“That’s not true,” Gideon said, the words one-at-a-time slow.
“Oh, it is,” Dr. King said. “It is.” He sounded jovial. “We just need to see if this works. We’ve never done anything this big before. It’s a graft, of sorts. Not a match at all. Someone else’s legs. You may remember Isaac?”
Lightning flashed through me.
“Of course, I think we’ll be successful.”
“Daniel?” I whispered his name, and Daniel’s eyes opened. The smell got worse as I neared him.
“Shiloh,” he said. I could hear how weak he was. “I don’t feel well. I need something to drink.”
I held a plastic cup filled with ice and water to Daniel’s lips. He sipped the drink.
“Better?”
With his glasses off, Daniel’s eyes looked bigger than normal, glassy. He looked in the direction of Dr. King and Gideon. “Come closer,” he said.
“No company secrets, now,” Dr. King said. “Go talk to your best friend, Gideon. Adam would want you to.”
“No, thank you,” Gideon said, and he turned away.
I bent over Daniel. I could feel the fever radiating from him. “I made a mistake,” he said. “No matter what Dr. King tells you, I made a mistake. Let everyone know.”
“I will,” I said. “I promise.”
“If I get out of this, Shiloh, I’ll be there to help the Terminals. Tell Gideon I said so, will you?”
“Yes,” I said. “Of course, Daniel.” I touched his forehead with the back of my hand. “He’s burning up.”
Dr. King walked to the side of the bed. He checked a few readings on the equipment Daniel was hooked up to. “If the fever breaks,” Dr. King said, “we have a new success. You win a few, you lose a few with Terminal experimentation. But it’s all for the good of the Whole. We’re always a step ahead here at Haven Hospital and Halls.”
I felt sick to my stomach. “You promised him…”
Behind me, Gideon cleared his throat.
“Let’s go, Shiloh,” Dr. King said. He slapped his hands together. “We don’t want to weary our patient.”
“Remember me, okay, Shiloh?”
I nodded, squeezed Daniel’s hand that felt fiery and dry in my own. “Always.”
In the hall, with the door closed, I turned to Dr. King. Gideon stood away from us, his back toward me.
I caught my breath, bit it off. “I don’t believe Daniel traded you anything. Not like you say.”
Dr. King walked in slow motion toward the hall desk. He sat down and fingered an iris. It was a beautiful lavender. There had to be a dozen flowers in the vase. “You’re very astute, Shiloh. A lot like Ann Alexander.”
Starting, I spoke. “You fooled him. Like you’ve fooled the world into thinking we’re something we aren’t. You promised him something you couldn’t deliver. You’ve killed Daniel and you killed Isaac, just to try to figure out what we were doing.”
“I’ve not fooled anyone,” Dr. King said. “I’ve given the Whole what they want. Eternal life. Eternal youth. Or as close as you can get. We live in a world where looking young reigns supreme.”
“But you tricked Daniel.”
“I offered him what he wanted,” Dr. King said. “We’ve had rebellions before, you know. Adam started a few. We know what to keep an eye out for. I saw it coming with Daniel and knew what the trade should be.” He folded his hands on the desktop. “The possibility of legs.”
Gideon kept his back turned to us both. “You know what he would want.”
Dr. King looked at Gideon. “I gave him what he wanted.”
“Not Daniel,” he said. “I’m not talking about Daniel.”
Dr. King said nothing.
“We saw him. You keep his body still.”
“You had no right—” Dr. King swelled up like a balloon.
“You care about him.” Gideon took my hand and I could feel him trembling. “That’s why you’ve let me live, and why you couldn’t honor what he wanted—to be allowed to die. That’s why he’s hooked up to a bunch of monitors that live for him.”
“Don’t speak about my boy.”
“I loved him, too,” Gideon said. “Maybe not like you did, but I understood him and he—”
“You understood nothing of my son.” The irises fell to the floor, the vase shattering. “You knew nothing of him.”
Gideon walked closer to Dr. King, pulling me along. “I knew everything about him. I am him. You said so yourself. He and I talked all the time. He told me how great you are. What a genius you are and how you could change the world. And he told me you believed in choice.”
Dr. King was quiet. His mouth hung open.
“I believed Adam about you for a long time,” Gideon said. “Now half of us are gone. And Shiloh and me, we’re leaving.”
Those last words hung in the air.
Gideon pulled me along, walking in a determined way, but I could still feel his hand shaking.
“You’re worth too much,” Dr. King said. “I can’t let you go. I have business partners. I have bills. Accountability to others.”
Gideon didn’t slow. He hurried me along, tucked his arm into mine.
“Don’t look back,” Gideon said under his breath. “Whatever you do, just keep moving.”
Down the corridor we went. A turn to the left. Dr. King’s footsteps not following. His voice growing dim. “No matter what my son wanted, I’ll not let you get away.” Deeper into the basement.
“Go, go, go,” I said.
A siren wailed. Then another. And another.
Gideon ran then, pulling me behind him. Out the door marked by the EXIT sign. Into the night. Up the stairs and across the lawn.
Sirens pealed and lights flashed.
Dr. King was there (how?), and Principal Harrison. Security spilled from the buildings, but we were ahead of them.
“Hurry, hurry.”
Gideon dragged me. I didn’t waste energy to speak. Just ran.
Miss Maria stepped from the shadows. “This way. This way.”
“Follow her,” I said to Gideon. We ran after Miss Maria, who took us to the front gate, where Ms. Iverson waited in a car for us to climb the fence to safety.
27
“Are you sure you can’t go with us?” I asked Ms. Iverson. My nerves jangled. I was positive my very heart shook.
“Ann wants you,” Ms. Iverson said. “Not me. Anyway, I need to get back to school so they don’t suspect I had anything to do with your escape. I’m in trouble enough for fighting for you. We have to drop you here. It means you walking a bit, but we can’t risk getting caught.”
Miss Maria said, “They won’t miss us if we’re back in a few minutes. Go. The two of you. As soon as we can, we’ll be back.”
“It’s almost morning,” Ms. Iverson said. “I’ll call her so she knows you’re coming. Go to the address we gave you.”
“1501 Cherry Lane,” I said.
They both nodded.
We were a mile from Ann Alexander’s home. I remembered from the map. But it seemed a forever from where Ms. Iverson had let us out. Every time a car slowed, I was sure Dr. King would leap out for us. I walked with my head down until Gideon said, “You look like a Terminal, Shiloh. Stand up straight and tall. That’s the first thing I learned from Adam.”
Be a Terminal. Look like a Terminal. Now look like the Whole. Maybe I would never fit in this world out here.
If they would even have us.
* * *
When I saw the house, I couldn’t quite move.
We waited on the corner as the sky turned a golden yellow from the sun and then that heartbreaking blue. A warm breeze blew from the east and I tucked my hands into my jeans pockets.
“I think you should go alone,” Gideon said.
His suggestion startled me.
“This is your moment. I had mine with Adam.” Gideon took my hand and pressed his lips to my knuckles. Maybe I could stand here with Gideon the rest of my life, letting him touch me. T
ouching him. “You go.”
I was silent.
Gideon’s arms slipped around my waist and he hugged me, bending over a little so his face was close to mine.
“I’m ready,” I said at last. The words were airless.
I crossed the street, looking once over my shoulder to Gideon, who lifted his hand.
“You’ll have to knock, Shiloh,” I reminded myself. And when I did, it seemed at first too soft, and then far too loud. Especially this early in the morning. From somewhere down the road, a dog barked.
It took forever before I heard the sound of footsteps. I knocked again. The door swung open enough for me to see only a part of her face, the male right behind her.
The woman in my dreams.
I’ve changed my mind.
“Shiloh?”
Don’t change your mind.
“Shiloh?”
The door shut and I turned to Gideon.
She didn’t want me.
I heard locks being released. The door opened.
“Oh, Shiloh,” Ann said. “You look just like I thought you would. Just like my Victoria.”
Ann’s real voice—not something twisted from my memory, not a video, but her real voice. Her.
The sun crested the horizon, splashing light on us all.
I closed my eyes and remembered Abigail calling my name. I could see her face, hear her talk about hope. About the Cause. I saw Daniel and Adam and Claudia and Elizabeth and Isaac. I saw Gideon.
“Shiloh,” Ann said. “Come in.”
She opened her arms to me.
HAVEN
HOSPITAL&HALLS
Where You Matter
Established 2020
Welcome to:
Daniel Smith—Faculty
Abigail Brown—Staff
HAVEN
HOSPITAL&HALLS
Where You Matter
Established 2020
Note to all Staff
Please make sure you are present for removals.
ALSO BY CAROL LYNCH WILLIAMS
MILES FROM ORDINARY
THE CHOSEN ONE
About the Author
CAROL LYNCH WILLIAMS, who lives in Provo, Utah, was awarded the prestigious PEN/Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship. Her novel The Chosen One won the Whitney and the Association of Mormon Letters Awards for the best YA novel of the year. The Chosen One and Glimpse were both named “Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers” by the ALA, which also named Miles from Ordinary among the “Best Fiction for Young Adults” in 2012.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
THE HAVEN. Copyright © 2014 by Carol Lynch Williams. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.stmartins.com
Cover design by Kerri Resnick
Photograph of butterfly © Kesu/Shutterstock.com
The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN 978-0-312-69871-3 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-250-02253-0 (e-book)
e-ISBN 9781250022530
First Edition: March 2014
The Haven: A Novel Page 17