by Jacob Gowans
Sammy limped over to help as the security alarms went off again. The same announcement began again until the speakers shut off with a loud CLICK! Sammy muttered to himself as he reached the nurse who seemed to be in charge.
“There’s a staircase down the hall and to the right.” He pointed back the way Rosmir had brought him. “I’ll help you take them that way!”
The nurse nodded and helped those children who would still listen to her. “Follow her,” Sammy told them as he tried to keep up with the group, but his leg couldn’t do it. The nurse paused for him, but he waved her on.
“Go! Go! I’m fine.”
Within minutes, the hallway was deserted save for himself and a few stragglers. Sammy told them where to go and what to do, and most of them took his advice. He had barely reached the main lobby of the psych ward when someone met him at the door.
It was a woman with long dark hair and large brown eyes. She might have been gorgeous if not for her taped and purplish nose and the puffiness that rimmed her eyes and cheeks. The bruising gave the impression that her face had recently suffered trauma or surgery. She wore a red tunic that melted into her black pants with a jagged 13 symbol on her breast. No grin crossed her lips as she recognized Sammy. No witty remark greeted him, either. She pointed her jigger at him and fired three times. Sammy raised his hands and used a blast to shield.
He could feel the darkness within him rising up, wanting to take control. He wanted to kill her, to watch her slowly die while screaming for mercy. Katie fired at him again as she moved closer. Again he shielded, then blasted at her to keep her at bay.
“Sammy . . . ” came a voice from behind him. It was a familiar voice with a nasal tone accompanied by a strong scent of cinnamon. “Sammy . . . why?”
Sammy knew who it was before he looked. If the darkness had been growing inside of him at the sight of Katie Carpenter, seeing Stripe with her all but consumed him with a malice so powerful that it filled him with a black energy he hadn’t experienced since his time with Dr. Vogt. Stripe’s face looked bizarrely slack and void of contour until all the muscles in his head and neck spasmed simultaneously. He wore the same black and white hat Sammy had seen dozens of times in the room with the black door.
The pain in Sammy’s leg tripled. Forgetting Katie, he sent multiple blasts at Stripe, sending him flying into a wall. Stripe’s head hit first, leaving a basketball-sized dent in the sheet rock. Blood oozed from Stripe’s mouth while from Sammy’s came an incoherent scream of fury. From behind, he heard a click and felt the muzzle of a jigger pressed against his skull. Only then did Sammy realize his fatal mistake of forgetting the more powerful of the two foes.
“Goodbye, Sammy,” Katie said. “You behaved exactly as I thought you would.”
She pulled the trigger. Sammy heard the gun go off like a bomb in his ear, and everything went white.
3.
Safe
Tuesday May 7, 2086
On the cruiser ride back to headquarters, Jeffie tilted her head back against her headrest and stretched out her neck muscles until she felt her joints pop.
“I can’t believe Sammy has to spend five days in that place,” Brickert muttered next to her. “I was ready to go after five hours.”
“They play it safe. You can’t blame them. We represent a significant investment of the government, don’t we?”
“We were shot by tranquilizers, not bullets. I’ve hated hospitals ever since I had to stay in one for a week after getting bit by a rabid hamster. My parents almost didn’t get me medical attention in time, and I nearly died.”
“A rabid hamster?”
“I don’t want to talk about it. And I’ve never eaten coconut pudding since.”
“Well, Rosmir said we had to stay at least one day because of Beta policy,” Jeffie reminded her friend. He’d also told her he wanted to be sure Wrobel hadn’t laced the tranquilizer with a subtle poison or some other nefarious chemical, but Jeffie wasn’t sure she believed his excuse. She secretly believed that Rosmir had wanted her and Brickert at the hospital in case Sammy didn’t cooperate or had some kind of a nervous breakdown. Regardless of whether or not she was right, seeing Sammy had been wonderful and frustrating. Wonderful because he seemed much more like his old self again, and frustrating because she hadn’t gotten what she’d wanted. She’d needed that kiss to know what to do.
“Policy shmolicy,” Brickert complained. “I waited all that time to see Sammy and then what happens? You make me leave so you can have your ‘private moment.’”
“Hey, you agreed to it.”
“What else can I say when you’re bending my fingers back like that?”
“I’m sorry, Brick. I’ll make it up to you. I’ll make up a story for Natalia about how all the nurses at the hospital were hitting on you, but you turned each of them down.”
“Please don’t.” Brickert shook his head. Jeffie watched him as he got lost in his own thoughts for a moment. “You have to admit, though, it was nice to get away from headquarters for a few days. I bet everyone at headquarters thinks we’re lucky.”
“Are we lucky?”
“What do you mean?”
Jeffie hugged herself as she spoke. “A crazy person shot us, Brick. He snuck up on me, got into your bedroom—he could have killed us if he wanted to. I don’t even know why he didn’t. Neither does Byron. When he visited me, I asked him about it. All he would say was that Wrobel isn’t a murderer. That’s it. No more information than that. But Wrobel could have killed any of the Betas anytime he wished. Are we really safe? How much can Byron protect us from what’s out there?”
“Of course we’re—! Byron is watching out for us.”
Jeffie hugged herself tighter and shook her head. “I don’t know. Think about it: Commander Wrobel broke in, shot me and you, and took Sammy out of the building. Martin Trector was killed in Rio. Cala and Kobe almost died. Sammy was abandoned—”
“All those are connected to the same person. And Sammy was found.”
Jeffie rolled her eyes. “Only after six months. Look at the state of him now! All those injuries happened to him after he got back.”
“I still can’t believe he’s really back, I’ll tell you,” Brickert said for the umpteenth time. His eyes shone with wild giddiness. Jeffie knew exactly how he felt. “After waiting all this time, it’s so—so . . . what’s the right word?”
“Crazy? Surreal? Awesome? Mind-blowing?” All the words fit appropriately in Jeffie’s mind.
“Crazy, yeah.” Brickert chuckled. “And awesome. And mind-blowing. I don’t know what surreal means. Think about it: as soon as he’s back, things can go back to the way they were before he left!”
How were they before? Jeffie pictured herself hanging out with Sammy, talking until late, laughing out loud with ice cream drooling down their chins. Not too long ago, her only worries at headquarters had been winning each Game and improving her ranks in the simulation statistics. How will I handle it when Sammy has to go on more missions with other Betas when they graduate? The idea of not freaking out over Sammy’s future assignments and missions (which would indeed come, she had no doubt) seemed unfathomable. Can things really go back to the way they were?
Lately life was so filled with drama, and she didn’t see things getting better with Sammy returning to headquarters. Jeffie had wanted to date him for months before he’d left, and despite waiting for him to come home and hanging on for any word of his survival, she’d ultimately chosen to move on and renew a relationship with Kobe. Now her knee-jerk reaction was to cut ties with Kobe and see where things went with Sammy, but the situation wasn’t so simple. She enjoyed her time with Kobe and she had developed strong feelings for him since they’d begun dating again. During her time in the hospital she pondered her upcoming decision. Stay with Kobe? Go for Sammy? Date neither? She had a pretty good idea that if she continued a relationship with Kobe, late night talks with Sammy would be frowned upon. So would most activities that cut into time spent
with her boyfriend. That’s why the kiss had been so important. She needed to decide. Kissing Sammy in the hospital had seemed safer and less like cheating than kissing him at headquarters.
“What are you thinking about?” Brickert asked her. The look in his eyes told her that he already had a good guess.
“Nothing.” She answered too quickly and she knew it. “You know . . . wondering how—if—are we really safe?”
Brickert jumped and grabbed his eye in pain.
“What happened?” Jeffie asked.
“Your nose just poked me in the face!”
Jeffie smacked his arm. “You are such an idiot. Okay, fine. I was thinking about what you said—about whether everything is going to change or go back to the way it was or whatever. Life’s probably going to be weird for a while.”
Brickert grinned and put his hands behind his head. “Yep, especially weird for you.”
She tried to hit him again, but he reacted too quickly and jerked his arm out of reach. “I’m going to poke you in the face for real.”
Brickert answered with a laugh, which she ignored.
The more she thought about her dilemma, the more she realized how difficult (and unfair) it would be to explore a relationship with Sammy while still dating Kobe. I have to choose. But they both seemed like the right choice. Neither boy was perfect. Kobe was still somewhat conceited, but much less than before Rio, and often in a silly, charming way. He oozed confidence again, which Jeffie liked. Both boys had handsome features and strong bodies, which she appreciated, though if she had to pick, Sammy slightly edged out Kobe in this regard. On the other hand, Kobe still didn’t get along with Brickert, and sometimes she felt like she was dating both Kaden and Kobe because the twins were as inseparable as the two sides of a coin. But Kobe was surprisingly romantic when he put his mind to it, and every two or three weeks he had some new way of sweeping her off of her feet.
Sammy, however, had never displayed an ounce of romance. He had no experience dating a girl, and probably didn’t know what charm and suave meant. He cared little for flirting and things of that nature. Yet, at the same time, she could talk to him for hours in more meaningful and deeper ways than she’d ever experienced with Kobe. At one point she thought she’d been in love with Sammy. She hadn’t reached that point with Kobe.
I have to choose, she repeated to herself, now with more force. Sammy or Kobe or neither. Sammy? Kobe? Neither?
“You can talk to me about it, Jeff,” Brickert said quietly.
“Really? Let me ask you one question.”
“What?”
“The last time you spoke to Kobe, how many times did you punch him in the face?”
Brickert’s cheeks went red, and he fell silent, leaving Jeffie to her thoughts. I need a grown-up’s advice, she realized, and then she remembered that she hadn’t called her family in over five weeks. Byron allowed each Beta just one phone call home per month, and Jeffie hadn’t used hers yet. The prospect of getting counsel from her mother set her mind at ease. Tomorrow, she thought. I’ll call home tomorrow.
By the time she and Brickert arrived at headquarters, it was still morning. Jeffie planned to go straight to her room and change into her Beta jumpsuit. As they passed the cafeteria, the door opened and Kobe appeared, smiling.
“Hey Jeff,” he said. “Hey Brick. Welcome back.”
Brickert gave Kobe a curt half-nod, and then told Jeffie he’d see her at lunch. Once Kobe and Jeffie were alone, Kobe pulled her into a warm hug, kissing her cheek softly as he did so. His arms made her feel comfortable and safe.
“I was so worried about you,” Kobe told her. “These last couple of days have dragged. I’m glad you’re back and okay.”
“Please, Kobe,” she responded in her most serious tone of voice, “get a grip. You act like I’ve never been shot before.” She kept her face straight as long she could until she cracked into a smile.
His chest rose and fell against hers as he laughed. “That’s one more thing we have in common.” He released her from the embrace so they could speak, but she pulled him in for longer, still enjoying the security she felt. He spoke to her softly. “Let’s hang out. Just me and you. What do you think?”
“Right now?” she teased. “And skip all our classes?”
“I meant more like this weekend. Friday or Saturday? Which would you prefer?”
The momentary peace she had found during their romantic moment vanished, replaced by the same confusion she’d wrestled with in the cruiser. What do I do? she asked herself. Sammy? Kobe? Neither?
Kobe made a static sound like something from an old radio. “Moon colony to Jeffie. Do you copy, Jeffie?”
“Yeah, I was actually trying to decide.”
By his raised eyebrows and cynical grin he wore, she knew he didn’t believe her. He gently separated her from him by pushing her shoulders until they were at arms’ length from one another.
She looked him in the eye. “Friday is good for me.”
“Okay. I think it’ll give us time to talk about . . . stuff.” There was no bitterness in his voice, and Jeffie was grateful. Some of his confidence was missing, which she noted. She gave him a smile, and he returned it with one of his own.
“Sure. Stuff definitely needs to be discussed.”
“Cool. Hey, where’d you get shot? Was it bad?”
“It was a tranq. Hit me right next to my sternum.”
“Oh, good heavens!” His voice was full of mock concern. “You want me to take a look at that? Purely medical interest, of course.”
“In your dreams, blondie.”
Kobe laughed and put his arm around her waist as they walked down the hall. When they reached the door to the girls’ dormitory on the second floor, he hugged her again. She knew he wanted to kiss her, but she wasn’t sure if she wanted it. He had an intense look in his eyes, which made her even more uncertain. She rubbed his shoulder awkwardly and finally went on her tiptoes to give him a kiss on the cheek.
“I’ll see you later,” she said sweetly.
She eye-scanned herself into her room and changed her clothes before hurrying to her instruction room. She stayed there through lunch and was late getting to sims. In order to get her full simulation time, she had to miss dinner, too. Not feeling hungry and not in the mood to eat alone, she slunk down to her room and crawled into bed. Sleep came quickly, but bad dreams woke her several times. To make matters worse, well before the morning alarm rang, Strawberry roused her with a scream.
“Jeffie! I’m so glad you’re back! How are you?”
Jeffie’s response was not as cordial as it could have been, and Strawberry left the room taken aback. Thus began a very long day of stumbling through her exercises, forcing down breakfast despite having no appetite, an inability to focus on her instructions, and a performance in the sims that could only be described as horrendous. By dinner, she felt like she’d wasted an entire day, and all she cared about was talking to her parents. After scarfing down a light salad, she went to the call room and punched in her home number.
After several rings, she got her parents’ voicemail. She hung up and tried her mom’s com. This time she got an answer. Background noise filled her ears until her mother’s voice cut through the din. “Hello? Jeffie? Jeffie, can you hear me?”
“Mom, where are you?”
“Oh, honey, I’m back on set in Shanghai. Shooting has been ridiculous, and we’re going to go over budget. It’s not my fault that it’s taken way more time than we thought. It’s the actors, you know. I swear they get dumber every generation. Last night, I told one of the actors that he needed to do more than look good for the camera. Guess what he said?”
“What?”
“He said, ‘That’s your job.’ Can you believe it?”
“Wow. Crazy,” Jeffie said, “I was wondering if you have a minute to—”
“I wish I did. Things are so out of control here. We’re trying to wrap up shooting by the end of the week. What’s going on? Are you o
kay?”
“Yeah, I’m—”
“Oh good,” her mother said. “You should give me a call again when I’m back home. Or maybe try your father.”
There was a loud crash in the background. “What was that?” Jeffie asked.
“Dang it all!” her mother shouted. “I told them to be careful with that thing!”
“Mom, real quick, I need to ask—”
“I’m sorry, I’ve got to go. Love ya! Bye!”
The line went dead before Jeffie had a chance to tell her mother goodbye. She frowned as she hung up the phone. Then she picked it up again and dialed for her dad. He answered before the first ring had finished.
“Hey, champ!” her father’s voice, unless he was coaching, normally had an infectious, chipper quality. Not today. “What’s up?”
“Hey, Dad,” Jeffie said. “I was hoping to talk for a little while.”
“Uh . . . yeah, sure,” he said. “Is something wrong? Why didn’t you call, Mom?”
“No, not—I mean, everything’s fine. Mom’s busy filming in—”
“Shanghai, I know. Oh, hey, guess what?”
“What?” Jeffie asked.
“Tobias is getting votes for MVP this year. He’s already a lock-in for the All-Star game.”
“Wow, are you serious?”
“Of course. Haven’t you been following his team?”
“As best as I can,” Jeffie said. “It’s hard to catch him when he’s playing in Australia.”
“I’ve been out here for his last few games. I’m not kidding, your brother’s talent has exploded under his new coaches. Plus he’s hired trainers to work out with him. It’s all paying off. He’s a winner at heart, like all the Tvedts.”