Falling & Uprising Page 12

  She throws her arms around my neck and presses her face into my shoulder. I freeze on contact. I haven’t been hugged since I last saw my mother on the morning of my selection. Tori wasn’t looking for tender embraces that one night, and that has been my only real human contact in a long time. I take a breath and wrap my arms around her back. The floral scent of her perfume so close jolts my memory. I knew that violet cocktail I tried seemed familiar—it smelled like her.

  “Thank you,” she breathes against my shirt.

  “I’m only telling you the truth. Do you think I’m someone who would tell you nice lies to make you feel better?”

  She laughs and releases me. “No. I knew that much about you.”

  “My mom used to tell us a story when things got hard. I think it applies to you.”

  “Tell me.”

  “Imagine three pots of boiling water. In the first pot, you put an egg, the second a carrot, and the third coffee beans. Twenty minutes later, you check on them. What happened to the egg?”

  “I don’t know.”

  I huff out a breath. This works better in a world where people cook, I guess. “Just because you’ve never seen it happen doesn’t mean you don’t know. Hard-boiled eggs?”

  “Yes, okay.” She looks away, embarrassed.

  “The carrot gets soft. Given enough time in the boiling water, it will get mushy and fall apart. And what do the coffee beans do?”

  “Make coffee.”

  “Yes. So, when you’re put into boiling water, you can either get hard and protect yourself in your shell, you can get soft and fall apart, or you can change the water.”

  She smiles pensively. “I’ve had some carrot moments.”

  “But you always wanted to change the water,” I tell her. “You’re a coffee bean.”

  “I prefer tea.”

  “Now you’re just trying to be a pain in the ass.”

  She smiles as she tucks her hair behind her ear. “I think we got off on the wrong foot when we met.”

  That’s a bit of an understatement. “You could say that.”

  “I understand it, though. I am Kaycian, and now that I know everything, Kaycians are rather annoying.”

  “I don’t think I ever called you annoying.”

  “You called me other things.”

  “Sorry about that.”

  She waves her hand, dismissing me. “I called you things too. Though I may have been right about this knowledge turning people into pricks. I’m not as nice as I used to be.”

  “You’ll always be nicer than me,” I point out.

  “I should hope so.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  SERENITY

  I venture out of my bedroom in a satin robe. Vogue is curled up on the sofa, coffee in hand, and a holoScreen in front of her. It’s early for her. Not a good sign.

  “Are you all right?” I ask.

  “Yes.” The word is dragged out. “I’m sorry I stormed out like that. If Bram was already annoyed about being tricked, then I’m sure he’s furious with you after that whole scene.”

  “I don’t think so. He was oddly consoling for a change.” Bram had been softening up, but last night was far beyond the slivers of warmth I’ve seen from him. We might actually be friends now. Go figure.

  “Thank you for giving me my space last night.”

  “I know that’s what you need, and it’s lucky because I never know what to say in situations like that.”

  “We complement each other well,” she says with a smile.

  “You look like you’ve moved on.”

  “My version of dwelling on a problem is trying to find a solution for it.”

  “Is that why your eyes are two different colors?”

  Vogue flutters her lashes. “I have my very own Serenity Ward retina lens. Is it strange to look into your own eye?”

  Oh, how I love this oddball. “I’m pretty well used to your strangeness. What are you working on?”

  “The analysis of your reports.” She invites me over with a pat on the cushion. I sit close to see. “The first thing that came up was a ‘storage facility’ which uses far too much energy for lights and climate control, but this is where the station is for the underwater trains, right?”

  “Yes, that’s it.”

  “Great, we know about that already. But then I was checking out your P&L building. It appears to be the source of power for the city. That’s why its lights didn’t go out.”

  “That can’t be a power plant though, the power plant is on Leavenworth.”

  “P&L doesn’t appear to be the plant, just a distribution station. Electricity comes into it to be distributed across Kaycie. The power isn’t coming from Leavenworth, though. It’s coming in from a series of points that make a wide arc around the island chain. They go from the north, around to the east, and down to the south. All about two-hundred-fifty miles away.”

  She shows me a map where she’s plotted the points that outline a semi-circle of an eastern border. Kaycie is the only island on this version, but there are four other islands between us and that curve.

  “What’s out there?” I wonder aloud, though she wouldn’t know.

  “A month ago, I would have said there’s nothing out there but the sea, but now a community of Martians wouldn’t surprise me.”

  “That is much farther than the limits of the map Sophos has, but there has to be some information on it somewhere.”

  “I’m almost into the duplicate infrastructure system. Maybe that will shed some light on it.”

  “That, and what is Leavenworth doing if not generating power?”

  “Well,” Vogue says, hopping up, “we aren’t going to figure it out today. Let’s do something fun.”

  “More fun than saving the world?”

  “If we try hard enough, there must be something more fun than this. Go get dressed!”

  ***

  All spring mornings should include brunch. We set a new record for a speedy swing from horrified to cheerful. Brief as it may be, we are back to the fantasy world, and it’s as if nothing has changed. But simmering underneath it all, I feel the change, and maybe I want to get ahead of it.

  “Let’s go get our hair done,” I suggest.

  “I just got mine touched up.” Vogue shrugs. “You go, though. I’ll see you back home later.”

  I send a message to Li as we finish brunch. We go our separate ways, and I don’t decide what I’m going to do until I get in the chair.

  “Let’s strip the color,” I say.

  “Great, and then what new color are you thinking of?” Li smooths my hair out from the knot I had it in.

  “None.” His wide-eyed gaze could be confused or frightened. “My natural hair color is one of the only colors I’ve never had, so I thought I’d give it a go.”

  “You really don’t like the way I color your hair.”

  “No! That is not true! This will be the boldest thing you’ve ever done to my hair.”

  “Okay.” His tone says, ‘if you say so.’

  When all is said and done, black and blue hair that flowed to my mid-back this morning is heaped on the floor. What remains attached to me is dark brown and cropped to graze my shoulders. I shake it out, getting used to the lightness of having so much less hair. The girl in the mirror isn’t the same girl who obsessed over her reputation or loved a boy who didn’t actually think very highly of her. This girl will still have to wear a mask, but rather than letting the façade be my only identity, I’ll be a real person underneath it.

  Li looks like he broke a sacred vow, but I assure him that I love it and head home.

  Vogue calls out to me as I get off the elevator. “Hey, I need to—” She walks into the foyer and looks up. “Oh my gosh!”

  “Do you hate it?”

  “No! I love it!” She runs her fingers through some locks. “Is this your natural color?”

  “It is.” I grimace.

  “It’s beautiful! You’re so lucky. And brave. I�
�d never do it. What brought this on?”

  “I don’t know. I guess so much is changing, and I’ve changed, and I wanted something to reflect that. Plus, knowing everything is fake made me want to at least let my hair be real.”

  “That’s fantastic. I’m not going to do it, but I love that you did! I’m going to keep my hair as a souvenir of the golden days as we go into the brave new world.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  BRAM

  Behind its three massive archways and decorative stone façade, the train station is nothing more than a dreary warehouse. We get a glimpse of its endless rows of shelves as we go to the elevator. It’s the oldest structure in the city, one of the few pre-flood buildings left. No one cares much about it, but the attractive exterior concealing dark secrets and lies is a perfect metaphor for the city.

  The platform’s lights glow with such a natural warmth that it doesn’t feel like we’re underground. Our private train car with its plush leather seats is almost enough to make me forget that this train is the getaway car in a mass kidnapping. Three years ago, one of them was Emrys. Five years ago, one was me.

  ***

  Since I was the firstborn, it was our household’s first time being involved in selection. I was afraid to leave Lawson, and how could I not get selected? My family had two spare boys; there was no way I’d get to stay. In a way that made me feel a little better, it gave my brothers better odds of staying at home. The Establishment could tell us leaving was a privilege all they wanted, but a mysterious unknown wasn’t going to sound better than a cramped house with a loving family to me.

  Aren was as nervous as I was—it would be his turn the next year. Emrys had been weepy about it for a week. He was six when Dad had died, and he clung to me as a replacement even though I’m only two years older than him. He wasn’t ready to lose me too.

  Mom tried to keep us all calm about it. She reassured us that even if we weren’t going to be together forever, nothing bad would happen to me. She was always strong and confident, and I always trusted her, even though she didn’t change my feelings about it.

  When she and I left the house on selection day, Aren tried to act brave too as we said goodbye, but Emrys didn’t bother—Mom had to peel him off me. Leaving home for the last time was a strange feeling. I thought about the oven I should have fixed for Mom. I wondered if Emrys would take my bunk in our bedroom. I imagined Aren trying to be the man of the house. I felt like I should have left a will or something with instructions for ‘after I’m gone.’

  Mom walked me to the Establishment Center and gave me a big hug when she could go no farther. Her eyes were watery, but she smiled as she said, “We’ll see each other again.” I wasn’t sure if she meant in heaven or what because she knew as well as I did, I was going to disappear from Lawson that day, and no one comes back.

  “Why do we do this?” I asked her.

  “We need them to provide for the island, and they need workers to make that happen.”

  “They also need us to manufacture everything. Why isn’t that enough?”

  She scrunched her lips to one side. “Maybe one day it will be. For now, we all do what we have to do.” She never got excited about the promise of Kaycie. She only tolerated it.

  I got in line, all of us fourteen years old now, taking our turn. When I got to the front, the woman sitting at the table asked my name. She scrolled down the list and gave me a sticker with the number eighty-four on it in big print. Then I went inside and waited until my number was called.

  Sophos was the one who called my number. I had seen him before. He had worked in Lawson for a couple of years, overseeing the factories, but on selection day, managing selection was everyone’s job. He led me into a small room, pointed out the stretchy bodysuit for me to change into, and left me alone. The beige unitard covered everything except my hands, feet, and head. It felt like a ridiculous thing to ever put on. When Sophos returned, he showed me where to stand in a big machine that would scan my body. I placed my feet on the outlines and stretched my arms out at forty-five-degree angles from my legs while the machine whirred around me. I tried to breathe normally, but my heart pounded.

  Afterwards, Sophos gave me a vial of a pink syrup to drink. Later I would find out it was the vaccine for the extirpation drug. He pricked my finger for a blood sample and left me to change back into my clothes. Then I went back to the lobby full of my classmates, all waiting to hear whether we were going home or somehow disappearing off Lawson.

  Some kids sounded confident they weren’t going anywhere, being the last boys in their families. Most of the girls looked like they were bored, and it was a pointless process. They were sure that they were heading home to continue on with life as usual. Some actually wanted to get selected to leave. My friend Travick was one of the latter.

  “What do you think it’s like on the other side?” He sounded eager like he was about to get a gift, and couldn’t wait to find out what it was. He was counting on Reid and Cary staying together, which eased his guilt about leaving.

  “I guess we’ll find out soon enough.”

  Eventually, the woman from check-in came to release those who were not selected. After reading the list of numbers, all but two girls and maybe half of the boys got to go home. The rest of us passed through the maze-like halls, down the stairs, and to the train platform.

  That train was the strangest thing I had ever seen. The sleek rounded front end looked like it might swim through the sea rather than roll below it. Down the tunnel, streaks of ceiling lights beamed in the darkness. I looked up, picturing the waves churning above all this. The idea of going underwater was mind-boggling. This is how people and things come and go, right here in the middle of town.

  When we were all aboard, a few people came around with injections for each of us. ‘Vaccines’ to protect us from diseases we hadn’t been exposed to in Lawson. A minute after I received the dose in my arm, I felt dizzy and confused. The next thing I remember was Tori lightly slapping my cheek, breaking my daze.

  She was the first thing my eyes focused on outside of Lawson. I had never seen anyone like her. Vibrant purples colored her eyelids, matching the purple streaks in her hair, and her lips were painted a deep red. She looked like she was from another world, which wasn’t far from the truth. She proceeded to explain these worlds to me.

  ***

  Now, as we arrive in Eudora, all of that seems like a lifetime ago. We take the elevator up from the train platform. There is a labyrinth of hallways at ground level broken up by secured doors to get into the main building. I follow Sophos to the office he uses here, but this time it isn’t empty. The mayor of Eudora is here waiting.

  Sophos warned me he would be meeting with the mayors of the islands during this year’s selection. He created a new protocol to connect with the mayors to find out any pertinent information before selection. Maybe they don’t have enough boys to operate their industries or something like that. His actual motives are a bit different.

  “Cole,” he says, shaking the man’s hand, “it’s good to see you.”

  Cole’s dusty jeans, plaid shirt, and wide-brimmed hat suggest he is more comfortable outdoors than in an office. “Thank you for having me.” His voice is slow and relaxed. “This is the one who escaped?” His eyes search mine. Relaxed out of my marshal act, he should recognize that I wasn’t extirpated.

  “Yes, Bram was selected from Lawson. He is well trained, but not mechanical like the marshals you are used to seeing.”

  I feel like a toy brought in for show-and-tell. Did Cole need proof the marshals are human?

  “He’s really a marshal?”

  I pull up my sleeve to reveal my ID number.

  Cole grinds his teeth and sits down. “It’s hard to swallow that our boys are like those robots on legs they have walking around.”

  “And that’s why we’ll stop it,” Sophos says, sitting as well. “How are your plans going?”

  Cole shrugs. “I’ll tell the folks I f
ound out today. If people knew before selection, you’d have riots on your hands. We’re simple people, and we don’t like to make a fuss. We get by on what we’ve got, it’s all we’ve known, but for our boys,”—he looks at me with his lips pressed in a frown—“we’ll burn it all to the ground.”

  Sophos nods. “Will you have provisions to distribute to the rest of the islands?”

  “We’re slipping away as much as we can. I’m only pulling from what would be sent off the island. I don’t want to ask these people to get by on less than they already have.”

  “I understand. Do you have a location to imprison the marshals when you take the island?”

  “I do,” Cole sighs. “But it won’t be of much use if we remain as outgunned as we are. You sure she’s going to be able to get us some weapons?” Who is she?

  “Yes, Lawson is getting your shipment ready,” Sophos says. “They are collecting weapons for all of the islands, and we should have access to the trains to deliver them to you soon.”

  “Well, all right then.”

  “We won’t be taking Leavenworth in the first wave. You’ll need to block off your northern tunnel in addition to the tunnel to Kaycie. The council will likely be in Leavenworth, and I don’t suppose they will continue supplying power to rebellious islands. Will you be able to manage without electricity?”

  “Sure. We have windmills to generate enough, too.”

  “Excellent,” Sophos says. “Now, on the sanctioned reason for seeing you, is there anything about your population I should consider in this selection?”

  “I suppose you’re going to do whatever you have to do,” Cole says, standing up to leave.

  “It should be the last time.” Sophos rises and shakes Cole’s hand. “Goodbye, Cole. May the destination be worth the journey.”