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Chapter Twenty-four

M
ore people were entering the room now, but many had already left. Gabby ran for the door but didn’t quite make it out of the hall before throwing up. Most of the V’s were still there, standing near Jane’s body defensively, like they had to protect her from the onlookers. Like she was still one of us.

She was never one of us.

I closed my eyes and put my face in my hands. No one could argue anymore that things here were pretty good and that we should make the most of it. Things here were a lie. We couldn’t trust one another. No one could have friends. No one could be in love.

A hand touched my shoulder, and I looked up to see Gabby gesturing over to the hallway. The gang leaders had arrived.

The five of them—Curtis, Carrie, Oakland, Mouse, and Isaiah—all stood together, cautiously surveying the room.

I stood, moving to the crowd around Jane’s body. “Hey, guys, clear out for a second.”

Slowly and numbly, the group filed toward the door. Some of their eyes lingered on Jane while others simply stared at the floor. Mason moved to the far side of the room, by the tall cabinets, and leaned against the wall.

Isaiah was the first to move, leaving the four others behind and striding up to Jane’s body. “What’s the big deal? We already knew she was dead.”

I grabbed him by the arm—harder than was necessary, but I wanted him to feel it—and yanked him to the other side of the table. Then, my hand on the back of his neck, I shoved his face close to Jane’s torn ear.

I couldn’t see his eyes, but all his struggling suddenly stopped.

The metal was as visible and gleaming as it had been that night, but the small lights I’d seen by the cable ports were now dark.

I shoved Isaiah away and then motioned for the other four. Curtis’s and Carrie’s hands were clenched tight. They walked ahead, while Oakland and Mouse followed behind. I moved out of the way to give the four of them a clear look.

Oakland swore, almost inaudibly. Mouse’s eyes jumped from Jane’s body to me, back to Jane. Carrie timidly reached her hand out and touched Jane’s arm with her fingertips.

Curtis looked up at me. “How long have you known about this?”

“Since that night.”

“Why didn’t you tell anyone?”

I opened my mouth to speak, and my voice cracked. “It was Jane,” I managed to say. “Who would have believed me?”

“You should have said something,” Mouse snapped. “We deserved to know.”

I took a breath. “You would have trusted me about this?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she said, but her voice was weak.

Oakland’s fingers had followed the cables from Jane’s head to the computer beside her. The screen was dark.

I stepped closer to the table. I wanted to touch Jane’s hand but couldn’t bring myself to. “It means that if I was fooled by Jane—and I was
completely
fooled by Jane—then who else in this school might be a . . . like her.”

Oakland’s eyes met mine, his face pale. No one said anything, though I saw Oakland steal a quick glance at Mouse.

To cut the silence I began talking. I told them the entire story—Laura and Dylan coming out to find us, the attack, my attempts at resuscitation, and then the awkward and terrifying trip down into this room.

“What did the computer say?” Oakland asked. “When she plugged in.”

“It was some kind of damage report. It listed a bunch of code numbers—I don’t know what they meant.”

He turned to the computer and touched one of the keys. The screen flickered and then lit up, as though it had only been on standby.

I stepped closer to read it, looking over Mouse’s shoulder as the five leaders clustered around the screen. Hector, behind us, asked what it said.

“Just numbers,” Curtis answered. “A list of codes.”

The entire screen was filled with the same types of numbers I’d seen before, when Jane had first plugged herself in. Except for the last line. “At the end,” I told Hector, “it says ‘Recommended Action: Transfer and Permanent Deactivation Due to Extensive and Irreparable Damages.’”

Carrie breathed a soft, heartbroken moan and put her hand to her eyes.

Suddenly Mason gasped. “Holy—Guys, you’d better look at this.”

We all turned.

He was facing the tall cabinets, staring at something inside.

Mouse was the first to cross to him. “What is it?”

He swung the door open. “See for yourself.”

It was dark, but the shape inside was unmistakable. It was a person.

Dylan. He was strapped against a board, almost vertical, with thick nylon belts holding him up—wrapped at his knees, waist, and chest. His eyes were open, but they were as lifeless as Jane’s. A cable ran from his ear as well, plugged in to a small digital panel on the side of the cabinet. However, unlike hers, his ear looked as though it had been cut away carefully.

Oakland swore again, but it was Isaiah who seemed the most distraught, stepping forward and peering closely into Dylan’s face, inspecting the hole in his head.

Mason, suddenly shaken into awareness, began throwing the other cabinets open. There were four of them, and two had the same board inside, with leather straps ready to hold another person—another android. The other two cabinets were locked.

“What about Laura?” Isaiah asked, looking at us, dumbfounded. His mouth hung open slightly, and his eyes were wide and expectant.

“Maybe she wasn’t one of them,” I said. The presence of Dylan destroyed my old theory. Dylan was relatively new to the school. I’d have to check my chart, but I was pretty sure he’d only been here eight or nine months. “Not everybody is, I don’t think.”

Mouse’s lips curled into a disgusted snarl. “Well, I’m not.” She slammed the cabinet closed on Dylan and spun to face the other leaders. “What about the rest of you?”

They began to protest, but I shouted over them. “There’s no way to tell,” I said. “I’ve been thinking about this for weeks. Jane could bleed. I mean, I kissed her and never had any idea that she was . . . like that. It’s not like we can cut off everyone’s ears just to check.”

We stood in silence for several seconds. I thought I saw Carrie’s eyes flick nervously to Curtis, but then she just stared at the cabinet.

“Anyone know how to make a metal detector?” Mason asked.

No one answered.

“There are all those old textbooks in the basement,” I said. “Maybe there’s one on electronics.”

“What about the X-ray machine?” Curtis asked.

I shook my head. “We have to send the film off to get developed. The school does that.”

Isaiah nodded absently, deep in his own thoughts. Mouse’s eyes were fierce, her teeth clenched. Oakland just looked mad, like he wanted to hit something. Carrie seemed dead, no emotion at all, and Curtis’s face was contorted and distraught. As I watched him, he stared back at me for a long time. Finally, he spoke.

“We need to talk to everyone.”

Isaiah looked up. “But what do we tell them?”

“The truth,” Curtis said.

Isaiah took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. “No one is going to trust anyone now.”

Oakland snorted. “Like they really did before.”

Curtis’s eyes met mine. “The V’s trust each other,” he said. I nodded, even though it was more hope than truth. Oakland was right. No one could trust anyone anymore.

I went back up the hallway. Outside, the sun was beginning to rise. Most people were out on the track, having moved out of the building’s shadow and into the warm light.

We walked in silence, everyone but Carrie and Curtis separate and alone. And even the two of them, though their hands were still together, seemed farther apart.

Becky came toward us, speaking in an injured whisper. “The school’s locked. Even the V’s can’t get in.” She looked at me, her eyes swollen and red. She wanted to say something. I wanted to say something, but didn’t know what.

I turned away and looked back at the door. The brown paint now bore long white scratches and dents. It swung in the gentle breeze, closing but then bouncing open again without anything to latch it shut.

Mouse emerged slowly, gazing at the waiting students. After a moment, she walked over to us.

“Oakland’s trying to work on the computer,” she said blankly, not really directing her words to any one of us in particular.

Isaiah seemed to be waiting for something, but when no one said anything, he turned to the group of students.

“First of all,” he began, “there is no reason to panic. What we’ve seen is strange and different, but it doesn’t—” He was cut off by the shouts and jeers from the crowd.

“Shut up, Isaiah! You’re probably one of them!”

Mouse and Curtis looked at each other, and then Curtis pointed at me. “You might as well go ahead.”

I frowned, but Mouse seemed to have no objection. Isaiah was obviously annoyed.

I stepped forward. “We don’t know much about what’s going on. When I first found out about Jane, I thought she might be the only one. But, just now, Mason found Dylan. He was one, too.”

There were gasps from the crowd, and a few people began talking. But the conversations seemed to stall and end quickly, as though they were wondering whether they were actually talking to friends or enemies.

“We don’t have any way to tell if there are other androids among us,” I said. Several visibly flinched at the word. “I don’t suppose anyone knows how to build a metal detector?”

I scanned the crowd, but no one raised a hand.

“We can’t tell,” I said, “but I don’t think we can let that stop us. I think it’s time that we got out of here for good. I’ve always thought that we could do it if we worked together. Let’s all go, now, today. We can get over the wall easy enough—through the culvert or knock down some trees.” I looked over at Isaiah. “I’ve got the security contract right now and I promise you it will not be enforced.”

No one seemed to jump at my suggestion, but no one protested it either, so I continued, “The highway is maybe fifty miles from here, and if we keep moving we can cover that in a couple days. From there we should be able to flag down some help.”

Skiver shouted, “Any one of you could be robots. The minute we try to leave, you’ll kill the rest of us.”

Joel was next. “What about water? Fifty miles without any water—that’s suicide.”

Others were yelling, but I waved my arms to shush them. “Our only other option is go back inside, if they let us. Don’t you guys get it? Whatever we’re here for is ruined. We’ve always said they’re either training us or testing us. Now we know about the androids, and that screws up whatever experiment they’re doing. Do you think they’re just going to let us go back to normal?”

Isaiah turned. “But what about once you got over the wall? They kill people out there. They killed Lily, didn’t they? They’ve killed everyone who’s gotten over.”

“But not if there’s all seventy of us,” I insisted. “We need to go together, all of us at the same time.”

His voice grew louder. “You haven’t been here long enough to know, but there were fifteen who all left at the same time. They were all killed.”

“Were they the fifteen who were here when Jane got here?” I asked. “We only know about those fifteen from Jane. She’s the one who told us about them, and it might have been a lie. Besides, that was fifteen and we’re seventy.”

I let my words hang in the air, watching the faces in the crowd as they thought about what was said. All of their fears were legitimate—I knew that we needed water, and I knew that there had to be something out there—but we couldn’t just go back to the school and pretend everything was normal.

“Wait a minute.” It was Mason, his face twisted in confusion. “Why did Dylan attack Jane? Why would an android kill an android?”

I didn’t have a good answer, but I guessed. “Maybe it’s all part of their script—for whatever they’re trying to do—they wanted to see what would happen if Jane was killed.”

He listened, shaking his head, obviously not convinced. “That’s weird.”

Hector spoke. “It doesn’t matter. I vote that we get out.”

“No,” Isaiah said, swinging both arms in front of him. “Listen. Whatever we’re here for, there’s a reason for it. The school needs us for something. Now we know the school’s little secret, and maybe we can use that for leverage.”

“You want us to negotiate?” I knew Isaiah was insane, but this was crazy even for him.

“Yes,” he said. “Absolutely. Think about it. First, it’s safe. We can go back to the school, we can have food and water, we’ll still be able to protect ourselves. Second, do you think it’s easy for the school to bring all of us in here for their experiment? Maybe their plan isn’t actually spoiled, and they can still use us—but now we can make some demands.”

“Has the school ever responded to any of us?” I asked. “Has anyone ever asked a question and gotten an answer?”

“They’ll have to now,” Isaiah said.

I looked out at the crowd. “Let’s put it to a vote. Who wants to go now?”

Nearly all of the V’s raised their hands, and a handful from Havoc. No one from Society moved. There were only twenty-two total.

I couldn’t believe it. After everything I’d shown them, they still couldn’t take the risk. “We can get out of here if we do it together! If half of us leave and half stay then we’re all dead. You people think you’re keeping yourselves safe, but you’re just keeping the rest of us in prison.”

I spun on my heel and stormed off. They’d been in the school so long that they were afraid to leave, afraid to take any risks. And now they were condemning me to their same fate.

I walked to the edge of the woods, staring into the vast expanse of the trees. I could hear birds chirping as they warmed in the early sunlight. For them, this forest wasn’t a prison but a home.

I stepped off the grass and into the brush. I’d tried to do everything right. I was trying to help everyone, but no one wanted my help. They were all too scared.

Without making a conscious decision, I trudged slowly into the forest and away from the school.

How were they going to negotiate? The idea was so stupid I should have hit Isaiah for it. We couldn’t make demands on the school. All they had to do was cut off the food. How many missed meals would we endure before everyone broke? Or, how long would it be before the school decided that we were all useless now and they needed to get rid of us all and start over? How would they kill us? Poison the food? The air? Have a few of the androids slit our throats in our sleep?