Clark shrugged.
“They’re not any different than us,” he said. “I think that’s what makes it easier for some people to distance themselves from it. They don’t have any exposure to these people, so they don’t seem to be human at all.”
“How many are back there?” I asked, motioning my head to the hallway.
“A lot,” Clark whispered. “Ironically, even after everything, people still try to sneak into the country and live a new life. Some countries are in such bad states that…it’s amazing life is even there at all.”
“What is going to happen if we do this, Clark?” I hissed. “We really haven’t thought this through…”
“Do you think Thomas Ankell thought things through when he started the revolution? Or, hell, go back even further. Do you think that the people really thought through what would happen when they came across the ocean four hundred years ago to start life in America? All they could see was change on the horizon. That’s what we have to keep our eyes on.”
I nodded slowly.
“Dana wants me to start coming here after school,” I murmured. Clark took a deep breath and slowly let it out through his nose.
“Well, I know you don’t want to, but I would appreciate the company,” he tried to joke. I smiled and shook my head, pressing my hands to my face before running them through my hair.
“Oh, Clark, how did this become our lives?”
“Our parents?” Clark suggested lightly.
“Come on, do we really blame our parents for everything?” I laughed.
“I don’t mind doing it,” he grinned. “At least for now.”
There was a knock on the door and we turned as the door opened. Mrs. Markus was standing there with another man behind her. He was about as tall as she was, wearing a suit with sunglasses. I assumed he was the Markus’ driver.
He walked around Mrs. Markus as she spoke, stepping over to me, pulling out my chair as I stood.
“Are you two ready to go?” Mrs. Markus smiled sweetly. She turned to me and her eyes turned sad. “Oh, Lily, are you alright? You look as though you’ve been crying.”
“Oh, no, I’m sorry.” I wiped my eyes again. “When I get tired my eyes start to water really badly,” I said lamely.
“Oh…are you sure you’re okay?” she pressed. A part of me felt a strange sense of sadness that this woman, who seemed loving and gentle, was someone who was close, and loyal, to Dana. The things Clark told me about his mother being with Dana went through my head, and I realized that it was really sad just how blind she was to her own situation. Dana had blinded her, twisted her thoughts and now controlled her completely.
After Clark had packed up his books, I walked out the door that the driver held open and followed Clark and Mrs. Markus to the elevator, picking up my phone at the front desk before walking to the sleek black car waiting for us. The driver opened the door for everyone and then walked to the driver’s seat.
“Clark, did you finish your homework?” Mrs. Markus asked, turning to her son, who sat between me and his mother.
“Yeah.”
“And did you find anything for Dana about Eyna?”
“There’s nothing physically wrong with him,” Clark said.
“Haven’t you seen him recently?” Mrs. Markus asked.
“Yes,” Clark nodded. “But they’ve been relentless with the tests. It’s possibly he’s just tired. Dana is going to run some tests to study his pain reactions on Tuesday. It’s possible his brain is firing incorrectly.”
The conversation stopped there.
I did not ask how the driver knew where I lived, though I never heard anyone tell him where to go. He dropped me off in front of my house.
“Lily,” Clark said quickly, “don’t forget about Monday. We have to meet to discuss the project.”
“Right,” I nodded, glad he reminded me. “I’ll see you on Monday.”
I unlocked the front door, stepping inside and waving to the car that was waiting for me to get in the house. As the car began pulling away, I heard a voice behind me.
“Lily?”
I turned around to see my father walking into the foyer from the kitchen.
“There you are,” he smiled, relieved. He opened his arms as I walked closer, hugging me tightly. I was a little surprised. He used to hug me a lot when I was little, but since I had grown up, he did not hug me the way he used to. This hug felt different. He was relieved. He knew I was safe, now. The love I felt from my father at that moment made me cry again.
Dana was wrong. He was completely wrong. Even if fear was a huge part of our lives and some things that had to be done for the good of the society, it did not justify any harm done to another human being. Everyone was someone’s child, and they were loved just as my father loved me.
It was that feeling that renewed me, and I knew I had to fight against Dana and the Commission so that everyone could feel that kind of love.
Chapter Twenty-Four
When I had changed and washed up, I quietly ducked into Mykail’s room. It had taken a long time for my father to leave me alone. He was acting as though he had not seen me in months. My mother, who had been taking a shower when I returned home, came downstairs and told me that my father was being silly, thinking I was in some kind of danger.
The words hurt more than she realized.
But finally, I was in the room with Mykail, sitting on his bed as we had so often done.
“How was tonight?”
“Dana wants me to go to the Commission after school.”
Mykail stopped, thinking carefully.
“I see…”
“I think…I can make it so that I don’t have to go there every day after school…maybe,” I said slowly. “I think I can have it so that I go there for a certain time of the day, but I won’t have to be stuck there at all hours, like Clark.”
“…you’re actually thinking of going?” Mykail blinked in disbelief.
“It’s a way to get closer to him,” I shrugged. “I can start snooping around.”
“Speaking of which,” Mykail said, turning to the bedside table and opening the drawer, pulling out the notes Clark had given me and the map of the Commission that Mykail had drawn before. “I looked over the notes and I deciphered what the person was talking about.”
“I thought you knew it just by looking at it,” I said.
“Well, for the most part,” he nodded, looking at the papers. “Whoever wrote this has sloppy handwriting. But they have a lot of great information, if we can trust it.”
“Like what?”
“Well, the first page took me a while, but I realized that it is the access codes for each ward, and even the access code for Eyna’s cell,” Mykail said, turning the page around to show me. “These are the codes for the electronic locks to get into the ward.”
“Really?”
“I don’t know how, but somehow, this person got the codes,” he said. “I don’t know if they’re legitimate or if they change periodically, but considering the language that this was written in, I think we can trust it. It’s another experiment.”
“What do the other pages say?”
“The next page is what took me the longest,” he admitted. “I realized that he was talking about wards, but it took me a while to really get it. ‘J1’ is the experiment’s code for Ward One, and these numbers in the parenthesis are meant to show how many experiments in that ward would be best for the rebellion. Obviously, there are none in the first ward or in the second ward,” he explained, pointing to the lines he was talking about.
“Why are the stars on either side of the zero for Ward One and both are in front of the zero for Ward Two?” I blinked. “Do they mean the same thing?”
“Yes,” he nodded. “Most have codes like this,” he pointed to Ward One, “Numbers two, eight, and sometimes four, have codes like this,” he pointed to the stars in front of the zeroes on Ward Two.
“Why?”
“To confuse anyone
who might be trying to figure this out on their own,” Mykail sighed. “To be fair, I really didn’t use this system of communication, so it was more difficult for me to decipher this. Whoever did this is someone who has either been in the Commission for a long time, or knows the code extremely well. Probably both.”
“So, what does all this mean?” I asked, pointing to the string of numbers and other symbols after Ward Three.
“Remember how I told you that every ward has their time ‘outside?’” he asked. “Well, this is the schedule for their time the Dome.”
He reached for the map he had drawn and flipped it over. There were some words scribbled on the back.
“Here’s a basic table to show you about time and date,” he said.
I was startled to see that he had not spelled any of the days of the week correctly. After a confused moment, it became clear that he was not entirely literate. When our eyes met, he looked embarrassed.
“I know they’re not right…” he said quietly. “I was the most literate one of my family, if you can believe it.”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I didn’t mean to embarrass you. I just never really thought of it.”
“It’s fine…” he grumbled, eager to drop the subject.
I looked back to the paper in order to avoid embarrassing him further.
I was confronted with two columns of hours written in chronological order and the followed by random numbers and slashes in front of the number, around the number, or after the number, but with no noticeable pattern.
“This seems to have no order with the slashes,” I groaned.
“That’s the point. The numbers all mean something else without the slashes, so if those slashes are like that around that number, it means time, not anything else.”
“Then…this says the days they have their break and the times they have that break in the day,” I noted, pointing at the second page of notes.
“Yes. The other pages are all the specific information on the twenty-seven experiments listed,” Mykail explained, spreading out the papers between us. “This is their number, their cell number, their access code, the time the security switches for them…it’s incredible what this person has found out.”
“So…is this how all experiments communicate with one another?”
“Well, more or less,” Mykail nodded. “There is another writing system, but the sign language is more common.”
“Sign language?” I repeated. “This is really sophisticated for such a horrible environment…” I commented on under my breath.
“We had to find some way to communicate,” Mykail said. “It was the best way to keep what little we had of our sanity. We had to connect to others in the Commission.” He sighed and leafed through the papers. “Now, if we could just get blue prints of the Commission…” he mused. “Maybe Clark can get into Dana’s office and get those.”
“Or I could, when I get a little closer to him.”
“We might need to move quickly before the schedule changes,” he said, looking at all the notes. “I recall that the schedule does change, but I really don’t know how often. I’m sure there’s no real schedule to the changes, if I know Dana.”
“Finding people to participate in the revolution has been difficult…” I said slowly. “I don’t really know how to begin reaching people.”
“It’s best to talk to people about such things when they are in a high state of emotion,” Mykail told me. “Wait until Dana does something that bothers people, then it should not take much at all to rally them.”
“It looks to me like most people blindly accept most of what he does because they know that they can’t do anything to stop him.”
“Maybe,” Mykail admitted. “But that doesn’t mean that people like it all the time. Just know when to strike. All you have to do is show them that they are not alone in feeling angry and they will willingly help.”
I sighed and rubbed my eyes, which immediately drew the attention of Mykail.
“Having second thoughts?”
I shook my head. “Not second thoughts,” I assured. “This is just…I’m worried we’re fighting a losing battle. I mean, Dana has the entire military at his disposal, doesn’t he? No matter how many people we break out, we can’t match the military.”
“Maybe not,” he shrugged. “But all we need to do is get some people angry. There are still children of the revolutionaries who believe in fighting for a cause as big as a revolution. We show the people what the Commission has done, we anger them, and then we will have more people to help.”
I sighed. “I guess I’m just nervous.”
He was still for a moment, studying me. Clearly I was letting too much of my concern show, so I smiled and shook my head.
“Never mind, sorry.”
He was still watching me and it made me nervous enough to reach forward and pick up the notes on the bed. I opened my mouth to speak but before I could say anything, his hand closed around my wrist and his wings came forward, resting on the bed as he leaned forward, his other hand going to my jaw and tilting my head to capture my mouth in a kiss. I was so shocked that I could not move, and was even more startled when I felt his tongue tentatively pass between my lips.
Despite everything I had heard from my friends, I was extremely innocent and really had no idea what it was like to kiss and make out with someone. The touch of his lips was electric, but the feel of his tongue left me boneless and weak. I leaned into him for support.
Before I knew it, I was once again laying back on his bed, only this time I was fully conscious and actively participating.
His wings were on either side of me, pressing down into the bed, causing it to dip and pull me further into the mattress, one of his hands on my neck and the other running up and down my arm.
I wrapped my arms around his neck, shivering at the feelings of the feathers brushing my arms and the silky strands of his thin, blonde hair as I wove my fingers in it. I pulled him closer, wanting to feel him all around me. I felt safe. I was able to forget everything about the revolution and the fear Dana instilled in me. For this moment, it was only Mykail. Only his lips, only his hands, only the cocoon of his wings around us both.
I tentatively worked my lips against his, our tongues intermingling with our breaths as I felt my entire body flush. I could not open my eyes, all I could do was hold him to me, feel his hand against my side, try to catch a short breath every time our lips parted for the briefest second…
It was messy with no finesse, but it was amazing.
I felt the bed shift once again as he moved his legs to rest over mine. He was pressed on top of me, his entire weight supported on his wings as we kissed. I shivered, the feeling sparking something deep inside me. When I felt his body grind against mine, I gasped and our mouths broke apart. Mykail backed away quickly, as if I bit him, and we both stared at one another, catching our breaths, flustered.
I could not form a coherent thought to understand if I had done something wrong that would make him pull away. All I knew was that my head was spinning, and I wished the feeling would last forever.
“I’m sorry…” he whispered, moving away, taking a few deep breaths as I tried to collect my thoughts. “I didn’t mean to move so quickly…”
I shook my head and lazily reached my hand out, touching his arm, though my head was so foggy I could not pull myself upright.
“No, don’t say that…”
“I don’t want to push anything,” he said, turning his head to me. The look in his eyes was tender and frightened at the same time. “I’m sorry…”
“Please, don’t apologize,” I shook my head. I managed to wrap my fingers around his wrist and pull weakly, trying to get him to come back to me, come back to cocoon me in his wings and make me feel that there was nothing else in the world but the two of us.
He hesitated, but shifted to his side, one of his wings extending. The large white feathers shifted beautifully as the wing stretched to the ceiling be
fore arching with the most grace I had ever seen to cover us both and rest on the bed. I smiled, knowing I looked like an idiot, but it was the most mystical, beautiful thing I had ever seen. I turned to Mykail, seeing his face close to mine, our noses almost touching.
“This is dangerous…” he hissed.
“Everything we’re doing lately is dangerous,” I told him with a smile. “I know you won’t hurt me.”
“How can you be sure?” he breathed, looking at me with his eyes wide. For the first time, I saw how young he really looked. He looked lost and confused, his voice soft and choked. “What Dana did to me…I’m not the same person I was…I’m…I’m no longer human.”
“Being human isn’t about what you look like,” I breathed. “It’s all about what you feel. It seems like the Commission took people in because they looked and lived differently…but they all felt the same amount of pain and happiness in their lives…that’s what makes us human…” I placed my hand on the side of his face. “That’s what we have to fight for…”
Mykail and I stared at one another for a very long time. I realized that the feelings I had toward him were much deeper than I thought before. It was no longer just a missed heartbeat or flushed cheeks. My entire body reacted to him. All he had to do was look at me, and I felt myself change. The revelation scared me, but at the same time, he made me feel happy enough to embrace the foreign feeling.
He leaned forward slowly and hovered over my mouth so I could feel the warmth of his breath spread over my lips. When he did not move any closer, I closed the gap between us.
The kiss was calmer, sweeter, but it did not last as long. I felt a warm feeling spread through my entire body, though it was not the spiraling shockwave from before. It was softer, gentler, and it left my heart soaring.
He pulled away.
“I’m starting to think that maybe all those prayers I said were finally answered…” he hissed. I smiled before I could stop myself.
“You pray?”
“The irony is not lost on me,” he chuckled. “Not so much praying to God, but praying that I would have the strength to stay alive and…well…praying that maybe one day I would meet someone who was accepting of what had happened to me.”
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