracker I’d been tagged with. It must have been damaged during my encounter with the beast. ACCEPTANCE FAILED flashed in big red letters, indicating death. I smacked it. The error remained. Suddenly, I became engrossed in its repair. “No, no, no,” I mumbled to myself as I tried to figure out how I might fix it.

  “See? She can’t even set it down without throwing a tantrum!” Donalt exclaimed.

  “You don’t understand!” I yelled back, forgetting myself. “Now they’ll think I failed!”

  “Yes, you failed Farrow Corp’s little test,” Donalt taunted me. “How horrible to fall from their good graces. You’re as bad as the others.”

  “We saved her,” Skylar Two spoke up. “You know the law of the land. She’s our responsibility now.”

  The other two nodded, and the one called Donalt gritted her teeth. “Fine. But you’re the one that’s going to explain it to your father.”

  I could tell by Skylar Two’s smile that he considered this a victory, but I wasn’t sure that I did. Suddenly, I was having second thoughts about joining their troop—especially with Donalt’s gaze bearing down on me. Instinctively, my hand went to the pocket of my coat, where I’d hidden Ben’s communication device. Who knew if it even worked anymore? Chances were good that it, too, had been damaged in my scuffle with the beast. No way to find out right now, I decided. Best to wait until I was alone.

  The rest of the group shouldered the packs of meat. Donalt tried to shoulder me with one as well, but Skylar Two took it instead. “She’s injured, remember?” he commented in response to her sneer.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  We traveled through the woods until I could no longer determine the way we’d come. The Rejs moved smoothly through the woods, even as the path began to grow steeper. For a while, the terrain evened out, and we were given a quick respite before we began to climb back up again. Even with the meat and supplies the others carried, though, they barely broke a sweat. I pushed harder with every step, refusing to show weakness. Rejs preyed on weakness, Wallace had said. We crested a hill and stopped for water. Through a break in the trees, I could see the peaks of a large mountain over the mist that covered the horizon. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t seen it when I’d first arrived. I’d been so focused on survival, I’d missed one of the most majestic parts of the Above.

  “That’s home.”

  I startled as Skylar Two came to a stop beside me.

  “Beautiful, isn’t it?” he asked.

  I didn’t want to explain to him all of the feelings rising up in my chest when I looked at those blue-grey peaks. How could he understand the depth of my awe? I just nodded.

  “Tell me about this,” he said, tapping my copper cuff gently with his finger. The act caught me off-guard. Donalt’s protests had reminded me who I was traveling with. They didn’t want to get to know me. They wanted to profit from me. Whether I gave him my bracelet or intel about the Geos, I was sure they would use it to their advantage. Still, I couldn’t just stay silent. If I no longer appeared friendly, I could easily be treated as a threat.

  And I knew what Rejs did when they felt threatened.

  “It’s part of a marriage rite,” I said, eyeing Donalt suspiciously as she drank from the water flask she’d been carrying on her hip.

  “Donalt acts tough,” he said. “But I’m the leader, at least here. You don’t have to fear us.”

  “I’m sure that’s what you say to all the girls you find wandering in the woods.”

  “Not all of them.” He smirked, and I wasn’t sure whether or not he was kidding.

  “You know that’s not true,” Donalt cut in. “Don’t lie to the poor thing.”

  “Mind your place, Donalt.” Skylar Two set his jaw and glared. Donalt opened her mouth to reply, then thought better of it, shrugged, and walked away.

  “Like I said, she talks big, but her bark is worse than her bite.”

  “Bark?”

  “It’s a noise that canines make,” he offered. When I wrinkled my brow in confusion, his eyes went wide. “I guess they don’t have many animals down there, do they?”

  I shook my head. Why did he feel so easy to talk
to? Was I really that lonely already?

  “So, it’s from your family,” he steered the conversation back to my bracelet. “You must really miss them.”

  I swallowed the lump growing in my throat. I refused to cry in front of him. In front of any of them.

  I cleared my throat, and answered, “I guess.” I locked eyes with him for emphasis, then saying, “I mean, I have no way of knowing if they’re okay. What with you Rejs raiding our food and supplies.”

  It was Skylar Two’s turn to fall silent. I didn’t wait for him to recover before starting off toward the mountain, hoping my confidence might afford me enough respect to give me a leg up in the Acceptance.

  “Come on,” I called back. “I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t want to be out here when the sky goes dark.”

  We didn’t stop again, not even when one of the other males slid down an embankment. Skylar Two went down to retrieve his injured companion, and the rest of us continued on. Eventually, they caught up, and it wasn’t long before even the injured Rej was able to keep pace with me.

  Though I pressed on without complaint, my body wasn’t used to this kind of labor. Most all the floors in the Geos were flat, and I’d never walked this much in my life.

  For the last leg of the journey, the incline increased significantly, until we were all scrambling up the mountainside with the help of our hands, grasping onto holds as we went. Even though the others offered a hand to one another, when such a gesture was extended to me, I declined. It wasn’t just about looking like a worthy adversary to the Rejs. I was proving something to myself, too—that I belonged in the Above right now. That my survival rating was wrong, and I was not some wilting, underground flower.

  “Here we are,” Skylar Two called back as he pulled himself up over the edge of the next cliff. “Home sweet home!”

  Relief washed over my aching body as I pulled myself up over the side. I wanted nothing more than to sprawl my body out against cool stone until my muscles stopped screaming at me, but I resisted the urge, pulling myself up to stand instead.

  I looked ahead and my breath caught in my throat. In the wall of the mountain, a great cavern had been carved—whether by tools or time, I couldn’t be certain. The cavern was lit by hanging torches. At the mouth of the cave stood two sentries, who I guessed to be their version of EFs. They held spears at their sides and bowed to Skylar Two as he approached before returning their attention to the horizon. Perhaps they didn’t think I noticed their sideways glances as I filed in behind him.

  A crowd of at least thirty people awaited the hunters as we entered a room that was easily as wide as the atrium in the Union Hall back home, though the ceiling sat much lower and there were no windows to let light in.

  In the center, a fire towered over us, held in by a formidable stone pit. Iron bars enclosed it, holding skewers across the flames. As we approached, members of the crowd that had stood waiting took the packs his hunting team had brought back, skewering the separate pieces of meat and setting them over the fire. I stared on, curious about their methods of food preparation. Everything I’d ever eaten had been grown and prepared mechanically.

  “We smoke it,” Skylar Two explained as if he’d read my thoughts. “It lasts longer that way.”

  “Yeah.” My hands went to my pack, where I’d stored the dried meats Ben had suggested I bring. “We have that, too, sort of.”

  Skylar Two cocked his head curiously, but I didn’t elaborate.

  A crowd had gathered around us as we’d spoken, and all eyes were focused on me. Some of them shied away when I made eye contact, but others—mostly children—stood wide-eyed and seemed drawn toward me. Skylar Two smiled at them, nodding his permission for them to come closer. Before I knew it, they had rushed him, asking questions in a language I didn’t recognize. He answered them in a tone that reminded me of the way my father had spoken to me when I was very young, and I felt a pang of... what? Regret? Homesickness? I couldn’t place it, but it was both painful and thrilling, and I felt myself wanting to lean into the feeling.

  Tiny fingers traced my bracelet as the children oohed and aahed, turning my hand over one way and then another to get a better look at it. The whole thing was surreal. It had never occurred to me that Rejs would have children.

  I scanned my surroundings with new eyes. I could see now that, though the cave itself may have been created naturally, these Rejs had made it their own. There were stairs carved into the walls, leading up to two tiers of dwellings that had been chiseled into the rock.

  “Like us,” I whispered to myself.

  “Huh?” Skylar Two tussled the hair of one of the kids as he darted away, leading the others into a game of chase. “What did you say?” he asked.

  “Oh, nothing,” I shrugged it off, but I got the feeling, watching a mischievous smile spread across his face, that he knew what I’d been thinking.

  Suddenly, the crowd parted. A man who mirrored Skylar Two in all but age approached. He had the same strong jaw and dark, spiky hair, though his was scattered with grey. His arms bore the same dark ink—maybe a family crest, of sorts. The two men each crossed a fist across their torso and bowed.

  “Father,” Skylar Two greeted the man with reverence, despite the personal title. And then he added, “Long live Skylar One.”

  “I see your hunt was successful, my son,” the man replied, eyeing me momentarily. “And I see you were delayed,” he said, indicating the wrappings on my arm. “Always bringing home strays.”

  “This one is different. Our hunt crossed her path. She wasn’t looking for our camp.”

  “And you take her at her word on this?” He raised an eyebrow suspiciously in my direction.

  “We cornered the water buffalo, but it slipped through our trap. It plowed her down before we killed it. I couldn’t just leave her there. She wouldn’t stand one night out there, not injured.”

  “Remember what happened the last time you brought home a pet?”

  Skylar Two rolled his eyes. “That was a baby warthog. Child’s play. Tylia isn’t a pet. She’s a companion.”

  “Excuse me?” I asked, and his face flushed. I was sick of people talking about me as if I wasn’t standing right there.

  “I just meant... you’re different from an animal.”

  Personally, I couldn’t help but be amused by how flustered he became as he tried to backtrack. He sighed in frustration and turned back to his father, likely hoping he’d have more success arguing his case with him.

  “I’m not a boy anymore, Father.”

  “No, you’re not,” he said. “You’ve grown well into manhood. Remember that. Someday when I am gone, our people will look to you as their leader. Is this how you choose to lead them? By bringing a stray from the Geos into our safehold?”

  “She’s not like the others,” he argued. “She’s not a threat. I just know it. I saved her, and she’s my responsibility.”

  Skylar One was silent a long while. A stillness hung in the air, as if everyone present was holding their breath, waiting for his reply.

  “Well,” he said, pausing for emphasis. “What happens when you tire of her, like the boar?” He eyed me up and down, and then asked, “Shall we just save us all the trouble and eat her, too?”

  I felt the blood drain from my face. When he’d complimented his son on the hunt, I hadn’t realized that there was a question of whether I, too, would be on the menu.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  My muscles tensed like metal coils just waiting for the right moment to spring into action and make my escape. Before I could make a run for it, though, Skylar Two let out an ear-shattering roar. It was only after the others joined in that I realized they were laughing. Skylar Two nudged me with his elbow, his face red from laughing at my expense. My jaw ached from clenching it. I was outnumbered, and not about to fight my way out of the cave and down the mountain, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to draw a line.

  “I’m not here to be anyone’s pet,” I
said, projecting my voice so that it bounced off of the cave walls. “I’m here to survive the Acceptance and bring a cure for the Virus to my people.”

  Once again, laughter bubbled through the crowd, accented by Skylar One’s booming voice. “There is no cure for the Virus.”

  “Maybe not yet,” I argued. “But the Farrows are working diligently to create one, and the Acceptance is an integral part of that. If I survive—”

  “No.” Skylar One’s voice was firm as he held up a hand to stop me. “There is no cure. You are either immune or you are not. Those of us who made it through the illness have made lives here, borne children. Some who are immune themselves. Others…” he trailed off into silence a moment before shrugging. “If you are not immune, you die. End of story. There is nothing the false gods of Farrow Corp can do to change that.”

  “You don’t understand! The scientists in the Labs have been working for years—” Skylar One turned to his son, ignoring my outburst. “Take care of your pet. Keep her out of trouble.”

  His disrespect set me on edge. There was nothing I would love more than to put him in his place. Who did he think he was, disrespecting the sacrifices of my people? If the only way to survive was natural immunity, and no one from the Geos had survived yet, surely the odds were stacked in my favor with all that I knew and since I’d gotten this far? I felt a rush of excitement at the thought. I wasn’t sick yet, and if all of the Rejs were immune—which seemed to be the case—then maybe I had a chance of surviving this.

  “This girl is under the care of my son,” Skylar One announced to the crowd. “She is his responsibility, and therefore under his protection.” A titter spread throughout the crowd at this announcement. Skylar One leaned in toward his son, lowering his voice so that only those close to him could hear. “You see that she stays out of trouble. I mean it.” The crowd parted then, making way for Skylar One to exit.

  Everyone went about their business, prepping the meat and hide from the night’s kill as if I wasn’t there, save for a handful of stragglers—mostly children—who gawked as Skylar Two took me by my good arm and guided me through the crowd.