by Treyci Kay
I remember that General Craft wanted my mother to cure some virus. They must be talking about the same one.
“What is this virus I keep hearing about?” I ask.
“Where are you from?” asks Dom.
“Uh, far,” I say.
“Yeah, he can’t be from the city,” says Otis. His eyes study me to see if I’m serious about not knowing. “There’s a virus going around the cities, killing thousands of people. Hasn’t been like this in maybe a few hundreds years. Maybe longer.”
“They don’t even know where it’s from,” says Dom. “They don’t have a cure. And this means even more experiments on us.”
“Some are saying it’s not even from this world,” says Otis.
“Well, if it’s not from this earth, then how can something on this earth cure it?” I say. The words come out before I can stop them.
Otis and Dom look at me with blank faces. I can’t tell if they agree or want to know why I chose those words. Part of me wants to shut Otis and his campfire stories up, but part of me knows that there are things out there we will never understand. This makes me think of Winter and for the first time I know what it means to miss someone besides my mother. Someone, who for all I know, may have never been real in the first place.
I try to change the subject so they stop staring at me, but mostly so that I don’t have to think about Winter any longer.
“How did you get into my cell, or out of yours?” I ask.
“Well, I think I told you, your cell was open. As for mine... I figured out the locks in this place a long time ago,” says Dom.
“Too bad it’s impossible to break out,” says Otis.
“I’ll find a way. If you can get in... you can get out,” says Dom.
“But didn’t you say you’ve been here a long time,” I say. “If you haven’t figured it out yet, what makes you think...”
“I’m close,” Dom says, cutting me off. “I’m close.”
Otis breaks the tension. “I think we’re going to have a lockdown soon.”
“Lockdown?” I ask.
Dom looks around and points to the area where he was standing in line to get food. Two inmates appear to be arguing and getting louder quickly.
“Yeah, the guards are super strict during lockdown,” says Otis. “I mean, stricter than usual.”
“And since those animals don’t know how to talk like civilized men, it’ll happen soon,” says Dom. He quickly starts to scoop the food into his mouth.
What he says sounds weird coming from the inmate everyone seems afraid of. Part of me wonders if he had anything to do with the start of the argument. As I think this I see one of the inmates push the other so hard he falls into a bystander.
“This morning you did good falling in line. Don’t ask any questions and just follow everyone’s lead and you’ll be fine,” says Otis. The frantic pace of his voice tells me something is about to happen. “Hopefully you won’t be one they select for the random treatments. I mean you just got he....”
Suddenly, the loudest sound I have ever heard in my life echoes through the facility. I cover my ears, but the pulse is so loud I can feel it attempting to shatter every bone in my body. I fall out of the bench and onto the floor, as if there were a way to escape. All around me inmates fall in pain, I can feel myself screaming, but there is no sound, only the pulse.
CHAPTER FIVE
After a moment, the sound stops. The lights in the facility flash off and on for a moment. I slowly get off of the floor. Otis, who somehow ends up on the floor in front of me, mouths some words that I can’t make out. I know he is trying to tell me something, but the ringing in my ears prevents me from understanding. Next to me, Dom is already standing and pointing for me to turn around. I turn and see a line of inmates forming, filing out of the eating area. Putting together what they are trying to tell me, I go to the line and they follow right behind.
We make our way up the endless stairs. By the time I get back to my cell, the ringing in my ears has just started to go away. The door is locked behind me and I sit on the hard bed. Before I have time to go over the things I learned, a loud voice comes from the walls around me.
“Inmate, remove your clothing and prepare for your treatment.”
I wonder if the voice is being played throughout the prison.
“Inmate, begin removing your clothing and prepare for your treatment.”
I stay motionless, sitting on the bed. For some reason, I tell myself that if I ignore the request it won’t pertain to me.
All of a sudden, the loud sound pulses through the cell, my ears immediately feel like they are going to explode. I fall to the ground screaming, begging for it to end. The sound must continue for only a few seconds, but the pain continues after it stops. I struggle to my feet and attempt to remove my shirt. It takes everything in me to force the shirt up over my head. My skull feels like it’s splitting in half.
My cell door opens. The sound was so loud, it makes my vision blurry. Expecting to see a guard, I am surprised when General Craft enters my the room. He looks at me and shakes his head with what appears to be sympathy. Craft gestures for me to sit on the bed. I wonder if this is a trick or if he is the one who is going to be administering my treatment. The pain that I still feel in my head from the torture, makes sitting down seem like a good idea. I grab my shirt and sit. He leans against the wall in front of me, seeming to wait for something. After a few moments of him standing there. He begins to speak.
“You should be able to hear me now slightly, yes?” He asks.
I nod, realizing this is why he was waiting.
“We don’t have much time. I’m going to tell you some things, not all of it will make sense as of now. I just need you to follow me and remember exactly what I’m about to tell you. Nod if you can hear all of what I just said.” He stares at me patiently.
The words seem to come at me delayed from when his lips move. I wait for what he said to come to me. I process his words and even though I doubt I’ll believe anything he has to say, I nod.
“Good. I know your mother would have you believe that we want to hurt you, kill you, et cetera, but this is simply not the case. We could care less about you, in fact she left the city just to protect herself. She had specific projects that the Council had her working on, projects only she could complete, but when she disagreed with some of their practices, she ran.”
I grimace at the sound of his words. If manipulation had a face, it would be his. He must sense me feeling this because of what he says next.
“She helped build some of the older models of the droids that guard this facility. She even used to administer the treatments to some of the prisoners here. I bet you didn’t know that.”
My body goes numb at the thought. For a second I hope that I have gone deaf and that I’m just putting random words together, that I think he might be saying. My mother administering the treatments. How could she possible be involved with torturing people? Even if they were guilty of crimes, these people were my age, some probably even younger.
“But that’s not why I am here,” he continues. “I’m here to tell you that your mother is going to die unless you do something about it.”
My stomach sinks. I try to keep this from showing. At least I know from him saying this, that she is likely still alive.
“The council has given her a couple months to find a cure for this super virus. The thing is, she has told me personally that there will be no cure. Some people are immune, some aren’t. It kills at random. Right now she is just buying time, pretending to experiment, while the council waits. They’ll kill her once they know it’s not possible.”
“What do I need to do?” I ask. Immediately, I realize I should have thought about what to say before showing I’m leaning toward believing him. I am allowing myself to believe someone who was part of kidnapping my mother and I violently from our home. I am believing someone who placed me in some unknown prison, in some unknown distance underground. I am be
lieving him because I have no other options. I have no choice.
“You have to leave the prison, go to the city and break her out. The only way to go back safely will be to go in as Volare. Your identity will not exist if you make it through the selection process. Then once you make it in, you’ll be able to walk right into her facility and escort her out.”
“You want me to join the Volare?” I ask. I manage to keep my emotions bottled up. The fact that he is asking me to join the army that I have been running from feels like a sick joke. I also know that even if I make it through their selection process, freeing her won’t be as easy as walking her out.
“Yes. This was your mother’s plan, but I can see that there is no other way,” he says.
“And why do you care?” I ask, standing back up.
“I... I have my reasons,” he says. A tone beeps in the cell similar to the one that signaled the inmates to go to the dinning hall.
“We don’t have much time. This is what you need to do. A guard is going to come in with a glass of red liquid. It’s supposed to be tranquilizer, so you sleep while we take you to your treatment. I outfitted it with nanobots that all the inductees have to ingest for the selection process. All you need is a sip. The droids will recognize it and take care of the rest.”
“And what if I don’t drink it?” I ask.
“Then your mother will die. And your chance at leaving here alive will die with her,” he says.
I know that even if he is lying, even if the liquid is poison, he is holding all the cards. Otis even said, almost no one makes it a year in this place. Of course, Otis could be working for the Council. I have no clue at this point who I can trust.
Craft continues. “Only a few Volare, if any, will recognize you. However, even if they do, they won’t say anything because it is part of their philosophy to keep secrets and stay quiet. All you have to do is keep your head down, don’t die during the selection process and you’ll be fine.”
I nod. He heads for the door and turns around before exiting. “One more thing- the immunity rounds are a trick. They’re just to kill off the weak minded recruits. The light and card will move several times. Don’t die trying to win the immunity rounds.”
He walks out the door before I can ask any questions. Light and card? I have no clue what this could mean. I sit back on the bed, not sure if I believed what just happened. I need go to the city. I need to become Volare. If not I will die. If I don’t do this, my mother will die. The weight of these thoughts pull down on me. My body feels heavy. I want to sink through the hard bed. I want to become the cold floor.
A guard enters my cell. In his hand, he holds a glass of red liquid. He walks over and places it exactly where the water was placed the night before. Then he starts to exit the room, without even looking at me once. As he turns, I notice the little red lever behind his ear. He leaves the cell and the door closes behind him.
I stare at the glass of red liquid. I would weigh my options, but I know that I have none. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I hope that the liquid is poison and I hate myself for thinking it. I want this nightmare to be over, but I know that it’s just beginning. I stand up and take the few steps toward the glass. These steps seem like the longest journey of my life. A million thoughts fly through my mind, but I try to focus on one- my mother. Picking up the glass, I observe the liquid, trying to see if I can make out the nanobots floating around. I know that they are impossible to see without a microscope and once I remember this, I realize that I am stalling. Before I can find another reason to wait, I press the cold glass to my lips and take a sip. The thick, liquid goes down slowly. I take one more sip just to be sure and sit the glass down.
Nothing happens. I wait a moment longer. Still nothing. I begin to pace the cell nervously. Did I do something wrong? Did I take too much? He said only a sip. No, maybe I didn’t take enough. Maybe this is a trick. I lean on the wall next to the cell door and stare at the glass. The red liquid seems to be mocking me. I feel my skin begin to get hot. I can’t believe I let him play me like that. This was some sort of sick test. They’re probably in some room watching me right now. They’re probably laughing. In a rage, I go to kick the glass, but when I take the first step, I feel a stabbing sensation in my abdomen.
The sensations rages through my body. It feels like someone is slicing me in half. I fall back onto the wall and grab my stomach in a panic. Every organ inside of me screams as if they were fighting to escape. I fall to the floor, hoping, begging for it to stop.
Next to me, the cell door opens and in walks a figure. The pain slowly starts to go away, but is immediately replaced by intense drowsiness. The feeling overtakes me quickly. I press myself against the wall to get up, but I’m too heavy. I try to look up and make out who the figure is. My body feels like a thousand pounds. I force myself to one knee and manage to look up. Standing next to the glass of red liquid is Dom.
My body falls limp against the hard floor. Fighting to keep my eyes open, I see Dom pick up the glass. He looks at the liquid for a moment, then down at me and smiles. My eyelids feel heavier. I close them. I tell myself it’s okay to close them for just a second. I just want one second to rest. No! I have to wake up! Before I slip into the darkness, I open my eyes one last time and see Dom put the glass to his mouth, tilt it back and start to drink. Then everything goes black.
End of Part One
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Also by Treyci Kay:
98012 and the Guardian’s Key
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