SWAB (A Young Adult Dystopian Novel) (13 page)

While Saki was excited about the idea of me meeting their queen, I was still preoccupied with the connection. “So, I can find any scarb?” I asked, to see if I understood.

“That’s right,” Saki applauded me like I was a school child who was finally catching on. “All you have to do is use your consciousness to find theirs.”

Without waiting another heartbeat, I closed my eyes. I let the presence of all the scarb around me flood my awareness. The dozen or so closest felt foreign to me, but I continued on, going from one to the next until I found a small pocket of them. The first felt older, battle-hardened and brittle.
I knew immediately it was Officer Reynolds. I jumped to the one next to him. She was soft, gentle-spoken and wise.
Mrs. Weatherstone,
I realized excitedly. Next, was impetuous Gray, logical Travis, and reserved Jorge. I paused as my consciousness went over the strong, independent and bold soul.
Derrick
. I laughed as his awareness seemed to turn to me as well, like I could almost see his blue eyes on me—if they were still the blue I remembered. But then my attention turned as I became aware of the soul next to him. It was one I knew as well as my own. He was young, bright-minded, and light-hearted. Even with the changes of becoming scarb, I would know him anywhere.

“Nathan!” I shouted. My eyes flashed open, and I was running, my double vision leading me down the hall.

“Cat!” Saki called. She and Jack ran after me.

Without ever having been in the halls of the colony, I knew exactly where to go. I dashed to a narrow hall to the left that split into three directions at the end.
Up. I need to go up.
I took the middle hallway, which sloped upward, and reached a new level. The hall there was much wider and more spacious. A crystal chandelier glinted overhead, and clear water gurgled from a fountain in the room’s center. The place looked more like a palace than an ant hill. Dozens of scarb walked about the room, but they stopped to watch me as I ran. Many regarded me with sharp eyes and some with jaws open, showing their fibrous mouths.

I didn’t pay any attention to them. I could feel his presence getting stronger. I was close. My feet slid across the marble floor as I turned sharply to the left. I came to a massive wooden door, intricately carved with vines and flowers. I was certain Nathan was just on the other side. I pushed on the handle, and the heavy door swung open. Standing in the bright light of the crystal chandelier was my brother.

Chapter Thirteen

Genesis

The first thing I noticed about Nathan when the large wooden door swung open was a pair of orange spikes protruding from his brown hair. The next was his gaping mouth and wide green eyes, splintered into four irises just like I remembered them from the night of the change. He looked at me like he’d never seen me before.

“What?” I asked him using mind-talk, and shuffling my feet self-consciously. My gaze went over his shoulder to the room full of humans I used to know. Derrick was on Nathan’s left, looking unchanged except for the four-inch black points on each of his ears. Mrs. Weatherstone sported streaks of turquoise in her gray hair. Officer Reynolds seemed to have tripled in size. Gray sported dozens of blue, needle-like pins from his chin, like a goatee. Travis had two short antennae on his head, and Jorge had long barbs protruding from his elbows and ankles. All of them gawked at me, like
I
looked strange. I had yet to see my own reflection since undergoing the change.
Was it really that bad? Am I really that ugly?

“You’re beautiful!” Nathan exclaimed, and took my hands into his.

“Really?” I scrunched up my nose. That was probably even worse than being ugly. I didn’t want to be beautiful. I didn’t want to be scarb. I just wanted to be me.

“Yes, you are,” Derrick agreed, his voice a little deeper than before, more a growl than a voice in my mind.

I still couldn’t believe them. Just then, Saki came huffing behind me. She put a hand on my shoulder and looked about the room at my admirers.

“She’s quite exquisite, isn’t she?” she said. “Now, let’s give her some room.” She went to brush Nathan away, but I held his hand tighter. Saki turned to my brother. “Are you sure that’s such a good idea? Remember the consequences I told you about having physical contact too soon?”

I looked from Saki to Nathan. Obviously, they’d met before and knew something I didn’t. Nathan kept his neon gaze steady on her. “It’s fine.”

She glanced back at me. “Very well.”

“What’s that about?” I tried to direct the question only to Nathan, but obviously failed because Saki answered, “Physical contact can be dangerous with one so recently Born.”

I put the pieces together. “So, Nathan and the others have been here for a while.”

Saki left my side and went over to a bubbling fountain under an ornate gold-framed mirror on the left side of the room. “That’s right.”She dipped her bluish tongue into the water and lapped some up. She wiped at her mouth with a white towel and continued. “Just like the healing, you required…special attention. They have been here three days already.”

I looked back at Nathan, who was still staring at my face. “Will you stop that?” I told him sharply.

“Sorry,” he said. “It’s just so crazy. It’s still you, just different.”

“Prettier, you mean?” I asked skeptically.

“Come see for yourself,” Saki called from the fountain. I walked toward her. Derrick and Officer Reynolds cleared the way for me.

A little scared, I turned to face my reflection in the mirror. Eyes split into two irises gazed back at me. One was ice-blue, the second a brilliant navy, like the deep part of the lake on a clear summer day. Little flecks of silver surrounded the pupils like stars in the night sky. Each eye was fanned by a splash of black-feathered lashes an inch
long. Smooth, dark-blonde brows arched above my eyes and ended in a line of blue dots. A silver gleam shone on the top of my sharp cheekbones and across my nose and forehead, like they’d been airbrushed with a fine metal powder. My lips had turned a shade of rose pink. My skin had lost some of its sun-tanned tone and was a shade of pale ivory. Even my figure had improved. My toned body and gained a soft roundness to it. My bust had increased at least three cup-sizes, but my waist was small and my abs tight. I was happy to find that my arms were still strong and that my legs under the combat gear I still wore were tight.
Hopefully I can fight with this new body.

I ran my fingers through my long blonde hair. Its color hadn’t changed much from before, but it was shinier and thicker and fell in soft curls to the middle of my back. I leaned in closer to the water. About two inches into my hair line, a band of small copper spears ran around the crown of my head like a ribbon.

“You look like a princess,” Nathan said over my shoulder.

“A queen,” Derrick said reverently.

But I didn’t feel like a queen. I didn’t see myself anywhere in that reflection, and it bothered me. That wasn’t me. It was a stranger, and I was tired of everyone staring. My head felt woozy.

“I need a moment.”

“Sure,” Saki said and led me to a wash room. I went to the sink and closed my eyes, not wanting to see myself in the mirror.

Scarb are the enemy. The enemy.
The enemy.
I told myself this over and over. I turned the water on, hoping the sound of it could drown out reality.
They murdered my parents. They rape the land and kill humans as if they are the vermin. They took Ray.
I dipped my hands into the stream and ran the water over my face. I looked at my eyes with their double lenses like two blue lakes: one navy, one ice.
The enemy. And now I’m one of them.

Ray.
I can almost see his brown eyes and feel the warmth of his touch like a sun-warmed towel on my skin.
Will you still love me now that I’m everything you hate?

Hot, angry tears pricked at my eyes. I couldn’t let them fall. If I broke down now, I would shatter completely. I had to keep myself together to face whatever dangers now threatened me and my brother.
I’m a scarb. I’m a scarb. I promise you, Ray, I won’t let this change me. I still love you. Even though everything’s different on the outside, I’m still me inside.

Before, everything was black and white. Humans were good. Scarb were evil. Now, I found myself in a whirl of gray. I was scarb and I knew I wasn’t perfect, but I wasn’t evil. That changed my perception of everything.
What else have I mistaken about the world?

After a while, Nate knocked on the door. I let him in.

“You okay?” he asked.

“I’m not sure.”

“Me, too,” he admitted. “It’s a lot to take in.”

“Do you think Ray will still love me?”

Nathan’s eyes shifted and his mouth twisted to the side. “I don’t know, but I’d like to think so.”

“Me too.”

He put his hand on my shoulder. “I hope we find him.”

Could he be a scarb in this colony too?
I tapped into the connection again, frantically examining every scarb. There were thousands. Not one of them felt like Ray. But I didn’t give up hope.
Maybe he’s still human.
That thought gave me an odd mixture of hope and anxiety. Hope that he had escaped the change but fear of what that would mean for us.

Nathan wrapped me in a hug. For the first time, I felt he was the one protecting. I stood on my tip-toes to touch the points of his two
neon-orange spikes. He looked like a satyr. “Now, you really are a little devil.”

Nathan grinned like it was a great compliment. “Yeah, and check this out.” He turned and I saw two thin, black, wiry wings protruding out of holes cut into his T-shirt. He wriggled them back and forth.

“You’re a flier?” I asked dumbfounded.

Nathan cheeks blushed. “Well, not yet, technically.” He puffed up his chest. “But I will be.”

Wow.
“Am I?” I spun in the mirror to see if I had wings, too, but my back was smooth.

Nathan gave me a playful shove. “Don’t worry, sis. I’ll take you flying.”

So much had changed so fast that it was hard to take it all in.

Saki called for us to come out and join them in the other room. Nathan gave me one last squeeze and then we did. “Would you like to visit our laboratory?” Saki asked us all. “I would love to show you the work we are doing there.”

“Oh, yes,” Mrs. Weatherstone chimed and clicked her mandibles together. “Fresh air would be lovely.”

Nathan took my hand. “How ‘bout it, sis?”

I wasn’t sure if I could handle much more. I was nearing information/sensory overload, but maybe I could look for clues of Ray.
I need to find that red-haired flier that took Ray and I.

“Let’s go,” I said. Saki led our little group out of the room and back into the opulent hallway with the bright chandelier. Jack conversed with another scarb on the other side of the fountain, but when he saw us, he came over.

“Excellent,” he clasped his hands together. “I was just telling Jules what an extraordinary bunch of new recruits we have here.” His yellow eyes glanced at me.
Recruits? Is that what we are?

But Saki was already leading the others down the hall. More than anything, I wished I could have a private conversation with just Nathan. He was chatting cheerfully with Gray.

“I bet I could slam-dunk from half-court,” he bragged.

Gray shoved him. “I could do it from the other team’s net, no problem.”

“I bet the ladies will really get a kick out of these.” Nathan gave his wings a little flap.

“Absolutely.”

Nathan seemed happy enough, but that was just like him. Easily adaptable to new situations. Willing to make the best of them.

Frustrated that I couldn’t even whisper a thought to him without everyone else being able to hear it, I decided to focus on searching the room for that red-haired flier. There were only a couple of drab-looking middle-aged female scarb and the one Jack had called Jules. I felt an awareness reaching out to me.

I turned my head to see Derrick staring at me intently. Becoming scarb actually looked good on him. His chest had filled out more, and his blonde hair was almost white, which contrasted sharply with his deep blue eyes and pointed black ears. His lips cracked into a smile. His old dimples were still there.

“I’m glad you’re back,” he said to my thoughts in a manner that was so sincere it made my cheeks flush. Quickly, I looked about to see if any of the others had noticed his comment to me. No one seemed to. Even Nathan continued laughing loudly to Gray about how even some scarb women could be as ugly as dogs.

No one else heard Derrick,
I realized. “You’ve got to teach me how to do that,” I thought back to him.

Derrick smiled.

Saki took us down the narrow hall that had I run up earlier. We were back in the stark hospital-looking hall. She stopped in front of a
white door with a glass window. The sign above it read “Observation and Understanding.”

“This is where I do my work,” Saki explained with the excitement in her purple eyes. “I think you’ll find it rather interesting.”We followed her through the door into what appeared to be a small laboratory. The table closest to us was lined with tiny plastic cases containing samples of roots and dead insects. The name of each was labeled in careful penmanship. Next were several pieces of beeping equipment and even a computer. I hadn’t seen a working computer in over five years and stared at it in wonder. Several glass containers sat under bright lights at the farthest end of the room. When I looked at them, I felt a burning presence in my chest. Something in the tanks was calling me to them.