The Colony

by RMGilmour

Safe for me. Specifically, me? I wanted to ask, or for people in general who were not from the city. Though that part of his sentence told me the dangers he’d once spoken of, were not only outside of the city, but were also in it.

  “Why can’t you come to the Colony?”

  “The wards,” he sighed, and upon seeing my questioning look, he explained. They were at one time created to keep the people in the city safe, but now all they did was keep them in and others out.

  “The wards are controlled by the Guardian; whose sole purpose is to protect the Central Unit. The wards patrol outside of the city most nights. They would eliminate me if I was found outside of it, I would be viewed as the enemy, conspiring against the Central Unit. And they would eliminate you if they find you inside.”

  No fair, “So then, we still can’t be together?”

  “I’m sorry,” he groaned. “Not yet.”

  “What do they look like, the wards? Can we destroy them?”

  “They are people. They look like you and I, and you are not to try anything of the sort.” He took both of my hands in his and brought them to his chest, before enfolding me in his arms.

  “How do we get around them?”

  “For now, we do what we can to avoid them. It won’t be long though; I can’t bear the thought of being without you.”

  I loved the way his words mimicked my thoughts. I lost myself in his eyes and felt that warm connection stirring once more.

  “Don’t do that,” he whispered.

  “What?”

  “Look at me like that.”

  “Why not?”

  “I won’t be able to leave,” he groaned. “You need to do everything Haize tells you to do. No matter what it is. Promise me.”

  I nodded and whispered my promise. He leaned down, and brushed my lips with his.

  “We need to go,” he sighed, and looked out at the darkening sky. “We need to run. Do you know the way?”

  “Yes,” I nodded, and we left the tree hut, hand in hand, running as fast as I could, him keeping pace with me, across the fields to the hills. Over the hills to the river. And then straight up to the short cliffside. Haize was waiting on the stone path, just outside the cavern. Just as she said she would.

  Jordan stopped me, pulled me back against him and raised my face to his once more, before releasing me.

  “I’ll be here tomorrow,” he whispered.

  “Jordan, run fast. The wards are out,” Haize told him.

  He glanced once up at her and nodded, then back down to me and I felt him rip himself away as he turned back toward the city.

  I stared after him, needing to follow him. The warmth I’d felt while he was with me stretched toward him, reaching for him. It felt unnatural to be separated by the ever-increasing distance he put between us with each step.

  Haize tried to pull me inside, but I was rooted to the spot. I knew I couldn’t follow him, but I also couldn’t add to the distance that began to burn a hole through me. And without warning it stopped. The feelings, the sense of him, the distance, all gone. I was back to just being me. There was not even a flicker of his presence within me.

  I hoped he was ok. But perhaps it meant he was back inside the city, which would explain why I couldn’t feel him before.

  I then remembered what he’d said once, about contagions outside the city. I felt fine, except for the pounding in my chest. The Rathe and the Heart spent all day, every day outside. They seemed fine as well. I questioned Haize about this, while my eyes remained fixated upon the last place I’d seen him, in case he should reappear.

  “There’s nothing wrong with the outside,” she said. “He and Mason have been coming outside for years, with no effects. And there’s nothing wrong with us either.”

  “But what if it only affects them,” I was worried about him now. He shouldn’t be outside if it could harm him.

  “His machine will heal him, if it turns out there is anything wrong or different about him.”

  It was then that I distinctly remembered Jordan telling me he’d never been outside of the city. I questioned Haize about this as well, why would he say that?

  “He had to,” and she sighed. “Everything he said was on record for the Guardian, the wards, everyone to hear. He had to be very careful about what he said to you, even if it meant lying to you, which I’m sure Mason was there to make certain he did. Don’t hold it against him though.”

  Of course, I wouldn’t. He needed me as much as I needed him, and anything meant for this Guardian to hear would never come between us.

  “Who is this Guardian anyway?”

  “It’s part of the Central Unit’s program, designed to protect it.”

  At first, I was confused by her words, but slowly they sank in. It was just a computer program, for goodness sake! I wanted to ask why they didn’t stop it, but I heard first, then saw Aleric bounding up the stairs toward us. Meeting us at the top landing near the cavern entrance, he urged us to enter. But I wasn’t ready to go in, and other questions burned their way out of my mouth.

  “The wards,” I whispered. “Who are they? What are they? And why…?” But I didn’t know how to finish the why question. I wasn’t entirely sure what they did.

  “Ugh! They’re people, just like us. Except…” she trailed off.

  “Except what?”

  “They’re not… they’re reproduced, controlled,” she growled out the words.

  “The Central Unit has a process called insertion,” Aleric began, speaking each word carefully, slowly, his upper lip curling as though he was disgusted by what he was saying. “When the people in the city grow weary of their long lives they can be inserted, stored, and brought back out when they are ready. Some willingly go in with the sole intention of being a ward of the city.”

  The process sounded simple enough, kind of like the people on Earth that had been frozen with the hope of one day being reanimated. But Haize’s reaction bothered me. She didn’t seem the type to be put off by such a process, and my instinct was not to ask any more questions. But I did.

  “So, how are the wards different from others that have been inserted?”

  “The Guardian reproduces them with a frequency embedded in their system, giving it control over them, what they do, say, hear, and where they go,” Haize responded.

  “And what is insertion?”

  Upon seeing Aleric’s reaction to my question, I immediately regretted asking. I no longer wanted to know.

  His face had become a solid mask, as though he needed to disconnect himself from the words that spilled from his mouth.

  “Your entire being is scanned, your memories stored, your body stripped down to its basic building blocks, cleaned of any defects and then inserted into the Central Unit. It can then reproduce you. You’re essentially generated, but you’re also very real, made of the same stuff you were made of before, just reproduced. Clean.”

  The very image of what he described stirred the few contents in my stomach, and I grabbed the rock wall to steady myself, forcing away the images that tried to take over.

  He held out a small flask to me. I knew right away what it was, and without question, I accepted it.

  “Grid has been looking for you,” he finally said to me, scanning my face. “You look too happy.”

  After almost emptying my stomach upon the narrow walkway, I doubted his alcohol could make me happy enough to warrant a comment, but it had pushed all the disturbing thoughts back into a darkened corner. I took another swallow for good measure, enjoying the burn down my throat and the numbing of my senses, before handing it back to him.

  “I guess we’d better get down these stairs while I can still walk,” I mumbled. “And why is he looking for me? I can come and go as I please, he doesn’t own me.”

  “No, but I can see somebody else does,” Aleric said, and I smiled at him. “Yeah, that’s the grin you need to lose.”

  “I don’t understand,” I compla
ined, reason already leaving me.

  “You cannot tell a soul about Jordan being out of the city and that you met,” he urged in a hushed tone. “For his safety and for yours. Understand?”

  I nodded. Not a soul. And then realized Aleric had not brought him to the tree hut until all but Haize and myself had left.

  “Not even Grid,” Haize whispered. “Whatever has begun between you two, you need to keep pretending, until both you and Jordan can safely leave. Trust me when I tell you that no matter what you have to do, do it. It won’t matter to Jordan, he’d rather have you alive.”

  “Nothing’s begun,” I retorted. But then as I thought back to just last night, something had. But I couldn’t continue that. I couldn’t even think about another person that way.

  Grid met us near the base of the stairwell. I was already having difficulty keeping my feet straight upon each stair, leaning a little too much upon the railing, and almost fell, but he caught me, and reprimanded the three of us.

  “Are you trying to kill yourself?” he began. “At least wait until you’re on the ground floor before you touch that stuff. And what were you thinking keeping her up there so late? Don’t you know the wards are out?” He lowered his voice on this last question as he turned to Aleric and Haize.

  “I wanted to see the sunset. I miss that,” I told him, which was the truth and so easy to say in this state. “Don’t yell at them. I refused to come down.”

  “What were you doing all afternoon? I looked everywhere for you?”

  I waived to Aleric and Haize as they turned into the food hall. Grid led me away, hopefully toward home.

  “I was in the fields. I’m going to be a farmer now. I’m going to grow food to eat,” I could hear my words running into each other, but I didn’t care. I made every effort to stop talking though, just in case I said too much.

  “That’s nice,” he said, and swung down to pick me up. I didn’t want him to, but it was probably for the best. I’m sure I passed out seconds later.

  ∞

  Damn Aleric and his special liquids! My head pounded when I opened my eyes. My stomach felt like it needed to regurgitate every ounce of everything inside it, defeating the entire purpose of drinking it in the first place. Stupid!

  “Drink,” Grid said to me, and I felt him push a familiar tube into my hand. I immediately uncapped it and swallowed its contents. There was light in the room, but it was dimmed, no doubt to let me sleep.

  He was seated in a chair beside my bed; I was grateful he’d at least kept his distance.

  “What are you doing?” I asked him.

  “Watching over you.”

  Not the person I would have preferred watch over me, but at least his heart was in the right place. Though I needed to find a way to keep the distance between us. Despite Haize’s voice resounding in my head, I couldn’t do what she was asking.

  “Why?”

  “You shouldn’t drink that stuff. You’re not built like they are,” he said, then lowered his head. “And also, when you drink, you talk too much in your sleep.”

  My breath caught in my throat as my thoughts turned to Jordan. I talk too much. No doubt that meant I’d spoken of him. I only hoped I hadn’t said anything about yesterday, or the coming day.

  “What exactly do I talk about?” I asked, trying to smirk, but I’m sure it wasn’t convincing. I had to keep up the pretense, although other than hurting his feelings with talk of Jordan, I couldn’t imagine why my talking of him would disturb him so.

  “You talk too much about him,” he said a little too sternly. I couldn’t be sure if that was jealousy in his tone or not. It sounded more like the way my father used to reprimand me for a bad choice. Though Grid couldn’t even say his name, and I wondered if perhaps my talking of him in my sleep, had kept Grid in the chair instead of beside me all night.

  “Promise me, you won’t drink anymore of that stuff.”

  I didn’t want to promise that. I wanted to keep Grid at least an arms distance away, no matter what it took. But I had to keep Jordan safe. And he smiled when I promised, seeming relieved as he rose and left the room.

  10

  Someone New

  After a long, scorching shower and a welcome change of clothes, I met Grid in the front room. Coffee was waiting for me upon the table; its scent wafting to me, smelling as delicious as ever.

  As I picked apart my toast, I tried not to look up at him. However, the couple of times that I did, I found him staring back at me. Neither smiling nor stern, just staring.

  I wanted to ask him about last night, and the things I may or may not have said, but I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it, and I didn’t want to draw attention to Jordan. I hoped I hadn’t already, but I felt it would be better if I asked at least one or two questions.

  “Ok,” I sighed, and tossed my toast back onto my plate. Hopefully, just the right amount of dramatics. “I have to ask. What exactly did I say last night? You’re sitting there staring at me as though I killed your best friend. So, out with it.”

  He laughed just a little. Thankfully, my little speech didn’t have the opposite effect; his smile was now back on his face. I didn’t want to encourage him back into my direction, but this at least, was better than the blank stare.

  “You talked a lot about his eyes, his mouth, how much you’d missed him,” he went on and then chuckled again. It was clear that whatever I’d said had affected him, and I needed to find a way to make it seem not so important.

  “How long was it before you stopped dreaming of her?” I asked. My question stung. He looked at me as though I’d slapped him, and I wished the words back into my mouth, but I doubted even their machine could accomplish that.

  Dropping his head to his chest, he glanced around the miscellaneous objects on the table, then softly snorted. Raising his gaze to mine, he quickly winked at me, as a smile began to spread across his face.

  “I guess it was quite a while,” he said, and even though his reaction confused the heck out of me, he seemed grateful for the reminder, and I hoped that this at least, had bought me some time before he made any more advances.

  I pulled my gaze away from him to glance out of the window and up at the sky-dome, only to see it was fully blue. The day had begun. I hoped I hadn’t missed going to the fields with Haize. Though as I stood, he did as well, capturing my hand in his, and holding me there.

  I froze, ready to pull away and run.

  “It would be better for the both of you, if you forgot he existed,” he whispered, though his eyes were half-closed as he looked at me, and I couldn’t read their expression.

  “I know.”

  He was right though, but for reasons other than what he may have been indicating. People close to me always died. I didn’t want that for Jordan. But I couldn’t be without him either. I was damning us both.

  He released me with a nervous smile and stepped away.

  I tried to smile back at him, though I’m sure it came out as a weak impression of one, and I turned and hurried down the stairs.

  Haize was waiting for me in the food hall. It was mostly empty, and I guessed everyone else had left much earlier. She smiled as I came in, then rose and hooked her arm in mine as though we were schoolgirls, and walked me down the hallway and up the back stairs.

  Halfway up, she released me. I turned to her, to ask what was wrong, but she put her finger to her lips to shush me, and we ascended the remainder of the stairs in silence.

  I expected Jordan to be waiting for me the moment I stepped out onto the cliffside walkway, but I was still alone with Haize. There was no one else about either, and the panic began to beat at my chest. Something was wrong.

  We walked in silence over the hills, across the grassland to the trees and then turned south toward the tree hut. As we did, I felt it once more; that sense of him filling me, coursing through me, and I reached out for him.

  We stopped a short distance from the tree hut
and I turned to her again, questioning, but the warmth within me deepened, strengthened and I knew he was close.

  “Making sure you didn’t speak about him until we were well outside,” she explained, and then smiled past me, looking relieved and amused at the same time.

  I turned to see what she was smiling at and found him walking toward me, wearing almost the same clothes as Aleric. Gone were his soft, grey pants and the perfect blue shirt he’d worn the previous day, and in its place, were long, brown pants and sleeveless vest; the clothes the Rathe mostly wore. Though on the upside it left his arms and most of his chest exposed, and I noticed a scar peeking out from under his vest, running almost diagonally across his chest toward his stomach.

  “Don’t laugh,” he whispered, as he folded me into his arms.

  I had to rein in the feeling of needing to jump out of my skin and merge with him, when the warmth rippled through those areas where we touched.

  “If I’m going to be out here with you every day, then I’ll need to blend in.”

  “But I don’t blend in,” I whispered back, trying to remember what clothes I’d put on.

  “You’re not expected to.”

  He slid one arm up my back and over my shoulder to my chin, holding my face as his lips met mine. Then releasing me all too soon, he reached for my hand, and pulled me along.

  “Come on,” Haize urged us.

  “Where are we going?” Jordan asked.

  “The orchard,” she responded. “It will be easier for you if you’re not out in the open, in the fields.”

  Easier as in safer, away from watching eyes, though Jordan thanked her for her help.

  “And I wasn’t going to laugh,” I said, when I finally found my voice again. “You look just like them now.”

  My eyes raked over his broad shoulders and down his body. He could wear anything and still bring out the butterflies in my stomach.

  “Don’t look at me like that,” he breathed, but more forcefully than he had the previous day.

  “Why not?” I tried to tease him, but I felt my cheeks heat up as though I’d been caught doing something wrong.