by Kim McMahill
“Don’t be ridiculous. That is so barbaric. The military is a dangerous choice, but one many men choose of their own free will.”
Claire stared at her mother. She wasn’t sure if she hated her or pitied her. The woman was either brainwashed or she knew the men of America were being systematically exterminated after they were no longer useful and found nothing wrong with the gender-cleansing.
“Of course they choose the military. It’s the only option that promises freedom. A promise that will never be kept, but with the alternatives so grim, men continue to gambling on a game that’s rigged.”
“You’re so cynical, Claire. Can’t you ever just accept things the way they are? There is so little need for males anymore they should be happy they are brought into this world at all.”
Claire’s doubts about what her friends’ believed to be true had disappeared. She had often thought Nyla was paranoid, but now Claire knew Nyla wasn’t far off base. The realization that society deemed Ethan and Jared as disposable, and that they would be casually discarded when they ceased to be of use, made Claire tremble. She thought about Ethan always trying to protect them from unpleasantness and Jared striving to make them laugh. But, there was no one to protect Ethan now and if he was taken she doubted any of them would ever be able to laugh again.
CHAPTER TEN
Nyla squeezed Ethan’s hand. She had volunteered to go first, but now wished she had let one of the guys begin. She looked over at Claire and found her best friend’s eyes shut tight and her full lips were sucked inward so that only a thin line showed. Her olive complexion had paled to a ghostly white and a pained expression creased the smooth skin of her face.
“Are you ready?” Jared whispered.
Nyla nodded and looked away from Claire’s less than comforting expression. Metal shimmering in the candle flame captured her attention as she watched Jared pull a blade through the heat turning it over and over, careful not to miss a spot which might taint her blood with infection. He did the same with the tweezers and then handed both to Ethan.
“Take a deep breath and try not to faint on me,” Jared said as he smiled at Nyla.
“I don’t plan to pass out, so just get it over with.”
Jared nodded and took the scalpel from Ethan. Placing the tool Ethan had snatched from biology class close to the scar on Nyla’s palm, he took a deep breath and pulled the sharp blade slowly across her skin, making a small incision. Using the tweezers, he widened the wound and began poking around, unable to see his target through the blood oozing from the cut and the dim light cast from the flickering candle flame.
Blood pooled in Nyla’s stinging palm and slid down her wrist. She was afraid the sight might make her sick to her stomach, so she refused the temptation to take her eyes off Ethan. She focused on the sharp chiseled features of Ethan’s face. Some might have thought the slight upward tilt of his chin looked arrogant, but to her the angle made him look confident and strong and right now, she needed his strength.
Ethan tried to offer comfort, but all Nyla could see in his weak smile and his coal-colored eyes were the depth of the pain he was feeling on her behalf. She hated to see him suffer on her account, but his caring touched her heart.
“Come on man. It can’t be that hard to find,” Ethan demanded as he wiped up the blood gliding down Nyla’s arm before it reached her shirt.
“Back off. It’s not as if I want to cause her anymore pain than I have to. You know the lighting in here stinks. I can hardly see what I’m doing.”
Nyla bit down hard on her lip to take her mind off her throbbing hand. She fought to keep from whimpering because she didn’t want Jared to feel bad or for Claire to chicken out.
“Got it,” Jared declared as he held the tiny microchip up in triumph.
“Didn’t hurt a bit,” Nyla lied, hoping to ease the apprehensions of her friends.
Jared cleaned the small but invasive piece of technology, careful to avoid any damage to the chip which would expose their plan, while Ethan tended to Nyla’s wound. Ethan pressed a cloth firmly to her palm to stop the bleeding, and then dried her skin, applied an antibiotic ointment to the cut and secured the chip to her palm near the incision with a flesh colored dressing.
“Who’s next?” Jared asked, slowly pulling the blade of the scalpel through the flame.
“I’ll go,” Ethan offered.
Nyla rose and gave Ethan the only seat available, an old rusty bucket they had found outside the cave’s entrance several years back. She stood behind him and massaged his shoulders until she could feel the tension drain away.
This time, Jared operated quickly and with more confidence, making Nyla wish once again that she hadn’t gone first. He retrieved the chip with such speed that Ethan’s ordeal was over in a fraction of the time it had taken for her chip removal.
Nyla tended to Ethan’s wound just as he had hers and secured the chip to his palm. When she was done, Ethan and Jared switched places. Ethan sterilized the scalpel and after seeing the procedure done twice already, he sliced Jared’s palm and retrieved the chip as efficiently as if he had done it a thousand times.
Once Jared’s hand was bandaged, everyone looked over at Claire. She was still huddled in the shadows with her eyes tightly closed. Nyla put her arm around Claire’s slender shoulders. She knew her friend was squeamish about blood and had an even lower tolerance for pain than she had, but Nyla also knew Claire wanted this as much or more than the rest of them.
“Claire, open your eyes.”
Claire looked up at Nyla. “I don’t think I can do it. I’m sorry, but I just can’t.”
“It really didn’t hurt much and it was over in a second. I don’t want to push, but we have to hurry. The cave blocks the GPS signal in our microchips and if contact isn’t made at least once during the automated hourly checks CTA’s alarm will trigger and the authorities will come looking for us and everything we’ve dreamed of will be lost.”
Nyla loathed the Central Tracking Authority and was astounded by how easy it had been to manipulate the citizenry. At first, the CTA convinced parents to have the chips implanted into their small children so it would be virtually impossible to abduct a child, a rationalization Nyla could understand, but the CTA slowly whittled away at the hesitant and before long so many people had chips the Authority made it mandatory. Now, no baby left the hospital without her radio frequency identification tag and microchip and her DNA fingerprinted.
Jared approached the two young women and Nyla stepped back. She knew if anyone could convince Claire to go through with the chip removal it was Jared. It had become clear as of late that the two childhood friends had developed a deep bond Nyla doubted could ever be broken. She watched as he took Claire’s face between his palms and made her look up at him.
He gently kissed her forehead as he stroked her long brunette hair and looked deep into her scared eyes. “It’s now or never. I don’t want to live without you and this is the only way we can be together forever. If we don’t leave, I’ll be forced to go away a year after Ethan.”
The thought of losing Jared scared Claire more than the thought of the scalpel slicing through her skin, so she took another deep breath and sat down on the rusty bucket. “Not really much of a choice when you put it that way. Okay, let’s do it. Ethan, you’ll have to make the incision. I need Jared to hold my other hand so I don’t pass out.”
Ethan worked quickly and Claire hardly flinched. Nyla was so proud of her for not backing down and of the guys for having to do the dirty work as usual.
“We did it,” Claire announced proudly. “What’s next?”
“We need to take care of our wounds so they don’t get infected and keep them hidden. These bandages are great camouflage, so unless someone looks close, I doubt anyone will notice. As soon as we’re all healed up and the timing is right, on to phase two,” Nyla replied.
With only minutes to spare, they crawled out of their secret limestone cave and concealed its entrance. They hesitated only briefly at the m
outh of their sanctuary before saying goodbye.
“Are you doing all right?” Nyla asked.
“Couldn’t be better. Did you hear what Jared said to me?”
“Yeah, I heard. Ethan and I have always been more rebellious, but we knew it would be you and Jared who eventually sealed our fate. You two are destined to be together, which makes it impossible for us to back out. Thank you,” Nyla said as she hugged her friend.
“What about you and Ethan? I doubt it’s a coincidence you brought this idea up now. You’re afraid he’s going to be taken away from us and you’ll never see him again.”
“Ethan and I have been talking about it for years. Ever since Crystal slipped the first note to me from Carlos to give to my mother I knew we had to take charge of our destiny. Carlos still loves her so much that he loves me just for being part of her. How can I turn my back on such unshakable devotion? I have to help him keep his promise to my mother the best way I can.”
Claire reached for her friend’s uninjured hand and gave it a firm squeeze. “No Nyla, you couldn’t turn your back on that kind of devotion any easier than you could turn your back on Ethan or the rest of us. We’re all in this together now and it’s going to workit has too.”
“Doors open. Ignition on. Minimum window tint. Air conditioning high.”
The car’s artificial intelligence component recognized Nyla’s voice and the doors swung open, the engine puttered to life and cold air spewed from the vents as the tint in her front window gradually lightened. The technology amazed and frightened her. It made her question what else was going on in a world hidden from the unquestioning public and wonder if it would prevent her and her friends from realizing their dream.
Nyla glanced at her palm before getting into the car. The wound throbbed, but it was a pleasant pain, a small price to pay for the possibility of true freedom.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Ethan and Jared hoped there wouldn’t be any clogs in the irrigation pipes since immersing their hands in dirty water might introduce infection into their open wounds. As far as anyone at the farm noticing their bandaged palms, they doubted there would be any risk.
As they did every night, Ethan and Jared scoured the communal refrigerator looking for the leftovers that Jared’s mom, Leah, would have held back for them. It was the closest thing to maternal caregiving either could ever remember getting. They located the meals and sat at the small table in the corner of the kitchen to eat their solitary dinner.
“Are you going to miss her?” Ethan asked.
“A little bit. I think deep down Leah cares about me and whenever I try to talk to her about my future, I see sadness creep into her eyes. I know she’s ashamed of accepting my fate. On the other hand, she’s done nothing to try to change it either. How about you?”
“Nope. I assume the only reason, with sexual selection and sperm sorting available, that Vera decided to have a male child was for farm labor. I’m sure I wasn’t an accident like you or she would have aborted me. My only regret is not being around to see her or one of my communal sisters pull their first snake from a pipe,” Ethan replied, bitterness lacing his voice.
Ethan and Jared mentally drifted away, fantasizing about another life in a distant land. Peace had settled over the quiet room when their dreams were interrupted by the sound of Leah’s gentle voice.
“Oh good, you found your dinner.”
They nodded and thanked her while continuing to eat. Leah stood behind Jared and made no motion of moving on, so he scooted over closer to Ethan to make room for her to sit with them at the table. It wasn’t uncommon for Leah to join them, but tonight they would have preferred to be left alone with their thoughts and bandaged palms.
Leah sat for a moment, hands clasped together and resting on the table, eyes focused on her weathered fingers. Farm work and the desert’s environmental elements had not been kind to her skin. She supposed she should care, but wasn’t sure why. She had no desire to relive her eventless youth and it didn’t matter what anyone else thought of her looks—she would still live the same life with the same people and would eventually die alone. The room was so quiet she could hear Ethan and Jared chewing their food. It was clear their minds had drifted far away. The emotional distance between them made a lump form in her throat and tears sting her eyes.
“Ethan, have you talked to your mother this evening? I know Vera was looking for you earlier. I think something came for you by special courier.”
Metal forks clanging on plates ripped through the silence of the secluded kitchen and tore Ethan’s and Jared’s focus away from their meals. They looked at each other, panic visible in their wide-eyed expressions. Both knew nothing positive ever came the old-fashioned way. All correspondence was electronic unless it was a legal order.
“I’m sorry to upset you in the middle of dinner, but I assume it’s important.”
“I’m not upset, I’m scared as hell. You know as well as we do that it can only be one of two things and neither is very good.”
“I’m truly sorry. I’ve dreaded you two growing up, but it had to happen eventually. I just wanted to warn you so you could prepare yourself,” Leah said as she stood up and left the room.
Ethan felt sorry for blowing up at Leah, since she was only trying to forewarn him. At least she knew him well enough to understand why he would be upset, unlike his own mother.
“Surely it isn’t my career options form, like we really have a choice. They can’t send me away. I’m not even finished with my career prep yet. So the only other thing SLIC can want from me they aren’t going to get. They can just get these superior genes from somewhere else.”
Jared burst out laughing. “Superior, huh? Someone sure is full of himself.”
“You think this if funny? Be realistic Jared. In this matriarchal society’s quest for perfection they wouldn’t collect anything less and that’s precisely what we came from.”
Ethan pushed back from the table and shoved his chair, sending it skidding across the tile floor, coming to a stop in the center of the kitchen and tumbling over.
“Well, I can’t be drafted if she can’t find me. If Vera comes looking for me, tell her I’m in the field and I’ll probably be out there for a very long time.”
Jared didn’t try to stop Ethan. He knew the best thing for his friend was to be alone so he could clear his head. He doubted Ethan would be able to hide from Vera for long, but Jared hoped it would be long enough for them to escape and avoid the indignity awaiting them.
As soon as Ethan had gone, Leah returned to the kitchen. Jared watched as she picked up the chair from the floor where Ethan had left it and sat next to him. She placed her hand over his and patted it gently.
“I’m so proud of you. You’ve grown into such a kind, caring and handsome young man. I sometimes fear those traits will draw people closer to you than is permissible.”
“Don’t worry and don’t cry. Tears are pointless.”
“But, son, I’m scared for Ethan and for you. I don’t know what to do. I know I agreed to accept your place in society when I refused to abort you, but I don’t know if I can.”
“Yes you can, Mom. We’ll be okay. If you try to do anything to change our future, you’ll end up in the Facility, which won’t do either one of us any good. You’re the only one around here who gives a damn and you’ve done your best for me and Ethan and we appreciate it.”
“It just doesn’t feel right. You deserve more. You’re a good boy and so is Ethan,” she said as her eyes filled with tears again. “No, you’re not boys anymore, you’re men, good men, and that’ll buy you a little time, but it won’t buy you the freedom to choose your future or to hold on to those who mean the most to you. I can’t bear the thought of you and Ethan leaving the farm. It just won’t be the same place without you two and I can’t help but wonder where you will have to go and if you’ll be safe.”
Jared was concerned by the frightened look he saw in his mother’s eyes. She had never been as str
ong and unemotional as Ethan’s mom, which he was thankful for most of the time, but now he almost wished she were as cold as Vera. Knowing Leah cared would make it harder to leave and he hoped she wouldn’t do anything rash.
“Everything will be okay. The fact that you’ve always cared what happens to us means more than you know. You’ve been a good mother to Ethan and me, and you’ve made living here tolerable. Heck, if it wasn’t for you we might have starved to death.” He shoved the last bite of fresh green beans into his mouth and smiled.
“I can’t believe you don’t hate me along with every other woman. I almost wish you did, because I’m afraid your honest affection for certain women will only bring you trouble.”
Jared knew she was worried about him spending so much time with Claire and Nyla, but she had always skirted the subject. Her shame about his future had become evident to him the older he got and he had done nothing to ease her guilt, using it to do whatever he wanted.
“Most women have lost all sense of what’s right and wrong, but you always taught me not to hate anyone. You encouraged me to look for peaceful solutions to problems. Be assured I’ve learned my lessons well and I thank you for that.” He slid his hand out from under hers and stood to leave.
“Wait,” Leah pleaded as she grabbed his arm.
Jared stopped and looked down at her. He thought for a moment she intended to hug him, though he couldn’t recall if she ever had before. For the first time he realized how small she was and how old she had become. He studied her closely, trying to memorize her face. He wanted to remember her the way she was now, caring and concerned for his and Ethan’s future.
Leah’s eyes filled with tears again. He hated moments like this. Displays of emotion were not something he was accustomed to and he didn’t know how to react. He waited for her to speak, but she didn’t. Slowly her hand slipped from his arm.
As he left his mother standing in the kitchen, Jared knew she was agonizing over Ethan’s fate and the fact he wouldn’t be far behind. He wanted to put her fears at ease, but there was nothing he could say to lessen her apprehensions without jeopardizing their future.ER