The Bar Code Tattoo (16 page)

That evening Kayla knew something was wrong. Her arms and legs were heavy. Her head had become difficult to hold up and her forehead burned.

She slept for most of the next day, curled beside a boulder. Mfumbe pressed cool leaves against her brow and fed her crackers they’d saved along the way.

When she awoke the next day she felt well enough to walk into the nearby town of Keene to find food. But as they walked along the main street, she staggered.

“We have to get something to bring your fever down,” Mfumbe said. Kayla pressed her palm into his and leaned against the cool bricks of the building for support. “You’re burning up,” he said, sweeping his hand along her cheek. “We just passed a drugstore. I’ll go back to it and grab some medicine.”

“I should do it. I’m better at this than you are,” she argued when they were in front of the drugstore. “You almost got caught last time.”

“No. You’re too sick. You won’t be quick enough.” They walked up a side alley. “Wait here,” he told her.

Mfumbe went in the side door and Kayla followed, despite his advice. “The medicine is all the
way in front,” she whispered to him. “The cash register is up there. They’ll see you.”

“Not if I do it right,” he insisted. “Stay here and pretend to look at greeting cards.”

He strolled casually to the front. “Hi, there,” the man behind the register greeted him, although there was only suspicion in his voice.

“Hi,” Mfumbe replied. “Do you have thermometers?”

“Over there, by the Adlevenol.”

Mfumbe went to where the thermometers were stacked. As he stared up at them, he palmed a box of Adlevenol and slipped it into his pants pocket. “Can I help you?” the man asked aggressively. He hadn’t taken his eyes off Mfumbe the whole time.

“You don’t have the kind I’m looking for,” Mfumbe told him.

Kayla pretended to look at cards by the front door and stole furtive glances at the man behind the counter. She didn’t like the expression on his face. He wasn’t happy about Mfumbe being in his store. He suspected him.

“There are more thermometers in the third aisle,” the man told Mfumbe.

“Okay. I’ll go check those out,” Mfumbe said.

The man bent down behind the counter. Kayla shifted from foot to foot. He was out of sight for too long. What was he doing under there?

Mfumbe was in the third aisle, keeping up the charade of looking for thermometers.

Something was wrong.

Kayla went to Mfumbe in the third aisle. “Let’s get out of here,” she whispered, taking his arm. The fever made her weak and she leaned on him as they walked to the front door.

A police car appeared, visible through the store’s plate glass front. A male officer got out. He wasn’t a Globalcop but a local police officer.

Mfumbe crouched behind a greeting-card stand, drawing Kayla down with him. The officer walked in cautiously and headed to the front of the store.

While the officer’s back was turned, Kayla and Mfumbe slipped out the side door.

“There they go!” the store owner shouted.

“Come on,” Mfumbe cried, grabbing her wrist and running.

“Stop!” The officer had bounded out of the store behind them. Mfumbe pushed Kayla behind him and turned to face the officer. He held his hands high.

“Run down that alley when I say ‘go,’” he muttered to her. “Go!”

Kayla raced down the alley beside the store. “Stop!” the police officer shouted as she squeezed into a break in the wooden fence in the back.

Mfumbe didn’t follow. She waited and still he didn’t come. Heart racing, she peeked out the opening in the fence. She couldn’t see Mfumbe or the officer anywhere.

Nearly delirious with fever, Kayla walked on the winding country roads for miles, heading for the town of Lake Placid, as they’d agreed. Maybe August or Allyson would show up there. But she grew so weak, she became afraid she might collapse. She feared falling right there where she might get hit, or picked up by the police, so she stepped into the woods where she followed a trail the forest service had marked with metallic-blue octagonal markers.

She pulled herself along the rocky path. Her feverish skin turned cold and clammy, and at times she felt as if it would slide off her bones. Nausea seized her, making her dizzy, and her hands trembled. She stopped to vomit, holding on to trees and rocks until nothing but liquid bile came up.

Just when she couldn’t take another step, an empty lean-to appeared several yards ahead of her. She staggered to it and fell heavily inside onto its straw-covered wooden floor. Closing her eyes, she descended into a feverish sleep and lay there for two days and nights.

Wandering in restless fevered dreams, she saw
Eutonah five times. Each time, the woman had beckoned and told her to keep coming toward her. “Where are you?” Kayla heard herself say over and over. “I can’t find you.” Then she would open her eyes, see the pitched wooden roof of the shelter, turn, and return to her dream.

On the third day, Kayla awoke. Her mouth was parched and her head throbbed, but she was able to pull herself up to stand, then staggered out of the shelter in search of water. A pond full of jutting sticks was only yards in front of the lean-to. There was a beaver dam at the far end. The water didn’t look good for drinking, but at least she could wash.

Glancing at herself in the beaver pond, she couldn’t believe how she’d changed. Her hair was matted and filthy. Sharp cheekbones jutted from her thin face. Her hands had become scratched, hardened claws and her eyes were dull from sickness.

She devoured some blueberries on a nearby bush, and then reached into the pond to rinse purple juice from her stained hands. Another hand roughly gripped her wrist. Turning sharply, she looked up into piercing blue eyes of a dirty woman’s face.

The woman twisted her wrist, checking for a tattoo. Seeing none, she grinned and let go. A basket of food emerged from under a flap in her torn full-length dress.

It held a hard-boiled egg, a banana, and crackers. The woman thrust the basket toward her. “Eat,” she said. Kayla devoured the egg and then unpeeled the banana. Slowly, she realized that she was able to keep the food down and she no longer burned with fever.

Kayla began to cry soft tears of relief. “You came to a good place for healing,” the woman said after a moment. “The earth is a constant source of energy if we use it correctly. The feeling I experience when earth energy comes to me is so joyful. These mountains, these trees — they hold a lot of really strong energy.”

The only thing Kayla knew for sure was that she was well again. “Do you know where I can find a woman named Eutonah?” she asked.

The woman nodded. “I’ll bring you to my group. Someone there will be able to direct you to Eutonah.”

Kayla followed the woman down the trail. After several miles, the woods let out into a field. Many people sat in the tall grass, and a low murmur that reminded Kayla of buzzing bees filled the area.

“We have allies in the cosmos,” the woman explained. “We are trying to channel them, to draw them into our sphere. The world needs its friends now.”

A man rose from the grass and walked toward them. She knew him. “August!” she cried.

He smiled. August had also grown thinner and more muscular. When he was near enough, he clasped her hand. She noticed an ugly scar on his wrist and assumed it was where his bar code had once been. He saw her looking at it. “I made a big mistake and gave in. I see that you didn’t.”

“What brought you here?” she asked.

“After our last meeting, you disappeared and Mfumbe went off somewhere. Zekeal announced he was getting the tattoo. Nedra had already gotten it, and Allyson wanted her scholarship, so she got it. I couldn’t see why I should hold out. I felt like everyone had deserted me. By the end of that week, I had the tattoo.”

“Then what happened?” she asked.

“My parents didn’t have jobs anymore, so I took one after school. It was in a biotech plant, cleaning up. One day I saw some experiments. Honestly, I had no idea what I was looking at, but the people there got super upset with me for witnessing whatever it was I saw. They told me to quit school and come live at the place as a caretaker. It was as if they wanted to own me. They said that if I didn’t, they could alter my bar code so that no one else would ever want me around.”

“How horrible,” Kayla said, repulsed that anyone would be so cruel.

“That night I used acid to remove my code and I headed up here. I hung out around Lake Placid like
we agreed, hoping you or Mfumbe would show up. But you didn’t come.”

“We were headed there, but we didn’t make it,” Kayla explained. “The police grabbed Mfumbe for shoplifting and that’s the last time I saw him.”

“I’ll try to get to Lake Placid to see if he shows.”

Kayla gripped his arm gratefully. “That would be great. I’d go to Lake Placid myself, but the Globalofficers are looking for me.”

“I heard. I’m sorry about your mother.”

“Thanks.”

“Once I got to Lake Placid, I began to hear people talk about the different groups in the mountains. It didn’t take me long to hook up with this group and I’ve been happy up here ever since.”

“Are you trying to contact aliens?” Kayla asked skeptically.

“We’re trying to attract good to help us,” he answered. “We don’t care where the goodness comes from. If it’s aliens who respond, fine.”

“She’s searching for Eutonah,” the woman told him.

August smiled, nodding. “Your old friend Eutonah. Do you know where she is?”

“No.”

“Whiteface Mountain.”

“There’s such a place?” she asked.

August nodded. “It’s about a day’s walk from here.”

It all suddenly made sense. “That’s what she
meant!” Kayla realized. “Remember the white face. I didn’t know it was the name of a mountain.”

“Back when you mentioned it, I didn’t know, either. It was once a ski resort, but there’s no resort there anymore … just in case you were thinking of taking the chairlift up.”

It took Kayla a day to walk to the base of Whiteface Mountain. August had given her a trail map and it helped her to negotiate her way around the thick underbrush and shrubs. She had to make her way along the shore of a wide, shimmering lake before she could begin to climb.

In places the path disappeared altogether, but the map helped her estimate where she should be in relation to the lake. After a while, she veered away from the lake and came out to a meadow and a more obvious path.

Her long walk north with Mfumbe had strengthened her endurance. Her feet had grown tough and accustomed to walking. Still, she needed to stop every few miles to regain her strength. She paused and leaned against a boulder as she looked at the dirt trail ahead of her. It was surrounded on either side by tall grass dotted with flowers. The sun warmed her cheeks.

Closing her eyes, she listened to the hum of insects. She was changing, something inside was different. Having been spun out of the world she knew, she’d landed in a different world. In this
world she was one living creature among many living things, not the only kind of creature in an environment of steel and glass.

Here in the woods she’d come to feel more at one with her space than she’d ever felt in her old life. There was energy in the trees, the earth, and even in the boulder she leaned on. She was aware of it these days as never before. Even when she’d lived in the cabin with Mfumbe, she hadn’t been open to this feeling like she was now.

Feeling reenergized, she continued on along the narrow dirt trail through the meadow until it once again led her into the dense pine forest. The weather had grown warmer, but the coolness emanating from the thick carpet of pine needles on the forest floor still caused a chill. August had located a poncho for her and she took it from her pack and put it on.

As she hiked, she thought of Mfumbe. Was he still in jail? They couldn’t keep him long just for stealing a box of Adlevenol. But had his parents come for him and taken him home? Could they force him to get tattooed?

If he was able to, she knew he’d come back and ask around for Eutonah, knowing that Kayla would also try to locate her. They’d agreed to meet in Lake Placid, but now it was too risky. Would he remember what Eutonah had said about the white face? Would August be able to find him in Lake Placid?
She had no doubt that if there was any way possible, Mfumbe would try to get to her. If he didn’t, she would have to go find him. Before this, she had never known it was possible to have this kind of closeness with another person. What an unexpected gift to have received in the middle of all this misery!

August had told her that, once she started to hike the mountain, it would take only two or three hours to reach the tree line. That was where the trees grew scrubby and mostly stopped growing. From that point on, there would be only boulders to climb.

After two hours, the forest was still thick, with no sign that she would soon come above the tree line. Here and there, orange-pink light filtered through the trees, but, for the most part, the forest had become deeply shadowed.

Just ahead of her, someone moved on the trail. Her heart raced with hopeful anticipation. “Mfumbe?” she called.

He waved with a wide sweep of his arm and she ran toward him. But as she neared the figure, she skidded to a stop.

It was Zekeal, and this time he was no vision.

“Kayla!” he called, coming toward her. “I finally found you.”

He was the last person she wanted to see. He’d come to bring her back to Tattoo Gen. Why else
would he be here? She bolted into the woods, running as fast as she was able in the increasing darkness. He raced right behind her, closing the gap quickly. Crashing through underbrush, he leaped and caught her shoulder, pulling her to the ground with him as he fell.

Kayla kicked at him, struggling. “Get off me.”

He threw himself on top of her, using his weight to pin her. “Stop! I’ve been looking for you ever since I arrived in Lake Placid. You never showed, so I asked around for Eutonah, figuring you’d head there. Someone finally told me. I should have known all along, the white face.”

“I should never have told you that,” she said.

“Listen to me. I never lied to you. I said I wasn’t sure we could live without the bar code. I admitted my doubts all along.”

She turned her face from him. “You were spying for Tattoo Gen all along.”

“Only toward the end. I wanted to convince you all to get coded for your own sakes. You were ruining your lives.”

“Why couldn’t you be honest with me?”

“You were so against the bar code, so stubborn about it. I thought you’d be upset, that you’d dump me.”

“I don’t believe you,” she jeered. “You and Nedra wanted to be big shots with Tattoo Gen — that’s all there ever was to it. You tricked me
and used me because you thought I was naive and would believe anything you said. Let me sit up.”

“Only if you promise not to run. It’s taken me too long to find you,” he said, lifting himself off her.

Slowly, she sat up, eyeing him warily.

“These resistors have the wrong idea, Kayla,” he said, sitting beside her. “Don’t waste your time with them. They can’t win.”

“It’s better than being a slave to Global-1,” she cried heatedly.

“How is it better?” he argued. “Do you really want to be a prisoner of these mountains, unable to leave, forced to rough it in the woods? You’re an artist, Kayla. What are you going to do up here in the forest for the rest of your life?”

“Live!” Kayla shouted. “Like a person, not a robot — like a
free person
.”

“No, you won’t,” he insisted. “You’ll rot up here. Come back with me. Get the tattoo. With the tattoo, you can paint and sell your work. You don’t have to go to art school for that. The bar code can’t take away your creativity.”

He made it sound so sane, so reasonable. He stroked her hair. “Your beautiful hair. What did you do to it? It doesn’t matter. Everything can be all right again, Kayla. I won’t let you go this time.”

Zekeal was still so handsome, so hard to resist.

But he wasn’t Mfumbe. He wasn’t someone who would stand up for a principle even if it wasn’t in
his own best interest. He wasn’t Mfumbe, who would never desert her, who would do anything for her. He wasn’t the person she loved from the deepest place in her heart.

“You don’t believe any of what you’re saying,” she said. “You’re not being sensible, you’ve just given up.”

“Zekeal!” A woman hurried up the path, carrying a bright flashlight.

Kayla turned sharply toward the sound of her voice.

It was Nedra.

“You’re with
her
!” Kayla whispered sharply. Everything came back to her in a cascade of bitter feeling. He’d lied to her about all of it — about Nedra, about the bar code. He’d betrayed them all, and he was doing it again. “Nothing about you has changed. You’re still a liar like you always were.”

“Zekeal! Where are you?” Nedra called in the dark. “I think I’ve found her. She left footprints.”

“I don’t care about her,” Zekeal whispered urgently. “Now that I’ve found you again, I only want —”

Kayla wouldn’t listen anymore. The two of them had come here to bring her back. Was there a reward for her return?

“Zekeal!” Nedra called again, louder this time. He looked toward her and Kayla shot to her feet and bolted past him, up the path.

“Kayla!” he shouted, jumping up and running after her.

She ran wildly, darting off the path. She paid no attention to direction as she scrambled over fallen trees and splashed through streams until her heart felt like it might explode. Finally, she slowed to a jog to regain her breath and slow her heart.

Several yards behind her the beam of Zekeal’s flashlight careened off the trees as he searched for her in the dim light.

She stood, panting, not daring to move for fear of attracting his attention. This was a contest of wills she couldn’t afford to lose. There was no way she’d let him take her back and she would never be Nedra’s captive.

Several feet ahead, she heard some creature hurry away. Turning toward the sound, she saw a small cave.

She crouched low and moved stealthily to the mouth of the cave. With a quick check over her shoulder, she wriggled inside, lying flat. She knew her feet would probably have been visible in the daylight, but there was not enough room to bend her knees and pull them inside. She was grateful now for the dark — and that she had never been claustrophobic.

The cave smelled of mossy earth and the musky odor of whatever animal had inhabited it last. Dirt fell from the cave wall. She shut her eyes and spit out what fell into her mouth.

Reopening her eyes, she peered down the length of her body and out the cave opening. Zekeal moved around outside. He had stopped and, from his jerky movements, she could tell he was checking frantically for her in all directions. After about five minutes, Nedra joined him. “You let her get away,” she accused him, her face demonic in the upswept light.

“No! I swear! She just disappeared.”

“Keep looking. If I bring her in and get her tattooed, they’ll definitely give me the council chief spot. It’ll be good for you, too.”

He nodded and together they hurried off into the woods, still searching. Kayla hoped that the cave was not inhabited. She didn’t want to risk leaving right away, knowing Nedra and Zekeal were nearby.

She listened to the crickets chirp, along with the buzz of other insects. Lightning bugs flashed in the dark outside the cave and an owl hooted. The muscles of her calves ached and her feet throbbed. The threat of imminent danger — the adrenaline charge — was soon overcome by exhaustion and she slept.

In the middle of the night, she was abruptly awakened. She sat up, smacking her head on the upper rocks of the cave. A man’s hand was wrapped around her ankle and he had begun to pull her out of the cave. “No!” she shouted, clutching at the dirt and rock at the side of the cave to no avail.

She found herself lying at the feet of a very tall man. It wasn’t Zekeal or Mfumbe; she could see that much by the large shape of his silhouette. He shined a flashlight beam on her face, blinding her.

“Yes, that’s her,” a female voice from behind him spoke.