CHAPTER 23
THE NEXT MORNING, I WAKE to artificial light drilling into my eyes, my internal clock trying to kill itself since there’s no sun to tell me what time it is. Cale’s and Mei’s bunks are empty. Messy, too, the sheets gray in the middle, as if the Menghu couldn’t be troubled to change them very often.
Paper rustles loudly in my ears as I put a hand up to my aching forehead. There’s a note taped to my hand.
Don’t let them take you to Yizhi. All the tests they want are voluntary, so they won’t force you. And then, like it was an afterthought, scrawled almost so I can’t read it: Leave your ID card in your room. Enjoy the soap. It took some arguing.
There’s a package of brown waxy squares under my bed. And a box full of little white envelopes. Mantis.
I hug my arms close around my torso, feeling chilly. It’s like Tai-ge’s warning from the day everything went bad in the City. But opposite. Don’t do what they say.
As I pull my black T-shirt over my head, the door opens and a young woman wearing a white coat steps in. “I’m here to take you down to Yizhi. Dr. Yang’s orders.” She turns back out into the hallway. “Follow me, please.”
I crumple the note in my fist, feet fused to the floor. She looks over her shoulder, eyes twitching down toward the birthmark on my cheek. Waiting.
“I . . . can’t.” I look around the room for inspiration. “Dr. Yang . . . mentioned that he needed to talk to me about something this morning before the tests.”
She flashes her arm in front of the telescreen just outside my room. “They have you scheduled for the hospital.”
“Well, I’ll check in with him first. If he changed his mind, I’ll come right down.”
The Yizhi looks from me to the screen, then shrugs. “See you in a bit, then.”
I let out the breath trapped in my lungs as I watch her walk away. When I stick my head out the door, the hallway is empty. After going back to grab my ID card, I flash it in front of the telescreen and a square filled with blue and green bars pops up, the colors marking mealtimes, an afternoon orientation meeting with my section captain, and an hour of service down in the Core. Everything is scheduled down to increments of five minutes to allow for the time it takes to walk between destinations.
The morning hours are marked red, a little message popping up to inform me that I am currently delinquent for a very important appointment in Yizhi.
A shout of laughter rings up the hall, backed by a monotone drone of many voices chattering all at once. Cale and Mei stroll around the corner, fronting a mess of noisy and very dirty Menghu. Mei smiles when she sees me, but Cale just brushes by me into our room.
“They have you training yet?” Mei glances at the telescreen, but I pull my card away from the black expanse and am silently grateful when it goes dark before she can get a proper look.
“Yep. Training. With you guys.” I follow Mei into the room and throw my ID card on the bed. Cale eyes me as she finger-combs her hair back into a ponytail, though it’s still a mess after she is done. She doesn’t do anything about her black T-shirt and canvas pants, still creased with yesterday’s dirt. Maybe even last week’s dirt.
“I bet Captain Lan will be happy to see you,” Mei says. “We had a couple of guys go missing last week. Still don’t know what happened to them. You can follow us down. It’s easy to get lost at first.”
Captain Lan? That sounds familiar for some reason. I bite my lip, not sure how to respond to Mei so unemotionally informing that some of her unit is probably dead out in the forest. “Um. Thanks? I’m still a little turned around on where things are.”
Cale rolls her eyes. “I still can’t figure out how you got here without Red tire tracks on your forehead.” And with that, she walks out. What is her problem?
Maybe a good prank would warm things up between us. She could be like Tai-ge, needing a good reason to smile. I wonder how she’d take a good short-sheeting? I haven’t seen any spiders down here to put under her pillow. . . .
Mei stifles a laugh at what must be a perplexed expression on my face. “Cale’s a little tough on the outside, but she’s great once you get to know her. Couldn’t ask for a better trainer or friend.”
“Does she have a personality under that thick skin?” I tap my lips thoughtfully. “When, exactly, was the last time you heard her laugh?”
Mei rolls her eyes. “Give her time. She doesn’t adjust to change easily. New people means old friends aren’t around anymore. It’s part of life here, but it isn’t easy.”
She smiles sympathetically at my less-than-enthusiastic expression. “Stick close to me and I’ll help you if I can. Just keep your head down. We’re gearing up for Establishment next week, so you’re in for a rough time.”
“Establishment?”
“Nine years since your mother started running Mantis to the Mountain,” Mei supplies, stuttering awkwardly when she catches my warning look. “We were just an infected-free safe haven before she came here. So we celebrate.”
Mei leads me down four flights of stairs to a high-ceilinged indoor track circled with stadium-style seating. The air feels heavy and used, as though thousands of people have breathed it in before me, leaving it wet and diseased. But I find a vent, clean air streaming down into my face. The dirt-encrusted Menghu I just saw flooding the hallway upstairs are running laps, catcalling one another and racing up and down the lanes. I start around the track after Mei, my tight muscles gasping with relief at just being able to run with no heavy pack and no one chasing me. My ribs, which used to twinge every other moment, aren’t even complaining anymore, the bones finally fused together again. The sharp squeeze of stress that wrapped around my brain after Howl’s note eases a bit.
A young man strolls down from the upper level of chairs, arranging himself in one of the seats just above us. I can’t see his face from across the track, but his outline is familiar, even at a distance.
Helix.
A worm of fear and revulsion crawls up from my stomach into my throat. He’s the captain of my unit? Jogging to the edge of the arena, I break away from the Menghu who are slowing their warm-up to form ranks and kneel down against the barrier between the track and the seats. Maybe down here he won’t be able to see me.
His skin is a few shades lighter than the dirt-dusted brown I remember from Outside, hair still wet from the morning’s shower. His Menghu coat is unwrinkled and immaculate, buttoned up to his chin. Straight as a board, he stands and folds his hands behind his back.
“You’re slow this morning,” he says to the assembled group. “The boys upstairs are considering us for a special assignment, but you’ll have to do better than this to land it. I’ll meet you down to the training rooms in ten minutes.” Helix nods for the Menghu to start, but instead of walking back up the steps, he glances over the edge to where I am hunched against the wall.
I duck down a little farther.
Helix doesn’t come down, but waves to catch Cale’s attention. She skips up to him, climbing up into the stands with a cute little smile, all the poison from back in our room clamped behind her teeth.
“Stuck on him like ticks on a cat.” Mei appears next to me, mimicking the lilting speech I remember from the Third Quarter.
I keep my eyes on Cale, who is now giggling like a little girl. “Doesn’t look like he minds.”
“He’s just full of himself. Captain Lan doesn’t mess around with regulars. You have to earn a rank before he’ll even look at you twice.”
“Rank?” I catch myself covering my brand and drop my hands to my sides.
Mei grabs my hand, eyeing the star-shaped scar. “Just ranks. It’s not a life designation. Fourth, huh?”