The Acceptance (The GEOs Book 1)

by Ramona Finn

  “I place myself above my people so that I can look over them, and tend to them,” he’d said, obviously choosing his words carefully. “But we are all here, together in the earth. Together in the sky. We are not separated by the earth and the air, but together in it.” I’d had the feeling that he’d wanted to say more, but the moment had been interrupted by other urgent matters. Thinking of them as Skylar Two pulled me up the steps to his father’s dwelling, I shuddered. If they were together in the earth and sky, Ben’s comm had clearly marked me as an outsider. Had I failed the trial?

  “Father!” Skylar Two called as we approached Skylar One’s dwelling, but there was no response. “Wait here,” he commanded, leaving me no room for argument. He darted into the doorway but was only gone for a few seconds before coming back out. He stood in Skylar One’s doorway and scanned the crowd below, but I spotted him first.

  “Over there.” I pointed toward the mouth of the cave, where Skylar One was talking with one of the scouts who had been sent to check trail conditions down the mountain.

  Skylar Two’s eyes followed the line traced by my hand, and he nodded before checking in on Donalt’s status. She’d lost momentum in the crowd, but she was making her way up the stairs with a few others. Skylar Two locked eyes with her and shook his head.

  “You know the law, Sky,” Donalt called up to him. “Friends of the Farrows are immune from your protection. Or do you plan to lead by a different set of rules than the ones you enforce for your own people?” She was toeing the line, and she knew it, but saying it out loud, in the presence of others, shifted the power to her.

  “I do know the law, Donalt. And she is entitled to finish her trial.”

  She stared. “You can’t be serious.”

  “It is for my father to decide, Donalt. Not you.”

  “And not you, either!” If Skylar Two’s approach had been ice, Donalt’s would have been fire.

  “Then let us pass, and we will see what my father will say.”

  Donalt closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath. Then she turned to those following her and, with a nod, cleared a way for us to pass. I kept my head down, avoiding eye contact with Donalt specifically. I’d been humbled by my view of her from the top of the cave. Her heart was wounded.

  We approached Skylar One, stopping about fifteen paces from where he stood to allow him the privacy to finish his conversation with the scout. They spoke in hushed tones a moment more before he dismissed the scout and turned in our direction.

  He looked to Skylar Two and I, and then beyond us to Donalt. “Thank you for your patience. Is this a matter of urgency? My agenda, I’m afraid, is very long today.”

  “The undergrounder has tech connecting her to Ben Farrow,” Donalt chimed in before Skylar Two could open his mouth. “She is a danger to us. Her tech must be confiscated, and she must be imprisoned for the safety of the village.”

  “Mind your place,” Skylar Two snapped. “You’re speaking out of turn, Donalt.” Donalt flinched. Her tattling hadn’t paid off in the way she had hoped.

  “You’re sure this is not a matter you can settle yourselves?” Skylar One asked his son. Skylar Two’s face flushed with embarrassment, and he stared at the ground silently.

  “I have been settling your quarrels with Donalt for long enough. Speak frankly, and don’t waste my time with petty arguments.”

  “Father, I fear your attention is warranted here,” Skylar Two answered after a moment, and then he looked to me, nodding for me to go ahead.

  I swallowed, and then explained, “The comm was given to me by Ben Farrow, but it doesn’t function this far from the Geos. I only kept it because…” I couldn’t lie, but my voice faltered just short of the whole truth.

  “Because you hope to go back to your own people,” Skylar One said flatly.

  Skylar One turned back to Donalt. “What you ask is not my place to give. You know that it must be given a vote.”

  One of the men who had followed Donalt stepped forward, “All of us, your greatness?” The way he said it hinted at a second meaning, but as I scanned the faces around me, I saw that I was alone in my ignorance.

  “All must be in attendance. Every last one of them. Do you understand what I mean?” His word choice had been precise, but his tone had been kind, acknowledging whatever concern Donalt’s friend had.

  “Take her to the amphitheater,” Skylar One told his son.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  In a blur, the scenery around me shifted. Skylar Two pulled me through the throngs of people to a room carved into the back of the cave. I hadn’t yet explored this part of the mountain, for at first glance, it looked like nothing more than an ordinary stone wall. But, when we approached, Skylar Two rolled away one of the larger rocks stacked in the corner and revealed an arched entryway, pausing only to light a torch hanging from a bracket on the wall. At least fifty others filed in behind us, following his lead. Each one hung their torch as they entered before clamoring to take a seat around a podium made from carved wood and polished stone.

  I felt my palms start to sweat as I looked at the sea of faces, trying to guess which ones would vote to show me mercy. Skylar Two pulled me to the center of the room, in front of the stage. As the crowd settled, Donalt came to stand on the other side. It felt like an eternity before everyone was seated and Skylar One made his way up onto the podium.

  This was it—the defining moment. This was when my fate would be decided. I squared my shoulders, pulling myself up to my full height. There was, I was certain, a good chance that I was about to face my own demise. I figured that if I was going to die today, I was going to do it with as much honor as possible.

  Still, the thought that I had come all this way, and wasted all this time trying to gain the Rejs’ trust only to be rejected because of Ben’s comm, which probably didn’t even work, caused a lump to grow in my throat, and I had to bite at the corner of my lip to keep tears from spilling over onto my cheeks. I refused to cry in front of Donalt.

  “Tylia Coder of the Geos,” Skylar One said, his deep voice bouncing off the cave walls as he spoke. “Do you have a personal connection to Benjamin Farrow?”

  “I do.” As soon as the words were out of my mouth, a murmur rippled through the crowd. The sound was quickly squelched with a wave of Skylar One’s hand.

  “But it isn’t of my own choosing!” I insisted. “Not really.” If I’d had my way, I’d have gotten in and out of the Acceptance without ever crossing paths with Ben. Somehow, looking into the eyes of those around me, I didn’t think my explanation would make any difference. Even Skylar Two had trouble grasping the urgency of the Acceptance, or the truth of what life was like underground. If I couldn’t explain it to the one person who seemed to want me here, how was I supposed to explain it to an entire people who wanted nothing at all to do with me?

  “You had a choice when you came here. You chose to keep tech that puts us all at risk!” Donalt expressed her anger to the crowd, obviously hoping to turn the tide in her favor. “The tech should be destroyed, and she should be imprisoned for the safety of our people!”

  Skylar One held up a hand to silence her. Without hesitation, Skylar Two filled the silence, placing his body at the front of the stage at his father’s right side.

  “Father, if I may speak?” He paused until Skylar One nodded his consent. “I have spent much time with Tylia, and I do not believe her intent to be anything other than to earn our trust.” I looked at him out of the corner of my eye, too afraid to make any sudden movements.

  “I don’t know what her relationship to Ben Farrow is, but I don’t think that Tylia is capable of the same heinous acts we have suffered at the hands of Farrow Corp.”

  “Wait, what?” I spun to face him. I’d been silent, trying to keep from speaking out of turn in a social construct that I didn’t understand, but the words were out of my mouth before I could stop myself.

  Skylar One’s eyes locked with his son’s. They both seemed to ignore my out
burst, and I wanted to speak up, to defend myself, but a cool look from Skylar Two as he faced me cut my words down before they could even be formed.

  “Tylia hasn’t been completely honest with us, but neither have we offered her our deepest truths.” His words were directed at his people, but his eyes never left mine. I searched his expression for any hint of my fate, but to no avail.

  “You would risk your people for this… Geos garbage?” Donalt had spat the last word, and Skylar Two was toe to toe with Donalt before I could blink. He pulled his chest up and she responded in kind, matching him in height.

  “Watch yourself, Donalt.” Skylar One’s tone was eerily calm. “That is your future leader you speak to in such a tone.”

  Donalt held Skylar Two’s gaze a moment longer before taking a step back and looking at the ground. She cleared her throat, and answered, “My apologies, I spoke out of turn.”

  “Your loyalty is not in question, Donalt,” Skylar One reassured her. “And neither is my son’s. It is the undergrounder’s fate we address, and thus the path ahead must be decided by her.”

  Skylar Two bowed his head, accepting his father’s decision.

  “Tylia Coder, you stand at a threshold,” Skylar One went on. “What we are about to reveal to you will alter the course of your fate forever. I do not know whether you will ever go home, but even if you are reunited with your people, you will never be the same. Do you understand that?”

  I nodded in response. Nothing they could show me would change my goal to win the Acceptance and save my mother. My hand fiddled with my necklace nervously as I answered, “I swear to you, I mean your people no harm. I didn’t seek out Benjamin Farrow, but I wasn’t honest with you, either. I had the piece of tech he gave me, though I don’t believe it works. I have no interest in helping the Farrows find you; I just want to help my family.” Nothing else I could say seemed like enough to get me out of whatever was about to happen. “But I understand that it poses a risk to your people, and for that I will pay whatever penance necessary, without complaint.”

  Skylar One studied my face for any hint of dishonesty. Then, apparently content, he nodded to Skylar Two. “You may proceed.”

  Skylar Two turned to face me rather than his father. “You were raised to believe that there were only two groups of people still living after the Virus—those who followed the Farrows into the earth, and those who live here on the surface. You call us Rejs, which stands for rejects.” Here, he locked eyes with me. And, ashamed, I looked away.

  “We are your society’s outcasts,” Skylar Two continued, “and we fall into three groups. The first group are the descendants of the people who refused to follow the Farrows as they drilled the Geos into the earth and tarnished the skyline with their Labs.” I nodded to show him that I was following. The story of the great divide was one we learned as children, a story recycled periodically when morale was low—as if to say, ‘It could be worse, as you could be one of our rejects.’

  “This group was the smallest, comprised of those who survived when Farrow Corp attacked with their flying machines.”

  I blinked, taken aback. Flying machines? Surely, he had to be mistaken. The only flying machines Farrow Corp had were the transport pods used to move between the Geos and the entrance to the Labs.

  “These survivors made their home in the mountains, where Farrow’s machines found it too hard to maneuver. This is the line my family comes from.

  “The second group of your Rejs…” he began, but then he paused, taking a deep breath. His emotions had leaked through as he’d said the last word, his face contorting into a near-snarl. “The second group are those who have been cast out of the Geos, banished, but somehow survived the Virus. They tend to live lives of isolation, and are rarely seen together, except when raiding.”

  He stopped there as I digested his words.

  “You said there were three groups,” I said once my mind had settled enough to take in new information. “Who is the third?”

  “The third are those who survived the Acceptance.”

  Chapter Thirty

  That doesn’t make sense.

  “That’s impossible.” The voice was mine, but I couldn’t remember telling it to speak. “No one has survived the Acceptance in…”

  “No one has been given a life in the Labs, you mean,” Skylar One countered. All I could offer was a blank stare in response. Was he suggesting what I thought he was suggesting?

  “You see?” Donalt piped in. “She’s not ready. Skylar One, I’m begging you—lock her up before something bad happens!”

  “Hush, Donalt!” Skylar One commanded her. “I will not remind you again.”

  Skylar Two put a hand on my shoulder, drawing my attention back to him. “I know it’s hard to fight your programming, Ty.”

  Hearing my nickname in his voice felt both familiar and foreign as I tried to sort through what I was feeling. This wasn’t some random outsider telling me these things. This was Skylar Two, who had protected, sheltered, and trained me.

  “None of the survivors had what Farrow wants,” he continued. “Even the ones who survived the Virus. We don’t know why, but the ones who weren’t killed found their way to us, where many have chosen to stay. We have lived here, the way that you have, ever since. Only…”

  My heart sank. There was more to this madness? “Only what?” I asked. He was leaving something out—something big. I felt it as clearly as I felt the warmth of his hand on my skin.

  “The Farrows don’t like things they can’t control, and they can’t control the survivors. Not if they make it here. And, who knows, maybe one of them makes it back someday, and tells everyone the truth, that some of them can survive on the surface—then what?” He paused for effect, apparently not expecting me to have an answer, but I did.

  There would be riots, deaths, and maybe even the collapse of our government. “There would be chaos,” I admitted to him.

  “Yes, and R.L. Farrow will not tolerate chaos. Will not tolerate things that he can’t control.” Skylar Two’s face offered a mix of hope and scrutiny as he searched mine for any sign that I’d been persuaded to his view of things.

  I was torn. Nothing about Skylar Two gave me reason to believe he was lying. Confused? Maybe, but it was a stretch. His people lived lives that were rich both in resources and relationships. Nothing like that existed for me underground. And yet, there was a part of me that was still rooted in the underground. I couldn’t just abandon my mother to die, and abandon my father to live out the rest of his days alone. And it wasn’t just them, either. I had friends in the Geos, too.

  “My friends and family,” he said, turning to the crowd to address them as he stepped onto the podium next to his father, who nodded his approval before stepping aside to give him center stage. “I implore you, as your future leader, to take a chance with me. I have spent hours with Tylia. She is stubborn, rough around the edges sometimes. But she is far from the soft-bodied undergrounder that first came to us.

  “We are asking her to trust us enough to forsake everything, maybe even everyone she has ever known. And what have we offered her in return?” He paused for effect. “Show her what we are facing,” he said, his voice falling with his last utterance, and the mood of the room became somber. Skylar Two looked down on me from the podium, his face a mix of desperation and sadness that I couldn’t place.

  And then, something amazing happened. People began to move within the crowd, in a scattered manner at first, and only a handful. They made their way to the front and began to come together around me. I counted four, five, and then a new group came forward to join them, and more than thirty bodies stood in a circle around me. One by one, they pulled back items of clothing—a sleeve here, a pant leg there. Some who had come in with their identities concealed behind face coverings removed the concealing fabric or lifted the hems of their shirts. They were diverse in age and gender, from the elders and middle-aged down to the smallest of their children, but they all had one t
hing in common.

  They’d been mutilated, some scarred from fire and others missing fingers or even whole limbs. I tried my best to keep my face void of all negative emotion. I didn’t want the way I reacted to make them self-conscious about their conditions. Especially the children.

  Skylar One broke the silence. “Farrow Corp does not discriminate based on age. They concern themselves only with things that are ageless. When they launch their attacks on our people, they lose no sleep for the innocent who fall in their wake.”

  Up until this point, I’d met each person’s eyes with intention, but when my gaze fell on the smallest and most vulnerable of the people around me, I couldn’t contain my tears. My nose flared as I fought to keep my breath from collapsing into shattered sobs as I realized that I shouldered at least a portion of the blame. The Geos were suffering, but we were also complacent in the suffering of people we didn’t even know. Innocent people, including the elderly and children. I’d never been faced with the ugliest truths about the society I’d been raised in, but I could see it clearly now.

  Skylar Two continued, “Our children used to roam free on the surface, I’m told. They loved to climb tree branches and bathe in the sea. Now, our children know nothing beyond the cave walls.” His face softened as he stepped down from the podium. “But you understand that, too, don’t you Ty?”

  He had me right where he wanted me, especially if I was going to be asked to make the decision that I was afraid he was leading up to. This meeting was to discuss my fate, but part of that fate was a choice that I’d consciously been avoiding, and he was using his people’s experience to call me out on that because he knew. He knew my love for the things I had come to know in my time here, though I could only view them from the mouth of the cave. Trees, mountains, sky. How I’d somehow always missed the feeling of the sun on my face, even before I’d known what sunshine was. People weren’t made to live underground, not forever.