Hungry

by H. A. Swain

  The door handle jiggles. “Stupid girl,” Gaia says as she slips the key into the lock. “I don’t know where she’s gone off to. She knows that we’re to have lunch here.”

  “Maybe the excitement of the harvest got her confused,” Dr. Demeter says as the door swings open.

  When she walks in and sees me backing away from the screen, Gaia’s face contorts. First she is surprised, then confused, and finally furious. “What the hell are you doing in here!” she screams and rushes at me.

  I fling myself out of the chair and run for the corner. Dr. Demeter stands in the doorway shocked.

  Gaia ignores me and goes for the screen. “Were you on my system?” She sees Ahimsa’s face glowering at her, so she hits the volume button and rips into her. “I know you’ve been after me for years! But this is too much. Sending in spies so you could learn our secrets!”

  “What? Who are you?” Ahimsa shouts at her. “And why are you harboring Thalia Apple?”

  “Who?” Gaia asks.

  “Thalia Apple,” Dr. Demeter says, pointing to me. “Didn’t you know?”

  Gaia whips around. “But you said your name was Natalie!”

  I’m not about to argue with her about my name now. I run for the door as Ahimsa says, “Either you turn her over or you will feel the full wrath of One World Security.”

  “Grab her!” Gaia shouts at Dr. Demeter, who snares me around the waist. “If you want her, you’ll have to come get her!” Gaia tells Ahimsa. “And when you do, I’ll be ready for you. I’ve been preparing for this day for years!”

  I struggle against Dr. Demeter’s grip, trying to work my fingers into my pocket.

  “I should have known that you’d come here to destroy us,” Gaia screeches at me. “I’ll kill you!”

  “No Gaia,” Dr. Demeter shouts and holds out a hand to stop her. “She’s worth more alive.”

  Just as she launches herself at us I withdraw the knife. The light hits the blade and sends them both reeling back. “Get away from me,” I tell them. They back away against the wall screen where Ahimsa’s face begins to fade, replaced by my father.

  “Thalia! Thalia!” he cries but I turn and run.

  * * *

  I sprint down the path toward the fields, screaming Basil’s name. Before me rows and rows of golden stalks as high as my knees sway in the breeze. Small colorful critters, their wings flapping, flit from plant to plant. I scream Basil’s name again.

  “Apple!” I hear from the distance. “Apple! Where are you?”

  I run toward the voice, desperately searching for him among the stalks. Long green leaves scrape at the skin on my leg, but I don’t stop. “I’m over here!” I shout. “Where are you?”

  Far off to my left, I see the workers, half bent over and half standing, craning their necks to see what the commotion is, but Basil is not among them because he is running toward me from the kudzu. When we meet, I throw myself onto him, gasping, “We have to get out of here. This place isn’t safe. Gaia is crazy. You have no idea what they’re capable of.”

  “I know, when I saw Dr. Demeter…” he says clutching me. “And in the lab … when she tried to…”

  I stop and stare at him. “What? What happened to you? What did they do?”

  He shakes his head with disgust. “The harvest. I couldn’t do it. I wouldn’t do it. I ran out and went looking for you.”

  “I was there. In the changing room. I heard, but I didn’t know it was you.” I wrap my arms around his neck. “I’m so proud of you and, believe me, you don’t know half of what’s going on here yet. This place is so freakin’ creepy.”

  He looks torn, as if he’s not ready to fully accept what I’m telling him. “But maybe…” he says.

  I grab his face and make him look me in the eyes. “If you’ll come with me, I’ll tell you everything I know, and then if you want to return, I won’t stop you.”

  He looks past me, over my shoulder, as if he’s debating, but then his face screws into fear. “Uh-oh,” he says. Slowly I turn to see Gaia marching toward us steadily but in no hurry. And why should she hurry? Where are we going to go? Basil and I grab each other.

  “Infiltrators!” Gaia booms. She marches calmly but resolutely toward us with her finger outstretched. “One World spies! They’ve come to undo all of our hard work.”

  The workers from the field advance on us from the other side, eyeing us suspiciously. “Don’t listen to her!” I yell. “She’s a liar and she’s crazy. She’s putting Synthamil in your soup!” I pull the bottle from my pocket and hold it up for them to see.

  “She called One World and revealed our location,” Gaia accuses. An audible gasp escapes from the crowd, and Basil whips around toward me.

  “Is that true?” he asks.

  “No,” I say. “Ahimsa broke into a call I made to my parents, then Gaia told her to come get me.”

  Basil’s face grows pale.

  “I told you all that this would happen,” Gaia says. “That someday, someone would come and try to take us down. We’ve always known it. One World would love to destroy everything we’ve worked so hard for. And look at all we’ve accomplished! The fields. The houses. The children! The food supply! Look how we’ve grown. From a dozen chosen ones to nearly two hundred. They will take away our children. Burn our crops. Bulldoze our buildings. Arrest anyone who tries to stop them. And these infiltrators have come to unlock the gates for them.”

  Basil grips my hand tight. I think of running, but then I find my voice and shout, “She’s a liar!” I turn to the crowd. “Gaia stole this land and her house from a farmer. She buys Synthamil with Arousatrol off the black market and slips it in your food so the girls will get pregnant and Dr. Demeter can harvest your human eggs and sperm, and they feed you human milk and they are growing flesh in the lab! I’m telling you, she is not who you think she is. She is a delusional power-hungry lunatic who wants to control the world. One World may not be the way, but neither is this!”

  Some of the workers, especially the girls with pronounced bellies, look at Gaia, waiting for her defense. But Gaia is a master. She simply snorts, dismissing everything I’ve said. “We have no time for these petty accusations. We must protect what we’ve built. We must fight the infiltrators and secure our future.”

  Gaia continues ranting about how One World will enact Armageddon on the Farm in order to protect their bottom line. “Are you going to let that happen?” she screams.

  “No!” the crowd roars back at her.

  “Then we must be ready for them!”

  I cling to Basil and withdraw the knife, ready to defend us, but the crowd’s whoops and shouts for our blood are overtaken by a low rumble coming from the distance. Everyone looks around, searching for the source. The sound beats at the air. Thwump, thwump, thwump. We look up, shading our eyes.

  “There!” one of the men shouts and points at a speck in the sky speeding toward us.

  “I told you!” Gaia shouts. “I told you they would come for us. We must be ready. We must take up arms and protect what is ours!”

  The group seems to forget all about us and instead charges behind Gaia toward the encampment, leaving Basil and me standing in the field alone as the noise in the sky gets louder and the dark speck grows bigger.

  “We have to hide!” I yell and pull Basil toward the kudzu. From inside the tree line among the tangled vines, we watch the helicopter close in, bending the yellow stalks in the field like genuflecting masses I’ve seen in photos at the Relics. We cover our faces as it touches down and the whirling blades begin to slow. Then the door pops open. I expect to see armed burgundy-shirted security agents pour out, but instead a tall rangy man with wild hair and a baggy sweater shades his eyes as he peers out timidly. Another person, a thin woman with black hair, pushes in beside him and scans the area. For a moment, I’m confused. The two people look oddly like my parents. Then I realize. They are my parents. Without thinking, I run.

  My father jumps out of the helicopter followed
by my mother. Within seconds, I’m enveloped in their arms. They hug me fiercely, pulling me so close that I can hardly breathe. Once they release their grip on me, we all start talking at once, firing questions at one another.

  “How did you find me?” I ask.

  “What is this place?” says my dad.

  “Are you okay?” my mother yells. “Let me look at you! Are you hurt?”

  Before we can answer each other, a squat four-wheeled vehicle barrels out of the kudzu. Fearing that Gaia and her goons are on the attack, I push my parents toward the helicopter, shouting, “Go, go, go! Get in!” But my mom latches onto my wrist and yanks me along behind her. I drag my heels, trying to wrench free from her grip, screaming so I can get Basil. Over my shoulder, I see him sprinting from the woods shouting my name. The four-wheeler is closing in on him. “No!” I scream and tear myself free from my mother, certain that whoever is on that vehicle will hurt him. But then I recognize the driver and his passenger. I stop dead in my tracks. “Mr. Clemens! Ella!” I shout and run toward them.

  Mr. Clemens stops near where my parents, Basil, and I stand, hands on knees, trying to catch our breath. Mr. Clemens nods to us, then says, “Looks like you got Gaia and them good and stirred up!”

  I suck in air. “She’s threatening to kill me, and she thinks One World is coming to destroy the Farm. She told everyone to take up arms and get ready for a battle.”

  “Ha!” says Mr. Clemens. “Serves her right. She’s been trying to pick that fight for years, but One World wouldn’t pay her no mind. Bet she’s happy now. There’s no leader like the martyr.”

  I turn to Ella. “What are you doing here?”

  “After I left you, I told Noam to get our son, then I ran and got Mr. Clemens. I figured he’d know what to do.”

  “Told you she was smart,” Mr. Clemens says proudly.

  Finally, my mother can’t take it anymore. “Who are these people and what is going on?” she demands.

  I try my best to give her the quick version of all that has happened in the past few days, including what Dr. Demeter is growing in the lab. Then my parents explain that Dad was able to locate Gaia’s IPN even though Ahimsa hijacked the call since the line was never disconnected. As soon as they had the coordinates, they hopped into the helicopter and headed this way.

  “You aren’t that far from home,” my father tells me.

  “Neither are you,” Mr. Clemens says to Dad. “I believe I knew your father in passing.” My dad looks at him with wonder.

  “They’ll be time for this later,” Mom says. She grabs my wrist. “We have to get you out of here.”

  “Basil?” I say, but it comes out like a question as I reach for him.

  “No, Thalia!” he begs. “We can’t go back there.”

  “It’s okay,” my mom says. “I know you have no reason to trust me, but you must believe me. We won’t take you back to the Loops. It’s not safe. Ahimsa wants a scapegoat for everything that’s gone wrong, so she’s targeted you two. We’ll do our best to protect you along with our daughter.”

  “Where are we going to go then?” I ask.

  Mom and Dad exchange looks. “Maybe to another population center,” says Dad. “You can hide there until the protests die down, then we’ll think of something. But we have to leave now.” He pulls out his Gizmo. “If you’re right and Ahimsa found the location, security will be here soon. We can’t let them catch you.”

  “Wait,” I say. “We could go north.” I turn to Mr. Clemens. “Tell them.”

  “I believe there are people living off the land up in Canada. I’ve got a trailer behind my place packed up with everything we’d need to join them. Synthamil, fuel, and seeds for when we get there.”

  Always the scientist, my mother asks, “What proof do you have that people can survive up there?”

  “None,” says Mr. Clemens. “Except that it’s possible. The land around here is regenerating and the fauna is returning and things were less damaged farther north to begin with. There will be people who figure out how to start over. Human ingenuity is a beautiful thing.”

  I look to my mom. My father is by her side with his arm around her narrow shoulders. “No,” says Mom. “It’s too risky. We’d be naive to try.”

  “You were naive enough to try to save the world once before,” I remind her.

  “And look what happened!” she says. “It’s my fault chromosome sixteen mutated. I ruined so many lives. Including yours.” She looks to Basil and me with a quivering chin as if she might cry.

  “No, Mom. We’re the lucky ones.” I reach out to her. “We’re like the first creatures that sprouted wings.” I catch Basil’s eye. He nods as I recite Ana’s words: “‘Now we’re standing on a precipice, and we can either plummet or we can spread those wings and fly.’”

  “Oh, Thalia.” Mom pulls me close. Then, from a distance, we hear a loud angry buzz in the sky.

  My dad scans the horizon. “They’re coming.”

  “Get in!” my mother says. “All of you.”

  “Not without my son and Noam,” Ella says and steps away.

  Early evening shadows crawl over the crops as a fleet of helicopters low in the sky come into view. Basil latches onto my arm and points across the field. “They’re bringing weapons,” he says.

  A group of men run out of the encampment carrying long metal tubes on their shoulders.

  “The showers you were building?” I ask, unable to make sense of what I’m seeing.

  Basil levels his gaze at me. “They’re rocket launchers,” he says, then a piercing whistle followed by a line of thick gray smoke ascends into the sky amid the One World helicopters, maneuvering into landing positions. A loud explosion rocks one of the helicopters wildly side to side. The others lift up and return fire. Something loud zips into the encampment. We hear a loud pop, then a flame shoots into the sky from behind the buildings. Ella screams and dashes toward the explosions.

  “Ella don’t!” I dart after her, shouting over my shoulder to my parents, “There are children in there!”

  As we run, an old dark green vehicle with no top careens straight for us, with Dr. Demeter driving and Gaia standing on the seat, pointing a long, thin rifle at us.

  I jump and grab Ella, sending us both sprawling in the dirt as the first shot rings out. I cover her body with mine and roll. From behind us, I hear a motor then see Basil hunched over, driving Mr. Clemens’s four-wheeler straight for us. Ahead of us, Gaia’s vehicle hits a large bump, which flings her up and out of the car, arms and legs flailing, rifle flying. She lands in a heap as the vehicle flips onto its side, dumping Dr. Demeter in the dirt. Basil turns sharply, encircling us. He reaches down. I push Ella up onto the seat behind him, then I scramble on and wrap my arms around them both, trying to protect her belly as best I can. He guns the engine and circles back toward my parents’ helicopter where we see my mother bent over the body of Mr. Clemens, who has crumpled to the ground.

  “No!” Ella screams. “No, no, no!”

  Another loud whistle pierces the sky, then a bright flash erupts between us and my parents. Basil turns sharply to avoid the blast, which sprays dirt and rocks into the air. He heads away from the dark cloud of debris toward an opening in the kudzu. Above the din of helicopters now swarming the area, I hear my mother wail.

  “Go back! Go back!” I scream and claw at him, trying to get him to turn around.

  A man with something in his arms darts out from the kudzu at the far end of the field. “Noam! Noam!” Ella screams and I see that she’s right. It is Noam with a toddler bouncing on his hip. Inside the boy’s chubby hand is a stick shaped like an airplane. Ella grabs Basil’s shoulders and shakes him violently. “Stop. Stop. Stop.”

  Basil won’t listen, though. We hit a dim path leading us through the woods toward an overgrown edifice. “Is this it?” he yells over his shoulder. “Is this Mr. Clemens’s cabin?”

  As soon as we stop, Ella and I both scramble off. She runs back down the path to
ward the fields shouting for Noam. I start to follow her, screaming, “I have to make sure my parents are okay!” but Basil grabs me.

  “Don’t!” he yells. “We have a plan.” Then he charges behind the house. A series of loud pops send smoke above the trees, and I hesitate. Basil comes around the corner, dragging a wagon behind him. “Help me,” he shouts over the noise of the battle now raging. “The only hope we have is to get out of here with these supplies! Your parents will take care of the others and meet us.”

  “I can’t leave them!”

  “But that’s the plan!” Basil yells as he struggles to attach the cart to the vehicle. I don’t know what to do. But then I hear a deep rumble swelling. The wind whips the trees, sending dirt into my face. I wipe my eyes and squint into the gray cloud swirling to see a helicopter lifting up above our heads. I can’t make out who’s inside because the dust is too thick.

  My parents’ helicopter climbs higher and higher into the sky. “No!” I scream. “Don’t leave me.” I run, trying to get a glimpse of my parents, Mr. Clemens, and Ella and her boys. The helicopter swoops around, dipping right and left as if searching for us. I jump and wave my arms, certain that if they could see me, they would land, but they’re too far away and the sky has become too dark with smoke. “Over here! Over here!” I scream.

  Another rocket zings across the sky, narrowly missing the helicopter, which quickly ascends and darts away like the butterfly I once chased. “No!” I scream and fall to my knees. “No!”

  I feel Basil behind me, his hands pressed into my back. “It’s okay,” he tells me. “It’s alright. We’ll find them.”

  “But what if that wasn’t them? What if Gaia took the helicopter. What if they’re back in the fields?”

  “It was them. I’m sure of it,” he says.

  “But, how could they leave me?”

  He reaches in his pocket and pulls out my father’s Gizmo. “Before I came after you and Ella, your father gave me this. He said to get you and the supplies. He promised he’d take care of the others. Once we’re all free from here, we’ll get in touch.”