by H. A. Swain
“You do, Zara,” Haza says. “You wish you got to go.”
Across the table, the nervous boy carefully tears a long thin strip of paper then rolls it into a tiny precise ball, which he lines up next to other tiny precise white balls he’s made.
“Only the most special people get invited,” Haza continues. “The ones he trusts the most.”
“He’s probably going to try to screw you,” Zara says, slamming her fist onto her collage.
My mouth drops open. I look at the boy to see if he’s surprised by this, but he’s too busy popping the small wads of paper in his mouth to notice what’s happening across the table. He looks side to side as he chews.
“You’re crass. And foul. And disgusting,” Haza snarls at Zara. “What happens up there is a secret. A wonderful, beautiful secret.”
“Sounds like screwing to me,” Zara says and pounds a slab of black on top of her palimpsest.
“Shut up!” Haza hisses. “You’re just jealous because I’m getting out of here soon. Dr. D. says so.”
As their argument escalates, the boy rolls bigger and bigger wads of paper that he shoves into his mouth and chews nervously. I look around to see if Shira notices what’s going on, but she’s busy trying to stop the head puncher from knocking himself into a coma.
“Where are you going to go?” Zara asks Haza with a snort. “Your parents won’t take you back. They kicked you out after you tried to eat their curtains.”
“That’s not true!” Haza says. “And Dr. Demeter says he has a place for me. A place where only the most special guests get to go. Soon, I’ll be a part of the harvest.”
This catches my attention. “Harvest?”
Zara looks at me and rolls her eyes. “Don’t listen to her. She’s deluded.”
“I am not!” Haza almost yells. “My eggs are ripe. He told me so.”
Zara bursts out laughing. “Your eggs are ripe? You really are insane.”
This sends Haza over the edge. “Shut up!” she screams. “Shut up, you horrible girl!” She stands up so quickly, she tips her chair and shoves the table into the boy’s gut. He doubles over and gags.
“What’s going on? What’s the matter now?” Shira rushes across the room.
I slip out of my chair as Zara and Haza scream and point at one another while the boy vomits soggy wads of paper onto the floor.
Shira pushes a button on the wall and shouts, “Ravi, Sar! I need your help.”
Within seconds Sar runs in and grabs Zara in a bear hug from behind. She thrashes and kicks and continues to scream taunts at Haza who sobs, “You’re wrong! You’re wrong!”
“Where’s Ravi? Lev, no!” Shira yells as she tries to stop the boy from shoving more paper in his mouth.
“Don’t know,” Sar says.
I press myself against a wall to stay out of the way, but none of the other patients seem to notice or care about what’s happening. They just continue staring and rocking and punching themselves as Sar drags Zara out the door howling, “I’m getting the hell out of here! You can’t keep me! You can’t make me stay!”
“What a mess,” Shira mutters. She digs the last bit of paper mush from Lev’s mouth then stands up and claps her hands. “Okay, everybody, art is over for today.” One by one, she gets the other patients to their feet. They shuffle toward the door. “Time to go back to your rooms,” Shira tells them. “We’ll try again tomorrow.”
As I leave, Haza looks at me. “I’m getting out,” she insists.
“You and me both,” I mutter as I walk by.
* * *
As soon as I’m in my room, I reach for my Gizmo. I’ve been surprised that no one confiscated it yet, but when I uncloak it, I see why. There’s no signal. I drop down to the bed to think. No signal means I can’t call my dad, which means I’m stuck here until Grandma talks sense into him, which will be tough as long as my mom insists she’s right, which will be until the end of time.
But there is no way in hell I’m staying here. This place is a nuthouse. Face punchers, paper eaters, egg harvesting, sex! These freaks could never be in the Procreation Pool. Nobody is going to let their hormones surge. I have to find a way to get a message to Dad. It’s the only chance I have of leaving before I become as crazy as the others.
I open the settings on my Gizmo and move around the room to see if I can pick up even the faintest hint of the network or a private hot spot. Nothing. But somewhere in this building a signal has to be accessible, even if it’s encrypted. All I have to do is find it so I can start hacking my way out of this prison.
I peek out my door to make sure the hallway is empty and quiet, then I slip out. My heart pounds as I trail my fingers against the soft, smooth surface of the curved wall. I figure my best bet is to get upstairs near the windows so I can pick up the general Inner Loop network signal that’s probably been blocked down here. I make my way back toward the waiting area, praying that Dr. Demeter wasn’t lying and there are no security cameras. When I get there, I press my back against the wall and make sure no one is nearby. The waiting room is empty, so I scurry to the double doors where Ravi and Sar disappeared earlier. I run up every other step to the second floor. I press my ear against the door, then slowly open it.
Instead of the sound-absorbing carpet, dark walls, and low ceilings of the first floor, everything up here is gleaming white and silver. I take out my Gizmo and point it toward the dome of windows overhead. The first few stars bright enough to compete with the Inner Loop lights dot the night sky, but my screen remains black because there’s still no signal. I tiptoe down the hall, searching for a hot spot. Then I hear voices and clunking heels echo from the left. I panic, my heart in my throat, as I dart away. I round the curve in the opposite direction, but a door swings open and someone in pale green steps out. I skitter backward, desperate for a place to hide and grapple with a door handle behind me. I fall inside a room and someone gasps.
I turn to see Haza on an exam table in a hospital gown with her knees pulled up to her chest. I press my fingers to my lips and plead with my eyes for her to be quiet. She’s so surprised that at first she can’t speak. Outside, the footsteps and voices fade.
Then Haza snaps out of her shock and whispers, “Is it your turn, too?”
“Yes,” I answer, thinking fast. “But don’t tell anyone. They’ll be jealous.”
“I know,” she whispers eagerly. “We’re special.”
I steal a glance through the door and see that the door catty-corner from me is still slightly ajar. “I have to go,” I whisper to Haza and bolt across the hall.
The other room is empty and dark, but my screen faintly glows, which turns my fear into elation. As soon as I pick up this signal, I can send a message to my dad and hurry back to my room before anyone misses me. Then all I have to do is wait for him to come. I open my settings and skirt the edges of the room, trying to find a signal strong enough to send my message, but I hit a wall. Literally. My screen has gotten brighter, so I know I’m heading in the right direction, but I’m going to have to go out in the hall to get into the next room, where the signal must be stronger. As I grope my way forward, I bump against a table. What sounds like hundreds of tiny glass dishes tinkle and rattle. I grip the table, willing the noise to stop and use the light of my Gizmo screen to see what I’ve set in motion.
Rows and rows of small shallow glass dishes bump together, sloshing a thin pinkish film growing in a clear solution. I back away, not sure what I’ve seen, but it turns my stomach. I tiptoe to the door. The hall is quiet so I step out slowly, then just as I’m darting toward the next room, someone comes around the curve. I fumble for the handle but not before an orderly grabs my elbow.
I try to wriggle away while talking fast, “Dr. Demeter told me to…”
“Shhhh,” the man in the pale green uniform hisses and tightens his grip as he shoves me in front of him down the hall. “This way.”
Again, I work to wiggle free, thinking I might be able to run for the stairs and
get back to my room before he can identify me, but he digs his fingers into my skin and growls, “Apple, stop.”
I whip around and come face-to-face with Basil. Before I can shriek, he clamps his hand over my mouth. “Shhhhhh,” he says, his eyes wide with worry. “We have to hurry.”
I follow blindly, gripping Basil’s hand, looking again and again to make sure it’s really him. We burst through the exit door and careen down the staircase toward the first landing, but he pulls me down another flight. “We can get out this way.”
“But how, but who, but, but…” I stammer as I stagger after him.
“Keep going,” he tells me.
We flee into a utility room where Basil leads me through a maze of meters, water tanks, and washing machines until we come to a large, windowless steel door sealed tight. He takes a Gizmo out of his baggy pale green pants, points it at the door, and commands it to open. Automated locks whirl as the door does what he says, and we step outside onto a small concrete pad under the weak light of the stars.
“Ravi,” Basil whispers hoarsely. “Ravi!”
A guy in boxer shorts and a T-shirt steps out from behind a pillar. “Man, took you long enough. I’m freezing my balls off out here.”
Basil quickly strips off the pale green uniform to reveal his regular clothes underneath. He shoves the shirt and pants at Ravi. “She wasn’t where you said she’d be.”
“But how? But what?” I continue to splutter.
Ravi puts the uniform on. “Where was she?”
Basil half grins. “Snooping around on the second floor.”
Ravi looks at me and laughs. “What were you looking for?”
“A signal,” I say.
“It’s a dead zone out here,” Ravi tells me. “The only signal is Demeter’s VPN and for that you need a password.”
“Yeah, I figured, but…” I stamp my foot because this is not the conversation I want to have. “Would one of you tell me what’s happening?”
Basil hands Ravi the Gizmo. “Thanks,” he says. “I owe you.”
“Nah,” Ravi tells him. “Now we’re even.” They grab hands and bump shoulders before Ravi steps inside the building. “Be safe,” he says, then he looks over his shoulder at me. “And Apple.” I stare at him. “Thank you for getting him out of the meeting safely. He’s important.” He smiles kindly then disappears behind the closing door.
Basil reaches for me. “You ready?”
I stand mutely, trying to process everything that just happened.
“Unless you want to stay here?” he says withdrawing his hand a little.
A small breeze carrying the scent of faux roses rouses me from my stupefied state. I look up and see the lights of Smaurtos circling the elevated highway and, just beyond that, the gaudy glare of the EA. On the other side of this place is my home. I don’t know which way we’re going, but I grab Basil’s hand and say, “Get me out of here.”
* * *
Basil and I run across the craggy lot toward a shell of new construction. I look over my shoulder at the glowing dome receding behind us, expecting to see orderlies with flashlights burst through the back door, yelling my name, but everything stays eerily calm and quiet. Soon someone will notice that I’m missing, though, and they’ll know I couldn’t have gotten far.
“Where are we going?” I pant.
“This way.” Basil leads me inside the skeleton of a building. “I have a vehicle.”
Giant robotic construction machines loom like replicas of dinosaurs in the darkness around us. “You going to fire up one of these?” I ask.
“That’d be inconspicuous,” he says, as he disappears behind a half wall and returns pushing some contraption that looks half a bicycle. Instead of a front wheel, there’s a big metal cage thing on casters.
I step closer and blink, trying to find more light. “What is that?” I stick my fingers through the spindly metal bars of the cage.
“It’s the vehicle,” he says.
“But, what is it?” I persist.
“It’s a bike and a shopping cart. A bike-cart.”
“What’s a shopping cart?”
He huffs, impatient. “A thing people used to push through stores where they bought food.”
“Why?” I ask.
“How should I know? And why is that important?”
“But what are we going to do with it?”
“You ride in here.” He points to the cage. “And I’ll be back here.” He points to the seat.
“Where’s the motor?”
“For god’s sake, Apple!” he says, indignantly. “It doesn’t have a flippin’ motor. I’m going to pedal it!”
I’m too flabbergasted to say anything. My mouth just hangs open stupidly for several seconds. “What good is that?” I finally blurt out.
Basil balls one fist on his hip. “It’s good enough to get us the hell out of here if you’d stop yapping!”
“Sorry,” I say quickly. “I mean, thank you? It’s just, I never thought I would see you again and…”
“Didn’t you want to?” he asks, frowning.
“Yes! Of course, but…” I slump back against one of the hulking machines. My head spins and my ears ring. “I don’t understand what’s going on.”
“Ok, look.” Basil takes a deep breath, probably realizing that I’m not going anywhere until he explains a few things. He leans against the vehicle next to me with the bike-cart propped at his side. “After your mom threatened to call security, I hid outside your house. I heard her say she was taking you to rehab at Dr. Demeter’s, so after she put you in the Smaurto, I made my way down here and figured we’d need a way to get out again. I found some old abandoned shops and made this thing, which apparently is very stupid.”
“No,” I say. “It’s not stupid at all. It’s amazing. And you’re amazing. But how did you get inside Dr. Demeter’s? How do you know Ravi? Why did he help you? What did he mean that you’re important?”
“Ravi’s an Analog,” Basil tells me. “There are lots of us. We help each other. A while back Ravi had some trouble with security. I let him hang with me until things died down so he owed me a favor. We’re all working for the cause.”
“What cause? I don’t get it.” I run my fingers through my hair. “I need to understand more about the Analogs and…”
“I know.” Basil lays his hand on my arm. “And I’ll tell you everything you want to know, but right now, we should really get out of here, because they’ll be looking for you very soon. Ravi can only cover for so long.” He grabs the bike-cart contraption.
“Wait,” I tell him. “I have to know one thing.” He stops and looks at me like he wants to pick me up and shove me inside the cart. “Did you know who I was before we went to my house tonight?”
“No,” he says. “I just thought you were some really cute girl named Apple that I was trying to impress.”
My stomach zings when he says this. Blood rushes to my cheeks and despite everything, I smile.
“And to be honest, if I had known who your parents are, I would have never invited you to an Analog meeting.” He looks up and laughs as if he can’t believe all that’s happened. “The whole idea of a privy at a resistance meeting is absurd.”
“Privy?” I ask.
“That’s what people like me call privileged people like you,” Basil says, a note of apology in his voice.
“Then why did you come here for me?”
“I owed you one,” he says, but then he drops his eyes. In the murky light I can’t make out his face. “And,” he says quietly, “you’re still a cute girl I’m trying to impress.”
I can’t help but laugh out of surprise and embarrassment. “Well, I’m pretty impressed.”
He looks up with a little grin on his face. “It’s the bike-cart thing, isn’t it?”
“It’s definitely the bike-cart thing,” I tell him.
* * *
I climb inside the cart as Basil balances the bike. It takes a few tries before he can p
edal without nearly toppling over, but soon we’re bumping across the empty lots away from my house and Dr. Demeter’s and toward the lights of the EA on the other side of the highway.
“Where are we going?” I ask.
“That depends,” he says.
“On what?”
“On you.”
“Me?” While I’m trying to figure out where we should go, Astrid suddenly comes to life. “Yaz is calling! Yaz is calling!” she shouts happily.
“What the…!” Basil is so startled that he loses control of the bike. We wobble violently side to side.
“It’s just my Gizmo!” I shout at him, gripping the cart so I won’t fly out. But it’s no use. He careens sideways. The cart pops off the front of the bike and topples over, dumping me to the ground. I roll and land several feet away from where he’s tangled in the fallen bike.
I scramble to get the Gizmo out of my pouch. “Accept,” I tell Astrid and Yaz comes on the screen.
“Hey, I’ve been looking for you!” she shouts over the raucous noise of an EntertainArena crowd. “The new Hedgy’s World is open and…”
“Yaz! Yaz!” I shout urgently. “I need your help.”
“Turn that off, for crap sake!” Basil yells. He tries to get free from the bike, but his pant leg is caught in the chain.
“What’s going on?” Yaz yells. “Are you okay?” She squints. “I can barely see you.”
Basil scuttles over, dragging the bike along with him. “They’re going to find us in ten minutes unless you get rid of that!” He tries to grab the Gizmo from me, but I swat at his hand.
“Who’s that with you?” Yaz asks as Basil wrestles me for the Gizmo, but I push him away.
“We’re in trouble. I need your help,” I plead.
“Is he hurting you?” Yaz screams. “Tell me where you are. I’ll call security!”
“No don’t!” I yell at her. “He’s with me.”
“What’s going on?” she demands.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Basil’s hand coming toward me. “Meet me out front of the EA in ten minutes,” I yell right as he slaps the Gizmo from my hand, sending it clattering to the ground.
He runs toward it and lifts his foot then hops in a circle trying to find it, shouting, “Where did it go?”