Defect (11 page)

Will
disappears, and Kane escorts us from the gym to the bunker. Sam comes up behind me and loops her arm through mine on the walk back. “Where were you today?”

I hold up my wrist.
“Got my chip.”

“So you’re one of us now.” She nods thoughtfully, like she’s both happy and sad about this
news.

I have the same feeling as her about this.
“You lied to me, by the way.”

She looks over at me,
raising one eyebrow.

I hold up my wrist again. “It hurt like a bitch.”

She laughs.

*
**

I
head to my locker to grab a change of clothes, wanting to get to the showers before they are full with the girls who were just thrown in the pool. When I open my locker, the backpack I wore today has been placed inside, on top of my clothes. I pick it up and bury it at the bottom, underneath the stacks of t-shirts. I’m not sure why Will has given it to me, and wonder if it’s discovered, will I be in trouble?

Since
I’m the first one to the showers, I head to the last stall on the end. It’s the most private. I undress in the tiny stall while the water heats up. I step under the stream of hot water – it’s almost too hot – but I force myself to stay under it until I get used to it. The heat of the water works wonders at relaxing my tired muscles.

I lather up my hair and think about
my mission into the woods with Will. I still didn’t know much about him, and he seemed to like it that way. I step back under the water to rinse the soap from my hair.

The lights flicker once, then shut off, plunging me into complete blackness.
I hear footsteps, calculated and slow, moving towards me.

“Hello?” I call out.
Soap bubbles stream down my face, stinging my eyes.

The footsteps continue down the length of the girls
’ bathroom, moving toward me. In the darkness, the bathroom takes on an eerie quality, cold, sterile and much too quiet, except for the spray of water and the footsteps, which are getting closer. I consider staying quiet, trying to hide somehow, but I know it’s no use. Whoever’s out there knows I’m in here.

I move away from the water, and press my back against the cold tile wall, wanting to be as far away from the door as possible.
I’m probably freaking myself out over nothing, maybe it’s just a prank by some of the other girls. They’re just trying to scare me.

My eyes begin to adjust to the darkness
, and I can make out black boots standing in front of my stall door. Boots like Will’s or O’Donovan’s. Or Kane’s. Then I see the locking mechanism on the stall door begin to slowly turn, unlocking itself. I stare in disbelief, not even daring to breathe.

When the door swings open,
Kane’s face is draped in shadows, but even in the darkness I can see the gleam of hatred for me burning in his eyes. I don’t understand what I could have done to make him hate me so much.

“Don’t think for a second that your little
play-date today will go unnoticed,” he snarls. He lifts my towel from the hook and tosses it onto the shower floor at my feet.

I grab for it, but it’s pointless. It’
s already soaking wet. Kane laughs as I lunge for it, holding the dripping towel in my hands. His laugh is bitter and grates against my skin. I don’t cower; I don’t back away. I don’t even try to cover myself. “Are we done here?” I ask instead, calmly shutting off the water.

I
step out of the shower and begin drying myself with my old clothes and when I look up, he’s gone. I release a breath I’ve been holding and my knees begin to shake. I pull on my clean clothes and hurry from the bathroom.

My clothes cli
ng to my still damp body, and my hair is dripping down my back when I burst into the bunker out of breath. Sam’s head whips around toward me and her eyes lock on mine. Without saying a word, she gets up from her card game and follows me into the dorm.

“What
happened? You look like you saw a ghost.” She places her hands on my shoulders, turning me to face her.

I’m still out of breath from the encounter with
Kane. “Kane came in when I was in the shower.” I suck in another breath. “He shut off the lights and opened up my stall door.”

“What the hell? Are you okay?”

I nod.

“Did he
… do anything to you?” Her eyes grow large with worry.

“No.
He just tried to scare me. It seemed like some sort of warning, only I don’t know what for.” 

“I shouldn’t have let you go alone.”

“No, Sam – this wasn’t your fault.” I don’t want her feeling guilty. She’s done enough to help me, and there’s no way she could’ve known this would happen. “I can handle it.”

“Well, I’ll help you.
You’re not alone here. I’ll keep a better eye out for you.”

“Thank you.” I can feel my hair dripping all over her hands,
still resting on my shoulders.

“Did you even dry off?” She smiles.

“Not really. I just wanted to get the hell out of there.”

She guides me over to her bed and I sit on the end while she towel dries my hair, then combs it out and secures it back in a braid
, just like the first night I met her.

I want nothing more than to just crawl into bed, hide under my sheets and forget
about everything, but I know that’s probably just what Kane would want. I want him to know he can’t scare me, that I’m unbreakable. So instead, I put on a smile and follow Sam and Sabrina to dinner, where we tell stories and laugh about the days we’ve had. It’s exactly what I need after the day I’ve had.

Through the use of mindscan and the segregation of Rejects, scientists believe we’re on our way to eliminating most major diseases by removing flawed humans from the mating pool. It is a way to cleanse society, of both mentally and medically inadequate beings.

-
                   
History of the Medical Revolution, Chapter Six

I try to piece together what I know so far. My mother was here and became pregnant; though that isn’t an avenue it will do me any good to explore, according to O’Donovan. My father was a neuroscientist. I don’t really even know what that means, but apparently he was working for the government and was some hot shot with promising research. He no doubt betrayed them when he took up with a mental patient. I shudder to think what would become of someone who does that – betrays the government and their precious operation that way.

I also know that
Will seems to be gentle with me when no one’s watching. I think of the time he visited me in the hospital, when he wiped away the blood on my lip, and how he takes a hands-on approach to teach me to protect myself when we’re alone. Then I remembered that isn’t entirely true. Rena was there the time he showed me how to fire a pulse gun. Did that mean Rena was someone to be trusted, too? I had to find a way to talk with her again. I know she knew more than she was letting on.

The last thing that was starting to become clear to me was that Will was preparing me for something. The training schedule here
as well as the importance he placed on learning to use weapons. I didn’t understand what it was all for. It felt like we were preparing for something big, only I didn’t know what.

“Eve
, you’re not eating; everything all right?” Alex asks, breaking my concentration.

I look up from the bowl of oatmeal I’ve been
absently stirring with my spoon. It’s now a congealed mess of lumps. “Oh, yeah. Sorry.”

“
Here.” Alex replaces my brown spotted banana with his perfectly ripe one.

“Thanks.”
I take it and peel the skin back. Alex watches until I take a bite, then resumes eating his oatmeal, but his eyes keep flickering back to mine. “So, Will says we’ve got a big challenge coming up. Any ideas what it might be?”

“There’s one big challenge every
fall,” Sabrina says. “It’s what we’ve been training for. Last year they went on an overnight camping trip through the woods. It was sort of like a survival test and everything rolled into one.”

My stomach
drops at the thought that Will was giving me a leg up by taking me into the woods yesterday. I manage another bite of the banana, since Alex is back to watching me.

*
**

The bruises from my fight with Bryce have faded, as have the
shadows in the crooks of my arms. But new aches and pains replace them. My legs are sore from all the running, my wrists still slightly chafed from struggling against the ropes, and the area around my chip is bruised and swollen, almost as if my body knows this thing is foreign and wants to expel it. If only it were that easy.

But I have no time to focus on my sore, tired body. We are running drills through an obstacle course
set up in the gym today. My eyes dart to the end, but thankfully there doesn’t seem to be any fighting ring this time.

Kane
has us line up at the starting line in groups of four. Drew and Bryce push their way to the front, wanting to be the first to go. I let everyone pass me by, and get in line at the very end, wanting to learn from those who go first.

Kane
gives a quick blast into his whistle and the guys take off. They run full force down the length of the gym, and when they reach the first set of tires, they skip and raise their knees, hopping in and out of the tires. Next they reach the ropes suspended from the ceiling and aggressively climb hand over hand until they’ve reached the top. No one reaches up to tag it like I did that day. They slide down and drop to the ground long before they’re to the bottom. Bryce is now in the lead, and edges out his competition, as he charges into a big punching bag that’s on a rolling track. He shoves it back with everything he has until it slams to a stop at the end of the track. He then runs back to the start of the course. He scans his barcode at the time pod to record his time.

The whole course takes the guys about two minutes to complete. I
t’s clear they’ve done it before and are only trying to better their times. I look to the girls around me who wait for their chance. Sam is in the next group that’s just getting ready to go. She’ll be matched up against Jake, Alex and a guy I haven’t officially met yet. I can tell by her smile that she doesn’t care that she’s the only girl, or that she might not be as strong as the others, and the fact that she just doesn’t care inspires me.

So what if I’m the smallest one here? That I’m barely
over five feet or top the scale at one hundred and three pounds? I try to think of how I could use everything I’ve got to my advantage. I decide maybe, just maybe, my advantage will be my size. I’m small and quick and my feet will fit easily within the openings of the tires, so I won’t get tangled up and trip like many of the others do. And suddenly, I’m itching to try this course.

I move up and join the group with Sam and the guys. I tap Alex on the shoulder, knowing he’ll let me trade places with him.
He gives me a strange smile and steps back, letting me take his spot. Sam gives me a wide grin, like she’s proud of me. I’m proud of me, too. I won’t let people like Kane, Drew or Bryce make me feel weak. I know my mother would like this, too.

Kane
brings the whistle to his lips, and I settle back on one heel, ready to spring forward when I hear it blast, but then he notices me and lets the whistle fall from his mouth. He squints, giving me a long, hate-filled look, then gives the whistle a sharp blast and we spring forward.

I don’t pay attention to anyone else around me, and instead sprint with everything I have for the tires. I’m the first one in my group to reach them and I easily step through the openings at their centers, navigating my way through. Sam and the others
are getting closer. I hear them trip and swear under their breath as they try to catch up.

When I reach the ropes, I pick the one that will leave me closer to the next obstacle and take off up
ward. The ropes beside me begin swinging as the others start to climb. The guys quickly overtake both Sam and I on the ropes, but not by much. When I touch down on the floor, I tuck my chin to my chest and run harder than I ever have before, pumping my arms at my sides. I pass by Sam, and I’m right at the heels of Jake, when I slam into the punching bag. It nearly knocks the wind out of me. It feels like slamming into a wall, but I dig my heels in and push it little by little until it’s all the way across the room. When I reach the finish line, I come in second, right behind Jake.

Sam comes in behind me, out of breath, but still smiling. “Damn, Eve.
Didn’t know you had it in you.” She claps me on the back, and we wait at the end of the line with Sabrina – whose group is up next. She hops nervously on the balls of her feet. “You got this, B,” Sam says, patting Sabrina’s butt.

I hear low voices
, and glance behind me. Lexi is last in line, and she’s standing with Will, looking up at him, her hand on his forearm. His face is expressionless and after a second, his eyes flick over to mine. I turn just in time to see Sabrina take off from the starting line. I join Sam in cheering for her. Though I’m curious about what’s going on between Lexi and Will, the last thing I want is to be caught looking over at them. Lexi already doesn’t like me and I don’t want to give her, or anyone here, another reason to have a problem with me. I have enough enemies already.