by Karen Carr
The pod goes back into the ceiling and I am left wondering what to do. If this is another test, I will surely fail it. Do I eat the banana? Or drink the water? Sit down or stand up? I try the door. It is locked.
Finally, I decide to sit in the chair and wait without touching the fruit or the water.
After a few more minutes, a woman with messy hair and crumbs on her blouse enters through the door and sits on a chair. She holds a stack of papers, a beverage, a pencil, and a paper bag.
“Sorry I’m late,” she says.
She throws her paperwork on the coffee table.
“I just came in on the Vactrain and I needed time to review your results.”
She hands me the bag.
“Donuts?”
“No thanks, I’m not hungry.”
I put the sweet smelling donuts on the table. I don’t want her to think I’d prefer donuts to a banana. My mind is still in test mode and I am hesitant to reveal too much or too little. I don’t like this test.
The woman introduces herself as Doctor Heap, a psychologist, and says she’ll be working with me for the next four weeks. While she speaks, I detect a faint smell of alcohol mixed with mint.
Dr. Heap takes a sip of her beverage and gags.
“Oh this stuff is awful. My doctor insists…” She leans back in her chair. “You’re on the edge of your seat. Sit back. Relax. Have some water at least.”
“No thanks,” I say.
“You’re a tough one,” Dr. Heap says.
She opens the bag, takes out a donut, and references the paperwork on the coffee table.
“Force and fire aren’t for you.”
She takes a bite of her donut, sending powdered sugar everywhere.
“You’re not quite stealth. You made it up grace.”
I am stealth. I’m angry but I don’t want to interrupt her.
Dr. Heap chews while she ponders my results. I wish she would hurry up.
“Slice is your best asset,” Dr. Heap finally says. “You know how to use a knife.”
I don’t want to be good at slice. I don’t want to stab anyone. I want to tell how well I did on stealth, but without talking to Burke to find out why he fudged my results I keep my mouth shut.
“My mother is a doctor,” I blurt out. Stupid. That doesn’t help my case against slice.
“Yes, she is.” Doctor Heap looks at me across her beverage. “And your father is a music teacher. Both of them are good with their hands. The violin is a precise instrument.”
I finally take the bottle of water, open it, and swallow half of its contents. I have to get out of slice.
“I don’t want to finish this,” Dr. Heap says.
I sit back in my chair. “I don’t want to finish it either. Can I go home?”
“Not you. This.”
Dr. Heap puts down her beverage and wipes her mouth.
“The problem is, from your Kalstein Barstow Test, you will not be good at slice. Who wants to stab someone with a knife? I totally understand. What would you do? Slit their throat? Go for the gut? A totally vulgar way to kill someone.”
I breathe a sigh of relief.
“I think I would be better off with stealth,” I say.
She shakes her head immediately.
“Stealth is hard. The hardest. I’m afraid you are not good enough for that.”
She touches her finger to her cheek and her thumb to her chin and stares at me. I want to tell her how I snuck through the whole flock of birds. I am the only one that has ever done that. Except for Burke.
Dr. Heap folds up her bag of donuts as if I’m not allowed to ask for one any more.
“We’re going to have to do slice. Sorry.”
“No,” I whimper. “I can’t cut anyone.”
Dr. Heap seems to soften. I feel like a big baby. I sniff and my lower lip quivers. I am not going to cry.
“It doesn’t have to be a big knife.” Dr. Heap takes a pen from her pocket and puts it on the table. “Pick it up.”
I pick up the pen. It feels heavier than a normal pen. I press the button on the back section and out of the cartridge comes a long needle.
“Stick that in someone’s neck, right here.” Dr. Heap places her finger in the space between her collarbones. “That’ll do the trick.”
She takes the pen and puts the blade away. “Of course getting close enough for you to do that will be hard. We’ll give you grace, too.”
She makes some notes on the papers and then looks at her watch. “I’m sorry we don’t have any more time. Our session is up. The next one will be longer. I’m sure we’ll talk much more. I really want to get to know you.” She takes a card from her pocket. “If you need anything, here’s my contact information.”
I take the card, knowing I will not use it. I couldn’t contact her if I wanted to. No communication devices allowed in camp. I suspect she knows this.
The pod drops from the ceiling again.
“Now, out,” Dr. Heap says. “My next patient has just arrived.”
I exit the room through the door and hear Dr. Heap lock the it behind me. I am in a long corridor with lots of doors. Other kids are exiting their rooms and I follow them down the hall.
Chapter Fifteen
I am shaken by the test, nervous and upset. The kids around me are all chattering about it, trying to find the meaning in the questions and comparing inclinations. My inclination was supposed to be stealth. I am now stuck with slice.
Burke leans against the wall at the end of the hall. He nods to the kids and briefly speaks to them as they walk past him. I glare at the side of his head, hoping to bore a hole through it. Being stuck in slice is his fault. I am stealth.
When Burke sees me, my lip curls up in a snarl. I glare at him so that he can see my fury and walk by him without saying anything. He follows me out of the building and onto the campus. The warmth of the campus and the bright sunlight puts me in a better mood, but only slightly.
“I was waiting for you,” Burke says.
“Why?” I ask. “You already ruined my life.” I don’t stop to say this. I just turn my head and spit out the words.
“That’s a bit melodramatic, Aria,” Burke says. He’s jogging by my side to keep up with me.
“Melodramatic?” I ask. His words infuriate me. The rest of the kids run around us. I let them pass. I want to make sure Burke knows how mad I am and I don’t want anyone else to hear.
When the last kid passes, I turn on him forcing him to stop or run into me. He runs into me and almost loses his balance.
“Stealth. Hah,” I say as I watch him trip over his feet. Remarkably, he stays standing.
“That’s not fair,” Burke says. “I didn’t expect you to stop.”
“I have to cut someone up because of you. I don’t want to be in slice. I want to be in stealth.”
“Relax, Aria,” Burke says. He stiffens as if he is mad at me and then takes a deep breath.
I wait for him to say something.
“Why did you change my scores on stealth?” I ask.
Burke doesn’t answer for a long time. I notice a new fishhook shaped gash on his jaw.
“You don’t want to be me,” he finally says. His eyes lock on mine. “If they find out you are good at stealth, they’ll make you do things you don’t want to do.” His voice is soft. His lips are close to my ear.
“What have you done?” I ask. I raise my shoulders and purse my lips as if I’ve just tasted something sour.
His fingers press into my shoulder. “Not now,” he says. “Maybe not ever. You don’t need to know.”
His eyes are so light blue and his tone so serious, that I forget I am mad at him.
We leave the warmth of the campus in silence. My feet crunch into the snow as we cross the grounds to our cabin. Our cabin. Not my home. I share my life with twenty other people all planning our turquoise colored kills. Except my kill isn’t turquoise. It’s amethyst. I am stealth. Burke is protecting me. He helped the girl that ter
minated her infant sister. Maybe he can help me.
“Burke,” I say when we are away from the others.
“What?” he asks. He’s watching a bird in the sky. He doesn’t stop his pace or turn in my direction. He just continues to watch the bird.
“I have something to tell you.” I am going to tell him about my amethyst token. I have to. Before I could go to Sebastian or my parents. Now, I have nobody. I can’t get through this alone.
Burke’s bird has flown out of view. He looks sad as he stops and steps closer to me.
“I know,” he says. He sticks his hands in his jacket pockets. “I didn’t know how to bring it up before. When you said, I ruined your life. I don’t want you to think…”
I cut him off with the palm of my hand.
“Wait. You know. How?” I ask.
He can’t have access to the algorithm. He should have no idea what color my token is. He’s not a mind reader.
He pulls my turquoise nail polish from his pocket.
“It must have rolled out of your drawer. You’re not wearing any nail polish. You don’t look like the type that does.”
“I am,” I say as I snatch it from his hand. “I have a thousand different colors at home.”
I lower my eyes. What was he doing up in my bunk? I have to tell him, but I can’t tell him. Now, I don’t trust him. My mind is doing Yoyos. I may be good at stealth, but I’m not good at covering my feelings. Burke knows something is wrong.
“I painted my token,” I say without looking up. “I didn’t want anyone to know its true color.”
“It’s red, isn’t it?” Burke asks. “You truly do belong in my cabin.”
Tears well up in my eyes. It’s not the truth but it will do. I don’t have the strength to tell him the truth, especially when I look in his eyes. My sorrow, my dread, and my loss reflect in Burke’s eyes. I don’t know how long he has been a camp counselor. I don’t know how many child killers he’s had to train. I can’t imagine it was easy.
“I can’t imagine killing a baby.” Just saying the words makes me think of Baby. It’s true. I can’t imagine killing a baby.
Burke hugs me as if it is more for him than me. I can hear his heart beat and smell campfire. It feels so good to be in his arms.
“I’m scared,” I say. “I don’t know what will happen to me if others find out.” I am not lying.
“They won’t,” Burke says. He drops his arms. “Only the algorithm knows who is chosen. You will have to learn, Aria. There are special techniques you can use to make it painless. I can show you.”
Just then, Demi trounces by holding hands with Lily and Jack.
Burke touches my cheek. “You take care of yourself,” he says. “I’ll keep your secret.”
As we approach our cabin, Demi comes out of Lily’s cabin and runs over to us. The three of us enter the common room where Shah, Vanessa, and Mateo are in deep conversation. Burke goes to the equipment side, Demi joins Shah on the couch, and I flop into one of the leather chairs.
Mateo’s top skill was fire, which I already guessed, and Demi’s was force.
“Force?” I ask Demi. “Seriously?”
“Shah and I both,” Demi says, affectionately bumping Shah with her shoulder.
“She has some serious karate chops,” Shah says, mimicking Demi in a very funny way.
“Where’d you learn that?” Shah asks after the laughter dies down.
“Daddy,” Demi says. “He made all of the quads take self-defense classes. We can all kick some serious butt.”
“I can vouch for that,” Burke says. He takes off his jacket and sits in the leather chair nearest to me. “Vanessa, here, is in stealth.” Burke smiles at Vanessa. “She’s going to be one of my top students.”
Vanessa blushes. “Actually, I ended up being average on all of the physical inclinations. My results for the mental tests led me to stealth.” She taps her head.
“I thought you had to be quiet,” I say without looking at Burke. Vanessa is not quiet. I can’t be jealous of Vanessa.
“There are other ways to join stealth,” Burke says. “Vanessa has a natural inclination toward trickery. Trickery is stealth.”
“I’m going to learn how to poison people,” Vanessa says.
“Better watch what you eat,” Mateo teases. He grabs his throat to pretend he is choking.
“Quit it,” Vanessa says unconvincingly.
We talk more about our skills and the classes. Everyone’s favorite teacher is Vladimir and we agree our least favorite is the Hunter. Burke sticks up for the Hunter and warns us about the biology teacher. Demi gives us a demonstration of her moves using Shah as a victim. We all laugh when she trips him and he falls to the ground.
The conversation turns to the pods and we quiz Burke about them moving through the ceiling. He tells us there are all sorts of secret passageways through campus. Vanessa brings up Kalstein Barstow and the awful algorithm he created. Everyone’s mood turns from joyous and friendly to sulky and silent as we remember why we are all here.
“Cheer up,” Burke says. “You have two years to use your token.”
“I want to use mine right away,” Vanessa says, scrunching her nose.
Burke shifts forward and rests his elbows on his knees.
“You are turquoise,” Burke says in a low tone. “You should wait until the end.”
“Why?” Demi asks.
Burke glances at us, one by one; to make sure we are paying attention.
“No one wants to kill more than once.” He pulls out his token. “If they kill me when I still have my token, they’ll have to take it and kill someone else.” He puts his token away. “No token can go unused.”
I cross my legs, thinking about Burke’s words. Sixty kids here have turquoise tokens, more than ever before. Turquoise. Sixteen to eighteen. Each person with a turquoise will have to wait until one of their peers uses their token on another color. Turquoise kills pearl. Turquoise kills emerald. Turquoise kills ruby. That is how they can avoid the perpetual turquoise killing machine.
Something awful hits me.
“What’s wrong, Aria?” Burke asks. I must have gone green.
“All of the kids here at camp, the ones who have turquoise.” I pause while I gather my thoughts.
“Go on,” Burke says.
Demi and Shaw, Vanessa and Mateo watch me. I have to think clearly.
“What if everyone gets turquoise tokens next time?” I ask. Burke ponders the question, but I already have the answer. “We’ll have to kill one another. All of us, until only one person is left.”
“How do you figure?” Demi asks.
I glance at Burke. His face tells me that he understands what I am about to say.
‘There are sixty kids with turquoise tokens this session, right?”
Burke nods.
I clear my throat. “Let’s say half of the kids kill the other half using their tokens. We are left with thirty. Those thirty receive the tokens of the kids they just killed.”
“And fifteen will kill fifteen,” Burke continues. “Then eight will kill seven, four will kill four, until no one is left. Aria is right.”
“We are heading for a teenage extinction,” I say.
“This is a disaster,” Vanessa says.
“A Kalstein Barstow designed disaster,” Mateo says.
“It may not have been Barstow,” Shah says. “I think the algorithm learns. I found a book in the garbage near my home. It was burned and had missing pages. The book said the algorithm analyses the data and forms new paths on its own.”
“What if someone feeds it the wrong data?” I ask.
“I’m telling my father.” Demi bounces to her feet. “I’m going to call him right now. He’ll know if it’s true.”
“You can’t,” Burke says. He doesn’t move from his chair. He just looks at her coolly. She sits back down.
“Why not?” Shah asks.
“What you are saying is treason,” Burke says, looking dire
ctly at me. “You are going to go up there and accuse one of the Regulators of messing with the data? Who? Pick carefully, because if you are wrong you will be dead. And you have no proof.”
Burke says this with such anger, that I am stunned into silence.
“Burke’s right,” Demi says. “It’s a stupid idea anyway.”
Erwin, Tane, and Mal enter the common room from the sleeping quarters. By their mischievous grins, they have heard everything. They walk directly through the common room and out the door without a glance in our direction. Burke curses, gets up from his seat, and follows them out the door.
Chapter Sixteen
I wake in the morning to Vanessa’s voice. When I get up, I see everyone else is already up. I go to my chair at the table and take a muffin and apple. No time for dining hall food today. A piece of paper sticks out from under my plate. I take it out and read my schedule. Biology is my first class, followed by grace. Slice doesn’t appear until later in the week, the day after English and math. Not too bad. I can digest my food.
Mateo peers at my schedule. “We’re in Bio together with Vanessa and you’re in English with me. Awesome.”
I never expected to have regular classes at Kill School.
“I have to take algebra?” Demi whines.
“I’ll help you.” Shah says.
Demi and Shah touch finger across the table. I wish they weren’t so lovey-dovey. It’s embarrassing.
“I can’t believe them,” I mumble.
“What are you, against love?” Mateo asks.
“Love?” I ask. Of course not.” I smirk. Love doesn’t happen that fast.
I am aware that Burke has emerged from his bunk even without looking in his direction.
“Good morning everyone,” Burke says.
I turn toward his voice and my mouth opens. He’s not wearing a shirt. I’ve seen shirtless guys before. My brother. Kids in swim class. At the lake. None of them has muscles like Burke. He stretches and turns, so we can see his backside. He has a scar on his lower left side.
“Cat got your tongue?” Mateo asks.
