by H. J. Lawson
I fling my arms around him. He pulls me into a hug and holds me tightly for a moment.
“You have to go now,” he says as I reluctantly pull away from his embrace.
Adohnes shakes his head as we leave the room. “Surely there is another way?”
“I wish there was.”
“That door there,” he says, pointing to the end of the corridor.
“Tonight it is. Thank you.”
With that he leaves, heading towards the exit I will be going through tonight.
“What are you up to?” Madam Uri startles me as she steps into the corridor. Has she been listening to us?
“Nothing, Madam Uri.”
She steps forward. Her greasy forehead presses against mine. “Nothing? Always nothing with you.” She draws her eyes inwards. “I know you are lying. I’m going to tell Xander,” she says, leaving her rotten scent.
Uneasy, I step back.
“What are you going to tell Xander?” My heart bounces as I try not to show my fear.
Her arm grips around mine before I can move. She squeezes tightly. I can feel my flesh around my bullet wound separating. “Let go of me,” I squirm.
“You think you are special, don’t you? But you’re not. Xander’s going to throw you out once he’s done with you,” she smiles, “and then what’s going to happen to your precious family? They will die, just as Madam Enid did, because of you.”
I kick Madam Uri between the legs. She releases her grip of me and doubles over.
“How dare you?” she groans as she darts forward.
I turn to run, but before I can move away, a burning sensation runs through my scalp as she grips hold of my hair.
“Arh,” I scream as she pulls me back.
“Madam Uri, what are you doing?” Frances yells as she runs down the corridor.
“She was trying to leave, she attacked me,” Madam Uri says as she tugs at my hair.
“I wasn’t, she attacked me,” I plead.
“Madam Uri, I’m not sure how you treated the girls in Cueva, but we don’t allow this behavior in Purenet. If you continue this way, I will have no choice but to recommend that you no longer stay in Purenet,” Frances says firmly.
Madam Uri releases her grip from my hair. “What did you say?” she says to Frances.
“Skylier, please go back to the compound,” Frances says, not acknowledging Madam Uri’s comment.
“Walk with me,” Frances says calmly to Madam Uri as I walk past her.
Madam Uri is frozen in place, with only the huge vein in her head throbbing with anger. I’m not going to hang around to find out what is going to happen next.
Chapter Sixteen
Dax
“Dax … Dax …”
My hands reach out and connect around someone’s throat.
“Lights,” I yell. Instantly the room is flooded with light.
Gavyn leans over my bed, his eyes bulging as he gasps for air. Instantly I release my grip from his throat.
He presses his hand down on my bed as he tries to catch his breath.
“Damn … sorry, Gavyn.” After the party I drank more wine. Maybe too much, as I tried to block everything out. I can’t believe I forgot he was coming back. I’ve been here for less than a day, and I’ve already slipped back into my old ways.
I sit up in my bed, taking a glass of water from the nightstand and grabbing a pill. This is no time for a hangover. The pill instantly removes the head pain and nauseated feeling; I wish I'd had these for the last few years, but the Grounders had nothing like this.
No wonder I was able to live this way … I feel great. Except now the hangover pain has been replaced with guilt.
“Sorry,” I repeat to Gavyn.
Gavyn waves his hand in front of his face. “No need to say sorry. I taught you well.” He smiles proudly. “Tomorrow afternoon the punishment will take place in the arena. They will be punishing a man called Lowell, and the Grounders’ leader, Reznor.”
I know they will be sentenced to death. Even with my newly-cleared mind, I have no way of preventing it.
I just nod back to Gavyn. “And the other Grounders?” I ask.
“They are being held in the punishment compound with guards watching over them.”
“Punishment compound?”
“Oh yes … you would not know about this. It was your brother’s idea. Instead of banishing everyone to the wasteland, they are keeping some in the punishment compound.” Gavyn’s lower lip drops when he tells me, as though wasteland banishment would be better than being in the compound.
“What are they doing to them in there?”
“Organ transplants and experiments. A lot of people in Purenet have been getting sick, and the drugs are no longer working.” Gavyn pauses for a moment. “It's as though all the years of chemicals being added to our food and into the air we breathe have finally started to take their revenge.”
“Can we get to them?” I ask.
“You will need an army. Those people in the compound are the only way those living in Purenet can stay alive, and your father knows it. Most of our guards are down there. Your father has sent Purenet soldiers to every corner of the land to find Outsiders, those who can survive outside the domes. They are the key to surviving.”
“How long will they survive in the compound?” I ask, not sure I really want to know the answer.
“A few weeks … a month at the most. Just before they arrived, the army brought back hundreds of people they’d captured. They will test them first, because these may be different than the Grounders already tested.”
Gavyn pauses. “I must go now, but take this … I will call you on this; it's not safe for us to be seen talking to each other.” He passes me a thin white bracelet, and I clip it onto my wrist. Out of everything in Purenet, this is one thing I really missed—my own personal intelligence unit. Everything I need is stored in this one little device.
“Thank you, Gavyn,” I tell him as he heads toward the door.
“Be safe, Dax.”
Chapter Seventeen
Skylier
Silently I lay in bed waiting for the seconds to count down. Rian and I have been messaging each other throughout the night, urging our bodies to stay awake, though I’m not sure we need the constant reminder. But it would be a lie if I said I haven’t enjoyed Rian’s mind freely running into mine, allowing me to escape from my memories and only have his. His mind is filled with happy thoughts, as he looks on the positive side of all this.
He told me about the training he’s been having in preparation for the Games. I feel bad that he’s never going to compete. I can tell that he would have loved to be in the games, even if the words he forces into my mind say the opposite.
We are both hoping that some of the skills he’s learnt, however few they are, will help us survive once we’ve been banished. I wish we had more time to prepare for tonight.
The low humming sound of the girls’ snores and the darkness remind me of the Cueva. The only things missing are the groans from the Cueva cave walls… Will I never hear them again?
Madison’s messy mass of pure white hair covers her face, just as it has done every night she has slept. They will never be able to change that part of her.
She knew I was leaving tonight though she didn’t even ask me. I didn’t need to tell her I was. Just one look between best friends told the whole story.
I squeeze a knot in my shoulder to relieve the pain, only to spread another shooting pain along my arm.
Frances had applied more of the thick, clear gel-like mixture onto my gunshot wound when she returned from her walk with Madam Uri. She didn’t tell me what happened, only telling me that the gel would heal the wound, but I would have a scar there for the rest of my life—which, to be honest, I don’t mind. It reminds me of being alive, not a cloned shadow of who I felt I was. The scar reminds me of what I can be.
Five, Rian says in my head.
Four, both of our minds say.
Three, two, one.
Time to rescue our family. Rian’s mind is filled with energy. It’s infectious. I can feel the adrenaline flooding my veins like a great overflowing ocean.
I want to leap from under the sheet and out of the bed, but instead, I gingerly move, trying to stay as silent as possible.
I slip my boots out from under the bed sheets; I’d gone to bed ready to leave. They had allowed us to keep our personal belongings in a box under our bed. All I had were the clothes I arrived in, much like the rest of the girls from Cueva.
There was no way my feet would survive in the wasteland wearing the stupid Purenet slippers; they aren’t good for anything except gliding instead of walking.
Only problem with the boots is that it is hard to be silent in them. Now is the time to find out if my boots will spoil the plan.
All my thoughts are on my boots, and not on the bed, which creaks with my movement.
I glance around the room. All the girls are still fast asleep except for Madison. She begins to rise up from her bed, but I shake my head.
Madison doesn’t stop moving. “I’m coming with you,” she says softly.
“Please, Madison, don’t,” I beg.
Madison pauses.
“You’re safer here. I can’t risk anyone else’s life,” I tell her.
“No.” Madison shakes her head “I’m coming,” she says, getting to her feet.
“You’re not invited,” I lie.
“You’re just saying that to make me stay.” She’s right.
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” I say, sitting back down, trying not to wake the others.
“Fine,” Madison says, lying back down.
I kneel down on the ground next to her. “They have my mother and Callie, and they killed Madam Enid because of me. Now they are going to kill Lowell because of me. I can’t let them hurt anyone else I love,” I tell Madison.
“You need me,” she says.
“I’m tougher than I used to be, and Rian will protect me.”
Madison falls silent.
“Please let me go, I only have a small window of time and it’s closing.” I lean in and kiss her on her forehead.
Madison says nothing as I get to my feet and walk towards the door.
“Skylier, be careful,” she says softly.
“You too.”
Where are you? Rian’s mind asks. He must have already gotten out of his room.
Here, I say as I slowly open the door.
Rian’s blue eyes glisten from the lights running along the hallway guiding us towards the exit.
Rian takes the bag of food from me and places it in his bag. Madison had given me her bag—it was her mother’s, and one of the few belongings she’d brought with her. I had reluctantly and gratefully taken it from her earlier. That’s why she never said anything about me leaving—because she had planned to come with me.
The corridors are silent as night, with everyone in the compound sleeping. Rian and I silently walk towards the door.
Is he coming? Rian’s mind asks.
He said he would, my mind replies.
I anxiously look around the corridor for a clock, or something to tell me what time it is, but there is nothing.
He’s not coming, is he? my mind replies dejectedly before I can stop.
Rian’s teeth clench together. We’re not giving up, his mind tells me.
He waves the barcode on the back of his hand over the monitor; the red beam scans it as I hold my breath.
“Access denied” flashes in red letters.
Try yours, Rian’s mind says.
I try mine, only to be met with the same result: “access denied.” I arch my head up to the ceiling. Someone please help us.
I will help you, dear Skylier, Xander’s words devilishly dance in my mind.
Run, Rian. Run! Xander is here.
There is nowhere for him to run.
The exit door opens with a swoosh of cool air, revealing Xander and two guards. Adohnes is nowhere to be seen. He laid a trap for me and I fell right in.
“Do as your sister said, run along,” Xander says to Rian as he steps into the corridor.
“I’m not leaving her with you,” says Rian.
Skylier, tell your brother to leave now, or I will do the same as you made me do to Madam Enid, his mind tells me.
“Rian, go now,” I instantly blurt out.
Skylier, no, Rian’s mind says.
He will kill you if you don’t.
“At least one of you is listening. Guards, take him to his compound,” Xander orders. The guards are at Rian’s side along with their glowing blue guns charged up and ready to shoot on Xander’s orders. He has no choice but to go with them.
Xander pauses and stares at me for a moment, as if trying to read more than my mind.
If it weren’t for the mind reading, I really wouldn’t think we were related. You are too dumb and stupid to share the same bloodline as me, Xander’s mind says. Each of his words sting my mind, drying any drop of hope I had.
Yet it is very clear that you and Dax are related. You’re both so naive, always trying to be do-gooders, Xander smiles. It’s like you two can’t see what you are really doing: killing everyone. You both think you are so righteous. Xander’s mind throws daggers at mine.
I place my mental block up, unable to listen to any more of his words. My mind feels scarred with him in there; these scars will never heal, either.
“Do you really think blocking me out of your mind will stop the truth?” he asks as he steps closer to me.
“Leave me alone.”
“So weak.” Xander shakes his head, disappointed. “Today you will see the results of not following orders. I will lash your friend until he can no longer stand. Then I will slit his ankles and wrists, letting him bleed to death, and the whole world will watch. His blood will be on your hands, and if you disobey any more of my orders, the rest of your family will face the same fate because of you,” the words pour from his mouth like liquid poison, killing everything in its path: my family.
“Now get out of my sight. I have executions to prepare for.”
Chapter Eighteen
Dax
After Gavyn leaves I am unable to sleep. Too many questions are running through my mind, the main one being how am I going to save Lowell and Reznor?
And the only answer I keep getting is I cannot.
*****
The crowd’s deafening cheers fill the arena. They are eager to see bloodshed—it's too easy for them to forget that war is what brought them here to live under a dome, away from the real world and the true meaning of life … being free.
The arena was built hundreds of years ago, and each Sanction has the same arena. The Emperor decided they would all be the same, so that when it was each Sanction’s turn to hold the event in the games it would be fair. Funny that our leaders want a fair playing field for their games, but not for people’s lives.
For punishment ceremonies, the people of Purenet stop everything they are doing. Schools and offices are closed, and everyone comes to the arena. Attending the ceremony is part of the Chancellor’s laws; disobeying could result in your being part of the ceremony. Because of this, everyone in Purenet attends.
All the plastic seats in the arena are filled with people happily cheering away, due to the fact that they are not participating in the ceremony. It's become a sick family social event.
The event will be live-streamed to Cueva, where Lowell’s loved ones can see him being punished.
A hushing sound ripples through the arena, as the large clock begins to count down. The show is about to begin.
The crowd falls silent and rises to its feet, as an army would for its commanding officer.
Unlike everyone else in the arena I stay seated, due to the fact that I am also a Untouchable … around me are empty seats that will soon be filled up with our families, Bazis, and the Hosts … and Skylier. They are a signal of my family’s wealth.
<
br /> Deep emotional music begins to play, as my family does like a dramatic entrance.
“Please stand for the Chancellor of Purenet,” a male voice requests over the speaker. But the people of Purenet already know the drill.
I turn toward the spot from which they will enter, not to see them, but to see if Skylier is here.
Two servants stand at the grand white doors, and in time to the music they open them up to reveal my mother dressed in a white, figure-hugging dress. Father stands next to her in his full white military attire and his overly-stretched face. Neither of them look real. None of this can be real…
Chapter Nineteen
Skylier
Heavy emotional music drifts into our preparations room, where the other Hosts, Bazis and me have been held in for the last unbearable hour, waiting for the ceremony to begin.
I wanted every second of that time to slow down into a lifetime. Instead, time felt as if it was racing by.
“It’s time,” Frances says as she stands by the doorway, Luther by her side. I have not seen Adohnes, and don’t want to since he betrayed us last night. “Remember what Adohnes taught you. Be graceful, ladies.”
Luther’s face lights up even more than I though was possible at Frances’s words. “Remember what I taught you, be the opposite of the Hosts,” Luther mocks as he opens the door, allowing the cheers and music to drown my thoughts.
The Bazis lead the group with the older Hosts. The rest fall into our Cueva order, following the Bazis towards the music. The volume has become ear shattering.
The hallway is stuffy, the cool air replaced with the intense heat emanating from all the bodies.
The front of the line disappears to the side, revealing the stadium.
I’ve never seen this many people in one place. The stadium is brimming with cheering people, and the sound is sickening. People for as far as the eye can see are circling the field, which the seats tower over. Everyone is excited, standing and cheering towards us, as if this is a joyful event, which it’s not. They’re here to watch the murder of an innocent man. I knot my hands forward with my two fingers resting over the back of my hand as Lowell’s would when we were sneaking a stolen touch from one another.