The Labs (The GEOs Book 2)

by Ramona Finn

  I smiled shyly. All of Skylar Two’s suspicions about this man echoed through the back of my mind, but they hadn’t described the man in front of me. This R.L. was charismatic, yes, just like we saw on television. But he was also kind, and thoughtful, and maybe even playful at this moment. I would never have guessed any of this from what we’d seen on the big screen. Maybe this was the real man in private, with his family. And I was a part of that family now.

  He was certainly a powerful man—the man who’d created Farrow Corp, who’d built the Geos to protect the people of Earth from the Virus, who’d put the Sky Labs together to find the Cure. But here, in this moment of privacy, he was also generous and funny, and fatherly.

  How had the Rejs gotten it so wrong? Maybe living out in the Above for so long had turned them into suspicious people. After all, they didn’t even like the people living in the Geos. Yet, we had little to do with them. They saw us as their enemies. Perhaps they saw everyone as their enemies. That would explain a lot. It had taken Wallace’s training for me to not be killed by the Rejs, to even be accepted by them, and they’d admitted that I was a rare case. Skylar Two’s affection for me was what had convinced his father to accept me into their group. Without any of that, I would’ve been considered an enemy, too. I thought through the implications of this, and how they’d twist what I’d been thinking up till now.

  So, perhaps it was the Rejs who were the enemy of the progress that R.L. Farrow was trying to make. The Rejs would be the ones left out if R.L. found the Cure for the Virus. The Rejs would never accept his help, and therefore the Cure once it was found. The ones to benefit would be the Elites and those in the Geos. The Rejs were the ones left out of all this, and they wanted no part of our world.

  I could see that now, sitting up in my bed, and watching R.L. instruct Ben on my care.

  The Rejs had been wrong all along. And I’d almost betrayed the Farrows for them.

  Oh, I’d been so close to making the worst mistake of my life. To think, just a moment ago, I’d been trying to bring them down, and now I was going to be matched with Ben! And together we’d bring about the Cure for the Virus. I thought about all of my friends, my parents, and all the kids growing up in the underground. What would they say when they found out that I had the answer all along? I could see them all emerging from the Geos into the Above, basking in the sunshine for the first time in several generations.

  If I could bring about that one moment, my life would be worth something.

  I would be worth something.

  R.L. took my hands in his and raised them to his lips. “Thank you, my dear, for risking your life in the Acceptance, and for winning it, so that all of us could benefit from your unique genetic make-up.” The look in his eyes was so genuine, I couldn’t help but melt a little in the wake of his gratitude. Wasn’t this what I’d wanted my whole life…to be of significance, to be useful to my people? Had I finally found my purpose in life? “I will see you again very soon, and we’ll have much more to discuss. In the meantime, I will leave you in the best hands possible: those of my son.”

  R.L. Farrow rose to his feet, patted his son on the back, and walked toward the door.

  “I almost forgot,” R.L. said, turning back to me. “I should inform you that I asked the medics to stop your contraceptives as soon as you arrived. I hope you don’t mind, but we would like you to be prepared for your next—” he paused as if looking for the right word, and then finished, “duty.”

  And, with a big smile, he walked out of my room. As the door slid shut behind him, I couldn’t help the shiver that went through me. It was one thing to go to Medical and talk to medics like Nari about my pills, but to have R.L. Farrow mention them…well, that felt weird. Still, now that he was gone, I let out the breath I’d been holding. The whole room seemed to do the same. Ben collapsed into the chair behind him. He was still clutching the pad with the lab readings on the screen. He looked from it to me and back to the screen, shaking his head in disbelief.

  “I knew you were special,” he said quietly, looking up at me again. Then he laughed, sounding as if he’d been freed from a terrible burden.

  I felt naked and exposed, personally. Conflicted because, a moment ago, Ben had wanted to kiss me, as me. But now, I wondered if he saw me as something different. I was a vessel for the Cure, a means to an end. Yes, it was an end that I wanted, too, but selfishly, I also wanted him to like me for just being me. But that choice had been taken away from us. R.L. had declared that we were a match. It didn’t matter what we felt for each other. We were destined to be together.

  And I would never know the truth about Ben’s feelings for me.

  Chapter Eleven

  It didn’t take long for the medics to return to my room in order to discharge me from their care. The head medic, Pradnya, who’d had me hooked up to all the machines, gave me a set of clothes to wear.

  “These have been created specifically for you,” she said, handing me a light blue tunic and dark blue trousers. “We don’t really get to choose the colors. Farrows usually wear blue.”

  Farrows wore blue. I rubbed the fabric in my hands. It seemed as if every set of clothes I’d come across since arriving in the Labs had gotten more and more luxurious. What did they make their clothes out of? We had so little in the Geos, compared to this. The fabric slipped between my fingers, caressing my skin like a gentle touch.

  Pradnya left me to change into my new clothes. They fit me perfectly—almost like a second skin, but roomier. I checked myself out in the mirror, and for the first time in forever, I liked what I saw. My hair was neatly tied in a low ponytail, and my new outfit fell perfectly across my body. My face still showed signs of illness, so I didn’t spend too much time examining the gaunt expression there, but neck down—well, wow. I could almost pass for an actual Elite. Almost.

  With butterflies still dancing in my stomach, I stepped out of my room with Ben by my side. He and I hadn’t said much since R.L. left us alone. I thought we were both feeling the awkwardness of what had happened there. It was one thing to initiate a relationship on our own, and quite a different thing to be ordered to be a match. Neither of us seemed to know how to handle this going forward.

  “Your new quarters are very near mine,” Ben said as we headed down the hallway. “That sector has the best view of the mountains on Earth.”

  I noted that we were walking in the opposite direction from where I’d headed upon running away. We were heading toward the voices I’d heard instead of avoiding them. We approached a counter where several medics hung out. Everyone stopped talking as we passed by. That made things even more awkward. I had the strangest feeling that they all knew about Ben and me being matched already. Had the news spread that quickly, or was I simply imagining it?

  As we turned the corner at the end of the hallway, I swore I heard someone say something and giggle, and then the whole group burst out in laughter. Were they laughing at me? Was it in celebration or in mockery? I pushed the thoughts out of my mind and focused on the fact that my parents were on their way up to the Greens. Soon, I’d be with my mother as she got treatment for the Cough. I could handle all the mockery they threw at me as long as Mom got her treatment.

  We crossed one of those bridges which I’d seen on the way into the Greens. The walls and ceiling were transparent and the sunlight brightened my mood. The sky was a baby blue today, and there were white puffy clouds floating around us. I stopped to take it all in. I still hadn’t gotten used to this. Living above the Earth was surreal.

  “Over there,” Ben said, pointing out the snow-capped mountains in the distance below. “That’s my favorite view. Our apartments overlook them.” I was very conscious of how close he was standing to me. I thought he must have read my mind, because he stepped away with a clearing of his throat.

  I took my time gazing at the mountains. They were shadowy shapes, dark with tips of white almost like someone had frosted their tops for decoration.

  “It’s hard to
believe that the area is unlivable,” I sighed. “That something so beautiful can also be so deadly.”

  Ben hummed in agreement. “But maybe, one day, because of you, we’ll be able to actually climb one of those mountains. Wouldn’t that be something?”

  It certainly would. I thought about how, if the mountains became safe from the Virus, Skylar Two would be the first one up there. He loved the adventure.

  Funny how, in this moment, he was the one I was thinking of. I shook him out of my thoughts. I had to forget him. Ben was my life now. This was my home.

  Ben led me across the bridge and down another hallway. This one was wider than the medical hallway. The sides were walled in a similar way, but the ceiling was open to the sunlight. Doors were spread much farther apart and each one was labeled with someone’s name. Most of them were Farrows.

  “I can’t be living on this floor,” I said after we passed Chen Farrow’s apartment. “This belongs to the Farrow family.”

  Ben grinned. “You’re one of us now. This one is mine.” He gestured to his right. His door was kitty-corner to his sister Chen’s. “And yours is right here.”

  Sure enough, there was a door with my name on it. Tylia Coder. I wondered if it would soon be changed to Farrow, and a cold shiver went down my spine.

  Ben helped me program my door panel to recognize my voice, my retina, and my palm print, giving me several options for operating the tech in my apartment. Then the door slid open on my command, and I gasped. What a difference this place was compared to the medical sector room.

  My apartment had floor to ceiling windows.

  “They’re one-way windows,” Ben explained. “You can see out, but no one can see in.”

  The apartment was already furnished. There was a large, comfy looking couch facing the giant windows, and a plush beige rug under a low glass table with a giant vase holding real, fresh flowers. I bent down to smell the incredible fragrance. I’d dreamed of flowers when I’d been little. In the Geos, we only saw them in the background on The Cure. They didn’t survive in the Geos. And here, I now had an entire vase full of them.

  “This is the kitchen,” Ben said, proudly showing me around my new home. “There’s a food synthesizer and a larder with rehydratable food in case that’s what you feel like having. It’s not bad for when the fresh foods aren’t easily available.” He went on about how everything worked in the kitchen, and talked about the controls for environment, lighting, and entertainment in the apartment. Most of what he said went in one ear and out the other. I still couldn’t believe this was to be my home.

  There were two bedrooms in this apartment—one for me and one for my parents, I assumed. Each bedroom was bigger than our entire home down in the Geos. As Ben showed me around, I couldn’t help the twinge of guilt I felt as I thought of my friends still living below. This apartment alone could house several families, as far as I was concerned.

  Why couldn’t we all live like this? The people in the Geos worked so hard their entire lives and never came near this kind of luxury. I didn’t deserve this. Skylar Two’s words came to mind. He believed we should all share in the wealth we created instead of giving it up to the Elites alone. Sure, they were looking for a way for all of us to survive, via the search for the Cure, but they were taking their time doing it. What was their incentive for achieving their goals quickly when they already lived like this?

  An ache grew inside my chest, and I couldn’t shake it. I loved this place, but it didn’t feel right. This would never truly be my home—not while all my friends lived below ground, barely scraping by.

  “Tylia, are you okay?” Ben had stopped the ‘tour’ and was giving me an odd look.

  “I’m a little overwhelmed by all this,” I said, hoping he’d believe me.

  “Come and sit down.” He led me to the couch and went to fetch a glass of water. As I sipped, he sat across from me. My gaze traveled back and forth from him to the view outside. I’d never get enough of those mountains.

  I drained my glass, but still couldn’t shake the guilt. “Ben, how can I accept this lifestyle when everyone I know is still suffering?” The water tasted so clean, so pure. It was the best water I’d ever drunk in my life. It also felt like too much privilege.

  He chuckled quietly. “I know it feels a bit much, but you will be the answer to that suffering, don’t you see? The results of all the tests they’ve done on you—they show that you are the key to the Cure.”

  All the tests they’d run on me? I gulped. In all those tests, had they ever discovered that I’d cheated, that I’d hacked my way into the Acceptance? Did it matter anymore? After they’d found my genetic make-up was the key to the Cure, I supposed it couldn’t have made a difference whether they’d found me or whether I’d hacked my way into the Acceptance. They were probably congratulating themselves on the fact that I’d been so desperate as to cheat my way in.

  Whatever the case, Ben didn’t seem to know or care what I’d done to get here.

  I placed my delicate water glass on the low table at my knees. A large cloud shaped like a transport ship floated lazily by the window.

  “R.L. said something about us being a…er…match?” I asked. I’d never thought about being matched, not like Viv or the other girls in the Geos. Even for those who lived there, the Farrows had to approve the couplings. I’d have lived quite happily my whole life without ever thinking of being partnered with someone. I didn’t want to have children. It wasn’t in my plans. And now, this.

  Ben’s ears turned pink as he smiled. “Relax, Ty. It’s not what you think. We are a genetic match, and that means any offspring from us will be genetically stronger than either one of us alone. Together, we would make children who are, potentially, completely immune to the Virus. Their blood—or plasma, really—would be used to create vaccines for everyone.”

  “They’d be used?” An image of children being hooked up to machines draining their blood sent shivers through me. My stomach turned.

  “No, it’s not like that,” Ben said. “They’d be giving blood about as often as the rest of us. That’s not much when you think of how many people they’d be able to save. And we wouldn’t ask it of them until they were old enough to understand.”

  I exhaled in relief. Then another thought occurred to me. “I never really thought about carrying children.” I wrapped my arms around my middle.

  Again, Ben laughed. “If you’re thinking of the traditional way people have children, please relax.” He laced and unlaced his fingers over and over. We were both mesmerized with his movement for a long while. “Father is thinking more of lab-created offspring. We’re now able to gestate embryos to full growth without a human womb. In fact, many of our matches have never even met, like my biological parents.”

  I sat up. “Your biological parents? You mean you’re not R.L. Farrow’s real son?”

  “I’m his real son because he raised me.” Ben glanced up at me, looking a little offended. “My biological parents were a combination of several people, including R.L., who were chosen for their special qualities—intelligence, looks, immunity strength, and so on. Sue-Jane, R.L.’s second wife, was my surrogate. She gestated and gave birth to me.”

  I remembered Sue-Jane. She’d been sick for a while and then disappeared off the show altogether. “I hope she’s well,” I said.

  Ben scrunched up his nose. “She’s had a problem with Phee for a while now. Father thought it best to keep her in rehab. She’s getting better. Addiction is a difficult thing to overcome.”

  I was surprised to hear that an Elite, with everything good that they had up there, could end up hooked on prescription painkillers. But I guessed we all had our problems.

  “We hadn’t perfected gestation in the lab yet,” Ben continued. “Still, I’m considered the Sky Labs’ first genetically engineered human. Because I was created for a specific purpose—to help fight the Virus with my blood.” He looked down at his hands again. “But I wasn’t enough.”

  Th
e silence between us felt overwhelming. I knew exactly what it felt like to not be enough. I wanted to comfort him with magical words that could take that pain away, but I didn’t know any.

  “Anyway, we can now gestate babies in a lab,” he sighed. The pain of a moment ago had vanished from his expression. “Because of the quality of my genes, Father chose me to be raised as a Farrow. All of my siblings were chosen the same way. Father himself has no biological children. He was not as fortunate in his genetic make-up as we are. But he’s been fusing some of our genes into his over the years. He said it’s so that we’re all connected at the tiniest level. It’s sweet—in a weird, science-y way.”

  It sounded very complicated to me. I would simply give my genetic material to a lab and be done with it? I’d never get to raise or even know the children I’d have. It was a strange concept, but Ben spoke of it as if it was the most natural thing. I guessed the Elites were a lot different from us in the Geos.

  “So, does that mean we get…married?” I wondered if I was allowed to ask that, or if Ben wanted to be the one to initiate that process and speak of it first. My parents were married, as were several people in the Geos, but not everyone adhered to that institution anymore. Most people, especially those my age, preferred to enter into partnerships—some for creating offspring (with a permit from the Farrows, of course) and some simply for companionship. Most partnerships lasted as long as marriages, so they really felt to me like the same thing.

  Ben explained that the Elites preferred the partnership arrangement, and that since R.L. had matched us two, that’s what we could do.

  He shifted rather suddenly then and slid closer to my side. He took both my hands in his and stared at my fingernails. At least, that’s what I thought he was doing. He didn’t say anything for several moments. Then he looked me in the eyes.