Turning to go back to my room, I was caught off guard by the sound of footsteps plodding against the concrete floor. Panicking, I spun around in a circle. I needed to find a hiding place until I could confirm who was walking down the hall. I squinted at the boulder covering the hole. I wasn’t strong enough to push it yet, and pushing that massive rock would make more noise than I wanted anyway.
The open doorways that lined each side of the hall wouldn’t work either. I blanched when I thought of walking through a door and waking up a sleeping family. And not only that, but I’d be in so much trouble for being out of bed after hours.
The sound of the footsteps grew louder and were accompanied by a whispering voice. “Shhh!” a deep manly voice said. “Not yet!”
If I ran forward, they would see me for sure. If the footsteps and voices belonged to any of the council members I would be punished for being out of bed after curfew. The men around here weren’t as lenient as the women. Glancing over my shoulder, I centered on the mess hall.
Inside, I scaled the wall about four feet in. The footsteps were still carrying down the hall so I knew I still had time. Crouching down, I winced out in pain as my knees cracked.
The multiple, loud cracking sound echoed throughout the mess hall and I heard another voice, “What was that?” Another man said.
“Don’t worry,” said the first voice. “It was probably nothing.”
Throwing my hands over my mouth, I took small, short breaths. It was so quiet that I thought any sound I made might give me away. And as far as I knew, I was in the middle of a dangerous situation and it was best for me not to take any chances.
Cocking my head to the side, I watched the two men who were meeting in secret. Finally, I was able to put faces to the footsteps and voices. Mr. Baker and Colin’s father, Mr. Martin. Come to think of it, what I was doing was actually kind of thrilling. I could see why Frankie found snooping around and eavesdropping appealing.
Mr. Martin spun around warily. I stared at him intently, picturing Colin as an adult. Their resemblance to one another was uncanny. The only difference was Mr. Martin was a few pounds overweight and had grey streaks through his midnight hair. “Are you sure everyone is asleep?” he asked.
“Positive,” Mr. Baker replied. “I checked everyone’s quarters myself.”
“So,” Mr. Martin began, raising his voice slightly. “Has it been decided, then? Are we going to rig the results of the lottery again?”
Rig the results of the lottery again? My breath caught in my lungs. I felt myself getting dizzy. They had complete control over the lottery the first time. They planted my name and Colin’s in there on purpose. Those jerks!
And Colin… Colin knew about it all along! I couldn’t believe it. He seemed so sincere when spoke about protecting me and he was behind this whole plan from the beginning. But why? Were his advances toward me fake too? Was it just an act to get me to trust him? So I wouldn’t suspect what was going on?
Mr. Baker nodded. “I’m afraid so.”
“So who is going in for the boys?”
Mr. Baker brushed his forefinger against his lips.
“How about Dylan Edwards?”
Mr. Martin considered that. “The Edwards boy is a good choice.”
“I would rather your son go in again. I think she might have a fondness for him.”
They were talking about me! During that moment I thanked God for Frankie. If it wasn’t for her this would have been a complete blind side. I assumed it was coming, but I never expected to feel so betrayed, by Colin especially.
“We can’t send Colin in twice. Then the colonists will definitely know that it’s been rigged,” Mr. Martin commented.
“How will we explain the Carver girl being selected again?”
Mr. Martin shrugged. “We’ll call it a fluke.”
As I took in their conversation, I mentally bantered with myself on whether or not I should tell somebody. Oh, when my mother found out, she was going to blow a gasket. How could my parents have been so naive? I didn’t think that either one of them had a clue about what Mr. Baker and Mr. Martin were up to.
Me, I was like my mother. Neither one of us liked or trusted Mr. Baker. But, my father, he went on confiding in him like he was God’s gift to this colony. My father needed to have his head examined.
Mr. Baker propped himself against the wall. “Georgina Carver is too smart for her own good. You better believe she’ll wreak havoc when her name is selected a second time. She’s got that strong-willed nature about her. Just like her mother. It’s important that nobody, I repeat nobody speaks of this outside our circle. If the Carver girl catches wind of it, she might plot something and we can’t have that before she’s eliminated.”
Eliminated. What did he mean eliminated?
“She’ll never find out,” Mr. Martin promised. “The only people who know anything about it are you, me, Colin, and Hank Edwards. I know for certain that none of them will talk.”
“It’s a shame it has to be this way, but we are running low on food and supplies. We have too many mouths to feed and aren’t producing enough to keep the whole colony fed.”
“Sometimes, you need to destroy things in order to rebuild them.”
“Or wipe them out entirely.”
“So it’s done, then,” Mr. Martin stated. “Do you want me to handle rigging the names or do you want to do it this time?”
Mr. Baker straightened himself out. “I’ll do it this time. There is a secret doorway in my room. It’s covered by an old rug. Place the box in there and I’ll configure everything sometime tomorrow.”
“It will be there,” Mr. Martin said.
“You know,” Mr. Baker began, “We’re lucky we’ve found a way to do this over. The Carver girl was never supposed to come back. She was supposed to end up just like the Vickers girl.”
Chapter 15: The Truth Shall Set You Free
Darkness which may be felt.
For a while, I just sat alone in the mess hall consumed by the darkness. My mind was still processing key items from the conversation that I had just heard. Murder. These people were murderers. They conspired and had Monica Vickers killed. And now they were plotting to murder me! Over food!
The worst part was, that this plan Mr. Baker developed, about secretly murdering people to conserve food, wasn’t going to stop with me. Who was it going to be next? Grace?
Poor Monica. My heart went out to her, wherever she was. She was young, beautiful and kind, a lot like May. She didn’t deserve to die, especially over freaking portion control. If our food supply was running low, why couldn’t they just ask people to take less? I would have gladly sacrificed half of my food if I knew it would have kept Monica alive and well.
What would her family say when they found out? Would they believe me if I told them? I had no reason to lie or make up such a story, but Mr. Baker had this slimy way about him when it came to manipulating people. No… I couldn’t tell them. Not yet.
As I picked myself up off the cold, damp floor, an empty feeling swirled around in the pit of my stomach, and it wasn’t because I was hungry. It surfaced because I felt used, like a pawn in a game that I wasn’t invited to participate in. My life had no value to these people. They should have just chained me up and sold me off into slavery. Even a life of slavery had to be better than being surrounded by greedy, manipulative people who were full of lies.
How could I face Colin tomorrow, knowing what I knew now? Instead of feeling butterflies whenever he entered the room, I’d feel nauseated. Listening to the sound of his deep, once beautiful voice, would make my skin
