The Island (10 page)

“We . . .” Daniel’s voice grew quiet. He stood frowning, saying nothing. Rachel watched as her mother took his hand and peered into his face.

“Daniel?” Vivian whispered her husband’s name.

He shook his head. He turned and looked at Vivian as though he didn’t know quite where they were, for just an instant. Then he smiled and readdressed the crowd. “Thank you. We just want to thank you all.”

Filina floated forward and held up her hands, her lips still upturned in a stiff smile. “We welcome our new friends.”

The crowd gave a smattering of applause.

Jim and David approached Daniel and the others, unobtrusively directing them off the platform. Once they were back down in the crowd, Filina signaled for silence from the people and they obliged quickly.

“And now, let’s get to the purpose of our assembly today. Every year, careful consideration is given to the choice of Honoree. It is a great distinction—”

A murmur from the crowd rose up and Filina stared out, her eyes hard. The murmur faded.

“It is a great honor to be chosen, a chance to serve our community in a way that allows us to continue living here in safety.”

“At what cost?” The cry came from far back in the crowd. Rachel searched the faces, trying to find the person who had spoken, but from her vantage point she couldn’t see much. She thought it sounded like Tom’s voice, but she could no longer see him, Hannah, or Hannah’s family in the crowd.

Filina ignored the comment and continued. “As is our custom, we will announce this year’s Honoree today. Tomorrow, at Celebration, we will feast, and commemorate our Honoree.” Filina paused, allowing the tension of the moment to build. When she was satisfied that the crowd was waiting impatiently for her next words, she straightened her body like a dancer, head high. “This year’s Honoree is . . . Hannah.”

Rachel expected applause, or some sort of expression of approval from the crowd, and there was a smattering of clapping hands. But mostly there was silence.

“Hannah.” Filina frowned, standing on the platform, waiting. “Come to the front and be recognized.” She peered into the crowd looking for Hannah and when she had her in her sights, she stared, stared in such a way that Rachel felt a chill, watching it.

Rachel saw a box nearby, an old wooden crate of some sort, and she stepped up onto it in order to see past the crowd. She found Hannah’s group and saw Tom, holding onto Hannah’s wrist, pulling her back as she tried to move toward the platform. There were tear streaks on Tom’s face and he was shaking his head, whispering urgently to Hannah, but she seemed oblivious to his pleas. Hannah’s mother and father stood woodenly, wearing blank expressions. Polly looked from her parents to her sister to Tom, and soon enough, her own tears fell. She joined Tom in trying to restrain Hannah from moving forward, but neither could stop her.

Rachel couldn’t believe her eyes. Hannah didn’t even look like herself, not the silly girl who’d fluttered around showing Rachel and Pathik the cave, not the older sister teasing Polly, not the shy lover glancing up at Tom. She was more an object than a person, moving with one goal, to do Filina’s bidding and get to the platform. She broke free of the hands holding her back and walked toward the front of the crowd. Rachel watched, horrified, though she didn’t know exactly why, as Hannah climbed the steps to the platform.

Filina smiled. She put a hand on Hannah’s shoulder. At the same moment, Hannah’s face cleared, and she looked surprised to find herself there, standing next to Filina, looking down at the crowd.

“Our brave Honoree, Hannah!” Filina squeezed Hannah’s shoulder and Rachel could imagine the feeling of that hand, claw-like, on her own shoulder. Filina lifted her other hand to the crowd, encouraging them to applaud. They finally did. After a moment of applause, Filina took Hannah by the wrist and stepped back on the platform. Jim and David strode to the front of the platform and started handing out assignments.

Pathik took Rachel’s hand and helped her down from the crate. He whispered to her, a worried look on his face. “Let’s go find Tom”

Rachel nodded. “Let’s tell them.” She nodded toward their parents.

After a brief consultation, Rachel and Vivian set off. Daniel hadn’t been happy to let them go, but Vivian, Malgam and Nandy had agreed they should try to find out more about what was going on. Nandy pointed out that the two had already been guests at Hannah’s parents, so visiting now might seem less suspicious if it was just Rachel and Pathik. “Besides, we need to get back to the units. I bet Nipper’s going crazy.” Nandy had elected to leave the Woolly inside while they attended the assembly.

“We’ll meet you back at the units in an hour.” Pathik watched as the others headed away. “What did you think,” he said, once they were out of earshot.

“Of Dad, or Hannah?” Rachel knew what he meant.

“Both.” Pathik frowned. “It was like something was controlling them.”

“Or someone.” The image of Filina’s face, of her staring at Hannah with such intensity, came back to Rachel. “Remember when you just got here, and we were all in the office?” She waited for Pathik’s nod. “When I said they had Nipper—”

“Nandy just sat there.” Pathik nodded again. “She would
never
have done that.”

“Exactly.” Rachel followed Pathik through what was left of the crowd. Most people had dispersed almost immediately after Hannah was announced as Honoree. “Filina said he was fine and Nandy just sat back down like she wasn’t even worried.” She didn’t mention that she’d done the same thing earlier, when Filina had bid her to leave Nipper and go to the office.

“We need to find out what’s going on here.” Pathik quickened his pace.

When they arrived at Hannah’s parents’ unit, it appeared to be deserted. They knocked on the door, but no one came.

“You’d think there would be people here, friends celebrating Hannah being chosen as Honoree.” Pathik knocked on the door again.

“I’m starting to think being chosen is not such a great thing.” Rachel remembered Hannah, handing her the packet the night before.
It’s me
, she’d said, as though who she was might disappear at any moment.

The unit door opened then, and Polly, eyes red, poked her head out. She stared at Rachel and Pathik, as though she didn’t know who they were at first.

“Hello, Polly.” Rachel spoke softly. “Are your parents here? Tom?”

Polly shook her head. “They went with Filina.” She sniffed. “My parents did. They said they would be back soon. Tom—”

“I’m here.” Tom slunk out from the shadows. “I was waiting for them to come back. Didn’t expect you two.” He hugged Polly when she ran to him. “It’s all right Polly, it’s going to be all right.” Tom’s face didn’t match his words. “Let’s go inside, where we can relax a little.” He glanced around, looking uneasy.

They gathered in the front room, at the same table they’d had dinner at the night before. Rachel noticed that Tom locked the door. He sat down on one of the stools and opened his arms to Polly. She climbed up on his lap, the tears she’d been trying to hold back finally falling.

“You’re all right. It’s going to be all right.” Tom held the child, rocking her gently.

“They said they’d try to get her back, Tom.” Polly could barely get the words out. “They said they’d try, but Keith never came back.” She looked up into Tom’s face. “Hannah’s not coming back either, is she?”

Tom shook his head. “We’ll try, Polly.” He lifted her up. “Time for you to take a nap now, so if we need you, you’ll be strong.” He carried Polly to the next room and Pathik and Rachel could hear the sounds of him tucking her into bed, trying to soothe her. Rachel didn’t realize how upset she was until Pathik moved his stool closer to hers, put his arm around her waist.

“We’ll find out what’s going on.” He smiled at her. “It’ll be all right.”

Rachel wanted, with everything she had, to believe him. But she didn’t. She knew he didn’t believe his reassurances, either, just from the look in his eyes.

Tom came back out to the main room. He sat down on his stool, slowly, as though he was an old, old man.

“She’s sleeping.” His voice was no more than a whisper. “She’s worn out, poor thing. Worried to death about Hannah.”

“Where
is
Hannah?” Pathik kept his voice low.

Tom stared at the table top. For a moment Rachel thought he hadn’t heard Pathik, but then he looked up. “Right now, she’s probably in the office. That’s where they take them.”

“The Honorees?” Rachel started to stand. “Let’s go get her, then.”

Tom slid his eyes Rachel’s way. “It doesn’t work like that. They’ll just say she went willingly—
willingly
.” He spat the word out with derision. “In front of all of us, today at assembly. You saw her.” He sounded tired. “They’ll wipe her sometime before tomorrow.” His voice tore.

“Wipe her?” Pathik tightened his arm around Rachel’s waist. He could feel the pain emanating from Tom; it was like a wave of red heat. “What does that mean?”

Tom focused on the table top again. “The Honoree thing only started a few years ago—” He counted on his fingers, matching something in his mind—Rachel realized it was the names of Honorees—with the number of fingers he ticked off. “It’s been six years.

“Some people came to the island—they said they were from the government. I don’t know which one.” He squinted, as though it helped him remember. “I was on the beach that day, gathering clams like we used to do. I was just a kid then. Hannah was with me.” He smiled. “She wasn’t doing her fair share of the gathering, as usual. I think she knew I was sweet on her, even then.” He sat, silent for so long that Rachel felt certain he’d forgotten they were even in the room.

“Tom,” Rachel said, gently. “What happened?”

Tom’s smile faded. He looked at her, and she could see how hard it was for him to bring himself back to the room they were in, how hard it was to let go of his memories of Hannah, that day on the beach.

“They came from nowhere.” Tom frowned. “I didn’t see a boat. I figured out later that they must have landed on some other beach on the island. They just appeared from behind the dune, at least twenty of them, all pointing guns. It was just us kids—Hannah, me, a couple of others. They grabbed Melissa, Hannah’s friend. One of them said they’d kill us all if we gave them any trouble. They started dragging her away, but Melissa could ping—better than Hannah, stronger—and she did. Before they got far there were thirty, maybe forty of our people on the beach.”

Tom closed his eyes. “Keith was there. He told them to let Melissa go, but they just laughed. Keith started toward the two men who had Melissa, and one of them pointed one of the strange guns at him and he fell. At first we all thought he was dead, but he was just asleep.”

“The guns must have been stunners.” Rachel wished they had one now. She thought of the stunner Ms. Moore had had, illegal, enough to get her sentenced to a Labor Pool if she’d been found with it her possession.

“I don’t know.” Tom continued. “Filina was there that day. She walked right up to them. It was the strangest thing. She just stared at them—the men holding Melissa—just stared, and talked softly. I couldn’t hear what she was saying. But they let Melissa go.”

Pathik and Rachel exchanged a look. “Filina was in charge back then, too?” asked Pathik.

Tom shook his head. “Nobody was in charge back then. It used to be different here. We all voted on things—at least the adults did. But that day, Filina was the only one who could stop them. Even though she
didn’t
stop them, not really.”

“She got Melissa back.” Rachel said it grudgingly. She didn’t like Filina.

Tom stared at her. “She didn’t. After they gave Melissa back, she talked to them for a long time, on the beach. She told them they had to wait—that’s all I really remember. She took Melissa away with her, somewhere. And when she came back she
gave
them Melissa. And she’s given them another person every year since.”

H
e said they’ve been sending one person each year since that day on the beach. That girl, Melissa, was the first, and Keith, the man who carved all the newer units in the cave—that was his gift—was last year’s Honoree.” Pathik sounded sickened.

He and Rachel had returned to the units to tell the rest of the group what Tom had told them. Everyone was gathered around the table in the first unit.

“Tom thinks they wipe them—remove most of their memories—before they let them go, so they won’t reveal the cave’s location, or anything else the government wants to know. He said Melissa seemed different when she came back to the beach with Filina. Like she didn’t really recognize him, or Hannah. He said all of the Honorees seem that way.

“They’d already been living here in the cave, but they started hiding it after Melissa got taken. They make sure that all the entrances are concealed, that no smoke is visible from their fires. There’s a crude little village of shacks near one of the beaches—from the earliest days here and they’ve told the government people that’s where they actually live.

“When it’s time to hand over an Honoree, they have some sort of drop-point where they meet and the government takes the person away to the mainland.” Pathik scowled. “Celebration is some strange way of honoring their lives before they get sent away.”

“Who wipes them?” Malgam looked like he thought he already knew. “That Filina?”

Pathik shook his head. “Tom didn’t say, but I don’t think it’s her. I don’t know if they even actually do it—he may not know what he’s talking about.”

Rachel watched the oil lamp flicker in the center of the table. Her two orchid seedlings sat near it, tucked in their cubes, already looking paler in the dim light available to them in the cave. “They’re going to die.” She didn’t realize she’d spoken aloud until she looked up to find all of them staring at her. “The orchids, I meant. There’s no light in the cave.”

Vivian turned to her daughter, a worried expression on her face. “We’ll find them some daylight.” She looked at the others one by one, first Nandy, then Malgam, Pathik, finally, Daniel. “Should we . . . should we leave? Try to find a different place on the island where we can make our own way? Indigo said it was a big place. Surely there’s enough room—”