Solstice (21 page)

“I—You were trying to shock me. I think you got some of it, too.”

“That would explain the pain.” Her voice sounded almost normal, less mechanical. She removed her hand, revealing her shoulder. There was a wide red circle on her skin. “My scar hurts. I think my implant was shocked.” She lifted her hand up with a grimace and studied her damaged finger. “They took my ring.”

My breath caught. It was as if she was just realizing that her finger had been burned. I gripped the agitator in my hand and inched forward, still wary, but with new possibilities floating in my mind.

“Do you—do you remember me?” I asked.

Chalice focused her eyes on me. Her face was pale, and she looked even thinner in her painful state. “Of course I remember you.” She looked down at her hand again, and her brows pulled together as she repeated, “They took my ring.”

A dozen emotions rolled through me. “Chalice, why are you in my room?”

She lifted her head and narrowed her eyes as if she were concentrating, trying to remember something. “There was a message . . .” She brought her hand to her mouth. “Oh.” Her eyes widened and tears formed.

I was astounded to see a tear fall down her cheek.

She seemed equally surprised and wiped the tear with one finger, then held it up, staring at it. “What’s happening to me?”

“You’re crying,” I said.

She blinked and another tear fell. She wiped at her face and sniffled. Then she placed her hands on each side of her cheeks. “I’m crying—I’m really crying. It’s like . . . something inside is trying to get out—to escape.” More tears coursed down her cheeks. “Why do I feel so . . . I don’t know what I feel.”

“Sad?”

“I think so. The agitator did something to me—I’m not supposed to be like this.” She stood up slowly, bracing herself against the wall.

“Actually, Chalice,” I said, keeping the agitator in front of me just in case, “you
are
supposed to be like this.”

She stared at me, her cheeks still wet.

“I think I know what happened,” I said. “The shock reversed the altering.”
And maybe much more.

She swiped at her cheeks, her expression confused, so I continued. “After I was sent to prison, what happened at school?”

She sniffled again, then looked toward the window. The rain was barely a drizzle now, more of a mist. After several minutes of silence, I said, “Do you remember anything?”

Another tear dripped down her face. “I’m starting to remember.” Then her watery eyes focused on me. “They asked me questions after you left, but then nothing happened until the Solstice.”

She grasped her shoulder again as if she’d had another rush of pain. “The morning was beautiful. We stood in the school yard, waiting for the sun to break through the clouds. I felt the warmth growing stronger and stronger before the sun actually came out.”

I swallowed against my dry throat, imagining the fiery yellow warmth. Every part of my body yearned to feel the heat of the sun.

“Some of the kids laid down on the wet cement,” she continued, “just soaking up the sun with their whole bodies. The boys took off their shirts.”

I nodded. I’d seen them do that on other Solstices.

“My skin was just starting to turn pink when the school yard speaker announced I was to report to the director’s office.” She let out a sigh. “I didn’t want to go, of course. I stalled a few more minutes, hoping that whatever they wanted could wait until the clouds came back.” Another tear slid down her face.

When she didn’t continue, I said, “Is that when they took your ring?”

She looked down at her hand. “I’m not sure. I didn’t make it to the office. Two inspectors were waiting in the corridor, and they cuffed me. I don’t remember much after that.” She snapped her head up and looked at me. “Something happened to me. I can’t explain it . . .” Her voice trailed off, and she wiped at her tear-stained face again.

“You were altered,” I said. “I learned about it at prison. I saw it happen to other kids around me. Most of them were worse off than you.”

“What do you mean?”

I told her what I knew about altering, what Rueben had told me about controlling the brain. “It affects each person differently,” I added.

“Is that why I forgot about you?” Chalice asked.

“Probably.”

She studied me. The darkness outside had faded now, replaced by the dull gray of morning. We had both been unconscious for several hours. It was nearly seven and my door would soon open. “So the agitator rod . . . do you think it reversed the altering?”

“I think so,” I said. I wasn’t letting go of the rod, my only protection. I didn’t know what to think about Chalice now, although the tears had seemed real.

“And what about the tears,” she said in a shaky voice. “I can’t be seen crying.”

Tears would definitely draw attention and reveal that her altering had been . . . altered. I wished I had time to tell her that I was having the same emotions, and that I had learned to control them since childhood, but I’d have to give her the condensed version. “When you feel the tears start, you have to think of something else, something that doesn’t make you feel sad.”

Chalice nodded as if she understood, but her face was marked in confusion. “I feel so tired.” She leaned her head against the wall.

The door seal released, making a swooshing sound. I looked at Chalice. “You have to act like you did before—like you don’t remember me,” I said. Her eyes reflected the same fear I felt. I could only imagine the new emotions swirling around inside her. I’d been dealing with them my entire life—she was feeling them for the first time.

“Why would I be told to ‘replace’ you? What does that mean?” By the haunted look in her eyes, I realized she’d just remembered what she’d come to my room to do.

The cold chill returned. “I’m not sure,” I said. If Chalice was sent to shock me, then what was she supposed to do next? Take me somewhere? Would there be someone waiting for me in the corridor?

“Were there other instructions on the tablet?”

“I don’t think so. I only remember one message—to come to your room. When I got here, I just knew I was supposed to shock you.”

“And then I messed it up.” I turned over the rod in my hand. “You’re free now.”

“Free?”

“Free from their control, but you’ll have to learn to control yourself now,” I whispered.

“How do I do that?” Her eyes budded with tears again.

“Take a deep breath and fight the tears,” I said.

She followed my direction and the tears stopped, though her eyes were still red. “Why you, Jez? Why does the Legislature want to control me, and why do they want you replaced?”

Because I’m a Clinical,
I wanted to say, but I didn’t want to burden Chalice with too much information right now. I could tell she was in turmoil—fighting against a slew of emotions. “It must have something to do with the time I spent in prison, or the fact that I tried to escape.”

“You
escaped?
They didn’t release you?”

“When they caught me, they told me I’d passed their test, and I was allowed to come here.”

She looked nervously toward the door. “Do you think they’re waiting in the corridor for us?”

No one else had tried to come in—to ‘replace’ me, whatever that meant. Yet. Then it hit me. “Maybe this is another test,” I whispered. “Maybe they wanted to see if you’d come in here and shock me. Maybe they wanted to know what I would do.”

“So now what?” she whispered, her voice full of fear.

“Wait for the next test.”

She grimaced, and I knew the feeling. I handed over the agitator. “You should probably keep this.”

Chalice looked at it with distaste. “I don’t want to touch that thing.”

“It makes more sense for you to have it,” I said.

“So if this was just a test—to see if I’d obey, or whatever—what do you think they’ll do if they find out my altering was reversed?” she asked.

A chill crept through me. “Chalice, you must act as if you’re still altered.”

“What about the instructions to
replace
you?”

I clenched my hands together and breathed out slowly. “It was probably—hopefully—a test, and no one else will pick up where you left off.” A cold sweat broke out on my neck. “I don’t have any choice but to go through my day like usual.”

Chalice pursed her lips together, her eyes darkening. “How will I know you’re okay?”

I hesitated, remembering what Rueben had told me about a way to communicate messages through a sequence code. But even if Chalice and I sent messages that way, the chance of us being able to open the messages right away and read them before they became encrypted was very slim. Still, it was better than nothing.

I grabbed my tablet from the desk. With shaking fingers I clicked on the message icon. I selected my own name to send a message to. “A friend showed me how to send a private message. It will encrypt itself in about ninety seconds.”

“Show me.” Chalice leaned over the tablet to get a better look.

I typed in the sequence of numbers that I had committed to memory with Rueben. I hoped it still worked. He had said that the sequence was updated frequently, so I’d have to change the order of the last numbers, hoping one of them would go through. I transposed the last four digits and sent the message.

Immediately, an alert bounced back.
Message undeliverable.

I changed the order of the last four numbers again.
Message undeliverable.

On the third time it went through.

Chalice and I stared as the message to myself popped up on the tablet. Ninety seconds later the words
This is a Test
were replaced by strange circular symbols.

“Incredible,” Chalice breathed. “Who taught you this?”

“A friend from prison.” I met her curious gaze, and I couldn’t help but add, “He’s originally from a Lake Town.”

Her eyes widened. “I thought the Lake Town people were illiterate.”

“Not even close.” I shut my mouth, afraid I’d said too much.

Chalice seemed to sense that I was done talking about it. “Tell me the numbers again so I can memorize them.”

I repeated the most recent sequence that I’d entered. “I don’t know how long it will be active.”

Sounds from the corridor filtered through the door. Other girls were moving through the hallways, on their way to the cafeteria. “You should leave before the hallways get too crowded.”

Chalice shook her head. “I’ll wait here until everyone is gone. You go first.”

“All right,” I said. “Remember to act like you’re still altered . . . You don’t know me, and you don’t talk to anyone.”

She nodded, her eyes moist.

“Keep the emotion hidden,” I said.

“I’m trying to,” she said, but I heard the shakiness in her voice. Suddenly, she leaned forward and embraced me tightly. I hugged her back. For a brief second, we were the same.

My pulse raced as I stepped out of my room, leaving Chalice behind. We couldn’t be seen together. Especially after her failed mission that might not be a failed mission at all, but a test. I was worried about how well she would fare battling her new emotions.

But I was even more afraid of what the next test might be—would it involve Chalice again? Sol? Someone else I knew?

In the corridor, noise buzzed around me. I couldn’t help but stare at people as I passed them, wondering if they, too, had been altered. Or perhaps they were Clinicals like me and had just done a better job of suppressing their emotions than I had.

I skipped the cafeteria, wanting to get to class early and be the first one in a quiet room, giving myself time to think. Once in class, I checked the incoming message I’d sent to myself. It had disappeared. Not only had it encrypted, but it had destroyed itself. I breathed easier.

I clicked on the news icon and scrolled through the names that were listed as criminals. Rueben’s name was still there. A message from Chalice appeared on my screen. I opened it quickly in case it was coded:
Don’t speak to Sol.

I quickly replied:
Why?
But it took extra time to type in the numbered code, and a couple of students came into the room while I was typing. I kept my head bent forward, staring at the tablet and trying to shield it from view at the same time.

Message sent.
I kept the message application on for a few more minutes, but there was no reply.

Why couldn’t I speak to Sol? What had Chalice found out? Was this another test?

Worry gnawed at my stomach. I had already told him a lot—about Chalice’s altering, the testing in the laboratories, and about being Clinical. Had he been altered like Chalice? I had forgotten to ask Chalice what they had talked about.

The geology professor began the lesson, saying, “We’ll be discussing population today and the impact it has on our city.”

I was at full attention. I wondered if he’d mention anything about the Lake Town populations.

“We presently have just under two million people in our city,” the professor said. “We’re also the largest city on the earth.”

I ached to ask about the population of the surrounding Lake Towns, but I didn’t want to betray my keen interest in the outside communities.

“Let’s look up the history of populations on your tablets,” he said.

I eagerly scrolled through the menu until I found the population chart. It started with the year 2089 and went to the present, 2099. The population had decreased by about three hundred thousand in the past ten years.

Two million still sounded like a substantial number, but I had never considered how many people that was—a seemingly large amount—yet to think our city might be the last major civilization to exist, the population was frighteningly small. Rueben had been right. Our population was dwindling.

I wondered how many people were out in the Lake Towns—surely many times more than here in the city.
Hopefully
many times more.

The professor talked us through each year. Then he paused. “The question came in: Why does the population decrease if there are new births each year?”

I thought of all those who were Taken before their life cycles naturally expired. It was an easy answer, but not the one the professor gave. “Disease is the primary reason for the dwindling population.”