Rebekkah walks closer, hovering over my field of vision. She looks at me like my old professor did. Professor Philips didn’t like me asking too many questions either, and when I did, she would stand me up in front of the lecture group and make me answer questions about where we lived and the war. I was made to answer questions about The Force before I had been taken by them. I wonder if my need to ask questions comes from the fact I was made to answer so many for most of my life.
She doesn’t seem to want to answer my question, which makes my curiosity peak.
“What is The Purifying?” I ask through gritted teeth.
“It is the event that happens when a soul is deemed unworthy,” she answers quietly.
“And what does that event consist of?”
“Let’s just say you don’t want to find out!”
She says the words as she walks out of the room. Rebekkah Jonni doesn’t come back, instead the nurses return. They silently begin to unwrap me. As the layers of gauze come off, I can see that my skin has been renewed. Like my family, I look a bit paler than I did before, but with all that I have been through, I am sure that’s why.
“Please, get up,” Cloe says dryly.
I stand up, making it easy to move with each step I take.
“This way, miss,” Rita says in the same tone.
I suspect that Rebekkah informed them about my questions and told them I was not to be trusted or talked to other than in a professional way.
They both lead me to a doorway where I am placed standing up on an X on the floor. Both nurses walk to the other side of the hall. Rita flips a switch on the other side and the floor begins to move. The floor is moving me on its own in the direction of the two nurses. Suddenly, a calm mist rains down from the ceiling. The mist is a cool, refreshing water and oil combination.
I could stay in this forever.
When I reach the other side, Rita flips the switch, causing the floor to stop moving. The jolt causes me to topple forward. I don’t fall, but I do trip. Both girls laugh as if I am their own private joke. I chose to ignore them, but if they don’t watch it, they will be on my bad side.
In this room, there are several open closets with nothing but white clothes in them.
“Choose,” Rita demands.
“What?”
“Chose an outfit,” Cloe explains.
I walk from one group of clothes to another. One group is men’s clothes only. Others are filled with dresses that are far too fancy to wear to a mess hall, and others that are way too short to wear at all.
“So, we have freedom of choice with what we wear,” I say, “just not the color.” I snicker.
Both women look at me as if I were an alien. Maybe I am, or, maybe they are.
I think about what the rest of my family are wearing. Apart from my mother and little sister who are in dresses, each member of my group is wearing white jeans and a plain t-shirt. I select the same thing. There must be a reason they chose something so easy to move in.
I lace a pair of white tennis shoes over my white socks. I much prefer my black combat boots. These will be no good to run or fight in, should it come to that, which I am sure at some point it will.
The nurses lead me through one last room. Warm bursts of air come from all directions, warming me and drying my hair.
“Now to your pod,” Rita says,
I follow them out of the Bath House with a smile on my face. I don’t know these people know who we are or what we can do, but they just made one mistake. Our Methrodine dependency drug us down, it was our weakness, and they took it away.
From all of us.
Chapter Fifteen
The nurses lead me into yet another stark white room. Over the door to this room it says Pod 960.
I walk inside the room, the nurses parting ways with me without so much as a goodbye or nice to meet you.
I guess it wasn’t.
Inside the room are cubicles with letters written on them.
As soon as I walk in, two guards walk up to me. I recognize one of them immediately, he is Smith, the man who was with Johnathan in the woods.
“Your hand, Miss,” Smith says, reaching for my arm.
“For what?” I ask.
“Just do it,” Eli shouts over the top of a cubical with a smile on his face. “The quicker you do it, the faster you get to come hug me, sister.”
I smile back at my brother while handing my arm to Smith. He raises a white laser gun over my forearm. I think for a moment it might be some sort of scanner, but I am wrong. It isn’t a scanner at all, it is a printer. I watch as the red laser beam tattoos P960F2.
“Before you ask,” Smith begins. “P stands for Pod which is the place that you live. The 960 means this is the Pod that you will live in. There are around 40 members which live in this Pod, and each member that lives here needs guarded for one reason or another. You will be in cubby F, person 2 in the cubby. Now did I answer your questions you were going to ask? Oh yeah, it’s permanent, so don’t try taking it off.”
I smile at this man I didn’t like at first. I might have to re-think that.
“It does answer my questions, thank you,” I say as I walk in towards my brother. He is in cubby E from what I can tell. He, Mar, and Zac all are assigned this cubical. There are three beds in a row, one dresser, and two chairs. Other than that, there is not much in this ten by ten square.
One side of the box is open, exposing it to the hall that crosses between the cubbies.
“Are there only two guards here?” I ask.
“No,” Mar shakes her head. “Most of the time three, sometimes more.”
“How did you like The Cleansing?” Zac asks, with a shudder to his voice.
“Not much,” I answer, with the same shudder. I begin to think how bad this must have been for him, he is only twelve, and Dia is only five.
“Shawn and Leah are in B,” Eli says. “Your mom and Dia are in S, they requested to be transferred to this pod once they found out where you were going to be staying.”
My brother stops to think about where the others are.
“Magi is in A, and you and Jake are in F,” Mar finishes. “Magi thinks they will put Sam in with her once she is released.”
“Any word on Samantha?” I ask.
Eli shakes his head. A sadness goes through me.
“How long was I gone?”
“Three hours,” Mar says, looking at her watch.
“Hey,” my brother says, “Jake is wanting to see you. We will stay close.”
“Okay,” I say as I turn and walk out of the cubby.
Mine and Jake’s cube is only one over from theirs. I walk into the doorless room, and Jake is nowhere to be found. I lay down on the bed, running my fingers over the tattooed letters and numbers on my wrist.
How many more times do we need to be marred by life?
“It’s appalling isn’t it!” Jake says from the doorway. He runs his finger over his wrist.
He walks over, laying on the bed next to me. I touch his marking.
“Will it come off?” he asks.
“I don’t think so,” I answer. I put my arm next to his. “They are the same. Except for yours says one and mine says two.” I smile.
“That they are. We will forever be branded by some random letters and numbers, but at least ours match.” He laughs out loud.
I can’t remember when I heard any of us laugh for real.
“What’s happening?” I ask.
“Well,” he begins. “I hid the knives under the mattress. There is one on each side.”
I reach under my side of the bed, feeling the blade just under where my pillow is.
“How are we going to get out of here? I have to get to Shae and Syl, and these guys are too connected to The Elected to be a safe place for us,” I whisper.
“I don’t know yet, but Shawn, Eli, and I talked over a few ideas. The only problem, we haven’t seen one spot that looks out or leads us back out to the stadium, they must keep
the exits well hidden, thus the use of the blindfolds. As for being a part of The Elected, you’re right, we have to get out of this place.”
“I saw outside,” I say excitedly.
“Liz.” A squeaky voice comes from just outside our cubby.
“Dia,” I smile, “what are you doing?”
“Mommy and I would like to invite you and Jake to our pod cubby. She wants to talk to you. We are in cubby S!”
“We accept,” Jake responds for us both.
Dia smiles and skips as she goes back to tell my mom that we have accepted her invitation.
“As you were.”
“I saw the stadium through a large window in the president’s office.”
“What president?”
“The man in the suit is President of The Facility, R. J. Timothy III.”
“Wow,” Jake says, exasperated.
“I’m not sure that way out would be an option, but it might be. He always has, at the very least ten guards with him at all times, we would have to be armed.”
“We will figure something out,” Jake assures me as he kisses me on the top of the head.
We lay for a moment longer thinking about the events of the day. After a few more minutes of silence, we get up and walk out of our cubby on the search for my mom and Dia in cubicle S.
When we find their home, my mom is busying herself by tidying up, which she always did at home in the R9. My sister is sitting on the floor, coloring on a scrap of paper with a single yellow crayon. She colors with her lips parted, eyes with intense concentration. The all yellow flower that she is drawing with yellow grass and yellow trees seem to be a welcome change from the all-white that is all around us.
“Nice picture, Dia,” I say, startling them both.
“Oh, heavens Elizabeth…Liz, I didn’t see you there,” my mom laughs while holding her chest.
“Sorry Mom,” I snort.
A moment of shear embarrassment flashes over me. I snorted in front of Jake. What a girly moment of weakness. He doesn’t seem to have noticed, either that, or he didn’t mind.
“Tome in, Tome in,” Dia announces, standing to her feet, tucking the crayon into her pocket.
She bends over, picking up the picture she had just finished after adding a beautiful sun.
“This is for you, Jake.” She beams while handing the ripped page to him.
He looks at the picture for a moment. He carefully and gently folds the paper, putting it in his pocket. “It’s perfect,” Jake compliments.
Dia runs, jumping into Jake’s arms, and I smile. I never once thought Jake would get to meet my mom and little sister. Her braid bobs back and forth as she hugs Jake with all her might.
“Did you have something you wanted to talk to us about?” I ask my mom, ignoring the hugs going on next to me.
“Yes,” my mom says. “Dia, will you go say hello to Eli for me?”
“But why, mudder?” she asks while still hanging from Jake’s neck.
“I need to talk to Liz and your new friend.”
“Otay,” she says with a pout as she climbs down my boyfriend and runs off, her long braid flowing behind her.
“What is all this about, Mrs. Towers?” Jake wonders.
“Oh my, call me Penelope, or Nel, if you want to,” she gets excited at the thought of Nel.
“Alright…Nel it is, then.”
They both smile at one another. I guess my mom has chosen to take a new name too. Nel fits her, though. She has always been much more than some housewife, she has always been amazing. Even when my father was not around, she took care of four kids on her own.
“I like it, Mama,” I say.
“Please, come sit down,” she offers while hugging me tight.
Jake and I take a chair each while my mother sits on her bed. I look at her, wondering if she has something to say or is wanting to get to know Jake better.
“What’s going on, Mom?” I prod.
“Come closer,” she whispers, motioning us to close the gap.
We move in closer to hear her. Now I know she has something to say, if she didn’t, then she wouldn’t be so discrete.
“We need to get out of this place soon,” she whispers, softer still. “And I know how to do it.”
Chapter Sixteen
I look at my mom for a moment, wondering where all of this is coming from. I know why we are needing to get out of this place, but Mom and Dia are safer here than they would be out there.
I think, anyways.
“What’s going on?” Jake breaks the silence.
“There are some sad things going on here,” she whispers, “I mean besides the whole The Elected thing. I have seen people go into this room, and not come out.”
“What is the room?” I ask.
“They call it The Purifying. They take all souls into that room who they don’t agree with. Liz, they kill them! I had been seeing large bags on tables being rolled out, but never do we ever see the people again.”
“How sure are you?” I ask.
“One-hundred percent sure.” She frowns while looking at her feet. “We have been here for a couple months now, and in that time, I have gotten to know many people. One of them I became friends with when we were being held with the voyagers. She was caught taking an extra book in The Library. They called her to the Souls Council, they then held her in a cell for a few days. An extra book.”
“What happened then?” Jake asks.
“Everyone is entitled a second session with the Souls Council, some second sessions are hours later, some are days. If they are deemed guilty, they are sentenced to The Purifying. We are all told that it is a place you live to learn how to be integrated back into society, but she never came back.”
“Maybe she is still in there,” I say.
“No,” my mom says firmly. “The bags they bring out of that room are kept in a chamber for three days before being disposed of. The day Martha was taken to The Purifying, I snuck into the chamber and looked in all the bags. They were full of dead bodies, hers included.”
My mom looks at both of us with such a mix of fear and sadness.
“Oh my,” I whisper with a hand to my heart.
“Children are taken there too, and I fear that one day Lydia might do something they don’t like, and they wouldn’t think twice about taking her.”
“We have to get out of here,” Jake says, “but we can’t do it right away. We must make it look like they have gained our trust. You will have to explain to Dia that she needs to be extra good.”
“I see,” I say, “They might not watch us so heavily if we didn’t look like we were going to run off right away.”
None of us say much of anything. We all know that we have got to get out of here, and we know Jake is right. Dia enters the room confirming the fact our conversation must be over for the moment. If these people don’t think we are going to try to escape, maybe they will cut down on how heavily guarded we are. Mom says that she knows a way to get us out of here, and we have got to trust she does, because this isn’t something that needs to be talked about around Dia yet.
Jake and I hug my family goodbye and return to our temporary home. We both lay on the bed, staring into nothingness. Both of us know that to talk about the situation right now won’t do any good. It will be important to talk to the others about what’s going on somehow.
“Ladies and Gentlemen,” a voice calls out from the doorway of the pod. “May I have your attention, please.”
We walk out of our cubby to see R. J. and ten guards standing in the opening. All around us, everyone is coming from their dwellings. Some of the people we know, others we don’t.
“Would the members of the following cubbies join me, please,” the president addresses.
The guard on his right pulls out a piece of paper from his pocket and begins to read.
“Would the members of cubby A, B, E, and F, come forward?”
Magi walks up first followed by Eli, Mar, and Zac. Jake and I come
up behind them, while Shawn and Leah follow behind us. As we come up, the man in the suit turns around, leading us out of the room.
At the last moment I look behind us, realizing my mom and Dia were not called to come with us.
I hope I see them again.
We follow the man and his guards into the great white room. From there, we take the stairs up, the ones I had used to come down this morning. That seems like days ago.
Instead of going right towards the offices, we take a left, walking back over the soundproof glass walkway. Each of the members of our group look down into the room below us.
“It’s mirror on the other side,” I whisper to Jake.
He nods, intrigued that you can’t hear a single footstep it is so sturdy.
We walk down yet another hallway and by now I am lost. For part of our journey this morning I was still trying to gain my bearings and couldn’t see where I was going.
We finally stop in front of a room that says Soul Council.
Jake and I sigh at the same time. The rest of our group have no clue as to what this place is. I am glad that we had gotten to talk to my mom before we were called here.
“What is this place?” Shawn asks.
“You will learn that soon enough, Mr. Brad,” R. J. says, “or is it Shawn that you prefer these days?”
“Shawn,, thank you,” he answers back. “Brad is dead... Has been for a long time.”
“Very well, Mr. Shawn, all of your questions will be answered soon enough.”
Shawn doesn’t press for answers. If the man is correct, we will be learning answers to them soon, and boy do I have lots of questions.
We are directed to enter the room. When the door is opened, a group of men and women in white suits sit at one end of a crisp white table. Johnathan and Rebekkah are among those sitting in the room.
“Please be seated,” Rebekkah stands, gesturing at the chairs. Her eyes are fixated on me. I am not the only one who notices, because Jake is looking back and forth between the two of us wondering what might be going on.
We all take a seat around the table. President Timothy takes the chair at the head of the table, while each of the guards stand around the room, guns held to their sides.
THE ELECTED (Fighting Freedom Book 2) Page 8
