by Eliza Green
‘What the hell are you doing here?’
She stiffened at his words. Good. He wanted to frighten her. Needed her to understand it was a mistake coming here. He didn’t trust Ash, and he hadn’t figured out the purpose of the fourth floor yet. Ash had been here one rotation already, but so far he’d told no one about the activities here.
‘She says she’s here to do a deal,’ said Ash.
Dom marched to the back of where the others had gathered, a sharp anger heating his skin. He folded his tense arms and concentrated on controlling his rapid breaths. He stared at Anya. She glanced at him then blushed and focused on Ash.
Shit.
‘We can’t rotate off this floor and eat,’ said Anya. ‘It seems to be one choice or the other. We understand we will earn more points if we help you.’
Why can’t you rotate and eat?
The boys hadn’t been told how the girls earned points by themselves—only how the boys could earn points alone or with the girls’ help. But he’d expected Sheila at least to hold out a little longer.
‘We knew it wouldn’t take long for one of you to come,’ said Ash. ‘I’m kind of glad it was you, though.’
He touched Anya’s hair. Dom growled, fresh anger flaring in his chest. He flexed his hands.
‘Don’t touch me,’ she said.
Her words made Ash back off. Dom tried to relax. If Ash touched her again he might kill him.
‘How about you tell me how we can help you?’ said Anya. Her voice wobbled a little.
Jesus, Anya. Turn around and leave. You don’t want to know.
Ash led her over to the famous board, the one that listed all the activities.
Ash smiled at her. ‘As you can see, we earn points for doing practically nothing. Of course, you’re free to choose whatever you like. My personal favourite is the last one.’ His fingers brushed across Anya’s neck and she shivered.
Dom’s anger rose again. His leg bounced. He dropped his hands to his side. Ash touching Anya was all he saw.
I’m going to kill him.
Anya flashed him a warning look right before she grabbed Ash’s arm and twisted it behind his back. ‘I haven’t agreed to anything yet, so no touching. Okay?’
Ash sneered beneath her hold, but he couldn’t break free. She was strong. Dom had felt that same strength when he held her in his arms.
‘Okay, okay. Being restrained by a beautiful girl is a turn-on, by the way.’
Dom relaxed his stance, looked at Anya again. She stood with her head held high. He had no more doubts she could take care of herself. But he didn’t want her to. He wanted to protect her.
‘Talk it over with the others if you must,’ said Ash. ‘But you’ll be back.’
Ash watched Anya leave. Dom stood near him, ready to lunge if he made a smart comment. Across the hall, he saw Sheila waiting for her by the door. When Anya spoke to her, her eyes widened and she straightened up. The girls disappeared into the bathroom.
No cameras. Good move.
Ash turned away from the window. Gone were the cocky smile and the brazen attitude. He bit his thumb, and there was notable anguish on his face. It was as if the girls were his last hope.
Ω
The next day was torture. Dom paced the large dorm waiting for the girls to arrive with their answer. He’d waited an hour after Anya had brought the other girls up to speed about Ash’s proposal before he snuck out and told her to meet him in the bathroom. He had it all figured out, but she’d surprised him with a plan of her own. She’d told him about pairing up with Warren so that he and Sheila would have a better a chance of rotating.
It was a terrible idea. He wanted to see her safely to the end.
But she was right. Damn it.
He and Sheila had entered Arcis to find his mother and the others who’d disappeared.
But pairing up with Warren Hunt? No. He didn’t trust him. June had told him about the pact Warren and Anya had made shortly after Dom’s self-defence classes. They agreed to help each other progress through the floors. It was his fault she’d turned to Warren in the first place. June had been asked to befriend Tahlia, and Frank and Jerome had been friends before Arcis, according to June. So that left Warren. But Dom didn’t like him.
You say that about every male who wants to get close to Anya.
With Frank gone, he’d asked Jerome to pair off with Anya.
‘I can’t Dom. Frank died because of her. I can’t forgive her.’
‘Jerome, you got it all wrong. Frank tried to open the door. She almost died trying to save him.’
Dom snapped out of his thoughts when Ash started towards the door and opened it.
‘Welcome to mi casa, ladies.’
The girls entered the room and Dom’s gaze shot straight to Anya. She looked to be handling the attention fine. Sheila, on the other hand, looked scared. June stood close to her, observing her surroundings with a neutral eye, the way all rebel soldiers had been trained to do.
Ash gestured for the girls to sit.
‘Okay, let’s see who gets to choose one of these lovely ladies first.’
Not for the first time, Ash’s cockiness and bravado slipped enough for Dom to notice his desperation. He didn’t give off the same vibe as Warren. But it didn’t make him any less dangerous.
That had to be it. Ash was as nervous as the girls were.
The boys picked the girls. Dom would choose last. His act of kindness in securing food for the girls one morning had carried a penalty.
Ash chose Lilly. A quiet, timid girl. Someone who would guarantee rotation.
‘Don’t worry, Lilly,’ said Ash to her. ‘We’ll start out with something... easy.’
His choice sickened Dom.
Jerome was up next and he chose Anya, like they’d agreed. Dom gave him a discreet nod. Warren didn’t look happy. That wasn’t Dom’s problem.
Warren ended up with June. Shaw could handle herself, but he wanted to speak to her soon, to find out what she’d learned about Tahlia. While he was at it, he’d ask her to scupper Warren’s chances of rotating. He wasn’t sure why, but his gut warned him he could be a problem for him and Sheila.
Sheila was left and Dom picked her.
She came to his side, her eyes downcast. She mouthed sorry at him.
It occurred to him why Anya had come to the dorm that day instead of Sheila. He cupped Sheila’s neck and brought his lips close to her ear. ‘We’ll find a way to do this without actually doing anything. Okay?’
She nodded timidly, and he wanted to pull her into a tight hug. But he caught Anya watching before she turned away, as if embarrassed. Jerome tapped her on the shoulder and the pair moved to a quieter part of the room.
‘I’m sorry, Dom. Anya volunteered to come here yesterday. I tried, but I couldn’t be here. Not with a room full of excitable boys.’
‘It’s okay, Sheila. I’m not angry with you. I talked to her last night. I arranged for Jerome to pick her. It’s all going to work out fine.’
Sheila smirked. ‘She’s got balls. That girl might actually be growing on me.’
‘Hands off. I saw her first.’
Sheila hugged her middle and looked around. ‘So what do we do now?’ Other couples stood around the activity board discussing the options.
Dom pulled her into his sectioned-off bedroom with enough standing room for two people. His hoodie from the third floor lay on the ground. He gestured for her to sit on his bed.
‘Nothing you don’t want to do. We can work up the points safely or we can go straight to the top, and do the thing that earns us the most points.’
Sheila bit her lip, shook her head. ‘I can’t have sex with you. I’m sorry.’
He sat beside her and leaned in close. ‘I don’t mean literally. I was thinking about it. How does Arcis know what we’re doing and when?’
Sheila looked at him as if he’d lost his mind. ‘The cameras, Dom?’
He spoke in a hushed voice. ‘And you think you’d be
okay having sex on camera?’
Sheila shuddered. ‘Okay, then what?’
‘What if you decided to do it off camera, like in one of the bathrooms, for privacy, where there are no cameras? How would anyone know?’
Sheila shrugged.
Dom held out his wrist and tapped the spot with his chip. ‘Proximity,’ he said. ‘It has to count for something. The chip stores data. Why not transmit data? What if it detects elevated heart rates? It’s positioned over a pulse spot.’
‘So, we work up our heart rates, get close and that’s it?’
‘I don’t know. It’s a theory I’d like to try.’
Sheila smiled. ‘Well, if it means skipping the real hot and sweaty with you, then I’m all for it.’
Dom touched his heart. ‘Thanks, Sheila. That really gives my ego a boost.’
‘Your ego doesn’t need it.’
‘So what’s going on with you and Yasmin?’ He’d noticed a connection between Sheila and a girl who’d rotated from the second floor.
Sheila shifted. ‘What do you mean?’
‘You two seem close.’
Sheila shrugged. ‘I barely know her. She’s nice. But I’m not sure she’s my type, to be honest.’
Yasmin was a good distraction for Sheila. Not the right fit for Sheila, though. Yasmin was too tough, too closed off for her.
‘Now that’s crazy. Why wouldn’t she be interested in you?’ Dom dropped a kiss on her head.
Sheila sighed as she stood up. ‘Come on, Dom Juan. Let’s get this over with.’
16
Dom
‘You can’t save everybody,’ said Sheila.
Dom and Sheila’s efforts to fool Arcis into thinking they’d had sex had paid off. Their proximity was enough to register as if they’d actually done it. But not all had been so lucky. She stood beside Dom on the fifth-floor walkway. Lilly had just jumped over the side after blasting Ash with electricity and watching him fall to his death.
To guarantee his exit from the fourth floor, Ash had forced himself on her. Dom didn’t need to see it to know that’s what had happened. Ash had been acting strange ever since rotation was announced. Dom had expected the boy to be happy about moving on, but he’d been in a mood all morning. What had happened to turn Ash into a rapist? Dom hated to admit that Arcis was changing all of them.
Only Anya looked over the side to see where Lilly and Ash had landed. Her face was wiped clean of emotion, as though she’d seen too much already. But she couldn’t hide the pain in her eyes. Anguish, too. She straightened up, lowered her eyes and walked across the rest of the walkway to Tower B.
Something had happened to her. Something had turned her cold. The last time he’d spoken to Anya was in the bathroom, the night before Jerome picked her. Now she was ignoring him.
But he detected traces of anger beneath the chilly exterior. No more apparent than in the changing room moments ago, when she kept to herself. She could barely stand to look at Dom. The wound on her arm looked like it had been reopened.
He thought about asking her, but if her wall was as high as his was most days, it would take some force to break it down.
‘What’s going on with Anya?’ Dom asked Sheila on the walkway. ‘Her wound, it looks fresh. Did something happen?’
Sheila shrugged. ‘Hell if I know. That girl’s a walking disaster.’
The fifth floor must be some kind of combat floor. Beyond the changing room was a station with Electro Guns. It was how Lilly had been able to attack Ash, with enough blasts of electricity from her gun to stun him and force him over the edge. Dom held his gun close to his chest and followed Sheila into Tower B, unconvinced by her explanation.
The male supervisor explained the purpose of the new floor. In front of them was a maze laid out differently to the one on the third. The fifth floor room was twice as big, and this maze appeared to have multiple entry points. The other difference was they had guns, and Dom couldn’t spot any gold doors.
He tagged on to the game at the console by the door and raced for one of the entrances.
Deafening music drowned out his senses, leaving little space in his head to think. He pushed past the noise designed to disorientate him, concentrating instead on the combat and strategy elements to the task. The male supervisor had warned them the maze would change as soon as they learned a route. Dom followed the corridors as fast as he could, firing at black discs that counted as scores. Then the time ran out, and the absence of music left behind a loud ringing in his ears. The walls lowered into the floor. The supervisor waited by the scoreboard positioned to the rear of the maze.
‘Dom won that round,’ he said. ‘He found six of the fourteen discs in the time allowed. But Anya tried something different. Why don’t you tell everyone what you did?’
Dom frowned.
Anya stood straight, gripping the Electro Gun in both hands and pressing it to her chest. She knew how to use a gun. That much was obvious.
‘I shot at the wall. It’s organic and I was able to pass through.’
‘But you wound up trapped?’
She nodded.
‘You see, Anya cheated and she ran out of charge,’ said the supervisor. ‘So the maze trapped her so she couldn’t progress. How many discs did you find?’
‘Four.’
‘The lesson is clear. You can cheat and guarantee a low score, or you can play it fair and find more discs. That will take you longer but it is achievable.’
The supervisor dismissed them for the night and the girls made a beeline for the dining hall. He didn’t blame them, not after their near starvation on the floor below. Dom leaned against the wall outside, waiting for them to finish. His chat with June needed to happen, but he would let her eat first. This was the first chance he would have to speak with her since she caught up to him on the fourth floor. In fact, the one and only time they spoke was back when Dom was still allowed outside.
Twenty minutes later, the girls emerged. Anya caught his eye briefly before marching on to the dormitory.
His gut twisted. What had he done wrong? He pushed aside his confusion to catch June.
‘Can I have a quick word?’
June fell to the back of the group and nodded towards the bathroom. They entered and June dropped the pretence to give him a long hug.
She pulled back and smiled at him. ‘Dom, I’ve been dying to catch up with you.’
‘Me, too. Is everything going okay for you?’
She nodded. ‘Nothing I can’t handle.’
‘And Warren? How did he work out on the floor below?’
She ran her hand through her fine blonde hair and exhaled. ‘A little more awkward than I would have liked. I did everything I could to stop him from progressing, but this place seems to change the rules whenever it likes. I’m not sure it’s possible to keep him away. If Arcis wants him to progress, it’ll happen.’
‘Thanks for trying, anyway.’ Dom paused. ‘I get a funny vibe off him.’
‘Yeah, me too.’
‘Everything happened so fast, I haven’t had a chance to ask you about Tahlia,’ said Dom. ‘I’m sorry about what happened to her. What did you find out?’
‘Well, her parents worked in Praesidium. Her mother was hired as an artist, her father as a gardener. They worked there for a while. Tahlia even lived in the city when she was younger.’
‘Did she remember much about it?’
‘Not much. She was young. She described the place as bright, white and sterile. Her family lived in an apartment complex in one of the five zones in the city. She mentioned Praesidium had a really good art programme. She mostly travelled between her apartment and the school there. But Tahlia also assumed a lot about the city, so I don’t think she was allowed to see much of the place. She mentioned that whenever she tried to explore, someone would accompany her. One of the women from the apartment block where she lived stayed with her when her parents were working.’
Dom leaned against the sink and rubbed his jaw.
‘Arcis targeted Tahlia on the first floor. They singled her out for a reason.’
June nodded. ‘I believe that, too. Anya was tricked into helping keep her in last place. She felt terrible about it. Warren had a hand in that.’
Dom stiffened. ‘Did he? How?’
‘Yasmin told me he’d overheard the male and female supervisor say they’d rotate everyone if someone was consistently last. It was suggested in a discussion with a few of them that Tahlia should be left behind because she was the slowest.’
Dom frowned. ‘It’s possible he wasn’t lying about that. I heard the same thing. My group targeted someone, a girl called Brianna. I think we were set up. I’d love to know if Brianna had been to Praesidium before, and if she’d ever lived there.’
‘So you think Arcis knew about Tahlia? That she’d been there?’
‘Why not? Someone probably recognised her. Or she’s in the system. Did she say why her parents left Praesidium and returned to the towns?’
June shrugged. ‘Only that they didn’t think it was the right place to bring up a child.’
‘So her parents are murdered and Tahlia is taken to Arcis. They run her through a couple of floors before they kill her.’
June nodded and stuffed her hands into her pockets. ‘Maybe Arcis wanted to know what she remembered about the city. Maybe she talked too much about it. Compliance doesn’t affect memory. Maybe the controllers chose to kill her before she could talk about anything else.’
Dom ran a hand down his face. ‘Jesus.’ He looked at June. ‘Hey, do you know what’s going on with Anya? She seems off.’
June concentrated on the sink. ‘Yeah, but you should ask her. It’s not my place.’
What the hell?
His heart thumped. ‘What does that mean?’
June looked up at him. ‘It means you have to ask her, Dom. Sorry.’
Dom forced a smile. ‘Thanks, June. I’m glad you’re with us.’
She hugged him again. ‘Me, too. We’ll get there, Dom. You’ve lost someone. So have I. We’ll get answers if it’s the last thing we do.’
