The Fall

by J. L. Wood

  When Dr. Aran shook her head, Amy went for the door. The doctor jumped up and grabbed Amy’s arm, pulling her in close. “This is not our Amity anymore,” she whispered in a hurry. “They’re watching, and they will shield you. Please comply.”

  Amy stared at the doctor, puzzled. “Shield me?”

  The doctor’s eyes lit up with fear as the two women heard footsteps approaching. Dr. Aran coughed, then stood up straight. “Do you wish to be compliant?” she asked again.

  Amy stared at the cart. “Is that it?”

  “Don’t—” the doctor started to say, but Amy ripped the blue cloth off. Intrigued, Amy picked up the amisow. It was a small rectangular device, no larger than her pinky finger, with a thick wire that began to extend as she held it. She tossed it back onto the cart, terrified. “You have got to be kidding,” she said.

  The door burst open, and two guards barged through, knocking Amy to the ground.

  “Is this patient being noncompliant?” one of the guards asked.

  Dr. Aran looked at Amy. Her eyes softened as she mouthed, Please.

  Amy’s heart raced. She looked back at the amisow and then to the doctor. She shook her head.

  “Yes,” Dr. Aran croaked.

  The guard grabbed Amy’s long hair in his fist. “Get off me! Get off me!” she yelled, swatting at him.

  “She’s causing a disturbance. Gag her,” the other guard said.

  Amy clawed at the men trying to subdue her, stunned at the sudden use of force. A cloth was forced into her mouth and tied around her head, but she continued to scream, although the sound was muffled. Her arms were then forced behind her back and zip-tied. The men picked her up, but she continued to squirm and kick.

  “Help!” she yelled through the gag. “Someone help me!” Amy looked around, trying to find out where she was being taken. The men carried her through the back door of the clinic through an area closed off with makeshift privacy shades. When she saw they were getting onto the elevator, she squirmed even more. She hadn’t had enough time to explore the ship, but she could feel from the distance that she was traveling down past the lobby. Once out of the elevator, the men carried her deep into a room and then dropped her.

  Amy looked around the dark room and found six people sitting in front of her. She rubbed her face against the gag, trying to pull it down, but it was tight. “Let me help you,” the man in front of her whispered. He pulled the knot loose, and Amy sucked in a mouthful of air. “I’m Lucas.”

  “Lucas…Lucas, what is this?” Amy stammered. “What’s happening?”

  Lucas looked around the room. “We all failed the exam, refused the amisow, snuck on, or anything else noncompliant. We’re being shielded. Kicked off of Amity into the protective barrier.”

  Terror flashed in Amy’s eyes. “That’s what that means? They’re killing us? Then why bring us here in the first place?”

  “The NASA Collaboration is dead,” he whispered. “The American president is dead. The Canadian prime minister was the first to be shielded. Don’t you see? This is a coup, and it’s already finished. This plan had to be years in the making. It was too articulated.” He paused as one of the guards walked by. “Amity 2 belongs to someone else now. Who that is, I don’t know.”

  Amy thought of what Michael’s husband said on the ship. It was intentional. Someone collapsed the portal. She couldn’t breathe. She sucked in breaths, but they went nowhere. She was having a panic attack.

  A guard walked by and smacked her in the back with a baton. “Stop that,” he said. Amy cried out in pain, and he hit her again. “Quiet!”

  She looked down the line ahead of her and saw people scooting forward. She moved with them, feeling betrayed. This was supposed to be a safe place, but she was nothing to the new leaders of Amity. She was nothing to the station. She wished she had never left Earth; dying there would have been far better than being pushed out into space. She watched as a woman ahead of her tried to stand, and a guard smacked her with a baton.

  “I…don’t want to die, Lucas,” Amy whimpered.

  Lucas continued looking forward. “If you lived, would you fight? Would you join me to restore Amity?”

  Amy wiggled her hands to relieve the tension of the zip ties, but they only seemed to tighten. “Yes, of course,” she whispered, choking back tears. “Anything. This is inhumane.”

  The line moved, and Amy moved up again. Lucas looked around the room and scooted behind her. Amy scooted up to fill his spot and watched one of the prisoners who was standing near a closed door up ahead. She tried to listen in and realized the guard was reading the man’s offenses. Amy’s eyes widened when she heard one was that he’d had a vasectomy.

  “But that’s reversible,” she whispered. “Why would they—”

  Another guard opened the door at the far end of the room and, without a word, pushed the man inside. He then locked the door and pressed a button on the wall.

  “Oh my God…” she whispered. “Lucas.”

  “What’s your name?” Lucas asked, his voice rushed.

  “Amy Boughan. What do I do? What can I do?”

  Lucas leaned forward, his breath against the back of her neck. “Tell them you were confused. You just lost your parents and you weren’t thinking. You will be compliant.”

  Amy looked at him through the corner of her eye. “Will that work?” she asked, her breathing heavy with fear.

  “As long as you aren’t in a power position, they want compliance if you’re healthy.” He started to move, then stopped and leaned forward again. “One more thing,” Lucas added. “Do you have any connections with people who might be able find out more info on what’s going on? Someone I can trust.”

  “I…I don’t know. I work for the CDC.” She paused. “Michael Stratis. He knows about the portal crash. And his husband said he thought it was planned.”

  “Thanks. I’ll find you after.”

  Amy nodded. The line moved up again, and she could hear shuffling behind her, another person added to the back of the line. Her legs began to ache from sitting on the hard floor. She shifted to try to get into a more comfortable position, but a guard smacked her in the back with a baton again.

  “No moving,” he barked. She continued to move farther up in line as people were shielded or escorted out. When she was next up, she heard the man in front of her being read his offenses, among them: failure to get an amisow. When asked if he would be compliant, the man yelled, “Fuck you! You’re monsters. I’ll never comply!” He was subsequently pushed into the room. Terrified, she looked back for Lucas, but he had moved even farther down the line.

  When it was Amy’s turn, one of the guards pulled her to her feet and placed her in front of the door. “Name,” the offense reader asked.

  Amy stared back at the line. There seemed to be no end to it. “Dr.…Dr. Amy Boughan,” she stammered.

  The guard scrolled through his tablet. “Failure to comply with the amisow. Your punishment is death. Do you wish to comply?”

  Amy burst into tears. “I’m…I’m so sorry. I left my family behind, I’m scared for them. I wasn’t thinking. I will be compliant.”

  The offense reader stared at Amy. “Do you love Amity?”

  Amy nodded. “Yes, I love Amity. I’m so thankful to have been saved.”

  The offense reader then motioned for one of his accomplices to come forward. “This is your one and only warning. If you are found noncompliant again, you will be shielded.”

  “Thank you. Thank you so much,” Amy cried as one of the guards pulled her away. When she looked back at the line, she saw her old boss, Richard, and they locked eyes. Lucas was at the back of the line again, and she knew from the look on Richard’s face that he would never comply.

  – 35 –

  Safety

  Missy pulled a mint out of the candy tray while she waited for the results of her inquiry and let it roll around on her tongue as it dissolved. Her heart beat furiously in her chest. She knew what the result wou
ld be, but she had to hear it for herself.

  “There is no Donald Wolf on this station or the other two,” the Amity clerk said.

  Missy’s heart dropped, and she felt light-headed, the confirmation hitting her hard. She leaned against the counter to keep herself steady. “Can you tell me where he is?” she asked as she scratched the bandage around her amisow implant.

  “I don’t have that information. Just the roster of Amity.”

  Missy turned to leave and stopped in her tracks. She thought of Delilah and her plus-fours. Her boys with L8. She hated her. She knew she’d done something to Don like she did to Jessica and Justin. “One more inquiry,” she spat out.

  The clerk looked up.

  “Delilah. I don’t know her last name, but we arrived on the Malick together.”

  After a few seconds, the clerk turned her screen around with a photo of Delilah. “I have one entry of a Delilah from the Malick. Last name Ndiaye.”

  Missy nodded. “That’s her. Which room is she in?”

  The woman held up her index finger and began typing again on her computer. “I’m giving you this a little ahead of time. We’re not set to release it for another week, but your amisow is activated.”

  Missy looked at her bandage. “Okay, thanks. What room?”

  The clerk stared at her, and Missy looked around, confused. “Oh, 1402,” she blurted out. “Wait, how did I know that?”

  The clerk smiled. “The amisow connects to a database of information that is available to you. Once you heal, it will be fully functional.”

  “Great,” Missy said sarcastically. “I’m a cyborg now.” She stood still for a moment. The data given to her said that Delilah had one plus-one, an adult, although she’d had four people in the helicopter. Should I? she thought. Is this my only chance?

  “Can I help you with anything else?” the clerk asked.

  Missy could feel herself starting to sweat. She needed to turn the boys in, but she wasn’t sure if she was doing it for the good of the ship or to get back at Delilah. And she didn’t know what would happen to them. Would they be sent back to Earth or be kept in isolation? She couldn’t think straight.

  “Ma’am?” the clerk asked.

  “Yes,” Missy said. “There is one other thing. Delilah brought more than one plus-one on board. I saw them on the Malick.”

  “How many?” the clerk asked, her brows raised.

  “Two.”

  “Adults or children?”

  “Adults.”

  The clerk began typing notes into her computer. “Thank you for bringing this information to our attention. We will investigate it.”

  “Sure, no problem.” She paused. “Just say, hypothetically, there were children from a quarantined zone on Amity. What would happen to them?”

  “All children were tested for L8 before boarding the shuttles. If, hypothetically, one made it onboard Amity, they would be placed in quarantine, where they would receive the medical attention they need until it is decided that they can return to the normal population.”

  “Oh, good,” Missy said with a sigh of relief. “I thought they would throw them off the ship and send them back to Earth. In that case, Delilah also snuck two children on board.”

  *

  Missy scanned the large cafeteria for an open spot. The room was bustling with excitement. People reunited, relieved that they had made it. Silverware clanked against plates, toasts were made. Smiling faces were everywhere. Children from outside the danger zone ran around chasing each other. One nearly knocked a tray from the hands of a bystander, and their parent shook a stern finger at them. The walls of the cafeteria that looked out toward the great beyond held a long panoramic view of a sunset to give the inhabitants of the station the feeling of being home.

  It was a far different scene than the space port. And although Missy was saved, she remembered the left-behinds. She was completely alone on Amity, and she still needed to find out what happened to Don. And what happened to Delilah whenever she was busted for her plus-fours. It had been nearly two hours since she’d ratted her out. She wondered how long it would take security to arrest her, or whatever they would do.

  She stared into the artificial sunset. It didn’t grab her like the ones on Earth did. The ones she would see with her father in their old canoe, sitting in silence while they fished. Although she’d enjoyed those times with him, she hated the process of pulling hooks through small defenseless worms. “They can’t feel it,” he would tell her, but she knew they could, or else why would they squirm so much as the hook went in their rear end and then out of their stomach? Her father would help her reel her fish in, so excited. “That’s a good one,” he would say. “We’ve got dinner,” he would mutter, seeing the sad look on her face. “Mom will cook it up real good.”

  After, she would burst into tears, and her father would hold her, reassuring her, “Everything lives and everything dies. It’s the cycle of life.” And then he would lean to the side of the canoe, its edge flat with the still water. One more inch, and the canoe would flip. “I’ll knock you in!” he would say, laughing. “I’ll get your hair wet!”

  In return, she would scream “Don’t do it! Don’t do it!” then laugh until her cheeks ached.

  The setting sun would reflect through the ripples on the river. “I guess we should head back,” he would say.

  “I guess we should,” she’d reply, disappointed that their trip was over. Then she’d sit back in the canoe while he paddled against the current, back to shore, hoping that she could find a way to be more like her father, accepting that everything had an end.

  Missy sat down at an empty table. She scratched at her bandage again before digging into her vegetarian lasagna. The implant was more painful than she expected—a small surgical procedure with a thin rectangular device inserted under a layer of skin on her forearm. She felt like cattle, branded and someone’s property. After taking a bite of her food, which was good but not great, she scratched again at the bandage.

  “Is this seat open?” a geeky middle-aged man asked, pointing to the seat beside her.

  Missy nodded. “Go for it.”

  “I see you got your tracker. Got mine too. Seems a little weird. I’m Lucas, by the way.”

  “Missy Wild, and yeah, it is kinda weird. Sends information straight to your brain.”

  Lucas took a bite of lasagna and then looked around the room. “Are you Don’s Missy?” he whispered.

  She dropped her fork and stared at Lucas, wide-eyed. “What do you know about Don?” In her excitement, her voice rose. “Where is he? Is he alive?”

  Lucas raised his hand then slowly lowered it. “Quietly,” he said. “I know the man who sent a rescue mission to save Don. Michael Stratis. I met him earlier today.”

  Missy leaned toward Lucas. “Did Delilah leave Don behind?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t know who that is. Come to room 1240 in thirty minutes. You can find out about Don there.”

  “Wait,” Missy said, reaching for his shirt as he got up to leave, but he was out of reach and ignored her. She took another bite, and her stomach gurgled. The nervousness was setting in. She was about to find out what really happened to Don, and it scared her. She couldn’t feel him anymore.

  – 36 –

  Barrier

  Amy sat on the couch in her room, holding a pack of ice wrapped in a cloth to her back. She looked up at Michael and Lucas. “I’ll be okay,” she said. “Have you found out who took over Amity yet?”

  Lucas shook his head. “The majority of the people here don’t know anything is happening. They’re out there having the time of their lives. I got two leads, unverified. One said a few countries who refused the NASA Collaboration planned it. The other that the one percent orchestrated this and are holed up on the Moon base, and once Amity is settled, they’ll fly in. They both reference traitors in NASA and the U.S. government. But again, unverified.”

  “Oh,” Amy said, holding up her hand. “They’re shi
elding leaders, right? Let’s check the roster to see who is left from the Collaboration. That could be a lead. I mean, that part of the lead could be right. There had to be traitors for this to be so well planned. It’s nearly seamless. Get everyone here as usual. Quietly discard the leaders and disobedient. Move forward.”

  “But for what purpose?” Michael asked. “There’re no new ships docking as far as I know. If it was China or anywhere else, wouldn’t they have brought their people already? Technology wouldn’t be an issue, they would’ve had a way to get their hands on what we have to make this journey if they knew how to close a transport portal. And the Moon thing makes no sense. Why stop there and not just go all the way?”

  “True,” Lucas replied. “Unverified, as I said. It only takes around fifteen thousand people to start a colony, and I know there’s a plethora of embryos here. With that in mind, numbers on Amity are not an issue. That, I verified. It could very well be a rogue group—”

  There was a soft knock on the door. “That must be her,” Lucas said, jumping up. He cracked the door open, then let a woman inside.

  “Missy?” Amy asked as the woman looked around the room.

  She nodded, knitting her brows. “Where’s Don?”

  “You should sit for this,” Amy said, motioning toward the couch.

  Missy’s eyes were now stricken. She looked around the room again before taking a seat and clutched a rose-gold locket that hung on her chest. “Is he alive or not?”

  “He’s alive,” Amy said.

  Missy leaned back on the couch and softly smiled. She rubbed the locket with her thumb. “Where is he?”

  Amy listened in as Michael explained the Lerner mission to Missy, who wiped at her tears with her hands while the story progressed. She understood how she must feel, to know someone she loved was far away and being unable to contact them. She thought of her brother, who was probably on another Amity Station. Hopefully he wasn’t going through what she was. And if he was, that he wouldn’t be like her. That he would comply instead of being stubborn. She handed Missy a tissue, which she accepted and dabbed at her eyes.