by Carol Riggs
“Unless what I saw is true.”
Aubrie gives an unladylike snort. “Right.”
“You have to believe me. I am not making this up.” It does sound sketchy, but dreams are never that clear, and I didn’t feel any different than normal, no clues that I was hallucinating.
She squeezes her eyes closed for a moment, then turns and begins a brisk walk toward home. “I can’t handle this right now. I’ll see you at dinner.”
“You could test it out yourself,” I say, jogging to catch up with her. “Tonight, try skipping your—”
“Forget it. I’m not risking genomide poisoning because you forgot to take your pill and you lost your grip on reality.”
With those sharp words, I max out on her foul mood. “Hey. Don’t take it out on me because Blake flunked his Testing. It’s not my fault the guy’s a jerk and had some secret stuff going on that got him banished.”
She whirls to face me, her face flushed. “I know you’ve never liked him, but don’t you dare say he deserved it. How do you know what score the Machine will give you?”
“I won’t flunk. I’m not the one sneaking around in the woods and lying about it—”
“Stop!” she cries, waving her hands as though she wants me to vanish. “That can’t be right—he wouldn’t do something like that. Leave me alone, Jay. I need some time to think.”
I halt with a scrape of boots on loose gravel and let her rush away. Great. Our first big fight. The solidness of my life dissolves a little more. I guess I’ve caught her at a bad time… Friday she was worrying about genomide dust in Promise City, and now she’s thrown off by Blake’s banishment. He said himself he went out into the woods. She just doesn’t want to admit he did something bad enough to make him flunk. I’m shocked beyond belief, myself, but it makes sense based on the Machine’s accuracy, his reaction to his banishment, and what he said about vermals and briarcats in the woods.
Why does Aubrie have to be difficult, especially when I really need her?
Shoving my hands into my pockets, I scuff along the road’s edge, sending rocks skidding. I can’t blame her for not believing me. The idea of having monsters for parents does sound crazy. A ripple of fear crawls up my arms and trickles down my spine. I wish to the double moons of Liberty that I didn’t see what I did last night and things could reverse back to the way they were yesterday. I’d like to pretend it never happened.
But I can’t forget about it, even if I am leaving in two weeks. Rachel and Tammi will be staying in Sanctuary with these creatures. I don’t know if that’s a dangerous thing, but I don’t like the idea. There has to be a reason these secret monsters train us to be hard workers, helping them grow vegetables, build fences, and raise animals.
Built-in slave labor, maybe?
That’s a logical theory. Chilling, but logical.
I take a side road past the leafy growth of a grain field, the rising sun glaring over the hills, straight into my eyes. Alone. I’m utterly alone in this, probably the only human in the three safe zones who knows the truth. Besides Aubrie, who doesn’t believe me. Nuke it all. Is it really the truth, or am I jumping to twisted conclusions? How can I get proof of what I’ve seen? I could go to the dairy where Harrel works and try telling him, see what he thinks. Not that my story would sound any less outrageous…
A faint hum penetrates my thoughts, and I spin to see a streamlined black UHV coming up behind me on the road, approaching fast. It’s Commander Farrow, who just might be the leader of our zone’s vermal-lobsters. Their master. If that’s true, he’s the last person—or creature—I want to be around right now.
The UHV slows and comes to a smooth reverse-thruster halt next to me. The passenger window slices downward. Two figures sit in the back, but I focus on the driver.
“Good morning, Mr. Lawton.” Commander Farrow pins me with a hard gaze. “Join us here in the vehicle.”
I want to refuse, but I’m going to have to accept this ride.
That wasn’t a request.
Chapter Six
I brace myself, open the UHV door, and ease into the front seat.
“Hello, Commander,” I force myself to say. I glance into the back, raising my eyebrows as I find Peyton and Leonard sitting there, buckled in with content expressions.
“Hey there,” Peyton says. Leonard waves a greeting.
“Hi, you guys.” I fasten my security belt. What in the twelve galaxies—these two in the commander’s vehicle?
Commander Farrow sets the UHV gliding down the road again. “You’re out early this morning, Mr. Lawton. Where are you headed?”
“Uh, to my community service.” Along this road lies the dairy, as well as the cattle and chicken compounds. Harrel works at the closest one, plus I need to get out of this vehicle as soon as I can. “I’m going to the dairy. It’d be great if you’d drop me off there.”
“We’re heading for the chicken compound. They’re shorthanded after last night’s graduation, at least until we can permanently schedule someone there. Can I persuade you to join your friends this morning?”
Again, I can’t really say no. I force myself to shrug. “One place is as good as another.”
Leonard’s scratchy voice comes from the back seat. “Peyton and I went down early to see Nash off. Lucky dude. He’s heading out with everyone to Fort Hope to wait for the airship.”
“Everyone except Mr. Zemik and Miss Fergusen,” the commander says. I stare at the fields out my window. That means Blake and Shelly got standard banishment treatment. The lieutenants gave them water plus one day of rations and drove them to the outer zones. Dumped, abandoned, and ordered never to return.
If Sanctuary is full of alien creatures, do they use the Testings to offer rewards and threaten banishment so they can keep their human slaves in line? I swallow hard. Oh, man. The ceremonies. The Machine, with its spiny arms—the disturbing way it reads minds—
It’s either something the beasts have built or a living creature as monstrous and multi-legged as they are.
The air inside the UHV turns stifling. I’m penned in. Trapped. I need to get out of this vehicle. When Commander Farrow reaches the chicken compound and comes to a stop, I punch my belt release and stumble out.
“Thanks for the ride,” I say, and rush off toward the central farm unit before Peyton and Leonard have even opened their doors. I duck inside the building. After a hurried check-in with the supervisor, I grab an egg container and shoot out a side door.
The cackling of hens greets me in the long henhouse. Despite the overall chicken-manure odor of the place, the added smells of scattered hay and musky chicken feathers are comforting. I slip my hands into nests and pull out warm eggs to place in my padded container. My favorite golden hen, which I’ve named Gizmo, greets me with a low cut-cut-cut. I stroke her soft feathers and feel my heartbeat slow down.
The next moment, however, Peyton and Leonard creak open the door and tromp across the dim room toward me.
“What’s percolatin’?” Leonard asks. He shoves a speckled chicken aside with his foot, causing it to give an indignant squawk. “You’re acting hedgy, man, and you shot outta Farrow’s UHV like your proverbial pants were blazing.”
“Yeah.” Peyton swings her container by the handle like she’s carefree, but her eyes are serious. “These eggs aren’t going anywhere. You okay?”
I look away from her and grab another egg. “I wasn’t acting hedgy.”
“Come on,” Leonard says. “You’re usually more of a kiss-up to the chief than that.”
I stifle the urge to throttle Leonard’s scrawny neck. “Why did Farrow give you guys a ride? Neither of you are normally that chappy with him.”
Leonard screws his face into a scowl. He lowers his voice, even though the henhouse is empty of people except for us. “Truth is we got rounded into Farrow’s UHV like a couple of sheep. I think it made the Board nervous we were hanging around the graduates before they left. Most people say their good-byes at the ceremony.”
“Yeah,” Peyton says. “Good public relations. Like, let’s give the delinquents a free ride in the commander’s vehicle to make sure they feel special and won’t do anything stupid during their last weeks in the zone. We got a real peppy lecture on the way out here. I think the whole Blake flunking thing really shook up the powers-that-be.”
“I bet it did.” I wonder what Peyton and Leonard would say if I told them what I saw last night, whether they’d believe me. Can I trust them? They’re obviously smart, along with being rebellious, and probably less likely to rat me out to the Board than my own girlfriend. I’d rather tell Harrel, but I’m afraid he’d have the same reaction as Aubrie. I really need solid proof. Maybe tonight I can try to burn an imprintus image of the beasts and get photographic evidence that what I’m saying is true. It’ll be risky, and the image will only last a few weeks before it fades, but it’ll be better than nothing.
Leonard grins. “It was way worth the lecture. What a flamin’ ride. I wish I’d worked harder the last few years like you, Jay-Jay. My mom would’ve left off with her nagging, and I could’ve earned a UHV and been a real celebrity in Promise City.”
Jay-Jay. I swallow against a lump in my throat. He started calling me that way back when we went to primary sessions. I haven’t heard him say it for the past couple of years, because I’ve been hanging out more with Aubrie, Harrel, and the rest of our study group. The name dredges up memories of laughing and running around the primary compound’s exercise yard with him and Peyton. We were so young then… Our lives were more innocent and simple.
Man, I need to tell someone about what I’ve learned. Someone who might actually believe me and not spill the news to an adult. Would my old childhood friends listen? What I’ve discovered presses against my skull, ready to explode. I have to do something soon.
“Aw, owning a vehicle isn’t important,” Peyton says, reaching into a chicken nest, her braid tail bobbing. “That’s just a line our parents feed us to make us more motivated.”
That settles it. I’m desperate, plus I’m getting some distinctly anti-parent vibes. “So here’s the deal, Peyton…Leonard. I’ll let you both in on something. There’s a really serious reason why I left the commander’s UHV that fast, but you have to promise not to tell anyone.”
“Cool—dark and embarrassing secrets!” Leonard edges closer. “I’m in.”
“I knew something was up,” Peyton says. “Normally you’re hyper-polite to Farrow, more eager to please.”
I ignore that and tell them what I saw the night before. The noises, the fanged heads and spiny lobster bodies. How Mom said “brother” and “master.” Their expressions grow more and more incredulous as I speak, their faces more pale. I include my theory about the Machine being an alien entity. When I finish, Peyton’s knees buckle, and she leans against the wooden frame of a chicken-wire ramp.
“That can’t be right,” she says, her voice heavy and breathy at the same time.
Leonard folds his arms over his skinny chest, although the tough gesture doesn’t mask the terror behind his eyes. “I dunno. My parents are strange enough. Always weighing my food and marking down what I eat, and they nag at me to wash my hands, but they never wash theirs—just use sanitizer. Do you think this is an all-over thing, and that the other safe zones are infested?”
My shoulders twitch in a brief shrug. “Refuge has a Machine. I saw it when I was on a work-project trip. And I think Mom said once that Fort Hope uses Refuge’s Machine for its Testing, since there aren’t as many kids there.”
“Then both of those zones are probably infested,” Peyton says.
“Are they from another planet?” Leonard asks.
“Could be,” I say, wondering in the back of my mind if I’ve ever seen Mom and Dad wash their hands. “But the database says none of the planets in the twelve core galaxies have higher life forms except for Earth and Liberty.”
“Maybe the beasts messed with the database,” Leonard says. “But wait…that’s impossible with absolute-value securities. So the creatures must’ve come from beyond the twelve galaxies.”
No way. The creatures would have to be highly advanced, traveling from their original planet for over a century at lightspeed. Unless they’ve managed to achieve safe wormhole passage for intergalactic travel somehow. Peyton and I stare at each other, relief flooding me that she and Leonard believe what I’m saying, but at the same time the act of looking straight into her face drop-kicks my insides clear across the henhouse. I’m really seeing her again, the childhood Peyton, how she used to be. Bright, full of energy, and awesomely wild.
She shakes her head like she’s trying to erase her thoughts. “What’s weird is that every month a bunch of babies arrive and the exact same number of graduates leave Sanctuary. Since no one ever comes back from their trial year in Promise City because it’s so cool over there, these creatures always have the same number of kids. What’s the point of that?”
I have to swallow before I answer, especially since I’m still off-balance from staring into her face. “I don’t have the foggiest idea. What I want to know is how these monsters can make themselves look—and feel—human during the day. They either must be a shape-shifter species or they have some kind of advanced camouflage.”
“It doesn’t matter how they do it,” Peyton mutters. “For all we know, they started out as humans and the genomide dust turned them into vermal-lobsters. Maybe that’s why they give us pills. To prevent us from mutating like they did.”
“Interesting theory,” I say. “But genomide dust causes burns, not mutations.”
“Is there even such a thing as genomide dust or poisoning?” she asks. “How can we believe anything they’ve told us?”
Leonard claws one hand through his spiked hair. “There’s got to be genomide dust. Remember Mick and those other dead bodies the scavenger team brought in? Those kids got totally charred.”
“Too many questions and no good answers.” Peyton stands up. “We don’t have enough information. No offense, Jay, but we’re not even sure what you saw wasn’t just some bizarre pill-withdrawal hallucination.”
“I don’t think it was, but I’m checking it out again tonight. I have an imprintus slate, and I’ll see if I can make a good image. I’m not taking any more pills, either, to get over any possible side effects.”
“Unless stopping gives you permanent hallucinations,” Leonard says.
“You’re no help,” I say.
The henhouse door opens, causing a stark burst of sunlight to enter the building. Two more workers walk in with containers, throwing frowns across the room. We need to get busy before we’re reported. I hustle with Peyton and Leonard to snatch up eggs.
“We’ll talk more later,” I say. “Try to think of what we can do about this.”
They agree, still looking shaken. We spend the rest of the morning feeding chickens, sanitizing eggs, and filling the community cooler. Off and on, Peyton glances over at me. Leonard also keeps me in sight, eyeing me with an anxious frown. It makes me twitchy to have them watching me like that.
We eat a quick lunch of worrel-and-cheese sandwiches from the farm unit cooler, then head off on foot toward the main road and the northern dwelling compound.
“Where are you going now?” I ask.
“Our hoverbikes are at zone center,” Peyton says. “We have to catch a transport and go get them.”
“Yeah,” Leonard says. “Farrow didn’t want our bikes in his precious shiny cargo trunk. Hey, I gotta do something to get my mind off your freaky weird news, Jay-Jay. There’s a helioball game starting in the square at thirteen o’clock. You coming?”
I won’t be able to forget what I know by chasing a flighty, color-changing blob of heliomatter around zone square. “I’ll pass. Did you guys happen to come up with any other plans besides my imprintus idea?”
Leonard bunches his shoulders, his gaze skittering across the fields. “Nope. Dude, this whole alien monster thing can’t be right. It’s
creepy. But I wanna know the truth.”
“Ditto,” Peyton says. “That’s why I’m not taking my pill tonight. It’s the only way to find out.”
I study her, my eyebrows raised. Impressive. Is she brave to test my discovery, or reckless? “Be careful.”
Peyton juts out her chin. “It’s worth the risk.”
With a wheezy growl, Leonard kicks the tops off some roadside laceweeds. “Fine. The pills are history, man. Except my parents hang around like I’m eight years old when I take mine. How am I gonna give them the slip?”
“My parents usually hover, too,” I say. “We’ll have to fake it. Palm the pill or keep it under your tongue without swallowing. Stay awake and find out as much as you can—if you can’t make it work tonight, try again on Restday. That’ll give us two chances to gather proof. We’ll meet Monday before sessions in the inner courtyard to compare notes.”
“Cool. Like secret agents,” Leonard says, perking up. “I read about those in a spy novel I found at the database hub last year.”
Peyton gives Leonard a playful shove on the shoulder. “You read too much.”
“You drink too much,” Leonard says, shoving her back.
I do a double-take. Peyton drinks—as in forbidden alcohol? After all the lectures we get from our fake parents about how we’re lucky we don’t have it because it rots our guts, corrodes our livers, and makes us act irresponsibly? It doesn’t sound like Leonard’s talking about milk or greshfruit juice. I didn’t know if it actually existed or not… Someone in Sanctuary must be secretly brewing it.
I squint. “Is there some sort of rebellious underground group I don’t know about?”
Peyton throws me a wary look. “Let’s just say you travel in different circles.”
“Yeah,” Leonard says. “Some of us like to have a little fun. We aren’t all wound up about getting the highest score in the history of Testing.”
“That’s not what I’m trying to do. It makes perfect sense to do things for the community and earn stuff for when we leave. Or at least it did.” I give a sharp sigh and refocus. “Do you guys know if Blake had anything to do with drinking alcohol or making it?”
