Class Zero

by Y A Marks

  “And this latest attack. What do you think caused Ms. Washington to rally her people at the Perimeter Market?”

  Rally her people? Was this guy serious? Did he really think I was anything more than a pawn for Escerica? Who ever heard of a sixteen-year-old rebel leader? The American media could bleed an idea dry, but this was overkill.

  “The market was a perfect target. It is constantly filled with innocent people. And these type of personalities prey on the innocent.”

  “So what do we need to do?” the reporter asked.

  “First, pray. Pray to God this killer will be brought to justice. Second, protect yourselves by locking your doors and being wary of strangers. Third, you need to buy my book, Dirty Rotten Rebels. I’ll teach you everything you need to know about these people so you can have a sneak peek into the way they think.”

  Laughter roared from my mouth. The car angled. A blue SUV flew by with its horn blaring. I quickly grabbed the wheel to DaVonte’s magnacar to right it on the road.

  Once my heart settled, a few more laughs escaped me. This idiot was just out to sell his book. Didn’t anybody just want to help anymore? Was it always about selling something?

  “I’ve read your book, and I found it intriguing. And you said you have something else,” the reporter said.

  “Yes, I have a brand new digital documentary set you can download from any major Internet retailer for only 250 credits. It details ways to shield your children from recruitment, protect decade old ideologies…”

  My fingers fumbled near one of the panels. I wanted to turn this guy off, but I didn’t want to take a chance and stop the magnacar, or throw myself out of it. I did the best I could just to keep going. Magnacars could travel speeds in excess of a hundred-miles an hour. I was doing at least a hundred and twenty.

  The reporter made a few sounds like he was agreeing before asking his next question. “Where do you think Washington will set her next attack?”

  “I think it’s pretty obvious. The next logical attack points in Atlanta are the Center for Disease Control, another public forum like the University of Georgia, the Carter Center, downtown Buckhead, Roswell, or Alpharetta.”

  I glanced down at the temp PCD. I slid my thumb over the LCD screen to get to the Map App. After I clicked it, the PCD’s computer personality, Deci, came to life.

  “Hi. I’m Deci. Would you like to use the Map Application?” Her voice sounded like a muffled human. I had heard the new talking AIs were ten times better than when they first came out in the early twenty-first century, but they still didn’t sound human.

  “Yes, Deci,” I said.

  “Great. What would you like for me to help you with?”

  “Where is the Juvenile Detention Center located in Atlanta?”

  “The Metro Regional Youth Detention Center is located off of Flat Shoals Road in Panthersville, GA near the intersections of I-285 and I-20.”

  “Thank you. Please plot the quickest route to the Youth Detention Center.”

  I leaned back in the seat as a cop car sprang to life and sped up the other side of the Interstate. Everything was in place. All I had to do was clear my mind and prepare myself to free Mari and Miko.

  “No problem. Course Mapped. Anything else?” Deci asked.

  The two men on the radio continued to ramble about who I was and what I should or shouldn’t be doing.

  I sighed and glared at the console. “Can you show me how to turn off this radio?”

  CHAPTER 25

  Deci displayed a ten second gif image on my PCD’s screen. After a quick glance, I was able to turn off the radio and even change the channels. However, I decided to listen for a while and use the crazy allegations to spur my frustration. The expert was a guy named Henry McEnroe, and he rambled on about me like I’d bullied him in middle school. The funny part about the whole thing was that if I weren’t some great rebel leader, Henry sure had a lot of ideas of how I could become a better one.

  “Her best move would be to attack Crusoe’s Hunting and Lodge outside of Stone Mountain. They have over a thousand bullet-powered automatic rifles in stock every day,” he said.

  It was ironic the way he spoke about the city, state, or even the country’s weaknesses. I wasn’t the leader of Escerica, but if I was, I’d be taking notes.

  As I sped through the downtown connector heading for Grady curve and I-20, a fleet of hovercars, trucks, helicopters, and alpha scrappers zoomed north on the other side of the Interstate, probably heading for the Perimeter Market. That’s exactly what I wanted: for every cop and military type person to be going to the farthest place from me. I was sure Governor Read and Capt. Davis called up the fleet to sort through all the wreckage.

  While Henry McEnroe blabbed on, I took I-20 and got off on Flat Shoals. The Interstate ramped me down to the main street, which was a haven for Lower-Cs. There were few restaurants or shops still open. It was a long street filled with boarded up buildings, ragged humans, and fires in large, metal barrels. Once the Youth Center appeared, I pulled up to a corner and got out of the car. I left the engine running and the door open. I spied around, then dashed across the street.

  My hope was someone would hop in the car and take it for a joyride. Of course they wouldn’t get far, maybe three or four miles, before the security system locked the engine. I made sure I took DaVonte’s D-Tag, but the average Lower-C wouldn’t think that far ahead. After the car stopped moving, the other Lower-Cs would probably strip it down to the frame and sell the parts to buy food, clothes, or drugs.

  The detention center was a small campus of five buildings surrounded by parking lots and barbed wire fences. There were security stations at the entry ways, but not much else.

  I pulled out my gun and ran up to the main security post. When I got there, I found all of the security monitors playing cartoons. Two guards were bound with plastic ties on their wrists and ankles. They had shipping tape wrapped around their mouths and their bodies.

  Both seemed content to watch a blue cartoon cat run into an old-fashioned ironing board because of the antics of a tiny brown mouse. I didn’t want to remove them from their enjoyment. Ducking down, I entered the open gate.

  I was a bit startled when I first saw the guards. I was expecting a little more of a fight, but the second part of my plan had evidently taken shape. Dhyla and a few of the Escerica rebels were fulfilling their promise to get the kids out. I shouldn’t have even come, but I couldn’t help it. Mari and Miko were my responsibility. I had to make sure they were okay.

  I snuck down a sidewalk that was fenced on both sides and tried the door. It was locked.

  The sidewalk stretched out on the sides of the building in both directions. I took a second to try to figure out which path to take. A door clanged against the brick wall on the right side. Dashing down to the door, I entered the building.

  The place was made like a hospital with a public desk for the guards or nurses or whomever. From the public desk, hallways reached out in a T-shape with rooms on both sides. I circled the desk to take a look at the computers. I had no idea where Mari and Miko were. I needed to access the information on the computer hard drives.

  As soon as I turned the corner, five terrified women glanced up at me. They were bound like the guards. Unlike the guards, tears rolled down two of the women’s cheeks, and none of them watched the blue cat cartoon. My heart bled for the women. None of this was their fault. They were caught in the middle, but I reminded myself they never took a stand. They never helped the Lower-Cs when they could. A few hours of fear wouldn’t kill them. At least, that was the lie I told myself.

  The computer screen was locked. I hadn’t used my good luck charm on a regular computer since the halo incident at the Stadium. I didn’t have much of a choice. I didn’t know if the women would help me, and I didn’t want to take the chance they may scream.

  I put my left hand near one of the security panels. A little animation of two children holding hands as five bars locked around them play
ed. After that, the computer unlocked. Mari and Miko’s names were highlighted on the screen. Both were on the second floor, but not in the same room. Mari was in 207, and Miko was in 211.

  I swiveled my head back and forth trying to find the closest stairs. I settled on the stairs to the far left because the numbers of the rooms in that area were from 101 to 116. Most buildings were numbered the same on every floor, so my best bet was that when I made it to the second floor, the kids would be there.

  Relief washed over me. Everyone was bound and gagged. I was a few minutes from taking Mari and Miko far away from here.

  I left the public desk and jogged down the left hallway. Each of the rooms had a small vertical window with thick glass. The glass had thin wires running through it, which crisscrossed to keep the glass from shattering.

  I couldn’t help but peek in the first window I passed. Inside was a little girl playing with a stuffed bear. When she saw me, she smiled and waved her fingers. I waved back and took a few more steps to the next door. Inside was a Latino boy doodling on the page of a magazine. Every available space on the page was covered. He didn’t see me. After a moment, he turned the page and started his new master work.

  All of these kids were no different than Mari and Miko, or even me, for that matter. They were just kids who needed help, hugs, toys, and love, but because they were Lower-C, they were here in this cold, vanilla place. It didn’t take me long to make up my mind. If I was going to be some kind of fantasy leader, at least for the moment, it was time I started acting like it.

  I stepped back to the first door and opened it. The little girl stood and tucked her arms around the teddy bear.

  “Hi. Who are you?” she asked.

  “My name is Paeton. Who are you?”

  “Crystal.” She took a few steps toward me.

  “How long have you been here?”

  “Seven days. They said they’re going to move me to a better place next week.”

  “How old are you?”

  “Eight. I’ll be nine in three weeks.”

  “Wow.” I forced a smile, but my heart ached. She’d be dead in two weeks. “How would you like to get out of here now?”

  She nodded and came up to the door. I opened it wide, and she slipped out into the hallway.

  “Here’s what I want you to do. First, I want you to open all the doors on this floor. Then take all the kids outside to the parking lot and wait for me. If I don’t come out, look for an older woman named Dhyla. Tell her I said she’s to take you home.”

  “Okay,” she said.

  “Make sure you’re real quiet, okay?”

  She nodded and dashed across the hallway to open the first door. I jogged up toward the stairwell and entered. I zipped up the steps and exited on the second floor.

  Silence spread over the walls.

  I expected at least some kind of ruckus or conversation or something. I had never seen Escerica at work. I mean really at work. It was amazing to see the jet at the Perimeter Market. I still didn’t know all they were capable of. Maybe they had some assassins—ninja assassins—ninja assassins with mutant powers.

  I took a few steps and reached the first door on the hallway. I peeked inside to see a little black boy around ten with his back to me. I opened the door.

  “Hey,” I said.

  He turned around, but his eyes were wide with fright. “Wha-what do you want?”

  “I’m gonna let you out of here. All you have to do is go.”

  “Why? What are you gonna do to me?”

  “Nothing. I just want to let you out so the people in here don’t hurt you.”

  He gulped hard, took a second glance at the door, and zipped out.

  He threw open the door to the stairwell and dashed down. I grabbed the door to keep it from banging the side. His echoing footsteps disturbed the silence and sent shivers up my spine.

  Something had frightened him. The girl in the first room wasn’t nearly so terrified. I could only imagine the Escerica people had spooked him when they were looking for Mari and Miko.

  I dashed to the second door, hoping to find a kid like the one on the first floor that would free the other kids while I searched. My gaze fell into the room and every muscle in my body tightened into a knot. My breath caught inside my windpipe.

  A seven-year-old blonde girl had her back, calves, and fingers stretched over the far wall. Her body trembled. Two feet in front of her was a man lying on his stomach. A pool of maroon blood grew around his body.

  I cracked open the door. The girl’s attention snapped to me. She cowered down to the floor.

  “I’m not going to hurt you,” I said.

  “Promise?” she replied.

  “Yes.”

  She dashed over to me and grabbed my pants leg, burying her head into my side.

  “What happened?” I asked.

  She swiveled her head left to right. I was surprised she wasn’t screaming her head off. She had to be in shock.

  “What happened?” I repeated.

  “An old man shot him.”

  “A man?”

  “Um-hun,” she mumbled.

  “You sure?” I didn’t know about any old men. The only thing I could think of was that maybe Dhyla had a disguise on or something. Capt. Davis was the one who was leading the charge to get me. She was probably trying to get out of that mobile police station thing.

  “Okay, well. Go on down stairs.”

  “Um-unh.”

  “C’mon. There are other kids downstairs. All of them are running away.”

  “No, I’m not leaving you.”

  “I tell you what? Why don’t you open some of these other doors, and the other kids can leave with you. Would you like that?”

  She looked at me for the first time. Tears streamed from her eyes.

  I rubbed the back of her head. “Just open the doors. And there will be lots of kids, and you guys can leave together.”

  She took a step back and nodded. Then she snuck over to the door across from her. Another little girl appeared.

  “Now both of you keep opening doors and get the kids out of here. Okay?”

  Both of them nodded.

  A loud clack echoed behind me.

  The color in both girls’ faces drained away. They clasped hands and dashed off through the stairwell door.

  Fear scratched at my neck. I was afraid to look behind me, but I had the feeling if I didn’t, I was going to end up like the man in the pool of blood. I started to turn and that’s when I heard her voice.

  “Slowly, Ms. Washington,” Capt. Davis said. “Turn around slowly and put your hands above your head.”

  CHAPTER 26

  I was so stupid, so naive. Crix!

  I put my hands above my head and spun toward Capt. Davis’ voice.

  She stood at the end of the hallway in front of the public desk. A dark gun pointed at my face. It was the same police issued Glock I had stolen, which meant it was full of bullets, not shock rounds. Her eyes focused down the barrel. Her right hand clasped around the grip.

  “Take the gun out of your pants and toss it forward,” she said.

  I reached behind my back and pulled the gun out. With a loose hand, I showed it to Capt. Davis. A second later, I tossed it down the corridor. My hands returned above my head.

  Fear flooded into me and tightened my throat.

  “Finally, we meet, Ms. Washington,” Capt. Davis said.

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “I figured you would head down here once you left the market.”

  “How did you know?” Cracks cut at the edges of my words.

  “You’re not a killer, Ms. Washington. I’ve seen killers. You, you’re just a child. One who unfortunately was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

  My lungs expanded before they stuttered, forcing the air out. Tears slid down my cheeks. Mari and Miko’s rooms were fifteen feet away. A few more doors and they would have been free.

  I didn’t think it would end like t
his. As soon as Ms. Roller-Eyes rounded the corner with Mari and Miko a week ago, it became a lost cause. They would pay the price for my stupidity. For a moment, I thought that I might win. I might be able to get away from this place, protect them, be the super teenage girl who flies in at the last minute and saves the day. I was wrong. I wasn’t strong or smart. I could barely shoot and Dhyla was foolish to believe in me. I was just a petty thief, one step away from nothing. Lower-Cs like me were worthless. The only thing left for me was Class Zero—nothing, non-existence, death.

  Capt. Davis studied me. “I viewed that vid of you and the boy over a hundred times in the last few days. Never once did I see a smile on your face, or a time when you let down your guard. You were protecting yourself from him. He was an enemy to you, not a friend.”

  She profiled me like I did to the people I stole from. Her questions prodded for my reasoning.

  “I’ve been racking my brain over why someone with no real violent history would join Escerica. While I’ve never been lower class, I’ve seen enough to know that life is hard for those like you. No matter how many things I discovered about you in the last seven days, I never saw anything to make me believe you would become a rebel. So why did you do it?” Her eyes were curious, not angry or condescending.

  I truly did believe she didn’t know, but that she wanted to understand. Somewhere within her was hope. Rationalizing my transformation from petty thief to mock Escerica leader sat in the center of that desire.

  “I didn’t want to do it.” My body rattled.

  I cursed the words as they left my mouth. All the positive things I had done were null and void. All I learned was insignificant. Even my thoughts of actually joining Escerica were childish.

  “I…I just wanted to save Mari and Miko. I wanted them to have a better life than I’ve had. I wanted them to know love, and maybe… maybe I needed their love to live.”

  I confessed my soul to a complete stranger that wanted to either kill me, imprison me, or turn me into an android. I had imagined this day, ever since I stole the first set of credits from bratty Sarah Graham. I thought I’d be quaking in my boots and my knees would be knocking together. I thought a lot of things, but I never thought I’d be so calm.