by JN Chaney
“Archer’s work with the students occupies most of his time now, the same as it does for me. We’re far too busy to sit around discussing policy, especially when a simple email will do.”
“Yet you refuse to give me proper updates.”
Bishop laughed. “You want an update? Okay. All of the children are fine. They’re doing great, in fact. The gas is actually improving their health in ways we never could’ve predicted.”
“That’s not what I hear,” she said.
He raised his brow. “Excuse me?”
Oh, well. No going back now, she thought. “I know all about the experiments...those students dying from the gas.”
A brief look of surprise covered his face but quickly settled. A rare sight, Mara thought. But the cracks were beginning to show.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, finally.
She shrugged. “There’s been whispers. A lot of people are talking.”
He smirked. “You claim facts, but all you have are rumors,” he said. “Whatever happened to the young pragmatist I used to know…the girl who scoffed at henhouse gossip?”
He was trying to guilt her, to twist her mind the way he always did, but she refused to flinch. “I don’t want to believe it, James, but I need reassurances. I need to be able to tell my mothers their children will be safe.”
“What are these stories you’re so intent on listening to?”
“Deaths,” she said. “Children dying from the gas. Needless risks. That sort of thing.”
“Aside from the fact that none of what you say is remotely true, any information I gave you would endanger this program.” He grabbed the baseball from the table and turned away in his chair. “Especially you.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“You can’t be trusted,” he muttered. “You were the one violating regulations by coming here and begging me for information about your son, remember? A boy, which, if you’ll recall, is part of this program, leaving you in an extremely compromised position. You can’t be trusted to act in the best interest of either the program or the people of this city. Not until your boy has graduated, anyway. You’re too damn close to this and you know it.” He smiled crookedly, a mocking gesture.
“You might be right,” she said. “But I’m also the matron, which gives me a legal right to that information. Under section thirty six of the Stone Charter, as the political representative of the motherhood, the matron is legally authorized full disclosure on all documents related to the treatment of students. That’s verbatim from the text. There’s no argument, no loophole. It is explicit.”
“I know all about the charter,” he said, waving his hand at her. “It doesn’t apply in this situation.”
“Of course it does! You have to comply.”
“I won’t,” he said.
“You don’t have a choice! Either you give me the documents or I…”
“You what?” he snapped. “You’ll go to somebody else? Who? The third wing of the charter? That would be Archer. I hate to break this to you, but he and I are in full agreement on the matter.”
“Which is why we have a judicial system. They can overrule you. Everyone’s accountable when it involves the law.”
“By all means,” he said, waving his hand. “No one will believe you. All you have are rumors and a colonel who refuses to give in to your childish demands.”
“What happens if they investigate and find the rumors to be true? What happens when the bodies start turning up? Are you really willing to go to prison over this?”
“If it means saving the future of the human race from your shortsighted, dimwitted hands, then yes,” he said, coldly. “In a heartbeat.”
She got to her feet and grabbed her things. “I’m withdrawing my offer. You won’t have your mothers, not until you’re ready to work with me.”
“We’ll see,” he said as she left.
She marched to the door and slammed it behind her, startling the secretary. “Sorry,” said Mara, shooting her a glance. “But your boss is such an ass.”
*******
November 20, 2345
The Academy, Central
After his blackout in the arena, Terry couldn’t shake the feeling that he was destined for a relapse. But several weeks and a few more visits to the chamber later, the blackouts never came. To his surprise, he found he enjoyed the exposures—the purest, sweetest air he’d ever tasted. The fumes were pleasant, somehow, giving him unprecedented vigor, the likes of which he’d never known before.
In fact, Terry felt better than he had his entire life. He no longer lost his breath from walking up a flight of stairs. He stopped being afraid of looking weak in the arena. He had so much energy that he didn’t know what to do with it all. When he got excited about something, he found himself rambling to his friends. He couldn’t contain the energy.
But now he sat in class, during study hour, unable to move or talk. In a few minutes, Mr. Nuber would hand back their physics tests. After that, they’d study for another thirty minutes and then released. Maybe he’d ask John to go with him to the gym afterwards. He laughed silently at the thought. John always asked him to go work out, but Terry never felt up to it. He couldn’t wait to see how John reacted.
Laughter erupted from the back of the class. He didn’t have to look to know who it came from. Alex and Cole were always so obvious when they goofed around. It wouldn’t take long before Mr. Nuber got onto them. Terry only hoped the teacher didn’t take it out on the whole class. The last thing Terry wanted was another group detention.
“I’m passing back the tests from yesterday,” Nuber said. “Overall, decent grades, but I’m expecting better next time. Some did fine. Others didn’t. You’d better improve.” He handed a stack of papers to Mei. She sat the closest to his desk and usually ended up distributing the graded assignments. “If you see a classmate struggling, help them. You’re not alone here. Each and every one of you are studying the exact same material, taking the same tests, listening to the same lectures. If you don’t help each other out, you aren’t gonna get very far.” He sat behind his desk and sighed, then snatched the pad he’d been reading and continued. “Oh, and Alex and Cole,” he said. “Stop screwing around…unless you want latrine duty for the rest of the week.”
The two boys went silent very fast.
Mei handed Terry his test. It had a few red marks, but he’d passed with an A-. Not bad.
John smiled and held up his paper. There was a circled C+ at the top of it. “Not too shabby, huh?”
“Great job,” said Terry.
“Don’t you guys want to know what I made?” asked Mei, standing in front of them.
“We already know what you got,” said John. “You always do the same on every test.”
“That may be true, but you could at least pretend to care. You know, like good friends do.”
Terry and John stared at her for a moment.
“In case you wanted to know, I made an A+,” she said, hastily.
“And there it is,” said John, waving his hand at her.
“Oh, shut up,” she said, rolling her eyes. She went back to her seat.
Terry raised his hand. “Sir, may I be excused?”
“Restroom or medical?” he asked. Those were the only two reasons they could leave during class.
“Restroom.”
Nuber grunted. “Go ahead.”
Terry left his desk and proceeded to leave the room. As he walked down the aisle, he passed by several desks and couldn’t stop himself from looking at the grades on the papers. Most of them were decent enough, but there was one failure. Nicholas.
Nick had always done well, at least early on. In fact, there was a time when he rivaled Mei for the highest GPA in the class. But recently, for whatever reason, things had changed. Nick barely passed any of the tests, including the easy ones, and when the other kids asked him about it, he acted lik
e he didn’t care. John said Nick had probably snapped from studying so hard, trying to stay ahead of the class, but Terry had a hard time believing it. Despite what John claimed, Nick never spent much time with his nose in a book. So what sense did it make for him to go crazy?
Terry shuddered at the thought. He shouldn’t call Nick crazy. If Terry had told anyone about what he saw in the arena—how the lights slowed, and his body went completely haywire—maybe they’d call him crazy, too.
But the gas did that. It changed him and made him sick. Is that what happened to Nick? If the gas could do what it did to Terry, why not Nick, too? Maybe Variant affected everyone differently, depending on the person.
Terry closed the classroom door and entered an empty hallway. He smiled, happy for the break. He didn’t really have to pee, but sitting behind a desk all day drove him absolutely nuts. He probably could’ve waited for the break, but this gave him more time to stretch his legs.
He entered the bathroom and went to one of the stalls. He felt guilty for wanting to get away from everyone, even his friends, but sometimes he just needed to be alone.
Sitting there in the stall, Terry’s mind wandered. He remembered his mother and sister, wishing they were still around. Despite never seeing them, he had little trouble remembering their faces.
He imagined himself in his room, reading to Janice, and it made him smile. Janice used to follow him everywhere. He never complained about it, even when she cried, which wasn’t often. She was like that from the moment Mother had brought her home.
Now, she was older, probably somewhere in the academy. Too bad he’d never see her there. After the exposures started, they moved Terry’s class to a remote wing of the school, close to the arena and the labs, but far from the other classrooms. The kids had to use different restrooms, a different gym. They even had their own cafeteria. They were being isolated. It didn’t take much to figure out why.
Suddenly, the door to the bathroom flew open and Terry flinched, his eyes widening. One of the other students had come in. Was it break time already? He started to stand, but stopped when he heard shoes screeching on the floor.
The metal wall next to him shook, hit by something else. A person? He looked at the floor and saw two sets of boots facing each other.
“Come on, moron,” said a voice. “Think you can say what you said and not pay for it? Come on, Nicky. Let’s see what you’re made of.”
“Stop it, Alex!” cried Nick, grunting as he scurried back against the stall.
“You think you’re so much better than everyone else?” asked Alex. He slammed Nick against the stall, scuffing the tiles with his shoes.
“I didn’t do anything!” cried Nick. Alex punched him hard and Nick gasped. “Stop it!”
Terry wanted to do something, but he couldn’t move. Every blow to Nick was another reason not to go. That’ll be me, he thought. If I go out there, that’ll be me. Then, what will I do? So he stayed, completely frozen, his arms wrapped tightly around his knees.
Nick fell to the floor, crying and shaking, his head below the stall. Terry stared at him. “Don’t you say a word to anyone about this,” ordered Alex. “If you do, I’ll kill you. Go ahead, and you’ll see. I promise.” He kicked Nick, and there was a loud thud.
Alex stormed off, and the door to the boys’ room slammed behind him, leaving a swell of silence. After a few short moments, Nick began to weep, huffing and sniveling as he lay on the cold floor.
Terry opened the door and stepped out of the stall. A mirror spanned the entire wall, and he immediately saw his classmate in the corner of it, his arms around his sides. Terry ran to him. “Are you okay?” he asked.
Nick struggled to sit up, leaning against the wall, tears in his eyes. “He kicked me,” he said, snot dripping from his nose. “It hurts really bad.”
Terry hated himself. Why’d he stay in the stall? Why didn’t he interfere? He was so weak. I’m such a coward. “I should’ve stopped him.”
“But then he would’ve hit you, too.”
Terry helped Nick to his feet. “You have to tell Mr. Nuber.”
“No way,” said Nick. “You heard Alex. He’ll just do it again.”
Terry didn’t think so, but he knew Nick wouldn’t take the risk. If Alex did attack him again, he wouldn’t stop at a few kicks to the stomach. So long as Nick believed there was a chance of it, he’d never turn Alex in. The fear of pain was simply too much.
“But you can’t just let him get away with it,” said Terry.
“What else am I supposed to do?” he asked.
Why didn’t Nick want to do anything? How could he let it go so easily? “You tell on him, Nick. It isn’t right what he did!”
“He made fun of me for my test score. I got mad and argued. I shouldn’t have said anything. It’s my fault.”
“No! That’s stupid. You didn’t do anything wrong, Nick.”
“It’s okay,” said Nick, wiping his face with his sleeve. “He hit me, and now he’s done. If I went to Mr. Nuber, it wouldn’t make it go away.”
Terry squeezed his fist. “But…”
“Forget about it, Terry,” said Nick, straightening his shirt. “It’s better not to tell. Sometimes it hurts more when you do.”
Chapter 10
Amber Project File Logs
Play Audio File 1677
Received December 02, 2345
NUBER: Alex is getting worse. I’m running out of ways to punish the kid. Did you see the video of what he did to Nicholas?
ARCHER: We predicted behavioral changes. The boy’s aggression is nothing to be concerned about.
NUBER: The hell it isn’t. Eventually he’s really going to hurt someone.
BISHOP: I get your frustrations, but we can’t just pull him out of class.
NUBER: Then stop dosing him with the gas. Cut the problem off at the source.
ARCHER: Unacceptable. Removing the subject will hinder the results of the experiment.
NUBER: What good does it do anyone?
ARCHER: His reaction is unique. Further research may provide us with a means of preventing such a perversion in future experiments.
NUBER: And if he ends up killing someone? What then?
BISHOP: We’ll deal with it. Remember what’s at stake here, Henry.
NUBER: Please, spare me the speech. I’ve heard it so much I’ve got the damn thing memorized.
End Audio File
February 13, 2346
The Academy, Central
Terry slouched and stifled a yawn, dropping his head and trying to hide it. Mr. Nuber didn’t like yawns during lectures. He said when you yawned, you couldn’t hear anything, and he didn’t want anyone to miss what was happening. “Everything I say is important,” he would remind the class when a student asked about it. “And if you miss something, even just a few words, you’ll be lost. No excuses.” If you actually had the audacity to bring yourself to yawn and he saw it, he’d stop the lecture cold and stare until you stopped. He’d cock his head a little to the left and give a look that said, I’m stopping because of you, you little bastard. Thanks a lot.
Terry managed it without being seen, then watched as Mr. Nuber wrote out an equation on the board with a digi-pen.
He looked at Nick and wondered how he was feeling. Did he regret not telling Mr. Nuber? It’d been a few days since the fight in the boys’ room and nothing had happened. Maybe everything really was okay.
He’d thought about telling John or Mei about it but decided against it. If Nick wanted anyone else to know, he’d tell them. It wasn’t Terry’s responsibility, right? Then, why did he feel so guilty? He shuddered. Relax, he thought. Watch the teacher. Listen.
“Now we’re going to talk about tectonic plates,” said Nuber. “We touched on them briefly in the last lesson, but today they’re the focus.” He pulled up a map of the Earth with large, jagged lines spread out across it. Some had names, others didn’t. “They’re the reaso
n continents exist,” he explained. “Or mountain ranges. Or trenches in the ocean. They grind against one another, and they push the rock up to form hills and peaks. When they pull apart, we see the land separate. Sometimes when they’re grinding against each other, we get the quakes. You see, class, these plates, they’re jagged and deformed, so when they do this grinding, they sometimes get stuck on each other, locking into place for a while. But they don’t just stop moving. No, on the contrary, they keep moving, even though part of them is stuck. That’s when the tension builds and then the part that’s caught snaps, almost like a rubber band, which is where the quake comes from—that release of tension.” He pointed at the screen. “Most of the time, these quakes happen on these lines here, but sometimes they’re so big that you can feel them far away. We aren’t on a line, but we’re not that far from one, either, so sometimes we get them. They hit us and we have to do a few repairs, reinforce the supports. Those nasty plates can be a pain in the ass at times, but they’re rare and we never get the bad ones.”
Terry didn’t care about tectonic plates. In fact, he was having a hard time caring about anything the teacher talked about. He leaned forward, staring at the map, trying to feign interest. It was a good lie, another to add to his list. He was becoming an expert on lies. Thanks to Alex. No, he thought. Not because of Alex. It’s my own fault.
“Terry,” said John, suddenly. He flinched at the sound of his own name. “Hey, it’s time to go. You okay?”
“He’s just daydreaming,” said Mei. She and John were standing over him now. Was class over already?
“Well, snap out of it. We have to go back to our room and study, remember? You promised to help me.”
“Right, yeah.”
“Let’s go,” said Mei. “Most of the class is already gone.”
He followed after them, trying to shake the thoughts that kept circling his mind.
That afternoon, they studied until dinner. After that, John wanted to go exercise in the gym, play in the arena. He enjoyed it more than the classroom, especially since Terry had started getting better.
