Contribute (Holo, #2)

by Kristy Acevedo

  “Cut the tears,” the guard says. “

  Or he’ll get it.”

  It’s like asking someone with broken legs to run a marathon. Oh God, I wanted to help save Dominick, and instead I’m going to be the one who kills him.

  My mind snowballs into an avalanche of worries. My body shakes in convulsions, my heart rate and breath in a duel for my soul, my stomach a raging river. I puke all over the inside of the tent.

  “Shit. I thought you were supposed to be tough,” the guard says. He yells to the outside, “Someone bring me a shovel and some red sand to soak up vomit.”

  “Sure thing.”

  I know that voice. We’ve been infiltrated. We are screwed.

  “Move over.” The guard pulls me up from the ground and pushes me down elsewhere. One step closer to Dominick. Maybe I should keep puking.

  “Here,” Hannah’s voice returns. Rita’s friend from the Geotroupes. I knew I didn’t like her.

  “Great. Do you mind cleaning that?”

  “Sure.” Her voice wavers slightly. “What’s wrong with that one?”

  He laughs. “They kicked the crap out of him.”

  “Figures,” she says.

  If my hands weren’t bound, I’d strangle her with her beaded necklaces. The sound of scraping and patting as she shovels. How can she be so two-faced?

  “What do we have here?” a husky voice asks. “Leave us.”

  “Sure thing, Eugene,” Hannah says. “Do you want me to bring dinner?”

  It can’t be Eugene, the cook from the Geotroupes? He could’ve been poisoning us for weeks.

  “I’m good,” says the guard.

  “I already ate,” Eugene says, “The prisoners can eat later if they behave. I’ll let you know.”

  Footsteps slowly approach me. “Hello, Alex. Sorry we have to formally meet like this.”

  I don’t respond. My nostrils burn with the acidity of vomit.

  He rips off my gag and blindfold. It takes a moment for my eyesight to adjust to the light. Dominick lies across from me. I stare at this chest and see it trembling up and down. Eugene still wears cut off uniform pants. He has blond, shaggy hair that’s tied back and matted on one side, and he’s wielding a butcher knife. He always seemed so carefree at the Geotroupe camp. The guard stands at the entrance with his back to us.

  “You are going to set things right. Undo the damage you caused and let people live out their lives here in peace.”

  He walks over to Dominick and lifts him by the arm. Dominick winces in pain. He places the blade on his cheek, looking at me.

  “I expect your full cooperation.”

  I nod in agreement, unable to hold back the emotion on my face. He smiles a sadistic, toothy grin.

  “You will record a new message that we will send to the CVBE. We want our rations reinstated. You will take back everything you said about testing. Say you realize that the testing has nothing to do with contributing. Then you will contribute yourself live as a show of good faith.”

  “Alex, don’t,” Dominick says.

  Eugene slides the blade along Dominck’s bicep, a clean, shallow cut. Dominick cries out in pain.

  “Stop!” I yell. “I’ll do it if you leave him alone. But it doesn’t mean the meritocracy will listen.”

  “Oh, they’ll listen. It was their idea.”

  THE GUARD COMES back inside the tent and replaces my blindfold.

  “Choice is a funny thing, isn’t it?” the guard says. “You can get people to do almost anything under the right circumstances.”

  He fits right into the culture on Solbiluna-8 and how the vances operate. There’s no freedom here.

  Hannah’s voice interrupts. “Eugene said to bring them food. Said you can go on a bathroom break.”

  Someone coughs and hacks up a ball of phlegm. “For flavor,” the guard says.

  “That’s disgusting,” she says and laughs.

  His footsteps leave and her footsteps approach me.

  I click and click for Benji and try to back up away from her.

  She lifts my blindfold and whispers. “Alex, no, it’s not like that. My family volunteered as spies for the Umbra. Jackson got word this group was forming, and some of us were recruited. Don’t talk to people you recognize from the Geotroupes. Some of them are actual traitors, including Eugene, not recruited like my family. We sent word back to the Umbra that you were both taken.” She glances over at Dominick. “He doesn’t look so good. Hang on.”

  Hannah tends to Dominick, ripping a piece of her uniform and wrapping his bleeding arm. Then she comes back to me. My body trembles with distrust.

  “I’d feed you, but he spit in it. Alex, I don’t want to freak you out but they plan to stage an accident that will kill you. They want to force your contribution to activate. They figure if people see that you’ve become a biohologram, they’ll give up questioning . . . and you won’t become a martyr for our cause, either. We can’t let that happen.”

  I clear my throat, and she loosens my gag. “They’ll hurt Dominick if I refuse.”

  More coughing and hacking. “Damn. The guard’s coming.” She readjusts my blindfold, and I’m left in the dark. “I’ll come back if I get more information.”

  I HAVE NO idea how long Dominick and I remain under guard, but I keep clicking for Benji. Night must turn into day because Hannah returns with breakfast and a bucket for bathroom privileges. Where is Benji? I’ve cried wolf too many times. I wonder if Hannah actually sent word, or if she’s really a traitor?

  Once the guard steps outside, she warns us. “They’re moving you to one of the LU communities.”

  She scoops watery grains into my mouth. I swallow and cough at the texture. “Why?”

  “They want you in CVBE bandwidth range when they release your contribution statement. Rumor has it they plan to push you over the edge of the Hub. Make it look accidental, and then your contribution will activate.”

  My stomach plummets at the thought of splattering inside a Hub across an HDP platform. And then waking up a biohologram. I wave off the food, and she moves to Dominick. I’m sure my hands would be shaking uncontrollably if they weren’t tied behind my back. I’m as defenseless as an ant stuck on a mountain of concrete, a giant sole about to crush me. No one cares about one ant.

  “Where’s the Umbra?” Dominick asks as Hannah attempts to feed him.

  “I don’t know. I thought they’d come by now.”

  I don’t tell her about my private clicker connection with Benji. Just in case.

  “We can’t let them move our location,” Dominick says.

  “I can try to set up a diversion with some of the others,” Hannah says, thinking quickly. “Like a fire. It might blow our cover, but we have to try something to get you out of here.”

  “Do it.” Dominick then focuses on me. “You okay?”

  “I love you,” I answer. The words come from a desperate place. Time is short. Just in case.

  “Don’t,” he says. He knows me well.

  “Say it,” I ask.

  “I don’t have to say it. You know. When we get out of here, and we’re safe, I’ll say it again.”

  The guard returns moments later, and all conversation ceases as blindfolds and gags return.

  HANNAH KEEPS TRUE to her word. Hours later, loud voices echo, “Fire! Fire!” in the distance.

  “Shit,” the guard mutters.

  The sound of footsteps and voices shouting at each other retreat into the distance. Footsteps run toward the tent and inside.

  “Get ready to run once they give the signal,” Hannah says. She uses a knife to free my hands, and I pull off my blindfold and gag. I use the clicker one last time to signal Benji. Nolan is in the corner, cutting Dominick loose.

  “Thanks, kid,” Dominick says. “Didn’t know you were here.”

  “Don’t mention it,” Nolan says and his voice wavers. “Just don’t tell my grandmother.”

  AS WE WAIT for the signal to escape, the commotion o
utside stirs up my stomach. I hate waiting. Dominick’s face looks paler by the minute.

  Hannah peeps her head out of the tent one last time. Someone whistles.

  “That’s it. Let’s go,” she says.

  I watch Dominick rise slowly to his feet and then grab his stomach and wince.

  “Go without me,” Dominick says. “I think I might have a broken rib or something.”

  I grab his arm. “Not gonna happen.”

  Nolan helps Dominick on his other side. Hannah peeks out of the tent to double check. “It’s clear. Come on.”

  We step outside. Tents alight in the distance, and the smell of wood burning fills the air as we run in the opposite direction. Dominick struggles to breathe, and it reminds me of my Dad after he regained consciousness in the hospital. We run and run, clearing the front of the encampment.

  “I . . . can’t . . .” Dominick wheezes.

  “Head to those bushes to hide,” I say. “He needs to catch his breath.”

  Footsteps run at us from another direction. I turn in hope to see Benji. It’s Eugene, along with several other guards.

  He yanks me by my hair. “Did you really think you’d get away that easily? I have plans for you today. As for your friends here, they are expendable. Maybe next time you’ll listen to me. Kill them.”

  “No, wait,” I beg. The guards ignore and snatch Nolan, Dominick, and Hannah as they struggle to get away. “I’ll throw myself into the Hub. You won’t have to stage it. Just let them go.”

  Eugene grins. “Heard the plan, huh? Doesn’t matter. Baby, I don’t think you understand. You’re going regardless.”

  A popping sound, and white, thick smoke fills the area. It becomes impossible to see, like walking through clouds.

  Eugene’s voice yells, “Ambush!”

  I twist my body and manage to knee him somewhere crucial since he lets me go. I turn and lose my sense of direction. “Dominick? Hannah? Nolan?” I manage to say before I cough and gag on the smoke.

  Someone grabs me from behind, and I swing wildly in the fog.

  “Ow, Alex, it’s me,” Benji says.

  “Sorry—”

  “No time. Let’s go.” He’s wearing a thin mask over his mouth, carrying a knife, and has odd canisters attached to his vest. “Put this on.” He covers my mouth with a similar mask.

  “Where are the others?”

  He pushes me forward without a response. I push back. “No, we can’t leave them.”

  “Trust me. I have people on it. You’re my priority.” His voice changes, and he sounds a little like Dad. He grabs my forearm, and I run with him into the woods.

  The farther we go away from the chaos, the louder my heart beats. My body tears itself in half, one side desperate for my own safety, one side desperate to save Dominick and the others.

  Katherine and other Umbra wait in the wings. Doctor A. takes my pulse and reminds me to breathe slowly so I don’t hyperventilate.

  “Dominick’s hurt,” I tell him and look back at the smoke for signs of him. There’s no movement.

  “Where are they?” I ask Benji. “You said they’d be okay.”

  Benji sighs. “Stay here.”

  He races back into the rising fog, knife in hand.

  Minutes tick by, and I beg God, if he or she exists, to intervene. I made Dominick come with me to the woods. It cannot end like this.

  Through the fog, Hannah runs forward with other Umbra soldiers, wearing masks.

  My body convulses, and I puke near a pale tree trunk. Katherine rubs my back.

  “Alex,” Hannah says, and I look up. Beruk emerge from the smoke, carrying Nolan’s body. “Is he okay?” she asks.

  He places Nolan’s body on the ground. Blood seeps and spreads onto his uniform in several spots on his chest. Beruk’s uniform is also stained. Doctor A. checks his vitals and shakes his head. Hannah falls to the ground and sobs across Nolan’s body. I hug her from behind and as she cries for him, for us, for everything.

  “Where’s Benji and Dominick?” I ask Beruk.

  “They aren’t here? You were Benji’s target.”

  “He went back in,” I say. An intense burn travels from my lower stomach to my heart. They have to be okay. They have to be okay.

  Just when the forest starts to spin around me, Benji emerges from behind several bushes far north of our location. He’s carrying Dominick.

  I race to them. “Oh my God, Dominick?”

  “Alex?” Dominick asks. Hearing his voice makes my heart beat again.

  “Right here,” I say.

  “I love you,” he manages to say before his head drops and he loses consciousness.

  A GROUP OF Umbra rush Dominick back toward headquarters since Doctor A. says he he lost a lot of blood.

  Some stay behind to deal with the traitors.

  The rest of the team returns together through the forest. Benji and Katherine walk next to me and Hannah.

  My love for Dominick almost got him killed. I’m not okay if he’s not okay.

  Benji’s voice rings through the woods. “What were you thinking, leaving the party? Do you not understand that the majority of people are angry at you? You are their reason that rations have been cut. You are a target, Alexandra. You can’t just go off gallivanting.”

  “I—” My hands shake from the experience, from almost losing everything. “Not now.”

  Hannah moves ahead of us to avoid the conversation.

  “Bullshit not now.” Benji grabs me by the crook of my arm. “I had to waste an entire Umbra special force team to retrieve you.”

  I pull back. “You’re not Dad. I don’t have to listen to you.”

  Benji’s eyes fire up, and he addresses Katherine. “Will you talk some sense into her?”

  “I agree. She shouldn’t have wandered off. But do you realize how much stress she must be under? Give the girl a break.”

  “A break? Marcus and I have had no time together either. This isn’t break time, it’s war time.”

  “And you’re losing him because of it. He’s not happy with your shit, either.”

  I storm past him without speaking.

  “Hey! We aren’t done,” Benji says.

  “Yes, we are. Did you forget you’re my brother? You’re not my parent. We’re equals.”

  “If you want me to treat you like an adult, act like an adult. Don’t run off when you have Umbra members trying to keep you safe. Don’t assume your needs are more important than the group.”

  “I don’t!” I refuse to cry in front of them.

  I flee through the woods back to camp with Hannah. By the time I reach Umbra headquarters, we both can’t hold back the damage.

  CHAPTER 24

  DAY 43

  I AM NOT there when Doctor A. delivers the news to Nolan’s grandmother, but I overhear him tell Marcus he’s worried she may have a stroke. Kendra and Hannah hold a memorial that night for Nolan around the Geotroupes’ firepit. I can only handle it for a short time before I return to Dominick’s bedside.

  On a handmade cot of cloth and wood in my guarded floor space of Umbra headquarters, I sit and watch Dominick sleep. My mind replays the kidnapping over and over again, with different endings, each more dire and gruesome. In every scenario, Dominick dies. I write in my journal.

  I force myself to think of something else to stop the terrible loop, and my mind drifts to my fight with Benji. He’s right. He’s so right. I screwed up and almost got us killed. I screw up everything I touch. This is why Dominick and I should not be together. I’m going to be his downfall.

  I watch Dominick’s chest rise and fall and remember Dad in the hospital on the ventilator. My parents must be just as worried that Benji and I didn’t survive. I imagine Dad and Mom making a homemade shrine to me and Benji in the living room. Dad pulling the boards off the windows with one hand, beer in the other. If there is beer. Maybe there’s still a shortage of alcohol, and he’s left with no way to hide from the memories. Maybe the economy can’t
recover fast enough with so many workers gone, and no food shipments arrive. Maybe my parents don’t even exist anymore. Maybe no one will survive this.

  I jump off the cot, kiss Dominick’s forehead, hang on to my journal, and leave the room to escape the images. Talking to someone will help distract me. I find Katherine tinkering with DOT.

  “What are you doing up?” she asks.

  “I could ask you the same question.” I sit near her with my journal on my lap and watch her work.

  “I heard Dominick will be fine,” Katherine says without looking at me.

  I nod but say nothing.

  “DOT is almost ready. Working out a few kinks and trying something else.” She swipes her hand rapidly across a holoscreen above the black box on DOT’s leg. “I left you a surprise, by the way.”

  My curiosity mixes with anxiousness. “What? Where?”

  “Not telling.”

  In that moment, she reminds me of Benji driving me nuts with half-answered statements. Well, if he were nice.

  “Consider it my gratitude,” Katherine says.

  “What did I do?”

  She turns from DOT’s program and faces me. “Told the truth. At the old vertex site, the focal point of the vertex parabola locked on to Earth’s physical location.”

  I blink. “What?”

  “Professor Marciani confirmed the Earth wasn’t destroyed.”

  “Seriously?” Relief spreads through me that something is finally going right. “So we can go back?”

  “Not through the vertex. We can’t maintain navigation yet. The vertexes still appear magenta and lose structural integrity. But the confirmation changes everything. The Umbra has switched tactics into battle mode.”

  I swallow and fidget with the wooden and metal tools on the table. It’s what I’ve been waiting for, but as I think of Dominick in recovery, I know battles come with human cost.

  “Imagine if we had never met,” Katherine says and gestures for me to hand her a sharp tool. “If you had never been brave enough to trust me. All these people not knowing what happened. Being abducted from Earth and not knowing. You did this, you know. You even changed me. You gave my life purpose again. I haven’t had that for a long time.” Her smile holds pain behind it, pain for the loss of her daughter.