She nods, grits her teeth, and fights like hell to stay on her feet.
From here, I can finally see the Ridge in detail. A giant dome, towering over the world, at least twelve stories high. Probably impossible to break. From here it looks like the top is a thick web of titanium, with just enough spaces to let the sun and rain break through.
There’s an outer gate surrounding the dome.
A Perimeter, almost identical to the one in the Shallows. Only this one has coils and loops of barbed wire across the top.
Beyond it all, the mountains look like monsters. They stretch as high as I can see, and somewhere, I can hear roaring water. Almost like the mountains have a voice, and they’re warning us.
Stay away.
There are others, making their way from the trees at the base of the valley, heading toward the Ridge, escorted by Leeches. They’re chained, like us. Looking scared as hell as the Leeches shove them along, force them to march toward the Perimeter.
“It’s going to be okay,” I whisper to Meadow and Sketch.
They don’t answer. I look up at the Perimeter. Another world full of walls and lies, and whatever else waits for us inside.
I wonder why I ever thought to say it would be okay at all.
CHAPTER 73
MEADOW
We are separated once we get close. Boys left, girls right.
It is like a flashback to the day I got my job as a rations worker.
Two lines. One place to go.
Last time, I was in line to save my family from starvation. This time, I am in line to save them from death.
“Meadow, look at this place,” Sketch hisses. I hang on to her, and she holds me up, gasping. She’s exhausted, and I am sapping her strength just to stay upright. I grit my teeth, try to force the switch to come, but I can’t reach it, don’t think it is possible. My body is beyond my control. “There are Leeches, everywhere.”
I look up at the top of the black gates that surround the opening. On either side, stationed with guns, are Initiative guards, watching our every move. They march back and forth, probably on a platform behind the barbed wire.
There are also Cams that rise from behind the wall, buzzing about.
Why do they need an extra wall outside of the dome? The New Militia will never be able to get us out of here. Even if I send the signal, they could still fail.
One of the Cams dives low, swoops toward us. My instincts tell me to turn my face. Look away. But I force myself to stare.
The line moves slowly forward, and I get a closer look at the entrance.
There are two doorways. One with a male symbol, the other with female, embedded on the front.
There are guards manning the doorways, and a HoloScreen that hangs in between. A woman appears on-screen. She flickers, pale cheeks and white hair. I notice that, like the Initiative guards holding us, she does not have a Catalogue Number. “Males to the left, females to the right.” She smiles, waves her hands out to both directions. Like we should be pleased to be here.
A boy in shredded clothing stumbles toward the left door. It slides open for him, and he disappears into darkness. The door slides shut. I think I hear him scream, from inside. But maybe it is only my imagination, my fear coming forth in the shadow of this new place. Zephyr is close to the front of the line. He looks at me.
For a moment, I remember the boy he once was, the very first time that I saw him. He was lying broken in a puddle of tears on the floor of the Catalogue Dome.
It would have been easier if we’d never met, if I hadn’t placed those crushed white flowers by his side.
But then he nods at me, and his emerald eyes are strong and steady. And I know that without him, I would never have made it here.
Without Zephyr, and Sketch, I would still be on my own.
I’m angry at him. A part of me craves his touch, while the other hates him with a fire that cannot easily be extinguished.
He murdered me, my mother’s voice says, in my head. I flinch, shove her ghost away. Focus on what is more important.
Sketch is the first to enter. “You’d better bring that strength back soon, Woodson, because something tells me once we get in there, we’re going to need you,” she says with a wink. But she looks sad, and I know she’s thinking about what we all know to be true. That I’m dying. I’m actually dying. “See you on the other side.”
Males to the left, females to the right.
She steps in. The door slides closed. When it opens, only seventy-two seconds later, there is an empty space, a tiny room large enough for one person to stand inside.
The HoloWoman speaks, waves her hands wide.
I step inside, and I am alone.
CHAPTER 74
ZEPHYR
I step into the box.
The door slides shut behind me, and my heart hammers like crazy in my chest.
There’s a voice that comes from the walls, the same one as that pale lady whose Holo was out front. “Please place your left wrist into the designated slot.”
A hole in the wall glows red. I stick my hand inside and wait.
“It is highly advisable not to move.”
There are three quick beeps. I feel something solid and heavy snap over my wrist.
“Commence Cataloguing,” the voice says.
There’s a whirr, and a pinch of pain, like someone’s sliced me with a knife.
“Citizen Red. Number P375320. Blood Level—Clean. Please repeat your designated number.”
I repeat the number, get it wrong, and have to do it again.
Then, finally, there’s a hiss, as the door in front of me starts to open. I pull out my wrist, see the bloodred metal cuff locked around it, the numbers P375320 inscribed into the metal. There’s a small screen on the center of it. A letter C appears on it, in bright red.
“Citizen Red, P375320. Operation: The Death Code. Trial Stage: 17.” Her voice is happy. Sugary sweet, like Lark’s. My cuff blinks bright red, then goes dark again. “The Initiative thanks you for your service. Welcome to the Ridge.”
A rush of cold air. I take a step out, blinking, as the cold and daylight settle back over me. The door slides shut behind me, locking me in.
And then I get a look at the Ridge, for the very first time.
CHAPTER 75
MEADOW
My strength comes back to me in one solid burst.
I gasp, feel my limbs tingling as energy spills into them. My head stops spinning. My vision gets clearer, and I feel as if I could run a hundred miles, fight a thousand enemies.
The door to the Ridge slides open.
Trees, all around me, as far as I can see.
A forest.
Something about this forest feels different from the palms that lined the beach in the Shallows. There, death was around each corner, its whisper calling to me as I made my way into the city.
But here, everything feels like it is alive. I get the shivery feeling that I am being watched. I wheel around, looking overhead and behind me. There is no one here, just me and the trees, Sketch and Zephyr standing in front of me, staring at this new world. I force myself to relax. To think.