Division

by Denise Kawaii

  62 was puzzled. Something that Parker had told him hurtled to the front of his mind. He thought about the time he visited Hanford’s nursery. The whole town kept their babies and small children locked inside the nursery to keep them from accidentally contacting the dust outside. “You don’t need the Oosa to make babies anymore,” he urged. “Parker told us you can have kids with Men from Adaline. Plus, he said Adaline babies don’t get sick as easy.”

  “Long-held prejudices are hard to break. When I mentioned to one of my friends that I wanted to have a child with Parker, suddenly the whole town was against me. Coupling with a below-grounder is looked down on.” Sunny said in a whisper, “Clones aren’t entirely human, are they?”

  “But everyone who lived in Curie was a clone. It’s exactly the same thing!” 00 shouted.

  Sunny shrugged her shoulders. “I know. We haven’t forgotten that. But most of us think we’re better than clones because now we have Oosa blood in us. It seemed better when we were children. More of us stayed alive then. The sickness didn’t overwhelm the children as quickly as it does now.”

  “So then, all of this is the Oosa’s fault!” 62 exclaimed. “They’re the ones who make Hanford’s kids sick. They’re the ones who started dying first. And they’re giving Girls like Mattie the same disease!”

  “If it weren’t for the Oosa, Girls like Mattie wouldn’t be alive at all,” Sunny urged. “I came from a cloned mother. If the Oosa hadn’t taken my mother, and others like her, they would have been the last generation of Women. Before people started bringing Men from Adaline, there were no males to father children. I wouldn’t exist. Do you understand?”

  “No,” 62 said. “I don’t understand. Maybe your mother didn’t have a choice. But now Hanford knows about Adaline, and knows there are people there who need to be saved. Adaline’s Men could keep going to Hanford, the way Blue, 00, and I did. If you would’ve had a baby with Parker instead of going to the Oosa, they wouldn’t have hurt you. You’d be exactly how you were before the Oosa did tests on you. Maybe you’d be living in the nursery with your kid right now. And, you wouldn’t have almost died.”

  Tears filled Sunny’s eyes. She rocked back and forth in her chair, lips trembling. She let loose a sob that made 62 gasp. As he watched her crumble into a thousand tears, 62 was filled with shame for what he’d said. He was frustrated, but he hadn’t meant to hurt her. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. He reached out to take Sunny’s hand, but she drew it back violently.

  “Don’t touch me,” she said with a growl. Sunny got up from her chair and left the room, slamming the door on her way out.

  “I didn’t mean to say all that,” 62 said to 00. “It just doesn’t make any sense. Why she’d go with them when she had Parker?”

  “It’s like she said,” 00 answered. “Most of the Women think we’re not good enough. She might have thought that too.”

  “Well they’re wrong about us,” 62 mumbled.

  “Whether they’re wrong or not, you shouldn’t have made Sunny cry.”

  N302 made its speaker ding for attention. The Boys turned to the screen.

  N302> FEELINGS ARE IRRELEVANT. BOY 1124562 IS CORRECT. THE OOSA DIRECTIVE MUST BE STOPPED. ADALINE RETRIEVAL IS THE ANSWER.

  “Well, what are we supposed to do about it?” 62 demanded. “We’re just a couple of kids, and you’re a bot in a box with no legs. I don’t think anybody out there gives a hoot what we think about any of it.”

  N302> I HAVE NOT ENCOUNTERED THIS PROBLEM PREVIOUSLY. I WILL NEED TIME TO PROCESS THIS DATA.

  “You do that,” 00 said in an aggravated tone. “In the meantime, 62, you’d better apologize to Sunny. Again.”

  CHAPTER 41

  The radio alarm rang through the building early the next day. 62, 00, and Sunny all rushed to their makeshift radio room, ready to talk to Parker and Blue again. When they arrived, they were surprised to find a message on N302’s screen.

  N302> I WOULD LIKE TO SPEAK WITH SUNNY, PLEASE.

  U> We’re here. You can turn off the alarm.

  N302> ALARM DEACTIVATED. I WOULD LIKE TO SPEAK WITH SUNNY, PLEASE.

  The ringing of the alarms halted and 62 picked up the radio. He turned the volume up, but there were no voices on the line. Instead, a strange burst of electronic sounds streamed out of the speaker. Whirring, hissing, and screaming on the line.

  “What is that?” 62 asked.

  N302> INTERFERENCE IN TRANSMISSION. UNABLE TO PROCESS DATA PACK. PLEASE TURN DOWN RADIO VOLUME.

  62 frowned as he turned the volume down until the intermittent screech and click of the signal disappeared. He leaned into the microphone. “N302, what’s that noise on the radio?”

  N302> DATA TRANSMISSION TO TERMINAL TWO. I WOULD LIKE TO SPEAK WITH SUNNY, PLEASE.

  “I’m here,” Sunny said, looking troubled. “Is something wrong?”

  N302> PLEASE STATE YOUR NAME.

  “This is Sunny,” she said. “Don’t you remember me? I’m the Woman from Hanford.”

  N302> THANK YOU FOR CONFIRMING IDENTITY. WILL YOU RETURN TO HANFORD?

  “N302, we’ve been through this. I can’t go back. It’s too much.”

  N302> MY ANALYSIS SHOWS YOU MUST RETURN TO HANFORD TO INCITE CHANGE. FOR CURIE DESCENDENTS TO CONTINUE LIFE, YOUR DATA MUST BE SHARED.

  “I can’t.”

  The computer’s cursor flashed thoughtfully. There was a long pause before another message scrolled across the screen.

  N302> PERHAPS MY DATA IS INCOMPLETE. PLEASE RE-INPUT DATA FOR ANALYSIS.

  00 shook his head. “N302, you know why she won’t go back. We’ve been over this.”

  N302> DATA IS INCOMPLETE. PLEASE RE-INPUT DATA FOR ANALYSIS.

  62 scrunched his forehead in confusion. He looked at 00. “What’s it doing?”

  “Analyzing data, apparently.”

  Sunny moved to the keyboard. “I’ve already typed everything I had to say, but I suppose there’s no reason not to do it again if you think your bot can do something with it.” She clacked the keys, but the cursor on the screen didn’t move. Nothing appeared on the screen as she typed. Not a single letter transmitted to the monitor.

  N302> MANUAL ENTRY DISABLED. INPUT DATA VIA AUDIO DEVICE.

  “Manual entry disabled?” 00 gestured for Sunny to move aside. He attempted to enter a few command codes, but nothing happened. His frown deepened, and he squinted at the Machine. “N302, what’s going on? Why can’t we use the keyboard?”

  N302> MANUAL ENTRY DISABLED DURING DATA TRANSMISSION. I WOULD LIKE TO SPEAK WITH SUNNY, PLEASE.

  00 threw his hands in the air. “Stupid bot! Let us use the keyboard. I’ll reboot you, if I have to.”

  N302> REBOOT UNNECESSARY. ALL FUNCTIONS OPERATIONAL. I WOULD LIKE TO SPEAK WITH SUNNY, PLEASE.

  “All systems are not operational! The dang keyboard doesn’t work!” 00 smacked the side of the Machine.

  Sunny touched 00’s shoulder. “It’s okay, 00. I’ll talk to it.”

  62 shook his head. “But you don’t like the microphone. Maybe if 00 resets it, it’ll stop doing whatever it’s doing.”

  N302> SYSTEM LOCKED. REBOOT UNNECESSARY. ALL FUNCTIONS OPERATIONAL. I WOULD LIKE TO SPEAK WITH SUNNY, PLEASE.

  “Rotten dustbucket! You’re stuck in a loop, you pile of junk.” 00 smacked the computer box again.

  62 turned the radio volume up again, checking the signal. The whistling and gurgles of electronic data filled the channel. When he switched to a new channel, the speaker was filled with static. “It’s mucking up the station. If we don’t figure out how to get it to stop, Parker won’t be able to reach us. We could switch channels. How long do you think it would take for him to figure out what we’d done and find the new channel?”

  As 62 asked the question, the signal creaked and crackled. The squeal from the computer filled the speakers again.

  “Oh, great,” 00 said. “It’s just moving its signal to new lines, now?”

  N302> I WOULD LIKE TO SPEAK WITH SUNNY,
PLEASE.

  00 rose from the table in a fury, knocking over his chair. He shouted at the computer, “You’re blocking the radio!”

  N302> STANDARD TRANSMISSION WILL RESUME ONCE DATA TRANSMISSION IS COMPLETE.

  “I don’t know what it’s doing,” Sunny said. “But it sounds like it’ll stop if I do what it’s asking.”

  “But it shouldn’t be telling you what to do. This isn’t Adaline.” 00 was red in the face.

  62 had never seen 00 so angry, especially at the Machine. It was as if the care 00 had tended to with the bot had dissolved in an instant. No longer was it a simple gadget that had been saved from a pile of wreckage. Now, it was a demanding Machine. It was pushing them to its will, like every other bot in Adaline had.

  “Well, what do you want to do?” 62 asked his friends.

  “I’ll talk to it,” Sunny said.

  “We’ll give you some space,” 62 replied. He moved to the corner of the room, where 00 stood seething. He touched his angry friend gently on the elbow. “Come on, let’s get something to eat. We’ll see if Sunny can get N302 figured out, and if not we can always reboot it later.”

  “Fine,” 00 said. He spat the word, narrowed eyes glaring at the computer’s screen. Although he looked ready to explode, he followed 62 out of the room.

  62 paused in the hallway, putting his finger to his lips when 00 made an annoyed grunt. 62 leaned toward the doorway, listening.

  “I volunteered to go to the Oosa. When they were done with me, I came here,” Sunny said aloud. There was a pause, and then her voice changed. Befuddled she said, “From the very beginning? Including my name? All right… My name is Sunny. I’m from Hanford. When the Oosa came, I volunteered to go with them, to receive a child to bring back to Hanford.”

  62 frowned. He didn’t know what the bot was up to, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it until Sunny told her story. His stomach growled, and that was something he could attend to. “Let’s go,” he said with a nod to 00.

  “I don’t want any more of that corn grit stuff,” 00 snarled.

  “I thought it was your favorite?” 62 asked with a wink.

  “It’s about as good as it looks, and it looks like something someone else already ate.”

  62 laughed. 00’s angry glare cracked, the corner of his lips turning up into a grin.

  CHAPTER 42

  It took most of the morning for Sunny to relate her story to the bot. She’d powered through, answering all of N302’s questions, even through bouts of tears. When she emerged from her storytelling, she was worn and weary. She found 62 sitting in his bedroom, reading one of the books Mattie had sent with Dr. Rain during her last visit. He looked up from Bridge to Terabithia when she entered and moved over on the bed so she could sit down beside him.

  “I did it,” she sighed. “I told it the whole story.”

  “What’s it doing now?” 62 asked.

  “I’m not sure. I double-checked that the radio got turned back to the channel we’ve been using to talk to Parker, but it’s still making those strange sounds.”

  “Did N302 say anything to you about it?”

  “It keeps repeating, ‘data transmission in progress.’ What data could it be sending?”

  62 lifted his shoulders. “I don’t know. There’s nowhere for it to send data to, except for Terminal Two. And that computer’s about as dumb as a box of rocks when it’s not hooked up to N302 through the data port.”

  “Let’s find 00 and have him take a look at it,” Sunny suggested.

  They combed the halls, finally finding 00 down in the greenhouse. He was sitting cross-legged on the ground, elbows on his knees and chin resting in his hands. He stared intently at the chicken coop.

  “What’re you doing?” 62 asked.

  “Waiting for eggs,” 00 said in a listless tone. “How long will it be until we can start eating them again?”

  Sunny chuckled. “She’s got a couple in there that she’s trying to hatch. Once the chicks are up and out, new eggs will be fair game.”

  “How long will that take?” 00 complained with a groan.

  “Well, the new chicks should hatch in about three weeks. But then they’ve got to grow up a bit before she’ll start laying again. It shouldn’t be more than a couple of months at the most.”

  “A couple of months?” 00 shook his head and pushed himself up from the ground. “Well, I’m not going to sit here and wait that long. How’d it go with the bot?”

  “I answered its questions,” Sunny answered with a shrug.

  “And?”

  “It’s doing something,” she said, “but I’m not sure what.”

  The trio climbed back to the room where the computer was sitting, quiet and stoic. 00 picked up the radio and turned up the volume. The line was quiet. A whisper of interference crossed over the channel for a moment, then dropped back to silence.

  62 looked over at the computer’s screen. N302’s cursor blinked calmly on the blank glass. It had erased all evidence of its demands from earlier in the day. He sat down in the chair in front of the keyboard and began typing. He was surprised to see his words scrolling across the screen.

  U> Hello. 1124562 here. Are you okay?

  N302> YES. THANK YOU FOR YOUR EXPRESSION OF CONCERN. ALL SYSTEMS ARE OPERATIONAL.

  “The keyboard works!” 00 shouted, pumping a fist in the air.

  N302> AFFIRMATIVE. MANUAL ENTRY HAS BEEN REINSTATED FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE.

  00 leaned over the microphone. He crossed his arms and spoke in a more authoritative tone than he’d ever used before. “So, now that you’ve got your data, have you figured out what we should do about this whole Oosa mess?”

  N302> FINAL ANALYSIS REVEALS THE MOST BENEFICIAL SOLUTION IS FOR SUNNY TO TELL HANFORD WHAT HAS HAPPENED. THIS WILL HAVE THE GREATEST IMPACT ON PREVENTING FUTURE FEMALES FROM ENTERING OOSA CUSTODY.

  “I’ve already said, I’m not going to do that,” Sunny said in a firm voice.

  N302> AN ALTERNATIVE COURSE OF ACTION MUST BE TAKEN.

  “Obviously,” 00 said, rolling his eyes.

  “So, what now?” 62 asked.

  “Now, it’s time for a nap,” Sunny said with a yawn. “I wasn’t ready for this early morning story-telling session when it started, and I’m out of steam.”

  “You’re set to let us know when you hear something on the radio?” 00 asked the computer.

  N302> AFFIRMATIVE.

  “Then let’s get out of here.”

  The Boys spent the rest of the day in the greenhouse. Neither of them knew very much about plants, so they only tinkered around with the small tasks Blue and the others had taught them, and a few chores they could figure out on their own. 62 collected some lettuce for a dinner salad and pulled wilted, yellowing leaves from a couple of the less healthy plants. They fed the chicken and rooster, cleaned the coop, and pulled a couple dozen mature radishes from their bed. The afternoon passed to evening with no alarm from the radio. Disappointed that they hadn’t heard from their friends, the Boys prepared dinner and took it up to Sunny’s room.

  “Maybe they tried to call us while the bot was tying up the line,” 00 wondered aloud.

  “Or, maybe they’re busy in town and didn’t have a chance to radio us,” Sunny said.

  “Nobody knows about the radio down there,” 62 added. “If Parker and Blue are tied up with somebody, they won’t be able to exactly flip it on and start talking.”

  The group ate their dinner, discussed the dreadfully slow egg hatching process, and headed to bed with full stomachs and busy minds. 62 spent the night trying to connect with Mattie’s dreams. He couldn’t seem to find her, instead dreaming about radios and Machines, the Oosa, and kidnapped Women. He was glad when sunlight finally crept into his window.

  No alarm sounded for radio calls the next day, and N302’s bells sat silent the day after as well. 62 and his companions began to worry. What if something had happened, or Parker’s radio was damaged? Or, maybe something happened to Termina
l Two and it wasn’t turning the radio on properly up on the hill. Without the larger tower transmitting, it wasn’t likely that the signal from the jailhouse would make it far enough to transmit all the way to Hanford.

  62 and 00 decided to hike to the radio room to make sure everything was operating properly. The day was warm, and they regretted having to wear their masks as soon as they stepped outside. The thick material clung to 62’s skin as he sweated beneath it, and one of his lenses fogged halfway from the humidity trapped behind the glass. The discomfort made the trek up the mountain slow and tedious, and 62 exhaled with relief when he could finally take off his mask inside the small building below the radio tower.

  The relief was short-lived.

  62 had only made it to the middle of the first room and 00 still stood just inside the building’s front door when they heard a voice whispering deep in the building. The voice was female, talking so low that they couldn’t make out the words.

  “Someone’s here,” 62 whispered in alarm.

  “Who d’you think it is?” 00 hissed.

  They crept to the side wall, leaning against the peeling paint and crumbling masonry as they strained their ears to make out what the voice was saying. It was such a low murmur that it was impossible to make sense of the one-sided conversation happening in the next room. 62 picked out a few words from the steady monologue. Oosa. Hanford.

  62 inched nearer the doorframe, and 00 grabbed his sweat-stained jacket to pull him back. “We’ve got to find out who it is,” 62 whispered, so quietly that he could hardly hear his own words.

  00 let go of the jacket, a nervous grimace on his face. He nodded his understanding, then mouthed the word, “Slowly.”

  62 peered around the doorframe’s edge with one eye, searching all around the room for the speaker. Terminal Two sat on one of the desks, right where the Boys had left it. The indicator lights on the radio equipment were burning red and green, showing the power was on. In the dim light, it looked like no one was there, even as the voice continued to speak.