New Kings of Tomorrow

by J. M. Clark

  David still stood at the podium, unshaken by Sirus’s words. Mary noticed that he hadn’t even turned around to view the projection screen. Instead, he stared out at the Palace members in their seats, the auditorium dark and full of doubt, fear, and confusion. He did recite Mother Earth’s prayer with everyone. Like a choir, they spoke the words in perfect unison. This made Sirus smile as the live feed faded out and back to the “Please Wait” screen.

  “Screw that. Come back to my pod, we need to talk. We have to leave sooner.” Jacob got closer and spoke into Mary’s ear, “We have to go now.”

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Jacob

  “Trust me, honey, we have to go right now. I’m not sure what we will do about the guard near the exit, but I’ll figure it out. I’ll take him out if I have to, but we have to leave now. I know what this story shakes down to, I’ve seen it a million times in the Old World.” Jacob paced near the bed while Mary held her hands close to her mouth like she was praying, clearly upset and afraid. “Get away from the door, come over here. We can’t risk someone hearing you.” He nodded at the floor near where he was standing.

  Mary moved away from the door, looking at it skeptically, like she could see the teachers standing outside of it. “Are you still going to try to find Trevor before we go?”

  “Yes. I think you should stay here though and wait for me. If someone knocks, do not answer the door. The extra security squad shouldn’t be here for a few hours, so I should still be okay to move around for a bit. I’m gonna go check the infirmary and a few other places,” Jacob said as he placed his hands on her waist and pulled her close for a soft kiss. Mary wriggled her lips and nose, he knew that his beard tickled her there.

  “Okay. I’ll stay here and wait for you to get back. Please be careful, Jacob,” she said with a worried look on her face. Mary rubbed her hands through his hair, allowing her fingers to get lost in it as she stared into his eyes.

  “I’ll be fine. And I’ll be back in no time, hopefully with Trevor.”

  With another kiss and a long hug that he wished could go on for years, Jacob exited the pod, making his way to the staircase. He thought it too dangerous to take the elevator. The infirmary was only one floor below his own, on the tenth floor.

  Jacob waved casually at the medic as he walked into the infirmary. There were usually two of them sitting around, not doing much of anything, but today there was just Roxanne.

  “Hey Roxanne, how are you doing today?” he said, trying to appear natural.

  “Been dealing with…you know. So, yeah, I’ve had better days. But what can I do for you, Jacob? You aren’t due for a refill on your blood pressure meds yet.” Roxanne sat at her desk, typing on the massive computer, not looking up for more than a second.

  “No, I’m not here for that, I just had a question for you. I was looking for my buddy Trevor. Wanted to see if I could bring him lunch or something before the big lockdown and all.” Jacob looked down the right side of the infirmary, where the white beds were. All empty.

  “Is Trevor here? I know he was brought here after getting into a fight with security.” Jacob began scratching his head. “He should be here,” he said, looking baffled at Roxanne the medic.

  “I’m sorry, Jacob, but Trevor was taken to speak with…Sirus, I believe.” She looked around the infirmary, which was big enough to house ten beds. Jacob wondered why there were so many beds; this was a place of safety and peace.

  Focusing on her face again, Jacob moved closer to her desk, resting a hand on the solid wooden surface. “What do you mean he went to talk to Sirus? How do you know that? Who took him?” He asked the questions in a single breath. Jacob had a tendency to spout off multiple questions in a row. His mom would call him the question machine when they drove about town, stopping at different shopping plazas and picking up Starbucks frappés.

  “Teacher Simon came to get him. Didn’t say much, just said Sirus was looking to have a word with him.” She buried her face back in the computer screen so that she would not have to look at Jacob. He got the feeling she knew something was wrong. “If you need more information than that, you need to speak to someone else,” Roxanne said, flipping her strawberry-red hair. Hair like that was a bit much for a woman of her age, but she seemed to like the color. Even wore matching lipstick. Jacob liked her, and it was weird to see her so nervous.

  “Okay, I think I’ll try to find Teacher Simon to see what he knows about Trevor. I may find him on the first floor near the central plaza, so I’ll just make my way down there. I’ve seen him down there a lot.” Jacob waved a hesitant hand in her direction as he walked away, moving along the white linoleum and through the exit door of the infirmary.

  Jacob walked around the corner and back into the stairwell. He stood with his back against the door to think. He’d been able to avoid any teachers so far, but he didn’t want to make a bad situation worse by being found wandering the Palace after the weird meeting in the auditorium. An early lockdown situation could prevent them from leaving tonight. It was around 4:00 p.m. right now. He knew they should leave before 7:00 p.m. The extra security squad may arrive by then.

  What about Trevor though? It just didn’t make sense. Jacob had been in this Palace for a long time, and he’d never seen Sirus in real life. Was he even here? After speaking to Roxanne, Jacob was certain the mysterious man was in fact here. She had no reason to lie. I need to talk to Mary.

  Jacob started up the stairs to his pod, all the while wondering what was going on with Trevor, knowing that he couldn’t leave without finding out what happened to his old friend. If Sirus was on the premises, Jacob knew where he could be found.

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Jacob

  Jacob made himself skinny, slipping into the room like a house burglar just beating the spotlight of a cop’s telescope. He closed the door behind him as quietly as he could. Not bad for an old man. Mary was lying on the bed, on top of the covers, staring up at the ceiling. Jacob thought she was sleeping, but as he approached, her chin dipped down as she looked at him.

  “Tell me you have good news,” she said as she pulled herself up on her small bony arms, letting her back rest against the white faux-leather headboard of the bed.

  Jacob sat on the bed next to Mary, and before speaking, he touched her face and kissed her lips. For him, that was the easiest thing to do at this point. He wished that those kisses could make the world disappear. He wished they could make him forget about the present as he had forgotten about the past. Leanne, to be specific. He did forget about her sometimes. That was for the best though; she was gone and would want him to move on.

  “Something is very wrong. I don’t want to lie to you, and I see no reason to do that. Roxanne in the infirmary told me that Teacher Simon collected Trevor to go speak with Sirus.”

  “Hold on.” She paused. “Sirus? So, Trevor was taken somewhere to meet with the program director himself, and no one saw him leave? And plenty of people would have noticed him due to the commotion he caused before.” Mary straightened up, letting one leg dangle off the bed while she curled the other leg underneath her.

  “That’s a thought but…I think Sirus is here. Maybe Trevor never left the Palace,” Jacob said, raising both eyebrows and giving her the “never say never” face.

  “What? How?”

  Jacob grabbed her hand; he enjoyed having a reason to touch her hands. They were so soft, and the way they felt inside of his own made him feel strong, needed, craved.

  “Remember when we were talking earlier, before the voice over the intercom called us to the auditorium? I was telling you about the secret floor?”

  Mary blinked her eyes hard. “With all the commotion, I’d almost forgotten,” she said, tugging at her hair nervously. “How does that tie in to everything?”

  “When I got up to the hidden floor, it was pretty dim. There were no lights, but I could see enough to tell that it wasn’t white. I took a look up the hall and came back down, because…well, becau
se I wanted to come back and talk to you before I did anything I would regret. It was dark, but I know what I saw.” Jacob’s face was serious, unflinching, and he gripped her hand harder. “I want to go back before we leave.”

  “How do we get there? And what if the teachers are on the elevator or monitoring it?” Mary said, beginning to raise her voice.

  Jacob put a finger over his lips, signaling for her to stay quiet. “Same elevator trick I did to get there. I know how to do it again. We gotta go up there, Mary. I think Sirus is there, or at least his office is. Maybe we can find something there that we can show people here, some evidence against the Order. Maybe he is busy with the issues here and not in his office. We can go looking…or I can go looking, and you can stay here and wait for me.”

  Mary’s face grew somber. Her grip on his hand loosened and she let his go. “Jacob, I’m never leaving you again. When you left to go to the infirmary, I was afraid the whole time and wishing I’d gone with you. If you are going, then so are am I.” Mary got up and walked toward the door. Jacob watched her for a moment, in awe of how much she cared for him. The young woman was willing to risk capture, banishment, death, whatever. He knew that she was in on this with him.

  “Okay, let’s go then.” Jacob took his time getting up, feeling the anguish in his knees. Sometimes he wished he were a young man again, but he knew if that were the case, then he would not be here in this moment with her. He thought that the Order, Sirus, and maybe even the teachers had done something to hurt Trevor. Or maybe they moved him somewhere else. If the answer could be found, he knew that it would be in Sirus’s office on the nineteenth floor, if there was an office.

  In all honesty, Jacob didn’t know what awaited them there. For all he knew, the hidden hallway could lead out to a helipad. It could lead to a super-secret cafeteria for the staff or a parallel universe. There was no way to tell without going up there.

  “Listen, Mary,” he said, placing his hands on the door over her head, trapping her between his body and the door. “We go there, look around, and then we leave and head straight out to the courtyard if we don’t find anything. Or back to the first floor if we do.”

  She nodded, unblinking.

  “I’ll deal with the guard, if there is one to deal with at all. For all we know, he was sent to a new spot to guard because of the incident on the fourth floor. I’m almost sure we will find something though. You can wait by the door and be the lookout while I try to find something to blow this whole place to smithereens.”

  Jacob rested his forehead on hers. They kissed one last time and vacated the pod. The door slammed behind them, leaving the white room to itself, everything looking just as immaculate as it did on the first day he came walking through the door with nothing but a book bag and a mind full of terrible images that twenty years of counseling couldn’t stop him from seeing every time he closed his eyes. The TV still displayed the same message that it always had…“Please Wait.”

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Jacob

  They both stepped off the elevator together, not quite holding hands. But they were close enough to do so if need be. The corridor outside of the elevator was exactly as Jacob remembered it: darkness, no white, no sounds, no teachers, no life. The corridor felt dead. Very dim circular lights were installed in the walls, set about six feet apart.

  “Just stay close to me, honey. I’m not going to let anything happen to you,” Jacob said, not looking at her. He was paying attention to the lights cascading down the walls, leading to a big door on their right and a smaller door across from that one.

  Once they reached the doors, Jacob saw that the smaller one led to a staircase. But to where? He opened the door and looked. Like the corridor, the lighting was almost non-existent in the stairway. Jacob closed the door and turned to the bigger one behind him.

  The door was made of thick, glossy wood. The knob looked antique, unlike the rest of the Palace. He hadn’t seen a door like this since his old life. Jacob touched the door, feeling the smooth wood. Even just a touch could bring back memories of his past life. He remembered getting a million splinters in his fingers from trying to build tree houses with the neighborhood kids.

  He thought it funny that something as simple as seeing or touching an inanimate object could pull memories from the back of his brain, shuffle them, then display them as clear as day.

  “Are you okay, Jacob?” Mary asked as she grabbed his arm.

  “Yeah, I’m okay. I was just thinking about something.”

  Jacob grabbed the knob and turned it clockwise. They heard a small click and then an abnormally loud creaking sound as the door slowly opened. Maybe it just seemed loud to Jacob because he had not heard that sound in so long. He grabbed Mary’s hand as they both stepped into the room.

  The smells, the objects, the colors—it was all so nostalgic for Jacob. He hadn’t seen items like this in so long. The office was dark, but there were candles in different spots illuminating certain things. The carpet was a dark brown, almost black. There was a coffee table off to the right near a huge grandfather clock. A smaller table sat beside that with what looked like bottles of expensive liquor. Jacob thought the room looked like the study of some old college professor of an Ivy League school.

  Mary walked into the room behind Jacob, closing the door quietly. When she turned around, Jacob saw her mentally wrestling with the full culture shock. He knew she’d heard about things like this, but she had never seen them.

  The room smelled of old leather, wood, and old books. Jacob noticed a bunch of folders and books on top of the desk at the back of the room. He began walking toward the desk, feeling the soft plush carpet beneath his shoes. It reminded him of his parents’ house. Walking out of the living room of their home to go outside and enter the big white van was the last time he had felt such soft carpet beneath his feet. Jacob wanted to just pace the room, the feeling brought back so much. That hurt though, because it was all gone now. What point was there in remembering when you could do nothing but relive the moments inside of your own spotty memory? It would never be real again.

  Mary walked over and touched the big clock, feeling the carved wood as she watched the pendulum swing back and forth. She seemed to be in love with it and regarded the clock as some kind of dinosaur fossil. The items in this office had to appear otherworldly to her.

  She walked over to a bookshelf on the wall, scanning all the books briefly. Jacob watched her reading the spines and smiling. She was so impressed by the items before her that she seemed to forget the risk of the situation.

  Jacob turned away and looked at the desk’s surface. It was covered in folders. He couldn’t help but wonder if there was a file for him. And if there was, what would it say? He had to find out.

  He moved a few of the folders around and noticed the name “Trevor Cox” written across the top of one. The name had a red slash through it. This filled him with dread, and he could feel his heart quicken and his stomach fold in on itself. He grabbed the file and whipped it open. He scooped all the papers out and flung the folder carelessly to the side.

  Rapidly flipping through the pages, Jacob tried to find something incriminating. He noticed all of the papers had a footer at the bottom labeled “NCP Corp.” Jacob wondered if he had ever heard of that before, but he was sure he hadn’t. He continued trying to find something alluding to where Trevor could be.

  Mary started toward Jacob just as the office door made that same creaking sound. He looked up from the papers in his hands to see the door slowly moving.

  Jacob blinked. Sirus seemed to be in the room without ever walking into the room. The door opened, and there he was on the carpet, staring at them both. He didn’t look angry or threatening, more so bored and expectant. Mary stumbled over her own feet upon seeing him there, coming close to falling. Jacob dropped the papers on the desk but did not move.

  He was as tall, handsome, and well dressed as he appeared on the dinnertime videos. Jacob watched Mary stare at Sirus,
looking him up and down. She looked as though she had seen a ghost. Jacob had no idea what to say. The only thought that came to his mind was, How did he get in the room so fast?

  After a time of awkward silence, Sirus turned around smoothly and pushed the door closed with his hand. He turned back around and leaned against that door, crossing one foot over the other. He looked like some model from one of those GQ Magazines, only older. Mary began backing up. Sirus had a carefree demeanor, and based on what he’d just walked into, that was cause for concern.

  “Do not move, Mary. I’d prefer you go back to the corner there, check out the books once more.” Sirus nodded in the direction of the bookshelf. “Seems Jacob here has an interest with my belongings at my desk. This intrigues me much more.”

  Mary did not move; she appeared too afraid to take a step in either direction. “I will not ask you again, Mary. For now, you are not in any trouble, nor am I agitated. But let’s not change these things. Go,” he said, snapping his finger once and pointing to the corner. Mary managed to make her way there this time. Slowly and hesitantly, but she got there.

  She stared at Jacob. He could see the fear all over her beautiful face. Her lips were shaking, and she had begun to cry. She looked as though she wanted to run away. Jacob noticed a tear run down her face.

  Sirus walked in her direction, locking eyes with her as he made a shushing sound with his finger to his lips. He reached into the breast pocket of his jacket and pulled a white handkerchief out, then extended his hand to give it to her. He moved in closer after she took the handkerchief and whispered in Mary’s ear, “Wipe your face clean, there is no need for that.” Then in a swift motion, he was facing Jacob again. Sirus made quick strides to the desk area, where he pulled up short and sat down in the seat that was normally designated for visitors.