Savage Run (10 page)

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, he 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’s 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 go 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. With tears in
my eyes, 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. I quickly wipe my tears.

“
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 breath 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.

Chapter 8

The Unifers are polar opposites, one as pale
as the moon, the other as dark as night. I feel like I’m in a
nightmare where I’m trying to get away from my assassin, but
instead of moving, I’m shackled—immobilized—by some unseen
force.

“
Good evening, Sir, Ma’am,”
the pale one says, and both salute Nicholas and Mai by lifting
their right fists up to their right eyebrows.

Without any further niceties, they step
toward me. I half expect them to rip off my clothes to verify that
I’m a guy, and it takes every last ounce of resolve not to retreat
to the balcony or bring my arms up to my chest.

“
Are you Joseph
Wood?”

“
I am,” I say in the
deepest voice I can muster.

“
By command of President
Volkov, I need to see your government issued ID,” the dark-skinned
Unifer says.

Nicholas hands him my ID card and steps
back, briefly glancing my way.

The Unifer holds up a small hand-held device
with a bunch of buttons and a green light on the bottom. He inserts
my card into the feeder, but as it comes out on the other side, the
machine beeps and the lit button turns red. “Looks like this ID is
illegitimate…” He gives me an accusing glare.

“
Try it again,” Nicholas
says flatly.

I clamp my jaw so tight that my teeth
hurt.

The Unifer gives Nicholas an irritated look,
but does as he is told. This time, when her runs my ID through the
reader, the light turns green. “Strange…” he remarks, looking
puzzled by the blip.

Wanting to get them out of here as quickly
as possible, I say, “Will there be anything else?” I can’t believe
I’m talking to a Unifer like that, my eyes not dropping to the
floor.

“
No, that will be all.
Thank you for your cooperation.” He bows his head a tad and they’re
both out the door. The second they leave, it’s as if the oxygen in
the air suddenly returns.

“
They think they’re so high
and mighty,” Mai says, scoffing.

I’m surprised by her blatant aversion toward
them, especially in front of me.

“
But I can’t believe you
fooled them. Unifers are trained to spot deception. But with that
haircut and those clothes, your chest flattened to nothing…you
really do look like a boy,” Mai says. “You had me fooled all along.
What do you think, Nicholas?”

I touch my hair, not really feeling like a
guy, yet no longer a girl. It’s strange how I have come to
associate with my gender so much, and how pretending to be the
opposite one makes me uncomfortable.

He glances at me for a moment. “I still
think she looks like a girl.”

I look down. I don’t like them talking about
me as if I’m not even here; it makes me feel like a child.

“
What makes you say that?”
Mai presses.

“
She just has that natural,
feminine…
glow
to
her, I suppose.” His eyes linger on me for a moment, and heat rises
in my cheeks. Why am I reacting to him this way? It really bothers
me.

“
Heidi, I’m not supposed to
give you any advice, but, oh well. When you’re in the fields, try
not to stand out from the rest of the group. President Volkov
already thinks that Master Douglas is a nutcase, and if there
aren’t any more accusations or events that draw attention to you,
then the allegations will dissipate into thin air.” She takes a few
deep breaths and then faces Nicholas. “You got this? I want to
catch up on what’s going on in the world.”

“
Let’s go,” Nicholas says,
tilting his head to the side for me to follow him. I do as he says,
but just as we’re about to exit the door, I hear a news reporter
say my name. I walk back inside and into the entertainment room and
see a close-up of my face on the screen. My cheeks fill with
blood.

“
So why is this young,
unqualified, pre-adolescent boy in the Savage Run? The reporter
questions, and adds, “Have the standards of the elite stooped too
low?” The image shifts to a newsroom, and another reporter takes
over. “Now onto the Savage Run Survival Pole. Citizens of Newland
have nominated Johnny Poltinger from Culmination as the most likely
to place in the top three in Savage Run.” A diagram of the top ten
participants appears on the screen, and Johnny’s name is at the
top, followed by someone named Cory, and a guy named Jared. “And
here is the list of the least likely to complete any of the
obstacles. I’m sure it comes as no surprise that Joseph Wood is the
last man—or shall we say boy—on the list.”

Whatever speck of confidence I had from
being in shape riding around on my bike all these years vanishes. I
mean, who am I kidding? Now I see nothing but a stupid girl who
doesn’t even know her own limits.