Affinity

by Dianne Wilson

  Maybe he could do this without seeing like that. He just needed to find the security lock panel and he’d be in. He searched the length of the wall, pushing and prodding, waiting for it to slide back as it had done in the past.

  Nothing moved.

  You’ve got to be kidding.

  The band on stage in the room next door announced their final song. His time was nearly up. One more time. Working methodically from the left, he explored every millimetre of where the elevator should have been.

  There was no getting around it, the wall was solid. He wouldn’t be getting to Zee this way. His brain scrambled, turning over options.

  He knew of one other way to get in.

  But it would mean going back to a place where he’d sworn never to return.

  ~*~

  Eva sat alone in the small room.

  She’d been awakened by the silent girl, the same one who’d served dinner and brought Eva to this room. There were no restraints on Eva’s legs or wrists, but even if the door had been unlocked and open, she wouldn’t have left. There was no way she could leave. She sat easy, with her feet together, hands on her lap.

  Waiting.

  With someone to protect came a sense of bravery. It numbed her to the sting of fear. She would do anything to keep Peta safe.

  The metal door swung inward. She expected Torn, but it was a stranger who walked in. Something in the way he moved seemed familiar.

  He sat on the chair in front of her and pulled it up so close their knees nearly touched. Eva felt the warmth through her leggings. “I’ll be taking over the next stage of your training.” He spoke loudly as if including the room next door in the conversation. A frown creased the skin between his eyebrows and he studied her face as if it were a puzzle piece that hadn’t yet found its hole. He leaned in close, voice dropping to a whisper, “Do I know you?”

  Eva shrugged. His eyes were brown and seemed kind. What a lie. She shook her head, not about to admit that he seemed familiar. It didn’t matter if she knew him or not. Peta.

  “Walk with me.”

  The passages he led her through were dimly lit in red and ended at a door to a rusty metal stairway. He motioned for her to lead the way upwards. Already light-headed from hunger, the effort of climbing stairs made Eva’s vision swim. She clung to the hand railing, swaying on her feet. The door at the top was locked.

  “Who are you?”

  “Not for you to know.” He pressed a button on the wall next to the door and a panel slid back. He pressed his palm onto a flat glass panel. It scanned his hand and the door popped open with a hiss.

  They came out onto the roof of the club, into brilliant sunshine.

  Eva hid her eyes in her hands, blinded by the light. Wind threaded through her hair and for a moment, something stirred inside.

  What was this guy’s problem anyway? Trainer number two. T-Two. That’s a good name right there.

  T-Two took Eva close to the edge of the building, but she hung back. A swimming head and a multi-story drop would not make for a happy ending.

  Crouching down, he waved her over. “Don’t be stubborn. The cameras don’t reach all the way here.” He fiddled in his pocket and held out something in a foil wrapper. “Here.”

  Eva sat next to him, “What is it?”

  “Food, but before you say no—which I know you’re about to—it has an antidote to what they injected you with.”

  “And what was that?”

  T-Two sighed, paused long enough that Eva thought he wouldn’t answer. When he spoke, it was low and fast. “Affinity Enhancer, the dark kind. It clouds what you see. Affinity is neutral but whether you see dark or light is affected by your experiences. Which is why you are starved and mistreated here. They don’t want you to see light.” He tapped the foil-wrapped bar in his palm. “This can help a little.”

  Eva didn’t need any more persuasion. She snatched it out of his hands. Hesitating for a fraction of a second, she ripped the wrapper off and bit deeply. Nuts and honey with an undertone of apricots danced on her tongue—an energy bar of sorts. Her head dropped back as she savoured this mouthful with her eyes closed, not wanting to swallow. “Why are you being nice to me?” The words tangled with the food on her tongue.

  “Eat.”

  Something landed with a thump to the left of where they sat.

  Eva nearly choked on the mouthful of food.

  Torn, all sharp angles and meanness stood before them. His chin jutted out below sunken cheeks. He saw them and marched over, double-time. “What is going on here? Elden, why is this girl eating?”

  Elden was on his feet, moving himself in front of Eva. “Back off. She’s clearly a stage two, I’m claiming her for my pack now.”

  Sunlight had melted enough of the numbness for a trickle of fear to dart through Eva. She kept eating anyway, chewing and swallowing quickly, not caring for the food as much as the antidote. It fell into place with a click.

  Elden had been in the lift where Runt was held captive. Bree’s brother.

  Torn was nearly on the tip of his toes to glare into Elden’s face.

  Elden stood at ease. “Get out of here, Torn. You have no authority over me.” An underlying steeliness echoed in his voice.

  “Not yet. Won’t be long though.” Torn exited using the same stairs they’d climbed to get up on the roof. He laughed like a maniac. The man seemed insane. Though there were no guarantees that Elden wasn’t. He’d abandoned his sister to be here.

  Eva swallowed the last of the bar. Her fingers fidgeted with the wrapper, folding it, pulling it straight, crunching it into a small ball, flattening it out again. Over and over.

  Elden kicked the wall. “Give me that. Don’t want them to find it on you.” He took it, pulled a lighter from his pocket and set it alight. The flames consumed it, leaving ashes that flew on the wind. He turned to her, offering a hand to help her get up. “You need to get back.”

  “What is Stage Two?”

  “Don’t ask questions I can’t answer.” His eyes shifted sideways and up towards a camera mounted on a tall pole. It swung in a wide arc, endlessly capturing everything that happened on the roof. Elden pulled her towards the edge of the building.

  Eva bit back a scream.

  “I won’t hurt you. Tell me what you see.”

  “Tired old buildings. Most seem empty, deserted, neglected. Poor people.”

  “Look closer, look at them.”

  Eva frowned as she became aware of what Elden was talking about. Gaunt faces at broken windows, people drifting down on the street below. Haggard, hungry, they moved without purpose. Without hope. “They look sad.”

  “Look again.” He reached from behind and brushed his thumb over the hollow between her collar bones, over her silvery mark. The air around them shivered and bent, as though they stood in a heat wave. “Does anything look different?”

  Eva blinked, eyes adjusting to the strange haze. “They look the same. No...wait! They are covered in sores.” A shiver ran through her body. She’d seen wounds like these before–in her dreams. Kai had been wounded like this too. LightSucker bites. “This can’t be real. I saw those in a dream.”

  “What else?”

  They paced alongside those with multiple bites, footpads leaving smoking trails in the cement.

  DarKounds, here in the city.

  24

  Swollen storm clouds blew in from the east as Kai shrugged the school bag off his back and set it on the grass outside St. Gregory’s. The Recruiters van was already there, parked outside the school’s perimeter fence, just down from the ornate brick entrance to the school. The van doors were closed and the windows were tinted so dark, he couldn’t tell if there was anyone inside.

  For as long as he’d been at St Greg’s, the Recruiters had made regular visits, combing through the boys and picking out those who showed traces of Affinity aptitude. Maths boffins were head-hunted for the Advanced Maths program; English whizzes were snaffled up for the Literary department; a
nd those with an aptitude for Affinity got themselves recruited. The only difference was, no one ever spoke about Affinity. Maths, English, Science…all came with awards and accolades. Affinity didn’t exist, and yet here sat the van. Without fail, a positive test result meant being taken. No one knew where or why.

  Kai’d managed to get away, but now he was back, ready to walk willingly into their clutches.

  A shaft of early morning sunlight filtered through the gathering clouds. It found its way to him through the sad leaves of the willow tree. Kai stood in the dappled patch of shade thinking of the work he’d missed at school. No sting of regret, he wasn’t here for that. Everything he needed was in the van, and the doors were now swinging open. There was nothing in him that wanted to do this, but he couldn’t see another way of rescuing Zee. He shouldered the backpack and started walking.

  There must be holes in his head the size of a small country.

  ~*~

  A low creak woke Eva. She lay on her side, peering through her lashes, forcing her body to remain relaxed as if she were still sleeping. The door to their room was open. This was unusual. They were normally locked in for sleeping, but it wasn’t the open door which caught her attention as much as the colour of the glow that spilled through the gap. Harsh red had been replaced by a soft, amber glow—a soothing shade that washed over the silhouettes of sleeping bodies, painting them in the colours of home.

  Peta lay next to her, worn out from a day of running and climbing.

  The light pulled at her, warm and foreign in this harsh place, drawing her in. She lay still, resisting. If there was one thing being here had taught her, it was to trust nothing.

  And yet it was so golden.

  In a moment she decided. Slipping to her feet, she felt her way forward, careful not to wake anyone. The door creaked as she inched it open. She froze, cringing at the noise. When all was quiet, she slipped through the gap and into the passage. Light spilled from a door further down. Eva had never seen it open before, let alone been inside. The sound of her own breathing seemed loud in the thick silence as she crossed the passage and backed up to the wall, searching both ways for any movement. Satisfied that she was alone, she risked a glimpse. It was a lounge, one so ordinary she pinched herself. In this strange world of pain and fear, it seemed surreal; two puffy couches—a three-seater, and a double, a glass coffee table, a vase holding daffodils. The light that had woken her came from a corner lamp, standing stately and tall, spilling its illumination as a vaccine against the red-tinged darkness. It took her breath away.

  Eva slipped inside, her toes curled into the soft fibres of the carpet. The door whispered shut behind her as she lost herself in the room. Pictures lined the walls, not cheap prints, but oil paintings by the look of the raised texture. Her senses swam. She breathed deeply and caught the scent of...peaches? A bowl on the oak side table was piled high with fruit. Not just peaches, but apples, pears, bananas...

  Eva ran her fingers along the velvety back of the couch, drinking in the richness of her surroundings. Curtains hung closed all along one wall. What would she see on the other side? She wanted to see out the window, but she wanted the fruit even more. There was enough in the bowl for everyone in her pack. Maybe she could—

  “You’re a light sleeper.” T2. Elden.

  Eva hadn’t heard the door. “Apparently.” Eva’s arms crossed over her chest. She schooled her features. Food? What food? The heat in her cheeks told a different story. Her gaze slid away from his and she wished desperately she’d never seen the light or followed it.

  “I’m on your side, Zee.”

  “What’s outside the window?” Trust was a commodity beyond the cost her soul could pay in this place. Safer to change the subject.

  “Testing grass. You want to see?” A half-smile played on his lips, softening his tired eyes. He looked different at night, human. It was almost enough to take her out of the ugliness of reality. He held out a hand, golden in the light, attached to strong arms and shoulders that conspired to soften her resolve.

  She ignored his hand, her own still tucked in her armpits. “Sure.”

  He shrugged and pulled back the curtain, ushering her through a sliding glass door into darkness beyond. Amber light spilled through from the golden room, lighting a square patch of lawn, meticulously trimmed and edged.

  “Come on, be brave.” This time, he grinned so broad, it lit up his face.

  Eva smiled back before she could stop herself. Stepping onto the lawn, the grass tickled the soles of her bare feet.

  ~*~

  Kai didn’t recognize the Recruiter who strapped him into the chair in the van and attached wireless probes to his fingers and temples. She couldn’t have been much older than him, a striking combination of olive skin and Asian eyes that put her high on Kai’s list of girls who would never date me. Her beauty was stunted though, by the lack of expression on her face. While he didn’t recognize her, the chair was all too familiar. It had a crack in the vinyl that pinched his rear if he sat dead centre. He shifted his weight to the left. There were benefits to having done this before.

  Rain pattered down on the roof of the van as she hooked him up to the glowing console of electrical equipment and checked that his readings were coming through. “You’ve been here before.”

  He shrugged. “So?”

  “Sooo, I don’t have to explain to you how this all works.” She removed the backing and stuck the last circle to his temple. “Do I?”

  He shook his head. The first time had been the worst. The recruiter had been a gorgeous, green-eyed beauty, more than half the reason he’d agreed to be tested. She’d even smiled at him. Kai had been about to ask for her number when she flicked the switch. The lights dropped and all he could see was her face turned ghoulish by the glowing coppery snakes dancing on her forehead. His second testing had been the only excuse he could find to dodge a maths test. He’d declined the third test, but they’d grabbed him in the quad and threatened to do interesting things to his intestines with a dinner knife if he didn’t comply. After the test, he’d thrown up, and in the ensuing chaos, he ran. He’d never been back to St. Greg’s.

  Each time the darkness had seemed thicker, the coppery snakes more alive. He remembered now why they’d seemed familiar while trapped in the other realm—he knew them from his three Affinity tests.

  ~*~

  “You ready?” A half-smile played on Elden’s lips, the kind that her Dad would have worn when surprising her with a gift. It took her back to happier days. They sat on the lawn in the peach-light spilling from the windows of the lounge. Anticipation tingled through her senses. She felt tipsy. Could one get drunk on golden light and the smell of fresh fruit?

  There was a gentleness to Elden that Eva craved. She didn’t realize how much until he led her to the lawn, making sure she was comfortable. This man could single-handedly obliterate her defenses. She frowned at him to counter the mush inside.

  “And now?” He laughed.

  “Exactly. What now?” She coughed, feigning impatience. Heat crept through her hairline.

  “Learn while you can, Zee.” He turned his face away from the window, the light. “It might just get you out of here.” He winked at her with the far-side eye.

  So they were being watched here too.

  “Come, let’s see what you’ve got.” He sat cross-legged opposite her, held out his hands, palms up.

  She put her hands in his, not knowing what to expect.

  He shifted up onto his knees, transferred both her hands to his left, and pressed his right-hand thumb to the base of her throat.

  Waves shuddered through her and Eva hung onto him as walls, window, and the light melted and slid away. Shifting green-black lava glass slid into place all around them. Light blazed from Eva, capturing and igniting emerald flashes in the walls, the floor.

  Elden fell backwards, breaking the contact with her mark.

  A breath later they were back on the lawn, though the light seemed sickly a
fter the blaze from Eva.

  “I didn’t know. Something is not right.” He was breathing too fast, spooked.

  “Know what? I’ve been having dreams like that. What does it mean?”

  Elden shook his head. He hauled her to her feet and back to the lounge. “I’ll leave first. Stay for a minute, and then get yourself back to your room. Got it?”

  “I don’t understand—”

  “Me, neither. I need to check on something. Remember. Only stay for a minute.” He left, taking care to shut the door quietly.

  Eva started the slow count to sixty while breathing deeply the sweet aroma of the fruit. It made perfect sense to put an apple into her pocket…thirty…twenty-nine…and a peach too…twenty-seven…twenty-six… some plums wouldn’t be missed…nine pieces in all. She rearranged what was left in the bowl so that it looked much like it had before she’d lost her mind.

  Eva finished her countdown and left quickly, cradling her find in the upturned hem of her T-shirt. She made sure to leave the door open as it had been when she’d found it.

  Nothing stirred in the passage as she crossed to the room where her companions slept. She picked out those whom Morgan had pointed out and slipped a fruit into their hands. Each one woke wide-eyed, sniffed the fruit, and only bit into it when she smiled and nodded.

  Eva had taken nothing for herself, but as she sank back in next to Peta, who was sucking on a peach pip, her heart was full and warm. Her stomach no longer mattered.

  25

  The last time the Recruiter had flipped the switch, he’d been swallowed up in darkness. Now Kai was warm on a rock in the middle of a lazy stream, his feet trailing in the cool water, dazzling brightness all around. The air was fresh and breathing it felt good. He shut his eyes and wallowed in the moment.

  “Hey.”

  He peeped through one eye, not ready to let the feeling pass. Close to him, on the riverbank, sat Tau. He lay back in the long grass, hands tucked behind his head. He grinned as Kai saw him.