“Can you send the drone back there?” asked
Jerald. “But make sure it’s out of sight.”
“Sure, no problem.”
“I’ll be a son of a bitch,” said Jerald,
exhibiting the first notes of excitement I’d seen from him since we
began. “Have they been hiding in our backyard all this time?” He
whistled, shook his head, and then pat me on the back. His heavy
paw thumped against me, causing me to gasp as he continued on, “You
might be worth a shit after all, Beatrice.”
“Thanks,” I said with an uncertain tone.
“Get me those coordinates,” said Jerald.
“I’ll send some of my men out there to round up whoever that
is.”
“Can do,” I said as I jotted down the
latitude and longitude displayed in the corner of the drone’s
initial shot. “See, Jerald, we work well together after all.”
His smile faded.
I knew that he wasn’t fully on my side yet,
but I’d made headway. People often compare politics to a game of
chess, explaining that it was important to plan as far ahead as
possible when you chose where to place your pieces. I despise that
analogy, because in chess it’s not possible to corrupt your
opponent’s pieces and make them turn on one another; in life, it
most certainly is.
Cobra Dawn
I participated in the routine mother asked of
me. I did my exercises, took my pills, and didn’t argue with the
Administrators about anything. I was as docile as I needed to be,
despite how they continued to test me by using my old name.
“Cobra Dawn, please stand on the grey
footprints.”
“Cobra Dawn, take your pills.”
“Cobra Dawn, touch your toes.”
Each time they said that name, it felt like
someone was stabbing at me, and it was my job to accept the abuse.
They were determined to beat me down; to kill Celeste once and for
all and leave only Cobra behind.
I would perform for them in whatever way they
wanted, because I needed to earn back their trust. I wanted access
to the other Dawns, in any form I could manage. I knew they’d never
be willing to fold me back in with the other girls, but I thought
my offer to meet with just one of the girls held weight. No matter
how hard the Administrators tried to keep the girls from gossiping,
it would always happen. I could only imagine the chatter Hailey’s
and my disappearance had caused.
The Administrators might’ve tried to pass it
off as if we’d been selected for Surface Status, but they rarely
did that without some fanfare beforehand. They were always
interested in ensuring us that achieving Surface Status was a
mighty honor, and girls that were slated for such were treated as
heroes during their last days. Hailey and I never received such
adulation, and our exposure to the man that fell from the ceiling
would’ve convinced the Dawns that our disappearance was tied to the
event. I was certain they hadn’t stopped chattering about it since
we’d been gone.
It was the middle of the day, after my lunch
had been delivered, that mother appeared on the view screen. She
normally only consulted with me in the morning and occasionally at
night, so I knew this was important. I sprang to my feet and stood
dutifully upon the grey footprints as her picture materialized on
the screen. As always, I found myself staring at my digital
twin.
“Mother,” I said with a chipper tone. “This
is a surprise.”
“Sorry to bother you.”
“No bother at all,” I replied with a cheery
grin.
She eyed me suspiciously and I became worried
that I was trying too hard. “We’ve decided to take you up on your
offer.”
“Which offer is that?”
“For you to meet with one of the Dawns.”
I tried not to smile too much, but failed.
“Oh thank you. Thank you so much. It’s going to be so good to speak
with someone else; someone real. Not that you’re not real. You know
what I mean. Mother, thank you. I promise not to do anything wrong.
I promise.”
“I know you won’t,” she said with
assuredness. “Because if you do, then I can guarantee you’ll be
sitting in here alone for the rest of your life. We’re going to
send you a list of facts that you need to stick to. If you stray in
even the slightest, then your visitor will be removed.
Understood?”
I nodded emphatically. “Yes.”
A frame appeared beside her and she expanded
it until her visage was blocked. It was the list of facts that
she’d mentioned before. “Read and memorize this list, Cobra. When
you’re done, we’ll see about having a Dawn join you for dinner
tonight. How does that sound?”
“Perfect,” I said as I began to read the
list. “It sounds absolutely perfect.”
This had happened so much faster than I’d
anticipated, and I wondered if I was being tested. I didn’t allow
myself to become concerned with that, at least not yet. There was
too much to prepare for. Not only did I need to study the ‘Facts’
that mother had provided, I also had to figure out how to begin to
infect whichever Dawn they sent to me with the rebellious intent I
hoped to inspire.
Ever since I’d decided to try and save the
other Dawns, I knew that I needed to get them talking about a
potential escape first. These girls were under the delusion that
everything the Administrators had told them was true, and that they
were destined for a perfect life on the surface. None of them had
any idea about what truly lived above us.
I couldn’t express anything directly to the
Dawn that visited, but if I carefully selected certain words and
topics, I hoped to inspire doubt. That had to be where I started. I
couldn’t hope to cause any visitor to immediately leave my room and
launch a revolution against the Administrators. Instead, I needed
to plant that seed first, and get them talking amongst
themselves.
This might be my only chance. I had to be
prepared.
* * *
“Cobra,” said Elise Dawn as she came bounding
into my room. She was one of the blondes, and while the two of us
had been friendly with one another in the past, she wasn’t someone
I’d ever felt close with. Her hair was shorter than most of the
girls, barely long enough to brush her shoulders, and she kept it
that way because it curled when it grew any longer. She had large
eyes with long lashes and was quick with a smile, though her manic
energy kept her from ever focusing on one thing for more than a few
minutes at a time. She wasn’t among the Dawns I’d secretly hoped
would be sent in here. “I can’t believe it’s really you.”
She started to rush forward as if to hug me,
but then stopped, suddenly nervous, and put her arms behind her
back. I stood from my bed and stepped over to her with my arms
outstretched, as if giving her permission to touch me.
I realized she was uncertain about my health,
and the possibility of a contagion. I’d been right. Despite
whatever the Administrators had told them, the Dawns thought my
disappearance had something to do with the creature that had fallen
from the ceiling right before my escape.
“It’s okay,” I said as I hugged her. “I’m not
sick anymore.”
“So you…” she looked up at the corner of the
room where a camera watched us. I could see that she was wary of
the question. “You were sick?”
She didn’t trust the Administrators, or at
the very least she was aware that they were watching us in our
rooms. This was good. This was how I could slowly stoke her fears,
and thus infect the population here with the same concerns. By the
way she spoke, I knew that she and the other Dawns had been lied to
about Hailey’s and my disappearance. Allowing me to claim that I
was sick (which was now one of the ‘Facts’ that mother had provided
me with) would be the first time that the Dawns would know, without
a doubt, that not everything the Administrators said was true.
“I was, but not anymore. They fixed me. They
made me better.” I didn’t point at the viewscreen. Instead, I
pointed at the plain white wall.
“They?” asked Elise. “You mean the
Administrators?”
I walked over to the wall, near one of the
small indentions that traced what could’ve been a panel, but might
also have been a door. I’d spent my entire life not knowing that
there were passages behind these walls, and doors that I’d never
seen opened. The first inclination I ever had of escape had been
provoked by the sight of those guards emerging from secret doors in
the walls. I hoped to inspire the same in Elise.
I knew the next thing I said was risky, but I
could argue that I thought other Dawns had seen the guards come
from the walls that day when the zombie fell down on us. It was a
reasonable thing to assume. “Yes, the Administrators and the others
behind the walls.”
Elise crinkled her brow as she asked, “Behind
the walls?”
I didn’t dare explore the topic anymore. I
wanted to let that idea fester, and I didn’t want mother to think I
was purposefully trying anything against her wishes. “I got sick
because I hadn’t been following their orders. I screwed up, and I
paid a big price for it.”
“How’d you screw up?” she asked.
“I stopped taking my pills at night.” I
closed my eyes and shook my head as if this was an embarrassing
topic. “I know, I know. You don’t even need to say it. I was just
being stupid. I thought that if I stopped taking the pills that I
could, I don’t know, escape in my dreams or something. It’s silly.
And trust me, it wasn’t worth it.”
“We all thought…” again, Elise glanced at the
camera. “Nothing, never mind.”
“You thought Hailey and I were dead?”
She nodded. “Well, some of us thought you
were dead, and others thought they sent you out with Paris and
Echo.”
“No. I wish I’d gotten up there with Paris
and Echo to see the surface, but I was just stuck in here, sicker
than ever.”
“And what about Hailey?”
“She’s still sick,” I said as I sat back down
at my desk. “But she’s getting better. Or at least that’s what they
tell me.” Again, I knew that was a dangerous thing to say. I
infused my statement with just a niggling bit of doubt, doing what
I could to reinforce the idea that we lived in an ‘us versus them’
environment.
“Sorry to hear that,” said Elise. She looked
around and then said, “Your room looks exactly like mine.”
I instantly recalled Hailey saying something
similar. I’d been sitting where I was now, and she’d been standing
near where Elise was. The memory stung.
“Did you think it would look any different?”
I asked, making certain my tone hinted institutional boredom.
“No, I guess not,” she said. “Just sort of
hoped it would. You know?”
“They think these rooms will be okay,” I
said. “But I can’t help but think of these walls as blank canvases.
When I was little, I used to draw on them.” I laughed at the memory
and touched my finger to the plain white. “Did you ever do
that?”
She shook her head and said, “No, I don’t
think so. Did you get in trouble?”
“Of course.”
Elise rolled her eyes and said, “I bet.”
We heard the lock of my outer door opening,
initializing the clicking lock on my shower door. I thought my
subterfuge was at an end and that the guards would be coming in to
sweep up Elise and carry her away, dooming me to the solitude that
mother had threatened. I held my breath while Elise looked back
casually, unaware of the danger I’d placed us both in.
The shower door clicked unlocked and the
chime sounded again. My viewscreen displayed the explanation:
‘A special dinner has been delivered to your
Ready Room.’
“Oh,” said Elise with a smile, her attention
seized by the delivery. “I wonder what they made for us. I’ll get
it.”
She went through the shower door, initiating
the switch of locks that ensured the Dawns followed their routines.
I recalled when the locks had been temporarily disabled. That was
the day that Hailey had come into my room. As I watched Elise go
through the glass door to retrieve our dinner, I recalled squeezing
into the shower with Hailey, and I couldn’t quell the sorrow it
inspired. I held my breath and looked up as tears threatened to
well in my eyes. I tried my best to blink them away, and when Elise
returned with our dinners I swiftly wiped my eyes clean.
“Are you okay?” she asked as she carried a
tray with two plates into the room.
“Fine, fine. I just almost sneezed. You know
how that goes.”
She looked at me with evident concern.
“Don’t worry, I’m not sick anymore,” I said
with a smile. “Here, you sit here.” I said as I got up. “I’ll sit
on the floor.”
“You sure?” she asked as she set the tray
down on my otherwise empty desk.
“Yes, yes. Of course. Make yourself
comfortable. Or at least as comfortable as you can.” The seat at
the desk was the only one in my room. Each morning the beds folded
back up into the walls, only to come down again at bedtime. “I wish
they’d let us have our beds during the day, but you know how it
goes. Rules are rules and all that.”
She wasn’t paying attention to my
complaining. Elise lifted off the bowl that covered one of the two
plates. “Oh yum,” she said. Steam rose up and into her nostrils as
she took a deep breath. “Steak and sweet potatoes. Wow, Cobra. Have
they been feeding you like this since you’ve been sick?”
I recalled one of the ‘Facts’ mother had
provided:
‘
We’ve been taking good care of you, and
feeding you better than normal to help you get better
.’
I wondered what the purpose of such a lie
was, but I knew I needed to stick to the script. I nodded and said,
“Yes, they said it was to help me get better.”
“You’re so lucky,” said Elise. “I get so sick
of the same thing all the time.”
I needed to turn this in my favor somehow. It
didn’t do me any good to have Elise leave here with stories to tell
the other Dawns about how wonderful they were treating me. “I know
what you mean. Apparently the people on the surface eat like this
all the time. Even Echo and Paris are eating food like this now
instead of that awful gruel we get.”