by Melissa Faye
We were thinking one day at a time, and I couldn’t stop thinking about the bigger problems facing the Underground.
My TekCast buzzed and I peeked at the new message. It was from Alexis.
“Charlie, Etta, Etta 2, Breck, Hope, Teo disappeared overnight. We didn’t hear them taken from my own house. TekCasts and belongings left behind. Left no trace.”
My head spun and I braced myself by grabbing my chair’s arm rests and holding on tight. I turned away from the group. My heartbeat was like a ticking clock, going faster and faster as it counted down the time until I exploded. Or until Charlie was lost forever. The group’s discussion faded away into a murmur, and the walls closed in around me. I hurried out of my chair, TekCast in hand, and sprinted out of the room. I landed in the hallway where I could sit on the floor leaning against a wall and reread Alexis’s message.
I gulped in big breaths of air. Gianna appeared next to me and gently took the TekCast from my hand. She read the message still open on the pink holoscreen and sat next to me in silence.
“Those are your friends?” she asked. I nodded.
“I know Breck, don’t I? And Charlie? They were part of the Underground here. Breck’s girlfriend had a child, didn’t she?”
“Hope,” I said.
We sat in silence again.
“Let’s go to HQ,” Gianna said. “I’ll convince Omer. At least while we’re there we can learn more about where your friends went and how to get them out.”
I felt my panic turn to rage. “And we can take down the Chancellor,” I said, staring Gianna down and clenching my jaw. “No one should be able to take and control people like this. It’s all he does. He uses all of us to get more control. No more.”
Gianna nodded. “No more,” she repeated.
A FEW HOURS LATER, we were back in the truck I first used to drive to Young Woods. Someone had looked at the engine and fixed a few parts that weren’t working properly. We could drive faster now, and we could get to HQ within a day or so.
Gianna took the first shift driving. We had a map that would hopefully navigate our way around any dangerous areas, but we had weapons in the back in case the map wasn’t accurate.
My friends were out there somewhere. Charlie was at a Breeding Camp, like livestock, and HQ might know where. I didn’t know where the others would be since they already had children. Etta 2 might be forced to pair off with someone else since her son Teo’s father was dead.
There was no way Charlie would go down without a fight. And if he did, if they broke him somehow, I would come after them and make them pay.
We reached Headquarters in the morning. It looked to be a mix of a standard UCA community with added on campgrounds and updated buildings. I couldn’t help feeling a sense of awe and wonder at the sight. The guards waved us inside after verifying our identities, and we were directed to park the truck in a large empty space that held a dozen other vehicles.
Someone came to greet us and did a double-take when he saw me. I clenched my fists. If people were so unhappy to have me here, that’s too bad for them. I was only twenty-one, but I was as qualified as any of them were to plan a rebellion and fight the Chancellor.
We were led towards the main headquarters. Like the other overthrown communities I had seen, it was situated in what used to be the Chancellor’s mansion. The similarities ended there. Someone had chipped away the carving outside the building with the UCA motto, leaving an ugly, damaged façade. The large lush carpets were stripped from the floors and most of the fancy furniture had been moved or destroyed. Paintings were torn off walls, and there were no ornate end tables with vases of flowers. Screens and print outs covered the walls, and people sat on plain folding chairs, typing on their TekCasts at a furious pace.
We walked up one floor into a meeting room I’d never seen before. It was messy and crowded. All the attention seemed to be focused on a small central table. They were looking at a woman with her back to me; she seemed to be their leader. She looked to be about my height, with similar black curly hair to my own.
Someone ran past me, brushing my shoulder. He turned to look at me, and looked immediately horrified.
“So sorry, Yami,” he said. Then he looked towards the main table, and back towards me.
A wave of recognition passed through me as the woman in charge turned in her chair. She stood up to greet us. She was exactly the same height as me. Her hair was exactly like mine, though there was some gray among the black. Her face mirrored mine exactly, except for a thirty year difference.
She was in charge of the entire operation. And she was my clone.
Chapter 6 – Charlie
The Breeder Camp turned out was just another updated version of a community. I was set up in a small house in what I expected to be the Bronze neighborhood, but the area was well developed and the house was in pristine condition. I slept for a few hours, then made myself get up and walk around.
The community was a strange combination of cheerful people wearing white wristbands like myself and a larger but more discrete population of people wearing light blue jumpsuits, wristbands, and collars. The second group walked around at a brisk pace, constantly checking their wristbands while they went about their work. I went to the Med, where I had interned in Young Woods, but was stopped at the door by one of the people in jumpsuits.
“Sir? Do you have a medical issue?” the woman said. She had bright red hair and hazel eyes with dull, sunken cheeks. I could see how tight the collar was. The woman gave a slight grimace when she moved her neck, like it was irritating her but she didn’t dare complain. I smiled brightly at her, but she kept a straight face.
“Uh...no. I used to work at the Med. I was a doctor. I just got here this morning, though, so I wasn’t sure where they want me now.”
The woman flushed. “No, sir, you aren’t supposed to be here,” she said, head lowered. “Breeders don’t work.”
“Then who runs the Med?”
“NBs took over all the work, sir,” the woman said. She turned her head to both sides, craning her neck to look around. “I’m not sure I’m allowed to talk to you, sir.” She made as if to turn away, but I pulled her back towards me.
“Wait!” I said. I smiled. “What are NBs? Why wouldn’t I work? Who runs all of this?”
“Non-breeders,” she whispered. “Now let go and let me return to my station.” I dropped her arm and she scurried back inside the building, letting the door slide closed in my face.
I felt a buzz on my left wrist coming from the band that had been locked on. I wasn’t sure what to do. It buzzed again, more urgently, so I felt around for some sort of button or pad. The band came to life when I placed my thumb directly on the band above the inside of my wrist. A small holoscreen appeared.
“Please make your way towards the central square for orientation. Orientation begins at 3 pm.”
It was only 2:15, so I had time. I flicked through the holoscreen to see what it could do. The message came from an account named The Hideaway. There were hundreds of other contacts, each with a picture of the citizen. Zheng was there. I didn’t know anyone else. I tried to enter Yami’s name and code, and an error message appeared. “NO USER FOUND.” I shouldn’t have been surprised; they told me as much.
I walked up and down a few streets. The light blue jumpsuits, the NBs I reminded myself, started to blend into the surroundings. They moved quickly and tried to stay out of sight. The light blue helped.
But the other breeders were pleasant. I was greeted by smiles everywhere I went. I neared the F-Lab, and wondered what it would become in a community that no longer needed to conduct fertility research.
The building was turned into a large meeting hall. The doors were open and I stepped inside to see dozens of people congregating. The glass walls that usually partitioned the main floor were gone. Instead, the entire floor looked like a social space. There were couches and tables against the walls, a row of vending cylinders, and softer lighting than the usual laborat
ory lights.
People gathered towards the center of the room around a tall man standing on a table giving a speech. They listened in rapt silence.
“And so if we are to honor the gods, we must procreate!” the man called. “Do the duty you have been chosen for, and you will see yourself the great ancestor of a new age of humanity!”
People cheered. I looked around on my tiptoes. Everyone’s eyes gazed reverently at the speaker. Each person wore a large silver pin on their chests shaped like a teardrop. Someone approached me and handed me one as well.
“We’re the chosen, aren’t we?” she whispered. “We’ve been chosen by the gods.” She smiled and moved along to the next person.
I looked at the pin. It wasn’t well made; just some cardboard with a safety pin attached. The silver looked like spray paint.
“So enjoy the rewards we have earned here today,” the man continued. “We have earned them through our dedication to the solution, and through the merits of our very being. Go out and spread the word to your friends and future partners. This is the way it is for a reason. We deserve to be here.”
A woman raised her hand. “What about the NBs? What about their collars?”
The man laughed dramatically. “What about them?” he asked the group. “They have not been deemed worthy of all that we have! Let them serve us here while we continue our mission from the gods. We are the parents of society to come, and they were only here to clear the path.”
I snuck outside while people called out and whistled. I realized I was grasping the pin so tightly in my hand that I had poked myself. Blood trickled out of a small cut in my palm. The silver droplet – it had to be blood. Our blood made us “the chosen,” as that man had said. I felt my stomach churn and shoved the pin deep into the pockets of the jeans someone had provided for me in my house.
The woman guarding the med had seemed so terrified of me. She wasn’t the chosen, as those people would have said. She was there to serve us. When I spoke to her, she only wanted to return to her job. What made the NBs so afraid?
ORIENTATION TOOK PLACE in a small circle of chairs on the mansion lawn. I sat next to Zheng, who gave me an uncomfortable smile. There was one other person present, another young woman.
The man who showed us to our houses was there and introduced himself as Lee.
“Welcome to The Hideaway!” he cried, as if he was speaking to a much larger crowd. “If you’re here, it’s because you’ve already seen one of the functions of your Breeder Band – your B-Band. It will alert you when we have messages to share with the whole camp and allow you to message with other town members. You have access to a calendar of all town events and it will remind you when the event is approaching. Besides that, it has many of the same functions of your former TekCasts.”
I watched Zhang and the other woman scroll through their B-Band screens. I touched my palm where the silver pin had cut me. It had stopped bleeding, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
“You’ll be at The Hideaway until you find your partner,” Lee continued. “Once you make a match, we’ll have a wedding and farewell ceremony, and then send you to the Family Camp. That’s where you’ll have children and raise them to understand the morals and values of the UCA.”
If that was true, then that was where Etta and Breck were. And it meant more indoctrination for the children, just like we saw when we found the abducted bio kids a few weeks earlier. It was another jail, and another place where the Chancellor could exert his power. Lee smiled to us, as if going to the Family Camp was some sort of high honor. Everything just made me feel more ill.
“Pull up the community calendar and you’ll be able to see the variety of social activities we have planned,” Lee said. He directed us to the right program on our B-Bands. Sure enough, there was a calendar of the current month with dozens of activities to choose from, color coded by type.
“There are two events this evening,” Lee said, pointing them out on Zheng’s holoscreen. “There’s an ice cream social at seven, and a Movie Under the Stars in the eastside park. You’re encouraged to attend most, if not all, events.” He laughed and spoke more quietly, as if he was giving us the best gossip now. “People attend almost everything, unless they’re in a relationship,” he whispered. “You’ll want to date a lot of people and find that perfect match. Once you have someone, you won’t want to be attending all the public events anymore.” He laughed again.
“What about the people in the jumpsuits?” I said. “What’s their role?”
Lee’s face darkened. “Those are the NBs. They do service work. They take care of everything around here so you can focus on finding a partner.”
“What about my job?” Zheng asked. “I used to work in technology. Can I still do that?”
Lee shifted uncomfortably in his folding chair. “You don’t need to work anymore,” he said. “That’s what we have the NBs for. Your job is to find someone to have children with.”
It felt surreal. “What if I don’t want to find a partner here? And what if I don’t want to be served by the NBs? I can work in the Med...”
“You don’t need to work, Charlie,” said Lee. His face tightened and he folded his arms. This was clearly not a subject he wanted to discuss.
“Listen, you three,” said Lee. “You’re the luckiest people here. Everyone wants to meet new breeders. And you can attend parties, socialize, eat the best foods and live in the best houses. We’ll make sure you stay healthy and fit, and we’ll surround you with all of your potential partners. There’s no downside to you being here.”
“Except that I can’t leave,” I muttered. Lee ignored me, though I could tell by his scowl that he heard.
“That’s all for orientation,” Lee said. “You can talk to myself or message The Hideaway if you need anything. But I’m sure you’ll find yourselves well taken care of here.”
He stood and walked away, and there wasn’t much to do besides follow. I started to fold and stack the folding chairs, but an NB hurried over and took them out of my hands.
“Let me get that for you, sir,” the man said. He was elderly, and didn’t look to be in any shape for manual labor.
“I’m happy to help,” I said. “Why do they have you here on the grounds? Couldn’t you be doing something...where you’re not on your feet all day?”
The man avoided my eyes. “I’m fine with my assignment,” he said. “You’d be best to not question those things.”
“What if I want to question them?”
“I’ll rephrase. I’d be better off if you didn’t question these things.”
I frowned as the man finished stacking the chairs and carried them away. He walked slowly with an uncomfortable gait. He was about fifty feet away from me when he dropped the chairs and had to pack them together again. He looked back at me for a fleeting second before walking away again.
I CAUGHT UP WITH ZHENG. Our houses were on the same block, so we were headed in the same direction. She walked with the woman who was at our orientation.
“What do you make out of all of this?” I asked them.
Zheng shrugged. “It’s all strange, isn’t it? I don’t know what I’ll do all day if I’m not working. I guess I really won’t have anything to do besides make friends. Like Lee said.”
“Doesn’t it feel wrong?” I said. “We’re partying all day, and the others are serving us?”
“They have jobs. Like we used to.” She paused. “I don’t know, Charlie. This has all been complicated. Trying to do my job at Gentle Acres, being abducted and moved here, told I can never have a job again. I liked my job! But it would be nice to be as happy as Lee was. To just eat good food and meet good people. And the NBs, it can’t be that different for them. They had other jobs, now they work here.”
The other woman was silent.
“Of course it’s different for them! They’re in that section outside of The Hideaway, fenced in and living in tents. Have you spoken to them? They seem terrified. Something strang
e is going on. Whatever those things on their neck do...they’re scared, Zheng.”
She stopped and stared into my eyes. “What am I supposed to do about that, Charlie?” She pointed to a nearby lawn, where a woman in a jumpsuit was mowing the grass. “She looks ok. She’s taking care of us. We can have kids, and she can’t, so she’s helping us do just that. I’m not sure it’s all doom and gloom like you’re talking about. And I don’t want to sit around being angry about it.”
I couldn’t believe Zheng felt this way after everything she must have seen in Gentle Acres. It was like the color system but so much worse. We were Golds, and they were Grays. Only we didn’t even have to work anymore; the NBs took care of everything. They wore collars, like animals.
Except I was trapped there too. What does that make me? I thought.
Zheng eased the tension with one of her small smiles, though it felt fake at the moment. She reached for and squeezed my hand, then headed away, leaving me standing with the other woman.
“I’m Mallory,” she said. “You’re Charlie, right?” I nodded.
“We need to find out more about what’s going on,” said Mallory. “I feel like I’m trapped under a glass bowl. I don’t want to be here for a second longer than I have to.”
“Me neither. We’ll have to see who else feels the same way. They can’t all be happy to have been pulled away from their lives.”
“I left someone behind, Charlie,” Mallory said tentatively. “My wife, Veronica.”
She paused. I left someone behind too. I wanted to be with Yami, even if she was infertile. But if they forced me to have kids with someone here...it was much different for Mallory. I wasn’t sure what to say.
