by Melissa Faye
I turned the knob on Etta’s door. It was locked.
“This one is locked!” Charlie hissed towards me. “What now?”
I looked around for something that would help us break the locks, but the hallway was empty. I looked back at the knob, picked up my foot, and smashed it as hard as I could with the sole of my boot. Charlie followed my lead and began kicking Breck’s door knob too. It took several minutes we didn’t have, but we finally broke open the doors.
I rushed inside. Etta was dead asleep. I flicked the power switch on the outside of the Care Unit and watched the lights dim as it turned off. I pulled her IV out. Now I needed to wait for Etta to wake up. I ran around the room to see if there were other supplies we could use while we escaped. I grabbed a box of healing pads, some bandages, and several painkillers and adrenaline pills. I shoved them haphazardly into my pockets and my boots, then went back to Etta.
She was starting to stir, so I began to shake her and call her name quietly. She stirred further but didn’t open her eyes. I shook her more, slapping her face gently. I thought I heard someone else in the hallway. It could have been Charlie and Breck, or it could be one of the guards returning. I looked at Etta’s weary face and, with a sting of guilt, slapped her hard on the cheek.
“What?” she said as she sat up straight. “What’s going on?” She saw me and her face went pale as she saw the look on my face.
“We have to go. Now. Follow me.” I pulled her off the Care Unit and held her hand tightly. I peered into the hallway. No one was there yet, but Charlie and a very shaky Breck were looking out their door as well. I made eye contact with Charlie and nodded.
I held Etta’s hand and Charlie held Breck’s elbow as we dragged them down the hallway. Loud footsteps warned us that the security guards were returning to their posts. Omer had said they wouldn’t engage in an altercation, so they must have run away once they had pulled the guards as far as they could away from this floor. Charlie and I looked at each other for a split second, eyes wide, then sped up.
“Stop right there!” I heard a voice calling behind us. The loud footsteps got faster as we picked up our pace. We ran into the stairwell, pushing Etta and Breck ahead of us. I knocked a trashcan onto its side right in front of the door, leaving the large metal can and a pile of garbage in the guards’ way. We rushed down the steps.
Etta and Breck tripped and stumbled alongside us. Breck looked relieved I was there; I wasn’t sure how well he knew Charlie. They were struggling to walk upright, but were slowly getting back to their senses. One more floor left and we jumped down the steps. We passed through the doors into the lobby. I heard the guards on the stairs behind us but didn’t look back.
We flew through the lobby and out into the night air. I was wearing boots that helped me gain traction on the slush, but Breck and Etta were barefoot and slipped all around. They were motivated by the looks on mine and Charlie’s faces, though, so they sped up. I held Etta tightly to keep her from falling. She trusted me, and followed without questions. We went down the block and around the corner to where Ben was waiting. I gasped for air as Ben briefly explained the plan and handed Breck and Etta their bags and sneakers. Charlie peered around the corner to see if anyone was following us.
“Charlie, keep in touch,” I said. “Go right back to your place and don’t send any messages until the morning. There can’t be any trace that you were out of your place overnight.” He nodded. “Thank you for helping us disguise ourselves with the TekCasts. Message me when those are set up.” Charlie looked at me with his big blue eyes. He was sweating hard, even in the cold, and his face was drawn. He grabbed me and pulled me into a tight, lingering hug. I stood still in shock as he stepped away.
We said quick goodbyes to Charlie and ran towards the community gate. It was far enough away that we were exhausted again by the time we reached it. It was marked by a tall cement sign reading “Welcome to Young Woods Community.” We pushed the gate open and stepped outside into the great unknown.
Chapter Thirteen
We ran for a half hour or so before we had to slow our pace. Ben had planned how far we needed to go before we could stop to rest, and we weren’t there yet. Breck and Etta were full of questions – what was going on? How did they end up in the Med? Where were we going? We answered as best as we could while keeping up a steady pace. By the time we reached Ben’s resting point, we were all about to collapse.
We hadn’t packed anything more than a few blankets, but it was enough for the four of us to lie out under the stars. Ben lead us several hundred feet away from the road, hiding in some brush. Etta’s teeth chattered and Ben passed her some extra layers. We all fell asleep for a few hours.
We rose with the sun. None of us had gotten enough sleep, but we needed to keep moving. It wouldn’t take long for the Chancellor to set up a group to search for us; they were probably already out here. We needed to get to the monorail station fast.
I kept checking my TekCast to see if Charlie had sent us anything yet. He told me to stay patient and keep running.
Ben described where we were going and how to get there. His monotonous description of the monorail system and region set up was a comfort; it kept my mind off the seriousness of what we were doing. Etta flashed us a big grin. She was more tired than all of us from her pregnancy, but as Ben talked, I noticed her bounce on her toes.
I had never been this far from Young Woods, and it felt like we were explorers tracing a path across new land. The air smelled different – more woodsy and a bit musky - and the vast, open space overwhelmed me. Unlike the community, where we were constantly surrounded by people and buildings, our route left me feeling naked and vulnerable.
Breck was gathering his strength and returning to his usual, charming self. Since he was the tallest, his legs took him faster and further ahead of us. He walked ahead, shouting encouragements and feigning enthusiasm for being a part of a new community. He put his arm around Etta. I wondered if they knew how long they were apart. Whether or not they knew, they were relieved to be reunited and away from what I had described to them.
An hour into our walk, Etta asked about my new insignia. I looked down; I had forgotten it was there.
“I got fired,” I said. I explained my attack on the security guards and my talk with the Chancellor. Breck’s body tightened as we walked, and he ranted about the cruelty of treating different colors differently because of some perceived – and fake - value of different people and their career paths. I caught him staring from my insignia to his with a look of disgust.
The next morning, we neared the monorail station. We had to slow our pace while Charlie finished his program. The response we were awaiting finally came. Charlie had remotely adjusted our TekCast data to new names and personal information. We read through the information on each of our TekCasts carefully, memorizing our new identities. I looked again at the gray insignia on my shoulder. I didn’t know if I would ever get used to the loss of that shiny gold.
The monorail system stood in the middle of nowhere, a hundred feet off of a major road. It was two stories, with a lower floor for ticketing that featured benches and vending cylinders for buying food. Charlie had included currency in our TekCast data, so we scanned them and got as many snacks as we thought wouldn’t look suspicious. Ben bought us tickets that would take us close enough to walk to Glenwood Pines.
I had only seen pictures of the monorail in books, and it didn’t prepare me for their size and speed. We checked in with a conductor and found a set of four plush, cozy seats where we could look out the window at the unknown landscape. The monorail line was about twenty feet above ground, so we could see far off into the distance. Communities were too far apart for us to see any, but the trees and mountains were new and beautiful.
“Should I sit somewhere else?” I asked the group. “Grays and Golds don’t really sit together.”
“No way!” Etta grumbled. “We stay together. I don’t care who sees us.”
“Or, s
tay with us and try to hide your colors,” Breck said with a grin. “I do care who sees us.”
We sat in silence, amazed at what we were seeing. We fell asleep off and on.
“Where do you think the conductor lives?” Etta asked me. It was a great question. If he was traveling so much, how could he be part of a community?
“There are communities with transient members,” Ben chimed in. “People who transport materials between communities and people like the conductor who run the monorail or monorail stations live there.”
Breck was suddenly concerned with our plans for blending in to the new community. “Are we going to get new jobs now?” he said. “Can we stay at Glenwood Pines permanently?”
“I think we’ll need jobs,” Etta said. “But I don’t know what I’ll do when the pregnancy makes me bigger.”
“People probably won’t recognize it,” I said. “It’s not a sight we see every day. Or ever, I guess. We can’t just walk into a lab and expect people to take us in without question.”
Ben looked out the window wistfully. “Etta’s right. We can’t stay there forever. It’s not like they’ll respond better to the pregnancy than Young Woods did. Who knows what their Chancellor is like.”
“I know where we need to go eventually,” I said. It was more information that I hadn’t yet shared. “Breck, do you remember when Omer mentioned ACer camps? ACer stands for anti-cloners. People who don’t believe in cloning. They’re on the outskirts of society, in the noncomm probably. I think they’re our best hope at getting actual help.”
“I never heard of that!” Ben exclaimed. “Hold on.” He pulled out his TekCast and began to look for more information about the ACers. The rest of us ignored him.
“If we’re going to go to one of those camps, we need to know where they are,” said Breck. “How are we gonna do that?”
“Omer has a contact in Glenwood Pines,” I said, pulling up the name of the bar onto my TekCast. “He doesn’t know the person’s name, but this is where we might find him.”
“Is there any way we can stay away from the Underground?” Etta said. She looked down at her lap. “I don’t want to be a part of all of that.”
“Babe, it’s too late,” Breck said, putting his arm around her. “We need all the help we can get.”
Ben showed us a map of the region where we were heading. “See, there’s lots of space between communities.” He pointed out a few. “It would be easy to form a small undocumented community between the established ones, and they could stay completely undetected. But now we need someone to tell us where one of the camps is located.”
“We’ll figure it out,” I said. “Meanwhile we can integrate into Glenwood Pines as well as we can, and keep to ourselves.”
Our time on the monorail passed too quickly. My shoulders dropped as we left the beautiful views behind and returned to backpacking across unknown space. Ben led the way. It took another day and a half to arrive. It was dark when we arrived, so we camped a ways out from the community gate.
“I’m freezing,” Etta whispered to me. “Do you think we can get some warmer clothes soon?”
I BIT MY LIP AS WE neared the Glenwood Pines gate. I had never been more than several hundred feet outside of Young Woods, and had never seen another community. Ben promised that the communities were very similar, but we didn’t know exactly what “very similar” would entail. It was early morning when we entered, and the community was barely waking up.
Charlie had set us up with an apartment to stay at while we were in Glenwood Pines. It would be a tight fit, and we would need to speak with the building supervisor to get keys. To decrease suspicion, we sent Breck to talk to the supervisor, claiming he lost his key. We waited in a nearby alley so people wouldn’t be confused by the bags we carried. I nervously covered my insignia with my coat.
“That was weird,” he said as he returned with two keys. “The woman looked at me strangely, and I didn’t recognize her at all. I didn’t think about how familiar everyone in our community is. It’s the same here. The woman knew I was out of place, though I don’t think she believed her eyes.”
“Is she going to follow us? Is she going to turn on us?” Etta said. She furrowed her brow. “What’s going to happen?”
“We don’t know, Etta,” I said. “The plan is to find a place, stay there, and figure out a long term solution.”
“Maybe we won’t need to leave here,” said Ben. He was ecstatic to be in a new community. He peaked around the corner of the alley to get a better view of the place. It was a record keeper and historian’s dream. “Maybe Charlie can help us get jobs after all!”
“It can’t happen, remember?” Breck said. He led us out of the alley and to the apartment building, where we took the elevator to the sixth floor. It was a Gold building, and looked a lot like the one we left behind. The carpet was a plush brick color with a white diamond pattern. The numbers on the doors were a metallic gold. “People would notice if there was suddenly someone new in the workplace. Someone would call the authorities.”
The apartment was a double, so there were only two beds. Breck and Etta would share, and Ben offered to take the couch. Like our old places, all the features were state-of-the-art and the windows looked out onto a nearby park. We agreed to pause our planning and sleep off the rest we lost over the last few days. After that, it would be time to do some investigating of this new, strange town.
Chapter Fourteen
It was decided that Breck and I would go to Wild Jack’s, but after our naps it was still too early in the day to expect people to be hanging out in a bar. Too nervous to be seen walking around, we peered out the windows and pointed out the similarities and differences between this community and our own. In the late afternoon, Breck and I headed out. We would first visit a vending cylinder to pick up supplies, then head to Wild Jack’s.
Back at Young Woods, the busiest common area was in a community center a few blocks off the main town square. I hoped the crowds would help us blend in. As I suspected, the community center was where I expected it to be. It wasn’t as busy as I had predicted, but there were a good number of people there and more heading that way for post-work entertainment. I hunched over, covering my colors.
Walking into the building was one of the strangest things I had ever experienced. It was exactly like what Breck had tried to explain. In Young Woods, most faces were familiar to me, as mine was to other people. The people in Glenwood Pines were...different. No familiar faces. Not one single person whose name I knew. If I didn’t recognize them, they wouldn’t recognize me. I would stick out right away. I kept my head down as I entered. It felt like everyone was staring.
I realized immediately that keeping my head down was the wrong idea. People there were smiling and friendly with one another. We looked like shifty loners – not the type of person common in a community, especially at our age. We were supposed to be young, excited interns with a big smile on our faces. I quickly shifted my attitude and walked around the room absentmindedly as if I was looking for a friend.
“Follow me,” I whispered to Breck.
We located the vending cylinders and watched a few people make their orders. I hoped the new TekCast identities would work. I couldn’t use mine; the gray would stand out. A Gray would not use a common space in this part of town. Breck took the risk instead; he slid his TekCast under the vending reader. It clicked in recognition: Frank, Breck’s fake name. He swiped around the different options, ordering us additional tooth brushes, some protein packs, and hydration bottles. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a young woman walking towards us. She had a confused look on her face. I needed to think fast.
“Oh, hi!” I said as she approached the tower. “Have we met? You look so familiar!” I gave her a grin. She looked like no one I had ever seen before. It was uncomfortable being around someone so new and different.
“Oh, um...” she paused and looked at me. “I’m not sure. You don’t really look familiar to me.”
“I graduated three years ago,” the woman said. “You?”
“Oh, I must have seen you in school. I just graduated. I’m Erica.” It was the fake name Charlie had picked for me. “I know I’ve seen you around...remind me what your name is?” This was not helping us stay inconspicuous; most people would know everyone a few years younger and older than them at school. We all grew up together. I kept smiling.
“Jeannie,” she said. She squinted as she studied my face. I could tell how confusing this must feel for her, since I was feeling the same way. “I’m sorry, I don’t remember you.”
“I got my hair cut last week! That must be it.” I giggled and touched Jeannie’s arm like we were old friends. My curls were tied back as usual into a thick, tight knot. The hair cut lie made no sense, but given how friendly community members were, I hoped Jeannie wouldn’t question it.
“Yeah, probably,” Jeannie said. She smiled more politely now, but she walked away awkwardly. I waited until she sat down with her back facing me to alert Breck. We took turns spying on her. She was whispering to her friends and pointing towards us. We needed to leave.
Outside, I breathed in a few deep breaths of cool, crisp air. I had never lied like that. I was a terrible liar. Breck always teased me about it.
“Do you think she’s going to tell someone?” Breck whispered as we walked down the street.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I hope not. Isn’t it strange to have someone to be suspicious about? She probably thinks she’s being forgetful.”
“We’ll see. One task done, one to go.”
Breck and I had carefully planned out what we would do and say to find Omer’s contact. We couldn’t bring up the subject to random strangers in a bar. I had only been to our community’s version of Wild Jack’s once, and I knew it had a much less cheerful clientele than the places I usually frequented. Like the bar in Young Woods, it was at the end of a long, quiet street. “Funny,” I said. “My Gray will fit in better than your Gold here.”
