SWAB (A Young Adult Dystopian Novel) (20 page)

“So that’s why I’m still alive.” It hit me with dizzying understanding.

“Hide your thoughts, now,” Origin said hurriedly. “Jack is returning, and he must know nothing of what you’ve learned from me.”

The laboratory door swung open, and Jack entered with several bankers boxes. As he walked down the aisle, his eyes darted to me. Quickly, I looked about the table, my eyes settling on a picture of a Lady Gray moth, and I filled my mind with thoughts of moths. He paused a moment, his eyes burning into the back of my head, but I forced myself to think of nothing but moths: their colors, their antennae, the way their wings hummed around porch lights…

Finally, he moved on.

I was careful to keep my thoughts very boring and bland the last hour I was stuck in the lab with Jack. Saki came to get me for dinner, but Jack wanted to talk to her first. They engaged in a private conversation I couldn’t hear, and I saw alarm flash across Saki’s face for just a moment. When she came over to me, her expression was composed, though.

“Are you ready?” she asked, as if I might actually want to stay down here longer.

“Absolutely.”

“Wait,” Origin’s voice told me. So, I bent down to tighten the straps of my boots. I wasn’t sure if Saki or Jack could hear him. “There is more I need to tell you. Come back tonight when the others are gone,” he said.

“Coming?” Saki called from the door.

“Yes.” I got up, casting a last sideways glance at Origin’s tank, before following her out of the lab.

I didn’t feel like eating much that night at dinner. Picking at the green beans and chard, I observed again at how well the others were adapting to scarb life. Mrs. Weatherstone was now braiding her hair up onto her head in a fashion I’d other scarb women sport. I hadn’t heard Officer Reynolds even mention combat or battle strategies since the Change. Travis was trying to explain how the lift in the atrium worked but only Jorge was paying him any attention. Gray and Nathan were arguing about who the blonde flight assistant liked more. Only Derrick didn’t seem to be in high spirits. He ate his food and then simply stared at his plate. After what Origin told me, I needed to talk to him. I still didn’t know how I felt about him or what I should do, but I knew I could count on his loyalty. We had something in common: We weren’t sold on life here in the colony.

After most of the plates had been cleared, Derrick got up to leave the table. I stood and grabbed his arm. He started at my touch. I took a deep breath and tried to focus on directing my thoughts just to him.

“I need to talk to you and Nathan,” I told him as lowly as I could.

He glanced around at the others. “Meet in my room in five minutes,” he said and then walked in that direction.

I practically had to pull Nathan away from the ping-pong table, but when he finally realized how serious I was, he left Gray and we both slipped into Derrick’s room.

“What’s going on?” Nathan asked as soon as the door closed, his mouth twisted in worry. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” I started. Derrick sat on the edge of his bed. “I learned things in the lab today. Things that Saki and Jack don’t want me to know—”

Derrick put his hands up, stopping me. “Let’s not talk here.” He glanced at the door. “Your thoughts aren’t safe from the others.”

“Where can we go?” I asked.

“Down to the subterranean level,” he said quickly. “By the waterfall. We should be safer there.”

“Why?” Nathan asked.

“It has something to do with the water,” Derrick explained. “I noticed it when we were down there before.” My cheeks flared with heat at the memory of us dancing. “Water seems to help block Cat’s thoughts.”

So then he didn’t know what I was thinking that whole time?

“Sounds good,” Nathan said. “But how do we get down there without being questioned? Maybe you haven’t noticed, but the entire colony seems to have their eye on Cat.”

“I have noticed,” Derrick answered. “She can wear this.”He gave me his shipping uniform and hat. “If you tuck your hair back, people won’t pay you much attention, or wonder why you’re going down to the lower levels. Shipping workers are treated like dirt here.”

We decided to wait another thirty minutes to be sure the common area was clear after the others went to bed. When it was, the three of us left Derrick’s room and headed down the dimly lighted halls. “Keep your thoughts common,” Derrick reminded me gently as we passed the dining hall where a few late-evening workers were eating.

I thought about bringing in a shipment of turnips and sprouts that Derrick told me was coming in the next morning, to throw off anyone who might be listening. A few tired workers looked up as we passed, but no one seemed to care.

We went lower, until the smooth tiles gave way to the soft earth floor. The air was musty and thick and smelled of roots and moist dirt. The large opening into the underground cavern greeted us like a vast black mouth. It was eerily dark and quiet inside without the pounding music and flashing strobe lights. No one else was down there. Only a few low blue lights, like security lights, dotted the walls of the massive room. The stalactites were just gray shadows, and I ran right into one.

“Put your hands against the wall and in front of you,” Derrick said.

“Have you been down here in the dark like this?” I asked.

“Just last night,” he answered. “I’ve been looking for a way out of here.”

The roar of the waterfall was distant at first, but it grew louder and louder as we made our way into the belly of the huge cave. I guess the scarb didn’t feel it necessary to put any of the blue lights near the water, where most scarb wouldn’t go. Chill mist tickled my arms and face.

It was pitch black a hundred feet all around us. The ground was wet and slick under my feet. The waterfall must have been near, but I couldn’t see it without the lights that illuminated it.

“This should do,” Derrick said just to my left, his voice clear in my head despite the pounding of the fall. Nathan was standing close to my right.

I wrapped my arms tightly around my chest to stave off the cold of the spray.

“What did you learn?” Nathan asked, not hiding the anticipation in his voice.

“Well, first Jack let me talk to Origin,” I started, the fibers of my mouth vibrating with shivers. “I learned that the reason we were captured and put into that dome was to be recruits for the queen to build up her colony. Most scarb, like the queen, can’t reproduce, so turning humans into scarb is the only way to grow her kingdom without going and taking another colony.”I paused to let that sink in.

“Wow,” Nathan exhaled.

“That makes sense,” Derrick muttered.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “But that’s not all. I asked why the queen is keeping me alive when it’s clear I don’t fit in here.”

“What’d they tell you?” Nathan asked.

“Well, Jack didn’t want to tell me. In fact, he told Origin not to tell me, like he had command over him or something. Jack had to go out to get something, and while he was gone, Origin told me that the queen is keeping me because I’m a Bearer. I can have children.”

No one said anything for a few moments.

“She wants to use you to build up her army,” Derrick said, guessing at her reasons.

“That’s what Origin said, too,” I said, feeling the weight of it sink into me.

“That’s totally disgusting,” Nathan exclaimed.

“It’s wrong,” Derrick said. Nathan and I turned to him. “The whole thing is wrong, from them sticking us in that dome and forcing us to become scarb, to integrating us into the colony. But this—” he motioned to me—“is much worse”

“They’re just trying to use us,” Nathan agreed. I was relieved that they felt the same way I did.

“We have to tell the others,” Derrick determined. “They need to know about this.”

“I agree,” I said hesitantly, “but I’m not so sure how they’ll take it. They seem to love living in the colony way more than they loved being human.”

“That’s probably true,” Nathan chimed in. “I actually think it’s pretty cool, too, but now that I know what they’re doing; I agree that it’s wrong.”

“Okay, we can tell them,” I decided. “But there is more that Origin said he needed to tell me. He wants me to come back tonight while Jack and the others are gone. I think you both should come with me.”

“All right, let’s go, then,” Derrick said. “Just remember not to think of any of this when we’re around any of the other scarb”

The halls were even darker when we left the cavern. The electric lights that ran throughout the colony were put on a dimmer to mimic the outside sky. Even the dining hall was dark. Its white doors watched us like eyes in the night. No one was in the opulent upper levels, but when we turned down the scientific wing, a dark-skinned scarb I’d never seen before was sitting right in front of Jack’s lab. He looked bored, but dutiful.
He’s been placed there on purpose.
I cursed internally.

We ducked down a side hall before he noticed us.

“What should we do?” I asked.

Nathan grinned. “Leave that to me.”

I cringed at Nathan’s smile and offer to take care of the guard. But someone had to do it.

“All right, here I go,” Nathan said and stepped out of the dark hallway. Derrick and I stayed behind.

I listened to his footsteps down the tile hallway. They stopped.

“Excuse me, I seem to be totally lost,” Nathan said. “I’m trying to find the atrium, and this place is a freakin’ maze. Can you help me?”

The guard grunted. “Turn left at the stairs and keep going up.”

“I’ve got a terrible sense of direction, would you mind showing me the way?” Nathan pressed.

The guard still didn’t budge. “Look, kid,” he grumbled, “just get lost.”

Next, I heard a thump and something heavy hit the floor.

“What was that?” I turned to Derrick who was peering down the hall.

“Great,” he groaned and went toward the lab. I followed.

Nathan stood over the dark heap of a body lying on the ground. “He wasn’t taking the bait.” My brother shrugged like knocking the guard unconscious was the only logical thing to do.

“What about when he wakes up?” I asked hotly.

“I’ll tell him he tripped,” Nathan offered.

“Fine,” I clenched my lips. “Let’s get in quick before anyone realizes what we’re doing.”

“I’ll keep watch,” Nathan said. I wasn’t sure that was such a good idea, but we couldn’t waste any more time. Thankfully, the door to the lab was unlocked, and Derrick and I slipped inside. All the fluorescent lights were turned off, and the only light came from a low blue glow inside the tanks.

The microscopes rose up from the tabletops like twisted tombstones as we passed them. I went up to Origin’s tank and knelt down. The little beetle looked solid black in the blue light as he came out from the water dish over to the glass.

“You have come, ScarbWhoIsCalledCat,” he greeted me. “And you have brought another, I see.”

“I hope you don’t mind,” I quickly said.

“Not at all. I see his allegiance is with you and not the others.”

Derrick nodded and crouched down next to me.

“We don’t have much time,” I explained. “What did you want to tell me?

“I want to offer you a further word of caution,” he said in his weird chirpy voice. “I have seen this situation on other worlds before, queens subjecting others to fulfill their desires. Horrible abuses have occurred. A queen is only as powerful as the power contained within her colony. Don’t let her make you less than what you are.”

I got up onto my knees. “Are you suggesting I leave?”

Origin rocked his antennae back and forth. “If that suits your purposes. I have no loyalty to this queen. She is arrogant and far too ambitions, a dangerous combination. I merely serve the will of the emperor. If this is where he wants me, it is here I will stay. You, Cat, have another option.”

I thought about this a moment. “If I stay here, the queen will try to
breed
me,” I said the word with disgust, “to build up her army.”

“Indeed.” Origin bowed his head to the sand. I could almost taste the solemnity in his words. “I would offer the protection of the emperor, but he cares not for the trivial matters of such inexperienced kingdoms.”

“But I thought you said that no other scarb in the colony were capable of reproduction. So, she’d have me, but that’s it. Even if she forced me—which I won’t let her—her plan still won’t work.”

Origin cocked his head to the side and peered up at us. “‘Female Bearer’ that is what I said,” he corrected. “I said you were the only female in the colony capable of reproduction. There are males who can, but only one is suitable as your match and that is something only the stars can decide. Even the queen cannot force such a union.”

My head was starting to hurt. “So, you’re telling me there’s a scarb here that’s supposed to be my match?”I tried to gulp, but my mouth was dry.

“Can you not sense it already?” he asked incredulously, like it was a simple math problem.

“No. I have no idea. I—I love Ray, and he’s gone.”

Origin wagged his head. “Cat, for having so much potential, you really are the densest scarb I’ve ever met.” Origin lifted his front leg as if to point. “Your match, is sitting next to you.”

The lightning bolt exploded into a thousand shards inside me.

Derrick.

For a moment, all I could do was blink.
Derrick? My match?
I was aware of him sitting not six inches away from me, but I couldn’t look at him.
No! Not Derrick. Ray! Ray is my match. He loves me!

Finally, Derrick was the one who spoke next. His tone was straight-forward, almost business-like. “And the queen knows this?”

“Of course she does,” Origin reiterated. “It was evident the moment both of you were Changed, and further confirmed by your little light display at the dance that Saki told me about.”

Heat flushed my cheeks and made the room seem to spin.
I wish I’d never gone.