Revolutionary

by Krista McGee

  We step through the doors at the entrance of the Scientists’ quarters. The Assistant whose clothes I stole is at the desk in the lobby. Her eyes widen when she sees me, but then she returns to her work at the desk, saying nothing, asking no questions, demonstrating no anger.

  My shoes squeak as I walk on the newly cleaned floor, the sound echoing off the walls. We reach the elevator, and I press the button that will take us to the lowest floor of the building—Dr. Loudin’s laboratory.

  “Do you think he is ready to leave for South America?” Alex breaks the silence.

  “Maybe.” I do not say too much—they are certainly monitoring our interaction in here. “Though I do not think we are quite ready. My Spanish, you know, is poor. I will not be much help with translation.”

  The elevator lurches to a stop and the doors glide open, revealing the pristine white hallway that leads to Dr. Loudin’s laboratory.

  I see Kristie as soon as I open the door. I want to run to her, tell her I know she is my mother, that I am happy about that. But the look on her face causes my blood to cool.

  She is terrified.

  “No.” The word comes out of her slowly, like a note sustained on my violin.

  “Thalli and Alex.” Loudin’s thin lips curve upward.

  “What is going on?” I do not walk farther.

  Kristie is staring at me, her brown eyes wide. Loudin stands between us, blocking her from view.

  “Kristie is having a little trouble completing the assignment she was given.” Loudin’s large eyes lock on mine. “Living in that primitive village has distorted her sensibilities.”

  I want to shout that he is the one distorted, that New Hope is not primitive. But I do not speak. He would only use that information against me. There is no benefit in him knowing how much I love the people of New Hope.

  “Have a seat, Thalli.” Loudin motions to a chair made entirely of metal. “Alex, you will be escorted back to your room.”

  A Monitor enters from a side door. Alex lunges for the man, but he is subdued when the Monitor plunges a needle into Alex’s neck. Before I have time to scream, Alex falls to the floor.

  “What have you done to him?”

  “Alex is only asleep.” Loudin motions for the Monitor to take Alex away. “Now, please sit.”

  Another Monitor forces me into the metal chair. As soon as I am in it, I realize I am attached. The chair is some type of human magnet. Too late, I realize that everywhere I touch, I stick. My back, my arms, are pinned helplessly to this contraption.

  Loudin turns to Kristie. “Now, my dear. I believe you have some work to complete.”

  Whatever he wants her to do, she should not do it. The fact that she has refused until now convinces me that she should not. “No, Kristie. I’d rather be killed than see him cause any more damage.”

  “Cause damage?” Loudin stands directly in front of me. I look up, his breath, like sour apples, burns my nostrils. “I have done nothing but repair damage. I have spent my entire life repairing damage. I am the world’s greatest ally.”

  “You destroyed the world!” I shout into his face, causing him to step back.

  “I saved the world from itself.” Loudin shakes his head. “If you’d only see the truth, Thalli. You have so much potential. Your mind is truly a beautiful thing. But you are sacrificing it on the altar of emotion.”

  “How can you believe that feeling—that loving—is bad?” I think of the way I have been changed because of the love of people like John and Kristie. Berk. I think of the love of the Designer, sending his son to die for me so I can live with him. The ultimate love from the ultimate Being. My anger dissolves to pity. “Someday you will realize how wrong you are.”

  “Enough.” Loudin turns his back on me. “I did not bring you here to debate with you.”

  Loudin walks to Kristie and points to a screen beside her. “Complete this repair.”

  Kristie looks at me, and I shake my head.

  The chair comes alive, and electricity courses through my body. The pain is so intense, I cannot even shout. I can barely breathe. I want to fall to the ground, to curl myself into a ball, but the chair keeps me sitting straight, refusing to release me. I am burning. I see black and white specks in front of my eyes. I long to pass out, for the Monitor to come to me with a needle as he did to Alex. But no one comes.

  Finally it stops. But fear remains. Fear that the chair will turn back on, that the pain will return, worse this time. I cannot think of anything but being free of this chair. But the harder I try to stand, the more bound I become to it.

  “All right.” I hear Kristie, but her voice sounds far away.

  “No tricks this time. No holes in the program. No mistakes. Thalli will remain right there until I am certain of the project’s completion.”

  I groan. The chair holds my neck and my head, its back going above mine. I cannot even turn to the left or the right. My legs have been pinned to the sides of the chair in odd, painful angles—a result of movement when the current was running through me. And I have to remain here like this until Kristie finishes? If Kristie finishes.

  Can I endure this until I die of starvation? Or until the electricity finally destroys my internal organs? It was easier to consider sacrificing myself when I thought death would be immediate. But this—endless torture—makes me reconsider, deletes the noble feelings I entertained.

  Where is God? This Designer who delivered his people by parting oceans and bringing plagues to his enemies—where is he now? Why doesn’t he intervene? I try to pray, but I cannot form words. I am too full of doubt—of anger. I have tried to obey him, tried to do what is right. And yet he is allowing Loudin to be victorious. Where is his power?

  “It is finished.” A minute, an hour, several hours . . . I don’t know how much time has passed. But Kristie’s voice breaks through my thoughts, bringing with it two horrifying thoughts:

  1. Loudin now has all he needs to create a new generation.

  2. He no longer needs Kristie.

  CHAPTER 14

  It’s time to go.” Alex is in my room—in the Scientists’ quarters.

  I sit up in the sleeping platform and put my hands over my eyes. My head aches and my muscles feel weak. I have been in bed for two days, but my strength still has not returned.

  Alex sits at the foot of my mattress, his hand on my leg.

  “I can’t.”

  “I think he wants to use your weakness to his advantage,” Alex says. “Keep you too tired to do more than just what he asks you to do.”

  “Can’t you stall him?” I open my eyes and Alex scoots closer to me. “I can’t go like this. I don’t even think I can walk.”

  Moisture gathers in Alex’s eyes. He smoothes my hair, swallowing hard. “I’ll help you.”

  I swing my legs over the side of the sleeping platform and my limbs feel weighted. How will I ever get to the door? Down the hallway?

  “I’ll carry you.” Alex bends down to lift me into his arms.

  “No.” I push him away. I don’t want to give Loudin the satisfaction of knowing how weak I am. “Just help me.”

  Alex places his left arm around my waist and holds my left hand with his free hand. He pulls me up, and I collapse against him.

  “Let me carry you.”

  “No.” I lift my head from his shoulder. “I can do this.”

  I release his hand, and his arm tightens on my waist. Though I do not want to admit it, I need him there. I cannot walk on my own. But I use my free hand to help balance myself. My legs feel so heavy that by the time I reach the door, I am out of breath.

  Alex opens the door and I walk on.

  “Where is Kristie?” I speak as quietly as I can.

  “I’m not sure.” He whispers as well. “He had her taken out right after you. Since then, Dr. Loudin has had me recording Spanish.”

  “How long have I been in here?”

  “Twenty-four hours.”

  “Why does he have you recording
Spanish?”

  “Not just any Spanish—conversations we will need to have with the people there in South America. I think part of the reason is to make sure I say what he is instructing me to say.”

  “And the other part?”

  “If he decides I am not longer valuable, he can just use those phrases to communicate with them.”

  I stop in the hallway and place my hand on Alex’s chest. “No. He can’t do that. He won’t. How could he understand what they are saying if you aren’t there to translate?”

  Alex runs a finger along my jaw. “I appreciate your concern. I could be wrong.”

  I can tell by the tone of his voice that Alex doesn’t think he is wrong. I turn away from him and step forward.

  “Do you think Kristie is no longer valuable?” This comes out in a whisper because I can barely get the words past my lips.

  Alex slows a little. “I don’t think Loudin will kill her.”

  “Why?”

  “Because, as messed up as he is, he loves her.” Alex whispers this into my ear, his breath warm against my neck.

  “I don’t know.” I wish I could have the same opinion as Alex, but I cannot. “Your father killed your mother.”

  “He didn’t love her.” Alex’s voice is hard. “He didn’t love anyone but himself.”

  “And you think Loudin is a better man than your father? You think he isn’t as self-absorbed?”

  Alex sighs. “There’s no point in thinking the worst.”

  “You sound like John.”

  “From what I’ve heard, that is a compliment.” Alex smiles down at me.

  I release a breath. “It is.”

  We step onto the elevator, and I use the ride up to catch my breath. I want to slide down to the floor and rest, but I am certain that if I went down, I would not be able to get back up. The door opens too soon, and Loudin is waiting for us.

  “Thalli.” He glances at Alex’s arm around me. “Nice to see you up.”

  I push Alex’s hand away. “Where is Kristie?”

  “She is enjoying some much needed time off.” Loudin motions for me to walk ahead of him. “Her skills will be needed on another project soon.”

  “What project?” I don’t like the tone of Loudin’s voice.

  “There is always work for a skilled Scientist.” Loudin smiles a thin smile. “And Kristie, while rusty, is skilled.”

  The relief of knowing Kristie’s life is not in danger gives me the energy I need to take the steps into Loudin’s office on my own. I immediately collapse into a plastic chair though.

  The wall screen turns on, and a map appears on it. A red line descends from the State to what I assume is South America.

  “We will travel down to what used to be Ecuador.” Loudin touches the ending point on the map, and the image changes to that of a live camera that appears to be several miles in the air. “Satellite imagery. We thought they were irrecoverable. But Dr. Williams and her team were able to restore them. Wonderful, isn’t it?”

  The camera seems to lower, and I see a village with houses and people. Many people. A long river cuts through the center of the village. I see people in the water, on transports. Families enjoying life as they have always known it, oblivious to the reality that their world will soon be disrupted.

  Our plan to leave Loudin there suddenly seems cruel and unjust. These people do not deserve that. I try, once again, to pray. I force the words, even though I don’t feel like they are being heard. I pray anyway. I pray that this village will be spared, that Loudin will be stopped, that the Designer will not make himself so distant when we all need him so much.

  “What will you do to them?” I keep my eyes on the wall screen, refusing to look at Dr. Loudin.

  “You ask the wrong question, Thalli. It is not what will I do to them, but what can I do for them.”

  “Do not think you can deceive me.” I look at him now, wanting him to hear every word. “You do not want to help these people. You will disrupt their lives. You want to take people from there and bring them here, take fathers from their children, or children from their parents . . .”

  “Or lovers from each other?” He arches an eyebrow and looks at Alex.

  “Do not mock me.”

  Loudin smiles. “What if I took an entire family together? Would that help?”

  “No.” I slap my hands on my legs. “You don’t understand how villages work. They don’t live in pods, separated from everyone else. They live and work together.”

  “You presume to tell me how the world works?” Loudin’s voice is louder than I have ever heard it. “You spent weeks in these villages. I spent years aboveground. Decades. The greatest gift I can give to these people is to separate them from each other. They may see it as a punishment, for a time, but that is because they are so compromised by their emotions and the superstitions that have been passed down from generation to generation.”

  “No.”

  “Yes, Thalli.” Loudin’s voice returns to normal. “And you have been infected by those ideas. I thought you were better than that. That you would form your own opinions and not blindly follow others’.”

  “What?” I stand from my chair. “How can you even say that? You expect blind obedience from everyone here. You annihilate those who think or feel.”

  “Not all of them.” Loudin looks at me, his calm making me even more upset.

  “You refuse to accept anyone’s belief but your own.”

  “My ‘beliefs’ are scientifically tested and proven accurate.” Loudin presses his lips together. “What about yours?”

  An Assistant enters the room. “The aircraft is ready, sir.”

  “Excellent.” Loudin turns away from me.

  Alex looks at me, a smile on his face. He is proud of me for defending his people. But they aren’t just his people. They are my people now too.

  “Because we are bringing several people back with us, it will just be the three of us on the trip down.” Loudin places his communications pad in his pocket. “I trust that will not be a problem?”

  “No.” A spark of hope lights in my stomach. “That won’t be a problem at all.”

  CHAPTER 15

  We are in the aircraft. Walking around, watching Loudin program the flight plan, exploring.

  Something about this feels very wrong.

  Loudin is intelligent and he anticipates everything. He knows how Alex and I feel about him. It is impossible that we will simply land in South America and leave Loudin there. I would like to believe it would be that simple. But I know better.

  Alex is smiling, asking about how the aircraft is flown, how it lands. He appears confident that our plan is going to proceed smoothly.

  I wish I could share his confidence, but a mounting dread fills me.

  Being aboard this aircraft does not help. We are completely enclosed. There is a monitor at the front that displays a map, but there is no way to see the outside. I feel trapped. The same emotions I had walking into this aircraft back in New Hope are surging through me now. Loudin acted the same then, kind and happy, as if he were a benevolent leader who truly wants to help others. But that is an act. The truth is he is corrupt, calculating, and he will do anything to ensure his plans are accomplished.

  “Smooth, isn’t it?” Loudin sits in a large white chair toward the front of the aircraft. “The autopilot can detect where to find the pockets of air with the least amount of turbulence. And it can get there without us even feeling the change in altitude. It can travel for thousands of miles on one tank of fuel. And if it runs out, the solar panels can provide enough alternate energy to deliver us to our destination.”

  “Fascinating.” Alex smiles at Loudin, and I am not sure if he is being genuine or playing along.

  “What do you think, Thalli?”

  A dozen retorts come into my mind, but none would be appropriate. Or beneficial. So I force myself to smile and say, “Quite an accomplishment by the Engineers.”

  “How do these compa
re to the airplanes from before the War?” Alex leans forward.

  “What do you know of those?”

  “Only what some of the older citizens of Athens have passed down.” Alex shrugs. “But I have always been intrigued by them.”

  Loudin spends the next thirty minutes explaining the physics and mechanics of the primitive airplane versus the modern aircraft. If this conversation were music, it would be a tuba playing the same three notes over and over, as slowly as possible. I close my eyes and imagine playing my violin loud and staccato, the notes going over and around the tuba until it is muted and mine is the only instrument that can be heard.

  I hear an A flat over the orchestration in my mind. It is sustained and synthesized. I open my eyes to see Loudin walking to the front of the aircraft.

  “Strap yourselves in. It is time to land.”

  “Already?” I sit up and press a button on my right. Thin, translucent straps come out of the chair and wrap themselves around my body. “I had no idea the aircraft was that fast.”

  Alex leans as far forward as the straps allow, looking at the map at the front. “We aren’t in South America yet.”

  “No, we aren’t.” Loudin sits in the chair that faces the map. “We are making a stop first.”

  “Why?” I look around. “Is something wrong?”

  “Of course not.” Loudin turns, and his profile reminds me of images I have seen on my learning pad of a vulture. “But I am hurt that you think me such a tyrant, Thalli. I want to show you that your suspicions are the product of an overactive imagination, not of reality.”

  Loudin’s tone does not match his words. The dread that has been simmering under the surface spreads throughout my entire body. Something is very, very wrong. I turn to Alex. His eyes are wide, questioning. He knows, too, that this—whatever it is—is not good.

  Alex speaks first. “Where are we stopping?”

  Loudin turns back to the map and touches a slender finger to its surface. “New Hope, of course.”