Julie, crouching in her chair, bent over so that her straight fine hair hid her tearful face.
Sajelle, naked under the long T-shirt that had been the only thing on her when Lillie woke her. Her dark face set in stubborn lines, lip pushed out, black liquid eyes scared.
Jason, not clowning now, his handsome face shocked into immobility like stone.
Madison, breathing fast with her mouth open, as if she couldn’t get enough air.
Rafe, sulky and fearful and triumphant, holding Lillie’s sash to his bloody nose.
Elizabeth… Elizabeth wasn’t here.
Lillie frowned. Had Elizabeth gone back to her room, to cower and pray? Lillie hadn’t seen her leave commons. But she remembered the look on Elizabeth’s face in the hall, a look of revulsion so much deeper than anything the others showed that it had made Lillie pause. Revulsion and horror and…
The door to the garden flew open and Pam and Pete strode into the room. But… was that them? It actually took Lillie a moment to recognize them, Pam’s smooth face was so contorted. Pete’s teeth were bared, perfect white teeth.
“You… you…” Pam couldn’t get words out. Pam.
“It wasn’t bad enough that there were only twenty of you here!” Pete screamed. “Now you have to reduce the number more… stupid stupid raw genetic… All the effort! All the time! And you think you can destroy our carefully… you! You!”
The kids had all stopped dead, staring. Lillie shrank back against a wall. What had happened, why were Pam and Pete like this, she hadn’t known they could be like this —
“Our whole lives!” Pete shrieked. “To benefit you stupid ungrateful—”
Pam let loose a sound no human voice could make, a roar that rose into a steep wail.
“—don’t deserve all we’ve done for you, all we’re trying to do… our whole lives — ” Pete ran into the room and struck Alex, closest to the garden door, full in the stomach. Alex went down, bent double.
“Get ‘em!” Sam cried. “They’ll kill us!”
He rushed Pete. After a shocked moment, Mike and Jason joined him. The three boys hit Pete together, and he went down.
“No, no, it’s all a mistake!” Pam cried. “We won’t hurt you! You’re our—” She didn’t get to finish. Derek and Bonnie jumped her, knocking her down, and Sophie immediately sat on Pam’s chest.
“Stop!” Jon called. “Stop! Let them explain! They’re not—” Lillie didn’t hear more. She had run to Alex, crumpled by the garden door. He gasped for breath, clutching his stomach. He was turning blue. Something inside him must be injured, Pete had killed him… “Alex! Alex!”
Slowly his gasps began to bring air into his lungs. Color returned to his face. But he continued to clutch his stomach, moaning. “Hurts…”
“Don’t try to talk,” Lillie said. She knew CPR, but Alex didn’t need it now. She watched, panicky, for signs of shock. Elevate the feet, keep him warm… but it didn’t look like shock. Pete had injured something inside Alex, some organ… what if Alex were bleeding inside? Lillie wouldn’t have any idea what to do.
She turned her head to the fight behind her. Pam down, Pete down, Sam’s fist raised over Pete’s face… Lillie saw it all as a frozen image, a single-moment snapshot. Her head whipped back to Alex, and the motion swept her line of sight through the door into the garden, and she saw it.
Elizabeth. Hanging by the neck from a big tree. Dead.
The look on Elizabeth’s face in the hall, a look of revulsion so much deeper than anything the others showed. Elizabeth, who believed in a God that would punish her if she didn’t undo her genetic modifications. Who would also punish her if she herself learned Satan’s art. Who punished sex if you weren’t married. Rafe’s words: “Olfactory molecules controlled our moods, made us happy here no matter what.”
The olfactory molecules Rafe had killed with his homemade acid.
Lillie opened her mouth to say something, or call somebody, or scream, but whatever it was never came out. Dizziness hit her like a hammer and everything vanished.
CHAPTER 12
She woke in a small space filled with people. Immediately she recognized it, from months and months ago: the shuttle. She was strapped securely into a seat. The other eighteen kids woke at the same time. Pam and Pete, calm again, stood in the open doorway of the shuttle, behind them a huge empty room.
“You can’t speak yet,” Pam said wearily, “so don’t try. It’s only temporary. By the time you get back on Earth the speech inhibitor will have worn off. Yes, you’re going home. We’ve done as much work with your kind as we can. If there had been as many of you as there were supposed to be, or if you could understand more—”
Pete interrupted. It came to Lillie, even through her dazed incomprehension, that Pete sounded apologetic. “It was our first assignment,” he said.
“Just do the best you can, especially you girls. Lillie, Emily… well, we tried,” Pam said, still wearily. “We’ll be back.” She and Pete stepped outside the shuttle and the door closed.
The shuttle moved. Acceleration pushed Lillie against the back of her seat. She closed her eyes, her mind whirling.
The ride seemed very short. Lillie made a few attempts to speak, but they didn’t work. She saw the others do the same. By the time the shuttle came gently to rest, she could talk again. The straps holding her automatically fell away, and the shuttle door opened.
A blast of hot air blew in.
“Where are we?” Rebecca said, to no one. Sophie whimpered. Lillie felt someone grab her hand: Julie. Julie held on tight.
“I’ll check it out,” said Jon, their natural leader. He rose and walked cautiously to the open door. “Well, it looks like Earth. I just don’t know where.”
There was a general stampede outside.
The sun was just rising. They stood in a red glow on a deserted plain, with the hazy outlines of mountains in the distance. A highway ran beside the shuttle, two lanes, straight and utterly empty. A tumbleweed blew by. The rest of the plants that Lillie could see were low and dry and thorny, colored faded greens and browns.
“Looks like a high desert,” Alex said, and Lillie turned to him in surprise.
“Alex! Are you all right? Your stomach—”
“Yeah.” He felt his midriff, looking puzzled. “I’m fine now.”
“How long were we unconscious?” Emily demanded. No one answered. It could have been days, Lillie realized. It had been days for her, before. Pam and Pete had fixed up Alex.
There was nothing they could do for Elizabeth.
“Stand well away from the shuttle,” the shuttle suddenly said. Lillie jumped; Julie cried out. “Stand well away from the shuttle. You will be in danger otherwise. Move now. Stand well away from the shuttle—”
“Move!” Jon said.
They all followed him, running down the road. Lillie looked behind her. The shuttle suddenly collapsed. One minute it was there, the next it was not.
Everyone stopped, uncertain. Jon said tentatively, “Well, I guess this is far enough… Rafe, don’t go back! It said not to!”
Rafe hesitated, stopped.
“Now what?” Bonnie said.
“I don’t feel well,” Sophie said. She turned away and threw up beside the highway.
“Hey, Sophie, hold it together,” Bonnie said softly. “It’ll be all right”