“Jamie?” I pull up short, my arms hanging loosely by my side.
“What’s so important? We’ll get in trouble if they find us here after lights out.”
I glance around, but we’ve timed it well. The guards won’t start their final perimeter sweep for another fifteen minutes. I look back at Jamie. “We’re getting out of here. Tonight.”
He uncrosses his arms and steps backwards.
“But I like it here,” he says quietly.
“We can’t stay here. We need to get out before the Kreons use us as slaves.”
“I have enough food here, and I’ve made friends. I’m thinking of becoming a chef, for the compounds. I like cooking class the most.”
My heart sinks. “I know, Jamie. But they won’t keep you here forever, you know? After reeducation, they’ll take you somewhere to work for them. You won’t have a choice where you go.” I might never see you again.
“Like we had choices before.” Jamie’s voice is tinged with annoyance as he steps toward me. “There were no choices for me in the woods either. I couldn’t go anywhere or do anything I wanted. Same thing. Different warden.”
My mouth gapes open, and I feel like I’ve been hit hard in the chest.
He moves toward me, stepping into a strip of dim light from the moon above. His pupils are large and his eyelids are sagging, giving his sharp little face a disturbing detachment. I know what my brother’s angry face looks like, and this is not it. For the first time ever, I’m afraid of him.
***
Shit. I should’ve noticed it earlier. It’s like he’s wearing a mask I don’t recognize. I was so caught up in trying to get us both out of here, I lost sight of what was happening to Jamie. It was exactly as Tessa said. Give kids a milkshake and a purpose and they’ll happily die for your cause.
“It’ll be different from now on,” I say. “I promise. But right now, we have to leave.”
I grab his arm and pull him toward the fence. There’s a portion of it on this side, toward the forest, where it dips down into a natural gulley. The guards walk around it, so there’s a small section of the fence they don’t always have eyes on. I just need to turn off the electricity at the small transformer, and then cut through the metal. Once I have a hole big enough for Jamie and I to get through, we’ll make a run for the trees. Elan better be there to pick us up.
We duck into the gulley and I breathe a sigh of relief that nobody saw us. Then I reach into my pocket and pull out the screwdriver and the black box.
“Where did you get those?” Jamie’s eyes are wide.
“Class. I grabbed some fruit for us too.” I smile and look at him, but his expression is horrified.
“It was you,” he says. “You stole the tools. You’re one of them.” I reach for him but he yanks his arm away.
“Come on Jamie, you’ve known me your whole life. All I’m trying to do is keep us together, keep you safe. I’m doing what I have to, to survive, like I’ve always done.” My eyes fill with tears as I watch him back slowly away from me. Each step increases the space between us; a physical void I can almost feel.
Whatever, the drugs in his system should wear off in a few days and then he’ll be grateful I got him out of here. My heart races as I hear the metallic footsteps of sentinels coming toward us. He glares at me as the Kreon patrol comes clanking around the corner.
My whole body flushes cold. I look behind me at the fence and the long stretch of open ground I’ll have to cover before I get to the safety of the tree line.
“Stay out of sight. There’s something I need to do. I’ll be right back.”
When he doesn’t respond, I wait until the mech guards have passed and dart across the open field towards the gardens. I pull open the plastic flap of the greenhouse and make my way towards the raised platform. The sliding door is electric, and I don’t have enough clearance to open it. So I jam the screwdriver into the seam and pop open the panel. Then, using the screwdriver’s blade as a conductor, I fry the control panel until a thin wisp of smoke rises from the box. I pull the doors open manually, and grab the wire cutters I saw earlier from the table.
Back outside, I hear gunfire, but it’s coming from the front of the camp. I duck as I watch two mech guards hurry towards the entrance. This must be Elan’s distraction. Right on time. I just hope it lasts. I pause by the control panel a few yards from the fence, opening the lid with my screwdriver and flipping the large plastic switch. The lights on this section of the fence go out and I’m plunged in darkness.
I race back to the gully where I’ve left Jamie, and my heart stops when I see that it’s empty. I whisper my brother’s name loudly, but there’s no response. Then I see him. He’s running across the field back towards the dorms. I curse under my breath, glancing back at the fence. Elan’s distraction can’t last much longer, and I haven’t even started cutting the fence yet. But I don’t care. I’m not leaving without my brother.
I race after him, until a dark shape blocks my path. It’s one of the enforcers. I didn’t even see him in the darkness. He reaches for me, but I zap him in the neck with my makeshift battery. It’s not lethal, but it’s enough to surprise him. He swears as I duck under his arms and sprint across the grass.
But then I’m blinded, as bright spotlights erase everything. A siren starts wailing, the same siren we heard the other night. Fear freezes me in place, and I stumble to a stop in the middle of the field. When my vision clears, I can see my brother standing next to the general. With my pulse thundering in my ears, I can’t hear what Jamie is saying to him, but there’s no mistaking his intent when he lifts a finger and points directly at me.
“Jamie, no!” I yell. I want to push back time so I can do a better job of explaining to him why we need to leave. I want this to not be happening. Two mech guards stomp across the yard towards me. The general puts his hand on Jamie’s shoulder and pulls him back towards the building.
And then I’m being grabbed by metal pinchers, so tightly I think my bones will break. I feel like a moth being pinned down to a piece of velvet. Immobile, but on full display. The soldier I zapped before sneers at me, before punching me once in the nose. My head snaps back, into the mech’s metal arm, and pain blossoms from both sides of my head.
My vision blurs, but not before I find Jamie in the shadows, leaning back against the building. I feel angry tears well up in my eyes as he watches me being carried between the sentinels, my feet inches from the ground. It’s almost ironic, and I choke on a laugh that bubbles up in my throat, tasting blood from my nose. I never wanted to join New Terra, and now my own brother has turned me in for being a terrorist. My desire to protect him dissolves into fear for my own safety as the metal claws dig into my skin. Kids stream out of the dorm to see what’s going on. I see Tessa shove her way through the crowd. Shame burns through my body as I’m dragged past them. I wonder if they’ll take my arm, like Gage, or something else? Morbidly, I wonder which limb or appendage I would choose to live without. I look up at Tessa, who is standing next to Jamie, crying. I mouth to her ‘I’m sorry.’
“Everyone back to their rooms. We have a Protocol 71. Everyone back to their rooms!” Shouts one of the guards ahead of us as he addresses the gathering crowd.
My skin flushes. I expect them to take me to the center of the compound, to make a display of my disobedience, but they’re pushing me along the building towards the front entrance instead.
Tessa moves ahead, waiting for me by the gate. As we get closer I ask her quickly, “What is Protocol 71?” The guards have allowed me to walk on my own now, although they still have their pinchers in me.
“The mines, Lila. They’re taking you to the mines.” She puts her hand over her mouth and a tear drips down her freckled cheek.
I strain my neck to look behind me. Jamie is still standing there, not far from Tessa, his hands clenched tightly to his sides. But he’s not crying. His large pupils are lost in the darkness as I’m dragged fart
her and farther away from him.
TEN
I’M SHOVED ROUGHLY UP AGAINST an armored vehicle near the gate. One of the enforcers pats me down and finds the tools and fruit I had stashed in my clothes. His hands linger a little too long below my waist, and I jerk away from him. He smirks, then shoves me into the van.
I turn to look back toward the dorm as we pull away from the gate. Most of the kids are still watching me, but their faces are lost as the vehicle zooms forward, spitting up a cloud of dust. All I wanted was to be free and safe, to protect the last remaining member of my family. Now even my own brother thinks I’m a terrorist.
Anger heats my body from head to toe. I’ve been given a lifetime sentence in the mines, with no trial. I want to find someone in authority and plead for justice, but I know it wouldn’t matter. I stole tools. I attacked a guard. I tried to escape. And even if I wasn’t actually part of the resistance, I’d made contacts with the New Terra organization, and I was smuggling intel.
The flash disk! I reach into my pocket and feel the small square shape of the portable flash drive Tessa gave me, still taped inside my pants, just below my hip. They didn’t search me carefully enough. It’s dangerous, having it on me. My first instinct is to drop it to the ground and bury it as soon as the guards open the doors and let me out of the vehicle. What will they do if they find it on me? Keep me for questioning? Torture me? On the other hand, what if it really is valuable information that can give New Terra an edge against the Kreons? I was already going to spend the rest of my life underground; what more could they do to me?
I decide to keep the chip for now. I know it’s pointless, since I won’t have the chance to get it back to Elan, but after everything I’ve been through, I don’t want to just throw it away either. The back of my head and nose are throbbing, and my hands are shaking, but I’m still in one piece. They didn’t even tie me up. I need to stay alert, in case there’s a chance to escape.
Through the window, I look up at the Kreon ship high above the compound. It gleams with colored lights in the dark, hovering in the sky above the human settlement. The lights of the compound twinkle in response as my view is broken by the treeline. If I unfocus my eyes, the ship nearly disappears against the starry background. I can almost pretend it isn’t there at all, and the sky is full of promise and wonder.
I finally understand why the revolutionists do the things they do. Even our own family can be turned against us. Before, when I had something to lose, I didn’t want to risk my small slice of freedom for a reckless and doomed fight against the alien invaders who took our planet. But now, what wouldn’t I risk to save my brother. I hated the Kreons, and I hated their blank-eyed human servants even more.
We drive for another hour at least, over the cracked remains of an old highway, then turn off on a bumpy dirt road. My pulse spikes, as I prepare for the doors to open, but it’s not our final stop. My eyes widen as I see a group of prisoners, mostly men and a few boys my age, near at least six mech guards. Before I can even think about running, they’re shoved forwards into the van. I scoot backwards until the vehicle is full, and then stuffed with even more people. The prisoners stand or try to find a seat on the floor. All of them look like they’ve been beaten; a few of the young ones are in dirty yellow uniforms. They must have failed attempts at reeducation, like me, but I don’t recognize them. The others are in threadbare clothing. Probably revolutionist members caught in one of the human roundups. Or homesteaders, trying to live free beyond Kreon rule. Elan said they’ve begun stepping up the patrols and seizing more human workers. I wonder if, even if Jamie hadn’t run away, I would have ended up in this van, heading for the mines.
I hang onto whatever I can as the van bounces forward again. One of the older men gives me a sad smile when our eyes meet, but I look away. On the other side of the van is a younger boy with dark, shaggy hair and bright blue eyes. He looks as angry and defiant as I feel, and my heart aches for us both. To be so young and so full of rage. His gaze is like a mirror, and the emotions simmering inside me come bubbling to the surface. I stare out the window as my eyes brim with tears, gazing out at the unfamiliar landscape. I’ve never been this far from home before. The vehicle enters the forest, the bumpy road jarring my bones, and as we’re swallowed up by the trees I feel a rising panic. With no landmarks, for the first time ever I’m not sure where I am, or even which direction I would need to go to get back to the compound, or to find my family’s cabin again.
But then, the gleaming leg of the ship looms above the trees, and I breathe a sigh of relief. I know exactly where we are. With skies opaque from the refinery smoke, we’ve learned to gauge our direction by the Kreon vessel, which has never moved since it landed years ago.
I laugh darkly to myself as my eyes follow the metal leg up to the main body of the ship. It’s been there my entire life, an immobile fixture of the landscape, like the mountains on the horizon. And even though the Kreon presence make us live in fear, hiding in the forests, the massive alien vessel has been our compass. Everything I’ve ever known has been experienced in relation to this oppressive construction.
As we get closer, I can see more of the city. I’ve never been this close, but my father pointed it out from a distance a few years ago, when we stopped to scavenge at the old dump. Now there’s not much left. I don’t even remember its name.
It’s only been three decades since the Kreon invasion, but without maintenance, the vast human settlements, which had seemed to cover nearly every square inch of the planet, were already falling into disrepair. Jagged structures tower above us, the remains of skyscrapers that were damaged during the war. I gaze up at the wreckage of tilted buildings and broken concrete. Gnarled roots and weeds grow through the cracks, like restraints tearing down the concrete hubris of humanity.
The bumpy dirt road turns smooth as we reach the edge of the Kreon development. Everything on this side of the river has been razed flat. Large areas have been cleared away, replaced by metallic buildings with rounded edges that look like giant monoliths. Clumps of them are grouped together in sets of five or seven. The empty structures look both technologically advanced, and somehow organic at the same time, like beehives. The smooth surfaces gleam in the moonlight.
My throat tightens as I wonder how many Kreons are coming, and what our alien masters actually look like. My father always thought they’d go away eventually, after they got what they came for, but these structures seem permanent.
I strain to look upward through the tiny window, shivering as I watch transport vessels coming and going between the belly of the alien ship and the new settlement. Then our van veers to the right sharply and I smack my face against the metal window frame. Rubbing my cheek, I watch as we drive into a wide paved area, not far from the strange Kreon buildings. As our van straightens out, I realize it’s a landing strip. Several gleaming vessels and one large spacecraft sit quiet and dark, dwarfing our vehicle. I stiffen, and my blood runs cold. Where are they taking us?
I turn and look at the other prisoners. Most are wearing defeated expressions and seem weary. They’re not even watching out the windows. I see a flash of blue as the man next to me folds his hands in his lap, and I realize he’s got a row of multi-colored rings trailing up the dark skin of his forearm. What’s a blue doing here, in this van full of traitors and rebels? He straightens as our van comes to a stop, but I can see the look of fear in his eyes. Whatever we’re doing here, this isn’t standard procedure.
I listen as metallic footsteps tread to the back of the van, just before two sentinels swing open the doors. Nobody moves, until they raise their weapons.
“Everyone out,” one of them says, waving with his free hand.
My legs are asleep from the long ride, and I stumble out of the van. The blue catches my arm, but lets go when I glare at him. We stand in a crooked line next to the van, on some kind of dark rubber material that makes up the tarmac. I shiver as a cold wind blows across the flat expanse, dev
oid of vegetation. We’ve stopped in front of the largest of the Kreon vessels. My heart races as I look up at it. I’ve never been this close to one of the transport vehicles before. Only drones pass above the valley.
I glance down the line at the other prisoners, and then up at the smooth underbelly of the main ship far above. From this angle it completely blocks out the sky. Fear grips me like ice in my veins. Are they taking us off world?
“I thought we were going to the mines,” I whisper.
“So did I,” says the man next to me.
“Quiet!” one of the sentinels shouts. The man jerks forward as the guard hits him with the butt of his weapon, and I can see a trickle of blood in the dim light.
“Straighten up,” the other mech guard orders. I stand as straight as I can, my chin up, my shoulders back, just as we were taught at the compound. But it’s not obedience, it’s defiance. If we’re about to be shot, I want to see it coming. Not that it’ll make much difference. I wait for the guards to raise their weapons, but they pivot in lockstep and face the ship with their backs to us.
In the silence, I can hear the rushing of water. There’s a cement wall on the other side of the ship, and I realize it’s marking the edge of the river. It was only a few hundred feet away. If I ran, I might be able to jump into the water and be swept up in the current before the guards have time to react. Or, more likely, I’ll get tazed in the back.
A seam of pure light tears open the smooth metal exterior of the shuttle, and a moment later, there’s a door and stairs that seem to be floating in midair. I’m so startled, I almost trip out of line. My jaw clenches as a wall of energy emerges several yards between us and the ship, and something starts to take shape.
***
Three forms drift out of the white wall, descending until they’re level with the ground. They’re smaller than the mech guards, but slightly larger than humans, with long, thin limbs. I wait for them to solidify, but they never do. They’re fuzzy, blue outlines of roughly humanoid shapes. I stare, fascinated.
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