by Melissa Faye
I didn’t know where to go. I was useless on my crutches. I’d never been to the armory with Javi, and I had no idea if Gentle Acres had enough weapons to fight back. I looked around helplessly and saw others doing the same. A large truck came barreling through the streets. It was modified. The truck part was covered in thick metal plates, and the tires were larger than I had seen before. The dashboard windows were tinted so I couldn’t see inside.
The truck rolled past. The driver didn’t bother to avoid community members jumping out of his way. As the truck passed under a street lamp, I could see into the passenger side window for a split second. The man inside was in his sixties, with jet black hair and some gray at his temples. He wore a black suit that stuck out from the Gray Suits and weaponry on everyone else. There was no mistaking his high cheekbones and snarling smile. It was Chancellor Lorenzo.
Chapter 14 – Charlie
We drove in circles around the spot Alexis marked on the map until we finally caught a glimpse of the “school” several hundred feet away. I immediately pulled the truck to a stop. We found the nearest hill and we drove slowly, not wanting to alert anyone with the noise. Once we were over the hill and couldn’t see the school anymore, we jumped out and organized our supplies.
Sven had made a small bag for each of us. We had several duffle bags worth of supplies, but he also found smaller cross-chest bags we could use while we looked around. We each took a holster and gun, plus a bag with protein packs and water, and walked to the crest of the hill.
The “school” was actually an assortment of buildings, none more than two or three stories tall, with white walls and tall windows. Everything looked state-of-the-art, like the buildings were relatively new. Outside, several kids played on a jungle gym that snaked between several buildings. Older kids were playing stickball on a large concrete playing field or reading on their TekCasts under the few trees that looked out of place in the compound. There must have been at least twenty kids, and that was just what we could see.
I made eye contact with Etta; we both raised our eyebrows. This was far more complex than what we predicted. And there were way too many kids for us to take in the truck. I messaged Yami a picture of the compound but didn’t hear anything back.
Etta took the lead in planning our mission. She was very clear that we were not to move – and every time she said it, she looked at me – until we had a good sense of who was where and how to keep everyone safe. Kneeling there, hundreds of feet from the compound, I remembered the sight of her shooting a gun. Knees locked, leaning forward slightly – the gun looked out of place in her hands, but she didn’t seem at all hesitant. She was ready.
Etta tapped Sven on the shoulder to get his attention and whispered to both of us as we leaned in.
“I count eighteen. Maybe more – it looks like some kids may have gone behind that building over there.” We nodded and stared back. I counted sixteen, but it was hard to count. Kids walked around, jumping on and off the playground equipment and running to talk to other groups of friends. Sven gestured towards the compound – we needed to get closer.
There wasn’t enough coverage for us to move safely without being seen, so we inched forward slowly and stopped again after only ten feet or so. We would have to wait for sundown to get closer. We swung to the side a bit to see around one of the buildings, and I saw an adult for the first time. He was a middle-aged man with a thick beard and glasses. He wore casual clothes, and walked around checking on the kids.
“Don’t they look...happy?” I whispered. I was expecting us to find a jail, not a community center. The kids were energetic and smiling. The only frowns I saw were on some of the older kids who may have been Teo’s age or older. Even then, it was just two or three of them.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Sven hissed. “Why are they running around? Why is no one guarding them?”
None of the children seemed interested in the noncomm outside of the compound area. It was just like the kids in Young Woods. There was no need to leave the community; everything they needed to be happy and healthy was right there.
“Look!” Etta said sharply. She pointed to one of the buildings to the right. Two people were turning the corner towards where the kids played. They wore gray uniforms like the other Gray Suits we’d seen, but also carried machine guns. The kids didn’t flinch when the guards approached. One of the little kids ran up to a guard and started chatting with her.
We lay low to the ground and used our TekCasts to zoom in on the scene. I couldn’t align what I was seeing with what we had heard about from other ACers. Nothing was keeping the kids from doing what they wanted. They were cheerful and energetic.
I zoomed in on one of the only children who frowned. He sat off to the side, by himself. He looked to be eleven or twelve. I swiped the holoscreen to zoom in further. He did look unhappy, but no one was paying him any attention. He eyed the Gray Suit suspiciously – or was it nervously? His eyes flittered around the play area, and he didn’t engage with any of the other kids. When the bearded man came over to talk to him, he just crossed his arms and clenched his jaw, not talking. I pointed him out to Sven and Etta.
“I found a girl like that just in the center, by that slide,” Etta said. I followed where she pointed and zoomed in on a girl who looked a little older. Maybe a middle classer. She did seem miserable. Her clothes looked new and untouched, unlike most of the other kids’ used clothing. Her face was red, and she breathed more quickly as she watched the Gray Suits. She didn’t take her eyes off them, I noticed. Sven nodded in agreement.
“Why doesn’t she want to be here when everyone else does?” I whispered. “Why do her clothes look like they’ve never been worn, and why aren’t the other kids talking to her?”
Etta sat back and placed her TekCast next to her, turning off the holoscreen. “Do you think...” She rubbed her face with her palms. “Hope has to be there somewhere. If they had her here for five years, she wouldn’t even remember us. She could end up being one of those kids running around at sunset.” I didn’t know what to say. What if Hope grew up here? I squeezed Etta’s arm gently but didn’t respond. Her eyes grew misty.
“So why is that girl so unhappy?” Sven asked. “What’s different about her?”
“She must be like Teo,” Etta explained. “If she was found recently, she misses her home. She knows she’s being held captive – that they all are. That’s probably why she won’t even talk to the other kids. If they don’t believe it and she can’t convince them, then suddenly everyone here is her enemy. Not just the Gray Suits.”
“We haven’t seen Teo, though,” I said. “We need to figure out where he is, and where the littlest kids are. Like Hope.”
We agreed to wait until after sunset to circle the compound. I had promised not to do anything rash, which would mean listening to Etta and Sven rather than leaping into action – not exactly what I wanted to be doing. I felt my toes tap on the ground of their own accord; I was ready to move. Etta shot me a glare and I sat back, trying to calm myself.
AS EVENING TURNED TO night, the children lined up in rows next to one of the closer buildings. The bearded man stood at the front of one line, with other casually dressed adults standing in front of the others. One of the adults did a rhythmic clap, and the kids echoed it back. Then everyone yelled the UCA motto together: “What’s best for the community is best for me!”
I was instantly disgusted. The motto was visible in our community growing up, and we talked about it often. We even chanted it together at major events. But there was something sickening about having these kids cheer it together every night. It wasn’t a celebration of the community. It was brainwashing. Convincing the kids to be sheeps, following the crowd, and to not question authority. The sound of the children shouting echoed in my head as they dutifully followed their teachers inside the building.
We watched the Gray Suits carefully. They walked in a rotation around the entire compound. Each round took a half hour or so, which would
give us plenty of time to sneak past them as needed.
We started by making a full, slow loop, getting a little closer to the buildings as we walked. I couldn’t turn on my TekCast’s flashlight, but it did have a NightVision program I’d never had use for before. The glow of the screen dimmed until all I could see was an eerie green light outlining the buildings before us. Etta and Sven looked over my shoulders rather than attracting more attention by lighting up theirs as well.
We zoomed in towards each building to identify each one’s purpose. Most were decorated with bright signs for the kids. DORMS. CAFETERIA. REC ROOM. NURSERY. There was a central building we could only see from a single angle; it had the UCA motto carved in bold, dark letters across the front.
WHAT’S BEST FOR THE COMMUNITY IS BEST FOR ME
I shivered at the sight. I hadn’t seen that sign since we left Young Woods, and now, having heard the kids yell it out, I felt sick. It just made me imagine Chancellor Lorenzo sending Vonna out into the noncomm on her own, or the Grays cleaning up the streets every evening. None of this was good for any of these kids. Not when they were kidnapped from their own parents, and made to think this was normal.
While almost every building was modern, well lit, and covered with rows of windows, there was one that looked more utilitarian. It was unlabeled with only one visible exit. The walls were a dark concrete that almost made the building blend in with the noncomm. We saw one Gray Suit enter in the twenty minutes we spent staring at it. A different Gray Suit left soon after. Changing of the guards.
“We have to get closer,” I told Sven and Etta.
“Of course we do,” Etta scolded me. “We have to see inside. There are windows there on the far side that have a row of bushes underneath.” I looked where she pointed. It was to the far right, the east side of camp, and would definitely be the best place for peering into the building.
Only one of us would need to go. If Etta went and got caught, Hope could lose her mother right then and there. I was younger and faster than Sven. Without waiting for permission, I snuck towards those bushes. I heard Etta and Sven whisper-shout at me as I left them behind, but didn’t bother looking back. I was the best person for the job. They had to realize that.
The guards had passed us only a few minutes earlier, so I had plenty of time to get a good look inside the building and sneak away before any Gray Suits saw me. As I approached the window, I breathed a sigh of relief. There was no one in sight, and there were no lights on behind the window to light up my location. I crept forward into the bushes, wedging myself between the plants and the cement wall. Leaves and brambles pulled at my hands and legs as I moved, but I ignored them, pulled out my TekCast, and turned on the NightVision program. I held the holoscreen up to the window, using my head to minimize the green light that could be cast into the empty street behind me.
The first two windows looked into a small prison room. I had never seen an actual jail in Young Woods; I didn’t think we had one. But the room was undeniably set up to hold some type of prisoners. Two corners of the wall were surrounded by metal bars, caging in whoever was unlucky enough to find themselves in there. Each cell had two small beds with thin mattresses, a metal sink, and a toilet. Outside of the two cells, there was only a bare desk and single chair. The door to the room was closed.
I looked at the next window. It was covered with a shade. The next window looked into a small office, not much bigger than a supply closet. It was empty. I moved one window further and finally saw something of interest.
The room inside was pitch black; each of the bare lightbulbs that ran across the ceiling were off. There were several bunk beds to one side of the room, and sinks and cabinets on the other. Two doors led to other rooms at the far end of the wall by the sink. There was only one door by the bunk beds. It was a dark steel door with a digital lock. A red light above the keypad was the only source of light in the room.
I looked back at the bunk beds. There were enough beds for twelve people, but only three were filled. I scanned their faces carefully. What had these kids done to end up here? I didn’t recognize any of them from all our time watching the kids playing outside. I looked carefully at the third child, a boy partially hidden in a lower bunk to the left. His face was turned away from me, but with a small stretch, he turned towards me. Even with his eyes closed and the dark of the room, he looked just like Etta. Dark gray hair and a small, innocent face. It was Teo.
My heart jumped and I had to grip the window frame to keep from falling backwards into the bushes. I dropped the TekCast to the ground where it clanked loudly in the dead silence. I cursed under my breath.
I shouldn’t have been surprised to see Teo. This is exactly why we were here. To save him and Hope.
I kept low to the ground and reached for the TekCast, which had rolled a few feet off to my left side. I opened it and hurriedly sent a note to Etta. I had barely switched off the holoscreen when I heard people walk towards the entrance of the building. They were only twenty feet away from me.
“They’re doing well, sir,” said one of the Gray Suits, a tall woman with long hair tied back into a ponytail. “The newest boy, Teo, is experiencing the same transition shock all the others have experienced. The teachers’ methods for integrating children into the community have improved dramatically over the past few years.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” said a tall man with his back to me. Unlike the Gray Suits, he wore an actual suit. It was dark and tailored, like he was in charge. The third person, a shorter man with blond hair and a thin moustache, seemed to cower in front of the man in the suit. He didn’t speak, so the woman continued.
“One girl should be ready to complete integration within the next week,” she said. “The team is transporting one other child tomorrow. The dormitory is at about half capacity. At this rate, we’ll have a full community within another year or two.”
“That’s excellent,” the tall man said. “Please let me know how the latest integrations are handled and make sure samples are shipped out as soon as possible.”
Samples? I thought. Sample kids? Samples of what?
“There’s a problem,” the smaller man said. His colleague shot him a nasty look that made me miss Yami. He stopped talking, looking back and forth between the woman and their boss. The boss nodded.
“We finished one girl’s integration two months ago, but the process isn’t working.” His voice shook as he spoke, and he squirmed in place nervously. “She won’t talk with the other kids or teachers. She may need to be integrated again.”
“I don’t like hearing that,” the taller man said. “I thought the integration process has improved, has it not, Shaley?”
The woman bobbed her head up and down repeatedly. “Of course, sir. Yes. The process has improved since I’ve been here. Everything moves faster and more efficiently. This is just one particularly strange case.”
The tall man didn’t speak. The shorter man still cowered in deference to the other two, as if he was about to cry.
“Whatever is happening with the girl, figure out what it is and fix it,” the tall man said. “Bring her back to detention, or find a different way. Send me daily reports of your progress.”
The Gray Suits nodded and agreed enthusiastically. With a nod, the tall man turned to enter the building and I could finally see his face. He was middle-aged, with dark hair that matched his suit. It was a face I had seen many times before. Chancellor Lorenzo.
Chapter 15 – Yami
I chased after the Chancellor’s truck, but even as people jumped out of its, and my, way, there was no way I could keep up even if I had two healthy legs. My crutches fell to the ground as I balanced on one leg, covering my mouth with both hands. How was he here? Had he come after us finally? I saw more people falling to the ground. Was this my fault?
I picked up my crutches and hobbled to a nearby building where I could hide and catch my breath. I watched people and Gray Suits go by. There were two other armored trucks now: one fol
lowed the Chancellor’s truck, and the other drove right up into the town center and parked in front of what used to be the Chancellor’s mansion. I couldn’t see Breck anywhere. I thought I saw someone from the F-Lab, but lost their face in the mob. I made myself take three deep breaths while I attempted to make sense of the army’s patterns.
Two trucks were heading to the Gold area of the community where the Gold houses, dorms, Med and F-Labs were located. Gray Suits spilled out of the third truck and pulled people towards the mansion lawn. It was a large space, big enough to hold the entire community for important ceremonies and events. Gray suits swarmed towards it now, holding citizens by their collars and throwing them onto the ground. Gun shots sounded through the neighborhood as people tried to fight off the invaders. A few community members had gotten a hold of guns, either theirs or ones stolen from the invading army, and were trying to fight back.
I suddenly realized where the Chancellor’s truck was going. He wasn’t on the lawn with the other trucks because they were after something else. The F-Lab.
It was the only thing that made sense. No one was running around calling out for the four of us who escaped Young Woods. No, the Chancellor was there because of the breakthrough these scientists just made. Who knows how they found out – that would be worked out another time. My heart pounded in my chest as I made my way towards the F-Lab, cutting through backyards and alleys.
BY THE TIME I REACHED the F-Lab, Gray Suits had taken over the entire building. A few stood guard over the night workers who’d been escorted outside, and other Gray Suits ran in and out with machines and print outs. Chancellor Lorenzo stood off to one side next to his truck, overseeing the process.
