by Ramona Finn
“We do love to disrupt their daily lives,” she said. “But honestly, this one had a more important purpose. We’re going to send the research down to the medical union in the Geos. We think they can do a better job. We’re tired of waiting.”
“So, you’re saying the Unions know about your work?”
“We still have supporters in some crucial places.”
That would make it easier for my father to convince the Unions of uniting, then.
“Could I get a message out to my parents from here, or the Rejs?”
Tam frowned at me. “How well-connected are you with the Rejs?”
I decided to trust Tam, so I told her about how I’d met Wallace, the son, and also my time with Skylar Two and his people. She listened with great interest. Other heads popped up from behind their terminals, obviously just as interested in what I had to relate.
When I was done, Tam walked over to the surveillance screens. We stared at the multiple screens in front of us. The survivors were monitoring the Labs’ launch pads and the Geos landing areas. There was one camera trained on the forests where the Rejs lived. Used to live, I reminded myself.
“They’re my friends,” I said quietly. Turning to Tam, I begged her to believe me, “They’re in trouble and I have to get a message out to warn them.”
Tam rubbed her hands together as if she was hatching a plan. Next, she tapped the shoulder of the old man watching the feeds.
“Hey Joe, can you get me sight on any Rej encampment?”
The screen that showed the forest began to widen—at least, the view we were seeing was getting larger. The view panned out so that we could see the treetops and a bit of sky.
“Wait!” I cried, surprised by what I was seeing. “Your camera is flying!”
Tam laughed, enjoying my ignorance. “We re-purposed some old drones. They come in very useful.”
Tam had to explain ‘drones’ to me. They were flying machines, each about the size of two hands, that carried high-powered cameras on them. They’d been used by Farrow Corp in the riots—to capture the Resistance and anyone who stood up to the corporation. Most had been destroyed in the fights, but the survivors had been able to find some and fix them up for their own use.
“Over the years, we’ve salvaged a lot of tech,” Joe said. “It’s come in useful.”
The drone that Joe was controlling flew around past Skylar One’s cave, which was still smoking and crawling with EFs guarding the area. My stomach twisted as I saw bodies lying on the ground, blood oozing from each one.
Joe took the drone farther afield. It flew over forest and clearings until we spotted movement. It was the tiniest motion, but Tam, Joe, and I whooped at the same time when we saw it. He lowered the drone and zoomed in. There, before our eyes, was a small band of Rejs trudging across the terrain. They looked worn and defeated, but they were alive. Still, the drone was too far off to make out actual faces, and Joe wasn’t comfortable with getting closer. He didn’t want to scare them.
“The drone’s insignia says Farrow Corp,” he explained. “That would just scatter the Rejs unnecessarily.”
Joe sent the drone across a bit more terrain and we found a couple smaller bands of Rejs. They all seemed to be headed in roughly the same direction. They must have a central meeting point. I was more than relieved to know that Ben hadn’t eliminated them all already.
The knot in my stomach twisted so hard that I could’ve passed out.
“What is it?” Tam put her hand on my arm and led me to a chair. “You’re as white as a sheet.”
Joe got up from his terminal and tottered off to get me a cup of water. I gulped it down, allowing its coolness to wash through me. Unfortunately, it also brought tears up into my eyes and I began to sob. I’d had no intention of crying, especially in front of these strangers, but there I was sitting in the chair and covering my face with my hands, sobbing outright.
“Oh my dear,” Tam said, kneeling in front of me. “You’ve had quite a shock, watching your friends being harmed like that. Just breathe.”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “I’m about to partner with Ben Farrow. The ceremony is tomorrow, and I can’t go through with it. What will I do?”
Tam made a humming sound in the back of her throat. “Yes, there’s that.”
A few of the survivors gathered to discuss something that I couldn’t hear. Tam joined them, and the discussion became quite animated. Finally, they came to some kind of an agreement and Tam broke away from the group.
“If you’re sure you’re not going through with the ceremony,” she said, “we may be able to help you.”
I looked up at Tam and the other survivors, who were now watching me with wide eyes. “Please, I’ll do anything. I just cannot become a Farrow, not after everything I’ve found out about them.”
“Fine,” Tam said. “We can get you out now, if you’d like.”
“What?” This was not the response I’d expected. They had access in and out of the Labs? They’d need transports or access to the Sky Tubes, which were always heavily guarded.
“I can’t tell you how, but if you need to get out now, we can do it.” Tam looked pleased with herself. The others around her grinned with excitement.
I shook my head. “No, not right now.” This was too sudden. I needed time to gather my thoughts. Even though I knew for sure that I couldn’t go through with the ceremony, I still felt the need to say goodbye to Ben.
Tam led me back to the room entrance, as if to send me on my way home.
“All right, then. Tomorrow. There’s a tradition in the partnering ceremony,” Tam said, holding me by the elbow. “After the clones dress you, they will give you a few minutes to yourself. It’s meant to be time for you to reflect on the life you’re leaving and to reflect on embracing the new one you’re facing. Usually, a family member stays with you, but as you have none in the Labs, you’ll be alone.” Tam smacked her lips together. Her plan was coming together as she spoke.
“That’s when you’ll run. Dax will help you. He’ll accompany you back to us, right here, and we’ll sneak you out of the Greens.” She stopped walking and faced me. “But you have to be sure of this. Once you run, there’s no coming back.”
“Dax?” How did he fit into all this?
“Dax is one of us,” she said. “He’s very helpful.”
Somehow, I wasn’t surprised. But the plan didn’t sound foolproof. I could imagine a hundred ways for it to go wrong. I was risking my very life for this. And there was a chance that Dax, Tam, Joe, and the other survivors would pay for my rashness, too.
But I thought about Skylar Two and his people. I thought about my people in the Geos and the fact that there wasn’t going to be a Cure for a long time. Then I thought about R.L.’s lies, Ben’s obsession with gaining power in the family, and the fact that my children would be used to further the selfish goals of the Farrows. And I knew, for sure, that this was the only path forward.
“I want to leave the Greens.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
I was woken the next morning by the sound of my apartment door opening. I didn’t think I’d gotten more than one hour of sleep last night. I’d been tossing and turning constantly, trying to come to terms with my new decision. I debated back and forth about where I could make the most difference. I could join the Farrows and work to overthrow them from within, but as with Ben’s plans to gain authority, that would take years—if I was lucky.
No, I had to do something now while some Rejs still survived, and while the Geos still had the expectation of getting a Cure. I felt like that’s what I’d chosen when my brain had finally let me sleep.
R.L.’s assistant clones, Lia and Tia, came barging into my room. I rolled over and squinted at them, wishing they’d go away.
“Today’s the day,” one of them—Lia, I thought—chimed as she adjusted my room lighting to be extra bright. Her pale, translucent skin almost glittered in the sunbeams. “Your dress has turned out marvelo
usly.”
“All the Sky Labs are getting ready to celebrate,” Tia said. This morning, Tia’s silvery hair hung loosely over her shoulders instead of in the regulation ponytail. Her excitement was super-creepy, even as she beamed at me. “It’s been a long time since there’s been a partnering ceremony. Everyone’s excited.”
I could think of several Elites who weren’t excited—and in my mind, they all resided in the cafeteria. This day would just be an excuse to party for most of them, if not all of them.
I dragged myself upright and rubbed my throbbing head. My hair was a tangled mess as I ran my fingers through it. The clones clicked their tongues and made sure I knew they disapproved of my current state of unkempt-ness. I was clearly disappointing them.
The computer terminal at my desk in the living room made a ringing sound. I jumped up and ran to see what the message was. My parents’ faces greeted me on the screen.
“We wanted to call to congratulate you on this special day,” Mom said. She sounded so much stronger. An uncomfortable thickness rose into my throat. She should have been there with me. But then, the way things were going to go, it was probably best that she wasn’t. I wouldn’t know what to do if my parents had been moved up to the Labs already.
So, maybe R.L. had done one thing right for me by keeping them below.
“We’re so happy for you,” Dad said, but I could tell he wasn’t telling the truth. My father was a terrible liar, and I always caught the twitch in the corner of his eyes when he told lies—few as there were. “And we wanted to pass on everyone’s good wishes to you. We’re all united in our wishes for your future.” He’d emphasized ‘everyone,’ ‘united,’ and ‘future.’
That was it. There was no mistaking it. Dad was sending me a message.
“Unity is so important,” I said lamely, because at that moment I couldn’t come up with something cleverer to show I understood. “Are the medics more welcoming of you now that you’ve tried to blend in with them?” I hoped I was making sense.
“Yes, we’re all getting on nicely,” Dad said. “There’s a lot of work to do in the research area.”
Was he telling me that they’d started work on the Cure? My fingers tingled.
Mom gave him a bewildered look, then turned back to me. “Do you have everything you need? We wish we could send you a gift or something to remember us by.”
That just started the tears flowing. Crying was becoming too much of a habit. “I don’t need anything,” I said, choking back sobs. “I have your necklace.” I showed it to her, through my sleep tunic. Dangling behind her pendant was the vial of Virus from Skylar Two—these two items meant everything to me. They were the reason for all of my decisions.
“No tears,” Mom said. “This is a happy occasion. We’ll be watching it all on TV.”
I wiped the tears off my face. “Oh, that.” How could I tell them I wasn’t going to be there?
“You’re on a schedule,” Dax said from behind me. He sounded very stern. Where had he come from? I hadn’t even heard him enter my apartment.
“Yes, he’s right,” Dad said, as if he understood. “Follow the schedule.”
“Dad, no matter what happens...” I racked my brain to find a way to warn them.
“We’ll be fine,” he said.
I only wished his eye hadn’t twitched then.
I told my parents I loved them, and then I had to walk away. Lia and Tia stood in the middle of the living room, looking expectant. They’d laid out all of their devices for beautifying me on the low table by the couch. I couldn’t handle it. I dashed to the washroom. Dax followed me.
“I want you to know that I have my orders.” He spoke in a low tone so the other clones wouldn’t hear. “If you still want to go through with your decision, I will help you.”
I stared at Dax. “Are you sure you want to get involved? Do you know what this is?”
He smirked. “I saw what you did on my terminal the night you brought doughnuts. I deleted your trail so no one would find out what you’d done.”
“What?” I tried but failed to feign innocence.
“I’ve been part of the Resistance ever since I began caring for the survivors. How could I not, after hearing all of their stories?” He stepped aside so I could go wash up. “Just give me the word, and we’ll go.”
For the next two hours, Lia and Tia fussed over me as if I were a plaything. They didn’t care if I yelped when my hair was being pulled or when they clipped me by accident with their instruments. First, they insisted on helping me bathe, which was possibly the worst thing I’d ever experienced. They scrubbed my skin off with lumpy lotions, and then pulled all the hair off parts of my body I’d never even thought about. They put all kinds of chemicals on my face—what they called laying the foundation—and then began adding rouge, lipstick, and something to make my eyelashes look longer. When they were done, I barely recognized myself. That’s when they squeezed me into my dress.
My dress was the most luxurious thing I’d ever put on my body. It was silky red, with thin double straps at the shoulders and a heart-shaped neckline. The fabric flowed down from the top to my toes, moving with me like the rivers I’d seen below the Greens. The fabric was cool and wrapped itself against my skin. It was so soft and comfortable, I thought I could live in it forever and be happy.
I looked at my reflection, then.
It wasn’t me.
It wasn’t the Tylia Coder who’d crouched at her terminal shift after shift, trying to make enough food rations to survive for another day. This was a different person—someone who wasn’t real, but was for display. I’d certainly come a long way. A year ago, I wouldn’t even have imagined that all this could’ve happened to me.
For the briefest of moments, I was sad that no one would see this gorgeous version of me. How surprised Viv, Bree, and the others would have been. How envious. But the moment didn’t last long. Even if I went through with the ceremony, by the end of this day, I’d be back to the usual me, and then what would I have done? I would’ve become a Farrow, and the family would expect me to stay in line.
I lifted the dress and spun one way and the other. I kicked out my legs and tried to sit down, much to the dismay of my dressers. They didn’t know I was assessing the dress’ ability to hold up to running, climbing, and jumping.
It would do.
What wouldn’t do were the tiny shoes they put onto my feet. I could barely totter around in them. The girl clones insisted I practice until my toes were screaming in pain.
Finally, the moment came for them to leave me alone. I sat on the couch rubbing my feet as they exited my apartment. This was my alone time to reflect.
But I wasn’t going to get that luxury.
As soon as the door shut, Dax appeared from my bathroom. He’d hidden in there as the others had left.
“Time to go,” he said.
“Can I change first?” I felt a trickle of regret upon saying it; I was attached to the dress already.
“No time!” He headed for my bedroom, beckoning for me to follow.
“Where are we going? Shouldn’t we head out?” No matter how little time we had, though, I had to do one thing first. I slipped out of the terrible shoes and into my usual boots. Not a great match for the dress, but they would do much better for running. Following Dax into my bedroom, I grabbed a tunic just in case I had time to change later.
Dax opened a small panel behind the wardrobe in my room. It led to a tunnel of some kind.
“You want me to climb through there?” I said, peering into the dark tunnel ahead.
“It’s a ventilation duct, the fastest way out, and no one will see you,” Dax said, shooing me inside. “Hurry. You only get five minutes to reflect.”
My heart leapt into my throat as I threw myself into the tunnel. Dax crept in behind me and I heard him close the panel in the wall. We crawled in darkness over cool metal surfaces for about two minutes—until he patted me on my leg and I stopped.
“
Here,” he said, punching out another panel in the wall.
How did he know where the panels were? I could barely see where I was going. He tumbled out of the hole in the wall and I followed. We found ourselves in one of the back passages. How clever.
Within a minute, I was standing face to face with a bunch of survivors. They looked completely different from the time I’d first met them. Their eyes were bright with excitement and they were all most certainly lucid. So, all that had been a ruse? These survivors really deserved the title. How long had they been locked up? And yet, they still played a crucial role in the way our future was unfolding.
“Come on, child, we don’t have time,” Tam said even as she ran her hand lovingly over the hem of my dress. The look in her eyes told me she’d never seen anything so luxurious in her life. I understood the feeling.
Joe waddled along with us as Tam led me to the end of the long room we’d entered. “I’ve disabled a few of the cameras in the back passages with Dax’s help. Security isn’t as tight down here. You should be able to make it to the tubes quite easily. But, from there, you’re kind of on your own.”
A door slammed behind us and I jumped. I looked at Tam, then at Dax’s anxious face.
“On my own?”
Tam slapped Joe lightly on the arm. “Don’t give the poor girl even more to be scared about.”
She opened the back door. It led to more passages, but these were empty.
“The good thing is that everyone is too busy preparing for your ceremony. So, the path will be clear. You’ll head all the way to the end of this passage, and take a left and two right turns. You’ll end up behind the old Sky Tubes. Those old elevators still have some juice in them—use one to get down to the Geos. Do you know where to go after that?”
I thought about the time Skylar Two had brought me to his home. And I thought about Wallace’s underground hideout. Skylar Two’s home was gone, but maybe Wallace’s place was still usable. It would make a good base from which to start my search for the Rejs.
But I had to do this all by myself. Was I ready for this?