Shymers (19 page)

Frustrated, I bring my hands up to my face. “Why would you want to leave now? You’ll be out of here soon enough. It’s not worth the risk!”

“You know me, Harrison. I see Society the same as you. I can’t take it anymore either! I’m tired of Society and all these horrible Futures I have to spend every minute of my time with! Plus…I’ve been seeing someone.”

“Does that mean we’ll be bringin
g
anothe
r
person?” There are already too many people coming, and my father told me to go alone. What are the chances of a group of this size crossing over undetected?

“No. She will come over later on her own. She has been begging me to cross to the Free Lands where she says I will be safe. If you love Olive even half as much as Lani and I love each other, you’ll understand how important this is to her.”

I press my eyelids shut. Leaving Olive in the orphanage was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do and I will do whatever it takes for us to be together again. “Is this Lani person a Future?”

“What does that matter?” Again, her tone is mocking.

“It doesn’t.” Even though I can only be with Olive for a short time before my own DOD, being together is still worth fighting for. I would do anything for her.

“Where will you go until tomorrow?” she asks.

The faint glow of the moon allows me to see a fairly long way into the distance. Finding a good hiding spot until morning may be difficult. At that point, my next problem will be escaping the detection of the soldiers. None of this is going to be easy. “I haven’t planned that far ahead. I will lay low until then, I guess.”

“You can’t be outside that long without some kind of cover or water. Did you bring any of those things?”

I cringe. My plan was doomed from the start. “No. The orphanage director caught me sneaking through the hallways with my packs. I had to leave everything behind.”

She is quiet for a moment. “Hold on, I think I may have an idea. How long would it take for you to get to the school by foot?”

Walking that far seems impossible and if I’m caught by a solider at this hour of night, they’ll know something is amiss. Yet there is no other way for me to travel. “I don’t know. Two hours? Maybe three?”

“I will have Lani meet you there. She knows people who can help you. They can get you over the border. Safely.”

“Tayrn…do you…you know…reall
y
trus
t
this girl?”

“Of course,” she snaps, obviously angry with for me asking. “I wouldn’t even consider asking her to help you if I didn’t.”

“I’m sorry I asked. Of course you do. Please be safe tomorrow. Make sure no one sees you talking to Olive. I would hate for anything to happen…to either one of you.”

“Don’t worry about it. Next time you see me we’ll be in the Free Lands with our girlfriends safely at our sides.”

When I end the call on my communicator, the knot in the pit of my stomach stirs.

* * *

The first rays of dawn are beginning to break through the dark night when I reach the school. My feet are burning from all the walking and I need something to drink, but at least I made it without being discovered.

The mighty stone building I have spent most of my life in looks different now that I know I am leaving and won’t ever have to set foot inside again. I no longer dread another minute of being treated like I’m worthless by the Futures, or having to sit among the sad faces of the other Shymers. I won’t ever again have to stare out the windows during lessons and wonder how different my life would have been if my parents took us to live in the Free Lands.

Instead I am filled with memories of bringing my little brother and sister here with me, the conversations I shared with Edgar, and the first time I laid eyes on Olive.

The ideas of destiny and things that are “meant to be” are concepts carried over from the old world. Grandpa Red sometimes referred to them, saying nothing in the new Society could be explained with those terms. Suddenly, I wonder if maybe he was wrong. If I had run off with Edgar all those years ago to join the Rebels, I never would have met Olive. If I had run away from the orphanage against my mother’s wishes, I wouldn’t be planning to run away with Olive now. Maybe ther
e
i
s
such thing as destiny. Maybe there is a reason I met Olive.

I don’t realize how lost in my thoughts I’ve become until I hear an angry voice yell my name. A small girl of maybe sixteen with bright purple hair spiked above her head and several tattoos spiraling up her neck steps out from behind the building. She wears unusual clothing—a skirt in bright pink, a green top, and black material covering her legs. Her amber eyes are soft, although her brow is covered with metal piercings. The features of her face are very delicate, feminine. Without the wild colored hair and the deep scowl on her face, she could be very pretty.

She motions for me to follow her and we run down the sidewalk for many blocks beyond the school. The girl stops at a small, yellow car parked next to the curb. The paint on the hood is cracked, and the bumper looks to be held on by a twisted wire. Even though the vehicle looks unsafe, I waste no time crawling in through the passenger’s door.

Every muscle in my body is tense as the girl races the car down the street with the headlights turned off. It has been years since I actually rode in a vehicle. My parents used to own a small black car when I was younger. Not many Shymer families owned a vehicle, and my parents soon learned it was because no one in our territory knew how to repair one. When they tried to take it to the Future territory for maintenance, they were turned down. After all, they were registered as living with Shymer children.

“So you’re Lani?” I ask.

“Obviously,” she answers, rolling her eyes. “What were you doing back there? Hoping to attract the attention of some soldiers?”

I snicker. “Like you don’t stand out as being a Rebel?”

“Whatever, man. I’m only doing this favor for Tayrn.”

I shrug, trying to think of something Olive would say in the situation. “I don’t mean to be ungrateful. It’s a great thing you did for me—coming out in the middle of the night to help me out like this.”

Her eyes narrow when she looks over to me. “Like
I
sai
d
, I’m doing this fo
r
Tayr
n
.”

Many moments of silence pass as she continues driving through the back streets. I have only been to this part of the territory a few times in my lifetime. It is the same place my mother used to work. A couple of cars pass, filled with adults on their way to work in one of the factories. When the sun is up and we can actually see where we are going, Lani still drives at an uncomfortably fast rate of speed. My fingers clutch the door handle beside me.

Lani turns to regard me in the daylight. “Tayrn says you’re running away to the Free Lands.”

“Can you help?” Her eyes turn back to the road just before we come to a light that I’m fairly certain means we are to stop. The little yellow car screeches to a stop. I have to hold my hand out to keep from hitting my head on the dashboard. “Aren’t you worried about th
e
traffic law
s
?” I ask through clenched teeth.

She shrugs. “The car is registered with a fake name.” Just how many tricks does this girl know to keep her safe from the government’s reaches? I decide not to ask too many questions. She clearly wants nothing more than to be rid of me, anyway. The light changes to green and the car jets forward. “My friends can help you. We have to wait until the first shift of the day is complete.”

The Future territory operates in two shifts. Those considered to be lower class—like my mother—have the overnight shift that ends around lunch time. It will be hours until that shift is finished, and a few more hours in this small car with this strange girl would be too much. There is barely enough cool air blasting at us to take the bite out of the heat. “And until then?”

A slow grin spreads across her face. “I’m going to introduce you to a whole world you Shymers have only ever dreamed of.”

* * *

The old metal warehouse at the edge of the Future territory has the appearance of a fully functioning factory from the outside. Smokestacks puff steady streams of white clouds into the air, just like the other run-down buildings surrounding it. Lani parks the yellow car in a tight alley behind the warehouse and jumps out to retrieve a large folded object from the trunk. I follow her to the back. The neighborhood smells like something rotten.

“Help me out.” Lani throws the object over the car. I grab a corner of the thick material and watch Lani pull her side down over the car, so I do the same. We continue pulling the material down until the car is completely covered. We each take a step back. The car now blends in with the graffiti on the brick wall. The farther I step away, the less noticeable the shape of the car appears.

“How did you come up with that idea?”

Lani snickers. “The Rebels know how to do way more than you could ever imagine.”

Hearing Lani say she is a Rebel is not a surprise, but the thrill that consumes me is. She pulls a set of keys from her pocket and uses them on a door to the building. The door swings open and I follow her inside. A horrible smell washes over us, ten times stronger than what I first got a whiff of outside. I cover my mouth.

“That’s the smell of dead animals!” Lani shouts over the loud noises coming from machines deeper inside. “This is a rendering plant! The government doesn’t like to come here often, so it’s a pretty safe cover!”

We learned of these places in lessons. They break down the fat in dead animals for the use of butter and animal feed. But I had never actually seen—o
r
smelle
d
—one until now.

Lani leads me down a narrow hallway. We pass many people dressed in white aprons who look like Shymers with their less than perfect faces and dark shades of long hair stuffed inside hair nets. They greet Lani with bright smiles, but stare me down.

At the end of the hallway, she crouches down to remove a rug from the floor and a wooden panel underneath it. An old set of wooden stairs are revealed, barely visible without any lights below. I climb down first with Lani right behind me. She grabs a robe on the panel to pull it shut over our heads. My breath draws tight as we are momentarily seized by total darkness. A second later there is a clicking noise, and Lani’s face appears next to a small flame of fire.

“Follow me,” she says.

By the damp smell of earth, I know we are underground. Muffled, angry music mixed with a loud buzz of voices rings out. An entirely different smell—one that is sweet and almost pleasant to inhale—slams into me. We come to another door that Lani unlocks with a twist of her hand. She turns to me, her eyes bright and her grin wide.

“Welcome to the Rebel world.”

Olive

13 – Come See How Beautiful Living Can Be

Rather than take me to the fortress off in the distance where I guess my mother is being held, Zeke drags me inside the smaller stone building. Part of me is filled with hope—maybe there is a chance I can somehow slip away from him and still find Tayrn and Harrison. The other part—the more quiet and sentimental part—is worried that I won’t find a way to see my mother.

“Zeke, please,” I beg as he pushes on the glass doors to the building. “Can we just talk about this first?”

Cool air rushes to us inside. We both exhale from the sudden relief at the change in temperature. A muscular, blond-haired soldier steps out in front of us to take an eye scan, first from Zeke, then from me. He frowns at the scanner and narrows his blue eyes at Zeke. “You’re the commander’s son. What are you doing here?”

“I’m here to see my father,” Zeke tells the man. “I caught this Shymer trying to leave Society.”

“I was only going to visit a friend,” I insist. It’s the first lie that comes to mind. Since we are now well beyond the uptown area, the excuse Tayrn gave me may no longer work. Then again, I don’t know that anything will work at this point.

“Why are you calling her a Shymer?” the soldier asks Zeke, his frown deepening. “She’s registered as a Future.”

Zeke’s hand falls from my arm and he glares at the soldier. “You’re wrong. She’s a Shymer.” He yanks my sweat-filled hair aside on my right to show the soldier. “See?”

At least I now know the mark is on my right side.

The soldier leans in to look at it. After pulling the scanner up to take another read, he shakes his head. “If this is some kind of a joke—”

“It’s no joke,” Zeke assures him in an angry tone. “She goes to my school. I know for a fact that she’s a Shymer.”

The soldier frowns on me. Just when I fear he is going to call someone on his communicator and draw more attention to us, he waves us through. “Go, see your father then. Maybe he can figure out what all of this is about.”

Zeke grabs my arm again to push me through a second set of doors. The air in the main part of the building is so frigid it feels as if we’re diving into an ice-cold bath. Everything inside is bright and clean. The stone floors shine from a recent wash, and every wall is a stark white. A large cluster of lights hang from different areas of the ceiling, the glass around the bulbs sparkling.