chapter 9
After dinner, the bunker is full of people hanging out. The couches are a tangle of limbs, and the tables are overtaken by card games. I stay close to Sam. I’m still processing the information Rena told me earlier, and I’m in no mood to play cards.
Sam and I sit on the floor, our backs against the wall, so we can see the whole room. Sitting like this makes me think of Willow, and I feel guilty that I haven’t thought of her before now. I remember leaving her with Tuesday in her arms and wonder if I’ll see either of them again. Sabrina, Alex and a few others sit at a table across the room, playing cards.
“So how long have you been here?” I ask Sam.
“Almost a year.”
Though she puts on a brave front, there is sadness in her voice. I nod. “So when will you get your assignment here? I mean, when does the training end?”
“It’s usually about one year, but it all depends on when your instructors say you’re through.”
“I don’t understand. What’s all this for then? The training, the races, the tests?”
“After every test, we’re ranked. It all goes in our files. At the end of the year, we’re assigned a position and a cell, I mean a room at the compound.” She grins, halfheartedly. “Most of us will become fence patrol, but Will and Kane, for instance, they were damn good, and became instructors.”
“How long has Will been here?” My curiosity gets the better of me.
“Over two years.”
According to my calculation, that made him about nineteen. I shudder. No wonder Will is so hardened. But at the same time, I wanted to get strong, to conquer the obstacles they put in front of me, to prove to myself that I am not a Defect.
We glance up as one of the tables erupts in laughter. “How come they give you guys so much freedom here?” I’m still amazed by the free time we have at night to just hang out. “I mean, what’s to prevent you from escaping?”
She takes my hand and presses my fingers to the inside of her wrist. I feel a small, hard nodule under her skin. “This.”
“What…”
“It’s a tracking device. All the soldiers have them. I’m sure you’ll have one implanted soon enough, now that it looks like you’ll be staying with us.” Her fingers run over the lump again and again, as if she’s still getting used to it. “You could leave, but they’d find you anywhere you went. And this,” she holds up her wrist, “would lead them straight to you.”
I nod my understanding. So even though the soldiers have more freedom than those in the hospital, they would never truly be free.
“It’s tamper proof. And they put it here,” she runs her finger along the veins at her wrist, “because if you ever tried to remove it – you’d bleed to death.”
I shudder involuntarily.
She mistakes my reaction for fear of the procedure. “Don’t worry, it doesn’t hurt too bad when they put it in – it’s more like a shot.” She looks at my arms. “Which I see you’ve had plenty of.”
I look down. My arms are still bruised from the injections, but now purple has given way to fading greens and yellows.
Alex walks over and stands in front of us. “Hey, Sam, can I talk to Eve for a second?”
Sam gets up and joins Sabrina and a guy I’ve seen her noticing – Jake – in a game, leaving me sitting face-to-face with Alex’s crotch.
He sits down beside me, but he’s too quiet.
“What’s up?” I ask, finally.
“I wanted to make sure you weren’t mad about my comment at breakfast.”
I think through his comments this morning and which one he thinks offended me. Oh. My cheeks brighten, remembering that he implied Will’s visit in the night was somehow fueled by sexual desire.
“No … no,” I stumble.
“It’s just that you got really quiet after that.”
“No, that wasn’t because of you. I just probably shouldn’t have said anything about that – it wasn’t like that, ya know?”
He studies his chewed fingernails. I can tell he doesn’t understand – his experience with Will has been totally different than mine. Suddenly I’m thankful that Will waited until everyone was gone before he touched me this morning. I don’t need this becoming a situation.
Alex looks up at me. “I just wanted to make sure there were no hard feelings. And besides, I’m sure Will wouldn’t do anything like that. Just ask Lexi.” He smiles.
Once again, I’m annoyed that Lexi’s name pops up in relation to Will. I almost ask him what he means, but decide against it. Alex might not be the most discreet and I wouldn’t want it getting out that I was asking about whatever it was that Will and Lexi had going.
“So, we’re cool?” he asks.
“We’re cool,” I confirm.