Dissidence (8 page)

She must be in her
late thirties
, with lank blonde hair a
nd pale blue eyes. She’s petite,
bordering on scrawny
,
even. How does she manage this work?

“My name is actually
Kaleigh
,” I tell them
,
just in case they were looking for something else to call me.

“Lori,” the woman says, extending a slender hand, “and that’s Connor.”

“Nice to meet
ya
, Girlie.”
Apparently having a name isn’t of much use.

“W
hat is this place?” I ask, abandoning any pretense of having the slightest clue what I’ve gotten myself into.

“It’s a work camp.”
Apparently Connor doesn’t believe in wasting time talking
or
eating when they can be done simultaneously.

“Eat your dinner.” Lori smacks him lightly on the arm and shakes her head in feigned disgust.

“Work camp?”

Connor forces the bite down his throat and shifts to face us. “Yeah, what’s the use of just locking us up when they can use us for free labor?” The sarcastic tone in his voice makes me like him just a little bit more.

“So
, everyone here i
s a prisoner?” I’m suddenly wondering what exactly it was that got them all sent here.

“I guess so, since having an opinion is against the law.” Lori shakes her head again
,
and this time
,
the disgust is genuine.

So
,
they’re all guilty of having a big mouth and not enough brains to keep it shut, just like me, or what did they call it…
dissidence?
A
t least I know my new best friends aren’t some kind of axe murderers or anything.

“D
id you have a trial then?” I blurt out the first question I think of, knowing there are about a million more piled up behind it just waiting to rush out. I need to get as much information out of these two as I can while they’re talking to me.

“A trial,” Connor scoffs, “yeah, I had one of those. Everyone did. You can’t just lock people up and throw away the key without a
trial.
That would be unjustified.” The sarcasm’s back, but this time it’s tinged with anger.

“But how do they do it? I’m still not even sure what happened.” I’m shaking my head, hoping to shake all of the confusion from the past few
days
right out of it like some kind of mental etch-a-sketch. It doesn’t work.

“It’s all in your mind, kind of like virtual reality. They run
ya
through a series of pre-established simulations, anything that’s likely to make you react against the norm, and monitor your actions without ever having to let you leave the room.”

“And
,
of course
,
they know just which buttons to push,” Lori chimes in, her anger no less palpable than Connor’s.

She’s right. T
hey did hit on all of my hotspots
:
pressing career assignments, pairings, and of course . . . Peter. The thought causes a lancing pain to tear through me
,
so I push it aside and focus instead on, “
How
do they know?”

“Because they see everything.”

“Who’s sees? . . . What?” Now, she’s really lost me. I feel like I’m trying to keep up with the plot of a story, but it’s in another language.

“
They
do.
Security, the government, the ubiquitous ‘
they
.’”
Lori twirls her hand in the air as she speaks. “Who knows, but they’re always watching, Kiddo. You really didn’t know? No, of course you didn’t,” she corrects herself. “I forgot
,
it isn’t common knowledge until
after
you’re already locked up. Otherwise
,
none of us would be here, would we?”

The question seems
rhetorical
,
so I leave it
alone,
pondering instead what else this could mean. “How do they watch us?”

“Cameras.
They’re everywhere as far as
any of us can tell.
J
obs, homes,
on every street
,
and in every building.
It’s the only way to explain some of the things they know about us. Things no one else could know unless they were watching . . . listening.”

Cameras?
Why the hell didn’t I think of that? Of course they have cameras. Of cour
se they’ve been spying on us our
entire lives
. Why not? It’s hardly like they’re
too moral to do such a thing. Instead
,
I chose to think the worst of the one person who has always been there f
or me my entire life. I search
through my memory ban
ks for any mention anyone may’
ve made of Peter, but
no one
said a single thing about him. I jumped to that awful conclusion all on my own. Some friend I turned out to be.
A weight I didn’t realize I’ve
been carrying suddenly lifts
,
and I feel light, like I can finally breathe again.

“It feels real though, doesn’t it?” Connor draws my focus back to the present and my slightly less than
happy
circumstances.

“Yeah, it felt like I was really there.”

“It’s some pretty advanced technology. I don’t know exactly how it works, but it’s fascinating. I used to be into that kind of stuff before I ended up here. They recreate everything they can as an exact replica, but there are always some flaws.” Connor stares longingly into his now empty bowl. My food has grown thoroughly cold
,
and the thought of taking another bite turns my stomach
,
so I slide my bowl in front of him.
“You sure?
You should eat, Girlie, build up that muscle mass.”

“Definitely.
I’m done.” Connor gauges me for another moment before digging i
nto my cold meat concoction. “W
hat do you mean
‘
flaws
’
?”

“I
t’s easy enough to make imitations of people, public spaces
,
and anything
else
they have records of, but the more private details have to be filled in
,
and sometimes
they’re
. . .
off.”

“Like my alarm clock.”

. . .
A
nd my
duckie
curtain, but I’m not
about to say
that one out loud.
Bathrooms and bedrooms, evidently they
do
have limits.

“Exactly.
Small, personal details that they don’t know are just guessed at, but they’re so insignificant that our minds don’t pay them much attention anyway.”

It’s true.
I had brushed off the discrepancies pretty easily.

“How do you know all of this?”

“Some I figured out on my own, some I’ve heard from others. There’s not much to talk about around here.”

I guess it’s either that or pick swinging techniques. Actually, I could probably benefit from
that
conversation.

“Are there other camps like this one?”

“Lots.”
Lori reaches for the two empty bowls in front of Connor and stacks them in her own. “It’s strange talking to a newbie. I’ve been a worker for over twenty years now.”

Holy crap.
My heart stutters at just the thought of being here that long, but what did I expect?
That they would just let me go back home again after a while?

“You know that saying ‘ignorance is bliss?’ It may be true, but it no longer applies to any of us. It doesn’t take long for people to learn the whole ugly truth after they get here. Transfers aren’t that uncommon. Apparently they keep us
fresh and productive
.” Distain oozes from Lori’s words
,
and I scramble for a moment to catch back up with the conversation. “I’ve personally worked at X, L, and K myself
,
and known others who
have been to B, J, U, E, and O.” S
he ticks them off her fingers as she goes
,
and I can’t believe we’re up to eight already, plus this place makes at least
nine
work camps.

“Are they all mines like this one?”

“No, Kiddo.” Seriously, why did my parents even bother naming me? “The firs
t place I worked was a vineyard,
then a wheat farm. There are other farms
,
too
,
that grow different crops, a fishing camp, one where they cut lumber, and I’ve heard rumors of one where they raise different kinds of animals and butcher them for meat.”

If there’s anything I can be thankful for, it’s that
I didn’t get sent there.

“I think there’s at least one other mine,” Connor adds, “but they mine coal instead of iron.”

“Could be.”
Lori shrugs and gets to her feet, taking the dirty dishes with her. “We’ll probably get to see them all eventually.”

“How is it possible I didn’t know about this?” I’m shaking my head again
,
and unsurprisingly
,
it’s still not helping.

“No one does.” Connor’s irritation is clear in his voice. “It’s not difficult to cover up in a world where people are routinely moved away from everyone they know
,
and left with limited means of communication. Where does everyone think you are right now?”

“They think I went to meet my mate,” I confess.

“The same goes for most people here, or other viable excuses were made for our disappearances. Not that complicated when the only people actually asking questions are the ones being locked up.”

I still can’t wrap my head around all of this, but how can I deny it when I’m staring it in the face?

“Brain sufficiently fried?” Lori lays a hand on my shoulder as she rejoins the table, but
she
doesn’t bother taking a seat.

“Yeah, I’d say so.”

“Good
,
because it’s time to get some sleep.”

Everyone is starting to get to their feet, clearing their eating areas
,
and making their way toward the exit where the guards are waiting to escort us back to the dorms. Now I understand why everyone passed out so quickly last night. My body doesn’t want to wait until I’ve found a section of floor to sleep on before it starts shutting down. I literally have to drag my feet as I follow Connor and Lori to one of the wood
en structures. I don’t think it’
s the same one I was tossed into yesterday, but I doubt it makes a difference or that anyone will notice. My best bet is probably to stick as close to these two as I can for now. It couldn’t hurt to have a giant for a friend. 

Inside
,
I’m not surprised to find Conno
r has procured a permanent bunk.
I mean
,
who’s going to argue with him? I
am
surprised to find Lori also has a bed waiting for her. She’s older than most people here
,
and she’s been around longer
,
so I
chalk
it up to some kind of seniority. Great, in twenty years maybe I’ll be able to sleep on a bed again.
 

“
Here.
” Connor slaps the mattress he’s sitting on.

“What?”

“The first few days in the mines are always the worst
,
and you’re going to be completely useless down there if you’re sore from sleeping on that floor.”

If he thinks I am sharing that bed with him
,
he’s got an
other thing coming, but then he
slides off the bed and stretches out on the floor. I don’t understand him at all. He’s offering me his bed when all I’ve managed to do for him is effectively double his workload. But
,
what’s that saying, never look a gift horse in the mouth? I’ve never really understood that, but I am more than happy to implement the concept, especially when every one of my muscles is already screaming. I collapse on the mattress and grunt something that resembles a
‘
thanks
’
before exhaustion claims me. 

Chapter 8