Silas smiles. “If there is a God, Solomon will be wearing a rock backpack for the next ten years.”
I giggle as Juda says, “So be it.”
I savor this brief moment of relief. Knowing we don’t have to face Solomon makes me feel like I can survive what lays ahead.
When we arrive at the top of the staircase, Ram opens a door for us. “My dressing room.”
Thoughts of Solomon are washed away as I see the lavish room. Blue velvet couches and chairs sit atop exotic rugs. Sparkling gilded mirrors hang from the walls. Fresh yellow roses adorn every available surface, making the air smell decadent and delicious. An oversized gold and black dressing table is piled with powders, pallets and silver brushes. Susanna was right! Ram does wear makeup.
“Have a seat, everyone,” Ram says, plopping onto a velvet chair and removing his headset. Tabby sits regally in the chair next to him.
Juda, Mary, Silas, and I all sit on one couch, making Ram laugh. “Spread out, for Pete’s sake! No need to act like you’re chained together.”
I’m not sure why he thinks this is funny, considering we’re still wearing handcuffs. Juda and I move to the second sofa.
“You’ve heard the exciting news about Tabitha and—” Ram says.
“You can’t let her do it!” I interrupt. I look at Tabby. “You can’t go! You have no idea what you’re getting into!”
“I’ll be fine,” says Tabby. “It’s God will, and God will protect me.”
Ram beams. “Of course He will.”
Silas looks desperate. “He’s using you, Tabs. Why can’t you see that? You’re going to be miserable and—”
“No!” she says, losing her smile. “He’s not using me. Ram is helping me. If I stay here, I’ll be miserable. I will collect garbage on the streets. In Manhattan, I’ll be like royalty. I’ll be married. I’ll have children. I’ll be respected by everyone!”
Juda shakes his head. We both know that to enter into a marriage on the island as a woman is to guarantee respect from no one.
“Do you know what the penalty is for talking back to your husband?” I ask her. “A beating. For reading a book? A life sentence in the Tunnel. For adultery? Death by stoning. NO ONE would CHOOSE to live that way!” I can’t believe how angry I am.
“Can we be honest here?” Mary says. “This is all about your stupid lady bug. Who cares what happened? Who cares if you had sex? A couple of dried-up old ladies and clueless men.”
Tabby has gone pale. She says hoarsely, “Everyone cares. My life here is over.”
“Well, then that’s on you, Ram,” says Mary. “You’ve created a world where if a girl seeks any physical pleasure, her life will be over. Congratulations.”
“We are not here to debate the moral standards of the Unbound,” says Ram, clearly growing annoyed.
“Good!” says Mary, who’s on a roll. “Because then we’d have to discuss why in your utopian-fantasy-world kids who don’t conform to your ideals have to be locked away where they’re tortured, starved, and told they’re worthless.”
“Tabby, you love someone else!” I cry. “Uncle Ruho is an old man!”
“Enough!” says Ram, hitting the arm of his chair. “Can’t you see that this is bigger than any of us? Tabitha is giving herself over in service to God, in service to us, so that we might be reunited with our Savior. Nothing is more important than that—we must stop being selfish, stop thinking about ourselves, and start thinking about the group as a whole.”
“How does that even work?” Mary says. “The Savior won’t come if Ruho is married. He will only come if he is dead.”
“The Savior will come if Ruho stops claiming he is divine,” Tabby says, with a superior smile.
Ram reaches out and strokes her hand. “Tabby’s job is, over time, to convince Ruho that he is just a man.” They beam at each other, their secret revealed.
“That will never happen,” Juda says. “You are giving her a death sentence that—”
“I’m glad you’re so concerned about Tabby,” Ram says, looking at each of us, “because you will be helping to keep her safe.” He takes a dramatic pause. “You will be going with her to the island and acting as her privy council.”
Thirty-Nine
Betrayal slams me in the stomach and threatens to make me sick. Ram, this man who looks like an innocent boy, who offered me a home with his people, and who once said, “I am always here for you,” is nothing but a monstrous, backstabbing liar. Standing, I say, “You promised we could go free!”
“I said you could leave Kingsboro, and you will,” he says, grinning at his own cleverness.
“I’m not going anywhere,” says Mary, standing up as well. “I’m just a girl who likes chocolate cake too much.”
“Sit down.” Ram says. “You are a girl who broke the law when she escaped from the Forgiveness Home, trespassed on her brother’s property, and then resisted arrest. Plus, Mina said she would not give up your location unless you all left Kingsboro.”
Mary and Silas look at me in disbelief.
“That’s not fair!” I shout at Ram. “That’s not what I meant, and you know it!”
He shrugs.
“I’m so sorry,” I say to Silas and Mary, who turn their faces away.
“You didn’t say anything about this, Ram,” says Tabby, trying to maintain a smile.
“I’ll go,” Silas says quietly. “I’ll go look after you, Tabby.”
Instead of looking grateful, Tabby looks disgusted. “I don’t need any of you to look after me. I’m not a baby.”
“You don’t know anything, Tabby,” I say, “and you are a baby.” I turn to Ram. “And I am NOT going back there.” I sit down and look at Juda, who hasn’t said a word. His fists are clenched, while his eyes search the room. I have to assume he’s looking for a weapon.
“The thing is,” Ram says, ignoring our outrage, “my vision was very clearly about five people who would help the Unbound, and we only have four here.”
“What about me?” says Tabby, indignant.
“You’re more than a person, darling. You’re a bride.”
She smiles smugly, settling back into her seat.
Ram lifts his headset and speaks into the mic. “Send them in.”
The door opens and in walks our Sentry, followed by Dekker and Grace.
“Thank you,” Ram tells the Sentry, who quietly exits.
Grace and Dekker take in the room: Ram, Tabby, and the four of us sitting on couches. Dekker raises an eyebrow. “Weird party.”
“Sit down, please,” Ram says.
Grace hurries to sit by me on the couch.
“I think I’ll stand,” says Dekker, leaning against the wall by the door. He wears white and looks weirdly puffy. He seems to have been enjoying the food here. Besides that he looks healthy, which is a relief.
Grace, also in white, takes my hand the second she sits down. I’m sure she heard about our escape. Was she in the audience just now? She gives me a timid smile.
“Good,” says Ram. “We’re all here. Dekker, Grace, as I was explaining to the others, I am creating a small private council to send with Tabitha to Manhattan. I had originally planned to send the Manhattan Five, but sadly, one of you has fallen ill, and you became four. The good news for you is that Mina has volunteered Silas Dixon and Mary Benjamin, so now we have six!”
Grace looks at me in horror. Unable to say anything, I throw my arms around her. She sobs into my shoulder.
“Mina,” Ram says, “I once told you that the Unbound all have the same job. That job is to ensure the Ascension transpires without delay. The time has come for you all to play your part, to do your jobs as members of our community.”
Lurching forward, Dekker approaches Ram menacingly. “You’ve got another thing coming if you think I’m going back to that Hellhole.”
“Aaron,” Ram says into his mic, “Please join us again.”
The Sentry is back in the room within seconds.
Dekker
looks him up and down. Dekker is tall, but Aaron obviously bench-presses a car every morning.
“Do we need Aaron here?” Ram asks Dekker. “We’re just having a discussion.”
Dekker licks his lips. He looks at Juda, silently asking if he’ll help take Aaron down. But Juda doesn’t move. He’s as rigid as a statue.
Dekker’s eyes flick to mine, while I shake my head slightly, sure I’m thinking the same thing as Juda: We can’t defeat these people, not here. If Dekker beats up Aaron, there are a hundred Sentries to take his place.
Dekker doesn’t step back from Ram. He seems stuck, unable to admit he’s helpless.
Ram smiles. “I would like to speak with the Propheteers alone please.”
This isn’t what Dekker was expecting. His adrenaline is pumped and ready to go, and if he doesn’t hit something, he might fall over.
“Yes, sir,” says Aaron.
He opens the door and gestures for Tabby, Silas and Mary to leave.
Tabby is not pleased. She’s enjoying her new position of importance. “Do I have to leave?”
“Yes, darling, but only for a minute,” Ram says. “Then you’ll be the center of attention again.”
Understanding this as an insult, she leaves the room with an aggressive flip of the hair. Mary and Silas march out after her, their faces frozen in distress and confusion.
Once they’re gone, Ram sighs, taking the four of us in. “It’s not as bad as you think,” he says.
“Then why don’t you go live with her?” Dekker says.
Grace is still crying.
“It’s not permanent. Once you’ve completed your assignment you can stay there, you can come back here, you can go live on Mars for all I care.”
“Our assignment?” Juda asks.
Grace sniffs. “We just have to take care of her for a little while?”
“The four of you have a much higher purpose than aiding Miss Dixon. I told you that I had a dream about the Manhattan Five months ago. I knew you would be of extreme importance but the vision only became clear recently.” He stands, placing his hands in a prayer position under his chin. He walks behind his chair and looks at the sky. “You will go back to Manhattan as Tabitha’s private council, live with her, and aide her in her transition, and when the time is right, you will kill Uncle Ruho.”
I’m too dumbfounded to respond.
“You want us to do what?” Dekker asks, almost laughing. “You are truly out of your nut!”
“You have an entire army of Sentries at your disposal,” says Juda. “Why would you send children to do a soldier’s job?”
I find my voice. “You have weapons. Drop a bomb on his head!”
“Yes! Great idea!” says Dekker, pointing at me.
“Why do you think we would kill someone?” Grace whispers.
Ram gives her a look of feigned shock. “Because you already have! The five of you killed Damon Asher. You are the most ruthless children I have ever met!”
Solomon told him everything. He tortured me, making me believe I’d offended God, when all he really wanted was information to feed Ram.
“You have not answered my question,” Juda says, temper swelling. “Why are you sending untrained children to do an assassin’s job?”
“I’m not a child!” says Dekker.
“Shut up!” I say.
Sitting back down, Ram crosses his legs. “Do you like Uncle Ruho? I thought you left because you didn’t.”
“That’s not the point!” I say.
“I know why he wants us to do it,” says Grace, her voice barely audible.
Our heads all turn to her, but she keeps staring at Ram. “A member of the Unbound can’t kill him. The Savior won’t return if one of you has committed murder. But a Propheteer can, right? And then your Ascension can occur?”
Ram giggles and claps. “You have become quite the little student, haven’t you, Grace? Very good. What an honor you’re all receiving—to be our hand. To lead us to our mighty Ascension, finally!”
Dizzy with rage, I drop my head into my hands. This horrible, disgusting act that has haunted me every waking hour, that I thought had been forgiven by the Unbound’s God—they want me to do it again.
“I can’t do it.” I say. “I won’t do it.”
“Yes, you will,” Ram says. “Or I will blow your entire island to smithereens.”
Juda, Grace, Dekker, and I look at one another. We are going to have to go back. And one of us is going to have to kill our Divine Leader.
End of Book Two
Note to Reader
Gay “conversion therapy” or “ex-gay ministry” (what happens to Silas in the Forgiveness Home) is a discredited psychotherapy method aiming to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity that happens all over the United States. A backpack of rocks is a real example of a conversion technique used by a Mormon “clinic” in Utah. Electrocution and electroshock therapy are also methods used on children as young as twelve. As of March 2017, only five states, as well as Washington D.C., have formally banned conversion therapy. Survivors of conversion therapy are 8.9 times more likely than their peers to consider taking their own lives.
To read more or to help survivors, please visit conversiontherapysurvivors.org and follow #bornperfect
“Purity Balls” (Promise Proms) in which a daughter pledges her virginity to her father occur in 48 states and are spreading to other countries. Statistically, pledge-takers have premarital sex as often as non-pledge takers, but the pledge-takers are much more likely to have unprotected sex, leading to STDs and unplanned pregnancies. Teaching a girl that her value lies in whether or not she abstains from sex reinforces stereotypical gender roles and can negatively affect her sexual and emotional health.
Learn more here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hvcb_JRHJyY
More than 40% of Americans believe in the Rapture (the Ascension), the idea that one day Christ will return to earth and good Christians will be beamed into heaven, while seven billion people are left to suffer and die. As a result, many families do not save for their children’s education or for their own retirement.
Learn more here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/20/us/20rapture.html
To learn more about all of the rules and practices
in the Time Zero trilogy, please visit www.timezerobook.com/religious-rules
Want to be the first to know
about the release of Book 3 in the Time Zero trilogy?
Go to www.timezerobook.com
for series news, bonus content, and sneak peaks.
About the Author
Carolyn Cohagan began her writing career on the stage. She has performed stand-up and one-woman shows at festivals around the world from Adelaide to Edinburgh. Her first novel, The Lost Children, became part of the Scholastic Book Club in 2011 and was nominated for a 2014 Massachusetts Children's Book Award. Her YA novel Time Zero is the winner of the 2017 Readers Favorite Award and the 2017 International Book Award. She lives in Austin, Texas, where she is the founder of Girls With Pens, a creative writing organization dedicated to fostering the individual voices and offbeat imaginations of girls ages 8-14.
@timezerobook
#findtheleaf
Acknowledgments
I’m extremely happy to acknowledge all the young people who helped this book come to fruition: Helen Randle, Katie Simmons, Kaissa Doichev, Lucie Young, Evan Allbritton, Vivian Quinn, Pippa Sims, and Kailen Cohagan, .
I would also like to thank Amy Elliott, whose consistent feedback and availability kept me from pulling out my hair on many occasions. My appreciation also goes to Katherine Catmull, Elisa Todd Ellis, Josh Jackson, Emily Klein, Shelley Reece, Steve Schrader, Andrea Eames, Robert Toteras, Roberto Cipriano, Martin Skea, and Natalia Sylvester. Thank you to The Writing Barn for your peaceful and always productive writing space; and thanks to the brilliant ladies of LLL in Austin, who keep me inspired and even better, keep me laughing.
&n
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