Exceptional (16 page)

   
       
Sabine tried to contain her smile.  “Mazzi has dinner ready Mr. Lukin.  Mr. and Mrs. Mathias will be dining with friends tonight.  Would you like your dinner in your room, or would you like to dine in the kitchen with us?”
   
       
“Ally and I will be eating dinner in my room.” He turned to look at her.  “And Sabine, please call me Luke.  Also, from now on, don’t wait for me to address you before you feel like you can speak.”
   
       
Sabine nodded and skipped from the room.
   
       
“Making some changes?” Ally’s lip still tingled from the kiss.
   
       
“Some long overdo changes.”
   
       
If only Stosh could see her now.  He was on her mind often, especially during her free time at the ORC, when all she could do was think.  She wondered how he would react to all this new information if he had been here.  How would he have handled learning about the ORC?  He definitely wouldn’t have expected her to be in a relationship.  But she was about to dive head first into a romance with Luke Mathias, an Exceptional, and she was more than willing to take the plunge.

   
       
The next morning Ally woke up in Luke’s bed, her arms stretched over her head.  Last night they had eaten dinner and watched a movie from his collection that she had never seen.  Of course, there had been a lot of kissing as well.  At some point she had fallen asleep in his arms, and he must have moved her to his bed.  She sat up, smoothing down her unruly hair, and found that he was spread out on the couch across the room.  He was asleep on his back, and one of his arms hung over the side of the couch.  
   
       
“Such a gentlemen,” she mumbled, kicking her feet over the side of the bed and standing up.
   
       
Last night he mentioned that there was a good chance his father would still force him to uphold the contract set in place by the ORC, which meant that they had just a few short years to conceive a child or Luke would be required to choose another Ordinary.  Ally didn’t like the thought of him being with another girl, but she also didn’t like the thought of being forced into that type of relationship with Luke.  She wanted it to happen naturally, and in their own time, not on someone else’s.
      
     
She tip toed across the room and opened the door as slowly as possible; thankful the doors in Luke’s house didn’t seem to creak.  Back in the settlement, just turning the doorknob would have been enough to make her mother stir.  She slipped into the hall and down to her room, glad to find that Sabine was awake and moving around.  She must have recently returned from the shower because her long, red hair was leaving wet patches along the back of her grey shirt.
   
       
“Where were you last night?” Sabine teased.
   
       
“Your tone implies that I’ve been doing something bad.” Ally smirked at her and pulled a fresh pair of clothes from her drawer.
   
       
Sabine giggled.  “I think what you are doing is wonderful.  It’s about time you noticed Luke’s advances toward you.”
   
       
“We are just taking it slow.” Ally said as she threw her dirty clothes into the hamper and pulled on the fresh ones.  “It is a really strange situation.”
   
       
Sabine rolled onto her stomach on her bed and rested her head in her hands.  “A lot of Exceptionals fall for Ordinarys in the City.  It isn’t the majority, but there are several married pairs.”
   
       
Ally nodded.  “I know, I’m just still not completely okay with what goes on here in the City.  It seems odd to think about a future with the Exceptional who is being groomed to one day run it.”
   
       
“Maybe he’ll change things.  The ORC didn’t even exist until Aden came into power.  Maybe once he is gone, it will go away.”
   
       
“We can only hope,” Ally said quietly.  “Hey, Luke mentioned taking me to see the Lake today.  Do you know where that is?”
   
       
Sabine jumped onto her knees.  “Oh, it’s wonderful there.  I’ve only been once.  Mrs. Mathias wanted to go and took me along to carry her bags and serve her lunch.  It is on the opposite end of the City, through the factories on the other end.  Back before the virus it used to be a huge lake that stretched over a hundred miles wide.  People used to swim in it and ride boats across it.”
   
       
“Really?” Ally asked.  She had seen these boats in one of the movies in Luke’s room, and it was hard to imagine there being a place close by in which they used to exist.
   
       
“The Exceptionals didn’t think it was necessary to take care of it like the old world humans did, so the lake has become inhabitable.  You’ll see it for yourself.  I’m sure Luke will fill you in.” She crawled off the bed and grabbed her work list off her nightstand.  “Have a fun day!”
   
        
By the time Ally got down to breakfast, Luke was already seated at the table with the others.  Somehow he managed to wake up and put himself together faster than it took her just to change.  Stosh always had the same tendencies, and he said it was one of the gifts of being a guy.
   
       
They ate breakfast quickly, and Ally barely spoke because all she could focus on was finishing and leaving with Luke.  It was a Sunday so he didn’t have any lessons or training sessions.  It was also the first Sunday that they were able to spend together, since her previous ones in the City had been spent in the ORC.
   
       
When they stepped out of the house, Luke turned to her and smiled.  “Remember when you first arrived, I told you about bikes?”
   
       
Ally thought for a minute.  “I think so.  You said it was another way to get around the City besides walking.”
   
       
“Well, we are going to need to use one to get to the Lake.  It would take up to two hours to walk there.”  He took her hand and pulled her down the walk.
   
       
At the end sat a small, silver vehicle.  “This is a bike?”
   
       
“A version of one”, he said as he ran his hand along the side of it.  “Some require you to use your legs to pedal the bike forward, while others are powered on their own by either electricity or some sort of fuel.  Since fuel is in such short supply, and saved for important necessities, this bike runs off electricity.”
   
       
“How does that work?” Ally looked it over, thinking it didn’t look study enough to be carrying two people.
   
       
“There is a cord I use to plug it into an outlet in the garage,” he answered. “The battery will last for six hours, so we will have plenty of time to travel to and from the Lake.”
    He stepped up to the bike and swung his leg over, positioning his hands on bars that stuck out on either side of the bike.
    “Is it safe?” Ally approached the bike tentatively.
    Luke smiled.  “Pretty safe.  Plus, I don’t plan on letting anything happen to you.”
    She mimicked the way in which he had gotten on the bike, and settled in behind him.
    “Hold on tight,” he said, pressing a button that started the bike.
    It rumbled to life beneath her and she quickly wrapped her arm around Luke’s waist.  The back of the bike sat higher than the front so if she stretched, she was able to rest her chin on his shoulder and watch where they were going.  She held on to him tightly, enjoying the way her body felt pressed up against his.  This was one trip she wouldn’t mind taking awhile.
   

THE BIKE MOVED QUICKLY through the streets but not fast enough that Ally felt afraid.  The Exceptionals and Ordinarys moved out of their way, and soon they were zipping through the City Center and into the factory district.  As they rode on, Luke explained over his shoulder that this was where many of the foods, lumber, and textiles were produced once supplies came in from the settlements.  There was also an electric factory and a waste disposal building here.  Ally thought the buildings looked old and dirty, but they were one of the main reasons the City had functioned as well as it had.

    It took them thirty minutes to drive the bike to the Lake.  When they arrived and Luke stopped the bike, Ally hopped off and ran to the edge of a concrete walk.  It circled around the Lake, and there were signs that a short wall of some sort used to rise around it as well.  Concrete rubble was strewn about in both large and small chunks.
    “Wow,” was the first descriptive word that came out of her mouth.
    Luke laced his fingers through hers and looked out over the Lake.  “It’s fascinating, isn’t it?”
    “Sabine said that in the old world, boats used to drive on it and people would swim in it.  She said it was big, but I don’t think I realized just
how
big.”
    The Lake stretched as far out as she could see.  To her right she could see one of the City boundary walls jutting out into the water.  It went out about twenty yards before cutting off completely.  She looked to the left but couldn’t seen the boundary wall on that side, which meant it was some distance away.  

“I wonder what is on the other side.”

    “More Wilderness,” Luke answered.  “There is no way to cross it anymore.”
    Ally had seen lakes and large bodies of water in some of the movies they had watched, and this Lake bore no resemblance to them.  Green weeds grew in tangled knots along the shore, and the water closest to them sat stagnant with green moss on top.  Further out, she could see some water moving against the blanket of green, but just barely.  For a brief moment the moss reminded her of Stosh.  It was the same color as his eyes, and her own.
    “What happened to it?” she asked.
    Luke shrugged. “The first generation of Exceptionals didn’t find it a priority for care when they were getting the City back in order.  Humans in the old world used to fish out of it, which was another source of food we could have used, but the maintenance was too time consuming.  Eventually, it began to look like this, so technically it is now more of a marsh than a lake.”
    “Thanks for bringing me,” she said.  “It is like nothing I’ve ever seen.”
    “I think everyone needs to see it at least once,” he said as turned away from the water.  “Come on, I want to show you something over here.”
    He led her down the concrete path and to a small, stone building that overlooked the Lake.  It had a shape similar to that of a house, except it was much smaller and the walls were open to the elements.  A stone pole in either corner held up the pointed roof.  When they stepped inside, Ally found that someone had set up blankets and pillows along the floor, and there was even a couch and a small table pushed into the corner.
    “What is this place?” she asked as she leaned against one of the weathered, stone poles.
    “It used to be a pavilion.  People would come here to eat and hang out while they were resting from their day out on the lake.  There are others scattered around the shore, and they are not all in such great shape.”  He dropped her hand and plopped down on the blankets, looking up at her.
    She sat down next to him and wrapped her arms around her knees.  “Sometimes, when I was younger, I would close my eyes and try to imagine the people who lived in our home in the settlement before we did.  I tried to imagine what they might look like and dress like, and what jobs they went to each day.  I tried to imagine a time when there were no Exceptionals and Ordinarys and just human beings.  Everyone working together equally.”
    She heard Luke take a deep breath beside her.  “Humans from the old world didn’t always work together or live as equals.  There were debates, and feuds, and many wars.  Even then there were classes of people.  Did you know that some families lived on the street, with no homes at all?  They slept under bridges and begged for food on the corners in the City.”
    “Where did you hear that?” Ally looked over at him.  “That seems too hard to believe.”
    “Our history courses at the Institute touch on it sometimes.  The old world humans weren’t as great as some people make them out to be.  We may have problems, but they had their own as well.”
    When Ally imagined the world that existed before the virus, she had always glamorized the lives of the people who lived in it.  She had assumed that people were happier and more fulfilled.  They could do anything and go anywhere, not having to worry about Exceptionals ruling over them.  She couldn’t imagine that they had hardships like the Ordinarys faced in the settlement.  But as Luke spoke to her, she realized how naïve her view was.
    “Do you think if we had been born two hundred years ago, before the virus, that we would have found our way to each other?” She took a hold of his hand, running her finger over his.
    “I think there is a good possibility.  What if I hadn’t left the City and gone to the creek the day I had met you?  What if you hadn’t jumped the creek and were able to return to your settlement that night?  I can think of a dozens things that could have been done differently to affect our meeting, yet here we are.  I don’t know what the future holds for us, but I think it is going to be something great.  The circumstances of the time we live in is what brought us together, but maybe something similar would have happened in the past.  Either way, I’d like to think our lives are intertwined.”  He squeezed her hand.
    She lay back onto the blanket and closed her eyes, trying to picture the Lake as it had once been.  She could almost picture clear water and the people, their skin tanned from playing in the sun all day.  “I bet a lot of memories were made on this lake.”
    She felt Luke lay down beside her and he slipped his arm over her waist.  “Lots of memories have been made since.”
    Ally opened her eyes and looked up at him.  “I’m betting many were made right here in this building.”
    He laughed and leaned back on the blanket.  “I guess you could say that.”
    She rolled onto her side and propped herself up on her elbow.  “How many memories have
you
made here, Luke?”
    She kept her voice light, but it had been something she had been curious about.  He rolled onto his side so that their bodies leaned into each other, and their lips were practically touching.