by K. Weikel
Twenty-One
Peter
“Ughhh…”
I wake up sitting in a chair in a square room with orange colored walls. They glow dimly.
“Remain seated,” I hear a voice blast into my ears.
“Where am I?”
“You’re in a Simulation Sphere.”
“But it’s not spherical. It’s… squarical?” I say, slowly standing up.
“Technology has changed since you were last here, Peter Hemmings.”
The air around me lights up and changes. In a split second I go from standing in the orange room to being in a forest with trees surrounding me.
A man stands before me.
My father.
“Dad,” I smile, tears coming to my eyes.
I run over to him and throw my arms around him. No, not around him.
Through him.
I fall to the ground behind him. He looks down at me with disapproving eyes.
“Wha…?” I look at my hands and back at him. “You’re not real…”
“I wish I raised you better, son,” He says, his hands still in his pockets. “Maybe then you wouldn’t have wanted to be a Cooker.”
“Dad…? Dad, no. I wanted to be one. It wasn’t anything you did. I just loved cooking… Dad?”
I reach for him and my hand goes through him.
He’s not real.
“You didn’t save us, Pete… You let them take us. You let them kill us.”
“Dad…”
“We’re disappointed in you, Peter…”
I turn around. My mom is standing behind me. I run to her.
Stop myself.
“You’re not real.”
“Peter, you let us go…” Her bottom lip trembles.
“No,” I’m too loud. But it doesn’t matter. They’re not real. “Go away. Nothing you say is true. Nothing you say is real. You’re not real.”
My parents disappear, and I sit on the ground.
I hear slow clapping coming from behind me. President Murkas is walking up to me.
I jump up, ready to fight. He throws his hands up, and then places them in his pockets.
“You can’t hurt me in here, boy,” He says. “You’re inside a simulation.”
“What was that then? What was that with my parents?”
“It’s to get you to talk. I could do anything I want in here. This is monitored only by me. No one can tell me what I can or can’t do. Your mental pain is to my own discretion.”
“This is inhumane. This is why the Rebellion exists.”
“Oh, poor thing,” He mocks. “Too bad your girlfriend isn’t here. I bet she’d tell me everything I need to know in exchange of watching you get beaten.”
I think of when we were in the jail cell in the Rebellion Complex. She came back for me, then I was taken away again. They took me to a room and locked a long chain to my arms. The chain was bolted to the wall. The guard that shot me in the foot beat me to a pulp. He thought I wouldn’t talk because of who I was, so he over-beat me. I think he was trying to impress that Rebecca chick.
Eenie was trying so hard to hold me without hurting me. I could tell. She held my wrists lightly and moved slowly. And then when the girl with half of her ear missing told her to hold me around my neck she did it carefully. Gently. And the way she looked at me when she walked in… I never want to be looked at like that again.
Especially from her.
“Yeah, well, you’re just going to have to kill me to get it out of me.”
He smiles cruelly.
“If you insist.”
His image fades out, and I lift my hands up, ready for whatever comes my way.
The room changes again.
I’m by the river. I see Nonna picking berries from a bush. Nonna is the woman who ‘adopted’ me when I joined the Rebellion. Her tiny plump figure jiggles as she shifts her feet along the lines of berry bushes and plants. I can hear her humming the song she would sing to put her children to bed. She had two little boys. One was named Red, and the other ones name was Jeremy. They were twins.
She looks up and smiles at me. Her dark hair blows in the breeze. Her skin is dark and worn from the few years she’s lived outside of the Dome.
I walk over to her and take the heavy basket from her.
She smiles.
“Thank you.”
I smile back at her. This woman is my hero. I look up to her. It probably sounds a little weird because, well, I’m a guy.
She had twin boys, and she was forced to give up one of them. She refused and fought one of the Safeties, which lead to both her and her children’s exile. Her husband didn’t come with her. Instead, he stayed behind and worked as the President’s Handler.
I remember wandering around in the forest, lost, when I was first thrown out. I knew how to make my own food, but that was about it. I couldn’t catch anything, I didn’t know how. And then, one day she found me. She had been picking berries. She asked me if I was kicked out, and, after telling her what happened, she brought me to the camp Doug looked over. She took me in. They all did. And from then on I was a part of the rebellion.
“How are Red and Jeremy?” I ask her, reaching forward to help pick the berries off of the pink stems.
She smiles.
“They’ve gotten so big, Peter.”
She’s the only one in the rebellion that calls me by my first name.
I look down at the berries. They’re white with a black dot on the top of them. They look like little eyeballs.
“What kind of berries are these, Nonna?”
“They’re called doll’s eyes.”
“But Nonna, those are poisonous.”
“Good job, boy,” President Murkas says, appearing behind her. “Answer my question or she eats one. Maybe two. Or a handful.”
This isn’t real.
“Where is the rebellion, Peter?”
This is not real.
“Tick-tock.”
Nonna takes out a handful of berries.
“Don’t eat those!”
“Peter, it’s perfectly fine. Nothing is going to happen,” She tells me, smiling.
She tips her head back and lifts up her hand.
“Where is the Rebellion located?”
“I won’t tell you.”
“Very well.”
I reach for Nonna’s hand to try to pull it down, but my fingers go right through her. My heart rate speeds up as the berries fall into her mouth.
This isn’t real.
This isn’t real.
This is just a simulation.
None of this is happening.
Red and Jeremy run up to me. They take a berry each out of the basket I’m holding.
“No, not them…”
I throw the basket down and reach to take the berries away.
But then they swallow them whole.
All three of them drop at once, unconscious. I feel for their pulse.
Nothing.
I stand up and glare at the President. This isn’t real. This isn’t right.
My blood is boiling.
He laughs and fades away again. The room changes.
I’m inside of my house. The one I had when I lived in the Dude’s Dome. Six-year-old Nad runs up and hugs me.
“Welcome home big brother!” She says, hanging from my neck.
I wrap my arms around her, tears filling my eyes.
“Hi, Nad.”
“You wanna see what I learned today?” She asks me, beaming with a smile.
I kneel down. “What?”
She runs to the table and grabs her tablet.
“Come here!” She waves me over, turning on a lamp.
I peer over her shoulder. She scrolls through percentages and clicks on one.
“Today we learned how to analyze people and their matches. So I matched you.”
“You did what?” I laugh.
“I paired you up w
ith someone. Wanna see?”
She shoves the screen into my hands, and I look down. The picture on the screen showed a little girl with food all over her face. I laugh and hand it back to Nad.
“I think you got something wrong,” I tell her. Her face goes red.
“No I didn’t. She just doesn’t have a better picture, see? She’s your age, and sheeeeee… likes peanut butter. Just like you.”
“What’s her name?”
“Her name is Eh… Eee… Eenralla Land? I think?”
I look at the picture again, and smile.
“I used to know her,” I tell Nad. She looks at me with big eyes. “She made fun of me for wanting to be a Cooker.”
Her mouth drops open.
“But I made fun of her for being a Hunter.”
She giggles and scrolls through her information.
“I knew you were perfect for each other.”
I smile at her. She’s so excited. She wants to be an analyzer so bad…
But she’s not.
I shake my head.
This isn’t real.
“Big brother, are you okay?”
I pinch the bridge of my nose with my fingers.
This isn’t real.
The door bursts open, and twenty men in black clothing storm in. They hold big guns, all pointed at us.
“Answer my question, or I shoot the girl.”
“She’s not real.”
“But you’re still protecting her.”
I look down. I’m standing in front of her defensively, and she clutches my shirt. I’ve always protected her…
But this one isn’t real.
This isn’t the real Nad.
She’s just a hologram. A hologram that feels real.
President Murkas materializes in front of me, and I move a little bit to the side to hide my sister. My sister…
No. She’s not my sister.
She’s not real.
“Where is the rebellion located?” He asks calmly.
“I told you. I’m not going to tell you. And you know I won’t.”
“Shoot the girl.”
The men charge forward, and I push Nad back, throwing punches. Both of my fists fly through whoever I aim them at, and they go right past me. They go right through me. They grab my sister.
No, not my sister.
One of them shoves her around. She cries out for me, tears falling down her little cheeks.
I charge forward, only to be held back by four men in black.
“Peter! Big brother! Help me! Please!” She sobs. “Help!”
She screams as they throw her to the ground.
“NAD!” I shout at the top of my lungs. “No, no, please.”
“All you have to do is tell me,” President Murkas says.
“This isn’t real,” I repeat to myself.
But it feels real.
Real or not, I can’t watch my little sister die.
“Peter!” She screams.
“Tick-tock.”
“I won’t tell you.”
“Fine.”
The men push her face down into the floor. I struggle to break free. Nad looks up at me and screams my name again.
The men let go of me and I run across the room.
But she’s dead before I can reach her. Blood covers the floor. Maybe bits of her brain… I don’t know… I just… My sister…
“No! Nad! Nad, no…” I hold her small body in my arms, slowly rocking back and forth.
I look up, and she’s gone. The blood’s gone. I’m back in the orange room. President Murkas stands before me. I run at him, anger raging inside of me. I fall right through.
“Why are you doing this?” I say, picking myself up off of the ground.
“I need to know. Everything could crumble if it’s not fixed.”
“That’s the point of a freaking rebellion, you idiot!”
Rage burns inside of me. It tingles in my fingertips and pumps through every part of me. My vision is blurred from the tears, but I can still see his smug face. I can’t touch him. I can’t punch him. And that bothers me. It makes me even angrier. My arms hang at my sides, tense, in fists. These things that are happening… these things aren’t real. But they feel real. And that’s what gets me.
Murkas stays still as the room changes again.
I’m inside of a bird’s cage. Inside of a bird’s cage with Eenie. She sits, her nose bleeding and her lip busted. Her cheek is starting to bruise. Her face is swelling.
I squat next to her, reach for her face. She cringes away from me.
“Stay away from me,” She cries. “Just stay away.”
“Eenie—”
“No!” She sobs. “I trusted you, Peter… but you’re…”
No. No. I didn’t do this to her. I didn’t touch her.
I look down at my fists. They’re split. Bruising. Her blood smeared on them.
“No,” I say, both of us standing up. “No, Eenie, I didn’t do this to you… this… this isn’t real. Nothing is real right now… it’s a simulation. It’s all a simulation.”
“Peter, look at me! Do I look like a simulation? You were supposed to protect me… you’ve always protected me…” Her blue eyes look up at me as her back touches the gray bars behind her. “Who knew I’d need protection from you?”
I look at my hands. I couldn’t have done this. I didn’t touch her… I didn’t…
But it happened.
“Agh!”
She doubles over, holding her stomach. She falls to the ground and I run over to her.
“Get… away…” She breathes, screaming again.
“No,” I say. “No, I’ll never get away. I’ll never hurt you again. I’ll always be here for you.”
She lets out another scream.
“She’s bleeding internally,” President Murkas chimes in. “Her body is changing.”
“Could this actually happen to her?” I shout, panicking.
She screams again.
“Just tell me and she’ll be okay again.”
“Peter…” She wheezes, and goes limp against my body.
Her eyes are open, and search my face.
“What can I do?” I shout to him.
“You can answer me.”
I stare down at her. It’s broken out in cold sweat, and her eyes keep wanting to close.
The simulation flickers out. A blinding light falls onto me. I stand up and feel arms around my neck. As she pulls away, I see her face. Her perfect, unbruised, unbloody face. I take it in my hands and kiss her.
This. This is real.
Twenty-Two
Eenie
“How did you find me?”
“Rebecca said you’d be here,” I say, biting my lip.
He had kissed me, and now I can’t stop smiling.
“Come on, you two. We only have ten more minutes to get deep into the Dome,” I hear Rebecca say in the doorway.
“What is she talking about?” Peter asks me.
“I’ll explain it on the way,” I say quickly, taking his hand and leading him out into the hallway.
I tell him what Justin had told me.
“Justin found an exit that leads to the outside of the Domes. We let in as many people as we could from the Rebellion, and, oh! Ken was with them. Apparently he was wandering around and everything trying to find his way back to the Rebellion Complex. He said he lost you.”
“Yeah, he hid in the trees while I… kinda attacked the President,” He says, smirking.
I laugh. “Why am I not surprised?”
“Because it’s who I am,” He slides his hand into mine, and chills work their way up my arm and down my spine. I trip over my foot and regain my balance, my face getting hot.
“So what do we do now?” He asks.
“Now we wait,” Rebecca says.
She’s walking ahead of us quickly, and I’m trying to keep up. My legs ar
e shorter than both Rebecca’s and Peter’s, so I have to take bigger steps.
When Rebecca had come through the door Justin held open for the Rebellion’s people, she grabbed me by my arm and pulled me along with her. We had left Justin behind to let in more of the Rebellion’s people. She asked me where Peter went and I told her I didn’t know. She nodded and told me he might be in a Simulation Sphere.
“Wait! Here,” Rebecca says, turning around and holding out a white coat and white pants that she picked up from a desk. “Put these on. If you’re seen without them you’ll be executed immediately.”
Peter takes the clothes awkwardly and jumps into a room and closes the door behind him.
Rebecca looks down at the purple on my arm.
“You need to be careful,” She says as I push the sleeve down self-consciously. “And if you start to hurt, come look for me. Please.”
“Why?” I ask her.
“I used to work as a Government Official in the Home Dome. I’ve seen this first-hand. To my knowledge, I’m the only one that knows what happens.”
“Can you stop it?”
“Maybe. It’s been a long time… But if I do find something, I’ll come looking for you.”
“All done,” Peter comes out of the room.
“Let’s go,” Rebecca says quickly, looking at the band on her wrist and turning on her heel. Something has changed inside of her… Maybe she just wants me to be her little experiment.
Yay.
We walk for about five minutes, and I hear the faint beeping of the cameras turning back on. Peter and I follow Rebecca up the flights of stairs and into the Dame’s Dome.
“I’ve always wondered what it looked like in this Dome,” Peter says, laughing to himself.
Another sharp pain hits my stomach, and I fall against Peter, leaning over. He grabs me around my waist and doesn’t let go. When it stops, I stand up and almost fall over. Peter catches me and props me up underneath his arm.
“Eenralla,” I hear Rebecca say softly to me. “Eenralla, I need you to go somewhere where you will be safe. At least for right now. You need to lay down. I’m going to look for some way to stop it.”
I nod, and whisper, “My house. It’s number twelve-oh-two.”
Suddenly, I feel weak, and like I’ll collapse. I almost do, but Peter’s arms don’t let me.
“I’ll hurry,” She says, and I hear her walk away.
Peter picks me up and carries me. His heartbeat is strong, and it’s loud in my ear as I lean against his chest. I close my eyes and just listen to it.
“There you are! I was wondering where you went. Who is this? Excuse me, sir, this is the Dame’s Dome.”
Peter almost drops me. He sets me down and stares at his little sister in awe.
“Peter…” I wheeze.
“Nad…?”
My stomach finally stops hurting and I stand up slowly.
“My name is Eenralla Land,” I say, and her posture and voice changes.
She blinks and looks at me.
“Oh, you’re back from your surgery.”
“Nad…” Peter wraps her in a hug.
When she doesn’t return it, he pulls away.
“Do I know you?”
I prop myself up with my hands on my hips and watch them sadly. I touch him lightly on the shoulder and I feel his muscles loosen.
“Nad… Nad, it’s me, your big brother. It’s Peter,” His voice cracks.
“I don’t have a brother, I’m… sorry.”
Peter’s muscles tense, and none of them move. I’m not even sure he’s breathing.
“Nad, it’s me,” He says, begging. “Please. Do you remember that time you showed me what you learned, and you matched me with someone? Do you remember going to see mom and dad at their funeral and getting a strike for it? Do you remember the day we moved to the Dude’s Dome? Do you… Nad…” I can hear the pain in his voice, and my throat knots.
“I’m sorry sir, I think you have the wrong person,” She says to him. Then to me, “I hope you feel better soon, Eenralla Land.”
She waves and walks off.
I lightly touch Peter’s shoulder. He starts to walk down the street. I try to follow, but my breath is short, and I get lightheaded. I walk the distance to my door and shove the white dress off, the sound of the fabric hitting the floor loud. Too loud. I lay down and slip under the covers, shivering. I pull off the lab coat and let it fall to the floor. The sound too loud.
I look at my arm. The purple has reached up past my elbow, and is almost to my shoulder. It’s starting to wrap around the base of my fingers, just above my knuckles.
A soft aching grows inside of me. It’s like an itch you can’t scratch, and I twist and turn, uncomfortable. The pain grows.
I hear my door open and close and I sit up painfully, seeing Peter walking in. He grabs a chair and swings it over beside my bed. He takes my hand, his warm against mine.
“What happened in that room?” I ask, trying to get my mind on something else besides the pain that’s growing inside of me.
He looks at me, debating on whether or not to talk about it. I know he’s worried about me. I can see it. But it feels like it goes beyond that.
He takes a shaky breath.
“I was mentally tortured. More or less.”
“What do you mean?” I ask, moving my legs underneath the covers. I gasp from the pain my skin feels from the scraping of the covers.
He helps lay me back down on my pillow and I catch my breath.
“Stay still,” He tells me, and runs his hand over my forehead.
“What happened?” I ask again, closing my eyes and swallowing. My body is beginning to feel hot on the inside, but on the outside my skin is cold and extremely sensitive.
“I watched the family that adopted me inside of the Rebellion die. They were poisoned by berries. I couldn’t stop them… And then I watched as complete strangers shot Nad, as if that should matter. But it happened. I watched her die. Shot her straight in the head. And then I saw you—” I hear him swallow and I look at him. “It was all a simulation. But I couldn’t keep that thought the entire time. It tricked me over and over…” He squeezes his eyes shut and rubs his hand against his forehead. “I’m just glad you came in when you did.”
“Why was all of that happening?” I croak. “Why were you in there?”
“President Murkas wanted to know where the Rebellion was.”
“Did you…?” My voice fades out as I wince. The covers are stinging my skin as I shift underneath them.
“No,” He says, studying me. “What is it that hurts?”
“Everything.”
The pain is increasing everywhere, and I can’t get comfortable. I don’t want to move because everything inside and out hurts. My vision is too bright and blurry, and my ears are ringing with sounds. The sound of the camera turning on above my door is loud, and I snap my head around to look at it. They can see me. He knows where I am now. He’ll find me. And he’ll kill me.
But not before I get my answers.
