Savage Run (28 page)

But the worst part isn’t that he found out.
The worst part is that I have to sit here defenseless and try to
anticipate what my punishment will be. Smaller transgressions than
mine frequently result in the death penalty.

There’s a clicking sound, followed by one of
the walls fading, revealing a Unifer holding a cup. “Drink up.” He
hands me the cup and waits.

I peer down at the neon green liquid. “What
is it?”

“
You can either drink it or
I can pour it down your throat.”

Not wanting him to touch any part of me, I
press the cup to my lips and swallow the cold beverage. With no
consideration for my burns or possible broken bones, the Unifer
grabs my arm, and pulls me into the hallway.

When I put pressure on my right foot, I let
out a cry and can barely keep my feet from giving out under me. He
hauls me down the short, gray hallway, and I’m certain he’s either
taking me to President Volkov or to be executed. Unifers run down
the hallway, passing us on the right.

The Unifer pushes open a door that leads to
a set of stairs. He’s moving so fast that I can barely keep up, and
now that I’m sucking wind, my lungs burn. I start to cough. At the
bottom of the staircase, he opens another door, which leads us into
a large foyer. The place is crawling with Unifers in their blue and
green uniforms, but there’s one person that catches my eye. He’s
dressed in black and gray, and he’s looking right at me, like we’re
the only two people in the room, like the distance across the
divide is nothing. Nicholas runs toward me, and with the last
morsel of willpower I have, I wrench my arm out of the Unifer’s
clasp, stumble toward Nicholas, and sink into his arms. The room
spins around me and again, and I vanish into the blackness.

* * *

When I wake up, I’m completely naked and
submerged in blue liquid in a metal tub. The liquid tingles on my
skin and the only thing that still burns a little is my face. I
look at my hands, noting that the blisters are gone. Nicholas must
have brought me here. Well—there’s no hiding the fact that I’m a
girl anymore, and most likely, the entire world knows now. The
thought scares me half to death so how come I feel like the
greatest burden has been removed from my chest?

A short, curvy nurse enters and gives me a
smile. “Hello, Heidi. Can you hear me?”

“
Yes.” I move my hands in
front of my chest to cover up, and to my amazement, it doesn’t
hurt.

The nurse checks the monitor I’m hooked up
to. “My name is Paula and I’m your nurse. Now don’t mind me, sweet
thing. I’ve seen it all a million times. Everything looks great.”
She dips a washcloth in the bath, and wrings it over my face,
immediately removing the stinging. “You have one more hour in there
and that should be enough to take care of the burns and broken
bones. In the meantime, can I get you something to drink?”

“
Water.” I hear footsteps,
followed by a door closing, then silence. The door opens again, and
the nurse hands me a white cup with a straw in it. When I suck on
the straw, cold water enters my mouth and runs down the inside of
my throat, quenching my thirst. I take a deep breath, and to my
relief, again, the motion doesn’t hurt.

“
I’ll be back in an hour.
If you need help, sweetie, press this.” She points to a red button
by the tub before strolling out the door. She dips the washcloth in
the blue liquid again and twists it over my face so the fluid
cascades over my skin. Then she leaves.

After an hour has passed, the nurse helps me
out of the bath. My foot is a little sore, but I have no problem
putting all my weight on it. Glancing into the mirror across the
room, I see that red marks cover my abdomen, arms, and face, where
the burns used to be. But they don’t sting at all. She helps me
slip on a white gown and tells me to sit in the wheelchair. She
wheels me down a long, white corridor with lots of doors, and takes
me into another room where two Unifers stand guard. I think I
recognize one of them as Nicholas’s bodyguard.

Inside the room, Nicholas lies on a hospital
chair curled up into a ball—his eyes shut, his mouth slightly open.
He looks like he could be just any other guy—so young and full of
hope—not someone who constantly struggles to play by a tyrant’s
rules, not like the next president of Newland. The nurse helps me
into the bed and hooks me up to new monitors.

“
How are you feeling,
sweetheart?” she asks.

“
Much better, thank
you.”

“
I’ll be right around the
corner if you need me.” She exits the room, closing the door behind
her.

As if on cue, Nicholas opens his eyes,
stretches his legs out, and plants them on the floor. When he sees
me, it takes him no time at all to stride across the room to my
bed. He sits down next to me and briefly strokes my arm while
looking into my eyes. There’s so much care as he caresses me, so
much tenderness.

I don’t know exactly why, but I can’t stop
myself from leaning forward and wrapping one of my arms around his
neck. Very gently he scoots closer to me and he eases his arms
around my back, his palms resting against the skin where my
hospital gown doesn’t cover. I wrap my other arm around his neck,
too, and bury my face in his chest. Tears fill my eyes, and I start
to breathe erratically. He pulls back and strokes my hair, kissing
the wetness from my cheeks, the edge of my mouth, his breath
playing like butterflies on my face. We embrace again, and he holds
me until I’m able to stop the sobs. This must be one of those
moments I’ve heard about, when after having gone through a
traumatic experience; I need someone to connect to. And since
Nicholas is close right now, he’s it. Or is it more? He’s been
there for me, and showed me kindness, confidence, encouragement. He
waited for me in a hospital, for how many hours, I don’t know.

“
How are you feeling?” He
strokes the last tear on my cheek away with his thumb.

His touch sends a dull, achy current through
me and I want the space between us to be nothing like it was just a
second ago. “How…did I get here?”

“
I brought you here in an
ambulance.”

“
Before that. Does your
father know? Why did they release me?”

“
Are you up to hearing the
whole story?”

“
Yes.”

He clears his throat. “Right before you
returned to earth, my father announced to the benefactors that a
girl had registered illegally, and that the penalty in our country
is execution.”

“
Johnny told
him.”

“
Yes. Within minutes of
your spacecraft being shot down, Dr. and Mrs. Konders had contacted
the benefactor in Normark, and every last one of them threatened to
withdraw their funding if my father didn’t let you
continue.”

“
Why would they do such a
thing?” Then I remember. “Oh, they have a daughter who competes.
And they’re your friends.”

“
More like…family. In
Normark, like in most countries around the world, slavery has been
abolished for decades. There are no classes—everyone is equal.
Women are equal. It’s a beautiful thing. Dr. Konders knew the rules
going in; that only males were allowed to register, but when he
learned that you were going to be killed…he wouldn’t have
it.”

“
I know the countries
agreed to host Savage Run because of the oil they’ll receive, but
why did your father get the other countries involved? What’s in it
for him?” I ask.

“
I’m not sure, but whatever
it is, he’s doing it to gain more power. And it’s a way in which he
can demonstrate that he’s a charitable person. Giving to those who
cannot give to themselves.” He scoffs.

“
So will he let me
continue?” I ask.

“
Yes.” His voice almost
sounds disappointed.

“
Why didn’t he just kill
me?”

“
I think he tried to…but
somehow you survived, and by then, Dr. Konders had contacted him.”
He takes my hand and squeezes it.

“
I saw someone aiming the
missile toward me.”

“
Who?”

“
I’m not sure, but for a
moment I thought it looked like Johnny.”

His eyes widen just a tad. “Oh.”

I lean my head back into the pillow. “Who’s
paying for me to be here?”

“
The Konders.”

“
Did you have anything to
do with that?”

“
No, they just
volunteered.”

“
So does everyone know that
I’m a girl now?” I ask.

He shakes his head. “Except for the
benefactors. It was part of the deal: keep your gender a
secret.”

I pause for a moment, thinking about how
liberating it felt to not have to hide the truth anymore, trying to
wrap my mind around going back to being Joseph again. “What if I
want to continue as myself?”

He shakes his head. “That’s not an
option.”

I punch my fist into the mattress. “I’m
doing it.” I can’t live a lie anymore; pretend to be something I’m
not.

“
Just wait until the end,
Heidi. Revealing it now won’t do you any good. It will only give my
father more of a reason to try and have you killed off.”

“
No. I have to do this.
This way—I don’t know—I guess I can prove that I’m just as good as
anyone else.”

His eyes turn soft. “You already are just as
good—better even.”

Should I continue on as Joseph? Maybe
Nicholas knows something I don’t—like what President Volkov might
do if I defy him—and I should do as he says. Plus, there is danger
in my real identity; I’m the only female participant out there and
could easily be taken advantage of. I will be looked upon as weak.
But deep down inside, I know I can’t go on pretending. Not for a
single second. Not wanting to talk about it anymore, I change the
subject. “How long have I been out for?” I ask.

“
Since
yesterday.”

“
So it starts again
tomorrow?”

“
Yes—my father excused you
from the last round in phase two due to the
accident
. And don’t worry, you’ll be
back to your normal self by then.”

“
What about Arthor, is he
all right?”

“
There are about four
hundred participants left. But of course, Arthor made it. He made
the top ten percent, actually.” The right side of his lip rises and
he glides his warm hand between mine so our fingers
interlace.

I look down at our joined hands, completely
confused by the fact that with a single touch from him, I feel like
I could entrust with him everything that I am and hope to become.
“Did you watch all of it?”

“
Yes. But I don’t like
watching you out there. It scares me.”

Being strong, I know how to do that—it’s
familiar. Being vulnerable—that’s dangerous. But with Nicholas, I
want to go there. He makes me feel safe.

“
I need to visit with the
other participants.” He stands up and heads toward the door before
I’m able to stop him.

I want to say that I need him to stay, but
words are too far lost to speak. Finally I’m able to blurt out,
“Wait!”

He turns around.

“
Can I talk to
Mai?”

“
I’ll send her in. See you
at the benefit.” He cracks the door open, and looks straight at me,
his blue eyes lingering on my face for a long while. He turns to
leave, but before he does, he glances over his shoulder. “Oh, and
you’ll be staying back in Volkov Village tonight in the room you
were in before. It will be taking you to the O-Region.”

Volkov Village? The hole in the floor
toilet. Great. No mattress. I guess I can handle anything for one
night.

Chapter 22

Just when I throw my legs over the side of
the bed to see if it hurts to stand up, the door opens. Mai enters
with a garment bag draped over her shoulder and a bag in her hand.
She’s wearing a hunter green, spaghetti-strap, floor-length gown
and her black, loose hair has green glitter on the edges. She
stares at me for a moment as if she’s seen a ghost. “How are
you?”

“
Much better than before,
thank you.”

She sets the bag onto the floor and hangs
the garment bag from the top of the curtain partition. She unzips
it, revealing a tuxedo.

Oh, that again. “I wanted to talk to you
about something…”

“
Okay.” She pulls the
tuxedo out of the bag and lays it on the bed next to me.

“
I want to continue on
as…myself.”

She pauses and slowly looks up to me. “Are
you sure?”

I nod.

“
Have you spoken to
Nicholas about this?”

I roll my eyes. “Yes, and he didn’t think I
should.”

Mai marches over to the door and closes it.
Returning to my bedside, she says, “I think you should do it.”

“
You do?”

“
Absolutely. If President
Volkov tries anything, the benefactors will know, and they will
withdraw their support. That’s the last thing he wants so
coincidentally, it’s the safest move for you.” Her black, round
eyebrows rise. “Luckily, I have something for you.”

“
What?”

She reaches for the garment bag again, and
this time pulls out a halter-top, floor-length mint green dress
that has crystals on the bodice and the hem. “A donation from an…”
she reads a small yellow card attached to the dress, “…Mrs.
Konders.”