by D. K. Dailey
We burst out of the lab, dragging the bodies behind us, to find Dad pointing a gun at us. “I can’t let you leave, Kade.” His tone is bitter. Blood drips from his head, and glass sprinkles the nest of hair that was slicked back neatly mere hours ago.
We let the tarps go and put our hands into the air.
Zee’s voice booms over the earbuds. “Time is up. Get out.”
“That’s a little difficult right now,” I say from the side of my mouth.
“Who are you talking to?”
“What are you going to do, shoot us both? For what, Dad?”
“As if I need a reason to shoot two Dregs that broke into a government lab.” His voice turns from fire to ice. And with both inflections, he breaks my heart even more.
All a son ever wants is for his father to be a father, the man he looks up to and can mold himself after. Dad was never absent from my life. He was there when I needed him and taught me how to be a man. He taught me about olden-day sports and techie stuff, life, and girls. So how can he disown me now, even if we aren’t technically blood related?
“So this is what it’s come to. You’re choosing the government over me?” My throat feels dry, but my eyes are wet.
“You aren’t my family anymore.” His words, a tuning fork on my spine. My world turns dark. I’m zozzled but without the carefree sway. I see what I must do. And unfortunately, my father stands in my way. Quickly, I weigh my options: How do I get out of this without hurting my father? And if I won’t hurt him, how will I protect Saya?
Time is up. Weight lifts from my shoulders and grounds me back into my body.
Dad’s hand quivers, and Saya squirms next to me.
Pulling my gun from my waistband, I aim at his leg and pull the trigger, then again at his shoulder. He tumbles back and drops his weapon. Saya runs and grabs his gun. He cries out from his pain, but I’m detached from mine.
A mantra enters my head: Forget what you know. I have never wanted to forget anything. I held on to the strings of my past, the ones that led to Mom, Ems, and Dad, and even the tattered string that held the possibility of being Golden again. Shooting my father and standing up to him…I’ve cut his string, permanently.
“You’re right. I’m not your son anymore. I am Dreg.”
“You’ll never survive out there, Kade,” he calls from the ground.
“I’ve done pretty well so far.”
Zee interrupts over our earbuds. “You’re risking exposure. I’ve held off their building cameras with Pike’s help, but we can’t anymore. They’re overriding our backdoor now.”
“We have to go to the roof,” Saya says to me and then to Zee, “Can you call the elevator and hold off the cameras for that?”
“Copy. Hold please.”
Saya exhales and then turns on the safety on the gun she took from my dad and tucks it into one tarp. It’s something to do.
After a few seconds, the elevator pings open. We drag the bodies into the elevator, and she stands by my side. Dad turns himself over to face us. His eyes are dark clouds, unreadable, but I don’t care. He’s not my father anymore.
The doors close, and we’re faced with our disguises in the mirrors. I look at the strangers who have been through so much loss together and survived.
“I know that was hard. Thank you.” Saya gazes up into my eyes.
“I did it for me.” I breathe in deeply. “If I did it for you or anyone else, I would’ve shot him dead. But I couldn’t…” My voice cracks, but when Saya holds my hand, intertwining her fingers in mine, I am better.
Chapter Forty-Four
When we finally get to the roof, Carson waits. His face is tight with anxiety as he motions for us to hurry to the edge of the roof.
Dragging the bodies through the roof access door, we walk as fast as we can with the extra weight. I toss my gun on the rooftop, and Saya tosses Dad’s—Shaw’s. With our gloves on, they can’t be traced back to us.
Under the stars, the city’s beautiful. The rim of the cup is outlined with lights from the hill sectors. The stars twinkle, pulling my mind away from my former father’s deception and to the moment at hand. Red lights flash on the corners of this and other buildings, but this one has a landing pad for a heli-bubble.
“I thought you got lost in there. You’re two minutes late.” He checks his c-chip as we approach.
With no cameras on the rooftop, Saya and I rip off our masks and hand them over to Carson, who tucks them into his bag.
“Any problems on your end?” My heart beats so erratically it’s hard to concentrate.
“We’re still good.” He tilts his head to exam the tarps. “What the zard are you two lugging?”
“Bodies.”
“How did—” His thick eyebrows furrow. “Who are—”
“We don’t have time to discuss specifics,” Saya says.
“You’re right, we don’t. I don’t mean to be a negative Norman, but how did you plan on getting bodies off this roof?”
I didn’t think about the gliders and this step of the plan. Once she decided to take her loved ones, I helped. I never thought about the details. Carson was waiting to lead us off the roof and make positive we used the gliders correctly.
“I have an extra, but can it carry two people?” he wonders out loud.
“Get off the roof now. They’re searching the building, and the cameras are back on,” Zee reports with urgency. “Pike says Cherry has to go on with the emergency plan now.”
“Man, I’d love to see that,” Carson says distractedly.
Refitted with a Golden c-chip, Cherry will distract the guards with her looks and her barely there dress that she’ll strip off. When Pike was trying to fit her into the plan, she said her best asset was her looks. And he said, “How do we work with that?”
“Mouse and cheese,” replied Ping in her accent.
And Cherry added in her Russian cadence, “It’s settled. I take clothes off.” One of the funniest moments we had together.
“You made it to the roof. You’re on your own. I’m not missing the show.” Zee’s voice is gleeful over our earbuds. We look around at each other in this very serious moment and laugh.
Carson shakes his head. “That boy is a trip.” Then he refocuses quickly. “The weight load is four hundred pounds for the gliders, so I’ll hold one of the bodies with me and the other can go on the extra glider. I’ll glide them all remotely like I’m doing for you guys.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Saya smiles. She’s happy in this moment, and although I was hesitant about taking the bodies, it has given her joy. How can that be a mistake?
“Pike, we’ve got live bodies with us. We need a doctor when we land, over,” Carson says into his radio. He doesn’t wait for an answer. We have to go. He turns, instructing us on how to strap the bodies into the gliders in tight cocoons so they can be safely carried. When we’re done, he says, “We jump together. Pull the cord. I’ll do the rest remotely.”
We take a few steps forward, standing together on the ledge of the rooftop.
Leaving Shaw Technologies and my parents like this, as a fugitive on a rooftop, is the last thing I ever wanted to do. But this time, it’s my choice to leave, and somehow that makes it harder. It hurts worse than when I found out I was Dreg and my family wasn’t there to save me. But there’s no going back. I accept that now.
“One, two, three,” Carson counts, and we all leap together.
Wobbly at first, like a small flock of birds, we quickly come into our own rhythm, flying through the scarce clouds in the starry sky. We glide at natural distances away from each other, and our gliders push air down to keep us aloft in the wind currents. It feels like taking a shower in wind instead of water. I’m freezing though I’m fully dressed.
People look like ants from up here, and no one notices us. This might be my last chance to observe the world from lofty heights, to wonder if I’m any better than anyone else because I once was Golden. And I’m fine with that. Being Golden only
means you have more points and privilege. It doesn’t make you a better person.
Being Dreg doesn’t make you scum or unworthy either. It forces you to see how little you need to survive: a backpack full of essentials and people you can trust. Being Dreg reinforces how strong you really are when your limits are pushed and you’re stripped down to survival mode.
Carson steers us through the skyscraper path he’s mapped out. Not having to think or react as we fly is freeing.
“Kade, Saya, did you hear me?” Carson’s voice buzzes inside my glider. I’m startled to hear him.
“No. Go again,” I reply.
“I heard you just fine,” Saya’s voice resounds inside my glider.
“We got a new landing location, per Pike.” Carson swoops our gliders behind the massive city buildings. I jerk against the restraints. “I’m recalculating the route. Apparently, we’ve joined a new group with more resources.”
“What the zard—I bet it’s the Revisionists.” Saya says. “They have a doctor and more medical supplies—”
“For the bodies,” Carson finishes her sentence.
The bodies. The two words flare inside my head, fueled by raging emotion. I don’t care where we go at this point. I only want it to be far away from Shaw Tech.
The gliders dip lower, swerving around more buildings. As we weave our way through the tactile maze of metal, I want to ask about the Revisionists and the new location. But I don’t. My mind shifts to my pounding heart.
Saya’s glider drifts farther and farther away, and the distance hurts. She’s focused on the tightly wound tarps holding Archer and her father. He hasn’t left her sight since we took off.
My heart scrunches into a tiny ball, and my chest tightens around it. All this time, I was falling in love with her, and her heart was already taken. And that might have been fine when Archer wasn’t in the digital, but he is now. I don’t know if he’ll survive, but still, she made a choice back there, and I’m crushed.
My heart has begun to turn to stone.
I had it all wrong. I couldn’t make someone fall in love with me. No one is obligated to love me. And I’m certain now, through the actions of my father, that only my mother and Ems truly love me. I will keep a measure of my heart open for them while I figure out how to keep them safe from afar.
I look back one last time at Battle Creek and its extravagant buildings and mirrored glass. I am a Golden Dreg boy, and there’s no going back to how it used to be. I can’t be both, but I can’t forget where I came from either.
I’m starting to fill up my cup with stuff that makes a difference, and I’m starting to carve out a meaningful existence. It feels good but hurts, too.
I didn’t have a choice to leave in the beginning. I was naïve and sheltered in my own perfect world. I was bored, looking for interruptions and never envisioning that my Golden life could be taken away with such ease. But knowing what I know now, I’d leave again willingly.
Gripping the glider straps near my head tighter, I focus forward. I live at the base of the cup now with Dregs, and I don’t care if I never see the rim again.
Because this is where I belong.
Acknowledgments
To the reader: Thank you. You love my weird. And for that I love you. If you feel so inclined, a review is like a big virtual hug. Go ahead and give me one. To my sisters: You are my best friends by choice. I love you. To my editors and early readers: Thanks for coming along for the ride and giving me the critical feedback to better my writing. Thank you for always encouraging me. You helped me realize the Golden Dreg World in all its greatness. To my writing peeps: I’ve been involved in so many groups and attended tons of retreats, workshops, classes, and conferences. I’ve met authors, agents, publishers, and writers—so many people for which I am grateful to have crossed paths with. You brought me to July 2, 2020, which is not only my late father’s birthday, but my first ever publishing date. Thank you. Special thanks to: My writing groups in the Bay Area (SFRWA, 2LWA), my dedicated weekly writing buddy Kelli, my lush critique partner, author M.M. Chouinard, my brave sistas who took the author leap first, Jenee Darden and Natalie MonifaDevora, the NaNo Queen: Shannon Monroe, and Blogger Extraordinaire and author, Karen McCoy. You are ALL my people and my fuel in my writing motor. Thank you.
About the Author
D.K. Dailey has a problem: kind of like I see dead people but for writers. Good thing she fuels that creativity to build worlds and create people who do what she says—well, most of the time. She often says, if she wasn't a writer, she’d be certifiably crazy.
Dailey’s writing journey started as a child when she began writing sci-fi short stories, a result of watching countless hours of Star Trek on a shared TV with her parents. With an inborn passion for telling stories, writing songs and poems, her hobbies erupted into a career path after she penned a play in college and then her first novel. She gave life to the Golden Dreg World in 2014 and is glad that it can live and breathe on its own.
As a writer of color living in the diversity of Northern California she is immersed in a tapestry of culture and history that consistently inspire her creativity. For now, she works for a non-profit during the day and plays super writer, master of other worlds and people whenever she has the time.
Book Club Discussion Questions
Main Questions
What did you like best about Golden Dreg Boy, The Slums?
What did you like least about Golden Dreg Boy, The Slums?
If you could ask the author one question, what would it be?
Did you learn anything new?
Do you still have questions?
Questions about the Golden Dreg World
What places in the Golden Dreg World would you most like to visit?
What themes did you recognize in Golden Dreg Boy, The Slums?
What similarities does the world of Golden and Dreg share with the real world?
Social Questions
How does white privilege factor into Golden Dreg Boy, The Slums?
What role does race play in this futuristic world?
How do the events after Kade’s arrest shed light on the disparities and the divide in the Golden Dreg World?
Questions about the Characters
If you could hear this story from another person’s point of view, whose would you choose?
Which characters did you like best? Why?
Which characters did you like least? Why?
How did Saya’s mysterious background affect the way Kade treated her?
How did Kade being a being a fish out of water (a person in unfamiliar surroundings) help or hurt him when navigating amongst the Dregs?
Sneak Peak – The Underground
Golden Dreg Boy, Book 2, Chapter 1
Taking both bodies has changed everything. The trembles in my gut prevent me from stabilizing my pulse and my body as I dangle from the glider. Distractions have plagued me since reaching the roof after raiding Dad’s lab at Shaw Technologies. I can’t believe I shot my dad—no, the man I believed to be my dad, until recently. To top that off, Mom helped Saya and I escape, and our group triggered our cuckoo-ass backup plan—a girl streaking naked—as a diversion for the crimes we committed tonight.
But my biggest distraction is how Saya changed after discovering her dad’s and boybud’s comatose bodies. Her posture and eyes transformed the most. Nothing like the passion she displayed when we were in action, chased by cops, or practice fighting. Although I’ve fallen deeper in love with her every second of every day, her heart has always been Archer’s.
My glider plunges, aided by our go-to tech-guy Carson and his remote control. We’re not home free yet. The landing location changed midair, and clutching the straps by my head is all I can do to keep from wiggling out of the harness due to Carson’s unexpected directional corrections.
“I know the ride hasn’t been the smoothest, but Kade, Saya, how you doing?” His voice blares through the feedback inside my glider.
&nb
sp; We respond with “good” and “fine,” and then silence consumes me again. The lights of the city blur as my hair falls into my face, and I shake my head free of the pieces. I want to tune out my thoughts and the world. Curse the fact that sickness wiped out half of America, creating a new world where points and status mean everything. Where I can’t just be Kade Shaw. Where what I knew to be true is not true at all. Where I can’t legally be with my mom or little sister because I am poor, Dreg-born.
I glare at the Taken bodies below me. Rescuing them changes everything. Finding comatose people in Dad’s lab makes me wonder if my family is going to be okay. I left Mom and Ems with my insane, power-hungry father. I didn’t shoot to kill him. I couldn’t. Underneath his deception and broken promises, he is my dad, even if I told him differently. Even if I shot him.
Saya’s family has been torn apart because they’re poor and they’re Dreg. And at this point in my life, while ducking the law, I can’t help Mom and Ems any more than I can help myself. But when I can, I will. I am going back to help them.
Saya glides closer, eyes fixed on the tarps holding the Taken. Her father is attached to Carson’s glider, while Archer floats in his own.
We all dip down with a whoosh, repositioning ourselves against wind currents, making for a harder trek down through the city. The shapes of the buildings don’t help me discern where we’re headed since most of my life I stuck to the Golden hill sectors and market. These buildings and streets might as well be in Prague.
A crowd has gathered where we’re supposed to land. I recognize some people, but a lot I don’t.