clicked open. Her mom stepped inside; again, Becca had no choice but to follow her.
They stepped into a small square room, with white walls to either side and an elevator in front. Her mom slid her card into the card reader beside the elevator. The elevator doors opened silently.
The elevator hummed as it descended. Becca’s limbs twitched. She had to get out of here, before it was too late, before…
The elevator came to a stop.
The doors opened onto a gray hallway lit with dim yellow lights. The hallway stretched much further than the building above. Its rows of doors were broken up only by intersecting hallways.
The underground levels.
They stepped out of the elevator. Their footsteps echoed on the concrete floor. The hallway smelled like stale air and disinfectant.
The elevator doors closed behind them. No way out.
“What are we—” Becca’s words echoed as loudly as her footsteps. She dropped her voice to a whisper. “What are we doing here?” She couldn’t ask the rest of her question:
Had that been another lie?
“I need to show you something.” Her mom didn’t whisper like Becca, but somehow she kept her voice from traveling further than the two of them. “I need to show you what will happen to you if you keep going down the path you’re on.”
They walked through the maze of hallways, each one identical to the one before it, until Becca had no idea what direction the elevator was in, let alone how to get back there. Each hallway was deserted, silent except for their footsteps and the hum of the lights… and once, so faint Becca thought she must have imagined it, the sound of screaming from behind one of the doors.
They reached a dead end. At the end of the hallway, a man sat with his back against the wall, knees and elbows jutting out in all directions. His head hung down toward his chest; his eyes were closed. Becca thought he might be dead at first, until she heard a soft snore.
As they approached, he brought his head up with a start. “Raleigh! I didn’t know you were here.” He unfolded his limbs and clambered to his feet as quickly as his gangly legs would allow. Becca had to tilt her head up to see the blush spreading across his cheeks.
“I came in early,” said her mom. “I was hoping you would still be here.”
The man looked maybe ten years older than Becca, at most. His eyes traveled to Becca, to her arms hanging loosely at her sides. “Um, Raleigh? Are you sure that’s safe?”
“She’s not a prisoner,” her mom answered sharply. “This is my daughter Becca.”
“Oh! I’m sorry. I didn’t mean…” His blush deepened. “It’s nice to meet you,” he said to Becca. “I’m Eli. I work with your mom.” He turned his attention back to her mom. “Why were you looking for me? Did you need anything?” He asked the question as though her assigning him some task would be the highlight of his day.
Was this the moment of betrayal? Was her mom going to hand her over to this man and walk away?
“Are you still planning to execute prisoner K10-843 today?” her mom asked.
Eli nodded. “Why? Do you need her?”
“No,” her mom answered. “But I want you to let us watch.”
Eli looked from her mom to Becca and back again, a question in his eyes.
“She’s here for a school project,” her mom lied smoothly. “With everything that’s been going on in the schools, her Citizenship teacher thought an in-depth presentation on Processing would be appropriate, and Becca was the natural choice.”
If Eli doubted her story, he didn’t show it. “I can do it right now, if you want. I already brought her to room five.”
Becca’s mom nodded. “Lead the way.”
So her mom had been telling the truth. She wasn’t turning Becca over to Internal after all. She had brought Becca here to see a dissident executed, to show her what could happen to her.
Becca could handle that. She had seen executions on TV before. She was safe, and—for now, at least—so was Jake. That was what mattered.
Her stomach clenched.
She could handle this.
They traveled further into the maze, until they stopped at a door that looked the same as all the others. Becca’s mom used her card to unlock the door. She walked in first, then Eli, who held the door open for Becca.
All she had to do was remind herself it was just like the executions on TV, and forget she was in the same room. Forget that her mom was right and she could easily end up dying just like this.
She could handle this. She could handle it.
She stepped inside.
The room wasn’t much bigger than a closet. The same dim yellow light that shone in the hallways illuminated the gray concrete walls and the bloodstains someone had tried in vain to bleach off. Becca wanted to run, might have done it if Eli hadn’t closed the door behind her.
The dissident lay crumpled in a corner, her hands cuffed behind her. Her tangled hair obscured her face. Burn marks traveled up her arm, disappearing under the sleeve of her grubby gray shirt. Her leg was twisted under her at an unnatural angle.
She raised her head; her hair fell away from her face. She looked up at them with unfocused eyes and
blinked a couple of times before she
dropped her head back down to the floor.
The air was too thick to pull into her lungs. Becca gasped for breath as Eli asked her mom, “Now?” As her mom nodded. As Eli took the gun from his belt and aimed it at Anna—
no no no, at the dissident in front of him, that’s all this was, another execution—
aimed it at Anna and Becca covered her mouth to stifle her scream as Anna’s head exploded against the wall.
Chapter Fourteen
Becca wasn’t sure what happened after that. Only a few short flashes—retching as her mom led her through the hallways, then collapsing into the car with her ears still ringing, then her mom saying something she couldn’t understand as they drove past the spot where she had tried to call Jake—interrupted the endless loop of Anna’s death.
Her mom’s phone rang as they reached their building. She argued with the person on the other end while Becca stayed perfectly still next to her and flinched at every angry word. After she hung up, she apologized for having to leave, promised they would talk about this later, asked Becca if she was sure she would be okay. Becca nodded and tried to give the right responses as Anna’s death played over and over again in her mind.
She didn’t remember getting out of the car. But suddenly she was standing in the parking lot, watching her mom drive away. Watching Anna get shot again and again.
There was something she needed to do. Something important.
Jake. Right. She had to look for Jake.
She started toward the playground. If Jake had gotten her message, if he had understood it… if it wasn’t too late… that was where he would be.
