Cured (19 page)

I nodded, holding her gaze and reaching out a
hand to hold hers. She snatched her fingers from mine.

“
How could
you?” s
he seethed. “People go their
entire lives as Norms, never knowing the Prime life, or seeing
Olympia. They don’t endanger everyone by trying to get out of the
system! How could you be so selfish? You couldn’t stand the thought
of living as the rest of us have lived all our lives? You two are
pathetic.” Her voice was coming in gasps and tears were streaming
down her face, dripping from her chin and splashing onto the grass
below.

“
Ell,
” Theo’s voice was calm,
“Listen to me.” Ellina’s breathing was ragged, and she swiped at
her tears, but Theo continued, “Think about the consequences this
could have. I mean, no one has ever managed to get away with
evading The Cure before. If this works… If we can just get Felix
and Avery through the tasks alive… we might summon enough hope and
support from the Fields to crush the whole system.”

Ellina shook her head, “The Cure is a
tradition built up over years and years, Theo. Two kids managing to
survive a few tasks without some superpowers is not going to tear
down the framework of our government. We can’t bring down Olympia
alone.”

“
We wont be
alone,
” Felix said. “With Avery and I
involved, we already have the support of some residents of Olympia.
Ave’s parents are Olympia royalty, and they won’t let her be
slaughtered for breaking a few rules. And my parents hold a bit of
prestige themselves; they will support us.”

“
And most of
the Norms in the Fields hate the system. They’d do anything to get
rid of the tyranny. I think we might have a chance,” Theo
concluded.

Ellina sat
still and silent. We remained that way for a long while. Finally
she looked me dead in the eye. “Well,” she said, “Would you give it
all up?”

“
What do you
mean?” M
y voice was weak.

“
I mean,
would you risk everything for this? If it is ever going to work, we
all have to be in it 100 per cent. We can’t have a weak link.
Especially if there are people out there who already know that you
two haven’t been Cured. They are going to try to take you down.
There is only so much that Theo and I can do to protect you, we
will be against other Primes who are much more advanced than
us.”

I nodded.
“I’m
in Ellina. 100 per cent. I’ve hated
The Cure and our stupid hierarchy all my life, ever since…” My
voice trailed off as I looked up at Theo. His eyes met mine and he
understood. I had hated the hierarchy since he had been taken from
me because he hadn’t been considered good enough for me.

“
Here is the
thing,” Theo started, “The Alpha Primes are not going to make our
little secret known.”

“
Why not?
Won’t they want to use us as an example of what will happen to
those who disobey?” I asked

“
Imagine the
outcry!” he continued. “If you two managed to complete the
challenges as humans, you would be the perfect figureheads for the
start of an uprising. The only thing that is preventing a full-on
rebellion is fear. The Norms are scared. Scared of the Primes and
scared of the rules. They have no leader, no one encouraging them
to fight back. They haven’t got the courage to rebel at the
moment.”

“But if we were able to lead them…” I was
catching on.

“
Exactly
!” Theo grinned. “The
Alphas already fear the Fields. Think about the number of Norms
compared to the number of Primes. Even with their powers, the
Primes stand no chance against the masses. That is why The Cure
dulls all but one sector of the brain, to reduce the chance of
retaliation. Any hint of protest in the Fields might spread, and
once there is enough rebellion, who knows what could
happen.”

Theo was
making sense. “I guess that is true,” I said. “The whole hierarchy
could be brought down if enough Norms stood for it. The power that
the Primes hold over the Fields is more mental than
anything.”

“Exactly,” said Theo, “ Which is why we are
safe-ish for now. You heard what the instructor said at training.
Only a few people have evaded the Cure before and not one of them
was able to make it through the initiation. We would be making
history.”

Felix spoke
up, “Hold on a second, how does that make us safe at all? The
Alphas know our secret now! They can throw anything at us! They’ll
just kill us during the tests.”

“
They could
do,” said Theo, “ But they cant be too obvious about it, or the
other Primes – like Avery’s parents- will question why they are
making the tasks so much harder for us than for the others. They
wont let the Officials kill off their daughter, unless it looks
like it was an accident, or the normal level of danger in a
challenge.”

“That makes it even scarier,” said Ellina
softly, “Knowing they are going to do it subtly. I mean, they are
probably planning our deaths right now.”

I shuddered, and we all sat still once
more.

“
I wonder how
they found out,” I pondered aloud.

“
They will be
listening,” s
aid Theo, “Just like how
they listen to us in the Fields. They make it impossible for
rebellion amongst the Norms by having us under constant
surveillance. Every WallScreen goes two ways. We watch the Screen
whilst it watches us. I bet that forest had bugs everywhere. The
aircraft too.”

I winced. How
could we have been so stupid? Of course they were watching us. The
Alphas were obsessed with order and obedience; they would have had
us under surveillance form the beginning, making sure we weren’t
straying from their rules.

“
So we’ve got
to beat them at their own game,” said Felix. “We need a
plan.”

“
I think the
best bet is for us to try and finish the challenges unnoticed by
anyone else,” said Theo. “From now on, you two are just as much
Primes as Ell and me. You've got to be convincing.”

“Sure, but where will that get us?” Felix
asked.

Ellina piped
up, “The speech!” s
he said, “Of course!
Theo that is genius!”

“Sorry?” I was confused, “Remember us
un-Prime-y brains here, we don’t keep up with your superior
thinking!”

Theo held his
finger to his lips to hush us, and gestured around as though there
might be people listening. He dropped his voice to a soft whisper.
“The final ceremony,” he explained, “You know. At the end of the
challenges, the highest ranked Prime always gives a speech. If we
can make it until then without anyone getting killed, it would be
the perfect time to tell everyone the secret. The speech is
broadcast on Olympia as well as through all the Fields, so everyone
would hear our story. And by that time, the Alphas won’t be able to
hurt us, because the challenges will be over, so if they try to
kill you, the rest of Olympia can step in.”

We all looked at each other, no one looked
very confident, but it was a plan, and it was all we had. Theo
offered Ellina and I both a hand, and pulled us up from the grass
where we had been sitting.

“
So, you two
Olympia residents, where are we?” he asked.

Felix shrugged. “Not a clue, man, I didn’t
ever explore very much, that was more Avery’s game.”

Eyes turned to me. “Uh, well I would say that
it is late afternoon, and the sun is setting over there.” I pointed
to the golden light that was slowly lowering behind a streaky
orange sunset. That means we are on the South side of Olympia.
Everyone lives over the other side, this whole area is basically
unused.”

“Nice work for a stuck up princess.” Ellina
nudged me, and I laughed, remembering our very first
conversation.

“
Cool.”
s
aid Theo “So now we know where we are,
what way is it to the biological engineering labs?”

“The biological engineering labs?” I looked
at Theo, bewildered, wondering why on earth he felt the need to
visit my Aunt’s farm. “My Aunt’s place? Why?”

“
You mean
your Aunt owns the biological engineering plant?” he looked
incredulous. I nodded.

Aunt Tiana’s true love was animals. She spent
her days using science to improve and adapt the animal kingdom.

Theo clapped
his hands and let out a chuckle. “This is great!” he
said.

“
What in
God’s name are you talking about
?” I was
glad to see that Felix looked just as confused as I
felt.

“
Well
Hercules’ next task was catching Artemis’ hind,” Theo explained as
though that short sentence were a sufficient answer.

“
I’m not
following.” I shook my head slowly.

“Think about it Avery!” Theo went on, “Most
of the land’s farming is done in the Fields, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Except…?”

Now I
understood where he was coming from. Aunty Tiana was not my blood
relative, but she was Mother’s closest friend, and spent so much
time at our house that she was like an Aunty. She was a cold woman,
always poised and flawless, much like Mother. Although, unlike my
mother, she was over a hundred years old. She was a biologist,
responsible for developing the anti-age serums that everyone used
to stay young. Her own skin was so smooth it looked like
plastic.

BeautySerum aside, my Aunt’s pride and joy
were her animals. She dedicated her life to bioengineering living
creatures. Ironically, she had probably designed the lions that
were set on us in our first task. I remembered how she used to come
knocking on our door with a different animal every day. A bunny,
with enhanced spring, so that it could bound meters at a time, or a
cat that she had trained to walk on two legs. Her favourite animal
that she had ever created was her doe. It was a beautiful female
deer with the strength of an ox, and the grace of a swan, and it
had been her first successful creation.

“
Oh no.” I
said. “Not Aunty
Tiana’s doe.”

“
Bravo
Princess,
” Theo said with a mocking
applause. “You’re cottoning on pretty quickly.”

“
Don’t call
me that,
” I snapped. “And stop mocking
me. This is serious. My Aunt would never let anyone get their hands
on her doe.”

“Not even her favourite niece?”

“
She never
really warmed to me…
Or any other human
being. Except my mother,” I explained.

Theo frowned, “Then this might be harder than
I thought.”

“
How do you
even know that is the task?” Felix asked.

“
It is an
educated guess,
” Theo explained. “I mean,
the other tasks have been following the same order as Hercules’
Labours, so I am guessing they’ll all stick to the
pattern.”

“
Yeah but how
do you know Tiana’s hind is the right
hind?”

“Well they dropped us on Olympia, what other
hinds live up here?” Theo had a point. “But I say we set up camp
here for the night, what do you guys think?”

“
Yeah I need
sleep,” s
aid Felix.

Ellina laughed, “You slept the whole way
here!”

“
Well unlike
you Primes, I get tired!” he argued. “And hungry. I could
eat.”

We all laughed.

“
How could
you possibly still be hungry?” I asked, “I watched you devour
that
entire buffet table.”

“I’m a man.” Felix puffed out his chest
comically. “Men eat.”

“Okay then, if you’re such a man why don’t
you go hunt us all some dinner?” I asked

“What? All alone?” Felix looked worried.
“What if there are like…”

“
What Felix?
What if there are what?” Ellina chimed in.

“Well, like… scary things!”

That had us all rolling on the grass,
laughing in the open field. After a while, my stomach hurt from
laughter and my cheeks were burning.

“
I’ll go
hunting with you Felix. We can be men together,” Theo said, jumping
to his feet.

“
Oh, our
heroes.” Ellina pressed a hand to her forehead, acting the perfect
damsel in distress, and sending us into a fit of giggles again as
the boys wandered off to find food. By the time they returned,
Ellina had managed to successfully light a fire by using two pieces
of wood and a stone, and I had dragged a few logs over to use as
seating.

Felix and Theo set to work staking up three
rabbits they had hunted and setting them over the fire to cook, and
I removed four bread rolls from my backpack.

“You are an amazing woman Avery Rose!” Felix
said, planting a kiss atop of my head and snatching a bun from my
hand. Theo came over and grabbed himself a bun too.

“
What he
said.” He winked at me. I tossed a bun to Ellina and kept one for
myself. When the rabbits were cooked through, Theo pulled the first
one apart, and tossed us each a reasonable chunk. I shredded mine
and added it to the bun.

We all sat
around the fire nibbling on meat and sharing stories whilst the sun
went down and the stars came out. Then we used our backpacks as
pillows, thankful that it was warm weather, we happily fell asleep
under the night sky.

Chapter 23

Theo must
have risen with the sun, because it was only a quarter of the way
above the horizon when I received a pat on the head.