by Melissa Faye
I yelled until my voice went hoarse, but no one came. The truck bumped along a road. I had no idea who was driving it or where we were going. But it was exactly what Yami warned us about. Fertile community members stolen without a trace. I was only wearing boxers and a t-shirt – nothing on my feet. Exactly what I wore to bed. I assumed my TekCast was back at Alexis’s house.
Alexis’s house. That’s where all of us were hiding out. Etta, Breck, Zheng. Etta 2 had found space in a house down the street, and she and Teo may have been taken too. I wasn’t sure – in Young Woods, someone stole people who were fertile. What about parents who already had children?
My legs were sore from kicking against the floor. My elbows were locked up from the cuffs, and my jaw ached from the gag. Still, I couldn’t stop fighting. I kicked pathetically now, weakly, and moved myself around. I couldn’t find anything to touch besides the walls and floor of the truck. It started raining, and I began to shiver. The hood got wet, and I became acutely aware of my precarious situation. If that hood got too wet, and weighted down...
Suddenly, something touched me. Not something, I thought. Someone. First it was feet on my bare legs. Small feet, probably belonging to a woman. I heard her make a few groggy noises. She was just waking up. A moment later, she started screaming through a gag, just like I had. I recognized her voice, even muffled. Zheng was in the truck with me.
I tried to speak to her; maybe I could calm her down. That was useless though. I was barely hanging on to my own sanity after what felt like hours of being twisted in a strange position in the dark. I finally let my head drop to my chest and prayed for sleep. Anything to avoid the pain in my shoulders.
I was vaguely aware of the truck and the gnawing pain in my arms and now my back. But I was exhausted from my struggle and slipped in and out of a half-sleep.
I FINALLY SHOOK MYSELF out of slumber when I felt the truck come to a stop. Too exhausted to make any more attempts to escape or get attention, I stayed perfectly still and tried to hear what was going on. I noticed the sound of Zheng crying quietly.
“Two breeders!” a man said to someone else. “That will fetch a good sum. And they’re in one of those rebel towns. I bet that’ll be even more.”
“Nah,” said the other guy. “I told you. Harvesting is good, but it’s not that good. Mostly it’s better than being in the army.”
“I don’t want to join those gray suits,” the first man said. “That’s a raw deal. But how long are they gonna let us keep doing this?”
There was a pause. I heard the men moving around the truck, pulling something out from the back where I sat next to Zheng. Something slid off the metal floor, too far for me to reach. I heard Zheng try to speak. The men ignored her, so she yelled loudly through her gag. One of the men laughed.
“We’ll get there soon, babe,” he said. “You don’t realize it, but you’re one of the lucky ones.” They slid the object back onto the floor near me.
Anger bubbled up inside of me. What I wouldn’t give to have a chance at pummeling one of these guys. Or harvesters, I guess I could call them. And they called us breeders. As nicknames go, it could be worse. Still, I felt like livestock. Confined until I could be used for procreation.
The men considered letting us stretch our legs, but decided that since I was so clearly ready to fight, it wasn’t worth it. They got back in the truck and we kept driving.
I wondered what they meant. We were the lucky ones. From the back of that truck, I didn’t feel particularly lucky.
FINALLY WE CAME TO a stop, and this time there were other voices nearby. They were kinder and more formal. I heard them talk about Zheng and me like we weren’t there. Someone unclipped my handcuffs from the pipe but left them on my wrists. I heard clicking nearby; Zheng’s handcuffs were removed as well.
Hands roughly pulled me by the elbows down and out of the truck. I stumbled along, suddenly shy about my bare legs. The hood was pulled off my head and I immediately closed my eyes against the bright sunlight. It was morning. I squinted my eyes carefully open while I watched what was going on.
We stood in front of an entranceway to what looked like another community. There was a guard post nearby with two gray suits standing in front with larger guns than I had seen before. Zheng and I glanced at each other, each nervous but hopeful. We were the lucky ones, right?
“Names?” asked a woman carrying a tablet.
“Charlie and Zheng from Gentle Acres,” said the man gripping my elbow tightly. I tried to pull myself out of his grasp but he just sunk his fingers in deeper. I felt my body turn beet red, from my face down to my naked legs. It was humiliating. Standing in front of everyone, gagged, barely dressed, and handcuffed. I was still waiting on this “lucky” piece.
“Alright, pass them over to one of the guards please.”
The men shoved us roughly towards the larger guard, who led us through the town gate. As soon as we crossed the threshold, he pulled off our gags and unclipped our cuffs. Pain shot through my jaw as I slowly opened and closed my mouth. I watched the men, the harvesters, who were still talking to the woman in charge of the entrance.
“We were promised more than this,” one guy said.
“Yes, but we also expect you to bring in breeders more gently,” the woman said, not bothering to look up from her screen.
“No one ever said anything about that,” the man said. “We can’t get in and out of the town without causing a scene unless we resort to some drastic measures. If you just let us use weapons –“
“The standard rate for a harvest of two breeders has been transferred to your account,” the woman said. “I’ve sent you four additional breeder names, all located within a 500 mile radius of here. The rates will be the same per breeder. I’d advise you to hurry, though. There are many harvesters competing for these prices.”
“But this isn’t what we were promised –“
“Move along now, please,” the woman said. “Thank you.”
We stood awkwardly next to the guard. I noticed that Zheng was wearing even less than I was. She had a t-shirt that barely covered her underwear, and her slim pearl-colored legs shined brightly under the sun. She hastily tried to cover herself, crossing her legs, but she couldn’t do much. I looked away quickly.
Someone else appeared with another tablet and gave us a big grin.
“Welcome to Breeder Camp #3...Charlie...and Zheng.” He read off his tablet. “Though we call it The Hideaway. You know. A little bit of a resort for you to meet other breeders and find a mate. You’ll be very happy here.”
I looked at Zheng again. She was frowning, and her lower lip quivered.
“Don’t worry!” He patted Zheng’s shoulder. “You’ll get settled in quickly. We’ll get you some clothes. I know those harvesters don’t have the most delicate touch when bringing in breeders. But we’ll take good care of you.” He gave us a chuckle, as if this was all perfectly normal.
He led us to a small station where two men sat at a long table. The first man pricked my finger and collected a drop of blood in a small dish, then labeled it along the side. “Charlie, right?” he asked. I nodded slowly. “From Young Woods?” I nodded again. He made note on a tablet. He passed me along to the next person.
This man had another tablet, and checked off a few boxes in his notes before pulling out a small box from under the table. It was about eight inches square, and he opened it to reveal a circular band that looked like it was made from the same material as our TekCasts. Rather than a band of gold, silver, bronze, or gray, it featured a thin light around its edges that glowed a soft green.
The man scanned the band with his tablet. Before I could react, he pulled my left arm towards me and snapped the band around my wrist.
“Just a safety precaution,” the man said, avoiding my eyes. “No need to worry. It’s your new B-Band. It works like a TekCast, but it can’t be lost. You’ll use it to order food, request cleaning services, schedule dates with other breeders, and plan your social
calendar. You can message anyone inside the camp.”
“What about other people?”
“No need to contact others. Just people within the camp.”
“What if I want to leave the camp?”
The man furrowed his brow as if surprised I would even ask. “No need to leave the camp. You’ll have everything you need here.” He saw the scowl on my face. “And if you do try to leave, you’ll feel a faint buzzing on the band and someone will be alerted to your location.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but he cut me off. “Sir, leaving the camp will be seen as an act of treason.”
I had nothing to say. There was no mistake. The Hideaway, Breeder Camp #3, whatever they called it, was a prison. I rubbed my temples, willing myself to stay awake and alert. I felt numb and exhausted, though, and struggled to process my new reality.
Zheng received a similar band, and the first man led us into town. I turned to watch the noncomm disappear behind us. I noticed a second sort of community that ran along the outside of the Hideaway. It was wide enough to hold rows of tents and was surrounded by a tall fence with barbed wire along the top.
Several people walked around wearing pale blue jumpsuits. In addition to the bands they wore on their left wrists, they had a second band around their necks. The people did not look happy or well taken care of. Their faces were gaunt, and their lips curved downwards into frowns and grimaces. Gray Suits guarded the area, and when one of the uniformed people caught the eye of a Gray Suit, they picked up their pace.
I lost focus on what I was doing. My head hurt from lack of sleep and my body ached. Wherever we were going, I hoped there would be a bed.
Chapter 5 – Yami
Omer had a plan for telling people about the disappearances: he would just tell them. It wasn’t much of a plan, but I respected him for wanting to be transparent and having faith in the town.
An all-community message was sent out, and within hours, people were in a panic. I organized a town hall meeting on the Chancellor’s mansion lawn. Gianna had become our go-to for delivering bad news with a calm, pleasant tone, leaving the audience satisfied. She spoke briefly about what had happened and how we were planning to ramp up security. She asked for more volunteers for security shifts, and after her motivational speech, people were quick to sign up.
The disappearances loomed over everything we did. We waited to hear from other communities, and similar stories began to surface.
The disappearances were organized by people working alone or in small groups. They called themselves Harvesters. Some of them were within the communities themselves, keeping an eye on who was and wasn’t fertile and making a move once they knew who to take. No one knew where the harvesters went or why they were doing it. I grew fearful for Charlie’s safety, and I was tightly wound. I hadn’t heard from Alexis for days.
To their credit, it only took a few days for the rest of the town to recover from the initial panic. There was too much to do to dwell on the Harvesters. People seemed more encouraged when they felt like there was a common enemy, and we received fewer complaints about job shift assignments and food and money distributions. Omer took more shifts in maintenance and sanitation than anyone else, and I overheard people talking about him in awe on several occasions.
Still, I couldn’t stop worrying about Charlie. I didn’t know Imani for very long, and I was certain she was ok. The Chancellor wouldn’t want to lose the very small percentage of the population that could have children. But where they took her and how she was treated – that was another story. And Charlie was slotted for the same fate. It wasn’t a matter of if it happened, it was a matter of when. How long until he was lost into the unknown just like Imani and the others?
I couldn’t help thinking about what would happen to the rest of us. The Chancellor spoke to me before we left New Waves. He said they’d put the rest of us to use. What could that mean? What was worse than being rounded up into Breeding Camps?
Of course, this was a sadistic man with delusions of himself. He was the Hydra, a multi-headed beast with endless clones of all different ages. We could take him down one by one and not know when he was gone. If ever. The thought of his plans and the extent of his power left a sour taste that extended from my stomach all the way up my throat.
SOON, THE TOWN SETTLED back in to a new routine. They posted flyers of the missing breeders around town. We all knew that they weren’t posted as a way to find the missing people, but as a reminder of everything that was at stake.
And then I found out the worst news: Matana’s ACer camp, the one where I first hid with Etta and Breck during Etta’s pregnancy, the place where Etta had her baby Hope and where we met Etta 2, the place where I’d fallen for Charlie, was raided. Someone contacted Omer. They found the camp empty and ransacked. No one was left. We suspected they were brought in for testing, but with such a small community, the chances of someone being fertile were slim. And we still didn’t know what happened to people who weren’t fertile.
“I have to go somewhere,” I told Omer, busting into a meeting in the mansion early one morning. “Omer, we’re not doing enough. People are disappearing, and they aren’t even fertile. Why does the Chancellor want them? Are they being killed? Sent to do Gray work in other towns?”
The others stared at me. I was one of the few people who stood up to Omer and the other Underground leaders, and I probably did it more than they liked. I shrugged off their glares.
“Yami, take a seat and wait your turn,” Omer said. “We’re still developing communication across the country. Without being able to talk to more Underground-run communities, we have no hope of learning where these people are taken.”
“It’s not enough!” I cried. I wouldn’t sit down. Omer, along with everyone else, was taking too long. This was too urgent for us to sit and wait for more news. My mind kept flashing to images of Charlie being taken in the night, just like Imani and the others. What would happen to Etta and Breck? They already had a child. Obviously the Chancellor wouldn’t put them in harm’s way, I thought. But he was unpredictable. A snake sneaking through the brush, ready to leap at any moment without reason and without warning.
“We’re discussing the matter right now,” Omer said. His voice was gentler. He knew more than anyone what it meant for me to lose people again and again. He had the entire weight of Young Woods and its citizens sitting on his shoulders. The people had come around to his perspective when he told them about the breeders’ kidnappings, but as the disasters piled up, he couldn’t predict what would happen next.
“Take a seat and join our conversation,” he said, gesturing to a chair on the far side of the room. “But please don’t think any person in here has any less passion and frustration than you do.”
I scowled through the meeting. The team knew other towns that were raided like ours. ACer camps were easier to overthrow, since they had low populations and took up small, crowded spaces. It would be harder for the government to take back control of places like Young Woods and Gentle Acres. But as the Chancellor’s power grew, he would soon have enough people to take us down.
“We’ve located an overthrown community that’s become a hub for Underground activities,” a man said. He displayed a map on a screen on the wall. “It’s hundreds of miles from here, but we can reach it by truck in a day or two if we drive quickly. I’ve talked with a contact who knows the people running the place.” The man eyed me suspiciously, and I frowned back. I couldn’t tell why he’d be looking at me like that, and I didn’t like the implied threat.
“Can we talk directly to the headquarters?” Omer asked. “Ann from Gentle Acres was trying to set up something similar. If they can combine their resources...”
“I’ll go,” I said. Anything to be away from the community where so many of my friends and fellow citizens were disappearing. Anything to find a place where I could actually do something, rather than wait for others to take the lead.
“We should wait until we learn more, Yami,�
�� said Omer. “And there are plenty of people here who would be eager to be more involved as well.”
“I’d like to join you, Yami,” said Gianna. I jumped – I hadn’t even noticed her there yet. “That is, Omer, if you think that would work.”
“Again,” said Omer, this time with impatience. He pinched his nose in frustration. “We need to wait until we learn more. Information needs to be verified through multiple sources before we do anything rash.”
I sat back in my chair and crossed my arms. I was exhausted. Emotionally, I couldn’t take more loss. My heart was breaking into pieces. I knew waiting was only going to result in more abductions and more power for the Chancellor and his clones.
I could wait for now. I could try to get along with the team. But after a certain point, I would head out. Gianna’s support would only make our case stronger.
“As I was saying,” the man continued. “The people running HQ are looking for the missing breeders. They believe those who are fertile have been taken to a few camps around the country where they’re expected to find partners. Those who aren’t fertile are working for the camps. People have defected or volunteered to become soldiers, or Gray Suits as we’ve been calling them.”
“That’s great,” I said, my tone all acid. “But what’s next? What do we do to take down the Chancellor?”
The man sighed and continued. “They’ve started tracking the Chancellor clones, but with so many of them out there moving around, it’s slow and often ineffective.”
I tuned out as the conversation turned towards restructuring Young Woods. I was sick of talking about what was going on around me. It wasn’t enough. They could solve all the problems here at Young Woods in a week and it wouldn’t change the fact that we could be overrun by Gray Suits the very next day. Or the government could leave us alone and starve us out slowly over time, since the town’s production facilities were limited.