Skin Nation

by Joni Bing

  ****

  “We have to hold hands down this street.”

  “Why?”

  My tears were gone and I could think clearly again. Reno had gotten enough affection from my vulnerability tonight. Still, I took his hand before he explained.

  “So people won't think I'm sellin' you.”

  I snatched my hand out of his protective grip. “Sellin' me?” I shrieked.

  A pair of boys passed us with more piercings than me and more tats then I could count. They smirked just like SJ at every single Mass and I took Reno's hand like it held my last supper. Once they had well passed us and turned the corner for the next street, Reno bust out laughing.

  “Oh, man!” he whispered through his stifled laughing.

  “Shut up!”

  “I told you though. You gotta admit that!”

  “Whatever.”

  Reno chuckled and stopped to look around. “Sucks things have to be this way, huh?”

  “Well, it's just the nation we survive in.”

  “No, that's the world. In its shameless entirety.”

  No words had ever struck me so truthfully.

  The sky overhead grew darker and all of a sudden this unbearable stench attacked my nostrils. It reminded me of the smell that stunk up my commune back in CU when the house across the street burned down. It was something that didn't completely turn to ash in the fire. Something that still needed to decompose. The family's cat.

  “'Scuse me, Ms.”

  Reno switched our spots on the sidewalk before we reached the decrepit man begging a few feet from the corner. “Keep walking,” he said.

  My heart raced when we neared him. I had never seen someone so OLD before! I mean, this guy won the grave award! Dr. Revolta had nothing on this guy! Shreds of thin silver hair topped his head, brown spots marked his sagging bruised skin, and his eyes were bulged as if someone had frightened him and he lost the ability to change his expression right after. What will never erase from my memory though was the dry scaly patches of skin scabbing all over his body.

  I felt something push me backward and reach into my pocket. I shrieked and Reno knocked the guy to the ground.

  “Hey!” he shouted.

  “Please! I sorry! But wouldya do me this fav'r? It's the lasson I'll ever ask, I swur!”

  The man continued to beg, but I couldn't believe what for. I mean, I could understand why, but...to actually hear someone say it, to actually see the gun lying in his lap.

  “Please, ma'am. Do it?”

  He grabbed my hand and placed the gun in my resisting palm. “I know one bullet is axing for a lot and they pricey, but I needis. I can't take no mo.”

  “Back off, man!” Reno shouted as he snatched my gun from him.

  The man took my wrist and gripped it with such a weak hold that I saved myself before Reno could react.

  “Please, ma—”

  “Give me the gun, Reno.”

  “Bleu...please, don't do this.”

  I looked back at the man. He was such a futurist. The way he spoke frustrated me. Everything about him was the epitome of what I predicted the world would develop into if we didn't rise up. He was everything I was afraid we were becoming as a nation. He was everything I was afraid of becoming.

  Reno handed me the gun and I saw a tear stream down his face. He felt my pain more than I would show it. I gripped the gun with both hands, aiming the center at the man's skull.

  “Ah, thankya, miss. Thankya.” The man closed his eyes with a smile like he was in such peace all of a sudden. How could someone look so peaceful knowing they were about to die? Knowing someone was pointing a gun at them that would blow their brains out any moment, any second? I studied the man's face and that's when I noticed something breathtaking. Something that made me walk back a few steps. They shined in a line across the front side of his skull. They were shot inside, never taken out, and decaying just like him. They were failed attempts. Silver bullets.

  Still, my thoughts controlled me. Fire away.

  The impact was harsh and the white powder from the remains burned the skin on my hands. I dropped my gun as I fell backward off the sidewalk into the broken street. I slid and hit my head on the first smooth surface I had seen on the Borealia roads since my arrival. Luckily, I broke some of the impact in time to spare my head yet somehow I still found a way to hurt myself. My knee—the same knee I skinned at fourteen on XYM Avenue the day we found that old abandoned building that got burned down just the day before. It started raining hard just as the bullet sounded, almost like the man's death marked an end or a new beginning and looking back on it now...maybe it did signify a new chapter. I stood up from the cold ground and watched as the man's blood dripped from the back of his head and stained the gray concrete wall he rested on. The blood that cradled the silver bullet in his forehead turned into rain on the ground. I felt Reno grab my hand.

  “Let's go before someone sees.”

  I nodded, but there were so many questions I wanted to ask. Like, so that's it? We're just gonna leave him here? We're just gonna go on with our lives like this never happened? But I didn't ask. I couldn't get the words out and Reno gave me no chance to speak them. By the time I fully processed what I had done, we were halfway down the street and just a few blocks from home, at least I thought. The area was rainless. I thought the conversations for that night were over, but leave it to Reno to start one that could last for hours.

  “So, XYM Avenue. That's where your region's populars partied, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  He smiled then laughed. “I heard some crazy stories about y'all.”

  “About who? The Mass?”

  “Yeah...like, the girls had to where these suped up French maid outfits just to get in. Sounds like my kind of resistance party.”

  I agreed with a nod and pushed him away by the shoulder. What Reno heard was true. “The Mass admins only allowed certain girls in even if you followed the written rules to get in each night.”

  “Like?”

  “One of them was that every girl had to design her own outfit and it had to be original, something she could be remembered by for post bash gossip to keep from using names. We tried to keep who was apart of the Mass a secret in case someone overheard. Most Massettes, the Mass girls, just created a logo that set them apart and placed it somewhere different on their outfit, usually a part of their body they were known for. I never wanted to be a Massette, but I still made it my business to be better than the other girls, and I was, according to the Masers who came up to me all the time saying I'd be the first female admin if I joined.”

  “How'd the Mass come to be, anyway? Do you know?”

  “Do I know?! I was with the boys who it started it all when they thought up the idea!”

  I was proud of that fact, but more proud of those times. Those were the times when I was proud to be a CU girl, when I was proud of my nation. Before The Seven became One. Back when things were safe and we used to play Ultimate on that street with SJ's hoverdisk. This was before he got all pervy on us. We were how the big kids who lived in our commune found the building in the first place. They were coming to bully us. Just before Herrick went to throw the first punch at SJ, he spilled about an old abandoned building we found a few weeks prior. The same abandoned street it remained in the future when the UIP rose and Carl Dickens took role as dictator. He confessed to hearing them talk with the other big YAs about throwing parties and told them after a little fixing up, the place would be perfect.

  At first, Rat and Gene—the boys who came to check it out with Herrick—didn't appear too hot about it, but they broke in to look around anyway. Josh and I waited outside while they looked around, and when they exited, the boys promised the three of us eternal popularity and free drinks whenever we stepped in.

  “It's times like that day that I think back on to keep going,” I said, ending the story with a smile.

  “How old were you when that went down?”

  “Man, Ren
o, you ask more questions than me!”nly shrugged so I continued, “I was about...eleven. I was fourteen when the UIP rose to power.”

  “Really? I was fifteen,” he looked over at me. “Am I only a couple of months older than you?”

  “Maybe so. I was born on 6-14-2116. Well, according to my “official” birth records, that is.”

  He nodded with a smile. “Then, I am. 3-24-2116, baby.”

  I rolled my eyes and laughed. “Whatever. Don't let that go to your head.”

  “Oh, I won't. I'll just—”

  Reno dropped to the ground on his knees and before I could blink, I heard a splash on the sidewalk and black covered part of its concrete.

  “Oh, man. How are we gonna clear that, Bleu,” he cried.

  “We? You did it!”

  He stood weakly and I helped him up before he fell again. “If the Requesters see this when they drive around tonigh—Oh, man!”

  “What?”

  “The Requesters! They come down this part of town five minutes from now.”

  “This part of town? I thought we were a few blocks from our flat.”

  “No, I took us the longer route. We're...gonna have to take a horrible shortcut to get back.”

  “Horrible shortcut? How horrible?”

  He stopped us for a moment. “Do you trust me?”

  “Yeah, I think...yeah,” I nodded.

  “See that corner up there?” he pointed. “When we turn it, close your eyes.”

  “What?”

  “Please just close your eyes and let me guide you.”

  I didn't say okay out loud, but he took my hand as if I had. We turned the corner and, all of a sudden, my ears took in the sounds of screaming, yelling, crackling fire, gun shots, and cries of beggars asking for death. After the first minute, I couldn't take anymore. My tears were so thick they felt like drops of warm blood trailing down my face. My ears became aware of my own whimpering when tears rushed down faster and the screams grew louder.

  “Almost home, Bleu.”

  I hoped that meant a few more blocks, but at the pace Reno ran us I was sure our commune was nowhere in sight. That's when I heard this choppy buzzing sound overhead. I heard it cycling fast above us and the sound was so familiar to me. I'd heard it so many times before during New-Old Nation times when I was a child.

  Reno started swearing to himself and I wondered if he had heard the sound before too, and couldn't figure out what it was either. Before I could ask him, he pulled me into a dark alley ad as if he times it, the first aircraft flew by. Helicopters! They were helicopters! I then understood Reno's swearing more than ever.

  “Reno, are we—”

  Reno hushed me and more helicopters passed. One stopped a few feet above us in the air and steel wires screeched down from black ports that lit up all around the sides of the aircraft. Then, the side doors opened. Reno swore again before I could do it myself.

  “Eyes open and run,” he whispered shakily.

  He didn't hold my hand this time, and that scared me. Honestly, I didn't blame him though. The EMFH technique was the only one of Dicken's laws that I could somewhat agree with. The alley was long and narrow and its ground was covered in puddles of rain. Drops of rain splashed onto my legs and within seconds, I felt the drops burning my skin. I held my tongue from screaming. It felt worse than that time Josh dropped his joint on my thigh. I can't even remember how that happened, but when it came to us, anything was possible.

  I saw the head of Reno's shadow look back to see if I was keeping pace, and I was, only falling behind him a couple of feet. He waved his hand, signaling me to swing a right the next chance we could get down the alley. I looked behind me and didn't see anyone Following us, but I knew I still couldn't take what I thought I saw for granted. I knew I still needed to run faster than my feet were willing to take me.

  I swung the right after watching Reno make the turn into the corner a few steps ahead of me and finally caught a second wind for what I hoped would be the last few blocks. I was halfway to the alley's opening when a cold hand grabbed my wrist. I felt my body snap backward and prepared myself for the smash into a hard concrete wall to only end up crushed into a soft hold.

  “Don't. Move.”

  In that very second, a high beam of white light flashed over us above the buildings we hid between. The chopped sound of the helicopter it came from passed. I waited a moment to speak. “What now?”

  “Twenty minutes.”

  I knew what that meant, but I didn't want to believe it. Twenty minutes? That would be torture, especially with the sounds we continued to hear in the background. Standing there in the alley with Reno made me feel like a coward. Like, I was turning my back on my own people to save my own hopeless life.

  “Your leg okay?” Reno whispered.

  “Yeah. It got on you too?” I asked as I noticed the holes at the bottom of his black jean pants.

  “Yeah. Acid rain. It was pretty common where I lived. Pollution kills.”

  I'd heard about acid rain before. Before the Great Shutdown—the day the Internet crashed and burned—one of the international bloggers Josh used to Follow wrote about acid rain and said it was heading towards a state as horrible as how news reporters used to over-exaggerate global warning back in Old Nation times. Only acid rain wasn't an exaggeration. I guess he was right because now it was appearing in Borealia. Only...

  “Remember the rain we ran through before? Why didn't that burn?”

  “I guess it only happens in certain areas here.”

  “Oh...maybe.”

  Not. I didn't have to know anything about acid rain to figure it was something else. Acid rain was rain. It spot rained all the time in Cali, but when it did the rain was never different when you were in a different location because rain was rain. So, why would acid rain rebel against that fact? I started to wish that I paid better attention in Environment Studies class.

  “This is nice,” Reno chuckled.

  I stood up straighter in Reno's hold after realizing that I had leaned back on him in thought. As nice as being held felt, it was Reno who was holding me, not who I wished was holding me in that moment and every night after.

  “You mind...?”

  “Oh, yeah. Sorry,” Reno chuckled again as he released me.

  My back hit the wall beside him, and the cold concrete I feared before chilled my insides.

  “Your back doin' better?”

  “Yeah, lots.”

  “Right on...man, I need a cig.”

  “Is that all you think about?”

  “Is Z and Josh all you think about?”

  Ouch. That was low and made me feel even lower. It really made me take my thought processes into consideration. Heck, it made me think period. For a change.

  Drops of acid fell drip by drip from the sky and as much as I wanted to, I didn't look up. The last thing I needed was to be blind and living in Borealia. Or worse in Steppes, where the worthless lived.

  “Try to push yourself onto the tips of your toes.”

  I did as he said and looked down to find something on the ground. Something like a microchip that would probably download a new feature into my PD if I still had it. Man, how I missed that thing. It made me feel so connected to the world.

  “Screw this acid rain,” Reno whispered.

  I almost shrieked when the rain started pouring down harder. I pushed my back further against the wall, but it was no use. The rain was coming down hard enough to slide from the metal roofs and drip into the shadows where we insufferably waited.

  “Someone please get us out of this,” I whispered in a cry to myself.

  “We don't need anyone. We've got each other right now. Here,” Reno reached into his pocket and pulled out a black knit cap. “Wear this. It should at least protect your hair. I know you girls are about that.”

  I rolled my eyes and snatched it from his grasp, trying to hide my gratitude. The kid had a point, and I wasn't about to defend the female species with a lie. I w
asn't good enough to do that evident-less. Yet.

  Silence and acid kept us apart. Suddenly, I started feeling the need to be held by anyone, and wondered if that was only because it was impossible. I felt my skin bubbling from the acid penetrating the top layer, and took in all of the holes on our clothes, each hole leaving a bleached out color stain.

  “How did you free yourself?”

  “Lots of fighting and lots of breaking, and I know this might sound weird but...”

  “Are you trying to say your blood melted the restraints?”

  “Yeah!” “Mine too!”

  “No way,” I shook my head and heard falling rain that slid from Reno's cap sizzle to the ground. “How do you think that was possible?”

  “Anything's possible when you eat CU food.”

  I smiled. That was true. I thought I was the only who believed that. The food in CU wasn't too bad. Of course, I'm talking from the perspective of someone who grew up in the System's blue collar class. Every day, my mother and I ate out of a white box full of whole portion meals in colorful plastic silverware delivered by some dingy dressed kid who probably delivered to big wigs all day for means of survival. I never went to the door to get the food. I would always watch my mother at the doorstep and try not to look the kids directly in the eye.

  I remembered clearly. They were always so dirty in the face, and their clothes looked worse than the clothes I wore as I reflected back on the memory, acid rain damage included.

  My mother would eat her food and say she enjoyed it, then leave the table to clean the kitchen. I was never like that. I'd stare at it, waiting for it to explode or something to crawl out. The meals looked too prepped and the meat too massive to be good. Josh used to tell me that he believed the Gov stuffed our food with a Follower drug, a drug that would manipulate everyone to deny their thoughts that convinced them something was wrong and only eat more to keep the peace of mind they thought they found. I didn't totally believe his theory, but when I went home that night, I did notice how quiet my mother would remain after dinner. Even when I tried to talk to her, she would only say a few select words. It freaked me and her two-night standers out.

  More helicopters flew by and I was sure more steel men dropped from the sides of them, but none of them thought to check for victims in the alley. It was almost like the area was hidden from their sight.

  “Let's try and make a run for it. I think we can make it,” I suggested.

  “Yeah, but we've still gotta be careful. They could be heading to OYZ Stats right now.”

  “Do things ever change? You know, the Requesting times?”

  “Not very often. It's all a game to them. They love catching a few a night, and killing anyone who won't Follow.”

  The venom building in Reno's tone was clear to discern. The hate in his voice almost terrified me, but I felt better when I remembered that I knew why.

  “Now.”

  Reno took my hand and my feet scurried unprepared onto the dirt ground of the alley across the street until they finally caught pace. We ran side by side and stopped for a moment at the end of each alley to make sure the next run was clear. Dirt filled the bottom of my green combat boots and acid rain left my legs close to being skinless. I finally had enough. I felt like I couldn't go on anymore.

  “Last alley. We swing a left, and we'll be home.”

  I inched a little further to the end of the alley and before I ran too close outside of safety, Reno took my hand and pulled me back.

  “You ready?”

  “Yeah...oh, here's your cap back. It stopped raining.”

  “Oh, right.”

  I fixed the cap onto his dry clumped hair and had to laugh. As malnourished as Reno kept his hair, he still had more curls scattered about than I'd have with heat rollers in overnight.

  “We should go.”

  I felt Reno cover his hands over mine and realized that I had them trapped inside his locks. I dropped our hands and held Reno back before he ran into the street.

  “Wait! I just...wanted you to know...just thank you for everything. I really mean it.”

  I looked up into his deep green eyes and the strangest tears filled my own. I figured they were tears of affection. Then, I kissed him. It was nothing like when I kissed Josh, but there was something special to it. Something different, and I liked different.

  “I'll always be here, Bleu. As long as I survive.”

  I smiled and Reno uncurled our fingers. We stood there for a moment and somebody inside me was screaming this moment would be important. I just couldn't pinpoint why or how.

  I craned my neck out of the corner to get a better view of the street we were about to face.

  “All clear.”

  “Really?” Reno questioned me. He took a look around and pouted his lip. “Hm...this is weird.”

  It was strange. The streets were desolate. A few cars lined both sides of the road, but no weirdos were in sight. Still, I took a step out and Reno Followed. It felt odd being out in the open after hiding so along in the alleys, almost like I didn't belong outside. That feeling went away the second my feet hit the pavement. For the first time all night, I didn't mind the run. I was finally home.

  Suddenly, I felt a hand pull me back by my shoulder and push my face into a brick wall. The pain rushed to my head and I did everything to break free, but I wasn't strong enough. I felt Reno release my hand and I turned my face to the side, resting my cheek on the wall.

  The grimy hands of whoever had captured me traveled down to the tips of my fingers and wrapped restraints around my wrists. I remembered the feeling painfully all too well. Reno stood beside me, but at a distance. His distance scared me.

  “Out so late? Don't you two know the rules?”

  My eyes popped from the shock of the words being spoken, but the words weren't the shock factor in that moment, it was the voice who spoke them.

  Suddenly, Reno spoke up. “Let her go.”

  “Why? Is she yours?” the voice came close to my ear, close enough for the lips of the speaker to brush against it. “You trying to sell her?”

  “Look, I know you're trying to do your and job and all—”

  “Exactly!” the voice exclaimed. Suddenly, my body was forced away from the wall and I hit the ground, thankfully saving my head from the fall. I heard a gun click. “And, I'd love to continue it now.”

  I lifted myself off the ground slowly and decided to sit there when my kneecap gave out. I felt helpless and defenseless. I strongly despised that feeling.

  “Reno,” I spoke weakly. He looked me in the eyes with that same look he gave me the day we met. He barely knew me and still he had so much concern for me. I couldn't comprehend how someone could have so much heart for complete strangers.

  Then, I realized something. That's what made Reno a Xi. His Xi wasn't popularity, it was his heart. People met him and knew he was real. That he'd never let them down, and in my heart, in that moment, I decided to give him what he had given me and so many other people. The most selfless action on earth: love. “Reno, just go.”

  “Lady, I can't—”

  “Please, I'll be fine.”

  His eyes wouldn't leave me, but his mind had already escaped. Reno had a plan. He took off without another word, before a bullet could've shot him if one was fired. But Josh had mercy. They had turned him yet somewhere inside, the Josh I knew held back.

  “How heroic of you,” he smirked.

  I looked into eyes that weren't ones I once knew. Eyes that were now beamers. They were similar to small telescopes, the kind that shrunk in size whenever he chose to zoom in or out. Instead of pupils, green beams of light reflected behind the glass. I refused my mind of freedom to imagine how they managed to fulfill that process. His hair was either chopped or matted underneath the tight tan cap below his brown helmet. His clothes were baggy and matched in color. Pockets lined the sides of his pants, each most likely stuffed with bullets and small gases. His face held no emotion, except disgust for
rebellion. He had been transformed into a death machine.

  Josh carelessly picked me off the ground and pushed me into the wall again, tightening the clear restraints around my wrists that once were loose enough to slide down near the fatty part of my hands. I let out a small grunt from the sudden pain and he turned me to face the street.

  “Don't worry. There's a special unit in NR for pretty escapees like you.”

  “I didn't escape,” I lied.

  “Oh, I bet,” he replied sarcastically. “Please.”

  I shivered and cold lurked over my body. I couldn't bring myself to even say his name. There was no use. It's not like it was him. It wasn't really him. It was only his voice, and there were plenty of replicas to go around for Dickens and the Gov to use in their army.

  The walk was more silent than any other I've had before, but it gave me time to think. How had they captured Josh? Was it before or after they captured me? Had it been my fault? Had we both been the other's set-up that day? I quit asking myself questions, knowing I would drive myself crazy. It's not like I'd ever get the answers, especially now.

  I thought about what Reno said about me thinking about Z before. He had been partially right. Z was on my brain, but never as much as Josh. Still, Reno's words haunted me, especially when the thought came to mind that I'd never see him again. I knew if things didn't change I'd never make it—I'd never survive. So, I changed my mind.

  Halfway through our walk, a tank as tan and brown as Josh's outfit pulled up beside us.

  “You found one!” the Requester in the passenger seat exclaimed.

  “Any room?” Josh asked.

  “There's always room for a pretty escapee. Hop in!”

  I saw the driver pull down a lever above him and the double doors to the back of the tank opened slow. I hopped onto the tank and Josh pushed me further in. The Requesters sitting in the back laughed. I was ready to tear their faces off until I saw the guns they were holding in their hands. I sat down beside Josh on the metal benches set up parallel from each other behind the two front seats and the Requester next to me spoke.

  “Where'd you find her?” he smirked.

  “Where I always find 'em. Hiding in the alley,” Josh replied in a sing song tone.

  The Requesters laughed and I noticed they all were dressed in brown and tan camouflage bodysuits, all except Josh and the two sitting in the front if I'm remembering correctly. That either meant two things.

  1.Josh was a Requester with rank

  or

  2.Josh was a leader

  Josh Duffy, a Maser turned leader of the very group he'd been resenting ever since he could speak. But I had to keep in mind that it wasn't really him. It was his voice, nothing more.

  Finally, we made it to the NR center. It was nothing like the one in my community. It was tall and white, and red neon letters lit up the building. White florescent light blinded view of the inside. It reminded me of the Latnem Center where they imprisoned the insane a few blocks from my community.

  The doors opened slow again and the Requesters stood when the tank prepared to stop. They formed two lines and the line on my side exited first. Just when the last line exited the tank, Josh grabbed my tied wrists and threw me off of the tank. I landed into the gravel scattered about the street grounds, this time incapable of saving my face from the impact. I could feel the scars from the fall rip down my skin.

  Their laughter echoed in the air and wind whipped against my swollen cheeks, relieving me of the pain heating my face. Then, I heard a noise rip through the air. It was traveling closer and closer to where we were located until it reached us and took out the Requester furthest from me. Josh looked at me and wrapped me in his arms, aiming the gun he took out of his side pocket at my forehead.

  When I fantasized about this moment, I didn't ever imagine this would be how it happened. Another Requester fell then another. The ones remaining looked around, wondering who would be targeted next. I was wondering the same thing, along with concerns about who was killing them and how. One of the Requesters examined the last body that fell just as I wondered that.

  “Volt arrows, sir,” were his final words.

  “You send someone after us? Huh? It was that Reno kid, wasn't it?” Josh boomed as he dug the gun into my forehead.

  “No, I promise! I don't know what's—”

  Then, I saw it. What was taking the Requesters out was now coming towards us. The front grill of Lary's hearse. The hearse was inches away when I cross kicked Josh down to escape. Finally, the internal resistance that restraint me from defending myself had disappeared. Josh tried to grab for his gun, but I kicked it away from him, thankful that it was locked. Z jumped from the hearse that skid sideways to a halt and picked the gun up off the ground. He aimed the gun at Josh while Reno and Lary exited the car already armed.

  “You move and I shoot,” Z spat.

  “Go to hell.”

  Z cocked the gun. “You first.”

  I leaned my head over the restraints and the drops of blood that fell down melted enough material to weaken their grip around my wrists yet keep their form. I drove Josh's face into the ground with my knee and before he could grab me, I tied the restraints tight around his wrists.

  “How does it feel?” I asked him in a dark whisper.

  He didn't respond. I ran away from him and stood beside Lary.

  “Get in the car,” he ordered me.

  “Can't we go inside—”

  “Get...a gun from the car,” Lary smirked as he calmed his voice.

  I opened the door to the hearse and found guns galore sitting in a small space behind the back seat. I grabbed the biggest one and looked inside a black box sitting on top of the backseat's cushion for bullets that matched. Reno appeared on the other side and I gasped.

  “Did I scare you?”

  “Just a little.”

  “Expect the unexpected. Now more than ever,” Lary pitched in.

  I nodded. I was ready. Revenge was filling up in me like water in my lungs. I was drowning in the desire for it. Lary grabbed a handful of bullets from the box and closed the door. The sound of the door shutting reminded me that something was missing.

  “C'mon!” Reno shouted as he waved me over.

  I caught up and walked between Reno and Lary. Z's post was outside watching Josh who remained lying on the ground, hands behind his head.

  “What are we gonna do with him?”

  “We need him for information,” Lary said.

  “So?”

  He looked down at me, disappointed that he had to explain. I had been on a roll that night, but it ended with him.

  “Let's just say, the warden is now our prisoner.”

  I smirked, but inside I sighed a sigh of relief. Prisoner was better than dead. Josh or not Josh, I couldn't bare to see him cold. The relief of the news energized me enough to ask more questions as we entered the center. “Since when have cars been able to shoot out volt arrows?”

  “Since Reno made it happen,” Lary replied as he loaded his gun.

  “I got skills,” Reno smiled.

  I roughed his hair and stopped myself from kissing him. Changing my mind would be a long process. The halls were white and endless. The rooms were locked and multiple, all the same in size. We marched on with no plan and no map to tell us what area we were walking in or where we were going. I looked up and the bright florescent light blinded my vision with purple edged yellow spots for the next few moments.

  “You see any cameras?”y asked.

  I blinked and blinked my eyes. “Nope. if they're in here, they're small.”

  “Why is it empty in here? Isn't anyone else finding this strange?” Reno sounded like he wanted to exclaim.

  Lary stopped and we Followed. “It's not empty, it's just quiet. So, we've gotta make some noise.”

  Without hesitation, Lary lifted his gun toward the ceiling and bullets scattered in the air. Reno and I covered our heads when they headed downward to hit the ground
. When the noise subsided, Lary grabbed me by my wrist and I shot up with my gun aimed in front of me.

  Fearless, I have to be fearless, I thought.

  “Stairs,” Lary said.

  We sprinted around the next corner we could turn on the floor and Lary pushed open the white door. From the looks of it, normally, the door would've been locked and secured by a passcode, but it was cracked.

  “Wait,” I hissed once the three guns stood on the floor of the second level. I took a few steps further holding the gun against my hip. I heard moment and shot in its direction. I heard shots fire back and hid underneath a clear computer desk until I heard silence. I looked around for Lary and Reno, and they were gone.

  Knowing Lary, I was pretty sure this was part of an unspoken plan. The three of us were to take on one floor. I looked around my floor and didn't see anyone in sight. I looked to my left and a glass window displayed a man crafted underwater view. The scene was dark, but lit enough to notice the subtleness of movement. I hoped those were robotic sharks swimming inside the tank.

  Suddenly, a hand size gas bomb rolled beside me. I looked up quick and threw it at the first person I'd seen in the building. She was young with perfectly straight blonde hair cut to her chin, and lavender makeup covered her lips and eyes. She reminded me of my mother's best friend, Amy. One of the friends my mother lost to the Uprising.

  I threw the bomb back at her within seconds of its explosion. She collapsed to the white tiled floor and I walked over to her, forming my face to look fearless.

  “Where are the others?”

  What others?”

  Her voice was shaken and she stared up at me as if she were gazing into the eyes of a monster. I softened my facial expression. “The others that work here.”

  “Dead, I'm sure. Your friends took to the upstairs.”

  I looked around the room then into an open white door enclosing a lab of touchscreen computers that could actually be used to speak to people of other nations.

  “Who are you hiding in there?”

  “No one, I swear.”

  I snickered. NRs were the worst liars. Keep calm, they say. We're only trying to help, they say. Meanwhile, you're confined to a platform like some kind of experiment and they're only pulling the restraints tighter. The one thing I hated was to be lied about and stared down as if it were true. I checked the small lab and no one was there. I heard a gun click and my eyes widened.

  “Put your hands up.”

  It was the woman. I smirked and turned around, ready to dodge anything she had planned. I didn't expect to see her finger on a red button attached to the glass dome though. I yelled at myself internally for allowing my thoughts to distract me from paying attention.

  “You Xi escapees are all the same. Foolish and gullible.”

  Ouch. I would rather have taken a bullet to the leg than hear that word again. I didn't let her see the pain her words caused me though. I kept my emotions in check.

  “Tell you what. Step away from the button and sit in that chair.”

  She did as I suggested and stared me down the entire process. And I'm gullible?

  “Now—”

  “What do I get?”

  “...Excuse me?”

  “I did what you said. Now, what do I get in return?”

  The answer to her question was brilliant and simple. I clicked my gun. “To survive.”

  She continued to stare me down and I checked the desks she sat in between for emergency buttons before I continued.

  “Where's the room where you keep the records?”

  She didn't answer. She only stared down my finger curled around the trigger. I shook the gun and she jumped.

  “This floor.”

  “Really?!” I asked dramatically. “Well, it's just a lucky day for both of us, huh?”

  “I wouldn't say that,” she answered solemnly.

  I laughed for a moment. I was enjoying this. I really was enjoying this a lot.

  “Do you have access to the records?”

  She remained silent.

  I touched the tip of the gun below her chin and stared into her eyes. I was sure my eyes were blacked now. “I said, do you have access to the records?”

  “Every record within CU and Borealia.”

  I smirked. “Excellent. Take me where.”

  She rose from her seat and walked back over to the red button.

  I lifted my gun quick in her direction. “Hey!”

  “No! It's not what you think. Please, I can help you, but this is the only way!”

  “If someone shows up, you go down.”

  “Okay,” she nodded.

  The woman pressed the button and the lights turned off, leaving neon colors to light the inside. The water that I thought would flood the floors of the room drained underneath a white path that stretched as we stepped inside of the half dome. As the water drained, the sharks I saw swam into a portal door that opened up in the middle of the scene.

  “They were real,” I said out loud by accident.

  “Lucky for you, I'm on your side.”

  Her answer confused me. She was on my side? It left me in shock for awhile, but I didn't show it on my face.

  We walked further into the dome down a dark tunnel only lit by the small surface lights shining on either side of the path. The woman reached the door first and when she neared it, a light turned on above her on the ceiling. She typed in an access code into the passboard square on the right of the door and it opened up into what reminded me of a projection room.

  There were no seats in the room, only a control panel that was installed against the left wall and thick screen glass that covered the remaining space behind it. I imagined that was how the control rooms in the NR center I was first captured in was setup. The woman placed her hand on a scanner in the center of the control panel.

  “Handprint recognized. Searching database.”

  Two parallel rows of yellow letters simultaneously formed into other letters and numbers on the right of the screen and picture after picture appeared on the left until the letters formed a name and the picture matched her face.

  “You were a brunette.”

  “Natural redhead. It was this beautiful blue before that picture. They made me dye it.”

  “Hmph,” I smiled.

  If she only knew.

  “Handprint identified as Robyn Grant. Voice required for access.”

  “Robyn Grant.”

  The database searched as it had before until it found her voice's wavelength and repeated it.

  “That's me,” she answered to herself.

  “Voice identified. Access to database granted.”

  “Your turn.”

  I walked over to the center of the controls and before I touched my finger to the hand panel, I jerked my hand back. If it took Robyn that long just to gain access to the database, security was heavy and smart.

  “Will you maneuver it for me?”

  She nodded. “What am I looking for?”

  “Josh. Josh Duffy.”

  She looked over at me. “Josh Duffy? The captain over this district's Requesters?”

  I kept my composure on the outside, but inside I fainted. Part of me couldn't believe it, but I wasn't completely surprised.

  “That is correct.”

  She shrugged and typed in his name. It only took a moment before I was staring into eyes I was all too familiar with.

  “Everything about him should be there, um...where he's from, where he was captured, where he was taken, even the operations performed.”

  “Operations?”

  Immediately, I thought about his eyes.

  “Yeah,” Robyn hovered the cursor over the word and a list appeared on the right in place off his basic information.

  Just as she promised, a list of operations with both date and time covered the right of the screen.

  Subdued with tranquilizer.

  Infused with TDC.

  “What's TDC?”

&
nbsp; “Toxic Desensitization Compound. It evaporates the blood in your system and liquidates your organs.”

  I read on, trying not to visualize the process.

  Drainage of orgs.

  Incision performed from hip to rib.

  Replacement of orgs.

  Iron Model #:626

  Iron Model #:316

  Iron Model #:435

  Iron Model #:626B

  Robyn hovered the cursor around each model number and explained them. “Heart, lungs, liver, and bladder.”

  “What about the stomach?”

  “They have mercy. The operation allows some of the main organs to remain. The purpose is to only replace the ones that would cause them to be vincible.”

  I didn't reply to her statement, and she took it as confusion.

  “Every organ taken out is replaced with an iron organ that makes their body function without human fallbacks. They breathe faster, but less frequently, they think quicker, etc.”

  “They do?”

  She laughed, obviously knowing what I'm meant. “The newer models like Josh, yes.”

  I cringed. Josh. A model. A robot. A copy. I cringed more. This couldn't be real, but everything in the room, every facet of her face was as real as every feeling that ran through my entire body.

  I continued down the list on Josh's page, and the operation stopped at the beginning of his skinning process.

  “Do these processes differ?”

  “Oh, yes. It all depends on your type.”

  “Your...type?”

  “Girl or boy, where you're from, your assignment. It all comes into play before they operate.”

  “Assignment?”

  “Your friend...he didn't become captain of this province's Requesters overnight because he's cute.”

  I tried not to smile, and it wasn't that hard to think of reasons why I shouldn't.

  “What about the brain?”

  “They must've found toxins in his hypothalamus,” she said. I gave her a face. “His brain must've subconsciously sensed that he was undergoing the surgery even though he was sedated. It probably triggered a toxic protection around itself that stopped them from operating.”

  I stopped my face from reacting. Our brains do that? Josh's brain could do that? Then, that meant so many things. It meant Josh was still Josh. It meant maybe, just maybe, he remembered me. It explained so much. How upset he was when he saw Reno and I together, why he found us, why he let him go, everything.

  “What is your name?” Robyn asked me.

  I looked over at her. Should I be honest? She did look nice enough. Then, I wondered if she already knew. Still, I answered. “Lady.”

  “Lady?”

  “Just Lady,” I shrugged. “I'm undeclared.”

  “Well, I wouldn't bet your luck on Josh, Lady. He may still have his brain, but it's erupted of memories and feeling of any emotions, I'm sure. Brainwashing is becoming pretty popular.”

  I shook off her pessimism. “Blythe Huygens.”

  The database searched and searched for her. I didn't know why I thought to search for Blythe. Blythe was a Norm. The only talent she had was physical appeal and her intellect was barely average. Still, I wanted to try. I wanted to know.

  No matches found.

  I closed my eyes. That only meant one thing. Blythe hadn't been captured, which meant she was either alive and well or buried in the ashes of the XYM Avenue fire and hadn't been identified as one of the victims yet. I didn't know what to feel. Relief or grief? I was stuck in between the possibilities.

  “Marty Freeman Tyrop Benson, p.e.”

  The database searched and searched. Marty was Xi for sure. She was always so kind and her intellect was above Josh's level. She was the most moral and strong willed girl I knew. So wise. I stared into her eyes. Those same jade eyes I envied for a few seconds every time I looked into them. Those same eyes that I had stared into a moment before they captured me.

  The background in her picture was our school's logo and I noticed it was her school picture for that year. What assured me was the blue and yellow checkerboard bandana wrapped around her neck to match one of the many checkered skirts she wore on a regular basis. I looked over her basic information. Where she was born, where she was captured, where she was taken, where she had escaped, where she was recaptured, and where she was now. I had to cover my mouth from screaming, but the tears fell down immediately. Lary had been right.

  “Josh Duffy and Marty Freeman...both born in the same place, both captured in the same place...there was one other capture that day in that province. I remember because she got away and her escape was all the NRs everywhere was talking about.”

  The database searched and searched for a match. I was staring into my own eyes and when I looked over, I stared into ones I hoped I could trust.

  “It was you. You're Bleu Dalton,” I stepped back and back, but she came closer and closer. “Do you know how much it is for your capture? Do you know how valuable you are?”

  I stopped. I was valuable? I was being looked for? I knew escapees were hunt down for fun, but to actually be hunted down for reward? I didn't know my capturing was that important. To be honest, it made me feel...kind of special.

  Before I could throw my hands up into a surrender, I heard a beep. I opened my eyes now realizing I had them closed and looked at the screen. Bleu Dalton. Where I was from, where I was captured, where I was taken, even the operations performed on me.

  Subdued with tranquilizer.

  Part. Infused with TDC.

  The operations stopped there. I had woken up. Then, I read the bottom of my basic facts. My current location was unknown and thankfully would stay that way tonight. I read the word across the screen in bold red letters that I knew wasn't there before. Exterminated.

  “Why are you doing this? Why are you trying to help me?” I asked her as the tears continued down my face.

  She took my hands and brought me back to the center of the controls. “Because I have two kids,” she answered as her own eyes welled up. “This nation is so corrupted now. I don't want them to grow up in this. A favor for a favor.”

  I nodded and she took me into her arms. I couldn't stop the tears if I tried. It was exactly what I needed. Someone to believe in me like before. My eyes flashed open.

  “One more favor?” I asked as I wiped my eyes dry.

  “Sure.”

  “Bonnie Campbell.”

  The database searched and searched. She had to come up. My mother had the most Xi out of everyone I knew! She had appeal, intellect, and talent. She might've been a part of the Media if she lived in Cali before she had me. Her picture appeared and I smiled. I couldn't believe I had almost forgotten how she looked. I wished there was a way I could've captured her face to save it for later when I needed something to pick me up. Then, I frowned.

  “She became a true Follower. Totally didn't see that coming,” I rolled my eyes in disgust.

  But that wasn't the bit of news that I, to this day, have never forgiven her for. My mother's decision was hers and hers alone to me. I was no longer there to stop her from becoming successful like I had been before. What angered me was a date listed two days after my birth. The day my mother, Bonnie Campbell Dalton, donated my twin, Dreu Dalton, to Nation Resources. The extra kick was the ladder information underneath that fact.

  Current Employer: Nation Resources (XYA, Cali)

  Her employment there began two weeks after the Great Shutdown and continued up to the present. I never knew where my mother worked partly because I never asked and she never bothered to tell me. Yet I still felt lied to and betrayed and I despised that feeling even more than before.

  “WHAT'S GOING ON IN HERE?”

  Reno lifted his gun and before he fired, I jumped in front of Robyn. He took his finger off the trigger immediately and I heard Robyn exhale a nervous yet relieved breath. I wouldn't have minded the shot. I knew the truth now. Truths I had assumed correctly and truths I would've never imagined
true.

  Lary appeared behind Reno and marched to me. “Are you She's one of them! For all you know, this is a set-up!”

  I motioned his attention over to the screen. “Does this look like a set-up?”

  “Please. Really, I wanna help. I have two kids. There's only so much time now before—”

  Lary looked from the screen to inside Robyn's crystal blue eyes. “Before what?”

  “The Pre-Ex program. They're taking my kids from me. I work for them now and still they're...”

  That's when Robyn broke down and Lary grabbed me out of the room. We rushed back into the main room where I first met Lar. I struggled out of his hold and before I could run back to her, Lary grabbed my hand again.

  “Let me go! We need to help her!”

  “We need to help ourselves first!”

  “She helped me! A favor for a favor!” I cried.

  “Your favor in return will be stopping her kids and other kids around the nation from dying in the Pre-Ex trial!”

  I stopped. He was right. He was always right. “Look, I believe you, okay? I saw the screen. I saw what she did for you back there, but the rest of us are still targets, and we need to leave now!”

  “We might've already been traced, thanks to Captain Idiot on the ground outside.”

  “You shut your mouth. You shut your mouth about him!” I snapped at Reno as I charged toward him. “He doesn't know what he's doing!”

  Reno's face relaxed when Lary wrapped an arm around my stomach to hold me back, and a thought crossed his mind. “That's him isn't it?”

  “I don't care who he is or who you're talking about. We've gotta go,” Lary said. He placed me by his side and we ran out of the room. As we ran, Lary looked to his left at Reno. “You see any cameras on your floor?”

  “Not one, not even a locator.”

  He looked over at me. “You?”

  “Just in a shark tank,” He gave me a look that I couldn't help but laugh at. “I'm serious. The tunnel we walked through was full of water and sharks before. It emptied when Robyn took me through it.”

  “You know her name?” Lary boomed.

  “She helped me.”

  “You better hope so because she knows yours too.”

  We walked outside into the cold of the night and I shivered. Had it been this cold before? My eyes caught Z still at his post aiming the gun at Josh who still remained at his post on the ground with his hands over his head. I wanted to run to him and call him by name, but I knew I couldn't. It could mess things up.

  “Get him into the hearse. He's coming home with us.”

  “Home? With us?”

  We may need him for information. He stays with us, but only if he cooperates.”

  Lary walked down the few small steps that led down from the NR center to the ground of the wide sidewalk and Reno looked up at me before he Followed. “Tonight must be your lucky night.”

  He walked down the last step and I smiled. Maybe it was, but there were plenty of downsides that kept it from feeling that way, and I was sure the list of downsides would only lengthen.

  We packed away our weapons and piled into the hearse. Reno called shotgun and I wasn't surprised to see Z frown. I never did take time out to get the details behind their rivalry. It sounded like a conversation I could have with Mar. We did need to talk. That's when I wondered where he was.

  “Bleu, you're in charge of watching our kidnapped tonight. I don't care what happens, or what you hear. Stay in here and watch him.”

  I nodded. Best. Assignment. Ever, I thought.

  As Lary drove, the hearse remained silent and dark. Every time a beam of light from the streetlight made its way inside, I stole a glance at Josh. It was my job, after all. I was to watch him and make sure he wasn't trying to escape or devising a plan to kill us all. Another light, another glance. Another beam, another check.

  Lary turned down an unfamiliar corner and when the corner streetlight hit the hearse, I looked over to find green laser beams staring back at me. I almost flipped out, but contained myself enough to only let out a small squeal. The hearse was dark again, but I still caught a glance of Josh laughing and Z, in the middle of it all, eying me with a disgusted look on his face.

  “Are you watching or trying to be bought?” Z asked me.

  Reno chuckled and I stomped down on Z's foot. He ouched under his breath and exhaled with a dark growl rumbling at the end.

  “You better be glad you're a girl.”

  “Every day,” I replied with a smile.

  Lary stopped the hearse in the middle of an empty street that brought plenty of light into the hearse for me to take a look at Josh. He kept his attention forward, but I knew he saw me.

  “Alright, boys, let's do this.”

  The boys got out of the car, and when Z closed the door back after crawling over me to get out, the missing puzzle piece to whole the moment came to mind again. There was something missing. I couldn't remember what it was back at the NR center and I still couldn't remember.

  I heard the back of the hearse open and I looked behind me into darkness. I heard muffled noises, yelling, and shuffle like movement. The hearse jerked violently then stopped before I could mentally complain. The trunk of the hearse slammed down and I moved my head from side to side near the glass of the window, trying to catch a a view of some action. It was no use. The back of the hearse was closed off.

  “I saw him.”

  I looked over at Josh and scooted closer to him, glad Z had left the hearse. “What?”

  “I saw him banging against the glass in the back. I couldn't help him.”

  I stared him down for a moment, completely astonished to hear him talking so normally yet simultaneously frightened by the sincerity of his words.

  Mar. It was him I had forgotten about.

  “I have to help him.”

  “Don't you remember your assignment?”

  I looked at Josh then down at my hands. I wasn't bound, but I might as well have been. Lary putting me in charge? He might as well have bound me to the seat and had someone watch me too.

  “Promise me something...a favor for a favor.”

  “I'll stay here.”

  I smirked and exited the hearse. Moments later, I saw a night I could've never imagined unfold before me. Lary, Reno, and Z surrounded Mar in a semicircle and Mar was on the ground, hands cuffed behind his back and a white bandana tied into his mouth. He looked sickly and weak, completely beaten to a pulp. It was Reno who drew the gun. He handed it to Lary and Lary walked over to Mar who was sitting on his knees in the middle of the street.

  “I just want you to know that I've been on to you for a long time. After all we've endured together, after all we accomplished together before we even started 990—and this is what it all comes down to.”

  Lary crouched down beside Mar who was trying to scream something. “Your last words are as worthless as you are. I don't want to hear them,” Lary grabbed Mar by the hair and looked him into his eyes. “You're dust to me now, got it?”

  Lary held Mar by the back of his shirt, plunged the gun into Mar's chest, unlocked the safety on the gun, and pulled the trigger. The next thing I heard louder then the sound of the shot was my own bloodcurdling scream. I fell to my knees and crossed my hands over my chest. Lary released his grip on Mar and let his body drop to the ground as if they were never once close. I clumsily scurried to Mar's side using the tip of my toes and took his dead body into my arms, crying uncontrollably.

  “No! Don't you touch him!” Lary exclaimed as he shooed me away. “He's dead to us! He's dead to all of us!”

  “Why? Why? What did he do?” I screamed.

  “Get him! Get captain out of the car!” Lary ordered Reno. “And you,” he pointed at Z. “When we're done here, get her back to it!”

  Reno shoved Josh forward when he exited the hearse and Lary walked over to him until they were close enough in distance to breathe the same air.

  “You see that? See him? That
could be you. Do yourself a favor and open your mouth only when you're spoken to, got it?”

  Josh remained silent and motionless.

  “Am I clear?” Lary boomed as he stepped closer to Josh's face.

  Though Lary was a few inches taller, Josh still found a way to cast his eyes down on him before he responded.

  “Crystal.”

  “Good. Get her up.”

  As Reno placed Josh back in the car, Lary walked back to the driver's seat and Z struggled to get me off the ground. I refused, repetitively screaming NO in protest through my grief stricken crying. To be honest, it wasn't wholeheartedly Mar's death that had me so shaken and remorseful. It was the realization of how quick we all go. How one minute we're alive and within the next, we could be gone.

  What I feared the most about death was that we have no control over when or how it happens. It's all up to somebody else and their decision to take us out or let us survive another day. Most of all I feared death and how soon its wrath could take Josh away from me a second time. Only this time, it would be real and in front of me. I hoped it was only a fear.

  Eventually, Z got tired of trying to pick me up and dragged me across the ground instead. The rough street scraped up the skin over my elbows to my wrists, but I still held on. I tried to pry myself toward the opposite direction to stay on the road where I wanted to remain, but Z was too strong.

  “Dude, let's go!” Reno shouted out of the hearse.

  Z huffed and finally picked me up over his shoulder without a struggle. I reached my hand out to Mar's cold still body, refusing to let go. My tears left a trail that ended on the leather cushion of the hearse's second row. With that, Z shut the door and we drove off, riding toward where I'd been trying to reach all night.

  TWELVE