The moment we step off the aircraft, I climb into one of four oversized transporters, making sure I don’t get into the same one as Johnny. It’s a quick drive to the gated facility where we are to spend the night. A long row of Unifers stands at attention outside the walls, gripping their firearms, and they all carry the same hateful expression, like everyone around them is an enemy, a suspect to ward off.
We drive in through shiny steel gates with a “V” on one gate and a “V” on the other. Am I entering another prison? Another world in which President Volkov can control me? What will really happen if I survive this program? Ruth said that trusting him is like digging your grave with three sticks of dynamite. What did she really mean by that?
Passing through the middle of two long rows of Unifers, I see a huge banner above:
Those who trade in essential freedom for fleeting security deserve neither freedom nor security. Welcome, Savages!
We drive by a few office buildings, and a cafeteria. My stomach rumbles—I haven’t eaten since this morning and I feel weak. Will they be providing us with food? The transporter stops in front of a huge roundabout. The place is already crawling with participants and their representatives. Busses zoom past us, their exteriors plastered with red, yellow and white saber-toothed tiger heads. Being here feels all wrong because Gemma should have been here with me. The plan was that we make it together. Now who will I have at the end of all this? Who will be there if I succeed? Ruth is still alive, unless Master Douglas has gotten to her, too. My chest tightens. A Laborer can never be safe. Never. Even if she’s alive and I do make it, then she’ll want nothing to do with me when she discovers that I killed her Gemma. She’ll be able to read in my eyes that I made the choice to run. To abandon her daughter. And if she can’t, then I won’t be able to stop myself from telling her. I rub my hands over my eyes to make it look like I’m trying to force the sleepiness out of them—not stop the tears that are threatening to come. I can’t start to cry now. They’d all have yet another reason to think I’m a weakling and a Laborer who should never be a Master. Who doesn’t deserve to be a Master. Quick, focus on something else. Anything!
When I open my eyes, I see that I’m alone in the transporter. This helps me to redirect my thoughts. I climb out of the vehicle, counting the steps on my way out to keep my mind off Gemma.
Once outside, we stand in a group and wait for Mai and Nicholas to exit their transporter. To keep my mind busy, I scan Volkov Village and let each detail soak in. But what catches my eye isn’t inside the village, it’s right outside of it. Beyond the fence is a large, blue and green glass structure with a bar, a band, and a dance floor inside. I’ve biked by dance clubs in Culmination many times, my eyes lingering on couples entwined as one. I’ve often wondered what it feels like to be in love, as the Masters call it. Just once, I would like to feel that magic, as they call it. Once before I die. I always knew that it was never for me. Laborers are required to accept the mate their Master chooses for them.
Standing here so close to the rest of the participants, it’s glaringly obvious how much smaller I am than them. The shortest guy besides Arthor stands a whole head taller and must have at least seventy-five pounds on me. And it’s not just that. They have this aura of confidence—fearlessness—that a Laborer never would have. Advisors are taught that they’re important, almost as important as the Masters, and it’s drilled into them from the time they’re born. They’re not the scum of the earth like Laborers, but free individuals who can own businesses and create the lives they desire. Just the way their eyes don’t lower to the floor when spoken to—that alone sets them miles apart from us. And they know it. Many Advisors I have come in contact with are worse than the Masters—more arrogant, more proud. I have a theory about it. I think deep down inside their souls they know they’re not completely free, and it eats away at them. They fight hard to keep up the façade, proving to the world how much they matter. Well, at least I’m fast, and I have developed pretty good endurance riding around the mountains and hillsides of Culmination all these years. At least I have that.
When Mai comes out, her eyebrows are gathered low over her eyes, and as she walks by me, she glances at me, like I’m her archenemy. “They’re coming for you,” she whispers in a voice so low that I’m sure no one else could hear.
My stomach feels as if I just swallowed a gallon of poison. Coming for me? Who? Wait, does she know I’m a girl? Did she tell them, whomever it is that’s coming? I look around to see if they’re here—the Unifers. It has to be Unifers, I’m sure of it. But before I have time to locate my pursuers a Savage Run bus pulls up in front of us.
“This is our bus,” Nicholas says.
I quickly elbow my way to the front of the line so I can get on first. Not that I think it will matter much having someone after me. I’m sure they’ll find me no matter where I am.
“Easy there,” the guy with the shaved head and eagle tattoo on the back of his neck says. “What’s the hurry?” He laughs a little. “So you’re Joseph?”
I don’t want to talk to someone at the moment, but since I’m stuck here in front of the closed door, I answer. “Yes. Hi. You?” I glance over my shoulder and around the front of the bus to see if anyone’s coming. My mouth is so dry that my tongue sticks to the roof of it.
“Danny. Pleased to meet you.” He holds out a hand.
I bang on the door a couple of times, and when it opens, I get on at once. I run to the back and sit down, slumping in my seat and leaning against the window, looking out. From the corner of my eye I see others get on the bus and find their seats.
“May I sit here?”
I look up and am relieved when I see Arthor. “Sure.” I start to chew on my nails.
“Nervous?” he asks. The bus starts to drive off.
I lower my fingers from my teeth and look down at the floor. I’m not going to tell him someone’s after me. “Bad habit—I know.” It’s one of the reasons my father makes me wash my hands so often. Scrub the impurity from them.
“It’s okay.” He looks out the window. “We’re all afraid. Some of us just hide it better than others. Some of us pick on unsuspecting imps.” He nudges me.
His comment almost makes me smile. “Johnny?”
“Yeah.” We curve around the compound to the back, passing Unifers marching in perfect synchronized rhythms. None of them appear to be after me.
A little more relaxed, but still gawking out the window, I ask, “So, why are you here?”
His brows furrow. “It would make my parents proud of me and give them something to look forward to.”
“So they supported you in coming?”
He hesitates. “They don’t really support…much about me. Well, my mother does, but not my father.”
I remember how his mother had waited for him outside the fence when he was registering, how despairing her eyes were and how white her knuckles were, clutching the fence.
“But hey, it’s boring talking about me. Why are you here?” His eyes widen.
I glance around nervously. “Maybe not right here…”
He nods.
Shortly after the bus stops in front of a blue and green Nissen hut—Unifer housing composed of sheets of metal bent into half a cylinder. They’re identical to the ones I’ve seen in newspaper articles about Unifer training camps with a garage door for the entrance and tiny barred windows on the sides. I didn’t think housing could get any uglier than our trailers back home, but these take the cake.
Before stepping off the bus, I thoroughly inspect the area. A huge Culmination flag waves in front of the structures, and the gold and red bee mascot looks fierce against the black background. There’s still no sign of anyone who looks like they might be after me. Was Mai just messing with me? She doesn’t seem to be concerned at all, but then again, maybe she was the one who ratted me out. But how did she know? Nicholas.
Like the others, I huddle around Nicholas and Mai.
“Tonight each of you will sleep in your own room,” Nicholas says. “In your room you will find a bed, a sink, a hole in the floor to do your business, and a Savage Run uniform for tomorrow. Dinner will be delivered to your room at 8:00 p.m. sharp and breakfast will be delivered at 6:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. Speaking with or communicating with any other participant is prohibited. Leaving your room is prohibited, and if discovered, you will be disqualified from the program and sent home. Strict obedience is required at all times.”
Mai takes over. “Later tonight, Nicholas and I will visit briefly with each of you, so don’t go to sleep until we’ve stopped by.” She reads off a list, stating what room number each participant will be sleeping in. She doesn’t read my name.
“Everyone is to meet back here at seven a.m. sharp tomorrow morning, dressed in your Savage Run uniform, after which Nicholas and I will escort you to the Conference Center for the Opening Ceremonies. If I hear of any…any disturbances tonight, you’ll be crying for your mammas to come get you. You are all free to go.”
Nicholas pushes a button on the outside of the hut causing the garage door to slowly screech open.
“Wait here with me,” Mai says. I do as I’m told.
Once everyone enters the hut, Nicholas closes the garage door. “You got this?” he says to Mai. Mai nods and he looks at me. “I’ll be back soon.” He starts down the road.
“Come.” She heads across the street to a townhome and I follow after her. We walk up the stairs to the second floor. When she arrives at the top, she inserts a keycard into a slot. The door vanishes, leaving an open rectangle for us to enter through. Knowing that Nicholas also knows something about what’s going on makes this whole situation a little less scary, though my stomach still feels like it’s been wrung over.
Stepping inside, I see that there’s a simple kitchen, two bedrooms, a small bathroom with a shower, a living room, and an entertainment room with a screen embedded into the wall. Everything is tight and small—compact, but clean and modern. I remove my sandals, place them in the barely-there entranceway, and step onto the cold tile floor.
Even before I get past the entrance, Mai says, “It was stupid of you to come here. It’s a fool’s quest—one that will destroy you from the inside.”
I’m so stunned that I can’t speak. Did Nicholas tell her about me or didn’t he?
“You think you’ve come for freedom, but you will only find your fears. And death. Take Nicholas’ offer and go home. Don’t waste your life on this…mirage.”
I scramble to find something to say. “Living as a Laborer isn’t living at all,” I squeak. I don’t know why, but for some reason I don’t feel like I can speak freely around Mai. Maybe it’s because of what happened between her and Johnny on the aircraft. Maybe it’s because she’s a woman and I’m not used to answering to women or for a woman to be anything other than soft-spoken and demure.
Mai’s phone rings and she vanishes out onto the balcony. I make my way over to the window. Tall buildings are everywhere, and since it is dark, most of them beam rays of different-colored light into the sky. It’s nothing like back home in Culmination, where once the night has fallen in the Laborer section, it becomes pitch black. The difference is, at home I can see every single star in the sky. Here, only the moon is visible, and it’s not pure and white like back home. It’s an orangey-yellow.
Before Gemma was sent to work for Master Douglas, we used to go stargazing at least a couple of times a week. I’d sneak out of my father’s trailer, and we’d climb the small, grassy hill next to our subdivision and lie down in the open field. We’d gaze for hours and talk about things like freedom and what it would feel like to fall in love with a guy. I look up into the sky in search of a star. But there are none. I reach for my mother’s locket, but just like Gemma, it’s gone.
Mai slides the glass door open and steps inside.
“That was President Volkov again. The reason he’s been calling is because Master Douglas called him.”
I feel all the blood leave my face. “Oh…” My arms suddenly feel like they weigh a hundred pounds each.
“He says there’s a problem with your ID.”
“W…what?” I try to act surprised, but it’s hard to act surprised when I feel terrified.
“He’s sending a couple of his Unifers to confirm your identity.”
Confirm my identity? What does that mean? “When?”
“Right now.”
I run my hands through my short hair and begin to pace; back and forth, back and forth.
“Heidi,” Mai says, grabbing me by the shoulders.
It takes a second for me to register she used my real name, but when I do, my first thought is that she’s going to maul me like she did Johnny.
“Fortunately, Nicholas already talked to me. About you.” She looks at me, her eyes softening just enough for me to notice. Then she chuckles. “I’m sorry I’m laughing. There’s nothing funny about this, but…I was so relieved because I’d never in my life seen such a hopeless case.” She looks around the room as if searching for something, and then she stares at me for a moment. Wrapping her arms around me, she squeezes me so tightly that it becomes difficult to breathe. As if trying to contain herself, she takes a step back and looks up into the ceiling, her hands on her narrow hips. Then, she buries her hands in her face and lets out a long moan.
The way she’s acting, I think she’s having a nervous breakdown. “What did President Volkov say?”
Her hands drop to her sides. “Don’t worry. You’ll be just fine, I promise. Nicholas is seeing to it at this very moment.”
But my shoulders refuse to relax. Unifers are on their way over here right now. For me. What am I supposed to do if they want to see me naked? I mean, it would be the easiest and quickest way to verify my gender, right?
“Nicholas told me about your friend, too. I’m so sorry.”
All of a sudden I can’t take a breath. Gemma. Unifers. The way Mai is acting. I reach for my pendant, but it isn’t there. In order to keep breathing, I dash out onto the small balcony and grip the railing. My hands hurt from when I fell down helping Gemma escape, but I squeeze the railing harder so I can feel that instead of the fear tearing through me. Gemma. My throat swells and even out here, the air feels thick and unyieldingly harsh. It’s like the past and the present are colliding, and I can’t manage to keep them inside of me and still exist.
Mai comes out and leans her hip against the railing, facing me. Her voice is gentle, cautious, like Ruth’s. “Sometimes, no matter how hard one tries to forget…about losing someone, it’s impossible. I’m sorry. It wasn’t professional of me to mention your friend.”
I produce a few shallow breaths, and finally my lungs open and I can breathe again.
She places a hand on my shoulder. “Listen, I can’t tell you what to do. If I were in your shoes, I’d probably do the same. But you should know what you’re up against. These obstacles are meant to kill. They’re much more brutal than I think you realize. Than any of the participants realize.”
“I just…I can’t go back.”
Looking across the valley, she says, “I suppose I’ll have to respect your wishes. Now, back to the phone call. I told President Volkov that your ID looked authentic so don’t worry. I’m not going to rat you out.”
My eyes question her comment.
“I have my own reasons. I’m sure you can, with a little discernment, figure out what some of those reasons are.”
The first reason that comes to mind is that she’s a woman and would like to see more women doing what she does.
“Besides, Nicholas made me promise. And I never break a promise.”
“So, do you think President Volkov suspects?” I ask.
“Not really. Sending the Unifers here is just a precautionary measure.”
Nicholas comes in through the door holding a cup of black coffee. “Did you tell her?”
“Yes.”
He turns to me, his eyes intense. “Listen very carefully, Heidi. I passed the Unifers on my way here. Whatever you do, don’t panic. When they arrive, just listen and answer their questions in as few words as possible, understood?”
“Okay.” I feel my pulse in my forehead. Someone bangs at the door and when Nicholas opens it, two Unifers stand there, gripping their firearms.