The Acceptance (The GEOs Book 1)

by Ramona Finn

  “You look alright, for an undergrounder.”

  I jumped at the sound of Donalt’s voice as we approached a break in the trees. Had she just given me a compliment? The idea was both amazing and terrifying. If Donalt was being nice to me, then I was dead, for sure.

  “Thanks?” I accepted her olive branch cautiously, trying to smile. The gesture was awkwardly received, with Donalt shrugging and looking away.

  “We’re here,” Skylar Two announced, with some reverence. He’d walked confidently the entire way, unperturbed by the dark cloud that seemed to hang over everyone else. He believed I would survive this. I took a deep breath and tried to reflect that same whole-hearted faith.

  I looked ahead to a large concrete structure. A blue sign indicated that it had once been a medical facility. Several large, red Xs scattered across the structure told a less hopeful story. What had started out as a place of medicine had become a place that people had come to die.

  Skylar Two turned to me. “This is where we leave you. We’ll set up camp and wait until the sun rises to mid-day tomorrow. If you haven’t made your way back to us by then, we will assume that you have perished, or worse, betrayed us.”

  For a moment, my heart caught on his words. The idea that my betrayal would be more painful to him than my death said a lot about Skylar Two’s character. Honest and loyal to a fault. So different from what I had been conditioned to expect of the Rejs. I glanced over his shoulder at the others, who had all busied themselves with setting up camp. Even Donalt turned away, giving Skylar Two and me a moment alone.

  “So, this is it then?” With the possibility of death looming over me, I wanted nothing more than to go back to that morning, listening to the rise and fall of his breath next to me.

  He took me by the shoulders and leaned in until his face was mere inches from my own, and then he smiled. “I know you will do great things, Tylia Coder.” He kissed my forehead before turning to the others.

  “Start a signal fire so my father will know we have made it safely,” he said to the others. “Any other Acceptance survivors will avoid affected areas,” he reassured me. “Now, go.”

  The first thing I noticed when I approached the building was how odd the doors were. They appeared to be on sliders, but they were made of glass which had been shattered. When I hit a certain proximity, something triggered the steel frames to slide open.

  After weeks of living without technology, witnessing such a mechanism seemed like a miracle.

  Inside was a second set of glass doors with a similar trigger. This glass was intact.

  As soon as I passed through the second doorway, I froze to let my eyes get used to the darkness. The long-abandoned building’s only source of light came from the rays of morning sun that made their way through the dingy windows. Once my eyes adjusted, I found the low light to be sufficient for navigating across the main room.

  The place had obviously been ransacked, with chairs of cloth and metal strewn about. I walked toward a dimly lit corridor, stumbling almost immediately. I kicked my feet and threw my hands out to catch myself on the nearby wall, and when I regained my composure, I turned my attention to the object I’d tripped over and gasped in horror. It was a skull. A human skull.

  I nearly tripped over my own feet as I retreated back to the main room. There, I scanned the cluttered tile floor and noticed, much to my dismay, that several mostly complete skeletons were scattered among the chaos—I’d only needed to look more closely to see them.

  I shied away from all the remains that I could see, trying desperately to slow my heart before it exploded with fear. I reminded myself that I’d known what I was walking into. That this was what the Virus did.

  Judging by the tattered clothes and scattered bones, I guessed that most of the skeletons belonged to those who had perished in the first waves of the Virus. Maybe I would be lucky, and the illness would be inert. The highest risk, we’d been taught, had come during the first few hours of infection, before symptoms had become apparent, but the Virus had worked swiftly, with 90% of the world’s population being wiped out in a matter of weeks.

  Still, I stood frozen for a while as I tried to talk myself down into a calmer state. Scared people made stupid decisions in emergency situations—we’d learned that in the sims. Other than the possibility of infection, I didn’t seem to be in any immediate danger, so I forced myself to take a deep breath and reassess the situation like Wallace had taught me.

  Once I’d re-centered, I surveyed the room again, taking time to acknowledge the history of this space, with the same reverence as Skylar Two and his people did. I approached the main desk, tracing my fingers over the flat screen of one of the old computer terminals. My hand came back dustier than I’d expected. I wrinkled my nose, suppressing a sneeze, and moved on.

  One of the hallways on the right side of the room faced the sun, which I could now see rising through the skylights overhead. I decided I might as well explore the area, if I was to be here until mid-day tomorrow. Some of the rooms had more remains, but others were empty. Desks that had once held healthcare staff stood empty. I paused by one of them to inspect a photo hanging on the wall beside one of the terminals. It was faded, but I could just make out the face of a little girl. When I pulled the photo from its spot on the wall, it crumbled in my hand. It was almost symbolic in a way. A physical representation of a life long-forgotten.

  “Speaking of forgotten.”

  The words behind me had made me jump, and I spun around to meet the voice’s source in disbelief. It was Ben Farrow.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  “I waited to hear from you,” Ben said from his spot down the hallway. I moved toward him, but for every step I took, he seemed to move further away. “You said you’d contact me, Ty, so what happened?”

  “I didn’t mean to!” I said as panic welled up inside of me. “You can’t be here, Ben—it’s too dangerous.”

  “I thought we were a good match, Ty,” he said as if I hadn’t spoken. A shadow fell over his face, and I was overcome with guilt.

  “We trusted you, Tylia,” another voice said behind me. I spun again and found myself face to face with my father.

  “But how?” It couldn’t be. Had Ben brought him to the surface? Why? Why bring him here? Unless the Elite had discovered that I was the one responsible for the hack, and that I’d made contact with the Rejs—could they have banished him because of that?

  “I mean, I always knew you were stubborn. Just like your mother was.” My dad smiled sadly. “But treason?”

  “Treason?” I tried to wrap my mind around his words. And then… “Wait, you said I’m stubborn like mother was?”

  My father just shook his head.

  “No! No, it can’t be true.” I ran toward him, but the closer I moved, the longer the hallway became. Something wasn’t right.

  I turned to where Ben had been a moment before, but he wasn’t there anymore. The room started to spin then, and my clothing stuck to my skin, which was suddenly covered in a cold sweat. I leaned against the wall for support, clenching my eyes closed to try and get the spinning to stop.

  “Bwahahahahaha,” a new voice laughed behind me. A voice I knew. A voice everyone in the Geos knew. I turned to see R.L. Farrow with his head thrown back, laughing maniacally.

  “No,” I whispered as pain in my abdomen forced me to double over. “No! You’re not real! None of you are real!” I leaned my back against the wall and slid to the floor.

  “It’s not real, Ty,” I told myself, pulling my legs up and wrapping my arms around them, rocking back and forth in hopes that it would stop the pain of what my father had said. “You’re sick. They’re not here.”

  I stayed that way for a long time, rocking back and forth, waiting for the hallucinations to pass. Finally, there was silence. I looked up, slowly at first. The light was fading from the skylights above me.

  “Come back to me, Ty.” This voice didn’t frighten me. The apparition of Skylar Two stood on t
he other side of a door at the end of the hall. He reached his hand out to me, and I staggered to my feet. I stumbled at first, leaning on a wall for support and then taking a step out and catching myself on the opposite wall. My whole body was shaking.

  “I can’t.” My voice was a hoarse whisper, though, my lips already dried and cracked.

  “Come on, you’re almost there,” the imaginary Skylar Two coaxed me once more. It was enough to get me moving. As I reached the door, I saw another red X and caught myself recoiling.

  “You’re already sick, stupid,” I chastised myself. I was never going to make it through this if I let my fever’s illusions spook me. I looked at the door ahead of me again. EXIT was scrawled across it in red letters. I pushed on the door and a gust of air rushed over me. I shivered. Logically, I knew the temperature hadn’t plummeted in a matter of hours, but the Virus in my system didn’t care about logic, and my teeth chattered as I shook from the cold.

  I surveyed my new surroundings. I seemed to be in some sort of lounge area, or at least that was what it had been before nature had reclaimed it. Cement benches were scattered amongst plant life that had long since taken over the area for itself. Some of the plants were familiar—I recognized roses from my time with the Rejs. I leaned in and sniffed one, hoping it would take my mind away from the agony I was feeling. It didn’t work.

  As I moved on, my foot caught on something and I tumbled to the ground. Dazed and confused, I looked around for what had taken me down, but there was nothing. I’d tripped over air, it seemed. Or another illusion. It didn’t matter, however, because the impact had forced the air out of my body and I couldn’t draw any back in to replace it. I gasped and wheezed on the ground, sure that I’d collapsed a lung.

  “Don’t be so dramatic.” A voice accompanied by a pair of brown boots approached, stopping just inches from my face—another illusion. Or was it? I recognized this voice, too, but in a different way. This voice wasn’t accusing or angry. It simply was, and I couldn’t find the strength to look up and find the face to go with the boots.

  Still, it was just an illusion. A waste of time.

  Ahead of me was a cluster of plants I recognized as medicinal, and I dragged my body across the concrete. The shoes stepped aside as I did, and I marveled at how realistic the hallucinations were getting. Finally, I reached for the leaf of a plant that looked a lot like one Wallace had given me for my mother.

  “No, not that one.” The shoes were back, and this time I could see that they were attached to legs, but I didn’t need to see the voice’s face to know it. “Remember what I told you, about how I survived when the Farrows banished me from the Geos?”

  I moved my hand away from the first plant to another, this time a bush, plucking a handful of dark berries from it.

  “Chew them,” Wallace’s voice urged, “but don’t swallow the skins.”

  At this point, I didn’t even care if he was real or not. I chewed on a few berries at a time, sucking up the juice before spitting out the skins and seeds.

  And then the world went dark.

  When my eyes fluttered open, my mouth was dry from being open all night, and sweat plastered my hair to my forehead. Slowly, I sat up, relieved when the act didn’t cause the world to spin as much as I’d expected. The sun was back, but just barely. As I looked up and out of the concrete garden, I saw the last fading hues of pink and orange painted over the blue sky. The sun was still rising. How long had I been out? My heart sank as I realized it could have been days just as easily as hours.

  I pulled myself to my feet and made my way back down the corridor I’d approached through.

  Somehow, I made it out of the building. The chill of the fresh air forced my lungs open. I coughed, expelling what I hoped was the last of the Virus from my body.

  I had done it. I had survived. The thought was overwhelming.

  I smacked my lips. My mouth was drying out. Dehydration was the part of the Virus that took the most vulnerable, and quickly. I’d been sure to hydrate appropriately. My body had grown strong during my time with the Rejs.

  I scanned the treetops surrounding the perimeter of the contaminated area. My gaze hyper-focused on one area where small tendrils of white smoke were breaking through the tree cover.

  I was weak, but not the same kind of weak that I would have been before my time with the Rejs. My body was obviously still recovering from its battle with the Virus, but it was a strong body, able to carry me all the way to Skylar Two’s camp. As I crested the hill to the clearing where Skylar Two’s group had made camp for the night, Donalt and the others stared at me in awe. Skylar Two faced away from me. As I came up the hill, my throat was too dry to announce my arrival. The others seemed too stunned to speak, even once I was within hearing’s range. Finally, Donalt had enough wits about her to point in my direction. Skylar Two turned slowly. As his eyes met mine, the biggest smile I’d ever seen spread across his face. He threw his arms in the air victoriously. “Whoo-hoot! Yes! I knew you’d make it, Ty!”

  He paused to push one the other escorts in the shoulder playfully. “I told you, didn’t I? Tylia Coder is the one. Let us celebrate! Pack up camp immediately!”

  The others got to it swiftly, with what looked to be no doubt that the order had come from their leader’s son and not their peer.

  Skylar Two jogged up to meet me, and suddenly my knees buckled. Whether it was from weakness caused by the Virus, or just me being swept away by the light in his eyes when he looked at me, I wasn’t sure. But I was glad Skylar Two’s pace was so well-timed—he caught me just as I began to lose my balance, supporting my weight in his arms until I was steady on my feet.

  “Donalt, bring me the evening’s rations!” Skylar Two called out. “We won’t be needing them. Tonight, there will be a feast in Tylia’s honor!” As he made the announcement, he’d held my wrist in the air as a way of cheering on the fact that I hadn’t died. I said nothing, but accepted the food Donalt offered me. In a matter of minutes, the others had packed up all of their supplies. I savored my meal as we began our journey, glad when Skylar Two offered me a flask of water. My first instinct was to warn him that I’d been ill, but Skylar Two laughed as I stumbled over the words, and I realized that with the Rejs such niceties weren’t needed. Everyone else had already acquired a natural immunity or survived their own trial.

  I felt a twinge in my chest as I wished my parents could be there with me, simply so that I wouldn’t have to leave the life I had found with Skylar Two and his people.

  But I knew that my parents would never agree to come with me to the surface. After years spent buried beneath the oppression of poverty and lack of status, they would almost certainly be too afraid to venture into the unknown, lest they lose out on resources they knew they could depend on from their oppressors. No, my only choice was to go back to them and the Geos, go to the Labs, and hope that I could convince Ben that it was time to unite the Geos with the rest of humanity on the surface.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Donalt and the other escorts fell into formation the same way they had as we’d traveled to the contaminated area, with Skylar Two to one side and Donalt to the other. This time, both of them were silent, though for very different reasons. Donalt’s silence was darker, but not in a way that frightened me. She hung her head and avoided even looking in my direction as we traveled. As the day went on, I found myself feeling sorry for her. Eventually the silence became eerie. And apparently, I wasn’t the only one who thought so, because the escort behind me, a young man named Taurin, leaned in and spoke quietly.

  “You’re the first one to survive since Wallace,” he said, and then flinched as Donalt’s eyes shot daggers in his direction. “Well, she is!” he said defensively. He turned to Skylar Two for confirmation. “Isn’t she?”

  “You knew Wallace?”

  This time, it was Skylar Two’s turn to be surprised. “Wallace also passed his trial, but he chose not to stay with us in the mountains.”

  �
�You mean he wasn’t kicked out?” Wallace had never said much about his past, but he’d definitely had no love for the Rejs.

  “Staying with us is a choice, Tylia. We did not send him away. At least, it is a choice for those who are banished by Farrow Corp. We aren’t monsters. We have to be more careful with undergrounders who come as part of the Acceptance, because we can’t be sure where their true loyalties lie, but those who are banished? They pose little threat to us—most of them, anyway.”

  “And now that I’ve survived the Virus, I have to leave, too.”

  “It’s what is best for both of our peoples.” He held my gaze. “Both of your peoples now, too, Ty. But I wish…”

  What he’d left unsaid was deep in a way that was hard to carry. Not quite as heavy as my mother’s fate, but I believed both he and I knew that that was what it all came down to. His heart, or her life. Her life would win every time.

  No one spoke the rest of the journey after that, and the energy was divided, with both sadness and hope in every corner.

  When we arrived back at the cave, the sun was kissing the mountain’s peaks gently. The hunters would be coming in soon, which I was thankful for. I was still weak from the Virus, but my stomach had come back to life near the halfway point of our trip, and I was famished.

  A crowd was waiting when we arrived, assembled on either side of our troop and clearing our path to Skylar One. The head of the party entered first, and to a room abuzz with excited chatter. And when I stepped through the cave’s threshold, the people around us erupted into screams of victory.