The door to the room opened, and a Samuel came in pushing a metal cart. He peered at Jack with a mixture of confusion and suspicion. It was the Samuel from the Tunnels, Samuel-297. A bandage on his forehead covered the wound he’d suffered in the explosion. Jack watched for the Viktors to enter as well, but they didn’t appear. It was just the Samuel. Jack remained still, but inside he was alert and calculating.
The doctor continued to eye Jack as he readied a needle.
“What’s that for?” Jack asked.
The man’s fingers fumbled with the syringe. The skin around his nails was torn and raw.
“I’m taking a blood sample.”
“The hell you are.”
The Samuel didn’t pause in his task. “Take a seat.” He indicated a chair next to the bed. When Jack didn’t move, he said, “If you’d rather, I can bring the Viktors in. They’d be happy to hold you down.”
Jack glared at the man, but moved from the floor to the chair and held out his arm. He needed to find Althea, and this was the best opportunity he’d gotten to fight his way out. He couldn’t afford to have the Viktors showing up.
The needle punctured his skin, and the Samuel attached a tube to the syringe. Jack watched his blood stream into it.
“Samuel-299 said we needed new DNA to fill in the weaknesses of ours. With the Sample Room gone, yours is all we have now.”
The vial filled. The Samuel plugged the cap and attached another tube.
“Tell me where Althea is,” Jack said.
The man frowned uncertainly.
“Althea-310,” Jack clarified.
“Ah. I don’t know. Gone, I think.”
Jack grasped the Samuel’s lab coat, and the needle twisted sickeningly in his arm as he wrenched the man toward him.
“What do you mean, gone?”
“Calm down, Jack,” the man said. “You’ll have an attack.”
Jack dropped his hold on the coat. He slumped back in the chair, feeling as if he’d been punched in the gut. It wasn’t only that the man’s voice was familiar, or even the words, which Jack must have heard a thousand times before. There was something in the man’s expression, too. Jack shook his head. It didn’t mean anything. He was just missing Sam.
“I suggest you hold still now.” Samuel-297 detached the second full vial and connected a third.
Jack could barely shape the words. “Was there a Binding Ceremony? For Althea-310?”
“There have been a lot of Binding Ceremonies in the past couple days.”
“If anyone hurt her—”
“We’re almost done here,” Samuel said brusquely. “You’ll know more soon enough.”
“Why? What do you mean?”
The man glanced up, considering Jack. “You must know the Council can’t let you leave.”
“So what, they’ll lock me in a cage? Like Jonah in Copan?”
“Probably.”
“It’s not what Sam wanted.”
Samuel-297 capped the last tube and meticulously collected all three from the metal tray. “Samuel-299 wanted to die, and in the process, he released chaos on us. That’s what this is, you realize. Chaos. The Council is split; brothers and sisters are divided. There’ve been more fractures in the past two days than in the past ten years. We’re falling apart.”
“I won’t let them keep me. They can try, but I’ll escape.”
“I know,” the man said.
He slid the tubes of blood into the pocket of his lab coat. They clinked together, the noise muffled by the fabric of the coat. His gaze rested for a long moment on Jack before he turned his back and wordlessly left, leaving the door behind him unlocked and swinging wide on its hinges.
It took only a second for Jack to get over his shock at the Samuel letting him go. He cautiously entered the hallway and edged down its length, still prepared to fight his way out, but every clone he saw was a Samuel, and they all turned their backs when they sighted him, suddenly focused on whatever task they had in hand.
He’d barely taken a breath of fresh air outside when a hand slipped into his and pulled him into a cluster of bushes. Thinking it was Althea, a tight coil inside him released.
“You—”
A finger pressed to his lips, and a Gen-310 Nyla’s deep brown eyes held his.
“Hush,” she said.
“Nyla,” Jack whispered, “where’s Althea? Is she okay?”
“We have to hurry,” she said, exasperated. “Keep up.”
Nyla peered through the branches. There was no one on the lawn in front of the clinic, and Remembrance Hall was dark. The sun was all the way down, but the last rays lingered over the spire of the building and the stained glass glowed in the fading light. Nyla’s fingers were still twined with his, and crouching low, they ran across the stretch of grass. Remembrance Hall was to their right, but they went straight on until they were covered in the broad branches of the banana grove. They paused behind an enclosure of trees a few yards off the path.
“If we stay away from open spaces we should be okay. The Viktors don’t know we left yet, but there are still patrols out searching for Jonah.”
“Nyla, please,” Jack said, pulling his hand from hers. “I’m not leaving without Althea.”
Nyla rolled her eyes. “I’m taking you to her, okay? It’s too risky for her to come back over the wall. The Binding is tomorrow morning. That’s why we have to leave now.”
“We?”
“What, you don’t want me to come?”
The bark and leaves crunched under their feet.
“Nyla, I—”
“Nyla-313,” she corrected.
Jack stammered. “Okay. It’s not . . . I mean, if you want . . .” He stopped, realizing she was laughing at him. He sighed. “You can do what you want.”
“I know.”
A sound came from behind a fallen log up ahead, and they paused, still hidden by the evening light and the darkness of the grove. Moonlight mottled the path in lacy patterns.
“It’s nothing,” Jack said. “An animal. Let’s go.”
“Wait.” Nyla took his hand again, stilling his movement forward.
The sounds of the jungle surrounded them—chirping frogs, monkeys, the electric hum of a million insects. Jack didn’t pull away again, but looked down at their fingers wrapped together. She followed his gaze and then let go.
“You’re very strange,” she said.
“Okay.”
He and Nyla climbed the wall. From the top, Jack looked back at the town. It was mostly covered in darkness, though lights still twinkled throughout the leaves of the kapok tree in the Commons, and a few windows in the far-off dorms were lit. He thought perhaps this was the last time he’d be within the walls of Vispera and the last time he’d see the town spread before him or Blue River coursing past the iron gate.
He heard Althea call his name before he saw her. They’d walked only a few more minutes to reach the cottage when Althea was in his arms, her feet lifted of the ground, her face pressed into his neck. For the first time since he’d escaped the clinic, he exhaled a long, slow breath.
Althea leaned away and held his face in her hands, inspecting him, making sure he’d made it out of the clinic with no new injuries. When she was satisfied, she rose onto her toes, her hands flat against his chest. She leaned close, and they kissed. He smiled against her lips, drifting into her nearness.
Nyla cleared her throat. Jack pulled away, but Althea stopped him from getting too far.
“Let’s go, Althea,” Nyla said. “We don’t have much time before they figure out what’s happening.”
“I know,” Althea answered. “We’ll be right there.”
Nyla nodded to Jack with a grin.
Jack gave a short nod in reply. Once the Nyla had disappeared into the trees, he turned to Althea.
“I was afraid the Samuels wouldn’t go through with it,” she said.
“Why did they? The Samuels have never liked me.”
Althea led him
into the trees, following Nyla. She talked while the last glimpse of the white cottage was covered by dense jungle.
“Samuel-299 communed in the Tunnels. Somehow he did it with everyone at once, but his brothers felt it most strongly. I’ve never experienced anything like it. So they know how he felt about you.” Althea stopped, and her eyes met his. He wanted to look down but couldn’t. “Jack, Sam loved you.”
“I know,” Jack said. And he did know, even if he hadn’t always believed it.
Althea watched him from the corner of her eye. She watched him in that way she had, like she was trying and failing to read his mind. She missed communing, and he would never be able to give that to her. Once they left Vispera, they’d be gone forever. Would he be enough for her?
“What happens when we leave, Althea? It won’t be easy.”
“It’ll be okay,” Althea said, squeezing his hand. “We won’t be alone.”
They’d come upon a clearing. In the middle of it were a couple of wagons filled with supplies, and four mules to pull them. A group of clones clustered together nearby. They all looked up as Althea and Jack arrived. Jack took them in, too stunned to grasp what it meant.
“They’re coming with us too? How did this happen?”
“I told you, Samuel communed with everyone. When he said you should go, leave Vispera, he wasn’t just saying it to you.” She gestured to the small group. “They’re the ones who listened.”
They walked through the night, getting as much distance between themselves and Vispera as possible. The clones in town would be confused and disorganized for a little while yet, but once they realized that Jack and so many others were gone, they’d come after them.
While they traveled, the clones seemed to keep their distance from Jack. It was a bigger group than Jack could have imagined. It’d never occurred to him that others would want to leave. Everyone was so happy in Vispera. They belonged. They had what he used to always want, why would they give that up?
There were almost fifty of them, divided among the generations and models. Three Gen-290 Samuels had come. They avoided meeting his eyes as much as possible, remaining wary and watchful. Even knowing Sam’s feeling, it’d be a while before they had any idea how to act around Jack, and there was nothing he could do to help. The loss of Sam was too recent, and their faces too familiar.
There were Meis, Ingas, some of the older Hassans, four of the Gen-310 Nylas, some Kates, even Viktors.
After walking all night and a day, they stopped to set up camp and cook food. Jack wanted to go farther, but the clones were scared now that they were miles from the safe walls of Vispera, and anyway, they couldn’t keep pace with him. He tried not to get frustrated.
“I thought it would just be us,” he said to Althea. “I don’t even know where we’re going.”
“Don’t worry,” she said. “I have some ideas.”
A Nyla seized Althea by the arm.
“Come on,” the girl said. “Help us organize our dresses in the wagon.”
Jack scanned the crowd. There were too many Nylas to keep track of. And exactly how many dresses did they think they’d need? None of them had any idea what they were getting into.
In their first real moment of rest, he had a lot to absorb. Jack turned away from the two girls, needing to comprehend what was happening. He started searching through the wagons, realizing how well organized they were. Occasionally someone came over and murmured a soft hello, or simply nodded to him, or even sometimes clapped him on the back. It was beginning to sink in that they really had left their home to go with him. He’d been an outcast for as long as he could remember, and now they were all following him to God knew where.
He climbed into a wagon and was pleased to find many of his books there, stored with his guitar and clothes. He was still poking through the boxes of supplies when Althea came up behind him. He turned toward her with a smile, and then he saw Carson-312.
“No,” he said between clenched teeth. The Samuels and Nylas were one thing, but this? “No way. I don’t want any of the Carsons. Especially not him.”
“Forget it,” Carson said to Althea. “You think I want to deal with him either?”
Carson stalked away, leaving Althea calling after him, but he wouldn’t come back. From the thin purse of her lips, Jack could tell she was suppressing irritation.
“Believe me, I get why you wouldn’t want him here,” she said. “But Carson has no place in Vispera anymore. I think it’s been a long time since he felt as though he did.”
“I don’t care. He’s going back.” They’d ambushed him, waiting until they were a full day’s distance before telling him.
“The people who came with us, they’ve left their homes, their sisters and brothers. Some of them have fractured. I don’t even think all of them know it yet. You don’t understand fracturing, but you must know what it feels like to lose everything. You lost Sam, and your brother.”
“It’s not the same,” Jack said.
“It’s not the same, but it connects you to them. They’re scared and alone. Some of them have never been in a different room from their siblings, and now they’re sleeping on the ground in the jungle, far from everything they’ve ever known. They feel like their hearts are being ripped out. That doesn’t sound familiar to you? I know everyone here is looking at you like you’re in charge, but you’re not. It’s not up to you who leaves and who stays. What is up to you is whether you help these people or not. That includes Carson.”
“He could have killed me.”
“He didn’t.”
“He would have.”
“But he didn’t. He knows what he did was wrong, and that’s something. He helped me escape Vispera before the Binding Ceremony.”
She eyed him crookedly, waiting to see what he’d say. Carson hadn’t gone far. He leaned against a tree, kicking his feet in the dry dirt. It looked like none of his brothers had come.
The air was still, and the heat of the morning had settled into a mild warmth that lingered in the slow-moving clouds. It’d been a good day for traveling, and Jack was feeling safer with each mile they covered. Not all their days would be like this. It was going to be difficult, and Jack had no idea how he was going to manage it, especially now that there were so many of them. Althea might not think he was in charge, but they were all watching him. They were looking at him to lead them. They’d need food, they’d need rest and sleep. The entire Gen-230 Altheas were spreading woven blankets on the ground around the camp. They moved slowly but good-naturedly, maybe because they were the only generation that had left together as a fully intact group. But they were ninety-seven years old. Would he be able to get them over the mountains safely? Could they handle the changing temperatures and rough ground? Could the clones even build a fire? They grew half their food in labs. They seemed so delicate sometimes. How would they survive?
Jack went to the tree where Carson stood with folded arms, grimacing at the activity surrounding him.
They were two feet apart, though neither of them spoke until Jack finally said, “Why do you want to come anyway?”
Carson shrugged, irritated at having to answer questions from Jack. “I don’t know. I don’t feel like I fit anymore.”
“I guess now you know what it feels like.”
Carson shrugged again, and in the other boy’s silence Jack understood that Carson had always known what it felt like not to belong. It was probably why he’d hated Jack so much.
“It’ll be hard,” Jack said. “Everyone’s going to have to work together and help. I won’t let you order anyone around.”
“I know,” Carson said.
Jack grudgingly held out his hand, and Carson shook it. Althea watched them from across the camp, a Nyla by her side.
“I’m keeping my eye on you,” Jack said as Carson gave his hand a terse shake, his grip slightly too hard.
“You too, monkey-boy,” Carson answered.
Their hands fell away and they looked at each other
for a long moment, neither smiling. Althea’s optimism aside, Jack figured that was the best they were going to manage today.
Jack went to Althea and pulled her away from the crowd so they were hidden. He drew her close and kissed her.
“Hi, Jack,” a Nyla said cheerfully as she walked right past them, even hidden as they were. It was a different Nyla from before, he guessed, but he couldn’t tell. Maybe someday he’d get them all straight.
“They keep doing that,” he said to Althea. “Saying hello to me.”
“They’re being friendly.”
“That’s fine,” he said. “But you know I’m yours, right? Only yours. Do you understand?”
Althea gave him a small, pleased smile. “I think so,” she said.
After the second day, thirteen of the clones who’d left with them turned around again, returning to Vispera. On the third day, they lost four more. By the fifth day, the remaining clones weren’t clinging to each other so desperately, and the crying Jack heard during the night had dissolved into occasional soft sobs.
They crossed the mountains, finding the store of things Jonah had left for himself along with the boat. Jack looked for some sign that Jonah had come back to this place, but found none. He considered Jonah might have collected his supplies intending Jack to find them. The thought was comforting. It told him that, wherever Jonah was, he’d be okay.
In her search, Althea uncovered a package of inhalers tossed in with other medical equipment, and Jack tucked it in his bag. Jonah had brought the inhalers to this place with the hope that they’d be together. Jack held one of the slim gray tubes, realizing it was a gift from his brother. He wondered how long they’d last. He wouldn’t be able to get more.
The boat was too small for everyone, so they took what they could from the stockpile and waded across the river on foot, the mules pulling the wagons against the current. After a lifetime of questioning, Jack finally saw what was beyond the Novomundo Mountains, and his heart sank when it turned out to be more mountains. Althea seemed to know where they were going, however. She told him about a place called Merida. She said there might be others there, and whether she was right or not, it was a relief to have a place to go, a destination to aim at.
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