“Jane
Highgate.”
“Yes,” she
replied, even though it wasn’t a question.
They motioned
her onto a waiting bus that smelled like exhaust, and some kind of
cleaner. There were seven students already on board. Jane sat next
to Lee since she as the only person she knew. Lee looked serene but
her hands were twisted together so tightly her knuckle bones
strained against her skin.
They picked up
three more passengers before heading out of the Enclave. Jane
glanced up through the windows but she couldn’t see Kiri on parapet
duty. The sky was a hard shell of pink, the clouds lined in gold.
It was sharp and angular, like a broken jug.
The road behind
them stretched out through the ruins of abandoned suburbs to the
Badlands beyond. If you followed it long enough, it would take you
the farms and the Spirit Forest where the Greencoats helped hide
Green Jacks from the Directorate. The bus turned right, heading
towards the City.
The screen set
into the back of the seat in front of her showed serious and
concerned Directorate scientists and clerks, pink-cheeked children
eating protein paste cupcakes; Ferals, Greencoats. The Greencoats
always had the same tagline: Treason and Terrorism. And always the
same message—protection in exchange for obedience. Order. The
advertisements looped over and again as they passed through the
gates and soldiers with rifles peered into the bus windows.
There was only
one street cleared for vehicles in the City and they followed it
past rubble strewn sidewalks and burned out buildings. It took them
closer to the Kill Zone than any of them had ever been. The Kill
Zone circled the lake and in the very rare instance a person
actually managed to break through, they were met with miles of
landmines and traps. The only access to the freshwater lake was
through a narrow bridge from the Directorate district. The fence
was decorated with bonechimes, mostly made from the dead of the
Lake Wars. Skulls leered at them, nailed to posts. One of them was
recent enough that rotted flesh dangled from its cheekbone.
The bus didn’t
take them towards the cluster of skyscrapers and the old university
buildings that made up the Directorate district, instead it took
them into the Core. Jane’s palms began to sweat. No one ever went
into the Core voluntarily. The bus pulled through three sets of
gates and into a lot shadowed by barbed wire and soldiers standing
at attention.
The curved
walls of a stone amphitheatre were not exactly what Jane expected.
She rubbed the back of her neck, willing the shards of light not to
pierce her brain. She silently repeated the Numina mantra to
herself; I am the earth, I am the earth where the seeds of
wisdom grow .
A woman met
them in the dusty archway, the sounds of construction throbbing
behind her. The contrast of the woman’s relentlessly cheerful smile
was unsettling. “Welcome,” she said. “My name is Grace, and I’ll be
giving you the official tour. You must all be very excited as very
few people have this opportunity.”
Asher sauntered
toward them, rain beading his hair. A man Jane took to be his
father was beside him. He was tall, thin, and sharp; like an arrow.
There was a full ring of leaves embroidered on his tunic sleeve,
trailing up to his collar. Grace half-bowed with dazzled respect.
Asher smirked at her obvious deference. The smirk turned deadly
when he met Jane’s gaze. She’d pay for Kiri’s trick with the door
before long.
“Follow me,
please,” Grace called out, still fussing with her hair. She led
them down a dark hall to a set of stone steps. “You’ve been chosen
to serve the Directorate and the entire City.” Her voice was somber
but she was still smiling. Something about it made Jaen’s eye
tattoo tighten uncomfortably.
They descended
past small cells dug into the stone, each with a bed and desk and
plush woven rugs and metal bars. The next level down was a research
facility of some sort. Bleach fumes stung Jane’s
Highgate.”
“Yes,” she
replied, even though it wasn’t a question.
They motioned
her onto a waiting bus that smelled like exhaust, and some kind of
cleaner. There were seven students already on board. Jane sat next
to Lee since she as the only person she knew. Lee looked serene but
her hands were twisted together so tightly her knuckle bones
strained against her skin.
They picked up
three more passengers before heading out of the Enclave. Jane
glanced up through the windows but she couldn’t see Kiri on parapet
duty. The sky was a hard shell of pink, the clouds lined in gold.
It was sharp and angular, like a broken jug.
The road behind
them stretched out through the ruins of abandoned suburbs to the
Badlands beyond. If you followed it long enough, it would take you
the farms and the Spirit Forest where the Greencoats helped hide
Green Jacks from the Directorate. The bus turned right, heading
towards the City.
The screen set
into the back of the seat in front of her showed serious and
concerned Directorate scientists and clerks, pink-cheeked children
eating protein paste cupcakes; Ferals, Greencoats. The Greencoats
always had the same tagline: Treason and Terrorism. And always the
same message—protection in exchange for obedience. Order. The
advertisements looped over and again as they passed through the
gates and soldiers with rifles peered into the bus windows.
There was only
one street cleared for vehicles in the City and they followed it
past rubble strewn sidewalks and burned out buildings. It took them
closer to the Kill Zone than any of them had ever been. The Kill
Zone circled the lake and in the very rare instance a person
actually managed to break through, they were met with miles of
landmines and traps. The only access to the freshwater lake was
through a narrow bridge from the Directorate district. The fence
was decorated with bonechimes, mostly made from the dead of the
Lake Wars. Skulls leered at them, nailed to posts. One of them was
recent enough that rotted flesh dangled from its cheekbone.
The bus didn’t
take them towards the cluster of skyscrapers and the old university
buildings that made up the Directorate district, instead it took
them into the Core. Jane’s palms began to sweat. No one ever went
into the Core voluntarily. The bus pulled through three sets of
gates and into a lot shadowed by barbed wire and soldiers standing
at attention.
The curved
walls of a stone amphitheatre were not exactly what Jane expected.
She rubbed the back of her neck, willing the shards of light not to
pierce her brain. She silently repeated the Numina mantra to
herself; I am the earth, I am the earth where the seeds of
wisdom grow .
A woman met
them in the dusty archway, the sounds of construction throbbing
behind her. The contrast of the woman’s relentlessly cheerful smile
was unsettling. “Welcome,” she said. “My name is Grace, and I’ll be
giving you the official tour. You must all be very excited as very
few people have this opportunity.”
Asher sauntered
toward them, rain beading his hair. A man Jane took to be his
father was beside him. He was tall, thin, and sharp; like an arrow.
There was a full ring of leaves embroidered on his tunic sleeve,
trailing up to his collar. Grace half-bowed with dazzled respect.
Asher smirked at her obvious deference. The smirk turned deadly
when he met Jane’s gaze. She’d pay for Kiri’s trick with the door
before long.
“Follow me,
please,” Grace called out, still fussing with her hair. She led
them down a dark hall to a set of stone steps. “You’ve been chosen
to serve the Directorate and the entire City.” Her voice was somber
but she was still smiling. Something about it made Jaen’s eye
tattoo tighten uncomfortably.
They descended
past small cells dug into the stone, each with a bed and desk and
plush woven rugs and metal bars. The next level down was a research
facility of some sort. Bleach fumes stung Jane’s
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