FOUND (Angels and Gargoyles Book 1)

by Brenda L. Harper

  “Tomorrow’s test day,” Ellie said with a big smile. “Can you believe it?”

  Dylan looked around the courtyard and smiled, a smile that was forced and made her cheeks ache. “Amazing,” she said quietly.

  “I can’t wait. I hope I get a job in the Administration.”

  “You enjoy scholarly work?” Dylan asked.

  Ellie laughed. “There’s nothing better,” she said with a wink. “Can you imagine, spending day in and day out preserving the history of our great city?”

  “The founders would be proud,” Dylan said, referring to Saint Annie and her sister, Saint Alicia.

  Ellie inclined her head, as was the traditional method of recognition when the founders were mentioned. “Imagine, rising from the dust of a broken society and beginning this,” she said, gesturing high above herself to indicate not only the grand buildings that rose between them on their stilts, but also the dome that covered the entire city, protecting it from the toxic fallout of the war that ended the previous society.

  “It is an amazing feat,” Dylan admitted. She had often wondered how two sisters had been able to create such a dome with only the materials they had on hand at the time. As history had it, the original dome was only the size of a small room, but the sisters had expanded it as more and more people came to them, seeking asylum. The sisters were not selfish. They shared their space will all who asked, so anxious were they to spread the love that was so lacking in their former society.

  “I always thought how noble it was to start a new society after the last one ended so badly,” Ellie said. “How much hope there was in that act.”

  Dylan nodded. She again glanced around the courtyard. “We are lucky,” she finally said, allowing herself to actually believe it for a moment, to allow that thought to push away the uncertainty that had been plaguing her since the moment she watched Demetria march Donna down the hallway of their dorm.

  Hope, she thought. Maybe that’s what I lack.

  Ellie touched her arm lightly. “Good luck tomorrow.”

  Dylan smiled, genuinely touched by Ellie’s words. “You, too,” she said.

  The picnic began a few minutes later. After eating more than their fill, the girls gathered together for games. Dylan found herself chosen to be the anchor for two separate games of tug-o-war, and the tail runner for a relay race. By the end of the day, she was so exhausted she could barely move from her position beside the bonfire. But she found herself more relaxed than she had been in weeks. She missed Donna’s voice as they sang the Song of Sisters, the Genero anthem. She sang louder than the rest to drown out the memory of Donna’s beautiful alto, her thoughts so focused on her friend’s lost voice, her lost face, that she imagined she could see it in the flames of the fire.

  Donna, smiling as she touched Denise’s hand and made a mortal wound simply disappear.

  Chapter 4

  Test morning.

  Dylan woke early.

  Each adolescent who is about to take the test must empty out her dorm room and leave it prepared for the next adolescent who will be moved into the dorms to take her place.

  Dylan had done this twice before.

  The first time she could not recall. Her guardian, Davida, had done it for her. The second time she remembered quite well. She had been in her eleventh year. Davida came to the room to guide her in what she should take and what should be left behind for the next child to take the room. This time Dylan had been making lists in her mind for weeks. She knew exactly what she would take.

  There were rules against possessions in Genero. Girls were not allowed to keep things from the other sisters: it was considered selfish and unloving. Each girl was given the clothing and hygiene articles required for them to maintain an outward grace. However, they were not allowed to have in their possession more than those things.

  But everyone did.

  Donna had a small, beaded wrist bangle that she had made in an arts and crafts class once. She gave it to Dylan shortly before the guardians came for her. Dylan had it now, hidden under the high collar of her coveralls. She also had a small stone another girl, Donatella, had given to her years ago. It was polished and looked like purple glass.

  These things Dylan would take with her to the next level.

  And one more thing.

  Davida, her guardian in nursery, and again in childhood, had given her something she called an artifact from the society before. She called it a compass. It was tiny, about the size of a spoon bowl, with a needle that jingled and moved according to the direction in which it was pointed. Davida told Dylan that it was given to her by another guardian and was an item that was discovered outside the dome.

  Just the idea that the item had been outside the dome excited Dylan. No one ever went outside the dome.

  Davida told her that there was once a time when girls often went outside the dome to collect plants and other vegetation. The compass was found on one of those expeditions by one of those long ago guardians. And then it was passed down from guardian to guardian. Davida said it was done that way so that none of the guardians would ever forget that there is a world outside the dome.

  She held it tight in her hand now and could almost feel the history that lay within it.

  “Are you ready?”

  Dylan looked up. Demetria was watching her from the open door.

  “Yes.” Dylan quickly stood, turning slightly as though checking the room for cleanliness. She slipped the compass into her pocket along with the other trinkets, hoping Demetria could not see the movement. She then turned back to Demetria and forced one, last, smile.

  Demetria gestured for Dylan to walk past her. Other girls were standing in the hallway, each too excited to speak to the one beside her. Dylan caught a few glances in her direction, but most were concentrating on the hallway in front of them, on the walk they would soon make together.

  Dylan joined the group at the end of the line, clutching her hands tightly together in front of her. Fear sparked through her chest. But she was not the only one who was afraid. She could feel the fear coming from others in front of her, could hear their thoughts rushing from one thing to another. Dylan closed her eyes, focusing on that round wall. Silence came slowly, but it came.

  “Here we go,” someone whispered.

  Dylan wasn’t sure if the whisper was spoken aloud, or if it was a quiet thought, but it kept her from being left behind in that quiet hallway. She followed the girl in front of her, concentrating on her feet as one booted foot stepped before the other.

  Here we go.

  How ironic that they were being marched to the Administration building. Dylan couldn’t help but think of Donna and her solitary march here the week before. What had she seen when she reached the building? Was it this same grand hall, or did they take her a different way?

  The girls from D dorm joined with girls from the other dorms. Dylan thought she spotted Ellie before someone called her name and had her join another group, this one a mix of girls from each of the dorms. Dylan only knew one or two of the eighteen girls she was forced to march out of the grand hall with. They were moved into a large locker room, where they were instructed to change into clothes waiting in lockers with each of their names on them.

  Dylan pulled out the clothing, unsure for a moment what to do with coveralls that were broken. The material was odd, as well, with a tight but stretchy softness that seemed to hug every curve of her long legs and slender hips. The only thing that felt familiar was the soft, heavy outer…she wasn’t sure what it was called. But it had holes for her arms and fit over her back like a towel after her bath.

  Dylan had only known the oversized, ill-fitting coveralls that all Genero girls wore.

  She glanced around the small locker room and nearly laughed aloud at the other girls, some of whom looked ridiculous in these new pieces of clothing. Others did laugh, while others still tried to cover themselves with their arms as they became aware of how closely these things hugged their bodies.

&n
bsp; A door at the far end of the room opened and an unfamiliar guardian waved to them. She was wearing green coveralls, the color of the Administration. She must have been a historian.

  They lined up again, each girl automatically falling into the proper location in the line. Like in her dorm, Dylan was fourth in line. She followed the rest into another hallway, where they were escorted into a long room filled with oddly folded chairs that wrapped around a raised platform. Dylan’s group was told to sit in a specific row of chairs as other groups came inside, all dressed in their own sets of new clothing. Again Dylan thought she spotted Ellie among a group of other girls. And Denise. And dozens of other D dorm girls scattered throughout the room with their own, new groups.

  When all the girls were seated, a door near the raised platform opened and members of the council came in. There were four council members, each dressed in black coveralls, their hair shaved in an attempt to emulate the only known descriptions of the founding sisters, both of whom were described as bald and naked, their bodies burned black in places from the war they had somehow survived.

  Each of the girls in the odd folded seats bent their heads low onto their chests in a sign of respect. One of the council members, Latvia, made a wide gesture with her hands, indicating that the girls could look up. Dylan studied her. She had been fascinated with her since her one visit to D dorm when she was in her thirteenth year. Latvia had come to the dorm to hear the girls present an oral history of Genero they had prepared just for her visit. Latvia had seemed bored through the presentation, but Dylan noticed that her eyes moved from one face to the next, searching the young girls as though she was looking for something specific. Dylan’s ability to hear thoughts had only just begun at that time, but she remembered hearing just a small snippet of Latvia’s thoughts.

  She was looking for someone special. Someone she wasn’t sure she would recognize upon first sight.

  It was the first time Dylan had felt real fear from another person.

  She studied Latvia now. She looked calm. Happy, almost, as she gazed at the room filled with young girls on the cusp of the next level. But that fear, that uncertainty, bubbled underneath the surface of her outward façade.

  Dylan couldn’t help but wonder why.

  “Ladies,” Latvia said, her gaze indicating every individual girl in the room, “congratulations for entering this moment in your lives. You have each made it through infancy, made it through the trials and error of childhood, through the educational pitfalls of adolescents, to this moment. This is the moment all girls in our society fight to reach, the moment when you are eligible to test for that one job you were born to have.”

  A quiet cheer went up in the room. Latvia smiled, raising her hands to acknowledge the noise before slicing them through the air to signal the girls to be silent once more. Dylan was a little surprised at how quickly the sound died down upon Latvia’s movement.

  “The tests will not be easy,” she began again when the room was silent. “Some of you will face fears you never knew you had. Others will be forced to push your intellectual powers to the limits. Others will be placed in a position of responsibility that you have never wanted, and likely will never want again. Each of these tests is to show us, the council, where your strengths and your weaknesses lie. And when the testing is complete, each of you will be given the job your tests reveal would be your best fit.”

  Twitters moved through the room, voices raised in question. Again Latvia raised her arms, and again the sound disappeared almost instantly.

  “I know each of you still has many questions. However, you will have to wait until the testing is complete to ask them.” She smiled softly. “If we allow each of you to ask your questions now, we will be unable to begin the testing until tomorrow.”

  Laughter filled the room.

  Dylan glanced around herself. She had yet to make a sound. She was overwhelmed with the voices chattering inside her head. There were so many she couldn’t keep them all straight, couldn’t concentrate on just one. They almost drowned out the things Latvia was saying.

  “So, ladies,” Latvia said, gesturing toward another door behind the raised platform, “each group will be called. When you hear your group number, follow the guardian through that door, and your tests will officially begin.” Latvia let her eyes move slowly around the room, allowing herself to study each face individually. “Good luck.”

  Latvia and the other council members left the room through the same door from which they first entered. Almost immediately, the door Latvia had indicated opened, and a woman in green called the first number. Dylan and the others watched as the group stood and walked slowly through the door. Dylan could feel their fear almost more perceptively than she could hear it in their thoughts. It made her sick to her stomach. She almost doubled over, but she instinctively remained rigid in her seat.

  Always remember, Davida had once told her, you are always being watched. Do not let them see anything unusual about you.

  Dylan bit her lip and again focused on that round wall.

  Her group was called third.

  Chapter 5

  Dylan followed the girl in front of her into another hallway, this one long and white, filled with strange, humming lights. There were doors all along the corridor, each with a small, square window in the center. The girls in Dylan’s group all walked with their eyes facing forward, as they had been taught when they were still in the nursery. But Dylan found herself attempting to see what was beyond the windows in the doors. The first few were dark beyond the window. But then one was not.

  Dylan saw a deep room, filled with the same strange light as the hallway, with beds in neat little rows along each wall. There was a woman in that room, all alone, lying in a bed at the far end of the room. Her belly was grossly swollen, her belly button sticking up in the center like some sort of cherry on the top of a mini-cake. The woman looked toward the door just as Dylan passed, her eyes wide with something like surprise.

  Don’t let them take him.

  The thought was like a scream that reverberated through Dylan’s head. She had never felt anything like it, as though the woman had known Dylan could hear her and she had projected the thought directly to her. It made her heart jump in her chest, painfully jerking as though it were trying to break through her breastbone and make an escape. Dylan stumbled briefly, catching herself just before she landed head first into the girl in front of her.

  “Dylan?” the girl from E dorm behind her whispered.

  “I’m okay,” Dylan said in a harsh whisper just as the guardian leading them down the hall turned.

  “Quiet,” she demanded as she gestured for the girl from A dorm to lead them through a door to her right.

  The guardian studied Dylan as she walked by her, but she didn’t say anything.

  The room they walked into was filled with computer monitors, not unlike the education room at the dorms. Dylan took her place behind the fourth monitor and immediately laid her hands on the glass-topped identi-pads. The monitor immediately lit up with instructions on how to proceed.

  Dylan slipped the headset over her hair, but her thoughts remained on the woman in that room a few feet down the hallway.

  What was she talking about?

  What was a ‘him’?

  Chapter 6

  The test was fairly simple. Dylan answered questions dealing with everything from science to history to mathematics. She had never been a dedicated student, but learning had always come easily to her. She finished the test a full forty minutes before most of the other girls. The computer shut down as soon as the test was over, so Dylan removed the headset and watched the others. She could hear some of them struggling with the questions inside their heads, their fears of being assigned a job they did not want overwhelming their common sense. Dylan wanted to go to each of them and tell them that it didn’t matter, but she knew that was the last thing she should do. So she stayed in her seat and waited.

  When the last girl answered her fin
al question, the door opened, and the guardian told them to follow her to another room. Dylan knew something was wrong the moment the door opened. A list of names floated to her through the thoughts of an unknown person. Half the girls in the room were to be separated from the others. Dylan was one of them.

  Suddenly, the fear that sliced through her mind was her own.

  Dylan stood, her movements clunky and ungraceful. She moved into her position in line but found herself turning, glancing around at the other girls in the line behind her. Her eyes hesitated over the ones who were not on the list, wondering if they were the lucky ones, or if she and the others were.

  They followed the guardian out the door. In the hallway two more guardians waited.

  One of the women, a petite, black-haired woman in green coveralls, smiled at the girls.

  “Congratulations on the first step of the tests. Based on your results, we will be dividing you into two groups. Some of you will continue with the computer testing, others of you will be moving to more…” She hesitated here, making that fear slice through Dylan again. “…More intensive testing.”

  “What does that mean?” the girl from G dorm asked.

  The dark-haired woman glanced at her, but chose not to answer her question. Her thoughts were a bit ruder, making Dylan bite her lip to keep from saying something she shouldn’t.

  The woman began calling out names, gesturing for those called to move to the other side of the hallway. Dylan took her place with the others, overwhelmed for a minute by the thoughts pulsing through her mind. Again, she pictured that wall, welcoming the silence that quickly fell over her mind. And then she followed the dark-haired woman down the hall, glancing once behind her as the others began moving in the opposite direction.

  Dylan’s group was once again taken through another of those heavy doors with the square of glass in the center. This one was devoid of any furnishings, a long room with almost no light. At the far end was another set of doors. The dark-haired woman paused at this door and turned to Dylan’s group.