“Yes,” I said. “I dug my own grave. Someone stuck a needle into my arm. Their mouths moved, but I couldn’t tell what they were saying. Everything was blurry, shapeless, mute. They uncuffed me before shoving me into the capsule.”
“Stop,” Vi whispered, but I couldn’t.
“Then I was falling. I fell and fell and fell and it was so, so dark. The last thing I remember is the sound the dirt made as it rained down on the metal capsule.” A shudder ripped through my body.
Vi wept openly now. I should’ve been able to.
But I didn’t. Telling her about what had happened actually released the burden from me. Who knew I’d feel like that?
“Thank you,” I said, touching my mouth to hers again, this time softly. I waited for her permission to continue. She gave it, slowly exploring my lips with hers, as if she hadn’t kissed me before.
“How’d you get out?” she asked when she pulled back. “How’d you get to Freedom?”
I was ready to give her all my secrets. I would’ve too, if Gunner hadn’t burst into her room.
“It’s Thane,” he said. “He’s awake.”
Zenn
14.
I grew up in the City of Water, where my father said I’d been able to manipulate the air since birth. There isn’t a time I can remember that I couldn’t control the wind.
My older brother had no such talents, beyond thinking for himself. My mother favored him, but my father doted on me. He counseled me on how to use my talent without detection; he introduced me to the physics educator at school; he took me to work with him and let me experiment in the wind machines.
My father also covered up the infraction with Vi. The house
He knew about the Resistance—because he was involved. He’d recruited me; he’d taught me the subtle art of playing both sides; he’d introduced me to Jag.
I adored my father.
He didn’t understand my sudden withdrawal from the Resistance, but I blamed the failed mission during which Blaze Barque had died. I’d never confessed the deal I’d made with Thane Myers—he’d matched me with Vi in exchange for information about Jag. My first true test of living the Insider life.
I’d “left” the Resistance, but I’d never revealed anything of importance to Thane.
Jag hated me because I’d quit, but I’d had no choice. Thane held more power than Jag knew—power to make my life difficult. He’d threatened my father; he’d threatened Vi.
I’d do anything to keep the two of them safe. The decision was easy: I defected. Jag could deal.
As I pressed into the alley wall in Harvest, I remembered that mission to Freedom when Blaze had disappeared. The fear felt the same, but the stakes were much higher now. I flattened myself against the wall as the battle cry became a roar. The taser-happy crowd surged forward, joined by more people from the alley behind me.
Saffediene cried out, and I turned to find her on her hands and knees. Anger boiled through me as I grabbed her hand and pulled her to a standing position next to me. I stepped partially in front of her to shield her from further danger.
“Our boards,” she moaned, looking down the alley roiling with a steady stream of people. “No way they survived that horde.”
I had to agree, but we had to focus on our most pressing problem: getting out of here alive.
“Who’d you vote for?” a man asked a mere half foot away, his taser sparking with blue techtricity.
I swatted it out of my face. “Get that away from me,” I growled.
For a moment he looked like he might leave. Then he saw Saffediene. “Oh, I get it.
“
His eyes glazed at my voice control, and he joined the fray of anti-Duarte supporters.
“We’ve gotta get out of here,” I said quietly. “Come on.” Saffediene’s hand trembled as we ran down the alley together, away from the square.
I didn’t look back, despite the screams that pierced the air. Saffediene stumbled, but I kept her upright. As we hurried away, I realized that the scene in that square could’ve been one of the vids the Association showed students.
I didn’t look back, even when the hovercopters arrived, blaring with instructions and popping with taser fire.
Next to me, Saffediene wept openly, but I didn’t feel the slightest bit like crying.
I didn’t look back, because I couldn’t stand to see the proof that humanity couldn’t manage themselves. That they’d always need a Thinker.
That I’d been fighting for chaos these past four years.
At the end of the alley, our hoverboards were indeed gone. I mourned their loss for only a moment before I snapped my fingers, and a current of air stalled in front of me. Its edges shimmered in my vision, gray and then purple and then blue.
Saffediene wouldn’t be able to see it, so I pulled her closer and said, “Hold on to me, okay?”
“Are you going to do that freaky wind thing again?”
“Yes,” I said. “Hold on to me tighter.”
She complied, facing me and wrapping both arms around my waist, then burying her face in my chest. I lifted her onto the air cushion and whispered, “Up, please.”
The wind obeyed, taking us straight up until we’d escaped the mayhem below.
“Wait,” I said, and we paused to watch the scene below. It mirrored the vids I’d seen in the past. People were running here, there, everywhere. Hovercopters crowded the rooflines; officers shouted instructions through the amplifiers. The spark of tasers looked like lightning in the morning sunlight.
I couldn’t believe it. This was what I’d been in favor of? Citizens killing other Citizens? Violence as a means to achieve a desired outcome?
My peripheral vision caught a movement in the sky. Director Benes floated on a hoverboard a hundred feet away, also surveying the chaos below. He met my gaze with raised eyebrows. His message was clear:
Half of me wanted to stay and see if or when he might intervene. The other half couldn’t wait to get away from the upheaval. Far away.
That half won.
Saffediene and I didn’t speak about what we’d witnessed on the way back to the cavern. I expanded the cushion of air once we left Harvest so we could both sit comfortably. She could’ve chosen a spot far from me and passed the ride with only her own thoughts.
She didn’t.
She sat right next to me, both her hands holding one of mine, talking about her life before the Insiders, her mom, her two younger brothers, her assigned educational track. She asked me about school, and how I met Vi,
