Authors: Abigail Collins
Chapter fourteen
I learn a few things about my new place of residence as I walk across the grounds towards the large building in their center. One, there are nearly twice as many cabins than I had previously thought, and all but a handful of them are occupied; I can see movement from behind some of their windows, and a cluster of people streaming into the yard to join Dori and I on our trip to the Main Lab. Two, the guards that were on the train with me when I arrived here didn’t leave – instead, I recognize several of them patrolling around the gates and standing outside of a few of the cabins closest to the central building.
And third, Dori was right – though I would never admit that to him directly. Now that I know what it is that connects all of the humans in this compound together, I find myself noticing the similarities that I had ignored before. Everyone here is either a child – probably an orphan, like me – or possessing a handicap of some kind. On my walk, I pass by two young adults in wheelchairs, neither of whom is the boy I interacted with on the train.
There are also a few people being escorted to the Main Lab by Digits, some with their hands bound behind their backs and others with guns pressed against their shoulders. These people look like the ‘troublemakers’ Dori mentioned. I wonder what use the Digits have for people they can’t even trust to walk alone.
We enter the central building and Dori leads me to a large hall to the right that ends up being a sort of cafeteria. It’s a long, rectangular room with tables and chairs set up in rows across it. There are about a dozen people sitting in them with trays of food in front of them, but none of them look too thrilled about eating it.
Nobody is talking, either. The whole hall is so quiet it’s eerie, and I am tempted to scream if only to break the silence.
Dori beats me to it, though.
“Holden!” he shouts across the room, and before I realize it he has left my side and is running down the aisles of tables towards a boy who looks very familiar.
I quickly grab a tray of food – that is served by a Digit and looks like it was cooked by one, too – and make my way over to the table where Dori is now sitting. He’s got one arm around the sandy-haired boy’s shoulders and is stealing bits of what looks like potatoes – and, I find out later, neither smells nor tastes anything like potatoes – from the boy’s tray. The closer I get, the more familiar he looks, but it isn’t until I reach the table and see the metallic rods of his wheelchair poking out from underneath it that I am certain of where I’ve seen him before.
“Hey!” he says when he sees me, holding up one hand and waving me over. “You’re the girl from the train! Remember me?”
“Wait a second, you know each other?”
Dori’s eyes flicker from me to the boy in the wheelchair and back again. His free hand reaches for another piece of food from the tray, but the boy swats it away and rolls his eyes. But he doesn’t look upset – if anything, he looks content. Happy, even. Doesn’t he know where he is?
Why
he’s here?
“We haven’t been properly introduced yet. We met on the train ride here yesterday,” the boy tells Dori. I set my tray of food on the table and sit down across from them. “And clearly
you two
have already met.”
“She’s my roommate,” Dori says, puffing out his chest like he’s proud that he finally has something important to say. He clears his throat and gestures his free hand in my direction. “Holden, this is Eve – ”
“Everly,” I interrupt him, but he continues, speaking over me.
“ – my roommate. And Eve – ”
“ –
Everly
– ”
“ – this is Holden, my boyfriend.”
It takes a moment for the meaning of his words to hit me. My mouth opens and closes several times and I eventually go slack-jawed trying to think of something to say. I am aware that I’m staring, but they don’t seem to mind. Actually, Dori looks more amused than ever. I wonder how much anticipation he’s been building up, just waiting to tell me this.
Holden looks a little more reserved, but he doesn’t seem bothered by Dori’s announcement. I notice how close the two are sitting – as closely as they can, with Holden’s wheelchair in the way – and how Dori’s arm has not moved from around Holden’s shoulders since he sat down. And what Dori said to me earlier this morning, about already being ‘taken’… Really, I should have noticed it sooner. It seems obvious now.
It doesn’t really bother me that they’re both boys. Somewhere, in the back of my mind, I think that it should. But they look so natural together, it’s impossible for me to feel anything but happy for them.
I think about my parents, and how wonderful they looked together. Like Dori and Holden, they were physical opposites, but their chemistry more than made up for their differences in appearance. And they were
happy
. And now they’re dead.
“It’s nice to meet you, Holden,” I say, trying to keep my expression neutral. Dori doesn’t seem to notice, but Holden looks at me like he knows what I was just thinking about. A shadow passes over his face for just a moment, but he hides it with a smile.
“You too. Sorry about the roommate situation, though. Living with Dori must be rough. I don’t envy you.”
“Hey!” Dori exclaims, clapping Holden on the shoulder. “You lived with me for
a whole year
. It can’t have been
that
bad. You didn’t even complain
once
!”
“Maybe not to
you
. But let me just say, your mother – ”
“Don’t bring my mother into this! You know you’re her favorite. That’s not
fair
.”
I stifle a laugh and silently watch the two bicker like an old married couple. It’s clear that they aren’t really fighting; for them, this is probably their way of showing affection.
At one point, Holden leans over and pecks a quick kiss on Dori’s cheek, and Dori turns beet-red and stops talking mid-sentence. I think they’ve forgotten that I’m even here.
I clear my throat, and they both turn and stare at me like I’ve just grown a third arm. We’re the only people here, besides the Digit guards stationed by the doors; everyone else has eaten, returned their trays, and left.
“We’d better go,” Dori says, standing and grabbing Holden’s tray before he has the chance to. “We’re probably going to be late, anyway. Not that they can really do anything to punish us. They need us more than we need them.” His eyes flicker towards Holden’s bent legs almost involuntarily. “Well,
most
of us.”
He grins down at Holden, but the brunet looks less than pleased by his statement.
“What are we going to be late for, exactly?”
Dori empties the remains of the half-eaten food on Holden’s tray into a large garbage bin by the doors and sets the tray on top of a stack of them next to it. Following closely behind him, I do the same. Holden is waiting by the door, drumming his fingertips on the wheels of his chair.
“I’m not quite sure, to be honest,” Dori says, running one hand through his hair. “The Digit who brought me here told me that it’s some kind of test, so they can learn more about us – figure out what our skills are.” He walks ahead of us and holds the door open. “Hey, Holden, didn’t
you
have to take a test to come here?”
Holden nods slowly. “Yes, but it wasn’t really a test. It was more like a
study
. They simulated some of my worst fears to see how I would react to them. I suppose if I’d reacted unfavorably, they wouldn’t have allowed me to come.”
I listen closely, trying my best to memorize every word. The day of my interrogation bubbles up in my mind – the day Cyrus and Tesla used their machines to make me visualize the deaths of my family members. Is that what they were really doing? Testing me to see how I reacted to my own worst fears?
“What did they show you?” I ask before I can stop myself.
Holden’s eyes flit to Dori for a second before he closes them. “That’s… personal. I’m sorry.”
“No, no! I’m the one who needs to apologize. I shouldn’t have asked. I wouldn’t want to tell anybody what they made me see, either.”
“They did the same thing to you?” Holden asks, and I nod. “That’s interesting. But you didn’t choose to come here, right? Or did you?”
I shake my head as the door to the cafeteria creaks shut behind me. “Of course not,” I say quickly. “I was
forced
to. Who would ever
want
to come to a place like this?”
“I did.”
The creaking of the wheels of Holden’s chair as he pushes on them echoes in the nearly empty hallway; everyone that I saw on the way here has already gone ahead without us.
Holden’s words also seem to echo, though he speaks them in barely louder than a whisper. I can’t comprehend what he’s saying at first – it makes absolutely no sense to me. I have spent so much time fixated on my own hatred for the Digits and their reasoning behind bringing me here that it hasn’t even crossed my mind that someone would choose to come of their own free will. That someone – especially someone like Holden – would ever
ask
for this, when I’ve spent the past day trying to think of any possible way to
escape
it...
“
Why
?” I ask him softly.
It takes him a minute to answer. He pauses at the door leading to what I assume is the Main Lab – a room towards the back of the entrance hall, around a set of stairs that I am thankful we do not have to ascend.
“Because,” he answers, looking down like he’s talking to himself, “they said they could fix me. Fix my legs.”
I chance a quick glance at Dori. His face is somber, and I realize that this is the first time since I met him that I have not seen him with a smile on his face.
“And what are you planning to give them in return?”
I almost don’t hear his response, it’s so low and rushed. But I do, and I almost wish I hadn’t.
“Anything they ask of me.”
I open my mouth to argue, even though I don’t know exactly what I am going to say – what
can
I say, in a situation like this? I barely know they people; I have no right to judge them. But then Dori holds up one hand in what is clearly a gesture for me to stop, and my mouth clamps shut almost automatically.
That’s right – I
don’t
know these people. For all I know, Holden could be absolutely correct; maybe the Digits really
will
help him to walk again if he helps them with whatever it is that
they
want. And even if they don’t, I can’t just crush Holden’s spirits like that. Everyone needs something in their life that keeps them going, keeps them
living
. Maybe this is what Holden’s dream is.
The look on Dori’s face tells me clearly that my conversation with Holden is over now. I nod my assent to him silently. He stares at me for a moment – not with anger, or even sadness, but something else that I can’t quite identify – before stepping forward and pulling the door open in front of us.
What is
my
dream?
I wonder. To see my brother again? To find and punish the people who killed my parents? To find a way to get out of here alive?
Am I willing to do whatever the Digits ask of me to achieve them?
Chapter fifteen
The Main Lab reminds me a lot of the room Cyrus took me to the day I had my brain picked by Tesla, but much, much larger. And there are a lot more people here this time – maybe even more humans than Digits, though we’re still vastly outnumbered.