by Martha Adele
“The chancellor hasn’t been elected yet.”
Eric chuckles. “I know. The capitol building hasn’t been finished yet either. I was just wondering if you had gotten an invitation yet.”
“No, why would I?”
“You were part of the Taai, remember?”
I think back to John telling us how we were and still are valued members of the Taai and “will always be treated as one.”
“Are the Taai members being invited?” I ask Eric.
He nods. “As far as I know.”
I move one of my pieces and give into the urge to yawn. “What about you,” I moan as my yawn comes to an end.
“Not yet, but John told me that all the high-ranking military members would get invited, along with most of the government officials and politicians.”
“And you and I are high-ranking military members?”
He nods. “The Taai is the highest rank. It is our elite force, and I doubt John would let the team go by without getting recognition.”
A few moments of silence between us pass as we stare at the board and try to plan out our next moves. As I listen to our surroundings, I have slowly become convinced that some of the men in here have smuggled in booze.
I hear them whisper between each other to “put it away, put it away” and “give me some.” When I look over my shoulder, I see one of them taking a swig of a bottle with a towel wrapped around it. He chuckles as he passes it around his circle of card players.
My attention is brought back to the game when Eric calls out to me, “Check.”
I look down and realize this game is coming to an end. As I try to figure out what to do, Eric crosses his arms and leans back into his wheelchair. “So have you beat Mavis at chess yet?”
“Me? Beat Mavis?” I snort. “I don’t think so. She is even better at this than you are.”
“I see.” He pauses for a moment and looks over the board. “So are you and Mavis a, um, ‘thing’?”
A confused smirk rises on my face as I look at Eric, who is finally making eye contact. He chuckles when he sees my confusion, but doesn’t say anything.
“What? A ‘thing’?” I ask him. “What are you talking about?”
“You know what I’m talking about.”
“Well”—I move one of my pieces in front of my king—“if you mean a couple, then no. We are not.”
Eric looks back down at the board and resumes his silent thinking position. After a few moments pass, Eric moves another one of his pieces and calls, “Check.”
I know I am about to lose, but I shan’t give up easily.
“Why not?” he asks me.
Again, a confused smirk rises on my face. “Why not what?”
“Why aren’t you two a thing?”
I shrug as I move my king over one space. “I don’t know.”
Placing me in checkmate, Eric returns with, “It’s pretty obvious you like her.”
“Yeah right.” I chuckle as we reset the board.
“It’s okay. It’s not a big deal, but denying it won’t make any difference.” He winks at me. “I won’t tell anyone.”
We reset the board without another word. I think about how Eric has never spoken of anyone he fancies. The only girl I have ever really seen him interact with was Janice, somewhat Mavis, and Mandy. The only one out of those three that I would even consider an option for him is Mandy, and that is because she is obviously smitten with the “elite force member.”
The more I think about it, the more I realize that Eric has never spoken about his family or his past at all.
“Eric,” I say to him as he moves his first piece, “do you, um, do you know, um …”
He looks up at me and shoots me an almost annoyed look.
“Your family,” I continue. “Do you know where your family is?”
I move my piece as he looks back down at the board. “I don’t have a family anymore.” He moves another piece. “Both of my parents died during the epidemic, and my younger brother was in the military. He died during the war.”
“I’m sorry.” I move another piece. “How old was your brother?”
“Eighteen.” Eric clenches his jaw and moves his horse in front of one of the many pawns. “He signed up to help at the last minute.” I move one of my horses and do the same thing that Eric did. “He wanted to be a doctor.” He continues, choking back his emotions. “I was so sure he was going to be one. He was so smart and determined.” Eric chuckles. “Even more than me.”
A few moments of silence pass as we play the game. The room seems to become much calmer as the news about the capitol building echoes through the room.
“It should have been me,” Eric whimpers.
I stay quiet, not knowing what to say. The woman on the news switches over to a male announcer whose shirt looks to be the same color as snot yellow.
“Thank you, Laura. Good afternoon, everyone, today I am here in front of one of the new career buildings where everyone will be going next week to decide on their new profession! Bestellen used to force their citizens to take whatever career they were assigned as a baby, even if they were no good at it, but this all changes as we enter a new age of prosperity …”
Since everyone is now out of Bergland, most of the cities are almost fully repaired, which means in a few days, the week of career choices will begin. Many people will choose to be builders because of how needed they are and that they don’t have much education for anything else. They will take a few classes before they start, but with the technology Bergland has brought over, building isn’t going to be one of the harder jobs.
The man on the screen continues and tells us which career options are the best-paying ones, the most-needed ones, the ones which will require the most education, and so on and so forth.
After everyone chooses their new career path and is assigned to a new job, they will get to select a house and a payment plan to pay off the house. The real estate officers will make sure that everything is chosen according to need, meaning, if one single man decides he wants to be a florist, but chooses to live in the biggest house in town by himself, they can refuse to sell him that house because it would take too long for him to pay it off.
Once everyone gets a job and a living arrangement set up, the following week will have one day where we can go and cast our vote for the chancellor, who comes along with a set of advisors.
The council members, such as head of education, head of health, and all the other leading positions from Bergland will be transferring over here to continue in their given positions. The thing the people will be voting for is a new chancellor, who will then choose a group of people to help guide himself and the council members.
I am somewhat upset about the fact that we have to be twenty years old to vote. If we are old enough to fight in the war at eighteen, then why aren’t we old enough to have a say in who runs the country?
Along with the fact that there is nonstop coverage on the news about each candidate, there are pamphlets in every office building about all contestants for chancellor, so I am hoping that everyone will do their research before voting. There are many hologram screens in the capital, so most everyone here will be exposed to the news coverage in one way or another. From what I’ve heard, there is at least one in every building.
This fact baffles me just to think about. Just a few months ago, I would never have expected all of this to be where Bestellen once was.
I look up at Eric as he moves another one of his pieces. “Will you be voting next week?” I ask him. Eric is twenty-three, so I figure he will take advantage of it.
Eric’s eyes are squeezed closed, his fists are clenched, and he squirms within his seat, seemingly trying to escape from pain.
“Are you okay?” I ask him. “Do you want me to—”
“I’m fine,” he snaps at me. Eric
quickly adjusts his posture to a perfect position and moves his queen forward. “Check.”
I look at Eric with confusion as I take his queen with my queen. “Check?” I say to him, wondering how he could have missed this setup.
Eric grunts in pain and squeezes his eyes closed again.
“Are you okay?” I reiterate. “Do you want me to go get a nurse?”
Eric sniffles, clears his throat, and shakes his head. He takes my queen with a pointy piece. “Checkmate,” he tells me as nonchalantly as he can.
I raise one eyebrow at him and hesitantly begin resetting the board.
Eric winces once more as I move the pieces and reaches down below the table, kicking one of the table’s legs in the process. With one swift grunt of pain, he quickly takes the brakes off his wheelchair and rolls backward.
“I’ll play later,” he tells me, rolling faster than I’ve ever seen him roll. Without stopping, Eric rolls through the crowd, weaves through the tables, and hits the side of the door on the way out. He hesitates for a split second before continuing out of the room as quickly as possible.
CHAPTER FOUR
Sam
Back to the capitol’s administration offices I go. I wave to the woman who drove me and make my way in to find myself at the end of a very long line of people. I can’t help but get slightly annoyed. Shouldn’t there be more people working at this desk?
After a few minutes, I realize there are three separate people at the desk helping whoever is next in line. They just happen to be taking much longer than I wish. Once my turn arrives, I am called over to the woman at the far right.
“How can I help you?” she asks me.
“I’d like a transfer request.”
The woman gives me a confused chuckle. “What kind of transfer?”
“Sorry.” Realizing the vagueness of my request, I elaborate. “A hospital transfer. One of the nurses at my mother’s hospital said to ask this office for a transfer sheet.”
“Under what grounds do you want the transfer?”
“Grounds?” I ask her. “What do you mean?”
She gives me another chuckle, this time seeming more rude. “Meaning, why do you want the transfer?”
“Oh, um, so that my mother can be closer to me.”
“You are going to need a better reason than that.” She sighs and leans forward to me. “Do you mean so that your mother can be near you, the person who provides for the family”—she clears her throat—“the meat bearer?”
My head finds its way into a slow nod as I catch her hint. “Yes. That is what I mean. I am the family provider. I need her, I mean, she needs to be here with me.”
The woman nods to me and holds out a scanner. I place my wrist under and the red line scans up and down my code.
“Okay, Mr. Beckman, you will be called back to these offices soon to review what all a transfer requires and entails.” She smiles at me and turns to the next person in line. “Next please.”
Before I can thank her, someone pushes past me and steals my spot. I take that action as my cue and head back to Sarah and Mavis at the kitchen. Once I make it outside, I flag down one of the many cabs roaming the street. On our way to the kitchen, I can’t help but let my mind drift back to the time I got to spend with my mother. Why did she feel like she needed to act as if she was okay?
I mean, she survived, and I am superhappy she did. I remember the anxious feeling of not knowing whether or not she was even alive, but just because others have it worse does not mean that she isn’t allowed to feel bad.
She is allowed to request medicine if she is in pain, just like I am allowed to take a vial if I need to calm down.
The thing is, when I am with her, I don’t feel the need to take the vials. The whole time I was with her, I never even had to think about taking the vials.
I will do anything, get any job that I need, to make sure I can get Mom up here and get her the medical attention she needs.
When I finally make it to the kitchen, it is almost an hour after the morning shift started and the breakfast rush has come in full swing. There are very few restaurants and produce stores in the capitol right now, so this cafeteria is busy. This isn’t the only cafeteria in the city, but it is the largest and happens to be toward the center.
The moment I step into the building, I am consumed by the crowd. A woman to my right, with red hair, shoves past me to get in line before me even though I wasn’t planning to get in line. She continues to shove past people until she bumps into a large man who stands his ground. As soon as she elbows him to get in front, I see him bow up as his eyes meet hers. As much as I desire to watch this unravel, I scurry through the crowd and back to the kitchen, which is now set up to look exactly like the one back in Bergland.
My eyes fall upon Sarah, who is at the front, working in the serving lines as always. Making my way over to her, I catch a glimpse of Mavis in the back of the room cutting vegetables and decide to not bother Sarah. I wash my hands, head back to Mavis, and immediately get to work.
As the knife slides into my hand, Mavis turns to me and sets hers down. “Sam!” She throws her arms around me without using her juice-covered hands. I do the same to her, and we chuckle as we retract.
“How’s your mother?” she asks me, scooting back to her cutting board.
“Fine,” I tell her. “She was shot in the arm trying to save a kid, but she is okay now. How is Logan?”
She rolls her eyes. “He says he is fine, but he was blown up twice.”
“Blown up?”
“Twice!” she reiterated.
I can’t help but chuckle. “Is he okay?”
Mavis nods. “He can walk and talk like normal. There is no permanent damage. No limbs were lost or anything.” She turns back to the cutting board and picks up her knife to continue. “At least not on him.”
“What? What do you mean ‘at least not on him’?”
She continues cutting and glances over to me. “Eric was in both explosions too.”
I pause, not sure what to say. I begin cutting and stare at the vegetables as I ask, “Is he okay?”
She shrugs. “He was after the first explosion. The second one did some damage.”
“What happened?”
“He lost one of his legs.” She clears her throat and places her chopped vegetables into the large pot. “He lost it saving Logan from the explosion.”
I pause again.
Saving Logan from the explosion? Is this the same Eric that stood by and watched me get bullied?
Or is it the same Eric who stood up for me when no one was watching?
“Is he okay?” I ask her.
She nods. “He will be.”
After a few moments of silence, I jump back into the conversation. “How about you? I’m sorry, I should have asked that first. How are you? What have you all done in the last few days? Where have you stayed?”
She smiles. “I stayed at Derek’s house with him and his mom.”
“Oh, you did, didn’t you?” I elbow her in her arm and chuckle as she elbows me back. “I’m kidding, how was it? Was there much room? What was the house like? How is his mom? How about him?”
“Sam”—she looks over and holds her hands up toward me—“one question at a time please.”
“Okay,” I scoff at her. “What kind of house are they staying in? No.” I pause my chopping. “Where is their house? Is it in the city or what?”
“Again, those were multiple questions, but I’ll answer anyway. It is a small cabin-type house, and it is in the middle of the woods a few dozen miles away from here.”
I nod to her. “That sounds like something you’d like. Are you going to keep staying with them?”
She shrugs. “I don’t see why not. Derek will be needing some help taking care of his mother, and I think I can help when I’m not wor
king.”
“What’s wrong with his mom?”
I realize the bluntness of this question the moment it leaves my mouth. Mavis turns from the vegetables and looks at me with what seems like a light glare.
“Wait, no, scratch that, new question,” I tell her as she turns back to the veggies. “Do you know where I can stay? You know, to sleep?”
“Sarah said that some of the workers in the kitchen are all sharing a place until they find their own homes and get different jobs.” She throws the cut veggies into the pot. “I’m sure you can stay with them too.”
I nod. “I will ask her when I get the chance, but I need to catch up on some work first before I ask for any favors.”
She chuckles and looks at a man who is wearing a small messy smock and appears to be in his thirties. He comes over to us and plops down a large tub of more vegetables to cut.
“Hi, Mavis.” He glances at me and forms a guessing smirk. “Hi, Sam?”
I nod as Mavis smiles back at him. “Hi, Aiden.” She turns to me and gestures to the man. “Sam, this is Aiden. Aiden, this is Sam.”
As I shake his hand, Mavis continues to cut her vegetables and introduce us. “While you were gone, he and I worked together. Aiden is actually from Bloot too.”
“Yeah, just a few precincts away from hers.” He wipes his hands on his smock and crosses his arms. “I am so happy that I got out of there when I did. The rest of my family along with most of my friends wanted to stay there when the revolt came, but I couldn’t understand why.”
“It’s home to them,” Mavis tells us. After a short moment of silence, Mavis clears her throat, looks back at us, and sets her knife down. “I am going to go and grab another pot for the cut vegetables.”
I find myself watching her leave as I shift back to the cutting table. Once she is out of sight, I turn back to the man. “It’s nice meeting you, Aiden. She hasn’t given you any trouble while I was gone, has she?”
He chuckles. “Only a bit.” Aiden looks around the room and leans in toward me. “My name is actually Hayden, with an H.”
