Reaping

by Makansi, K.

  There’s a long silence as we wait for further objections, and none come. Finally, Luis speaks again.

  “I don’t get it,” he says, in a tone that is neither judgmental nor bitter, but simply confused. “I’m happy to be who I am now. If I don’t eat my MealPaks, do I turn into somebody else?”

  “Point is, the choice to be you should be yours.” Rose reaches out and takes his large, rough hand in hers. “You’re lucky you’re happy with who you are. But I’m not. I want to be more. I want to be like Remy, like Bear. I don’t like the notion someone else decides who I am and that they can decide to hold me back from being all I can be.”

  “Luis,” Remy speaks up. “Would I like to experience the same sensations I experienced while eating my MealPaks? Sure. But it should be my choice. No government should force its citizens to eat foods that have been altered in order to alter the individual. If you choose to eat food enhanced to make you smarter or stronger, that’s okay. That’s your choice. But no one should force you to ingest chemicals, to put things in your body in order to change you, control you. If the Dieticians offered you a choice, you could decide on your own. Just like we’re offering you a choice now,” Remy says, addressing everyone in the group. “You don’t have to fight with us. You don’t have to fight at all. It’s up to you. But remember what the Sector did to Sam, and Tai, and my mother. If they can do that to them, they can do it to you, too.”

  I speak up again and all eyes turn to me. “Sometimes choosing is hard. It was hard for me to realize my parents were not the people I thought they were. It was hard for me to realize they had hurt people I love. And it was hard for me to leave Okaria behind. But I did. I made the choice. Now, it’s up to you to make a similar choice. But as you make that choice, also try to keep in mind that the chemicals in your MealPaks influence how you think.”

  “Those of you who’ve had enough can go back home, if you want,” Rose says. “But for those of you who want to help Remy and Vale and Bear make a change, who want to choose for yourself who and what you are instead of having the Dieticians make that choice for you, you stay here. Nous avons de travail a faire,” she says, and I translate in my head: We have work to do.

  No one moves. Even Luis, sitting at Rose’s side, looks unhappy, but unwilling to leave.

  “I don’t know about all that stuff you said about the MealPaks,” he says, finally. “And I’m happy being who I am right now. But what the Bosses did to Sam was wrong, and if what you tell us about your sister and your mother, Remy, is true” he says, “je suis vraiment desolé, then I want to help make it right, if we can.”

  “Merci beaucoup,” Remy says, graciously, though her voice has the tremor of loss in it that I hear every time she talks about Tai or Brinn. But a smile tugs at my lips, watching her, listening to her speak. She could lead them anywhere, I think. I know I’d follow her.

  “So,” the voice I now know as Ren rings out, “what do we do now?”

  17 - VALE

  Spring 8, SA 106, 10h10

  Gregorian Calendar: March 27

  At the conclusion of the meeting, we’d told Luis and Rose’s friends to lay low for now, and spread the word, if possible, about what they’d learned.

  “We’ll tell you our plan as soon as we can,” Remy said. “We need to get more food, untainted, wholesome, for you to eat and share with your friends.” I noted she didn’t tell them not to eat their MealPaks, hoping, I supposed, that the placebo would kick into effect sooner than later.

  “You know,” Eli says as we trudge back, “the chemicals in the MealPaks are only half the equation. Soren’s right. We need to get seeds from the LOTUS database in production.”

  “I realize that,” she says. “You and Soren can head back and lead that effort any time. I’m not stopping you, and I didn’t ask you to come rescue me.”

  Eli starts to protest, but Remy stops and turns to him, her hand resting lightly on his chest.

  “Eli, I know you want to protect me. I know you love me like a sister and I love you like a brother, but you don’t have to stay. LOTUS is important. I know that. Vale could stay with Bear and me. We could go Farm to Farm talking to the people and the rest of you can go back and lead the raid to get the seed printer. Maybe that’s the best thing.”

  I don’t say a word and neither one of them ask for my input. I’m heartened by the idea that we could work together on the Farms, that we’ve reached that point, but now that I feel like I’m truly a part of this team, I don’t want to break it up so soon.

  Eli doesn’t say anything, but he nods and grabs her hand, and we head back to the cave. It’s around one in the morning before we finally crawl under our blankets. Remy, I note with satisfied relief, snuggles in at Eli’s side instead of Soren’s.

  The next morning, I roll over on the hard ground and push myself up on my elbows. Everyone is still asleep, or at least still tucked into their bedrolls. There’s only one thing missing: Jahnu’s head, usually pressed close to Kenzie’s bright red hair.

  I stand up and stretch. I look outside and note that Jahnu’s got a gas stove out and is heating some water. I walk outside and he smiles up at me.

  “Hey,” he says.

  “Morning. You been up for a while?”

  “Yeah. I couldn’t sleep. Everything happening has set my mind on edge.”

  This is more than he usually says to just about anyone other than Kenzie or Remy, so I sit down to savor the experience.

  “I know what you mean,” I say. “It’s like listening to thunder rumble across the lake before a storm breaks over the city. Something big is building and all we can really do is wait and be ready when it comes.”

  He nods. “It is like that, isn’t it. I miss watching those storms roll in over Lake Okaria. It’s not the same when you’re surrounded by trees.”

  I glance around us. “Though being surrounded by trees has its perks, too. Like, say, taking cover when the storm does roll through.”

  “You’re not so bad, Vale, you know that? I knew all those years there had to be a reason Remy liked you so much, why she just couldn’t let go, but I could never figure it out.”

  “Hell of a compliment, Jahnu,” I grin, teasing him, even though the little tingle starting in my belly tells me just how nice of a compliment it really was.

  He laughs. “It was, wasn’t it? There’s a reason I keep my mouth shut most of the time. If I get started, I tend to rattle on or say things best left unsaid.”

  I hear a rustling behind me, and turn to see Kenzie standing over me.

  “Hey, love,” she says to Jahnu, dropping down beside him. She rubs the sleep out of her eyes, her frizzy hair a chaotic swirl of red and gold. “Morning, Vale.”

  In a few moments, the encroaching daylight has opened everyone’s eyes, and Jahnu’s pouring tin cups of tea out for everyone.

  “I’ll get a new message to the Director first thing,” Eli says. “Let her know we need reinforcements and a lot more food.”

  “So how did she take the news that we weren’t coming back?” Kenzie asks. “You never said.”

  “Not well,” Eli says with a glint in his eye. “But she gave credit where it was due. When I told her what Remy and Bear had done at the Dietician’s lab, she grudgingly admitted that ‘that wasn’t completely idiotic.’ I think she’s willing to work with us.”

  “Damn. That’s high praise, coming from her,” Soren acknowledges.

  “Do you think they’ll be able to get food here today?” Remy asks.

  “Tomorrow morning at the latest,” Eli responds. “They might have a lot of cooking to do.”

  “Damn Farm workers ate all our food,” Firestone mutters. Eli rolls his eyes.

  “They did not,” he retorts. “We’ve got boar to spare. And we only gave them what Remy and Bear brought. There’s enough left on our airship to get us through the day with leftovers.”

  Firestone growls under his breath, and I remember from our weeks in the woods together that mornings
are by no means his favorite part of the day. “That scrawny pig is tougher than shoe leather. Must have been the oldest pig in the whole damn Wilds. Certainly the rangiest.”

  “So what’s next?” Miah asks. “Are we just waiting around, for now?”

  “Waiting for the reinforcements,” Eli responds. “Oh, I forgot to tell you. Guess who’s leading the reinforcement team?”

  “Who?” Miah looks wary.

  “Your dad. Ezekiel.” Miah just blinks at him, unable to process this information. “Apparently he leads a raid team at Teutoburg, which isn’t far from here. He’ll be flying in with several others and a shipload of food.”

  “My dad? Coming here?” Miah finally responds.

  “Yeah,” Eli says, with a bit of a laugh. “Tomorrow morning.”

  Miah and his dad didn’t always have the best relationship while we were in the Academy, but since we’ve left the Sector, I sense that Miah’s willing to re-evaluate a lot of things. And that includes his estranged father, the man who abandoned him and his mother to join some group of crazed conspiracy theorists who’d all gone off the deep end. Also known as The Resistance.

  Remy stands, taking the rest of us by surprise.

  “I need to head back to the Farm.”

  Eli stares at her.

  “Now? In broad daylight? Why?”

  Remy shakes her head. “Not now. Tonight. There’s an enormous building on the campus, and no one I’ve talked to has a clue what goes on in there. I want to find out what it is. Maybe there are weapons we could use, or equipment, or seeds we can confiscate. It must be important, so we should find out what it is before the others get here.”

  “Why not wait until we’ve got backup,” Eli says, his voice almost pleading. “The Dietician’s lab was risky enough.”

  “The more people we’ve got milling around here, the more likely it is a drone will sight us. We need to go in tonight before backup arrives. We need to know what’s in there.” There’s an edge to Remy’s voice, a threat in her eyes, that reminds me of the tone Eli took when he held a Bolt to my head and a knife to my throat when he found me and Miah out in the Wilds. “What if it’s something they could use against us?”

  “What’s the rush?” Soren ask. “Tomorrow we’ll have more manpower, additional food, and the workers will have had one more day on untainted MealPaks. Let’s give it all a rest today.”

  “The rush,” she says, glaring at Soren, “is that there could be weapons in there that we could use, or they could use against us or against the Farm workers. If we know what’s going on in there, we could avoid a lot of trouble down the road. If we don’t, we could be blindsided by something they’re hiding for a reason.” Remy pauses before her next statement, and her eyes meet mine as she speaks.

  “Vale, what do you think? You willing to rush into this with me?”

  “Drone,” Remy whispers. “Take it out. Now.”

  I turn my Bolt up to the sky and aim carefully. Now is not the time to stun them—we can’t risk them sending any photographs or evidence of our presence back to the guard stations. I press my finger to the trigger, exhale, squeeze. The flash of blue light is concealed from open view by the surrounding trees, and I’m grateful we’re not into the Farm proper yet. The drone plummets like a dropped rock, crashing into the ground about thirty meters off.

  The fight that ensued when Remy told everyone she wanted me to accompany her on this adventure was spectacular, but short-lived. Eli sat quietly, looking unsurprised but a little disappointed. Sad, even, as though he’d been the last chosen for a game of football back at the Academy. Soren, by contrast, flipped into an altogether different kind of anger than I’d seen before. It took Miah slapping a hand on his mouth and telling him to shut the fuck up unless he wanted to just go ahead and broadcast our location to the whole fucking Sector for him to quiet down. When Miah finally got Soren to shut up, Remy just stared at him.

  “Look, Soren, it’s only rational. If Vale comes with me, and we get caught, there’s a possibility we’ll make it out alive. If you come with me, and we get caught, they’ll shoot us on sight. And even though I don’t think we’ll get caught, I’d like to live through the night on the off-chance that we do.”

  I try to leave that memory in the distance, wishfully replacing it with one where Remy wanted me along not because of my name but because I’m a good soldier, because I don’t shout at her when I disagree with her, and maybe, just maybe, because she wants to be near me.

  Thinking of the drone, I turn to Remy. “We should make sure it’s disabled. Don’t want it coming back to life and relaying crash data to HQ.”

  “Let’s do it,” Remy agrees.

  We jog a little out of our way and spot the collapsed drone caught in the bramble of two bushes. The circular, formerly hovering robot has four cameras and two low-powered Bolts attached—about what I expected for Farm security. I prise open the panel to the nanocircuitry and disable the connections with a few quick movements.

  “We’re good,” I say.

  “I’ve never been able to master those circuits. I usually find a rock and smash it. Not very elegant, but it works.”

  I shake my head and laugh as we start off again. This time, we’re not going through the hole in the fence Bear showed us. We’ve been relying on it too heavily, Remy decided, worried that someone would eventually catch on. Since we’re dressed for mobility, we’re going up and over the fence at the point of shortest distance between the perimeter and the mystery building Remy wants to investigate.

  Remy slaps the charge on her set of magnetic gloves, and begins climbing. The fencing material is too slick to climb any other way, and there’s nothing for a hook or line of rope to catch on at the top. The magnetic gloves work fine, although the climb is anything but easy. We’re hauling ourselves up using upper body strength alone. I’m grateful I’ve been keeping up on Aulion’s training routine, even at Normandy. The man might have been a first-rate bastard, but he sure knew how to work a strength routine.

  Luckily the climb is short, as the fence is only five meters high. We’re up and over in a matter of minutes, dropping silently to the ground.

  “Any guards?” she asks.

  “None visible.”

  “Shoot to stun, if you have to shoot at all.”

  “Remy,” I say, glancing down at her, tense and alert at my side, “they won’t return the favor.”

  “That doesn’t mean we should kill them,” she says. “Not all the Enforcers are bad people. They might not deserve our pity, but they don’t deserve to die.”

  “Death is inevitable in war,” I respond, so quietly I almost can’t hear myself.

  “You think I don’t know that?” Her voice is harsh. “But I have my list, and these men and women aren’t on it.”

  I ponder these words for a second, trying not to think about the people who undoubtedly are on her list. “Okay. For tonight,” I say and follow her lead as we jog into the Farm, staying low to the ground.

  As we draw closer, I blink three times to switch out of infrared into visible spectrum. The night is so dark I can’t even see the building she’s talking about until we almost run into it. Remy slows her jog and heads directly for a piping and air duct system on the exterior.

  “Hand,” she says, as soon as we’ve reached it. She meets my eyes for half a second as I cup my hands in a stirrup. Then she puts her boot into my laced fingers, and clasps my shoulders. With an enormous effort, I heave her as high as I can, and with a quick motion she grabs onto the frame below two large exhaust fans.

  Remy grabs at a pipe coupling and begins to pull herself up toward the roof, three stories high. She looks like a spider crawling up a web. And then she disappears.

  I press my body up against the wall and wait. Not five minutes later, I hear Remy’s voice whisper in my earpiece.

  “Here it comes.” I look up to see a rope tumbling down toward me, and I catch it before it can swing wide. I hated rope climbing back when Aulion
stood at the bottom timing me, yelling at me no matter how fast or slow I went. Even with no Aulion, I still hate it. At least now I can use the side of the building to propel myself upward instead of swinging like a pendulum in the middle of the gymnasium. I jump and get a good handhold and start climbing. Once I’m over the edge, Remy unties the rope from around the base of a section of solar harvesters and motions me to follow her.

  We crouch low and make our way through rows of panels. Except for the dim reflection of starlight, everything is shadowed and silent. At the far end there’s a door and we head toward it, careful to stay low so we cast no shadows. Remy tries the door, but it’s locked, unsurprisingly. It doesn’t take me long to fish out a lock pick and open the door.

  “Simple, really,” I whisper. “Not much security up here.”

  “Why would there be?” Remy responds.

  Remy opens the door just a crack and we peek inside. The closeness of her body distracts me for a second, and I have to tell myself to keep my mind on the task at hand. Focus, Vale!

  Inside, there’s nothing but darkness and a few dim red lights indicating the power to the facility is still on. She pushes the door open enough to slip through, and I follow suit, shutting it carefully. I check to make sure it’s auto-locked behind us—we want to leave everything exactly as we found it in case we don’t leave by this door—then we slink onto the inside balcony, scanning the expansive space for sensors, monitors, or cameras we need to disarm, but there’s nothing obvious.

  We walk through a darkened hallway to a flight of metal stairs, which leads onto a large open platform that overlooks the ground floor. I blink back to infrared and, from this perspective, we can almost see the entire space of the building.

  Remy, in her heat-cloaking gear, is now just a floating face at my side, a hovering blur of heat from her exposed skin. I look around. Stricken by the sight in front of me, I suck in a breath.