by Almney King
I nodded. Ellis smiled then closed the door and left. He didn’t need to warn me of the things to come. I already knew that something was lost and something else had been found. Whatever change that was destined to come was already on its way.
When Mother returned, I tried acting like my usual self. I watched her prepare dinner, mesmerized by the grace of her hands as they worked. She rinsed off a few red potatoes, then peeled and chopped them into slices.
“Ellis came by today?” Mother asked.
I bit my lip to keep from lying. “For a bit,” I told her.
She said nothing for a while. She was still upset about my almost arrest, and knowing Ellis had just stopped by did nothing to ease her troubled heart. She was giving me the silent treatment again. It was nerve-wracking. I would much rather face the heat of her wrath than have her say nothing at all.
“Do you ever think of him?” I asked.
The cutting ceased for a second then resumed with a bitter tempo. “Corrine, honey,” Mother said. “How old are you now?”
I gave her an odd look as she knew exactly how old I was. “Seventeen.”
Mother slid the potatoes into an iron skillet while turning to look at me. “Then you know not to ever mention him in this house.”
I was taken aback—utterly stunned by her words. Years after my father had left, I never once asked why he had deserted us. All these years, I have waited for her sorrow to die out, but it seemed the contempt she had for my father still raged on.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
Mother raised her brow but seemed content with my apology. I was relieved. That old wound of hers would always be a wound. It was past healing, and I regretted ever reminding her of its pain.
“I don’t want to have to do it,” she said suddenly.
“Do what?”
“Keep you from seeing Ellis.”
I knew it was coming. After all, it was all she could do. But she was too late. Ellis may have started it, but I was already hooked. There was no going back, not for me. “You don’t have to do that, mom. We won’t get into any more trouble.”
Mother’s gaze was piercing, and I couldn’t fathom a force powerful enough to sever it. It nearly scared me. “I hope to God you wouldn’t lie to me like this, Corrine. I hope to God you wouldn’t.”
I shook at her words. If she were ever to discover the truth, I wouldn’t ask for forgiveness. I wouldn’t beg for mercy either. Whatever happened, I would suffer without a word. “I wouldn’t lie,” I promised. “I know how much this worries you.”
Mother smiled and kissed my forehead. “Go tell your sister dinner’s ready.”
I turned from her with a pain in my heart. The lie, it hurt more than I ever thought. I carried it the entire night and all through the following day. It was an echo in my mind, a beat in my chest. I nearly drove myself mad. I could hear it in my voice, in my bedroom walls, especially in my sleep. I couldn’t hide because the lie and I were one. I needed it. I needed to protect it so that I could one day learn the truth.
“Corrine, I’m ready,” Fern called.
I rushed into the living room and sat on the floor between her legs. “I want it in a French braid with the fishtail at the end,” I told her.
“I like that look on you,” Fern said, brushing my hair. “Do you want the curls to hang on the side like last time?”
I nodded. I loved it when she’d braid my hair, especially when she sang.
“Oh, I was watching the reports today. It was really interesting. They were talking about using halos for cerebral adaptation.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means it can stimulate the inactive areas of our brains to make us smarter.”
I leaned my head back as she began braiding. “Is that so?” I uttered.
“I really want to see it happen. It would be so neat, wouldn’t it?”
Fern’s voice was like sugar, sweet and cheerful. “No, it wouldn’t,” I said.
“What? Why not?” she gasped.
“Because ... knowledge is a dangerous thing. People steal for it, kill for it. It makes us arrogant and greedy and violent. It makes people think that they’re above the law. And for some people, it makes them think they’re above God.”
Fern’s fingers froze in my hair. “Corrine,” she mumbled. Her voice trembled, like it was about to break. “Why are you talking like that?”
“Talking like what?” I turned a little, trying to face her.
“Like them, those people on the other side.”
“You mean like a Defiant,” I hissed. “Quit censoring yourself, Fern. It’s getting on my nerves. If there’s something on your mind, just say it. Save me the agony of having to read between the lines all the time.”
Fern’s fingers trembled. I had expected her to act passive as usual, but instead she took the brush in her hand and began ripping it through my hair. “Fine,” she grumbled. “I won’t beat around the bush anymore. I’ll just ask. Why can’t I ever go with you and Ellis?”
I gripped my head as she practically beat me with the hairbrush. “Because.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“I told you already.”
“So! It isn’t fair,” Fern grumbled.
“Do you want me to strangle you?”
The brushing stopped all of a sudden. My head was on fire. “No. Fine then,” she sighed.
I rolled my eyes.
“I swear you can be so mean sometimes.”
“I’m sorry. Did I hurt you?” Fern pet my head to ease the pain.
“No,” I growled. “And where’s mom? I haven’t seen her all day.”
“Praying.”
“Praying,” I whispered.
Mother prayed a lot. She made Fern and I pray too. I wondered why she still did it. Religion had died long before the Trinity Wars. The world had turned to chaos. There was drought, cannibalism. Men murdered children. Friend slaughtered foe. Religion couldn’t save us. The Nazar, he told us to turn away from religion and look to him. He promised to lead us into a golden age. We would never starve, and we would never falter. We would be perfection.
Mother was wary of those words. It was blasphemy, she said. So while the world honored him, Fern and I simply watched. I was never troubled by it. Unlike most, I believed in the faith of the spirit. But I never relied on it in my troubles either. I suppose I was a bit bitter towards that faith. Mother often spoke of God’s mercy, but what was mercy when all of the earth was cursed from the beginning?
“Alright. All done,” Fern cheered.
I ran my fingers over the braid. “Thanks.”
“Sure,” Fern yawned. “I’m going to bed now. You should too. We have studies tomorrow.”
As much as I hated studies, I feared that one day they would not exist. Every year ARTIKA created a system or some highly advanced product that replaced the natural order of things. If cerebral adaptation was perfected, ARTIKA would completely alter the human design. There would be living without breathing, learning without thinking. There would be no more curiosity, no more individuality, no more human error.
CHAPTER THREE
SYMBIOSIS
When the city lights faded, I snuck out to meet Ellis. The night watch was heavy, so we were more than careful on our way to Norris Tower. The tower was a three hundred foot high barrier surrounding all of Helix City. From the top of the wall, a dome of halos warped over the city. The energy field maintained all life beneath it. Nature wasn’t nature at all. Rain, wind, snow, thunder; it was all synthetic and manipulated by ARTIKA’S MW’S, or miracle workers. I never thought much about it before, but Ellis was right. Helio Tellus was full of lies.
We were deep in the Z-Zone when we spotted a line of transporter trucks entering Norris Tower. Ellis found this odd, and it was. After the first terrorist attack on Helix City, the Nazar outlawed all export beyond Norris Tower. “What do you think they’re shipping off?” I asked.
The convoy stopped all of a sudde
n. “I don’t think they’re exporting anything. I think they’re importing something,” Ellis said. It was difficult to see, but several armed guards exited the trucks, each of them shouting orders at each other. They seemed to be in a hurry.
“Importing what?” I wondered.
“I don’t know. We need to get closer,” Ellis whispered, then he took off. I almost yelled after him. Was he trying to get himself killed? Trespassers caught in the Z-Zone weren’t arrested. They were shot on sight.
I jumped up from my hiding place and raced after him. We huddled behind one of the unmanned trucks, hidden by the fog. I could hear the men quite clearly now.
“Let’s get a move on. The shipment needs to be in on time.” It was a woman’s voice.
“Of course. We wouldn’t want a repeat of last time.”
“What happened last time?” someone asked.
“Some of the recruits woke up during transport. They had to be put down,” the woman answered.
“So a few of your subjects were killed. What’s so bad about it?”
“The resources available to us are very little. ARTIKA cannot afford to be wasteful. Therefore, I trust you will take good care of these recruits. If not, you can do us the honor of becoming one of them yourself.”
“Corrine.” Ellis gripped me by the arm, making me flinch. His voice was heavy. He sounded scared almost. “We need to go... now.”
Ellis pulled me from the truck. We ran a few paces until an armed squad crossed our path. Ellis backed me behind a tall energy capsule. There were hundreds of them in the Z-Zone. It was where ARTIKA reserved the halos energy. Halos was too unstable for interior storage. In its raw state, it had to be kept in the open air far from civilization.
“Corrine, we have to go one at a time to cross. Otherwise we’ll be seen,” Ellis whispered. He gripped my hand before letting go. “I’ll go first,” he said. He waited several seconds then darted to the next capsule. The fog had thickened and its darkness seemed to swallow him. When he disappeared, I suddenly remembered. This was dangerous. Ellis and I had found a dangerous piece of knowledge. Now we were awake, wide awake.
I took a breath to calm myself. It didn’t help. I had finally understood it. The mysterious they were suddenly not so mysterious. Neither was the truth. aritka owned it all. ARTIKA was behind it all. Everything was theirs. Theirs to control. Theirs to destroy. Theirs to kill. I was the same. Made, marked, and manipulated by the mother system, by ARTIKA.
There was no more waiting. I had to move. Gathering the courage, I ran into the open. The air seemed hot all of a sudden and my throat was pounding. I felt my chest go numb and my legs shake. This was fear, and I had seen so little of fear, so little I hardly knew it at all, even after my father left. As long as I was an Ardent of Helio Tellus, there was never any reason for it. But things had changed. I had changed.
Out of nowhere, there was fire in my shoulder. I cried out and hit the ground. From the fog, several shadows appeared and surrounded me. I gripped my wound, catching blood in my hand. Someone had shot me. “Look what we have here. It’s just as I thought. Once a criminal, always a criminal.”
I paled. That voice was familiar. The shadows moved in the fog until I could see them clearly. As I feared, the sergeant from the night on Marx’s Avenue stood above me. He flashed a light in my eyes once again and smirked. “It looks like we’ll have to go through this all over again. Get her up gentleman,” he sighed.
The guards were not gentle, yanking me to a stand despite my wound. I gritted my teeth to keep from screaming. “You’re a tough one,” the sergeant teased. He took a step forward, caressing my chin like before. “Now where’s that smart mouthed boyfriend of yours?”
I said nothing. He wouldn’t get a word from me. The sergeant grinned. “We’ll catch him soon enough I suppose. It’s a shame for him to abandon such a pretty face.”
“Do I need to start issuing death sentences for people to pick up the pace around here?” A woman stormed onto the scene, shoving through the circle of guards. She was the same woman whose voice I heard before. She paused upon seeing me then glared back up at the sergeant. “What is this?” she hissed.
“We’ve got a trespasser. Don’t worry, we’ll escort her to lockup immediately,” the sergeant said.
“No,” the woman ordered. She stared at me for a long time then said, “throw her in with the others.”
My throat tightened. What did she mean by that? “But she’s wounded. Not only that, she’s an Ardent,” an officer spoke.
“She is no longer one of us, I’m afraid,” the woman replied.
“What do you mean? How can you tell?”
The woman turned to walk away. “Because,” she said, “there’s fear in her eyes.”
The officers lifted me from the ground. “Let go of me!” I screamed. “You can’t do this! Let me go!”
Suddenly, there was a sound in the air, like a whistle. All was quiet, until that quiet turned to chaos. A burst of fire shook the ground, then another and another. Gunshots whizzed all around. “Hurry and get the kids,” a voice shouted. The guards returned fire. I could hardly see. There were only shadows, people shooting and shouting through the smoke.
I took the moment to escape. I jerked free from one of the guards, but the other kept his grip. I drove an elbow into his side and slipped free.
I ran blindly through the fog, searching for Ellis. Where had he gone? Where could he be? Ellis, where are you? “The gate’s closing. Let’s go, let’s go!” someone shouted.
I crashed into something and hit the ground. I looked up. It was a man—a Defiant. I couldn’t help but stare at him. I had never seen one of his kind before. He was terrifying. His eyes looked like they were on fire, like someone had lit them with the forbidden flame of knowledge. As I stared, I saw that he was carrying something. It was a person. “Run,” he said. Then he took off into the fog.
I ran as he said. I screamed for Ellis over and over. All I could hear was the gunfire. All I could see was the fog, and body after body overturned in the dirt.
“Corrine! Corrine!”
It was Ellis. “Where are you?” I screamed. “Ellis!”
Suddenly there were arms around me, lifting me from the ground. “Quickly, get her inside.” I fought, kicking and scratching as the guards forced me to one of the trucks. The back door opened and they drug me inside. I tried to escape, but they held me firm against the floor. Something sharp pierced my neck, and my vision began to blur. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t speak. The darkness was closing in.
“Don’t let them escape! Hurry up and close the gate!”
In the final flicker of light, I saw a familiar face. It was the captain who spared Ellis and I that night on Marx Avenue. I reached out for him. I was calling for help, begging for mercy, but he simply stood there. His eyes were guiltless. I warned you, they said. I warned you. I struggled, trying anything to escape. I was trapped. The door slammed shut, and the darkness took me, all the way back to the grave.
Where was I? How did I get here? I was trapped in an all-white room, and for hours it seemed. There was nothing here. Nothing but a steel door and a bare mattress standing in the corner of the room. The air was cold and carried a sterilized odor. It was nauseating. An eerie hum echoed in the walls. It sounded like voices, like screaming.
I rose from the bed, shivering in the cold. My clothes were gone. For some reason they had taken them. I was bare except for a band of elastic straps that wound the length of my body. My wound had healed too, like it was never there, like the attack on Norris Tower was but a dream. What was all of this? Where was Ellis? What was happening?
I lifted my face to the door window. The glass was fogged. I couldn’t see, but someone was coming. I could hear their footsteps approaching the door. “Hey!” I screamed. “Let me out of here! Let me out!”
Suddenly, the latch clicked free and the door opened. I stepped back as a league of strangers crowded the room. A male and female stood in the lea
d, professionally dressed and stern-faced. The others were armed guards, seeming to swarm around them, or me, rather.
The woman spoke first. She smiled. It wasn’t reassuring at all, but a cunning kind of smile, a smile of habit. “Hello, my name is Dr. Hailey. And this here, is Dr. Gerald,” she said. “How are you, Corrine?”
For some reason I couldn’t speak. It wasn’t my dry throat or the frigid air. It was something else that caused my palms to sweat and my head to spin. “You’re doctors?” I finally managed to ask.
“Yes, and we are certainly sorry for giving you such a scare. You see, we have been informed that you were subjected to toxic substances from outside the city. You do understand why it is illegal to cross into the Z-Zone, don’t you? It is a danger to you and to those who reside in Helix City.”
I nodded. “Yes, I know.”
Suddenly, Dr. Gerald spoke. He looked plastic in a way. His anti-aged face had an unnatural shine, like it was made of glass. “Then you understand, Corrine, we must analyze your blood work to be sure you are of good health. That is why you are here.”
“Then I can go home. If everything is fine, you’ll let me go home?” I asked.
Dr. Hailey smiled. “I assure you, Corrine. If you pass the test, it will be a very good sign.” After she spoke, they turned and left me in the room. I pressed my forehead against the door and sighed. I wanted to cry, but I wouldn’t. After all, I was to blame for this. I had become too reckless, too curious. Without even knowing, I had become a Defiant.
Ellis and I, we should have left the truth alone. I should have known what the dark would bring if I opened my eyes to it. I thought there would be freedom. Instead, there was a trap inside a trap, and I had fallen for them both.
Hours passed after the doctors had gone. I stayed huddled on the bed mat for the time being. I couldn’t sleep. I thought about Ellis. Was he alive? Did he escape?
I thought about Fern too. Whenever I closed my eyes, I could hear her singing. She was a lovely singer, a gift she had inherited from Mother. I missed her, and Mother too, but I would see them soon. At least, I prayed to God I would.