The Acceptance (The GEOs Book 1)

by Ramona Finn

  I sighed. One thing at a time, Ty, I said to myself. First, I had to survive this.

  Behind me, a twig snapped. I was being followed. I’d hurried in the opposite direction of the EFs, hoping it would decrease my chances of encountering them and increase my chances of finding my way home. And I was pretty sure that it wasn’t any of them trailing me. Whoever was following me now might as well have been an elephant lumbering through the forest, and EFs with enough clearance to go to the surface would be trained in how to track someone without being noticed. Then who is it? I was half-tempted to stop where I was and demand that they reveal themselves, but I restrained myself. There was too much adrenaline coursing through my veins to trust my first impulse.

  I scanned the forest in front of me, trying to find my best chance at turning the tables on whoever was following me. Finally, I found what I was searching for and I slowed my pace a little, trying to appear as if I was tiring rather than slowing intentionally. I didn’t want to tip off the person who was following me. My best guess was that I had about twenty more strides between myself and my stalker.

  Finally, I saw my opportunity. I sprung from the forest floor with as much force as I could muster. I heard the foliage behind me wrestled down as my pursuer increased his or her speed, attempting to get their hands on me before it was too late. Luckily, it seemed that I had the advantage when it came to agility, and I was able to kick off the trunk of one tree before rocketing toward the tree directly across from it, grabbing hold of a branch in scrambling up further, I hoped, than my pursuer could see.

  I selected a branch that gave me a decent view of the area, giving me the opportunity to catch my breath. Adrenaline had sent me much farther up the tree than I had originally intended, and the first look down was enough to give me pause. I wanted the tactical advantage of being undetectable, but a fall from this height could seriously disable me.

  But it was too late to change my mind. Below me, I heard the thump of footsteps as someone tried to keep themselves from falling after chasing me. He stood breathless and leaning over his knees with his chest heaving as he recovered. “I know you’re out there, Ty!” From my position, I could only see the top of his head, with its shaggy brown hair matted down and harboring small pieces of the forest floor in its dark tangles.

  I’d recognize that voice anywhere.

  “Kev!” I called down in a hushed tone. He took the cue well, glancing over his shoulder in case his voice had attracted anyone—or anything—else.

  I scrambled down the tree excitedly. When I got to the last few branches, I hopped down quietly, smiling at Kev’s confused gaze. I reckoned that the Tylia before him wasn’t the Tylia he’d expected to see.

  His slack jaw told me I had guessed right. I looked him over, the smile fading from my face. The surface had not been kind to Kev. His clothes were torn and dirty, and his hair was matted. More than that, though, I noticed the look in his eyes. They were the same as the eyes of the water buffalo that had almost run me down on my first day on the surface. The eyes of a frightened animal who was being hunted.

  “You look like hell.” The words had come out before I could stop them. “I mean… ugh. That’s not what I meant.”

  “It’s okay, Tylia. I’ve heard worse.” He cracked a half-hearted smile, just to make me feel better. I didn’t have the heart to tell him it wasn’t working.

  “Are you okay?” I asked as I studied the dark circles under his eyes and clammy skin, wondering if it meant that I wasn’t the only one who had survived the Virus.

  Kev let out a long breath. “Yeah, I guess I am. Better than the others.” His face went pale, and he added, “I didn’t get sick.” He looked down at his hands as if for confirmation and nodded. When his eyes met mine, I was struck by the shame reflected in them. “I hid until the EFs were all gone.”

  His confession deflated me. I’d hoped that maybe, since I’d been able to survive the Virus, maybe others would have, as well.

  “The EFs came out in their suits and—” He swallowed hard. “I saw them go after one of the others. One almost had me, too, but we ran into an animal, something big with horns. It distracted the EFs long enough for me to smash my tracker and get away. I’ve been hiding this whole time, but...” he trailed off and took a ragged breath. “I saw you pass by, and then I saw the EFs and, well, I had to warn you. I don’t know what’s going on, but they’re coming after us.” He scratched the back of his head nervously, cringing as his hand pulled away bits of the forest.

  “Yeah,” I said, but my eyes darted back and forth over his shoulder, trying to calculate how close the EFs would be by now. I’d only seen one group as I’d come down the mountain. The one that had killed Jade. I wanted to ask if there were more groups, but it felt like we were running out of time.

  “Look, Kev,” I said, “we have to get out of here. I don’t know about the others, but…”

  He shook his head. “I haven’t seen any other survivors. I just don’t understand why they’re coming after us. Survivors are supposed to go to the Greens.”

  “But who would stop them?” I pointed out, holding my arms out. “Who’s here to protect us? No one. No one would even know!”

  “The Farrows would never stand for this!”

  I couldn’t help myself. I laughed. “I hate to break it to you, Kev, but I’m pretty sure Farrow Corp is spearheading this.”

  Kev shook his head, refusing to believe my words. “No, no, there is no way R.L. Farrow knows what’s happening up here.”

  I sighed. If I wanted Kev’s help, I was going to have to try a different approach.

  My time with the Rejs had given me new insight into some of Farrow Corp’s motives, and I only saw one option for us. “Hey, they can’t kill us if everyone knows we survived, right?”

  Kev thought a moment, and then nodded. “Yeah, okay, that makes sense. Uh…” He paused. “But how do we do that?”

  “We have to find our way back.” I looked up at the sky, trying to spot anything that might help me navigate.

  “I’m just a little turned around,” I muttered to myself.

  “Yeah, not quite the way the sims made it out to be, is it?” Kev asked.

  I smiled in spite of myself, reminded of how frustrated I’d gotten every time the simulation had re-set when I’d died. “No, it’s not like the sims at all.” The realization was bittersweet. On the one hand, where I had failed in the sims, I had soared on the surface, exceeding even my own expectations. I had triumphed over obstacles I never could have imagined and overcome misguided fears and biases. I was an entirely different person now. And then there was the other reminder. The one that made my heart ache: No one in the Geos would understand me. Not anymore. Maybe not ever again.

  Kev looked around awkwardly. It was obvious that he had no idea how to navigate.

  “Come on,” I said, motioning for him to fall in line behind me. “Might as well keep moving this way, away from the EFs.”

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  We didn’t even make it out of the forest before we realized how foolish we had been. Footprints, broken twigs, and disturbed forest floor told me that the EFs I’d encountered definitely hadn’t been alone. There were at least three groups traveling from the same point, sweeping the forest. I was pretty certain we could stay hidden while we were under the cover of the trees, but it was making it out into the open that I was worried about.

  Kev seemed to pick up on my mood. “It’s hopeless, isn’t it?” he asked from behind me. His words drew my attention to the tension in my jaw and shoulders as I scanned the ground for fresh tracks. Just because they’d all gone off in different directions didn’t mean they wouldn’t be meeting back here at some point.

  “We need to keep moving,” I said, ignoring his question as I pressed on.

  The sun set before we’d made it to the edge of the forest. In many ways, this was a blessing. The cover of darkness would give us added security while we traveled in the open landscape. On the
other hand, I’d learned from Skylar One about the predators that came out only when the sun went down, and none of them were the kind of animal I was anxious to encounter during the rest of my time on the surface. Before we left the cover the forest provided, I needed to think.

  We paused to eat, dividing up the rest of my meat strips between the two of us, thankful that I’d started eating the Rejs food early enough to leave myself something of a supply.

  “Not that I’m not so, so, so happy to eat something familiar…” Kev’s mumbles interrupted my train of thought. He stopped to finish chewing, holding a hand up so I would know he wasn’t finished talking. He wiped his mouth before pointing to the remainder of his meat strip. “But where on earth did you get this?”

  “They’re left-over.” I shrugged. “I rationed from the very beginning and tried to eat as little as possible and survive on plants where I could.”

  Kev nodded. “Smart thinking.” He chewed silently for a beat before giving me his best empathy-inducing pout. “Yeah, kind of silly to practically die from hunger, but it’s the one thing I hadn’t much considered. I was pretty sure the Virus would kill me first anyway.”

  His confession shocked me. Even though I’d thought much the same when I’d first hacked the Acceptance, it seemed odd to think back on the memory of walking willingly to my death. I’d been so wrapped up in my own survival that it had never occurred to me that he might have been less than thrilled about his name being drawn. Kev had seemed as excited as anyone about the opportunity.

  “You didn’t actually want to be part of this?” I asked.

  Kev shook his head. “I was happy with my life, Ty. I liked my job. My family was well cared for. I mean, I get why you’d want to go to the Labs, because of your mom. But I’d be leaving half of the people I cared about behind even if I didn’t die in the process. It was kind of exciting to think about in the beginning, I admit… but mostly I was just trying to psyche myself up for it.” He shifted his gaze and his posture shrank. “And I was scared. Terrified. I still am… You saw the tracks. Those EFs are everywhere. I think we should go back. I’ll show you where I’ve been hiding. We can try again once they’ve given up.”

  I shook my head. No way was I spending any more time here than I had to. “No, we should go while we can. I think I have a way for us to get to the Geos.” I bit my lip as I tried to envision the details. I had no doubt at this point that both Kev and I would be killed on sight if we were caught. The only way around that was to keep from being seen. Darkness helped, but then what? “We need a disguise.”

  “A disguise?”

  “Yes. What better way to get into the Geos than right under the EFs’ noses? But I’m gonna need to know one thing before we continue.”

  “And what’s that?”

  “How much do you trust me?”

  Skylar Two had said that a successful hunt involved two things. First, the element of surprise. Which was why I was once again perched in the boughs of a tree. The second requirement, high-value bait… well, that was where Kev came in. Sprawled out at the base of the tree, he waited with his eyes closed, trying to restrain the rise and fall of his chest so that, at least in the low light, he would appear dead when the EFs made their appearance.

  It didn’t take long for our patience to pay off. Soon enough, I saw the shadow of two boxy figures creep toward Kev.

  One of the disadvantages of the environmental suits the EFs were wearing was that it was hard to see clearly out of the helmets. That might be a problem for me later, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t use it to my advantage now. Neither one of them had any idea I existed until I was right on top of them. I dropped down ultra-slowly, swinging my body around the base of the tree and slamming my boots as hard as I could into the head of the nearest EF. He went down with a thud.

  My feet touched the ground and I crouched, ready to run, but before the other EF could make his way toward me, Kev jumped up and clocked him in the back of the head with a large rock.

  Just as I’d hoped, their helmets were designed purely for protection against airborne threats. They’d never stopped to consider that someone from the Geos might fight back.

  Kev stood up, surveying my handiwork in awestruck terror. “Remind me never to get on your bad side,” he said.

  I pulled the helmet off one of the EFs, and Kev gasped.

  “Relax, this isn’t an infected area. They’re not in any danger of infection here.” I left out the fact that I could have easily tested all three of their survival stats just by breaking the seal on the vial around my neck. Some secrets are best kept to oneself. I looked at Kev, who took in a deep breath and nodded before removing the helmet of the other EF, and I hoped that I was making the right choice.

  “A what?”

  “Did you pay any attention in training?” I asked. Now it was my turn to be horrified. He’d taken my word without even understanding how the Virus worked. His natural naiveté would normally have been a breath of fresh air. That was why we’d been friends so long, despite our different social status. But knowing that he was willing to follow me blindly made my stomach flop. What if I was wrong, and walking us both to our deaths?

  “Just stop.” I was talking to myself as much as him, but he just shrugged and removed the environmental suit from the unconscious EF, content to follow my lead as I slipped the suit over my body. The helmet was cooler than I had expected it to be. After spending so much time with the Rejs, who rejected all technology, I’d forgotten about simple luxuries like intelligent temperature control. The suit was logistically awkward, but not uncomfortable, though I could have done without the staleness of the recycled air now that I knew what I was missing.

  I looked at Kev, confirming that the front of the helmets were reflective. Now we would be able to conceal our identities as we moved across the open space.

  When I had first looked across the open space to the safety of more tree cover, the land had felt as if it rolled on and on forever across the horizon. Now that I could be sure we were properly hidden from other EFs, I was surprised by how quickly we were able to cross the distance.

  Even more astonishing was the view. While Kev and I had traveled in the shade of the forest, the cloud cover that had obscured my view as I’d left the Rej caves had cleared, making way for my first real look at Farrow Corp’s crowning achievement: The Sky Labs. Suspended hundreds of feet in the air via the use of carefully constructed and maintained magnetic waves, the giant flying city paled in comparison to any of the photos I’d pulled up on my terminal back home.

  “It’s beautiful,” I whispered to myself, wishing I could share this moment with Skylar Two, though I knew he’d have seen them plenty of times in the past—and probably wouldn’t feel near the awe over them that I did. If anything, I guessed he felt horror when looking at them, but I couldn’t help but be impressed.

  But before either of us could speak, a voice filled our helmets, making us both jump. “Alpha team, what is your position?” My eyes widened and I panicked as I tried to find the suit’s comm button again, changing the channel, gesturing for Kev to do the same.

  I looked at Kev when the comms were silent, wondering if he was thinking what I was.

  “Hey,” I said, testing the airwave with a neutral statement. Something that wouldn’t identify either of us if someone was listening in. I held my breath and hoped that Kev had the sense to do the same.

  “Yeah. I heard it, too,” Kev replied. I sighed in relief. To the other EFs, our interaction could mean anything, if they’d even heard us. I nodded, and we pressed on.

  I turned my comm back on, thinking that listening in on the other teams might give us a tactical advantage. I tapped Kev, motioning for him to turn his on, as well, then pressing my finger against the glass panel of my helmet where my mouth would be, just in case he didn’t think to mute it on his own. He touched the comm panel on his suit and gave me a thumbs-up.

  We kept walking.

  It wasn’t long before I
began feeling the effects of my change of perspective. From up in the mountains, the landscape had seemed so small. But, close up, interacting with the elements and out in the open amongst an unknown enemy, it felt as if the open space stretched on without end.

  I was afraid that my body would reach its limit before we ever found our way into the Geos. Mostly because my lungs were screaming for fresh air. Now that I’d become accustomed to a constant supply of fresh air, even the temperature-controlled suit felt suffocating. My chest seized when I thought about how hard it would be to force myself back to the underground tunnels of the Geos. Especially if we were going to do it the way I was afraid we were.

  I looked up into the sky, anchoring myself on the Labs floating overhead. It was only for a little while longer, I reminded myself. Then my family and I would be on our way to the Labs and a life of silken robes and the highest quality of life available.

  Except that that idea of quality didn’t quite settle my soul the way it had before I’d come here. I turned my head over my shoulder. Maybe it hadn’t been the air tugging at my chest after all. Maybe it had been something else, something that hurt to leave behind.

  Kev tapped my shoulder and shrugged as if to say, ‘What is it?’ I shook my head. There wasn’t a good way to explain to him everything I was feeling in that moment. Even if I’d been able to do it with words. I waved him on.

  He followed me into the trees until their cover cast a chill that I could feel in spite of the suit. I took off my helmet and took in a hearty breath, reveling in the feel of the air filling my lungs and kissing the skin on my face.