Zoo (31 page)

THE WELL

The dirty cotton shirt covering Kale’s mouth
and nose muffles his voice as he explains his plan. “Okay. Here’s
what we’re going to do. I’ll lower you down first. When you get to
the bottom, tug the rope. I’ll tie it off up here and slide down,”
he says as he pulls the water bucket out of the well.

“
But what about the
Keepers?” I ask him, my voice smothered as well.

“
I think they’re
preoccupied with all the runners. No one is dumb enough to actually
hang around.” Kale hurriedly unties the water bucket from the rope.
Then he loops it around my back and ties it under my arms. I can
already tell this is not going to feel very good. “Now crawl in and
be careful. I’ll lower you down.” He grips the rope tight with both
hands.

I peek over the top of the well. There are
four dead bodies littered across the beautiful, green grass, there
are five others that have been captured by two Keepers, and there’s
one more Keeper that is jetting off into the pine forest on a
Hopper. No one is looking our way.

I kiss Kale before I ease my left leg over
the side of the wall. I look at him one more time and then swing my
right leg over. “Don’t drop me. And don’t leave me down there
alone.” I tell him this because I want him with me—always—not
because I’m scared.

“
I’ll be right behind you,
Princess,” he reassures me and then kisses my lips with the softest
touch. It’s funny that I love for him to call me that, since I
hated it when James called me “baby.” But I know Kale is using it
as a term of endearment. He’s not being a male chauvinist pig. And
what girl doesn’t want to be a princess?

My stomach drops and my ribs ache as Kale
lowers me into the well. I want to scream again, but I can’t.
Instead, I bite my lower lip to keep from crying. Above me, the
smoke has cleared. It’s getting darker the lower I get. I look
down, but don’t see water yet.

The rope goes slack and I drop several feet.
Then, it suddenly stops, and I’m once again dangling over nothing.
I have to let out a small cry, as the rope digs into my armpits,
burning it’s way deeper into my flesh. On a positive note, the
searing pain of the rope temporarily relieves the pain of my hurt
ribs and healing butt.

“
Kale! Are you okay?” I
yell up the dark shaft.

His head peeks over the side. He waves an
arm, letting me know that he’s still safe from the Keepers. Then he
disappears.

I continue to drop deeper into the well,
inch by painful inch, until my feet finally hit water. I let him
lower me until the well water is up to my waist, and I cringe as I
realize that my book is getting soaked. Then, I wiggle out of the
rope’s hold and give it three big yanks.

After a few seconds, a
shadow covers the opening way above me. It blocks out the tiny bit
of light that I have down here. Kale slides down the long rope,
faster than I expected. But as he gets closer, I can see that he’s
removed his shirt and wrapped it around the harsh rope to protect
his hands. He almost makes it all the way down. Someone from above
cuts the rope and sends Kale plummeting down the shaft straight for
me.
Did I mention that this well only has
a four-foot diameter at most?
I pull the
water with my flailing hands and arms, forcing myself right up next
to the wall. Treading water is not easy when you’re in panic mode
and potentially have a cracked rib or two. My face bobs above and
below the surface of the well water. I fear I’m on the verge of
drowning.

Kale hits the water, sending a spray over my
head and soaking the dry stones on the wall that surrounds us. My
hands slip as I try to grab at their slick surfaces. Kale
resurfaces the second I turn around to look for him. He’s
terror-stricken. He bursts, “Get under now! They have guns!”

“
Who has guns?” I spit out
a mouthful of water. “The Keepers?”

Pop! Pop!

Two shots ricochet off the
walls that surround us.
Oh no.
We both take huge, deep breaths and go
under.

THE BUTTON

Being under the surface of the dark well
water, as guns fire from back up on the ground, is terrifying. I
don’t know how far down the well goes, and I can’t see anything. I
didn’t get a deep enough breath to keep me underwater for much
longer.

Kale finds my left hand as I use my right
hand to search for the mysterious button. All I feel are stones—one
after another. Stone. Stone. Stone. We go deeper. Stone. Stone.

I need to breathe. I need air. My lungs are
burning.

Pop!
Another gun shot from above.

I keep searching. Stone. Stone. Stone. Wait
. . . This feels different. It’s a raised circle. I press it.

Nothing happens at first.
I clinch Kale’s hand and start to rise back up to the surface for
air. A million questions and worries are flying through my
head:
how are we going to get out of here?
I made Kale come down here with me and now look. We’re going to
drown.
But then, in a flash, we’re lying
on a white floor in a white room surrounded by people in white. We
must have passed through one of the Keepers’ portals, and now we’re
right in the middle of a swarm of them. We both scramble to get
closer to one another. Kale reaches for his gun. I can’t believe
that it didn’t fall out in the well. He holds it out in front of
him, ready to fire.

The only move that anyone makes is Kai
taking off his Keeper’s mask. I instantly jump up and rush into his
arms, weeping with joy. “You made it,” Kai says
enthusiastically.

I should introduce him to Kale, who is still
unsure of what’s happening here. I’m not really sure what’s
happening here either, but I know I can trust Kai. That’s all that
matters. “Kale, this is Kai.”

It takes Kale a minute, but he eventually
lowers his gun. He shoves it in the waistband of his pants instead
of discarding it like I was so easily able to do. Finally, he walks
over to us and looks into Kai’s eyes. “You have our eyes. Both of
us are there. I can see it.” Kale looks over to me in blissful
disbelief.

Kai offers Kale his hand, but Kale doesn’t
accept it. Instead, he gathers him up in a hug and says, “Thank you
for your help. I’m honored to have met you.”

“
You’re welcome, but I’m
the one that’s honored. You are a legend in our family. Everyone
loved you, but everyone thought you were crazy.” He laughs, sort of
passively. “They say that you would tell stories about dreams you
had, not a lot of detail, but enough to entertain everyone at
holiday dinners. And those ‘dream stories’ were passed down from
generation to generation. It was only in the past 60 years that we
realized they were more likely memories. We’ve been preparing for
you two for a long time.”

Kai turns away from us and offers his hand
to a Keeper off to his right. He pulls the Keeper closer to our
little group and informs us, “Before you leave, I want you to meet
Josephine, my sister. She has helped as much, if not more, than I
have.”

My mouth hangs open as
Josephine pulls off her mask. Her pale blonde hair and jet black
eyes stare back at me. She’s an exact replica of me, but with dark
eyes like Kale’s.
This is too
weird.

“
You’re the girl with the
feathered mask that came with Kai to watch us. Now it makes sense .
. . but how do you look so much like me? That’s impossible.” I’m
absolutely astonished.

Josephine answers with a wispy voice, “Our
parents can choose what we will look like. We can isolate and
manipulate genes now—almost perfectly. Blonde or brunette, blue
eyes or brown, so on and so on. They wanted me to look like you but
with Kale’s eyes, and they wanted Kai to resemble Kale with a
mixture of both of you in his eyes. They wanted you to know us when
you saw us.”

“
That’s
unbelievable—especially you, Josephine. The resemblance is
amazing,” I say.

“
I’m sorry, but we need to
move soon,” Kai interrupts.

I don’t want to go. I want to stay here with
Kai and Josephine. I haven’t had enough time with them.

Kale tries to get us going. He hugs and
thanks Josephine first, while I pull myself together. I can tell he
was also surprised by the shocking resemblance. Things are
happening too fast for us to ask all the right questions or even
think of all of them. But, I can’t help myself. I have just one
before we move on. “Josephine? Is that a family name?” I ask
her.

“
It is.” She smiles at me
before asking her own question. “Do you know where it comes from?
No one has passed that information down through the family. Is
there a meaning behind it?” Her voice is beautiful and calming.
It’s the only other physical difference I’ve noticed between
us.

“
In our first enclosure,
our neighbor was named Josephine Derby. She saved me from myself
many times. She sang to me and kept me company when I lost hope. I
owe her a lot.” I wonder what’s happening to her right now. I
wonder if the Rebels helped the people in that zoo as
well.

Tears form in this young Josephine’s dark
eyes. She tries to blink them away, but one escapes and rolls down
her rosy cheek. “Thank you,” she says. “Now I know. And I actually
remember her.” She hugs me, and I hug her back, instantly loving a
girl I’ve only just met.

Kai interrupts, “Again, I’m sorry to cut
this short, but we have to get you two back now. It’s time.” He
taps his wrist where I’m sure the infamous watch is hiding under
the arm of his suit. “The other Keepers will come looking for us
soon. And we need to help with the rebellion some more,” he
adds.

As Kale and I squish in our wet clothes,
while following Kai and three other Keepers down a long white hall.
I walk beside Josephine. “Do you think you could look out for
Josephine Derby for me? I want her to be safe,” I ask her.

“
Of course,” she answers.
“Now that I know about her, I will make it my priority after we get
you back.”

“
Thank you,” I tell
her.

The hallway forks and we take the path to
the left, ending up in front of an unmarked door. One of the silent
Keepers presses his index finger onto a screen in the wall beside
the door. It beeps and the door slides open. This room is empty and
white as well, until the door slides shut behind us.

Things start to appear one by one. In the
far corner, there’s a leather chair with a small side table next to
it. On top of the little table is an ashtray with a half smoked
cigar resting in its center. Close to us, is an oak desk with a
matching chair. They are both facing a fake window that has a
projected or digital image of a city on it. I’ve never seen a city
so clean and orderly. The buildings are strange and there are
flying cars and pedestrian versions of the Hoppers. The glimpse of
the future world is overwhelming.

In the center of the room
is a chrome and black metal frame in the shape of a horseshoe. It’s
tall enough for a very tall person to walk under it.
A portal?

The three Keepers we don’t
know split up. One sits at the old-fashioned oak desk, one is doing
something on a screen in the wall, and the other is pushing buttons
on the metal frame. Kai says, while pointing at the shiny archway,
“This is the portal
.
”
I knew it!
He adds, “We call it Stephen.”
Stephen? Really?
I’m not
asking.

Kai continues, “It will send you back to
your time . . . to the point of your accident. Kale, as you know,
your family didn’t have a body to bury, so we don’t need to worry
about your replacement body.”

Kale never told me that. When we were
punished and they showed us our families after our deaths, his must
have been looking for him instead of mourning. I wonder how long
they kept up the search. No body, no closure. That’s terrible.
Kale’s body language changes as Kai mentions this. He turns
slightly inward, but still listens to Kai’s important
instructions.

Now to me, “Emma, they sent a pod-body back
in your place.” He hands me a tiny metal thing that looks like a
thumbtack. “Be careful with that. When you get back, stick it into
the body. It’ll dissolve it in seconds. Don’t stick it in your own
body.”

I open my mouth to ask him what will happen,
but he cuts me off before the first syllable slips out. “You don’t
want to know what’ll happen if you do. I promise.” Kai notices me
clutching my side and asks, “What’s wrong there?”

“
I think I cracked a
rib.”

“
Pinot, throw me a
scanner.” He turns to the Keeper at the desk, who rummages through
one of the desk’s drawers. He finds a scanner and then tosses it
over to Kai. That is the same thing the Keepers bring through the
zoo when making their rounds. “We can fix that for you,” Kai offers
before he scans me. He points to the drenched book hanging from my
shoulder.

I hand over my book, which he tosses over to
Josephine. She walks over to the screened wall where one of the
Keepers is working. She presses a few buttons a sticks the book in
a slot in the wall. It disappears.

“
Ready?” Kai
asks.

I nod yes and hold still, waiting for him to
finish scanning me.

“
Two bruised ribs, bruised
cheek, rope burn under your arms, and a lot of scrapes on your
buttocks and lower back. I could heal all that for you, but you
were in a serious car accident. It would be beneficial if you had
some injures when you returned. However, the rope burns and scrapes
on your backside—we’ll have to repair those.” He looks over to
Kale. “I can fix those cuts on your face if you want.”