The Taking 02: Hover (5 page)

“He said lessons are meant to be learned and refused to talk to me about it any further. Then, as I guessed, he requested that you see him after RES training today.”

“So this is it?”

“This is it. Do you have it?”

I turn my ankle and feel the gun press against my leg, just inside my boot. “I have it.”

“Good.”

A nervousness settles in my stomach, and I walk the rest of the way to the Vortex in silence, listening as Jackson explains the surroundings of Triad. The Healer’s Wall that wraps around the city, built so the healers could focus in on specific regions to terraform. Beyond the wall, there is nothing but a dying land until you reach one of the other civilizations on Loge. There are only twelve now, each sanctioned with a trade. Hovercrafts go between regions, bringing food or clothes or whatever, so each civilization can operate soundly. Jackson goes with Zeus monthly to each of the regions, but beyond him, no other Ancients are allowed to leave their designated region.

“Why aren’t they allowed to leave?” I ask, stopping him at a second bridge that leads over the Cutana River we sailed down yesterday.

Jackson considers the question for a long moment. “Because Zeus says so.”

I glance down at the river, its water full to the banks edge that surround it. Jackson said their water supply was dwindling, but the river shows no signs of a drought. “Is this the only body of water you have? I mean, I know you said your water supply was the issue, but the river looks…” I point down at it.

“It’s the healers. They keep Triad alive, the river full. They’re the reason we’re still alive, but there are very few of them and one hasn’t been born in a very long time. There aren’t enough of them to sustain us forever, which is why we have to get back to Earth.”

We reach the Vortex, just as the two main doors in the center of the building begin to open. Chants and stomping echo from inside, one then the other, the sound a harmony of structure. A series of men and women, all dressed in deep green, all with weapons in hand, march from within the building. There are five rows of Ancients, ten in each line, all of them marching in perfect sequence. They continue out of the building and into the grass just across from it. I realize I’ve stopped and that I’m staring, but I can’t pull my eyes away.

“So that’s the RESs?” I ask, awe in my voice. They look so deadly.

“Some of them. Yes.”

“Do you have military beyond the RESs? Are there some that aren’t spies?”

Jackson pauses. “No. We’re fully trained.”

“By fully trained, you mean—”

He focuses on me, his voice hard. “We’re trained to kill, Ari. And right now the RESs are being trained against one enemy—humans.”

I feel my back tighten, anger bubbling to the surface. “And what about the humans who are here? What are they to your RESs?”

Jackson starts for the doors. “Bait.”

I freeze, my mouth gaping open.
Bait?
Suddenly, the fear over what I have to do is replaced by a renewed urgency. I have to kill Zeus.

We go through the large main doors of the Vortex, and into an open area so blindingly white that it reminds me of the Chemist labs back home. It’s the shape of an octagon, with a door centered within each of the eight walls. I expect Jackson to lead to one of the doors, when instead he turns on me, leans in close to my ear, and whispers, “You’re going to have to fight your inner instinct. Remember, you are an RES now. Act like it. If Zeus suspects that you are a threat, he’ll kill you without hesitation. And I can’t…” He trails off, a pained look on his face. “Just promise me you’ll try. Be careful.”

I pull away so I can see him clearly. “I will. I promise. But what about you? Aren’t you going to be training, too?”

Jackson stands tall as a pair of Ancients enters through the main doors, their eyes on us. “No. I’m the instructor.”

I lower my voice. “You mean, you’re teaching me? You’re my teacher?” This has to be a joke. More Ancients enter, their expressions full of curiosity. I focus on Jackson so I won’t worry about what they’re thinking.

Jackson bites back a smile. “I’m not your teacher, Alexander. Beginning today, I’m your boss.”

“My boss?”

An Ancient walks over dressed in a dark brown T-shirt and pants, his build and demeanor projecting that of someone in a leadership role. “J.C. is there a problem?” he asks, his eyes on me.

“No problem. I will be there in a moment. Alexander here is a new assignee.”

The man nods slowly. “All right. Well see you inside.” He turns for a set of double doors behind him, but glances back twice at us before disappearing through the doors. I close my eyes and draw a breath. This is going to be painful.

“Okay,
J.C
. where do I go?”

He crosses his arms and smiles. “Through those doors. You’ll see the others getting set up.”

I give him one more fleeting look before slipping through the double doors. The room is nothing like the entryway to the Vortex. Where it was all bright and shiny and clean, like a lab back home, this room is rugged, the walls wooden, the ceiling high. There are windows cut into the ceiling, letting in the only light in the room outside of a few wall lamps affixed on each of the walls. Situated in the center of the room are rows and rows of pillows, most already full of boys and girls, all appearing to be around my age. The floor, outside of the pillowed seats, is a basic concrete, and glancing around, my first thought is that this room is unforgiving in every way. It’s meant to teach you to stay on your feet. Hit a wall or the floor, and you’re sure to leave the room covered in bruises or blood. There is no learning by practice here. You learn quickly or your body suffers the consequence of your delay.

I sit on the last pillow closest to the back wall, my legs crossed. No one speaks, most either staring forward with their eyes trained on the opposite wall or their eyes closed, their mouths moving in some silent prayer.

A door on the opposite wall opens and Jackson enters, followed by two Ancients who are twice as big as him and at least six inches taller. They flank him on his right and left side, locking their hands in front of them.

Jackson doesn’t smile at the group or hint at any form of kindness. He has a calmness to him that is unsettling, the quiet just before a storm. “You are here because some sliver of existence within you says that you are a born fighter. That you will put your life before others, and stand when others fall. Whether this analysis is correct is yet to be seen, but over the next two weeks we will push you in ways you have never imagined. We will wear down your body. We will challenge your mind. And when we’re done, and you’re begging for relief, we will push you still more. Only then, when you are at your weakest, will we know if you are truly meant to be an RES. For now, you are assignees. You have no privileges here. You will enter my building and come to this room each day. Do not speak to anyone unless spoken to. Do not venture into other parts of my building. Do not breathe unless I give you express permission to emit that breath. Am I understood?”

The group rises without him issuing an order and I stand, my mouth gaping. I have no idea how to react to this Jackson. He’s cold, distant, not at all the Jackson I know.

Though I guess I really don’t know him at all.

“There are two elements to our training—internal and external manipulations. We will work on an element of each daily. For today, we will challenge both.” He motions to the guard who walks to open the back door. Six more guards enter carrying stacks of wooden circles that look like wheels, each at least five inches in width and fifteen inches in circumference. They sit the stacks in front of us and exit back out the door they came in through. “Women will each take one, men two.” We all stare at him, waiting for another command. “Well go on. I don’t enjoy repeating myself.”

The group steps forward, each of us grabbing our wooden wheels, and then returning to our spots. Jackson starts for the door, and again we wait, but I now know that he expects us to move without him commanding us, so I step out of line to follow him, the others hesitating for only a moment. We make our way back outside and down Gaia Road, the sun bright above us. Jackson points at the wall of flowers that borders all of Triad. “The Healer’s Wall was erected years ago to protect Triad from outside threats. Now, it operates as a line between life and death, reminding us that outside our walls, there is nothing, no one, only a dying land. Today, you’ll walk that line from the fields to Juniper Gardens.”

Murmurs of surprise and worry course through the group.

“But that will take all day,” a boy calls.

Jackson turns back for the Vortex. “Then I suggest you get started.”

I force myself to head for the wall without looking at Jackson. I don’t want anyone to think he would show me any more kindness than the others. Now I know why they were watching us with such curiosity before. Most of these Ancients know Jackson as the next Logean leader. They have probably never seen him act so casually with anyone.

I reach the wall and turn right, the sun beating down above us in violent waves. I wish he would have told me we were doing this today. I would have dressed in lighter clothes, like shorts and a tank instead of pants. I reposition the wheel in my arms, wondering what would happen if I left it here and picked it up when I made it back around.

“Is it true?” a voice asks from behind me and I turn to see a girl rushing up to me. She’s smaller than me, just over five foot I would guess, but her arms and legs show strength. “I’m Madison,” she says with a small smile.

“I’m—”

“Oh, I know who you are. Everyone does. You’re Ari.”

I shake my head. “What do you mean? How does everyone know who I am?” I start back down the line of the gate, feeling unsettled. I have a long way to go and don’t want to waste any time.

“You came over with J.C. He went back for you. It’s really romantic if you ask me.”

I stop and look at her. “Jackson and I aren’t together. He’s…” What exactly?

“See, you call him Jackson. No one calls him
Jackson
except his grandparents.”

“Well…” I am at a complete loss on what to say. I don’t know J.C. I don’t see him as the leader he is. To me, Jackson is…I don’t know, more boy, less man, but the longer I’m here, the more I see him with others, the more I realize maybe he was never a boy.

We continue for several minutes in silence, both of us repositioning our wheel from time to time. My biceps have begun to burn already and I wonder how I’ll make it all the way around Triad without dropping it or taking a break.

I glance over the wall to a wide sprawl of mountains in the distance. They are dark, haunting, not at all the look of mountains back home.

“That’s the Alikaia mountains. They used to have a gate in the wall with a path that led to them, but that was years ago. I don’t really remember what they looked like before.”

“Before what?”

“Before the water dried up. Before all the trees and grass died. There’s nothing there now, just rock.”

I eye the mountains as we pass by, curious what else used to exist here on Loge before everything began to die. “So, you don’t have much here, huh? Triad, I mean, it’s smaller than I imagined.”

She considers me for a moment. “We have all we need, I guess. Everything is handmade here, and all our food is grown. And then there are things brought in from the other regions, of course. It’s not so bad really.”

My eyes travel from the field we’re in to the woods just ahead of us. “Do we go through the woods?”

Madison shrugs. “He said to stay with the wall, so I guess. The woods aren’t so wide though. We should be through them quickly, and then we’ll go past town, past the factories, past the Taking Forest, and then finally to the Juniper Gardens.”

“How long do you think it will take?”

Madison grimaces. “All day.”

…

I slip through the front door of our house so many hours later that I’ve lost count. It took Madison and me all day, as she had said, to reach the Juniper Gardens, and when we arrived it was so dark I couldn’t make out anything but the stars above us and the two giant moons shining down, reminding us of our misery. I was glad Madison walked the wall with me, and by the time we finished, I knew that her mother was a healer, and that she wanted to be a healer, too, but wasn’t born with the gift. Her father was pleased when she was assigned to become an RES, he himself one of the many factory workers. She said pride was important in Triad, many working hard and studying to try to evoke some of those skills into their deeper selves in hopes that the healers would pick up on those traits and assign them to RESs or government work.

I sit my wheel down beside one of the chairs in the common room and force myself to go out to the shower, desperate to wash away the day. I let the water run over my face, the water as hot as I can stand it. Once again, I stay there far longer than is likely appropriate, but I don’t care. I need the break, the relief. Especially if I’m now supposed to go see Zeus.

I reluctantly make my way out of the shower and to Jackson’s room, wishing I could crawl into bed for a few hours of sleep before everything starts again tomorrow, but I know that Zeus is expecting me. I open the door to find Jackson already there, fully dressed, waiting.

“He’s expecting us.”

I nod.

“I’ll just…” He stands and slips past me, causing my cheeks to flush. After today, it’s strange to see him so casual.

I change quickly and peek my head out to let him know it’s safe to come back inside.

“How are you feeling? I know it’s a lot. All assignees are required to walk the wall on the first day. It’s sort of a tradition. Something about reminding us what we’re fighting for. Anyway, I was going to have you skip it and go see Zeus, but I thought he would get suspicious.”

I nod again. Somehow sure that if I speak at all, I’ll either complain or cry, so I just sit there, waiting for Jackson to say something else. He doesn’t so I just say, “Let’s go.”