The Initiation

by Chris Babu

  Drayden set his things down and approached Wesley, first ensuring his father wasn’t going to spring up and surprise him. He hugged his big brother. “I love you, Wes. If I don’t make it, I don’t want you to feel bad, okay? This is my decision. I own it. Thanks for believing in me.”

  Wesley pursed his lips and averted his teary eyes before composing himself. “I’m going to see you soon, in the Palace, when me and Dad move there. I’m going to be the proudest big brother in New America. You’re going to make it, little bro. I know it.” He gripped Drayden by the shoulders and squeezed hard. “You be strong. Be tough.”

  Drayden looked at his father. “Dad?”

  His father didn’t move, not even a glance.

  Drayden hovered over him. “I’m sorry, Dad. But I know what I’m doing. I’m gonna get us out of here. I love you.”

  His father remained silent.

  “Tim, let’s go,” Drayden said. He motioned toward the door.

  They left the apartment. Drayden had displayed confidence just to make his father and Wes feel better. He was bubbling over with fear and doubt about what lay ahead.

  “Tim, we could be exiled. Probably will be. You need to talk to your mom and stepdad about this.”

  Tim stared straight ahead. “No, I don’t. They don’t care. Screw him. You’re the only family that matters.”

  They rounded the corner and headed for the Bureau office one block north to sign Tim up. As they neared it, Drayden couldn’t help but steal a glance back at that bench where Sidney had sat. She was gone.

  CHAPTER 9

  The boys left Tim’s apartment on Thirty-Fifth Street at 5:45am after a breakfast of milk and cantaloupe. Both wore gray imitation-denim jeans, beige t-shirts, and gray sweatshirts.

  A hint of smoke from someone’s fire made the morning air smell like winter. A few buses had passed, ferrying workers downtown, from the Dorms to the Lab and Precinct. Tim strolled ahead, hands in his pockets, whistling, as if they were headed to a movie.

  In contrast, Drayden’s hollow stomach burned with acid and his hands shook.

  The only building lit in the darkness, the Bureau office glowed like a beacon even from three blocks away.

  Tim stopped suddenly and Drayden crashed into his back.

  “What the hell?” Drayden asked.

  “Don’t shoot,” Tim said, his hands in the air.

  The bald Guardian blocked their path. He pointed his pistol at the boys, a grin stretched across his face. “Looks like it’s your unlucky day, kid. I need to have a chat with your friend, but I guess you’ll be coming along with him. You deserve it anyway after your little stunt at school the other day.”

  Drayden’s heart thumped.

  Tim peeked back at Drayden with wide eyes, before glancing behind him.

  The Guardian waved his gun. “Let’s go, both of you. Right now.”

  Drayden entered full panic mode. They would miss the Initiation. Plus, who knew what the Guardian would do to them?

  Tim turned back to the Guardian. “You sure just the two of us, officer?”

  The Guardian looked confused. “Yeah. Now move it.”

  “Let me just round up a few more people.”

  The Guardian lowered his weapon. “Huh?”

  Tim darted into the middle of the Second Avenue, right into the path of an oncoming bus. He waved his arms and jumped up and down. “Help! Stop!” he screamed.

  The bus slowed and stopped, its headlights illuminating Tim.

  “We need help! Everyone please!” He pointed at Drayden and the Guardian on the sidewalk.

  Everyone on the bus turned to see. Some got out of their seats to peer out the windows.

  This was his chance. Drayden bolted into the street and joined his friend.

  The Guardian holstered his weapon, turning his face away from the prying eyes of the passengers. He cursed and ran off down Thirty-Fourth Street.

  Drayden was paralyzed, speechless, his mouth hanging open.

  The bus driver opened the door. “Get in.”

  They hurried on and thanked the driver, who deposited them in front of the Bureau office.

  Tim reached the door first. “That was scary, but hopefully it’ll be the worst part of the day. You ready?”

  “No.” Drayden was still shaken by the close call with the Guardian. The whole thing had happened so fast. Tim had saved their lives and carried on as if it were nothing.

  “It’s me and you, bro,” Tim said. “All the way. The Bureau should be scared of the two of us right now. Let’s do this.”

  Tim opened the door, and they stepped inside. They both gasped.

  Six chairs formed a circle in the center of the room. Four of them were occupied. In them sat Sidney, Alex, Charlie…and Catrice. They all stared at Drayden and Tim in the doorway. Sidney didn’t look surprised.

  A squat older man in a gray linen suit with a red Bureau pin approached. A ring of short gray hair framed his otherwise bald head, the white lights overhead gleaming off his extra shiny scalp. “Gentleman, please take those seats.”

  Tim shrugged. As they sat down, Alex whispered to Charlie, and the two broke out in quiet laughter. Sidney eyed Drayden with a wry smile. Catrice picked at her fingernails, avoiding eye contact with anyone.

  Drayden couldn’t believe his eyes. With only a few hours left, he and Tim had been the only entrants. Somehow, in that narrow window, four additional kids had entered, among them both his nemesis and his crush. As challenging as the Initiation might be, Alex would undoubtedly make it tougher. Out of 1,200 graduates, it had to be Alex. Yet why would Catrice enter? Talk about irony. After all the years of longing to get closer to her, he finally scored a chance, under life or death circumstances. Not exactly the hookup house. Drayden’s stomach turned at the sight of Sidney. He liked her. He just hoped she hadn’t entered only because he had.

  Like at school, the lack of clothing variety in the Dorms became glaring. Catrice and Sidney both wore gray leggings, gray t-shirts, and beige sweatshirts. Alex and Charlie exactly mirrored Tim and Drayden. Only Drayden’s green hat and Alex’s red bandana stood out.

  Alex waved his hand to get Drayden’s attention. He pretended to punch his own eye, simulated his head snapping back in slow motion, and fake cried. To conclude the performance, he cackled in delight.

  Drayden ignored him. He refused to give Alex the satisfaction of a reaction. Alex was not going to ruin this for him.

  The shiny-headed Bureau representative addressed the group. “Good morning, pledges. My name is Bruce Tyson. I’m the Chairman of the Initiation Council. The six of you are the only entrants of this year’s Initiation. Now that you’re all here, it’s time to get started.”

  Drayden tapped his foot, distracting himself from the tension by speculating about how Bruce Tyson made his scalp so shiny. Had he polished it? Oiled it?

  Tyson pointed at the door. “There’s a bus outside. Everybody on it, please.”

  Drayden sat up front with Tim, Alex sat with Charlie two rows behind, and Sidney sat with Catrice across the aisle.

  “I’m so glad there’s another girl here,” Sidney said to her.

  Catrice smiled.

  As soon as Tyson took a seat in the front, the bus sped off, heading north. They entered the Meadow through the same gate from the tour. Drayden wondered for a moment if the Initiation was a sham, and the bus would drive them directly up to the Henry Hudson Bridge to face exile.

  It stopped at Seventy-Third Street and Broadway, in front of a massive stone building. Tyson escorted them inside. The towering lobby stretched several stories, with a gorgeous dome and soaring stone archways. Rays of early morning light streaked through titanic windows, making dust in the air sparkle. It appeared to be an old bank. Tyson led them downstairs to the basement, passing them off to another Bureau member, identifia
ble by the red Bureau pin on her beige dress.

  “Good luck,” Bruce Tyson said as he left.

  The Bureau woman was tall and elegant, her brown hair held back by a red headband. She glided before them, leading the way down a narrow corridor. They entered a dim, windowless room with exposed pipes on the ceiling. Chairs surrounded a round table, which held six red backpacks.

  “Welcome to the Initiation,” she said. “My name is Eris Page. I want to express my admiration for your drive and courage. I’m on the Initiation Council, and I’m going to help you prepare. Please, have a seat. The backpacks have your names on them.”

  The pledges exchanged nervous glances and sat next to their respective backpacks.

  “Inside you will find all the items you need for the Initiation.”

  Drayden and the others unzipped the packs and rifled through them.

  “You’ll find bottles of water, mixed nuts, fruit, a flashlight, paper, a mechanical pencil, a map, antiseptic wipes, gauze, medical tape, and painkillers.”

  Drayden shuddered at those last four items.

  “Whoa!” Charlie yelled, his head buried in the pack. “A mechanical pencil? And a flashlight? Can we keep these?”

  Page looked annoyed. “No, you cannot. Now, the map is not just any map. It’s a subway map. As you know, the subways have not run since the Confluence. The Initiation takes place in the abandoned tunnels. The stations have been…modified. You see, the Initiation is not just a test. It’s a journey that will usher you from here, underground through the tunnels, all the way into the heart of the Palace.” She looked around at them in turn. “Should you succeed.”

  Jeez, Drayden thought. The subway tunnels?

  “Challenges along the way will test your intelligence, bravery, or both. We test your intelligence in a variety of ways, while your bravery will be judged through physical tests. On most challenges, failure to complete them will result in exile. On a few, failure won’t initiate exile but it may prevent you from getting something that would assist in the following challenge. In those few instances, we will let you know that beforehand.”

  “So generous of you,” Charlie mumbled.

  Page slowly walked around the table as she spoke. “Although you will travel through the Initiation as a group, we evaluate you individually. On all challenges, it’s up to you to decide how much you want to work collectively, leveraging your different skills. The intelligence challenges compel you to work together. You submit one answer, so it’s a group pass or fail. On the bravery challenges, success is more individual. Some of you could pass while others are exiled.” She scanned their faces. “There are cameras all throu—”

  “Aahhhh!” Sidney screamed. A rat had dropped from the ceiling onto the table.

  Drayden shoved himself away, nearly falling from his chair as the creature scampered around. “Crud!” He jumped back and cowered in the corner.

  The rat ran laps on the table. Charlie stood, laughing, and Sidney jumped onto his back. Catrice pulled her legs up onto her chair, hugging them tight. Tim backed away, chortling.

  Alex scooped up the terrified rat, hugged it to his chest, and caressed it. “Don’t worry, little buddy.” He glared at the others. “You wetchops. This poor little guy is more scared than you are!”

  He carried the rat outside the room, where he gently placed it on the ground.

  Drayden was mesmerized. Finally, something Alex cared about. It would be a nasty old rat.

  Everyone watched with bemusement. Alex returned to his seat, noticing the roomful of eyes on him. “What?”

  Charlie was cracking up. “Drayden, you were scareder than a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs!”

  Drayden slammed his chair back into place. “Shut up, Charlie.”

  Eris Page raised her hands in the air. “Everyone, calm down. I’m sorry about that. Thank you, Alex. Please retake your seats.

  “As I was saying, there are cameras and microphones throughout the tunnels, particularly around the challenges. Those will occur in the subway stations. You will be constantly monitored by the Initiation Council. Not all the stations will have challenges. Stations that are brightly lit contain challenges, while those that are dark and abandoned do not. Unless the instructions explicitly state that no exile is involved, you must complete the challenges. Attempting to skip them will result in exile for everyone. I would also recommend completing those challenges that don’t result in exile. On those, you’ll definitely want the items the Bureau is offering for the subsequent challenge.”

  She leaned her hands on the table. “This next detail is crucial to understand. Should you complete the Initiation, the Council will need to determine in which zone to place you. If one or more of you finishes, at least one of you will be selected to join the Bureau in the Palace. It could be more than one, although that’s not likely. In a sense, you are in competition with each other to earn that spot in the Palace, if that is your goal. The Bureau will choose whoever has shown themselves to be the worthiest of joining it, because it wants the very best. The others who finish will be placed in the Lab or Precinct, based on your demonstrated skills.”

  Drayden cringed. He’d selfishly accepted his best friend’s help without fully comprehending the consequences. Even if they escaped exile, they’d probably be separated at the end. Tim had sacrificed himself to protect Drayden. He needed to find a way to get them both into the Palace.

  “You’ll begin here, at the Seventy-Second Street station. The subway lines are numbered, and here we have the Two-Three Line, as well as the One Line. You’ll remain on one of those tracks, ending at either Wall Street or South Ferry, both final stations in the Palace. We’ve marked them on the maps. Which route you take is your choice, though you’ll be under a time constraint. You have eight hours to finish the Initiation, so you must use your judgment. There are clocks throughout the journey, displaying the time remaining. You will receive written or verbal instructions for each challenge. If anyone attempts to escape a subway station, everyone will be exiled. Are we clear on the rules?”

  Drayden swallowed hard, his throat like sandpaper. This was not at all what he’d expected. He assumed it would be a test, in a room, not a journey in some creepy abandoned world beneath the city.

  Page waved to someone outside the door. “We’ll start in thirty minutes. You can use this time to study the map, strategize, relax, visit the bathroom, or eat.”

  Within seconds, a worker set a mountain of scrambled eggs on the table, along with a towering pitcher of milk.

  Drayden’s mouth watered to the point that some drool may have slipped out. It had to be twenty eggs’ worth, and a whole gallon of milk. Not only did the Bureau have working pencils and flashlights, they also had enough eggs to share twenty or so with kids from the Dorms?

  The pledges attacked the eggs and milk like a pack of rabid rats, decimating it in minutes. They each spent the leftover time privately, in silence. Drayden studied the map, as did Catrice. Alex retied his red bandana around his head. The others milled around. Everybody took their turn in the bathroom.

  Eris Page entered. “It’s time.”

  A hole underground. That was where he would die.

  No. Drayden pushed the negative thoughts from his brain. This was just another test, like all the ones he’d spent years acing at school. He wasn’t sure he believed that.

  Eris Page had left them at the old subway station entrance a block south, the Seventy-Second Street station on the Upper West Side, where they could join the One Line or Two-Three Line.

  Drayden trembled. It had taken mere minutes to go from normal life to…this. Whatever this was.

  The entrance itself consisted of a modest brick structure resembling a house. Page had told them to follow the signs to the downtown track. “God bless you, children,” she’d muttered before hurrying off.

  Tim opened the
door. “Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s do this.”

  They stepped inside the foyer and entered a different world. It was frigid, dark, and damp, with a musty smell like wet vegetation, or a decades-old leak. Dust shrouded antique subway card machines. Dried mud and leaves matted the cracked tile floor.

  Tim hopped the rusty turnstiles, leading the way. A crooked sign dangled, pointing them down the stairs to the right for the downtown track. At the top of the staircase, white light from the platform below illuminated their faces.

  Drayden stayed glued to Tim as they descended, the others falling in behind. They emerged onto a clean, gray-tiled platform. It was twenty feet wide, with train tracks on both sides sunk five feet below. A second platform sat across the station on the right, sandwiched between its own pair of sunken tracks. Spotless white tiles covered the walls, reflecting the bright lights of the station. Compared to the street-level entryway, the platform was immaculate, and Drayden thought this must have been exactly how it looked back when the subways ran. It took a moment to orient himself. They were facing the wrong way—uptown, to the north of the city. He spun around, looking downtown, and drew in a quick breath.

  Fifty yards down the station, the tracks ran straight into a giant white wall. It stretched floor-to-ceiling, cutting off the tracks and the platform, across the total width of the station. A cloaked man stood on the platform in front of a shiny silver door in the wall. A computer screen and a keyboard sat on a long table beside him.

  The pledges hustled in his direction. He was an intimidating figure. He remained poker-faced, with smoldering dark eyes, slicked black hair, and a black goatee. A red Bureau pin adorned his flowing black robe. His expression softened when they reached him.

  “Hello, pledges,” he said, his voice deep. “My name is Owen Payne. This is your first test. You must pass it to gain entry into the tunnel. Provided you do, the clock will start running. If you fail it, you will be exiled before your Initiation even begins.”

  He paused, as if letting them digest his threat. “I must warn you, the Initiation is very difficult. You will be tested in ways you cannot possibly imagine. Some places in the Initiation may result in exile, others in immediate death. The Initiation is not for the faint of heart. I hope you have chosen wisely. Are we ready to begin?”